God.

This is going to be a short post… Which is good since no one reads this damn thing.

I had this thought. The absence of God’s ‘presence’ in my life and his seemingly lack of care or involvement in my life leaves me wondering how good is really is. Have you ever begged God to come through or pleaded for him to show himself? I don’t really know of any time he has come through for me when I needed him that can’t be easily explained away. Right now I am unemployed and depressed. I haven’t been able to find a job. I wish Joel Osteen was right because then I could just name it and claim it and doors would be opened to me. anyway, I’ve had this thought: If God is real then he is like an alcoholic absently father he is almost never around and when he does come around he is always angry and gets a little handsy with your sister.

Some of my christian friends–especially the ones I went to bible college with–would tell me that either 1. I’m not trying hard enough, or 2. I’m in a time of trial like Job. My response is I try to find jobs as hard as anyone else, and my situation is absolutely nothing like Job’s. It’s a bad economy and if God exists he doesn’t come to my aid when I call him.

If you’re a christian and you’re worried about me then pray for me if it makes you feel better.

And I’d love for God to prove me wrong. I would hate to end up not believing the thing I went to college to learn how to teach people about.

I’ll end with a passage from a psalm: “How long will you forget me oh Lord? Forever?”

 

Who is God? Is there even a God?

Last month I felt very unsure of many things in my life, one of which being my faith in God. As old evangelicals would say “I felt the tug of the world on my life.” Eventually praying seemed to be a little foolish. We talk to ourselves pretending someone is listening. It’s this weird spiritual monologue that we do. Then there are those people who say Lord, God, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, or any combination of two or more at the beginning and end of every sentence they ‘pray.’ This led to the question: Do I believe God is real?

The doubt that arose was healthy and unhealthy. It caused me to grapple with this faith I had claimed to have, but I also went about it in a really unhealthy way. I became suspicious of the whole christian religion and asked questions, but then left them. Not just unanswered (which some questions will never be answered) but the answer was never sought out. I chose to ignore the doubt and live my life functionally as an agnostic. (my agnostic life was pretty short lived, so don’t get too worried)

Over the past few weeks though I have begun to search within my self and ask the question “Is God real?” and seek that answer. I thought back to Mr. Oxley’s logical explanation of the existence of God.
-If morality is valuable that Reason is important
-If reason is important than we know we  need an Absolute Universal Objective(AUO) basis for our moral decisions
– The most Absolute Universal Objective thing in the universe would be some type of God.
-the problem with the unrevealed God is that he is Invisible, Unseeable, Without Image, and Incomprehensible.
-The good news of Jesus is he is visible, seeable, with image, and comprehensible. (this is where the humanity and divinity of Jesus meet. It is of paramount importance to put those two together)

Now, let’s start with God. As stated above God is Absolute, Universal, and Objective. Other characteristics of God we can safely add to this list is All Powerful (omnipotent), All knowing(omniscient), and Everywhere (omnipresent). If god is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere then we can say God is near or around us at all times (part of the definition of being omnipresent). If God is near us at all times then when we pray no matter where we are God will hear us. The problem I had when dealing with my doubt was I wanted a place where God’s presence dwelt and I knew I could go there and God would hear me (An evangelical would tell me God dwells in the hearts of his people[christians] and that where ever I am God is and I can pray anywhere anytime).

I am now at peace with God being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. So I am becoming comfortable with talking to God again. Although I like what Tony Campolo said about Mother Teresa when she was in an interview the man asked “when you pray what do you say?” She said, “Nothing I listen.” The interviewer said, “Okay, when you pray what does God say?” She said, “nothing, he listens.”

Now all this Jesus business. Because of the argument I gave earlier in this post I have reconciled the fact that Jesus is God. Since Jesus is God then it seams as though we ought to listen to what he says and obey him. Right?

 

To sum up this post I felt the staing of a creed would be best. The Apostle’s Creed is one of the oldest creeds and best sums up orthodox Christian doctrine.
The posting of the Apostle’s Creed is not merely a posting of relevant material, but my personal affirmation of this creed and the doctrines it affirms.

 

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen.