by Big Tex 84 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Tex,
1. You cannot chose your parents
2. You cannot chose which time period you will be born in.
3. You cannot chose which country you will be born in.
4.We all play with the cards we are dealt.
5.Some have it worse, some have it better.
6. Some make it better for themselves, some make it worse for themselves.
I think you need to give yourself a break.
Warlock
Hi Big Tex:
If you ever want to chat, email me at [email protected] and I will send you my phone number or you can email me your phone number and I will call you.
Know that you are always in my thoughts and prayers.
Jeff S.
But my question is this: why should I believe God cares, and I mean really cares about me? Why should I believe he knows or cares anything at all about my pointless and deadend life?
Quote from Philip Yancey's book The Jesus I never knew {The apostle Paul called Jesus The image of the invisible God. Jesus was God's exact replica " For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him " God is, in a word ,Christlike Jesus presents a God with skin on whom we can take or leave love or ignore In this visible scaled down model we can discern God's features more clearly. I must admit that Jesus has revised in flesh many of my harsh and unpalatable notions aboutGod, Why am I a christian I sometimes ask myself and to be perfectly honest the reasons reduce to two (1) the lack of good alternatives and (2) Jesus Brilliant untamed tender creative slippery irreducible paradoxically humble- Jesus stands up to scrutiny. He is who I want my God to be'}
Does God care? Did Jesus care? Read the Gospel accounts and imagine you are there.
when I was a witness I'd imagine I'd died already and was starting a new day - that used to trick my brain into new ways of seeing things. But I'd soon fall back into the old disabling pattern.
Nowadays I find that listening out for silence helps me - it really does - at the very least it stops me thinking.
I'm so sorry for your pain Big Tex. I wont pretend for one second that I've experienced even half of that. I think your question is valid. I'm looking for answers myself. I'm kind of liking Tigerman's advice:
Get yourself some good weed and then get yourself a piece of AbraCaBubble candy/gum. Then just roll in the arms of your sweet lovin' lady . . . the stars of Heaven will be upon you. Peace.
Life sucks, but there can be some good moments. I hope you get yourself some my brother. Unconditional love to you man!
Nvr
I've realised after decades of mulling over all kinds of 'what should I do's', 'what should I think' etc, that all I know is what I feel from this minute on. Yesterdays weather is gone and no good worrying about, except in the positive learning it gave you to help you deal with it if it returns.
Love is all that makes sense if it happens to you.
If you don't have a close understanding of God at this minute then you cant say you love him and know what he wants you to do.
You'd like to, just like you'd love that perfect partner to come along and devote your lives to each other in family bliss - a soul mate dreams are made of.
Those two elusive loves haunt voids in ones life and any loving affection feels like an excellent and moreover biologically natural alternative - especially when the two elusive loves are known never to have happened in some peoples lives. This is realtime, there are no second and third takes, So do what feels right and good for you, so long as you don't hurt or break any laws you may then start to enjoy what you are. A human being, one of thousands of species with your own (possibly God given) biology made to do what you're made to do!
There are lots of books of faith and each with their own morality/ ethics as well as hidden/lost faiths with free thinking ideals so who knows for sure.
And if that's a problem on judgement day just ask,
'Was I really supposed to score top marks in that multiple choice about religion, life, morality etc. without ever knowing for sure the book I was reading was the one for the test I was being given? Would you do that to your own kid?
But really this thread isn't about this life, I'm more interested in what happens afterward. Based on what I've experienced and known, why should I believe or accept or even hope that what happens after death will be any better?
It kind of is about this life because, you are BASING your belief or disbelief in an afterlife or a benevolent creator, ON this life. So until you are able to see this life, and yourself in a more positive (and deserving) manner, you will always struggle with this concept.
God's kindness is such that we cannot fathom. The blessings that are in store for us are such that we cannot fathom. You cannot compare it to anything we know now on this Earth. We could try, but we would fall desperately short.
I agree with Satan, learn to meditate. The simpler the meditation the better. One very simple but effective meditation is to sit with eyes closed and put attention on the breath. When you discover you have been lost in thought return to awarneness of breath. Learn to recognize thought as nothing more than THOUGHT, a form of consciousness that has no intrinsic value other than what you believe it to be. In other words, stop believing the stories the mind tells - just continue to return to consciousness of breathing. This meditation brings you into full awareness of the actuality of life and diverts attention away from fabrications of life created by the mind. This leads to becoming conscious of one's essential nature, the pure consciousness which underlies all ideas of "self" and "other"............. Another simple "meditation" can be done outdoors (or anywhere for that matter). Become fully present with your environment AS IT IS. In other words, simply observe it without reverting to labeling what is seen, judging it, comparing it with something else; without reverting to memories or ideas about the future. Nature is brimming with presence and it spontaneously leads you to the sense of your own presence when mind gets out of the way. When you are fully present with anything thought stream ceases. Here is where peace awaits you - it awaits you as your very nature.
From R.Crusoe: "And if that's a problem on judgement day just ask, 'Was I really supposed to score top marks in that multiple choice about religion, life, morality etc. without ever knowing for sure the book I was reading was the one for the test I was being given? Would you do that to your own kid?"........... I really like your thinking here.
I believe God alredy takes this into account and consideration. I don't believe that God would be so unjust as to ignore the struggles and confusions that people have here on this earth. It is a difficult life we have to live (more so for some than for others). God knows this. I don't believe a person would have to even present this question on judgement day, since it is already factored in.
There is a story: A man was a murderer. He had killed 100 people. One day he asked what was required of him to get into paradise. When he didn't like the answer, he killed that man too. Later on, he realized that the man was right and he needed to repent. While on his way to the house of worship to repent, he fell along the road and died. When the angels asked God if this man should be forgiven or not God told them to measure two distances: (1) the distance between where the man died and his home, and (2) the didstance between where the man died and the house of worship. If distance 2 was shorter than distance 1 then he would be forgiven. Now in acutality the man had died MUCH closer to his home than to the house of worship but when they angels measured the distances they found it to be the other way around. Why? Because God himself had shotrened the distance between the man and the house of worship so that he would be forgiven.
The point of this story is that God considers INTENTIONS. Now, Big Tex, I highly doubt you are a murderer , so just imagine the mercy and forgivness you can recieve for whatever misdeeds you have done.
