Your Relationship With God

SpeedoGuy

Sexy Member
Joined
May 18, 2004
Posts
4,166
Media
7
Likes
41
Points
258
Age
60
Location
Pacific Northwest, USA
Sexuality
99% Straight, 1% Gay
Gender
Male
For those who believe in God obviously :tongue:

What is your relationship with God, do you think of him as a stern but fair father, a friend, someone you can go to for advice.

I do not know the nature of my relationship with God and that often troubles me. Many claim to know God or have had conversations with God or direct communication from God but not me. I pray often but I don't perceive an answer or notice anything different afterwards.

I do not presume to know the intentions or desires or values of something that seems so much greater than myself. I can only hope that God is like a loving, tolerant and forgiving parent. But I could be wrong. God may just as well be an vengeful old testament tyrant.
 

Act2_Begins_Now

1st Like
Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Posts
487
Media
0
Likes
1
Points
163
Location
Pacific Northwest
Sexuality
99% Straight, 1% Gay
Gender
Female
What is your relationship with God,

My canned Christianese ... its not about a religion, its about a relationship. I have a relationship with God. I KNOW Him, just like I know my child/parent/friend.

do you think of him as a stern but fair father,

I think of Him as a very loving Father, whose heart breaks when His children/the world hurts.

a friend, someone you can go to for advice.

His guidance, has never failed me.

Do you believe that you can directly communicate with him

Absolutely.

or do you think that you have to have an intercessionary such as a priest or the church.

Many churches would like you to believe that. However, when Christ died, the moment he died the 'curtain' that separated the 'sanctuary' from the Holy of Holies (where God dwelled) was ripped in two. It signified that there was no longer any barrier between us and God.

Do you pray, how and when?

Everyday throughout the day. Basically just conversations.

Every day to say thanks or ask for help.

Both and in addition to say ... awesome!
 

Kevbo

Sexy Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Posts
378
Media
0
Likes
28
Points
248
I always thought this argument was a giant cop out. Its a convenient use of rhetoric to side step the discussion of the nature of divinity by asserting that it is ultimately unknowable.


But what if that is true? I like the Heinlein quote, "He knew that he had about as much chance of understanding such problems as a collie has of understanding how dog food gets into cans." What if humans are essentially collies :smile: when it comes to understanding God and His motives? Aren't we awfully presumptuous, bordering on egomaniacal, to think we cannot only understand a transcendent being's actions, but to judge them as well?

Not a cop out. More a recognition when we're in over our heads. I'm not saying that we duck away from any problem that seems too complex to initially comprehend. Clearly, humans have solved some dazzling problems over the years. I'm saying that we should recognize that our comprehension has finite limits, especially on "meta" topics such as cosmological ponderings on our place in creation.

Kevin
 

lafever

Superior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Posts
4,934
Media
28
Likes
2,753
Points
333
Location
USA
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
The Air you breath is essential to your life yet you cannot see it. Just because you cannot see air does not mean that it does not exist, obviously it does or you would not be alive as the human body cannot exist without air as our blood depends on it to live.
God is the same way, you cannot see him but yet he's all around you and inside you.
Thats why people can feel him, some call it a concious contact with god, which is the ability to feel what is right and wrong from your gut feelings.
When you are closed off from this you have no feelings but your own, and when you use your own feelings then you are in self-will.
When i meet or talk to people who are in their own self-will, without remorse, i can sense it emediatly.
Although we have our differences, the difference between you and me is that i pray for you.
God bless, i pray that you find whatever it is your looking for.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

A little story for you:
Once a man was caught in a flood, in desperation he cried out to god, "god please help me, if there ever was a time i needed you it is now"
As the flood entered his yard a man in a canoe showed up and offered to help, no he replied god is going to save me.
Next, when the water entered his house another man showed up in a boat asking the man if he needed help, no the man replied god is going to save me.
Finally the water was so high the man was forced to get onto the roof of his house, a hellicopter flew over and asked the man if he needed any help, no the man replied god will save me.
The man drowned and when he got to heaven he asked god why did he forsake him, god replied; " What do you mean i forsaked you, i sent you a canoe, a boat, and a helicopter. If you truly new me and not just begged for help when you were in danger than you would have know that i was there with you all along."

Another little story for you:
Once there was a tree up on a hill, the tree was sad because seldomly did anyone ever visit.
One day a boy was playing on the hill and the sun was so hot that he felt as though he could not go on any further.
The tree said hey, little boy, come over and rest under my shade and get a break from that hot sun, you look as though your going to pass out.
The boy got up under the tree away from the sun and they chatted for hours the tree and the boy were happy.

