So many very interesting and wonderful responses to this thread. Hope, joy, frustration, faith, lack thereof, desires to believe, seeming feigned apathy to it all, hurt/pain, gratefulness, disappointment, thanksgiving, resentment, passionate faith, and passionate disdain. What wonderful beings we are indeed. So amazingly and wonderfully complex and beautiful....So very, very human...so stunning and breathtaking to ponder and behold. Considering "being" at all is truly a life long subject to ponder and learn from....It is an inexhaustible topic. That we even "are" and are comprised of so many millions and billions of varied cells and chemicals and minerals and proteins that have "somehow" just "knew" how to come together and form and produce the being known as humankind, is nothing short of an unfathomable and incomprehensible deliberate and purposeful act of an Superior Being/Beings.
I believe that the Living Godhead is Love...I believe that They, each one individually, always are and can never be anything but Good and Merciful and Patient, and Gracious and full of tenderness and are Righteous and Just in all that they do. Love. I believe that the Living Godhead loves ALL of mankind and cares very, very deeply and passionately for it. I believe that They care for EACH one of us VERY intimately and specifically, as if we each one are the only ones in the world. Enough so as to have One come down from His High and Lofty Throne of inexpressible glory, to share humankind's express nature: birth, growing, laughing, crying, gain, loss, loving others, sorrow, hopes, desires for good, temptations, anger, struggles, poverty, daily struggles and rejoicings. In order to save as many as will to be saved, from their sin and the bondage to it and the consequence of it (sin), being death.
A Life for a life....that's what was given to ALL humankind. Blood for blood, Breath for breath....Life for death. I believe that the Son of the Almighty Father agreed WITH the Father, in Love, to stand as the Ransom for all mankind; whosoever will receive it, to pay the unstoppable and un-retractable and irreversible consequence of breaking the Covenant between the Godhead and humankind, the command from the Most High, that "the wages of sin is death". God did not bring sin and with it death, into the world. Mankind did. The First Parents exercised their "free moral will" and CHOSE to break the Covenant between themselves and their loving Gods. They chose to believe the lie of the Enemy of ALL dear souls, instead of the Way the Truth and the Life....The Word of God.
God's Word is unfailing and immutable and unchanging. It is Holy and Just and Good. It is Spiritual and it is Love. It cannot be anything other than Love for it proceeds from Love Itself. Is there bad in the world? Yes, very, very much bad is in the world today. Evil even. Did God put the "bad" and the "evil" in the world in the beginning? No, of course not. Mankind did that when it broke the Holy Covenant, even the very Law of God; which is a transcript of the Godhead's character, each One. God is love.
The Adversary; which is the Devil or Satan, and who was once known as Lucifer (which name means "light bearer", NOT Light Giver), was the first rebel. He began his rebellion in Heaven itself because he became exceeding puffed up and full of pride by reason of his beauty and position among the other angels. He coveted the position that was bestowed upon the Son of God by God the Father, that ALL the angels of God (Almighty) should worship and honor the Son, even as they worship and honor the Father. The Adversary became increasingly jealous and envious of the Son of God and started a campaign of lies, subtlety and subterfuge among the angels of God in Heaven.
The Father of Lies refused all counsel to repent of his course of action and to seek forgiveness from God the father and the Son of God, as they had ever and always love them all without partiality. But the fire of jealousy and resentment burned even brighter in his heart, for he desired the one thing that he could NEVER have, and that is to be worshiped as God. In time....a long suffering and merciful and gracious amount of time, the Adversary's rebellion came to its boiling point and was then an open rebellion. It was at that time that war broke out in Heaven. The angels of the Captain of the Host, whose name is Michael; which means "Who is like God" (the Father), for it is not a question but a statement, fought against "the Dragon" and his angels. And they were cast out from Heaven.
The Word of God created ALL of the angels of Heaven. Does that mean that God created evil? Absolutely not. ALL of the Heavenly host are "free moral agents". Before the Rebellion they had free will to either love and obey the Living Godhead of their free will, or break the Holy Covenant between them and their Creators. It was always their choice. None were or even are to this day, automatons/robots. The angels that CHOSE to stay and stood with Christ their Captain made an eternal decision of their free will and were forever sealed in their character by their choice and through Christ Jesus, to serve the Lord.
It is the same today. The Adversary; the Devil or Satan or the Dragon or the Serpent or the Father of Lies, CHOSE to sin against the Living Godhead and break the Holy Covenant, which is the Law of God.
1. He made himself his own god.
2. He made beauty and position and prestige his idols and set them up in his heart to worship
3. He took God's name, which was IN him, and used it profanely
4. He broke the peace and serene loving fellowship that was had between the Godhead and the angels and also between himself and the Godhead and the angels.
5. He dishonored God the Father and God the Son through his rebellious behavior among the angels in all of Heaven.
6. He caused his own eventual permanent destruction and that of the angels that fell with him (suicide and murder). Even the charge of murder for ALL the poor souls lost and permanently destroyed from existence will ultimately be laid at his feet.
