Why I love and accept God the Father

[Tietjen]

And if “god” will damn me to eternal hell for my belief in God the Father … then I will go into the pit with my head held high and without regret for having chosen my Father over all other “gods”



Why won’t anyone share what good they have experienced from the Father?

Oh poor Gal, I see you’re still at it. Has it been a month already?! Where does the time go? Now of course you will continue this for another few days and then leave again only to pop up in another month proclaiming your love for the Father and dislike (distrust) of his Son, Jesus Christ. You are so very confused and apparently reen12 is right there with you. How sad for you both. Perhaps someday you’ll get the help you need and find a positive way in which to find attention rather than posting things you know are against the Catholic Church on a Catholic site; only then to play the poor victim… tsk… tsk… how very sad. How very pathetic.

 

[IsaacSheen]

reen12,

I didn’t mean it to sound threatening. My point is that, many people take comfort in God’s mercy, and rightly so, but they assume that their actions have no consequence. Consequences don’t necessarily mean hell.

Remember too, if God is completely perfect and you leave this world imperfect, you will be face to face with perfection when you die. I take comfort in knowing that God will do everything to perfect me before I can be in His presense. Imagine going to a wedding in wripped off jean shorts and a Lynard Skynard t-shirt. It’s not appropriate and needs to be changed before you can enter the wedding.

So, what exactly are you doing in your life that you are so afraid of the concept of hell?

It seems like you and uglygal are conveniently ignoring everything else in the faith and focusing only on hell. Through my experience, both personal and with talking to other people, this normally means there is something going on in your life which you know to be wrong, but which you are having trouble “kicking”. The answer isn’t to kick God (Christ) or assume that He’ll just ignore it when you die. The answer is to get rid of the problem.

I’m not accusing I’m just putting that out there, I could be wrong and it wouldn’t be the first or the last time.

Either way, with all this stuff, I’m glad you both believe in God. As I’ve said before. It’s also good you trust in His mercy…keep striving for Truth!!

 

[beckycmarie]

Why won’t anyone share what good they have experienced from the Father?

What good have I experienced from the Father?

That He loved me and you so much that He sent His Son to die for us to pay the price of our sin.

Every Sunday I have the indescribable honor of touching him physically during Holy Communion, and His Spirit is renewed within me.

Uglygal, I just have one question for you. If there is no Trinity, exactly to whom was God the Father referring when He said in Genesis 1:26, "“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

 

[JRKH]

I love God the Father.
He found me. He is the God who has been with me from the beginning. He is the One who remains at the end. He is who He is and He is Love. He is the God I have always loved and always longed for, yet never knew.

I wanted to share why I love Him as opposed to having attention directed to negative things.
Here it is and there it stands. The Father is enough.

You can share my joy or reject it. I don’t believe as you do - I don’t believe in the theology of God you believe in.

The God who loves and protects me today will love and protect me tomorrow … His love doesn’t change just because my body grows old and will one day die

And if “god” will damn me to eternal hell for my belief in God the Father … then I will go into the pit with my head held high and without regret for having chosen my Father over all other “gods”



Why won’t anyone share what good they have experienced from the Father?

Hello LovelyGal,
Hadn’t seen anything posted by you in awhile. Sorry to hear that your old thread about rejecting Jesus is still rearing it’s head. I know that your attitudes have changed somewhat since then, but of course, a thread with that title is going to continue to get peoples attention.

As you well know it takes a great deal of patience and “waiting upon the Lord” to get to know Him, and then to try to explain to other people what you have found can be next to impossible. Add to that the fact that we can never completely know God and so are continually learning and you have an ideal recipe for argument, (as demonstrated on this board hourly).

As for myself, The Father has never left me either. Regardless of what I ever believed or doubted, I never considered that God might not exist. He wouldn’t let me!! He provided too many blessings, too many wonderous things to behold and learn about. Of course He also planted a lot of questions in my head, and gave me a very rational mind so I don’t want to just “accept it 'cause the Bawble saiys sooo”.

Our Father has richly blessed me as I know that He has you. I think that you will agree with me that our journey of learning with Him is far from complete for He teaches knew things every day. As to the various people trying to “correct” you and your views, just take them for what they are; Thoughts and ideas from other sojourners who are also trying their best to understand and to share with others. It’s just that some are more “friendly” in tone than others.

May God continue to Bless you.

By the Way I still am using the “Litany” you posted a while back. It’s beautiful.

