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#Post#: 1020--------------------------------------------------
Predictablility
By: Kerry Date: April 10, 2015, 11:54 pm
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Ever notice that we are bored if life becomes too predictable
but frustrated if too it's too unpredictable? When that line
gets drawn varies from person to person too. Some people enjoy
lots of chaos while others enjoy more order with its
predictability.
Ever notice how we feel disappointed or betrayed when something
fails us after we were so sure we could rely on it?
I was thinking about predictability after seeing how my cats
behave at times. If I get out the food, they go towards their
bowls. They have a belief about what I'm going to do next.
As a rule, I try not to disappoint them. If they can predict
what I'm going to do, that tells me they understand something
about me. If I confuse them, how can they understand me?
This has something to do with trust, too, I think.
#Post#: 1030--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: Piper Date: April 11, 2015, 2:36 pm
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[font=trebuchet ms]I notice my animals much prefer
predictability. I try to always do things in the same way, and
in the same order. If I alter routine, they almost fall apart
at times and it can cause big problems. It seems the more timid
and less tame an animal is, the more important doing things in a
predictable pattern becomes. I must be a bit timid in nature
myself, perhaps, because I, too, prefer patterns to my day, and
predictability. Yet, like my dogs and other animals, I still
enjoy stepping out of routine now and then, as long as it
doesn't upset my routine too tremendously. Day after weary day
of the exact same thing does create boredom. Sometimes just a
short adventure away from routine can
bring refreshment, helping one to carry on with all the daily
grind.
Consistency is essential to training an animal and gaining their
trust. Once you gain their trust, and only then, can you branch
out slowly into the less predictable, expecting them to see you
as leader and friend.[/font]
#Post#: 1067--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: Kerry Date: April 13, 2015, 7:16 am
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This whole thing about predictability and boredom convinces me
that God would be bored if He knew every little thing that was
going to happen. I know most people believe God knows
"everything" -- but for me, the future doesn't exist until it
is now. Yes, God knows some things about the future; but He
makes things happen. Some things are also predictable.
What I do believe is that God knows the beginning and the end.
Things can't get so wild that they wind up wrong. I think God
knows how everything will end and designed the universe to make
sure all ends well.
I also can't accept the idea of God as a Being who can do
anything. His Nature is Love. That means He won't do certain
things. For example, God cannot lie. If God behaved
whimsically or irrationally, we could never understand Him.
Since I believe God wants us to understand, love and trust Him,
He would not behave in a way that worked against that.
The idea of God getting frustrated with His Creation and
smashing it is not an idea I can fit into my mind. Why would
God get frustrated with His own Creation? People do things
like that, but people can be irrational; and people like that
don't inspire trust or love, and who can understand them?
#Post#: 1068--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: James Date: April 13, 2015, 8:28 am
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God may not "smash up his creation" but where does one put the
flood or for that matter the judgement to come?
As you say God does know the end and as such sees that there is
a need for judgement, I see judgement as an action of his love.
I ask myself the question if God serves judgement in this life
for man's actions will he, could he, be righteous in serving
judgement on those self same people a second time. I am not
sure I have found the conclusion to my question!
#Post#: 1072--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: Helen Date: April 13, 2015, 12:39 pm
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[quote]I also can't accept the idea of God as a Being who can do
anything. His Nature is Love. That means He won't do certain
things. For example, God cannot lie. If God behaved
whimsically or irrationally, we could never understand Him.
Since I believe God wants us to understand, love and trust Him,
He would not behave in a way that worked against that.
[/quote]
Agree. Yet I also see where He tries to shake us off at
times...to see if we will indeed 'be' shaken off, or if in fact
we cling even the harder! As in The Song Of Songs..He hides
Himself so that we ran after Him who our soul loves. The proof
of the pudding at the very End will be..who allowed themselves
to be shaken off and who clung to Him even tighter.
If we take Hebrews 11...these all died in faith, not having
received the promises but seeing them afar off.
Thinking of my present situation with my body, I said to Dave
this morning about the long list of friends we have, who with
their dying breath believed in a God who says "I am the lord thy
Healer"...and they died sick.
" not having received the promise, but seeing it afar off."
Will we be shaken off or believe even more! "He that believes
unto the end, the same shall be saved."
[quote]If God serves judgement in this life for man's actions
will He, could He, be righteous in serving judgement on those
self same people a second time? I am not sure I have found the
conclusion to my question![/quote]
I think there is only one conclusion. A man can't be tried twice
for the same thing. If that were so, even though Jesus died for
us and took it all for us, God could then try us again!! Yet we
know it was once, and for all.
Yet sometimes it isn't God who judges in this life...there is
also the law of sowing and reaping.
Jeremiah 2 19
"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings
shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil
thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and
that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts."
Now what all that has to do with predictability I have no idea!!
LOL
#Post#: 1075--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: Piper Date: April 13, 2015, 1:47 pm
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[quote author=Kerry link=topic=122.msg1067#msg1067
date=1428927367]
This whole thing about predictability and boredom convinces me
that God would be bored if He knew every little thing that was
going to happen.
[/quote]
[font=trebuchet ms]God allows our free will, but do we ever
surprise Him as He surprises us?
If God is not a man that He should lie, then perhaps God is not
a man that He should ever grow bored.
Boredom stems from our lack of ability to grasp the power within
us to effect change. God has no such lack of ability, IS power,
and possesses all the motivation we often fail to harness.
Agape love motivates God to do, allow, and orchestrate things we
can not comprehend--strange, heartrending, joyful, painful,
wonderful, terrible things.
The fallen children of Eve must need infinite tending, just like
our little plants in our gardens. If one truly loves his
garden, boredom can not be had or all will fail.
Our Father is always working, as is Jesus, as is the Spirit
within us. There is no time or space for boredom within time or
space when You are the One who holds it all together.
So I think. ;) It is good God does not grow tired, nor does He
sleep. [/font]
#Post#: 1080--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: Piper Date: April 13, 2015, 2:01 pm
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[font=trebuchet ms]Yes, Helen. God will not be shaken, but
certainly we are, as God tests the roots of every tree, that
they go deeper still. We must be faithful, for love is proved
in faithfulness, as Jesus was faithful.
Cling, dear sister, as I, too, try to cling, despite being so
thoroughly shaken, my world has been turned upside down.
[/font]
#Post#: 1081--------------------------------------------------
Re: Predictablility
By: Kerry Date: April 13, 2015, 2:09 pm
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[quote author=James link=topic=122.msg1068#msg1068
date=1428931724]
God may not "smash up his creation" but where does one put the
flood or for that matter the judgement to come?
As you say God does know the end and as such sees that there is
a need for judgement, I see judgement as an action of his love.
I ask myself the question if God serves judgement in this life
for man's actions will he, could he, be righteous in serving
judgement on those self same people a second time. I am not
sure I have found the conclusion to my question!
[/quote]I can give you my take on it.
Some care needs to be taken when reading certain passages in the
Bible. When it says the LORD did something, it can mean almost
anything. It can mean any expression of the Divine; it can
even mean those parts of God which have broken off to become
satanic or demonic. Thus we read these two passages which
mean the same thing if we understand them correctly:
2 Samuel 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled
against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go,
number Israel and Judah.
1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and
provoked David to number Israel.
Should we believe -- can we really believe -- that God Himself
could try to kill someone and fail? Such a thing is impossible.
Yet we read:
Exodus 4:24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the
Lord met him, and sought to kill him.
This was not God. It was a demon who sought to oppose God's
plan to bring Israel out of Egypt as Abraham had been promised.
If Moses was in a state of sin, he could be attacked; and if
Moses could be killed, God's plan would be compromised.
Nor can we believe God needs spectacles when we read:
Genesis 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the
tower, which the children of men builded.
Who did come down? It was more than one Being who rules in
Heaven; the seventy Guardian Angels of the seventy nations also
came down. God reached the decision by consultation with them.
Concerning the Flood, that was the result of black magic. The
Spirit of God had withdrawn from men, except for a few.
Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive
with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an
hundred and twenty years.
The Divine Breath of Life given to Adam and his descendants was
withdrawn. What was on the earth then was demonic -- broken off
from God like a branch can be broken from the Tree of Life. The
angry forces which prevailed on the earth then were a curse not
only on the earth but on the first and second heavens (of lower
and upper waters). When those forces resulted in the Flood --
with waters coming up and also down -- the power of the black
magicians was partially broken; and it was then decreed by
Heaven (God with the seventy angels of the nations) that the
Spirit of God (the neshamah) could be given to man again, but
that a wall of separation be placed between the physical plane
and the other planes so black magic could not create such a
disaster again.
This wall of separation could also be called a firmament. Prior
to Flood, man could see beings on the astral plane. They could
see the dead, etc. This is known from Chinese and Egyptian
sources. Indeed the whole idea of ancestor worship, so prevalent
in the world, was a result of how dead people could appear to
the living before the Flood.
This new firmament meant too that man's access to the Divine
Light was restricted. Most men no longer had access to the
Seven Lights directly. Rather the source of Light after the
Flood was via a window being made in the firmament with a
"rainbow" appearing in the "clouds" of "water."
The Spirit of God went forth, first as the black raven, then as
the white dove. Both serve their own purposes. Noah then
replanted the Tree of Life, and became drunk on the new wine and
Pentecost came. Yes, he was naked, as naked as Adam and Eve.
I believe God permitted man to become increasingly wicked until
that wickedness created such a major problem that all life was
threatened, then He resolved the situation and got the seventy
angels of the nations to agree to have the new firmament put
into place. The angels which govern the animals also entered
into the new agreement made with man.
The seed of Cain was preserved in the Flood. God's plan
involved extending Mercy to Cain and his seed. Thus they had to
be preserved, even if they would cause problems in the future.
Without God's plan, mand would have destroyed not only
themselves but the whole world. But just as Cain acted
foolishly and was then repentant, God trusted that mankind,
including the seed of Cain, would realize they have behaved
foolishly and could repent. It took the Flood to bring them to
their senses.
God intervenes when man has been allowed to be so evil he
threatens all life. When men believe their evil has a chance of
getting them what they want, they're not apt to change.
Consider Yemen. We have people there killing each other based
largely on religion and perhaps to a lesser extent on tribalism.
Neither side is going to give in and give up if it thinks it
can win. The bodies can pile up in the streets and they will
still go on. Outsiders can try to get them medical care and
food; and perhaps that keeps both sides going in the conflict.
It probably won't end until people are so horrified of the
results, they see it's time to do something else. Sad to say,
mankind as a rule does not learn unless things get bad enough.
Man is free to choose evil; and once he sees it doesn't work, he
can then choose good. The world now may look very wicked; I'd
say it is; but I think it's a phase. It will probably get worse
as the result of mankind's evil; and then when things get bad
enough, the majority of mankind will be ready to try God's way.
That is what I believe.
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