Audie wrote:B. W. wrote:Where did the conscience come from that stopped you?
How do you not know that it was God who stopped you?
I am so thankful he did.
Dunno if is was conscience as such. I had two thoughts that were holding me back. One was, I had read how people who survive a suicide attempt (jumping off Golden Gate Bridge in California is a famous one) will say, "Oh, just as I let go I regretted it!".
17 stories to the sidewalk, there is no surviving, but plenty of time for regret.
The big one was, I felt I could not do it to my mom, for all she did for me, then I pay her back so.
What ended the "discussion' was I could turn myself around, walk back in thro the sliding door a lot easier than jumping off. So I sort of shut my mind off and walked back in.
I am glad you survived that near-fatal accident.
God created us as creatures with a conscience to be able to reason things through. You may not agree with me on this next statement but he did engaged your reason and thankfully you did not jump.
With this I would like you to kindly consider this:
This is what Jesus came to do - reveal who and what God is really like. Just as Jesus in Luke chapter four quoted this from Isaiah 61:1-4 in the NT:
"
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,3 To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. 4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations." NASB
Audie,
Life events fracture our hearts and cause such confusion. He came to set folks free from these chains and for this, we have militant atheist, like myself once was, poking their proverbial finger in the eye of God demanding he stop doing this: healing the shattered hearts, setting at liberty those held captive to life events, and prevent those in their mental prisons to be free. Demanding that he stop giving the oil of joy in exchange for mourning. Strength instead of fainting. So that we can shine and help others rebuild a new and better way away from the devastation of ruin humanity places on its self.
I was so smug to accuse God as unable to do these things arguing that we can do these better while at the same time touting my own amorality while never seeing the hypocrisy of such relativism I had as the rule for governing life.
I never saw how, Jesus came into this world, as one of us, so none could say to God, you do not know what it is like to be born into a world of mixed up crazy families, midst hostility, hate, brown nosing, pride, surrounded by the moral, social, and sexual perverts. Surrounded those who bear false witness, betray, steal, abandon, reject, neglect, abuse... that helps erase all goodness humanity is capable of in short order.
I used to reason that God was the progenitor of all evil, yet, believed God did not exist while at the same time never once really considered that we are the actual progenitors of evil, not God. Never thought or saw how he came here to earth to begin the process to help stop our betrayals stealing, abandoning, rejecting, neglecting, abusing claiming we can do this better.
Never saw how many times he actually intervened in my life to save my life many times and passed these off to random chance. I kept denying that he came as one of us and dealt a death blow to all our innate propensity toward betrayals stealing, abandoning, rejecting, neglecting, and our abusing. denying he came to help us change from the inside out what we cannot change no matter how hard we try to work at it, cope with it, or deal with it.
Do I hate or am I prejudice against militant atheist or mild atheist? The answer is a resounding - NO -
I instead have a profound godly sorrow toward people and desire that God wake them up to all He came to do for them despite their challenges to provoke him. So that they see what Jesus said about the show trial he was put on, how he was mocked, betrayed, abused, stolen from, falsely accused, demand to perform as a play toy, rejected, abandoned, beaten, whipped - that was God come in human flesh you know, who went thru that and what did He say about this action of all humanity? -
Father forgive/release/deliver them, for the know not what they do.
We do not deserve such a proclamation like that, yet, God still moves human conscience to stop one's act from suicide allowing us to reason freely say it was rather for this or that reason but why did the thought come to mind is ignored as coming from God. We can also say random chance stopped the accident that almost took my life, but really? Or we can walk around with a proverbial chip on our shoulders denying humanity's role in progenerating all the bad in life thwarting whatever good people can do.
Yet he came, Audie, and let himself be put on trial, rejected, abandoned, abused, betrayed so you and I won't
have to be enslaved to the fruit of this in our lives anymore, held captive to it, prisoner to it any longer.
That's God, Audie, the one sent to rescue, restore, and rebuild you and I midst an openly hostile world enslaved to slay good that drives one to seek suicide, drugs alcohol, one failed relationship after another...
Audie, please keep reading now that you an idea whom I am
Let me share with you what Christian faith/belief is all about:
acceptance - accepting that he said:
Father forgive/release/deliver them, for the know not what they do.
Accepting that one who went to such agony is truly worthy to govern our lives midst a dark world so we stop contributing to its stench.
What is disbelief?
It is simply not accepting that HE is worthy, worthy to govern or lives inside out, but rather that we can govern better than he can our own lives. Meanwhile, another person ends his or her life lost midst a sea of depravity that society justifies as a right.
Isaiah 61:1-4 from the NLT reads: “
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. 3 To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago. They will revive them, though they have been deserted for many generations.” NLT
And for this, I am told to shut up, have no rights to help make the world a better place where God worthy, can govern the world of humanity from the inside out….
I found life abundant no matter what comes my way that can never be taken away. God in due time will make all things right (Rev 21:1,4).
My prayer and main desire for all shades of atheist, agnostics, unbelievers, is that find that life too.
My heartfelt desire is to see you in heaven, Audie, where there are no more tears or people demanding one to shut up telling them they must deny their right to exist.
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