"So my JW mom messages me on Facebook last night and says she wants me,
for a month, to read the Bible, but first pray using the name Jehovah
and in Jesus name and then read it with an open mind. She is so
ridiculous! First of all, I do pray ..."
"I am going to journal what I learn over the month and then have
lunch with her showing her what I hear the spirit saying to me. It may
open her mind a little to the actual truth. Nothing is impossible with
God!"
"Also, I don't believe God is choosing my side or hers. I believe God is
working in her heart and mine. He is all about restoration and
reconciliation and unity. I think God works in amazing ways," You say you believe that God is working in her heart and yet you think she is so ridiculous for asking you to pray using his name etc. How do you know that he isn't using her to open YOUR mind? Nothing is impossible with God right?
I think he does help starving people. I know tons of missionaries and
secular people fighting this problem around the world.
I think people who's lives are going relatively well and who's bellies are full at the moment find it easy to assume that god himself is actually doing something to help starving and sick people. It's easier than realizing that he is the one who intentionally cursed the earth and mankind. Supposedly the current human condition is exactly what he wanted ...why would he turn around and help us?
I think he works
in global and individual lives. Each person who is starving and or sick is an individual and I'm sure if he is working globally they'd welcome more of his "work"in their vacinity of the earth. For now, all the hope they have is in the charitable works of their fellow humans, many of whom are not even christian and or don't even believe in the existence of god.
I don't think we can put God in a box. He is for me, he is for her and
he is for you. His will is for all to come to salvation, but he also
knows that some people won't.
To me, that comment is in and of itself putting god in a box. A box that you've created for him in your own mind. How is it that you presume to know so much about what god does or doesn't think about anything?
Magical is a curious word. I would say someone who doesn't have the
spirit cannot discern spiritual things. So, this may be a little weird
to you and that's ok!
You can probably tell that after a lifetime of being a JW and spending decades agonizing over what God supposedly wants, does and thinks, I have no room left in my brain for anymore religious speculating. My eyes immediately begin rolling back in my head when I hear people speaking for or about the "lord" as if they are on some higher plain than everyone else. That's why some of your comments to me, seem a bit condescending, presumptuous and narcissistic in a way. Rather than thinking you have the inside track when it comes to god and the Bible, perhaps its time for a little humility and admit to yourself that like the rest of us (and your mother) don't have a clue about anything really. It might help your relationship if you both realized that there is very little in the Bible that is actually provable and you both only know what you've been told by others.