on 8/12/05 10:27 AM, kjdruhl at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Same with God and man. Man is made in the image of God, and God's > Spirit sustains us and all of His creation everywhere and at all > times. But we have been given free will, to enter in relationship > with God or not. Without free will, there could be no relationship, > we would be puppets.
Free will is a point of view. In one state of consciousness we appear to have it and should act accordingly. In another, we realize we never had it, and God runs the show. > > The Bible tells us that man choose, at some distant point in the > past, to forego his relationship with God, in an attempt to become > himself like God, to live out of his own understanding of good and > evil. Glad you acknowledge there was a distant past, or are you saying 3,000 years ago or something? Do you believe the universe is only 6,000 years old? If you do, someone had better warn your physics students. >God had made it clear that the result of that choice would be > death. And spiritual death has been with man ever since. Jesus > Christ paid this death penalty for all of mankind, for all past, > present and future on the cross. "It is finished" were His last > words. Nothing more needs and can be done by man to be restored to > God, except to accept His gift of salvation by a free choice of his > will. > > Your very insistence on God-likeness and on redeeming yourself from > the curse of death stands in your way of accepting God's grace. This > is what I expressed in the PBS feature. > > Let me ask you a question: If we are in essence God, without sin, > without a deep inherited decision for separation from God, then why > do people have such a hard time communicating with Him? Why does it > supposedly take CC at least (according to Maharishi) to show true > devotion to God, to be heard by Him? Because as you say, by free will we separate ourselves from him, or appear to do so. In fact, he's the one playing the game: "I am one - may I become many." He thought it might be fun to appear to fragment into many parts. Never really happened though. > > If that were the case, God had produced something with a serious > design flaw, a being that was supposed to find Him, but being in > constant danger of loosing the ability to do so, that was dependent > upon a constant stream of gurus to fix and restore the lost > communication. There's a constant stream of people. Hence the need for a constant stream of gurus, teachers, etc. And we're just talking about this planet. How about the billions of other inhabited planets? Is Jesus on tour, or do they each have their own savior? And if they do, there are many sons of God, so is there some rule that there should only be one in the history of each planet? > > No, communion with God is not difficult, God is found easily by > those who sincerely seek Him and are willing to walk His way. This > is His promise, and this is my experience. What does he look like? Rick > > Sincerely > > Kai > > > > > > To subscribe, send a message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Or go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ > and click 'Join This Group!' > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > -- Rick Archer SearchSummit 1108 South B Street Fairfield, IA 52556 Phone: 641-472-9336 Fax: 815-572-5842 http://searchsummit.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
