Greetings,
thank you for getting back to me, I appreciate it. Not only can life be busy at times, we sometimes don't bother to exchange dialogue with everyone and sometimes we even overlook those who care for us and extend a hand of friendship or attempt to show us a better way. We can be stubborn at times due to pride and a few other things. Sometimes we are simply not interested, so again, thank you.
Can I continue and in doing so I shall quote a couple of things you said that stand out to me, for conversation pieces if nothing else?
I gather from your profile that you are a man, so I will speak man to man and do so figuring that you are OK with that and most probably do or have done so with others in the past and even present, when discussing or talking with each other, so please don't take offence at me but shoot straight and we can build whatever sort of friendship from there that might arise, OK? (if not please let me know)
I'll start with this:
But in actuality he does nothing apart from what people do in his name.
Come on, that's lame, and you know it. Look around you and see that there is plenty of amazing stuff going on around us all the time and we all know that there has to be some sort of something else besides mere chance to be able to make everything so beautiful and funky as it is,. The only thing I have ever found to be out of tune with that sort of magnificent design and arrangement of everything we can see and taste and smell and touch and hear is... man. Mozzies and rats and mice and a few other things are pests as with diseases and sickness and other inconvenient issues (for instance, I have a hernia at present that is not ideal!)
So, either way, that is pretty lame. Probably refining it some how might help but the goodness of God is evident in many, many ways for anyone and everyone to see and testify to. Sure you can cast your belief to chance and other theories but even in that there seems to be plenty of unpleasant bits, too.
Having said that, you know as well as I do that even man can do good and does and it warms our hearts at times when we see it happening. Is good simply a chance perversion against survival and brute existence? And, as it turns out God does do some amazing stuff through people beside kindness and patience and love and those sort of things that we all prefer over hatred and deception and crookedness etc.
You see, the words of the bible don't add up to a hill of beans if what those word's stipulate never come to fruition.
I have to do some guess work to work that out, sorry. Can you put something a bit more concrete forward because that is too far abstract for me. A big generalisation that is one of those things we say and while we sort of know what we are talking about, when push comes to shove, they are often not enough to express what we really mean. So can you say that again in other words, please?
the bible God can not use intimidation to make me love him.
I agree and so please don't let that idea take over sound reasoning and our ability to have faith in Who He really is, nor to steal from you the way He really invites us all to come to Him.
I think I know where you are coming from and fully understand if you have somehow been taken captive by these thoughts against the One Who Loves you and your daughter and even me.
Man has the ability to mess with nearly everything God has made and done, and messing with Scripture and using their own words and nasty ways have made the truth into a detestable lie. So, why throw out God because of the error committed by people?
When it comes to asking Him for things we all know that there are often times that things don't come through but I know that there is always a good reason for that and while I am not professing to be the authority on this and am not inviting everyone to join in an argument over this, I know what i know and despite my requests not all being given to me, I have children too and know that "No" is required for a lot of their wants, and for good reasons too!
Be careful what you do with it all, my friend. God's Mercy and Love and Grace still shines on you and even though you can't come at Him right now, won't stop Him doing His loving plan for you and yours.
I say be careful because you can do yourself harm by your decisions. I have, many times and by rights I should have died a long time ago, several times over, and that's merely through stupid choices and dumb actions. SO, is God to blame if I do stupid? Are you to blame if your child ignores your warning of safety first and gets into some sort of harm?
No, He doesn't use intimidation. Don't let that lies stick around any longer.
One of the saddest things I know is when people misuse the words of life and turn them into words of death. That sucks, big time.
thanks for hearing me out,
Bless you ....><>