God's Love: Don't leave home without it!
Vern and John actually exist, under other names. To discover the church Vern attends, click on the post title.
Shoe-bacca
Some years ago a friend told me that if I sat down and thought about it and made a rational list of pros and cons, I'd never have kids. On the con side, I'd have no time, no money and no life, and I'd have this short person screaming in my ear or tugging at my sleeve whenever I chanced upon a moment of peace and quiet. On the pro side, I'd have... um... wait, let me think... well, if you're used to running your own life, it's very hard to come up with anything. So I put myself into a blonde frame of mind (sure... fine... whatever happens, I'll roll with it), had kids, and found that everyone telling me it's different when they're your own and kids are very rewarding was right. But I had to take that entirely irrational leap to get there.
So I do get that faith and reason are two different processes. But how can I believe something that appears to me patently false? I have tried, I really have, and I can't do it. Maybe, as you've said, faith isn't given to some people.
"Maybe, as you've said, faith isn't given to some people."
Exactly right, Lu. The contrary point is that Faith IS given to some people; not because they are good and deserve it, not because they are 'better' than anyone else...God is the one who decides who does or doesn't get Faith.
Does it seem unfair? It is Extremely unfair.
But God cannot be judged by us. We live in His world, not the other way around.
Ah, the all-purpose escape hatch. Well, you're right, there's no point in being an omnipotent deity if you don't get to make all the rules -- but you can't simultaneously maintain that God's rules doom most of us to eternal torment and that God is infinitely merciful.
As I've said before, on observed form God can't be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. Pick at most two.
Commenting by HaloScan
