We keep bearing y’all witness that a God of peace and joy is out there, but this is also a God of rough roads. We do not sugar coat scripture or faith. We’re explaining what faith does and that it’s exercised through a spiritual sense. Faith in this sense is about going after something your spirit has perceived, and ultimately in partaking in that something. I’m not here to damn, because Jesus didn’t come here 2000 years ago to damn either! (Damning will come later, but as long as God is not in a hurry to do it neither am I.)
The tagline I use is one that I have experienced in a very profound way and I believe it with all my heart. It is not a "sappy adage", but a deep, spiritual truth that CAN be realized by anyone genuinely seeking to know God.
Indeed, there is right way of doing things, that is part of life, but unlike the "lucky chance" that science requires for creation without a Creator, the "right way" of salvation is quite simple, as it is more of a matter of the heart than requiring much of the head.
"18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalms 34:18)
"And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. " (Matthew 18:3)
But when you are raised under a form of religion, such as largely perfunctory professions or misguided zeal for a church, and see no transformative reality, then it can act like an inoculation that breeds cynicism against the possibility that the claims of Christ (which the dead church makes of none effect) are real.
Meanwhile, there are abundant testimonies present (you can watch a few here tonight) and past that testify to the transformative reality of the Lord Jesus, including more hymns about this kind of personal relationship than any faith, and that are an effect that corresponds to the words of the object of their faith.
You may use all the 'other words' you like, but do not attribute them to me - Your atheism seems to have affected your translating ability.
[...] if wastedyears isn't feeling peace and joy right now, he has failed to seek God with an open enough heart. That's all you Christians on here are really saying to him.
If you had any idea how precious an 'open heart' is, and how hard it is to achieve, I doubt you would treat it so blithely. Being in a state where it is not achieved is not an accusation as much as it is a symptom.
God is peace, but you have to do it right.
Well of course you have to 'do it right' to some degree. YHWH doesn't answer the phones at Baal's office (as an instance)... But YHWH will meet you where you are in a general sense.
You have to pray hard enough, believe deeply enough, abandon self, trust, believe, beg... If you aren't feeling the peace, you're doing it wrong, see?
No, I don't see.
So you're doubling the blame for his misery back onto him. That's 100 times more destructive than anything I'm saying to him. Poisonous, actually.
I am not blaming him in the least. What is poisonous is bitterness, hate, self pity and anger - All of which are symptomatic and expected when one is in duress. And all of which tend to short-wire the transmission to God. The radio has to be working in order to transmit. It is really, really hard to trust God in such circumstances - And all to easy to trust one's self or rely upon doctors. But YHWH is the one who holds your blueprint... When the doctors put you into maintenance mode, healing will be found there no longer. So hope resides in God alone (which was the only hope all along anyway).
And the most poisonous of all is telling him to crawl into a bitter pity-party and continue to rely on what hasn't worked: YOU'RE DOOOOMED! Live with it! Don't listen to these hayseed pasty-faced Christians (who actually DO get healing). Don't listen for a minute to how they got that way!
If there was ever a thought directly from satan's lips, it would be that.