Peace
James

 

[reen12]

In terms of God and His will to save, the fact remains that those who assert that Jesus is God/Son of God, hold that humans are born into this world with original sin and the need to be
saved from such.
God the Father is not “enough.”

The fact that God is said to have saved, in the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures,
cuts no ice with Christians, because the claim is being made that “in the fullness of time,”
God made a final revelation of Who He supposedly was:
One God, in three Divine Persons, the 2nd of whom was born of Mary, he who was crucified so that sin and death would no longer reign. Including, of course, his eradication of the blight of original sin.

The moment that a claimed mode of salvation enters the door - of course those who accept that God is three in one, that we are born with the sin of Adam from which we need saving - Jesus will be spoken of as a gift from the Father, who saves us.

Of course the emphasis is going to be on Jesus of Nazareth, whom 2 billion people on the planet acknowledge as the savior and Son of God, God Himself.
If one truly holds that original sin exists, from which human beings must be saved -that’s all she wrote, in terms theologic. Conversation is over. The other 5 billion people, on the planet, need to hear of the savior.

A quaint accounting system holds that sheer ignorance of the one God, Who is three, is no impediment to being saved by Christ - if the one in ignorance lives by the light of the natural law, which is planted in our hearts by God Himself.
This is “accounted” as Baptism of desire. In short, if a person knew who Christ was, he/she would immediately seek baptism and would be quick to acknowledge that Jesus is lord and savior.
Baptism of desire is like being given a handicap in golf, so one can compete - on a level field, with baptized Christians - or non-baptized Christians, depending on the theological assertions made by a given denomination of Christianity.

Having said this, I am grateful for one of the finest characteristics of Christians - their work toward relieving the sufferings of others, and grateful, as well, for their insistence on the infinite value of each human life.

reen12

 

[beckycmarie]

I’m just wondering, reen12 and uglygal, if you reject Christ, why are you here posting about it on a Catholic forum?

 

[LilyM]

What good have I experienced from the Father?

That He loved me and you so much that He sent His Son to die for us to pay the price of our sin.

Every Sunday I have the indescribable honor of touching him physically during Holy Communion, and His Spirit is renewed within me.

Uglygal, I just have one question for you. If there is no Trinity, exactly to whom was God the Father referring when He said in Genesis 1:26, "“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Amen!

UG, imagine for just a moment that you had a child - a son, who YOU declare to be especially favoured by you and blessed by you, in whom you are well pleased - a son who rightly says He is one with yourself. In human terms imagine a son as like as like could be to yourself, who is as dear as dear can be to you.

Then imagine anyone saying ‘I love you, but I absolutely loathe, detest and despise this son who you’ve said is especially dear to your heart’.

Wouldn’t that irk you just a little? I mean, you TELL people that your favour rests on him and to listen to Him fer crying out loud - and they don’t even pay attention to your words?

What sort of love are you showing for the Father who has made Jesus’ favoured position and His desire for us to follow and heed the example of Jesus so abundantly clear?

• ‘Blind, blind, blind!’ - Charles Dickens

 

[Tonks40]

Why won’t anyone share what good they have experienced from the Father?

I would…but He is so profoundly tied to His Son, which you reject…

 

[reen12]

It occured to me, today, that C.S. Lewis wrote:
Most people would not want to be the God Whom they describe.
They would be far more compassionate.

And - re-reading the bracing words, from the Book of Judith:

“The Lord, the Almighty, will punish them on the Day of Judgment
by putting fire and worms into their flesh, so that they cry out with pain
unto all eternity” Judith 16:17

makes God sound more like Ming the Merciless than Deity.

blog.news-record.com/staff/culture/Ming%201-thumb.jpg

“By the stars, and by the moon! I’m gonna* fry *those people,
and marinate them in coal tar - to get a flame that won’t quit !”

The verbal and conceptual contortions that people will go to,
to try to maintain that scripture is inerrant, while trying -
often concurrently - to coax under the rug statements that are plainly barbaric in nature, is a never-ending souce of astonishment to me.

Jesus is Love. Jesus died for us.
And - OK, if yer going to push the point, He did say something about “a lake of fire.”
Did he?

Yes - apparently he did.

reen12

 

[LilyM]

It occured to me, today, that C.S. Lewis wrote:
Most people would not want to be the God Whom they describe.
They would be far more compassionate.

