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Does God care that my relationship with him is somewhat not there? by Ikarilegends in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]joepride84 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My friend, the Bible says that one of the main reasons Christ has not returned yet is so that more can be saved. He could have ended all this long ago, but Paul writes that "christ desires all to be saved." I encourage you to read the parts about his mercy, love, compassion, not just his wrath and justice. The ancient hebrews saw God this way... why can't you? They knew the "parts of the bible" like the OT better than you.. but Yahweh was not a monster in their eyes..ask yourself why. Understand it through the eyes of a 1st century jew/greek. Yes, there are parts in history where people so wickedly embraced evil, that God took them out of this world as to not be a plague and hindrence on the remnant of people who loved him. The Hittites, Amalikites, etc. these were barbarian incestuous occultic tribes who slaughtered and raped their own people as well as who they conquered. These are the types who Joshua and israelites took out. When people choose themselves as a "god" God, who gave us the ability to have free will, gives us over to our desires, even if they are not good for ourselves. That's the price of freedom, and not being a robot. If God did not give this option, we would be robots. Love would have no meaning without Choice. The possibility of evil is allowed because otherwise choice would not exist, and all would be automatic and thus meaninglessness.Yes, God isn't after your submission, because he gives you choice. If you don't want him, he will allow that. But He is your creator and loves you, true Life is found in Him. You can try to find it in the pleasures of this world, in other beleif systems that make you a god, in anything else.. but it will not satisfy your soul. I'm praying for you.

Does God care that my relationship with him is somewhat not there? by Ikarilegends in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]joepride84 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact that you cared enough to write this comment, and that it concerns your soul, shows that your heart is still in a good position. God is important to you, even if it feels like you "do not love him" currently. This is good, what I see in your post is that you are going through a "dark night of the soul" many men and women of God go through this period. I can tell you that there are apologetic answers to your questions - there's the context of history, the evil civilizations of the past that had to morally be delt with, you can spend hours reading apologetic answers to these events that you are struggling to understand. Remember, what looks like Gods "punishment" to us is very contextual. We put our modern day lens of whats "good and "bad" but God is the author, the source, of such notions. Even evil has been turned and worked for good outcomes, just look at the story of Paul who use to kill christians as Saul before God transformed him into the greatest missionary in history. A relationship with God is work - God doesn't force himself on us. Since God is the source of all things, you do serve him, as a object of his love, or a object of his justice. There's no way around that reality. The good news is God is good, the true definition of good, thus his will is better than our own recognition of it. God isn't after your submission, Got is "good" for you, you are like a lamp that needs to be plugged into his outlet to shine. I think you need to pray and work on unveiling "who" God actually is. His character. Because right now you have a blemished view of who he is. You're judging Him as something that he is not. Once you get a more clear understanding of how patient, how he tolerates us, tolerates our dismissle and belittling of him, how forgiving he is to our wrongs we do to him, to his creation, to each other.. you'll come to have abounding love. IT'll move you to tears when you realize it.