You're right in that post. I am going to leave because I see that atheists have set up logic and reason in their hearts and minds as idols so they can't even hear God's side of the story.

Look at Paul in Acts 17. He looked around him before speaking and determined from the idols that some people believed in the unknown God. Of course some of the crowd were blocked by their hidden idols.

He could see things a whole better than I can because he didn't have this computer screen as a barrier to try to look through.

In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.


Paul was addressing the serious people who really wanted to know. What he was doing was making the "unknown God" knowable through his preaching.

As soon as the mockers who's hearts, minds and ears were blocked started in on him, he left. He left. You can't talk to someone who refuses to hear and underscores it by sneering. They just don't want to really know the truth.

Some people sincerely want to know and some don't.

Online my powers of discernment are blunted. So I'll probably take this to the real field where I can get up close and personal with people who's hearing isn't being distorted by mockers.

God always prefers the personal method of delivering the Gospel. It's the way he usually does it. Though some people are perceptive enough just to hear The Good News in church and receive it with gladness.

Not with mockery...WITH GLADNESS.

If I had a dollar for every time she's left over the last 6-7 years...

We should set up a betting pool on how many days until she returns.

The best part is how she uses the phrase "logic and reason" like it's a bad thing. Gets me every time.

I don't at all think it's a bad thing.

I just think you need to get unblocked and learn godly thinking so you can get the abundant life that God promises everyone.

God does reason with people through the bible. He sets them straight.

He even tells people in the chapter of Isaiah 40 not to compare Him with anyone else.

25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

So why do you keep making the mistake of limiting Him according to the limitations of people?

Shortest Splenda leave yet.

Oh you missed the latest. I said I probably won't leave til next year depending on various circumstances in the future.

I sincerely tried that for 20 years. When I was challenged by ideas outside my religious bubble, I fought like hell to convince myself they were wrong and I was right. It took a few more years of kicking and screaming before I realized I could no longer believe what I was raised to believe.

I guess I just didn't try hard enough.

Doesn't matter. No one thought you were leaving.

You are like the boy who cried wolf only with other amusing delusions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf

Splendour: Would you agree that you know a tree by it's fruit?

If we see posts in an internet forum as the fruit, the mind that created them is the tree. Can we allow for that within the analogy?

So if someone were to make disjointed, frenetic, irrational, etc posts isn't that representative of what is going on in their mind?

And by extension, I suppose, if someone were attuned to God, with a light-filled, tranquil, peaceful mind, do you think that tree would produce fruit in the form of forum posts to reflect that?

Also, if you'd like me to pm you part B of the exercise I mentioned above, pm me.

Peace.

Well you're so anxious about it that I thought you'd like to know it is likely that God is going to give you a reprieve.

I'm not interested thanks.

If people think my posts are frenetic then maybe it is because their minds are clouded.

Jesus Christ is the preeminent source of enlightenment in this world aj. No matter what you have felt or how you want to identify with Eckert Tolle or the Buddha.

Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven that saves.

Your bubble might have been protecting you.

It's a big bad world out there. Much better to be under God's wing as in Psalm 91.

The armor of God in Ephesians 4 is back less. Some people say it is because God's people can never retreat but I think it is because God has always got our backs.

I didn't mention you specifically. Other than to address the post to you to get your take on the principle. Is what I said generally true? (tree/fruit, mind/posts)

Agreed.

I think I mentioned a Tolle book a few years ago that was beneficial to me. And I don't know anything about Buddha.

I think it's fair to say that nearly everyone on this forum who is familiar with you, including the Christians, would agree that your posts are frenetic. Do you honestly think it's more likely that we're the ones with the clouded minds?

So maybe God just wanted me to live in that bubble my whole life? And when presented with new ideas, I should've just ignored them instead of allowing my faith to be tested? All that bubble did was prevent me from having options and thinking for myself.