And - re-reading the bracing words, from the Book of Judith:

“The Lord, the Almighty, will punish them on the Day of Judgment
by putting fire and worms into their flesh, so that they cry out with pain
unto all eternity” Judith 16:17

makes God sound more like Ming the Merciless than Deity.

blog.news-record.com/staff/culture/Ming%201-thumb.jpg

“By the stars, and by the moon! I’m gonna* fry *those people,
and marinate them in coal tar - to get a flame that won’t quit !”

The verbal and conceptual contortions that people will go to,
to try to maintain that scripture is inerrant, while trying -
often concurrently - to
coax under the rug statements that are plainly barbaric in nature,
is a never-ending souce of astonishment to me.

Jesus is Love. Jesus died for us.
And - OK, if yer going to push the point, He did say something about “a lake of fire.”
Did he?

Yes - apparently he did.

reen12

There’s no dichotomy between love and mercy and justice - parents may forgive children for their misdeeds but still, for example, may make them pay to restore a window they’ve broken.

Mortal sins are serious offences against the Eternal God - therefore eternal punishment is fitting. And how do we know that our sins don’t so horribly offend God that even an eternity in Hell is actually much less punishment than the pain that our sins cause Him?

He may, in this, be like the legislature that, for even the most vicious and sadistic murder, may prescribe the objectively less painful punishment of a humane death by lethal injection or something.

 

[reen12]

 

[uglygal]

I didn’t raise Jesus … this thread isn’t even about him - It’s about God the Father and how wonderful He is

I’m just wondering, reen12 and uglygal, if you reject Christ, why are you here posting about it on a Catholic forum?

I can’t answer for Reen12 but as for myself it’s because we both believe in God the Father … we have that in common and I thought Catholic’s would love him too and wouldn’t mind a post about why I love and accept Him. In fact I thought you would be happy

Uglygal, I just have one question for you. If there is no Trinity, exactly to whom was God the Father referring when He said in Genesis 1:26, "“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

He could have been talking to Himself … assuming He was talking at all and not merely thinking it. How would anyone know He said this when no creatures existed at this stage … maybe because it’s a human idea of what happened in the beginning and word’s are being put into God’s mouth

• ‘Blind, blind, blind!’ - Charles Dickens

thanks my sight and my eyes can only open from here

I would…but He is so profoundly tied to His Son, which you reject…

why won’t you share anyway with others? I won’t get offended. I shared why I love the Father … I wouldn’t mind if others did the same as opposed to turning this into a battlefield of convert and conquer

Mortal sins are serious offences against the Eternal God - therefore eternal punishment is fitting. And how do we know that our sins don’t so horribly offend God that even an eternity in Hell is actually much less punishment than the pain that our sins cause Him?

You are forgetting love … how do you know that our love doesn’t so infinitely please God that even if our sins were as scarlet they would be consumed in the fire of love? afterall isn’t it the bible that says “love covers a multitude of sin”

Please focus on the Father and how good He is. Please don’t squabble. Please be gentle with one another

Nice to see you James
That litany has bought much peace to me. I’m glad and humbled that you would use it. The Father is very generous and gentle
I just wish others would stop viewing him as a tyrant judge eager to damn everyone on every occassion

 

[lampstand]

I’m not sure why you think of worms in a dead body as such a dreadful ‘punishment,’ anyway. Isn’t that what always happens to bodies when they die?

 

[LilyM]

You are forgetting love … how do you know that our love doesn’t so infinitely please God that even if our sins were as scarlet they would be consumed in the fire of love? afterall isn’t it the bible that says “love covers a multitude of sin”

Please focus on the Father and how good He is. Please don’t squabble. Please be gentle with one another

Nice to see you James
That litany has bought much peace to me. I’m glad and humbled that you would use it. The Father is very generous and gentle
I just wish others would stop viewing him as a tyrant judge eager to damn everyone on every occassion

Forgive me, UG, last I checked this was a public forum, not your private site where we can only operate according to your rules.

If we see something fundamentally flawed in you focusing on the Father to the exclusion of the Son whom He loves dearly, then we have every right to say so.

Same when we see you forming a false image of a grandfathery fuddy-duddy of a weak-willed God in whom mercy overrules justice. Yours is a fundamentally flawed notion of God altogether. His mercy and justice are perfectly balanced, so much so that there is no opposition or contradiction between the two, neither is His justice tyrannical in any way.

He simply allows those who live their lives separated from Him to continue in their desired state of separation for all eternity, since they wouldn’t want to be with Him anyway. The punishment arises from the fact that the person who has separated from Him feel more intensely what they have always known in their hearts all along but stubbornly choose not to see - that they really have nothing without Him.