Several years went by and the tree missed the little boy and the tree wondered if the boy had forgotten him.
One day the boy was hungry from doing chores at home yet his family had little to eat, he remembered the tree and went to the hill to seek advice and comfort.
Hello the tree said with great happiness so glad to see you again, the boy explained his situation.
The tree said to the boy, take my fruit and eat and take some for your family to eat as well, the tree and the boy were happy once again.

Some years later the little boy was now a teenager and it had been some time since he had seen or talked to the tree but he remembered what the tree had done for him so he went to see his friend the tree.
Once again the tree was happy to see what now was a young chippish lad.
Tree, he said, i have a delema, i have a crush on a girl but i cannot aford to take her out, the tree said, take my branches and make baseball bats out of them and use the money to take the girl out. The boy did, and the tree and the boy were happy yet again.

Years went by and the tree missed the young man and wondered if he'd ever see him again as he longed for him to come and see him.
Once again the young man returned but now he was a man.
The tree was so happy to see the man who was once the little boy again.
Tree, the man said, i married that girl who i needed money for and she ran off and left me for another man, i want to go as far away as i can, will you help me?
Yes, the tree replied, cut me down at my trunk and make a canoe out of the timber, then you can go as far as the canoe can take you.
The man did so and the tree and the man were happy once more.

Many years went by and the tree missed the man, the tree wondered if the man had forgotten him.
One day a old man struggled to get up the hill to the tree, is that you my friend the tree asked, yes it is me.
I have traveled all over the world until my body started to give on me, now i'm just an old man with raggedy bones who can hardly stand.
Tree, the man said, when i was little you shadded me from the sun, when i was hungry you fed me, when i was poor you provided me a way to make money, and when i was heart brokken you gave me a way to see the world.
Sadly now that i look at you i realize there is nothing more that you can do for me.
Not true, said the tree, you look tired from your long journey and you seem to have trouble standing, why don't you rest and sit on my stump.
Once again the tree and the man were happy, the man stayed with the tree from then on out and they spent many years talking and enjoying themselves together.
(For you see the tree was god, and the man was his child)

chris
 

lafever

Superior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Posts
4,934
Media
28
Likes
2,753
Points
333
Location
USA
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
Are there any of you who commented on this thread who were agnostics or atheists who later came to believe in God?

That would be me, i once had to see it to believe it, my perception was so clouded from my own intellect that all i could see is what i chose to believe.
The evidence was all around me, i just chose not to see it.
chris
 

hottcjimmyv

Sexy Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Posts
147
Media
5
Likes
37
Points
248
Location
home: Dixie, school: north east
Sexuality
90% Gay, 10% Straight
Gender
Male
Interesting thread.
I guess i'm an unlikely candidate because i'm gay and in college, but I'm a pretty regular churchgoer. I pray. I read about prayer. I try to be a good person. I'm Episcopal (Anglican).

Whether or not God answers my prayers (or even hears them) doesn't really matter to me. I don't even believe that God is what I think GOd is, because our finite minds tend to anthropomorphize God into a patriarch, a matriarch, a sadist, whatever. Prayer, and liturgy, and the sacraments all change me. They focus my week, my day, my mind--so I'm grateful for my faith.

STill other believers make me cringe. The thing carried out in God's name are the worst abominations in history. But that is humankind--not God. The church is a human institution and therefore VERY fallible--that's why Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials kick fuckin ass!

Still, I go to church...

Jimmy
 

ActionBuddy

Mythical Member
Gold
Platinum Gold
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Posts
13,722
Media
15
Likes
30,505
Points
618
Location
Seattle, Washington, US
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Male
god is the thread of the fabric that creates our existence.
we man,are also composed of that same thread.
we just need to learn how to stop seeing the fabric and
start looking at the seams.
that is a mild synopsis of how i see it.
I prefer to see the entire fabric without the seams. A collective conscientiousness. Not a Father, Mother or "friend", not the "other", but a wholeness. A universal evolution of goodness and caring.

Oy vey! Did I just admit to that?... I sound like a fucking Hippie!

Oh, well. Onan
 

Northland

Sexy Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Posts
5,924
Media
0
Likes
39
Points
123
Sexuality
No Response
For those who believe in God obviously :tongue:

What is your relationship with God, do you think of him as a stern but fair father, a friend, someone you can go to for advice. Do you believe that you can directly communicate with him or do you think that you have to have an intercessionary such as a priest or the church.

Do you pray, how and when? Every day to say thanks or ask for help. Only when you're in need? Before meals or bedtime, and how are your prayers articulated.