7. He broke the "Marriage Covenant" between himself and the Godhead spiritually, by courting and joining himself to "selfishness/pride"
8. He took that which did not belong to him, which is Glory due the Godhead; especially of God the Son, and robbed the angels of God from Heaven through treachery.
9. He lied against God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, when he went about lying to the angels of God charging God with selfishness and of being arbitrary in Their judgements. Proclaiming that angels were above the need of obeying the Law of God.
10. He desired (coveted) the position of the Son of God, to be worshiped as God. He still desires that to this day in this world.
The Lord Jesus did not "make me an orphan". But I was one. He did not leave me in the hospital for dead, my birth mother did. God did not make me a sickly child, that was passed on to me from birth and 6,000+ years of degradation in humankind. The Lord did not abuse me in many various ways, because I was sickly, because I was small, because I was not the "right color" for ANYbody, because I was an orphan..etc....others did that. God did not make me do drugs, drink, be promiscuous, be rude and apathetic, cruel, wasteful with life and property, reckless, disrespectful, hurtful, jealous, envious, lie, steal, covet, exalt myself over others even God, attempt at times to kill myself through reckless way, or be an adulterer. I was responsible for my part, and others are responsible for theirs.
Was I at one time; through many points of my life, VERY, VERY angry with God because of ALL that I went through and ALL that I saw going on around me....Yes....Yes indeed......And when I was done being beside my self with my own version of "righteous indignation and extreme "know-it-allism".....The Lord in His ever loving mercy came and sat down right beside me....and he said....Child?.....Are you finished? I want to share something with you about your life and how I have been there WITH you through ALL that you went through; Comforting you, protecting you from worse, encouraging you, loving you, hearing your sighs and marking each one, keeping each and every tear, counting every hair on your head, blessing you with life each day for the Adversary wants to destroy you and lie to you and rob you of what it is that I have made available to you through Me.....Forgiveness of sin and everlasting life!
If you trust me and believe in my word and obey what I say...you will be forgiven and will have joy...and sorrow....and peace...and temptation..and hope and know despair and be discouraged at time and even feel at times that all is hopeless and the entire world is just an evil and cruel test of some kind......But you just hold fast till I come. Trust in my word. Believe. Obey willingly because you love me; for I first loved you even from your mothers womb. Testify of me when you have opportunity and strength...and...do good...and..as much as it is with in you, be at peace with ALL men. You do these things and all that the Holy Spirit will teach and show you....and I WILL return for you....and all those who are not ashamed of Me and turn from sin to Life and are willing to be washed in my Blood and be made clean and whole. Do not believe the subtlety of the Adversary my child...Faith without works (obedience) is a dead faith.
I believe that the Living Godhead is Love and that They created ALL that is, seen and unseen, because They are love. I believe that Jesus, the Lord God Michael ("Who is Like God", remember), the Captain of the Host, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Lords, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the High Priest of Heaven who is even now interceding for us before the Almighty Father, having ascended to heaven as both "flesh and bone", ever to share humanity with His "children"....came INTO this wretched world in order to redeem "whoever will" from the death sentence for sin which is breaking of the Holy Covenant (transgression of the Law of God) (1 John 3:4 and James Chapter 2)
The Adversary causes MUCH, MUCH destruction and illness and mischief and wickedness in this world. But mankind; each individual one of us, must bear our own responsibility for the wrong that we do. We have no right to blame the Lord for the wicked of others. or ourselves.....We are commanded by the Lord to "love one another", "love thy neighbor as thy self", "esteem others GREATER than thyself" , "feed the hungry, cloth the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick and widows and orphans and the lonely and care for those who can't even care for themselves anymore because the Adversary has cause them to destroy their lives. Go....make disciples for me of all of them....and hold fast til I came..."for lo I with the always, even unto the end of the earth"
So....yes...pray and faith in the Lord is at this time the ONLY thing that is keeping me sane and hopeful and not trying to shove sharp objects into my ears, or even use an air horn (which I did actually buy) to make myself deaf. If I didn't know for certain in the depths of my heart that the Living Godhead IS and that They REALLY love ME....well....I don't want to think about it....I'll stick with the happy thoughts and just keep pressing on by God's grace. I don't know what the day is going to be like today. My T creature is still cranking out a 7 to 7 1/2 volume and it's 3:30am. So I have to leave it to the Lord. He bought me, He promised to be the Author AND the finisher" of my faith....so is to say that in some way that my tiny finite mind can't fathom, if what I'm going through with this wretched tinnitus....is actually being used by the Lord to create a deeper and more abiding faith in Him....and a way to share that hope in Christ Jesus to others....Who knows....
God bless you all, yes EVERY single one of you.....in Jesus' name...
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I don't drink but bottoms up anyway