 

[beckycmarie]

He could have been talking to Himself … assuming He was talking at all and not merely thinking it. How would anyone know He said this when no creatures existed at this stage … maybe because it’s a human idea of what happened in the beginning and word’s are being put into God’s mouth

But why is He using the second person plural, “us” and “our” instead of “me” and “my?”

So if you don’t believe the Bible, which was written by those to whom God first revealed Himself, then who is this “God the Father” you love so much, if it’s not the one of Abraham?

And why do you give Him the title “Father” if you don’t believe He has a Son?

 

[reen12]

quote: uglygal

…as opposed to turning this into a battlefield of convert and conquer.

Yes! You’ve made my day, uglygal.

To answer the question posed in your thread,
when I was 6, they placed a little First Communion
catechism on my school desk. The light shone in
through the old glass windows and the pages were
awash in sunlight.

Who made me? God made me.
Who is God? God is the Supreme Being who made all things.
Why did God make me? He made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him, in the next.

My heart flooded with His light and I loved Him.

Two years later, this ghastly “catechism” was given to me,
and I memorized, each school night, some part of this
*wretched *work. Who was this Jesus? And why did I need him?
By the time they finished with me, I was 12, and I no longer
had any interest in life. But I’ve lived another 50 years, this week.
I, too, found the God that you have found – and I rather
doubt that others will understand why we are so grateful to Him.

reen12

 

[beckycmarie]

Two years later, this ghastly “catechism” was given to me,
and I memorized, each school night, some part of this
*wretched *work. Who was this Jesus? And why did I need him?
By the time they finished with me, I was 12, and I no longer
had any interest in life. But I’ve lived another 50 years, this week.
I, too, found the God that you have found – and I rather
doubt that others will understand why we are so grateful to Him.

reen12

Once again, if you aren’t Catholic, you reject everything the Church teaches, calling our Catechism “wretched,” why are you here in the Catholic Life Spirituality forum? Why not take this discussion over to non-Catholic religions?

If it’s because you’re searching for the truth, then perhaps stay and listen. But if you’re here trying to sell Catholics your anti-Catholic rhetoric, you’re in the wrong forum.

 

[Tonks40]

Despite what you say, it’s not a matter of “convert and conquer,” - rather, it’s about declaring and believing in the Truth.

As I was reading UG and reen12’s responses, this past Sunday’s Gospel reading came to mind:

John 14:1-12

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.”

Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. **How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? ** The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.

"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”

I cannot deny Christ - I cannot separate Christ from the Father. If I do…I reject the Father as well.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

We are probably all one differing levels of insight and understanding due to all sorts of factors (probably over which we had little or no control) and we are all coming from different experiences (probably over which we had little or no control) which contribute to who we are now and how we think now and why. We all probably have differing intellectual and educational capacities, the level of which is not in our control, rather gifted and to whom much is given, of course much will be expected. That sounds logical to me.
Undoubtedly a major contribution to my own Catholicism comes from the fact I was raised in a Catholic home and educated all my life in the Catholic system. This was neither my choice nor in my control. Perhaps hence my Catholicism is merely conditioned, or perhaps my various crises in life mean it is a matter nowadays of personal choice and decision. I dont know personally nor give it much thought at all. But that is me and my way…to some I may be entirely ‘wrong’, while to others I am ‘ok’. That is simply life.

The Lord does not differentiate between those whom He will share His sunshine with, the sight of His birds in flight, or the patter of rain on the roof, with whom He will share His Love and His Mercy and Concern…nor should we and in fact are asked not to do so becoming more like Him.

None of this means that there is no such thing as Truth…but to argue Truth without love, insight and understanding, compassion can only ever be less than half a truth. This concept flows from my own understanding of Truth…and that says much (over which I have had little or no control).

I rather like that signature “God is - all the rest is details”. I am reminded too of St. Augustine as he pondered The Blessed Trinity being told by an angel that it would be better to attempt to count every grain of sand on every beach. In other words, he was wasting his time.

Blessings all and have the best of days…Barb

 

[reen12]

Aquinas spent years, penning with his quill pen, a Summa - that would
contain reasoned expression of the entire corpus of Christian belief.

At age 48, Thomas Aquinas had a mystical expereince of God.
He never picked up his quill again, and died, shortly thereafter.
He said that he realized that all that he had written was “as straw,”
now that he had had this experience of God.
I think that there are those who have a hard time finding Jesus,
for the straw that surrounds Him in His creche.

reen12 :juggle: