Coliseum

POT is a plant, and like every plant, they contain Carbon. Inhaling Carbon is deadly for the lungs. More than that, it changes the neural structure of the brain. There are many models of how our brains interact with stimuli. If I take a radio that works perfectly according to its design, and then randomly disconnect or move even one "wire," the probability of the radio working as well as it did is far less than if it were left alone. My genius friend once answered a question I had after experimenting in my youth: "But look at all of the new things I have never experienced before." He replied, "Maybe we were never meant to experience them." There are other models I could identify, but I think the above serves the purpose.

Perhaps it is given to another to share their testimony, and God may use it. In the end, no man can convince anyone of the truth. It is the old analogy of planting the seed, watering it and fertilizing it, and giving it sunlight---but only God can make it grow. We are charged in fact with doing those very things, but it is there our role stops. Beyond that it is a supernatural act by the Spirit of God to regenerate a man. To those nudged to pray, they should obey their consciences. Hope you are doing well brother.

No man would have convinced this one-time atheist to accept Christ. When the famous Mathematician/atheist John Lennox from Oxford received Christ, he said that it was because of the logic---the logic---of the Gospel that compelled him to believe.

"Satan Can’t Be Everywhere At Once Satan is not a god and is not omnipresent. “He can only roam around (Job 1:7)...The Lord fills the heavens and the earth (Jeremiah 23:24). I can never flee from God’s presence—day or night.” Satan Can’t Do Anything Without God’s Permission"

And so---when we disagree on some point or other, God will make it plain to us. Therefore, let us rejoice as one body who, when the circumstances of life test us, depend upon each other to encourage, uplift, and guide us into all truth by His Spirit. "Each day has enough trouble of its own." Thx for the compliment. It goes to Richard Wurmbrand who also wrote "Tortured For Christ." If you have not read it, it changed my perspective on life. You can download it free as a PDF. https://ifarus.com/tortured-for-christ-richard-wurmbrand :)

"Do not fear. Fear is the greatest enemy of candor. Out of fear, many of us conform to the opinions of others, instead of following our conscience. In the West, too, society demands that we be something other than what God calls us to. Our models are Christians who have conquered fear. Many Christians, facing for instance communist persecution, sense that martyrdom is the highest triumph. They do not fear. When the Christian lady Nien Cheng was taken to jail in Red China, handcuffed behind her back, she walked toward the waiting jeep, reciting the 23rd Psalm, 4th verse, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”For her Christian witnessing, she was sentenced to 6 years of communist prison. When freed, she commented more on the words of the psalm. It reads, "You prepare a table before me." Sister Nien Cheng described how she ate: She had to drink water with her hands tied behind her back. She wrote, "I bent over a mug of water on the edge of the table and removed the lid by gripping the knob on top of it with my teeth. Then I caught the edge of the mug with my teeth, gradually lowered my body to a squatting position, and tipped the water into my mouth." Standing with her back to the table, she upset the dish of rice, then bent over it and ate like an animal. The movements made the handcuffs cut into her flesh, but she remained unafraid. It is God's commandment not to fear. We cancel the value of our sacrifices by fearing and complaining. When life leads us through the valley of the shadow of death, though less dark than that of Nien Cheng, let us fearlessly sing some psalm, even if suffering is at its peak." ......Pastor Richard Wurmbrand When I read stories such as these, bickering and infighting seem almost nonsensical. Rather, be glad that we have a Savior that was also tortured---not because of differences between one another---but out of love for even the worst of men.

In the parable of the judge and the old widow, Jesus gives us a template to not give up. If I have an adversary (problem), I am encouraged to beseech Jesus for an answer. "And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly." Yet with Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (NIV) 7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. So, should I believe that with each person, God's answer, or not, is conditional? What basis in Scripture should the parable not apply to all men that are "his chosen ones"? Thx guys and gals.