Feel free to make any comment you feel relevant.
I have a decent relationship with God and have regular conversations with Him. Some refer to these as prayers, and in a way they are. At times they are requests for bettering myself as a human being-to not be as angry or bitter over certain matters and to fully appreciate all I have been given. Some of these requests are for the well-being of others, that they may not come to harm. At other times they are simple conversations-one side I suppose-where I make comments on things as they happen. My day begins with thanks for another day or any part of a day I may be allowed to receive as a gift and at the end of the day, a simple thank you for taking me through another day and asking for protection from harm throughout the nigt as well as help for the next day if I am to be granted that day.

I don't necessarily see God as a man, niether do I imagine God as a female. God is God. God is everything around us and is The One who created a something which led to us being able to have life within a mortal casing. God is a power, and God is assisted by the souls of many of those who have previously lived an Earthly existence. All of them, with God's guidance care for us each and every day. Do things often go against what I want or had expected? Yes. Yet to me, I see these as experiences-some quite sad and painfu, others happyl-which are meant to help my soul to grow into a full wisdom worthy of eternal bliss.

How do I view God and our relationship? A friend. A guide. A protector. Usually good; occasionally annoying.


It's complicated to put all of it into words.
 

Osiris

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Posts
2,666
Media
0
Likes
13
Points
183
Location
Wherever the dolphins are going
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Male
Are there any of you who commented on this thread who were agnostics or atheists who later came to believe in God?

That would be me. I could not understand a God that would allow my mother to suffer such pain and anguish for three years and then finally allow her to pass. I think this is what allowed me to relate to the sentiment of Tallbig about his view of religion. I came to find faith by spending time with almost every faith out there. After ten years of looking and searching, it was a Catholic Priest, Father Mike Roach, who helped me reconcile my conflict with God and Christ.

I then joined the church and haven't looked back since.
 

thoreau

Experimental Member
Verified
Gold
Joined
Jan 18, 2008
Posts
175
Media
17
Likes
16
Points
263
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Verification
View
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
But what if that is true? I like the Heinlein quote, "He knew that he had about as much chance of understanding such problems as a collie has of understanding how dog food gets into cans." What if humans are essentially collies :smile: when it comes to understanding God and His motives? Aren't we awfully presumptuous, bordering on egomaniacal, to think we cannot only understand a transcendent being's actions, but to judge them as well?

Not a cop out. More a recognition when we're in over our heads. I'm not saying that we duck away from any problem that seems too complex to initially comprehend. Clearly, humans have solved some dazzling problems over the years. I'm saying that we should recognize that our comprehension has finite limits, especially on "meta" topics such as cosmological ponderings on our place in creation.

Kevin


Ok I'd agree that that is a salient point. I guess my frustration comes when people are confronted with such a vastly incomprehensible idea like the nature of supreme being that it seems to me that the inclination is to deify it and make it into some sort of digestible and devotional ritualized mockery.


I suppose it might be arrogant and presumptuous to believe we could understand the nature of a transcendent being but I favor a quote from Robert Browning,


" A man's reach ought to exceed his grasp."


The idea being that to achieve anything worthwhile, a person should attempt even those things that may turn out to be impossible. For me the amazing thing about human nature to me is our desire to seek out the answers to the unknowable ideas even if that includes God and the cosmos. :cool:



BTW- Was that quote you used from Heinlein, did it come from Stranger in a Strange Land.... ? It sounded familiar.
 

Kevbo

Sexy Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Posts
378
Media
0
Likes
28
Points
248
Ok I'd agree that that is a salient point. I guess my frustration comes when people are confronted with such a vastly incomprehensible idea like the nature of supreme being that it seems to me that the inclination is to deify it and make it into some sort of digestible and devotional ritualized mockery.


Definitely true -- just look at the variety of religious explanations through human history, many of which seem laughable to our jaded know-it-allness :redface:

I suppose it might be arrogant and presumptuous to believe we could understand the nature of a transcendent being but I favor a quote from Robert Browning,


" A man's reach ought to exceed his grasp."


The idea being that to achieve anything worthwhile, a person should attempt even those things that may turn out to be impossible. For me the amazing thing about human nature to me is our desire to seek out the answers to the unknowable ideas even if that includes God and the cosmos. :cool:
To me, the neat thing about the seeking is that it is infinite. We will never get the full picture, but we feel compelled to keep trying. That is what makes us human. If you stop seeking truth, if your active mental life has been hypnotized by endless evenings of TV watching
[*] and other consumptive time-wasters which don't advance you in any substantive way to understanding yourself, you're like a shark who stops swimming. I.e., dead.

BTW- Was that quote you used from Heinlein, did it come from Stranger in a Strange Land.... ? It sounded familiar.
"By His Bootstraps" -- his first publication. See http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/scifi/byhisbootstraps.pdf. I haven't read it -- had heard the quote and Googled it to get it right for my previous response.

Peace out,
Kevin

(*) Hypocrisy alert: I will debate American Idol with anyone who wants to discuss it. :rolleyes:
 

JustAsking

Sexy Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2004
Posts
3,217
Media
0
Likes
33
Points
268
Location
Ohio
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
Are there any of you who commented on this thread who were agnostics or atheists who later came to believe in God?
Yes, this is me, too. I stopped believing while in High School when I started to really think about how irrational it was. It was the time when my inner scientist started to flourish, along with my inner secular humanist. I became a very rational person who loved humanity.

However, as I was studying physics in college, I became more and more in awe of the mathematical elegance of the universe. Once you start seeing the same equations popping up in everything from sub-atomic phenomenon to things the size of galaxies, you start to get a really humble feeling that you really don't know squat about why this is all here. That and the constant sense of awe of it all led to a very strong and palpable feeling that there was a Creator behind all of this.

The Creator feeling stayed with me for 30 years until moved to Ohio and found myself being an adult counselor in a youth group with my children. Something happened to me while on long summer service projects with that group in the mountains of Tennessee that put the intimate face of Jesus' on this Creator. It was a "road to Damascus" kind of transformation that happened to me and quite a few kids on one of these service project trips.

The next step was being asked to teach Sunday School to high school age kids. Since I had shared some life changing moments with them, I felt a responsibility to really understand what it means to be a Christian to the point where I knew what I believed, what the denomination believed, and how to teach it honestly and openly to these kids. Having already known these kids, I knew I would be asked a lot of tough questions and I knew they had an expectation that I would not just be spouting superficial church speak.

Bad things happened at that church, as they sometimes will when churches implode. I then found myself at a Lutheran church with a brilliant Pastor, where I started all over again. On discovering Lutheran Grace centered theology, it finally really made so much sense that I knew I found a theological home.

Thanks for asking, Princess.
 

the_reverend

Sexy Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Posts
2,178
Media
0
Likes
57
Points
183
Age
43
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
i'd say my relationship with God is multifaceted. in one sense, i consider Him very personal and active in my life, a loving parent/friend who tries to guide me but forgives me if i go astray. in another, i think all of reality is God experiencing Himself through a subjective lens, so there's an element of God within me and acting through me and in my interactions with others and the world around me.

i do pray, less in asking Him for stuff so much as granting me wisdom, strength, patience and guidance in hard times and offering up gratitude and love in the good times. it's a very personal and individual relationship as i don't regularly attend church. i've been to various services and enjoyed and definitely felt God at a lot of them, but the institutional elements irk me a bit (as they do with most things). so i prefer to explore my own path. and i've never had Him actually speak to me...it's more like a compelling feeling down in the very core of my being, like some kind of internal emotional magnetism. i know when it's pulling me or pointing me in one direction, and can definitely feel it when i'm going in the opposite direction.

my sexuality is also very tied into my spirituality, which is why i find the topic of sex being so taboo in so many religions and denominations to be ludicrous. it's such an intense and passionate experience and, at its height when you're with someone you're erally emotionally connected to, there's such a potent spiritual element that i feel in the act...a communion with my partner, with myself and with the Allmighty God of Love, Passion and Creation that connects us. you just feel so connected to everything. i don't know, it could just be me...but considering how many people call upon Him in the throes of passion, i don't think so. ;)
 

24cm_member

Experimental Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2008
Posts
52
Media
3
Likes
3
Points
93
Location
Toronto
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
I'm spiritual, but I have yet to come to terms with any specific dogmatic religion.

It began while I was in a Catholic high school, I began looking at the different branches of Christianity, as well as Islam and Judaism, and have since looked at Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. I have also read a large amount of philosophy on religion, as well as quantum mechanics (quantum mechanic theory and eastern mysticism seem to be overlapping to a certain degree).

I have found however, that sex in and of itself is spiritual. There is a reason why an orgasm is called seeing God. Orgasms and Laughter are incredible releases where the mind is blank. There is nothing there for the brain to process, except the intense physical and mental pleasure that is derived from sex (or laughing).
 

whatireallywant

Sexy Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Posts
3,535
Media
0
Likes
30
Points
183
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Female
Personally, I went from going to fundamentalist Christian churches, to being turned off by ALL religion because of the sexism and repression in those (fundamentalist) churches, to where I am today - I (occasionally) go to a Unitarian Universalist church, and while I still don't like fundamentalism (of ANY religion), I am not against Christianity (or any other religion) per se. I am only against the fundamentalist sections of religions and the sexism and repression that they teach.
 

Axcess

Experimental Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Posts
1,611
Media
0
Likes
7
Points
123
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
I will reply to your question in a short way to avoid offend any members.
I don't have a relationship with god ( with the christian god and other gods) because I don't believe in the existence of a personal creator god.
I have my philosophical and personal reasons for it.