Searching Loc: Rural Southwest VA

:thumbup: I find I hear God best when I am outside, cool breezes brushing my face, a cat rubbing against my leg, dog at my feet, watching the llamas graze. Perhaps, in my connection to the creatures God has made, there lives the conduit by which His thoughts reach both my mind and my heart. That song, whose title I cannot retrieve from the recesses of my mind...."it is well with my soul. it is well, it is well....with my soul."

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

I agree. To me the world is a place of worship and reflection. I go to temple but I feel the presence of God more in the forest.

My faith teaches to begin and end each day with a heart felt gratitude. It does not teach I must do this in temple. To seek God is to find God.

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Beautifully said.
:thumbup:

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

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Your concept of God is like many, "Your concept." The Bible is the best source of God's revelation of Himself, but not the only source.

Nature itself and observing human nature in action is another revelation or description of the t***h of Gods intentions and the continued failure of human nature.

While I must agree none of us alive today were here when Jesus walked the earth, He did say,"If you have seen me you have seen the Father." In addition He said, " I and the Father are one."

If one is sincere in trying to live a Christ like, God pleasing life here and now, it is hard to imagine The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit endorsing such radical behavior that we see going on openly, legally, now. I won't list those behaviors, let your conscious be your guide.

We are given a standard to imitate as best as we can when God said "Be ye holy for I am holy. Or when the N.T. says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The concept of God is a free thinkers paradise, I wish to disagree that God is totally UN-knowable. Deut.29:29 Tells us there are some things God has revealed and some things are still secret.

The problem with much of humanity is that they don't like what God has revealed and they try to twist it to fit their concept.

son of witless

I am sure that you have a code of conduct based on what you believe God expects of you. It may be different than what I think God expects of me, but if God has no demands on us, what can we ask of him?

fiatlux

It could seem as you describe, A God who expects nothing of them or a God that leaves them alone. But there is a third choice. Christian mystics, Buddhist, Hindus, Muslem Sufis, and Jewish Kabbalists say the same thing: forget self! It is not rule- or principle- or ethic-orientated.

Searching Loc: Rural Southwest VA

I do have a code of conduct and it mostly revolves around "letting my life speak" because our actions are either a reflection of God or....they're not. When they're "not"....they are like pebbles dropped into a pool, creating far reaching negative consequences, touching everyone in their path, intended victim or not. Evil, in my mind, is the absence of good, and when there is an absence of good, the void can only be filled with darkness.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you ask your question about God and His demands. Would you mind explaining a little more?

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Searching - I want to remind you that our good (some would say Godly) actions also have a ripple effect; one that I think is much stronger than the ripple of evil. I think the ripple of evil eventually dissipates, but the ripple of good keeps going forever.

fiatlux

I thoroughly agree. "Look!" It is there in every season and from every angle. I remember going with my father to some event near sunset. People were getting out the car and hurrying to find a good seat inside. I looked back over the direction we were going and saw the most spectacular sunset. It took my breath. I spun my dad around. He was initially annoyed before he looked. We never went into the spiritual event being hosted by our church: we sat ogling the sky and joyfully sighing. At a different vision, we would seem like perverts. (Romans1:19-20)

son of witless

I am locked into disputing what PaulPisces said, "I would say you are incorrect son of witless. Religion is not at all necessary to have standards by which differing people can live together peacefully and productively.

"I am not an atheist, but an agnostic. And I'm perfectly happy for every individual to use wh**ever spiritual structure they need to deepen their understanding of their relationship to creation, and to each other. Just leave the violence out.

"Your language above also seems to indicate you believe God has limits, which I myself find at the very least odd, and at the worst objectionable. It speaks to the need to put God in a box with a very narrow definition. I like to think God is amused by this rather than angered by this strategy. "

My take on his agnostic view was that religion did not require behavior standards other than secular societal ones. Each religious group sets standards for that group based on their interpretation of God's will. If we only wish to follow our own path, then we have no reason belonging to any church.

What is the reason we are religious? We are seeking a guided pathway through this life. We fix on a light that we hope is God and walk a path toward him. That path has rules. When we struggle over a moral question, we can look at it two ways. If it is only us, we have to only satisfy our own human morality. If we feel God is looking at us, we hold ourselves to a higher standard. At the end of our lives he will judge us on each struggle. If you believe you are fighting for your soul each time you cut a corner it's harder to cut that corner than if the consequences are only earthly ones. I admit to having cut more corners than I am happy about.

I hope God gives us a little leeway for being young and stupid. The standards should get tougher as we are given more years.

After rereading what you wrote I am not sure that my thoughts apply to what you said. I am usually clear on my thinking. Not this time. I am thinking that you already follow the path and rules God has set for you.

Searching Loc: Rural Southwest VA

I should have been more careful in how I expressed myself, I see. :oops: I did not mean to infer that good actions do not have the same ability to create ripples. They do. Why bother to care how your life "speaks" if it is of no consequence....I meant it as a cautionary statement, as in people should be ever so careful what they sew. I wish I felt as you do, that the ripple of evil eventually dissipates, because I don't see that it always does.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Right on NPP! :thumbup:
The Church we attend is not about religion, it is about teaching what the bible says, and helping people. I feel good there.
I also believe that a person can sit on the porch, watch the miracles around them, and praise God for the blessings in their life.
I don't say it often enough, if at all, but I am truly blessed to know so many on OPP, and I do, in my own way let God know that every day.

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain: "I don't go to church. But the church I don't go to is Episcopalian."

archie bunker Loc: Texas

I have a brother-in-law who recently retired, and became an Episcopalian Priest. We go over there sometimes to see him preach, and visit. I can't claim to understand, or put any biblical value on all of the ceremony involved in the services, but he is answering his calling.
Is that a bad thing?

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

All of the above comments no matter if they are based spiritually, secular, or philosophical make sense to the commenter. However the original title concerned children.

When one reaches adulthood most of his/her notions and thinking processes have been reached. Gladly, one of us old geezers will admit we were wrong and a change takes place in our lives.

Sometimes these changes are for the better sometimes for the worse. But being "adults", we reserve the right to have established our own mindsets.

Children on the other hand are like a blank check, a new never used hard drive, a clean chalk board with a box of new chalk; just waiting to be filled in with all the wonderful information we "mature, intelligent, authoritative, adults pass on to them.

This is the point where a child is most vulnerable. In a perfect world it wouldn't matter because all they would learn would be good. The sad part is our world is far from perfect.

While it is true change comes with time or at least it should. We were given brains to use that is why the biggest and best question a child can ask is, "WHY"? "WHAT"? "WHEN"? "WHO? "WHERE? HOW?

When we as adults begin to inflict our opinions, beliefs, feelings, ideas, concepts into their hungry minds, t***h, facts, and honesty should be the criteria.

They should be allowed the benefit of using their own judgements and decisions on what has been historically true in order for them to build their own future. History tends to be repeated, but that is not a law in concrete. Real, true history can be a great teacher. It can be used as a launching pad for a brighter, bigger, better future.

To use the old computer analogy, garbage in garbage out seems to be the direction we are going.

The first couple began their early lives passing the blame, and after all this time it seems like that has been a well learned lesson and passed on to each ensuing generation.

In closing this mindless chatter, I include myself.

Whose fault is it that we are failing to make our world a better, safer, place for our children?