From what i have read and heard, 30%-50% will be asymptomatic. 80% will have mild symptoms, and the remaining will have worse symptoms, and of those, 80% will be older than 65. Many will develop immunity, but no one knows yet how long it will last. It has already been reported that some have been reinfected. Should you get a flu vaccine? 74% of those interviewed in a small questionaire said they would not get one, and "Dr. Saphier acknowledges the flu vaccine will not protect people against coronavirus, but argues that by avoiding getting influenza, “you are keeping hospital beds open for those that may need it because of COVID-19.” In fact, "The peer-reviewed study, published in ScienceDirect concludes that getting a flu shot may actually increase one’s likelihood of coming down with a coronavirus infection." "The problem, it turns out, has to do with an event called “virus interference,” which can render a person receiving a vaccine either more or less vulnerable to other diseases, depending on the specific pathogen. As the Pentagon study stipulates at the outset: “Receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses.” "the odds of both coronavirus and human metapneumovirus in vaccinated individuals were significantly higher when compared to unvaccinated individuals (OR = 1.36 and 1.51, respectively).” Note: “OR” stands for "Odds Ratios." I have not, nor will not receive flu vaccinations for those, and even possibly worse reasons.

Watching many of the faces of fear and anxiety of a family staying together, with so many young people, some with faces of uncertainty by how quickly their lives could be shattered. Then in walked a Grandmother who was most likely compromised, ill, and frail, yet with the sweetest and most natural smile I have ever seen, radiating such warmth among these younger adults, that you could see their fears melt when she sat in their midst. They saw in her eyes such peace---even in her condition---that they were drawn to her as one might cling to their protective father in a tornado. She was so beautiful to them, that some had tears in their eyes. They longed for what she had. Their racing minds stilled. Everything in the present just stopped, and for that moment, they could see for the first time what Jesus meant when he said, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear." In that brief instant, I understood that message. We have that peace and joy in Christ, and I can guarantee you that others around us take notice. They might not remember your words, but they will remember your smile. Put on that smile when the boat of uncertainty is being rocked by the giant waves of life. Make them ask, "Who is this, that the wind and the sea obey him"?

1 John 5:13 "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." Jesus is speaking to John by His Spirit: Revelation 1:11 "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea." "The epistles, or letters, of Paul include letters to several congregations (the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians), a few personal letters (to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon) and a letter to his Hebrew brothers and sisters throughout the realm." Just of few. Everything in the Bible is ultimately from Jesus. He is the Author, but men, as they were led by the Spirit, wrote them down.

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you." Philippians 3:12-15

The same human interaction was governed yesterday as it is today---by the Holy Spirit. There will always be small kinks in the interpretation of the many translations of the Bible, but God has and always will preserve the integrity of His Word. Every word is under the authority of Christ, and it is his Spirit that belongs to the writers inspired by Him. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture means all. Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35). Jesus is their Author in every word of the Bible. As is always the case, without His Spirit guiding and directing one's thoughts, his words cannot resonate in the way they were intended to resonate as a believer.

Isn’t it a strange thing about evil? You’d think, with all of the agony that people who live criminal lives go through, you’d think that they’d change. Surely there never lived a man who went through as many horrors as did the infamous John Dillinger. He even had the tips of his fingers cut off in order to destroy the identifying marks of his fingerprints. He lived a life of horror, and yet he became more criminal every day that he lived. He did not change. Why? Why doesn’t the criminal change? Why doesn’t the devil change? Or maybe I should say, why don’t we change? Somehow it just doesn’t work that way. A person does not have the power to change himself, and God will not force him to change. However, God will change the heart of anyone and everyone who comes to Him in confession of sin and with a plea for forgiveness. ....Pastor Criswell "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel"? Eze 18:31

When Jesus, who was sinless, was hanging on the Cross, he took all of man's sins upon himself---past, present, and future. But God cannot look upon sin, and He turned away from Jesus. Jesus cried out---the Son that was never separated from the Father---"Father, why have you forsaken me." That was the most agonizing moment in his life---separation from the Father. Do you know what His answer was? Nothing. He remained silent. For the first time, Jesus had to exhibit the same faith he commands us to have. When we sin, our relationship with God remains, but our fellowship with Him is broken. When a man has the Spirit of God indwell him, it means that Christ is living in that man's heart. Christ is sinless, because he took all of our sins and buried them with him when he died on the cross, and was resurrected without sin. So when God, who cannot look upon sin, looks at us, who is full of sin, He sees only His Son. Yes. That's right. God is seeing us just as He sees Christ: perfect. Positionally, the saved man is as if he were already in heaven, but objectively, he is still here on earth, full of sin in the flesh. So Jesus says, we see ourselves in a mirror dimly, but soon we will see clearly. That is why, when you have Christ inside you, God sees you without "spot, wrinkle, or blemish." Not poetry---reality!

What god are you praying to? What is his name? That is all I will leave you with. Best to you friend.

First, and foremost is that all of what you believe, or none of what you believe regarding the God of the Bible, can have relevance to God if you are not in Him through Christ by His Spirit. You are an unbeliever; that is a fact. An unbeliever will believe what he chooses. He might even be convinced---but his beliefs are only outwardly compliant. These conversations are spiritual exercises, but they do not include a personal relationship with God. It does not matter whether you know about Him. It does not matter whether you know Him. The old Devil knows Him better than any of us, yet he is God's greatest enemy. No. We must be like Him, doing the things He does. A man unsaved cannot in his own strength fulfill what God desires of him without His Spirit living inside him. Your conversations are very stimulating intellectually; you are very smart. But without the Holy Spirit residing inside you, that is all they can be. I know and understand how offensive that sounds. The truth from God's Word is offensive. It requires a man to hear what is too hard to hear---and the whole world cannot not hear it. But those who belong to Christ hear his Word, and obey it---not because they must or else, but because they desire to---because they know the One who is referred to as "Abba Father," or plainly, "Daddy." It was a common term that expressed affection and confidence and trust. You kind of remind me of my friend---an atheist (although you state otherwise concerning yourself). He told me that more than anything else he wished God were real. He told me that if he could rub the magic lantern and the genie popped out, he would not want three wishes, but only one---that God were real. Then he said, "But Coliseum, it is only just a wish." He too would have with me conversations on end, never ceasing, but never coming to the personal knowledge of God Himself. Until a man knows the reason he needs a Savior as a lost sinner who can do nothing to save himself, he will remain in his sins, lost. I hope---and pray---that does not happen with you. I cannot bend, twist, or dilute God's Word, and in Revelation we are cautioned not to, Jesus said, Revelation 22:18-19 (NIV) 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. I can argue and even despise these words, but they are God's Words, not mine. People have poured their heart out to God---which you should do. God is much bigger than one's anger or unwillingness or will. He will hear your genuine complaint just as much as He will hear your praise. All of your arguments are not new; "There is nothing new under the sun." They have been wrestled with and fought over---and even won---just as Jacob wrestled with the Lord until daybreak---and won! So, my hope is that you don't give up.

What is so beautiful about the Bible is how our human condition has no make-up on it put there by God. None of the human rough edges are smoothed. Many times in movies we see the star in all their glamour without a wrinkle, blemish, or mole. They are "perfect." That does not happen in reality, and so, God portrays reality as it is. Some believe that God is Judge, and they approach Him that way; and they are quite right. He is Judge. But some believe Him as Savior, and they approach Him that way; and they are quite right. He is Savior. If Jesus suddenly popped up out of a mountain, the many who might see Him would say, "OMG. He's real! Give me the papers. where do I sign"? But they see God as Judge, and it is already too late because they would be coming to Him out of fear. Some who already know Him are waiting for that very day He appears. Their very hope is in His appearing because they know they are already accepted and loved by Him. Again---and it will always be---what do you believe? Do you come to Him in fear as your Judge; or do you come to Him accepted, as your Savior? The first time as an atheist I read the first 1/2 page of Genesis. After a half hour, I slammed the Book down on my floor, frustrated, bewildered, and disgusted I wasted so much time. But after God came into my heart, I turned to the Book of Romans, unwittingly, and began to read some of the passages. I at first could not believe that I was actually understanding it. I closed the Book momentarily to think about it, wondering if it was only an accident. When I opened it a second time to read, I still could not believe that it was making sense to me, and I closed it again to compose myself. But when, after the third time I was grasping the words, I began to weep. For three hours! I knew then that God's Word was just as it proclaimed: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." There was no more guessing. I knew! It took me 38 years before that moment happened. When a man understands, by the Holy Spirit, what God is revealing, it is no longer just a book, but a love letter written personally to the human heart. You don't hide a love letter. You read it over and over and over again. You simply have fallen in love, and you know there is nothing you desire more than to live with your Lover. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is no longer just a bunch of words that are to be analyzed and intellectualized, but lived out and experienced.

The difference in the kind of grace you believe OSAS is and what it actually is, are two different concepts, IMO. OSAS means that before salvation I did not have to do anything. God came to me in my greatest need as a sinner and asked me to simply believe who He said He is, resting and trusting in the finished work of Christ. After I was saved, I began to experience salvation. My Father does not abandon me anymore than my earthly father abandons me when I am disobedient. He does not say, "you are no longer my son; you were never born to me. I don't know you." He tells me I am His, that He loves me with a covenantal love, an everlasting love, a love He started and promises He will finish. I may hear God say to me, "Son, adultery is not something you want to pursue," and I look back and remember all of the ways God has loved me and brought me up in the image of His Son, I will no longer want to act contrary to His commands. Instead of being obedient because I have to, I am free to be obedient because I desire to be. But because I am human, and am flawed, blemished, and imperfect, I stumble, and sin. It does not mean that my "sins are acceptable before Him." Where are you getting this misperceived information? Will the God who loves me not correct me? Does He not say in Revelation that, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent"? The idea of repenting means to turn back to Him. If I do not, I am disciplined---not abandoned. Hebrews tells us, "Do not make light of the Lord's discipline nor lose hope when He rebukes you." He is speaking to His own children. He is not abandoning them. No one here is angerly defending themselves who are OSAS, but what I am hearing is judgement from you if I don't "measure up." Romans 7:5 puts into proper perspective those who always are looking at their sins instead of looking to Christ. The more we try to contend with what is wrong with us, the more we want to sin. It actually heightens, not diminishes our desire. Please read it. Your name-calling ("This kindergarten perspective")---even if you were right, will never get someone to change his way---and that is precisely why God knows that the "Do this or else" philosophy doesn't work. It has nothing to do with grace, but it has everything to do with compulsion and outward compliance, begrudging what we do instead of desiring to. Obedience is practiced out of love, not force. "If you love me, you will obey me." It is a statement of fact, not a command. Someone who hates God will not obey Him.

That is the essence of the problem. Many are indeed Christian---Bible-believing Christians that are truly born again as Jesus describes in his Word. Others who claim they are Christian share based upon what they choose to believe is Christian. There are many cultural Christians, but far fewer spiritual Christians. God says, "Many are called but few are chosen." Until you are born again, The Word of God says the following: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV) This is the unbeliever's plight. He reads the Scriptures but cannot rightly divide them because he does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him. Without the Holy Spirit inside the heart of the believer, he cannot much of the time see the Scriptures as they were intended to be seen. The Word of God is meant to be offensive. The world is opposed to God. That is why it crucified Christ. Take a listen to what Jesus himself was saying: 10 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" 11 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Matthew 13:10-17 (NIV) If when you pray to Jesus to see and hear him, you must believe by faith that that is what is taking place. "I say to you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it and it will be yours."

How do you know God has not heard your prayer? And how do you know whether He is not answering it? If you go purely by your feelings or believe that you must let your emotions run away with you, then you are not accepting what you have done by faith---but by feeling. We all have faith. When you go to a restaurant and eat a hamburger, you do not, by any of your five senses, know what the chef in the back room is doing. Why do you believe he is not poisoning you? You cannot see him, hear him, touch him, smell him, or taste him---yet you believe the hamburger he is making is ok to eat. How do you know? You don't! You must trust that your hamburger is edible. Well, you might say, "All the other people have eaten theirs and live." So have all the millions and millions of believers throughout the centuries tasted Christ, and they all testify that He is good and has done what He claimed. How then do you know that your asking in sincerity was not all you needed to be saved? You trust that your asking was by faith---the same way your eating the hamburger was trusting the chef by faith. I did not know or understand that i was being saved in the instant of my conversion. But I began to see changes in my attitude as my eyes were being opened. It took time. When the doctor gives you medicine, it does not work instantly, but over time you begin to experience its effects. Trust the Great Physician as He administers the spiritual medicine you were seeking. Let God work in your heart.

Thank you for your long and well thought-out response. I will not judge you or tell you what you should know or what you shouldn't. That is not my job. It is God's. What I find fascinating in all of your exchanges here is that while you plead your case about what you believe is right or wrong to a man's way of thinking regarding the God of the Bible, you are visiting the Scriptures, and wrestling with them. This is what God wants. In a previous message I shared with you, I recall recounting that God comes to us in our greatest need. We can accept His coming, or reject it. I will not tell a man he must believe. It is his right not to. But I will defend you for at least knowing why you believe what you believe. A Russian soldier thrown into prison for his misdeeds was unwittingly thrown into the same cell with a pastor. The pastor of course asked him if he was a believer. The soldier's answer startled me, and even more so the pastor: "I will believe if I have orders to believe." Tears began to well up in the pastor's eyes. Here was a man who had lost sight of what it was like to think for himself. He was so brain-washed, he left his thinking up to others. This was sad on so many levels. So I applaud your right to choose based upon what you think and believe after your own investigation. So, getting back to the place I left---that God comes to us in our need. When David Livingston was in Africa as a missionary, he came across a tribe of cannibals and wished to appeal to them about God and His love. But the tribe had no word for love in their vocabulary. So Livingston asked what to them was greatest---more than anything else. The chief replied "Umboi"---the smoked meat of a man's arm. When Livingston told them that Jesus told his followers that they must "eat his flesh and drink his blood," that resonated with them big time. But as Livingston shared the deeper meaning of what Jesus was referring to, the chief gradually came to understand this God of the Bible---and eventually his entire tribe came to Christ. This is the kind of love God offers to anyone willing to accept it. It was a delicate moment for the chief in his life to hear the message, and God sent Livingston to proclaim it. There are instances in the Bible where men were sent at just the right moment into men's' lives to preach "the missing part." No one likes to hear about the absolute authority of God. It comes from the very, natural, rebellious nature of who we are. No one likes to be told that "this is the way, and that there is no other." No one! Yet we are told it everyday. We are governed by limitations. God told the waves of the sea that they must halt at the shoreline and go no further. He told the stars they can "dance" in the heavens but they had a place where they could not leave. We are restricted on earth not to go 40 MPH in a 25 MPH area. We are told we must maintain six feet between us. We cannot go onto other people's property and take what does not belong to us. We are expected to follow the law---or else. Do you lie? Do you steal? Do you say things behind other people's backs that divide them? Have you thought ill of others? Have you argued, called people names, became angry, hostile or bitter? Why? Because we want what "belongs" to us. We hoist ourselves up upon our own, self-built pedestals to look over others, to look down on them, to be better than they are, to be right---and in some cases even dead right. We have learned to make everything about "me." Self is what is important, though we would be hard-pressed to admit it. This is the human condition. This is us---and God says He will have none of it. Well, now I'm mad, and I protest---because I want what I want. If we knew what it truly cost Jesus to die for us, we would think differently perhaps. Imagine you going out of town, on vacation...and so you ask your friend to pick up your mail while you were gone. The next day he sees a bill---a gas bill for $5.00 that he pays for you. When you got back, you may say to him, "Why, thanks Joe." But what if the letter contained an IRS bill for $1,000,000---exceedingly more than you could ever pay, knowing it would land you in prison? What if your friend "Joe" paid it and did not want a cent of it back? Would you not fall down at his feet and shed tears of joy over his unexpected kindness? Would you not want to be there for him? Jesus paid a price no man could ever pay back, and he was willing to do it because he loved us---there was no other reason. He paid a price that took from us what we deserved so that we might have what he deserved. Would I not be willing to fall down at his feet and worship a God who did not think of Himself even once---but it was "because of the joy set before him to do this for us."

FeministWhoLovesABeliever, I hope you are having a beautiful day today. The sun is shining here. I am not joining your other conversation, but just encouraging you to seek Him. We have a tendency to forget where we came from. In our natural state, we are very rebellious towards the God of the Bible. Jesus said he was hated without a cause. People today are 'shouting just as loudly' as they did 2000 years ago: "Crucify Him." And while he hung on the cross so disfigured by our brutality that he became unrecognizable, he called out to the Father, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." When we consider the greatest of all earthly kings, King David, who committed adultery and then murder to cover it up, God said of him, "You are the apple of my eye," and "a man after my own heart." Moses killed a man for beating a Hebrew, yet God called him friend, as one who talks to another face-to-face. Jacob was a liar, a thief, and a cheat, yet God renamed him Israel, after the nation. Were their consequences severe here on earth? Yes. They paid to the very last cent, yet God saved them. I think you are starting to see that God does not judge us by our behavior. He already knows what is in a man's heart, and knew us from before the foundations of the earth. There are some men on Death Row going to heaven. Why then, were these men, and countless others saved when God calls us on our very best day, "filthy rags"? Because we believe that He is everything He claims to be. The only reason a man remains unsaved God says is because of unbelief. Hebrews talks about those who harden their heart against Him. He says, Today is the day" [for salvation]. We cannot wait a moment too late, for in the next moment God may call us home, and it is why He says, "Anyone who is among the living has hope --even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!" It is by believing---even though we may not understand or grasp what we have believed. A man who comes to Christ is as a baby in his mother's arms. He does not yet understand until he experiences life. It is the same with our spiritual journey. When I was first saved, I did not have a shadow of a clue what it meant---but by faith---apart from my feelings, I chose to believe that Jesus was everything he claimed to be. Little by little, as his Spirit divided for me the truth and what was really right from wrong, I began to grow. Every believer is at a different place in his walk with Jesus, but it is not how small or how large our faith, but the Object of out faith, Jesus Christ, who saves us. Wishing you the very best.

It was an interesting article, and ought to be read. It shares someone who needed to hear the truth---her truth. That word is a very interesting word because it represents harshness. It does not care how a person feels, how he thinks, what his opinion is. The truth does not care whether a person is alive or dead. It exists regardless. But the truth lacks something that Jesus had, and is why he has had a whole "cloud of witnesses" following him. Jesus said, "Speak the truth, in love." It is not enough to merely hold the truth; people will not listen to it. It is a hard saying to hear. But it is bearable when you know that someone who speaks it loves you. Sometimes we want to deny the truth. A child whose hand is slapped away from the fire hurts, and he screams in pain; but later, he realizes "his Father" who disciplines him, may hurt him, but will never harm him. The child grows up to learn that it was out of love, not meanness that his hand was slapped. This is in a small way how Jesus is with us. The pain of growth in understanding how to live because of Christ is a small thing to pay when we discover what our heart inside is really like before it is changed. We cannot know that until the very secrets at the core of our being are brought to light and exposed. We do no want to hear it. It is too hard a saying. The longest story in the Bible is the story about the woman at the well. Here is a woman who lived a hard life, living with a man she was not married to, was deeply wounded, and was told the truth. At first she resisted hearing it, but Jesus loved her, and at last she came to realize just how much. John 4:1-30. I hope you read it. You wanted to view the Jesus story. There are many on Youtube.

Jesus never came for religion; he came for relationships. What God through Christ desires is to have a personal relationship, through His Spirit, with you. You are right to say that the "connection" you speak of has zero to do with the attributes you listed. I wonder...have you ever asked God if He was real? If God is who He claims to be, surely He is big enough to reveal Himself to whomever He pleases. I asked once as an atheist in the scientific community. Not only did He answer me, but saved me from physical death as well. Was it coincidence? God said that, "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him." I did not believe, but my asking He honored as the "faith of a mustard seed"---all that was required. I had no Bible to see His words. I was critical, sarcastic, unloving, without empathy or concern for anyone but myself. But to those who "open the door of their hearts, He promises to come in." God promises to give those who invite Him, a brand new heart. I am here to testify---along with the millions of others---that that is precisely what He did.

I think an accurate and much shorter version is the commentary offered by Vernon McGee: "Nowhere in the Book of Acts or in the Epistles do we find any instance of an apostle remitting the sins of anyone. They do go everywhere, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins. Let me ask the question: What is it that forgives sins? Even God cannot just arbitrarily forgive sins. Forgiveness of sins is only and alone through the blood of Jesus Christ. Back in the Old Testament, the forgiveness of sins was based on the fact that Christ would come and die. God saved "on credit" in the Old Testament until Christ would come and pay the penalty. Today God forgives our sins when we believe that Christ died for them." J. Vernon McGee's Thru the Bible I hope that is helpful.