I'm not talking about certifiable truths. I'm talking about getting into the mode to let the Spirit of God guide you.

Apologetics and logic flow from God but he is a Spirit and that's the aim of the faithful that gets lost in all the arguing: to get into the presence of God's spirit.

I would rather let God come in and do a work in my life confirming his presence to me personally then I would want to explain him logically.

The problem is attitude. If you destroy spirit by your attitude he can not show you unless he breaks you and makes you cry out to him for mercy.

I would rather learn the easy way then the hard way and I would rather do what God intends for me to do sooner than later.

Christians are the servants of God. That means we wait on him and if our attitudes are off we will wait longer. We don't ever tell God what to do because the servant is never higher than the Master.

This is all you really need to know. Though this is pretty fun...

Its not enough that she's logically wrong... she needs more.

not for nothing...

Thanks, sweetheart. Though don't you think a link on raising baby penguins would be more appropriate?

Right, but since that means nothing, let's just talk about truths that we can confirm.

I find the two of you spiritually oppressive so you can read my posts to other people from now on I won't respond to yours.

Spiritual people don't have to sacrifice their personal peace to please other people something you two seem to be unaware of.

I'm done with replying to Splendour anymore. Actually I'm going to put her on ignore. I recommend others do the same.

btw, there is nobody else on my ignore list.

Edit:

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Thank you.

I wish some of the other trolls on here would follow your example.

I've been saying for quite some time I only want to discuss my perspectives with people who have serious questions and open minds toward God not people who are permanently closed.

A. Chris, I have no idea how you could ignore the most entertaining poster here.

B. Splendour, you do realize that almost everyone you consider a troll has had serious discussions with other theists here, right?

Hey I'm like John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness making way the path for the Lord. I'm not crying out to the wolves and the people who aren't Christ's sheep. Don't you get that? The only difference instead of crying is that I post.

Of course some of the rabble will gather around. That's inevitable but I'm not here to argue. I'm only here to discuss serious theological ideas with Christ's sheep or those that could potentially be his sheep.

I'm not examining the existence of God question any more. I think God has answered that resoundingly.

Christ said "My sheep hear my voice." So if you don't hear his voice don't bother me. That's all.

Thats not that hard is it? I mean you don't need to peck at me all day long do you? Read someone else's posts.

But if you only talk to people who agree with all the bat**** insane stuff you post you're going to be awful lonely.

She goes on a lot of tangents about being open minded and how atheists here exist in a bubble considering she openly admits to being close-minded.

No I'm not. That's one of the main benefits of faith you have more time to spend in the presence of God. In fact that's an area I neglect too much. I should be acting more like Brother Lawrence.

A year ago I regarded the atheists as lost sheep which was Jesus's approach to the whole world including his disciples. But the whole world are not Jesus' sheep so if they tell me they're not then so be it. They are in God's hands then not mine. Still I get a lot of spiritual growth from considering ideas. Posting on here taught me to narrow my focus to the better Christian minds because they explain the key concepts. In fact they go to an unbelievable depth.

I do have to say that if we were descended from the Israelites it would explain why we are such a war-mongering homicidal people. What a nasty bunch of *******s they were.

I've been a jack of all trades my whole life.

I plan on going on the master builder plan in the faith department for the rest of it though.

Christians DO have a vastly different mind from the world. See Phillipians and Ephesians if you doubt it. Our Christian minds grow gradually though. We have to study a lot and experience a lot of things to grow even corrections from God.

God inverts the V's in our minds. We go from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain if we hang in there.

Listening to one side of an argument is a great way to end up completely lost and clueless. This is the attitude that leads to people saying evolution is "a theory just like creation" and that "we don't really know the earth isn't 6,000 years old." These people could be focusing on learning about the history of the earth as a supplement to their faith since if there is a god then the mechanism by which he took this planet from it's state 4.5B yrs ago to what it is today is easily 89493849348X more awe-inspiring and impressive than anything in the Bible.

Please refrain from guano this way. It demeans the entire organic movement and is disrespectful to my tomatoes.

Oh I never saw it that way. I see it more like the Israelis. They are surrounded by the whole world and overwhelming odds against them and they have to be the very best fighters sometimes to survive. God's seed is not suppose to go out of this world.

Read Psalm 24. God himself is a warrior of the highest calibre among many other hats he wears. He has to be to be able to administer justice effectively.

Umm do some research on how they handled the civilians after they defeated the defenders of the cities, then come back and defend them. Joshua was a brilliant military tactician and a ruthless homicidal maniac.

Edit: LOL @ this, they weren't defending themselves

Christian minds are remarkably similar to those of other religious people in how they function. Luckily I don't need to consult the Bible so much, since we have neuroscience now.

How do you know it wasn't a preventive strike?

Seriously? To prevent what? The Israelites had no homeland or anything else of value that the Canaanites would have wanted to take, while the Canaanites had a homeland that the Israelites wanted.

Please explain to me where slaughtering every last woman and child enters into a preventative strike-based strategy.

Edit: We can get really deep into the exploits of Joshua if you want but you'll have to study the issue some and I doubt you'd want to because it will inevitably lead to you deciding everything i say is a lie when it conflicts with your image of the Israelites.

These are spiritual mysteries. You take the total opposite approach from me.

I say God is good, all knowing and all powerful and holy and righteous enough to make any fate call he wants. I am the pot and he is the potter: from Job.

I'm not going to ever be presumptuous enough to think I can judge God's acts because I can't even begin to understand the big picture in the fullness that God can.

God said the era when the Israelites took the Promised Land was a totally evil generation. God works on a different scale from people. He can deal generationally in addition to personally. Our fates today can even hinge on our ancestor's acts. Heck I might be a Christian today just because one of my forebears prayed for me.

CEV version of Genesis 15:
16Four generations later, [c] your descendants will return here and take this land, because only then will the people who live here [d] be so sinful that they deserve to be punished.

I never go down the lack of reverence road and judge God because I truly believe the bible when it says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". I respect his judgment which is grounded in the wisdom since time began (time began with the LORD since he's the very first being) AND his power.

Skepticism is akin to a lack of reverence or a lack of the fear of the Lord and that's a dangerous place to go though I'm usually fearless because my personal emphasis is on his divine goodness. "Perfect love casts out perfect fear". Lucky me I've been blessed with perfect love towards God for as long as I can remember.

Well if I slaughtered thousands of innocent people in that era I would probably write about how God told me to as well. It's common knowledge that the OT has been a source of military strategy forever, but fewer people realize that it is also the oldest source for instructions on spitting out military propaganda to convince both soldiers and civilians that the killing going on in [insert war here] is the right thing to do.

lol ya right

Why do you bother even saying this? You know you're just frustrated and that you'll be back for more when you simmer down.