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Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."Quote:
Originally Posted by Yppej
Matthew is quoting Jesus. Hebrews is by an unknown author.[/QUOTE]
Very true, but I find I get the most out of the bible when I read the whole book.
Matthew 6:6
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. King James Version
And don't forget if people are unreceptive to your message to shake the dust off your shoes and leave.
Matthew 24:36:
Περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης καὶ ὥρας οὐδεὶς οἶδεν, οὐδὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι τῶν οὐρανῶν οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός, εἰ μὴ ὁ πατὴρ μόνος.
True. That's why I prefer to believe the the Kingdom of God is within me, right here. Right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
Time is only one dimension in our limited experience, so I'm not focusing on future prophesies. I prefer to focus on the revelations of this moment.
I can completely embrace this. But I can also turn this inside out and say that the Kingdom Of God is not only within me and now but extends infinitely outside me into the unlimited universe beyond our earthly home. As an example, the unmanned space probe Voyager 1 has been traveling through our solar system for the past 37 years and is currently poised to pierce the edges of it into interstellar space. Everyday the probe travels 1.5 million more kilometers away from us and could I transport myself onto the probe at any point in the future it would never be far enough away to remove me from a relationship with the creator of the universe within which it travels.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
Given this, I can’t get excited about the beast, who or what he may be, when something might happen ....etc. In fact, while anyone else is welcome to define their religion in terms of a limited set of written words issued during the tiniest period of time given the age of the universe.....I’ll try not to put God in a box.
I'm not an atheist, but don't think of God as an entity, but as a life force or form of energy that embodies what we label as goodness or love within the constraints of human language and understanding. Beyond that, my comprehension of God is akin to my understanding of non-linear time or negative energy. It's pretty vague and defies description in our physical way of seeing our world and the way our brain conceives reality.
The biblical allegory of the fall from the garden describes the veil that was placed between us and the divine and that separated us from the animal realm. There is a natural attraction to return to the state of divine or perfection that is confused by our human frailties and free will.
My take in five sentences anyway.
"Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Luke 9:58
Okay, does it not seem odd to you that your God is so vain that he wants more than anything to be worshiped? Like he prefers people who commit nothing but bad deeds, even evil deeds, to people who don't worship him even though those folks do good deeds?Quote:
Originally Posted by michae1
That is downright twisted.
And if that is the case, who populates heaven? A mix of evil doers and good doers who believed? Sounds a lot like the USA. Why would I grovel to end up in a place a lot like where I am now -- ego maniacal leader and all?
Here is a fun bible quote:
"You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." -- Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT
UL, I think the common belief of most modern Christian is that many of the Old Testament laws were fulfilled or replaced by the coming of the Messiah. You could do your own search of topic and get a better explanation of this than I could give here.