Very well said. I've never seen an invitation, let alone the guy running the banquet! All I've ever seen are third and fourth hand accounts of possible invitations. That's not good enough in my book!
Have you looked?
Shalom.
Very well said. I've never seen an invitation, let alone the guy running the banquet! All I've ever seen are third and fourth hand accounts of possible invitations. That's not good enough in my book!
I suggest otherwise has been the case. . .
Consider that The Infinite [Jean-Paul Satre noted that for the finite to have meaning it must have a connection to the infinite--a connection he never seemed to find]. . . . of choice, perhaps a kind of necessity given the other rules of the game insuring FREE WILL, CHOICE for us mortal critters . . . .
Consider that The Infinite must of necessity muffle Himself enormously to still routinely allow Free Will. He, on occasion, interjects more overtly into this sphere and, indeed, into individual lives. He occasionally even does it with nonbelievers.
But on the whole, He allows His Creation to speak of His majesty. He knows that dramatic enough design and majesty reside there for those truly given to seeking Him to "get it" . . . to "get it" enough to deepen and intensify their search beyond merely observing the majesty of Creation.
He has insured that "those who seek Me, will find Me." He has NOT insured that those who refuse to seek Him will be FORCED to find Him--that is until final judgement.
One can get on an arrogant high horse and insist that God is not playing fair. . . . merely because God doesn't play by THEIR particular script.
But I wonder, assume you graduate from university. You have 3 companies you dearly aspire to work for. Your most sought company with an excellent record and growth prospects offers you a golden position with lots of reward, power and creative options to show your skills.
Would you take your new job and immediately demand that the CEO construct it differently; change the corporate culture to your design; kowtow to your sensibilities on a list of issues; restructure key principles and operating dynamics to conform to your preferences and demands?
I doubt it. If you did, you probably wouldn't have a 2nd day on that job.
God is God. He does things HIS way. It so happens, they are the best ways for us. They allow FAITH sufficient for Relationship without forcing us to be robots. This requires a measure of subtlety routinely on His part. He longs to dance with us more overtly. But there's a price for That Ticket. LOVING HIM AND LOVING OTHERS demonstrates we won't be sleepers joining the club only to try and destroy it from within later.
Contrary to some philosophies, we don't have to crawl on our knees to some manmade statue. We don't have to earn some list of merit badges. We don't have to be born perfect. We don't have to be born bluebloods. We don't have to be born in the right country. We don't have to have a certain level of IQ or EQ or bank account.
In fact, the humble, childlike prostitute or beggar seems to have a head start with Him.
Not too difficult for those who REALLY WANT to KNOW HIM.
We watch the movie CONTACT and take in stride the complex message to decode and then the "one small step" "been done that way for billions of years."
Yet the same folk nodding agreeably with that scenario rage at God for something similar. The message is far less coded though there are coded things aplenty for those thrilled with such. It is still a somewhat hidden message that those WITHOUT the earnest desire to KNOW HIM; without the earnest desire to exercise the measure of faith they were born with--those resistent folk will find the message obscure to unconvincing.
HOWEVER, Those with an earnest HEART-FELT HUMBLE DESIRE TO KNOW HIM will find that their childlike faith is very rich in results when exercised . . . and that the message becomes clearer and more obvious the closer to Him we get. A third of the angels rebelled with satan. Why should He bother with that kind of nonsense again? But actually, it's more for our protection. The more overt His presentation of Himself and the more overt our responding rebellion, the MORE SEVERE the reaping what we have sown.
I don't really think the problem is that you have no evidence sufficient to seek Him out. The problem is you can't make Him over in your image so you refuse to have a relationship with Him. I don't consider that God's problem.