Where Is God?

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Salixes
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Where is God?

I look under my bed

Nope, not here

I looked in the mirror and my face wasn't red

So, he wasn't up there.

I finally found Him, now that's odd

He's in my head.
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@Salixes
The Ultimate Reality by definition can not be contingent on your thoughts.


God is everywhere present and fills all things. There is no existence that does not derive its being from God.
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@Salixes
There are 2 ways I can answer this.

Where is God?
I look under my bed
Nope, not here
I looked in the mirror and my face wasn't red
So, he wasn't up there.
I finally found Him, now that's odd
He's in my head.
Sorry to tell you God isn't in your head either.

But if God is so evil and bad, why are you so desperately looking for Him?
------------------------------------------------------
The second way...

Where is God?
I look under my bed
Nope, not here
I looked in the mirror and my face wasn't red
So, he wasn't up there.
I finally found Him, now that's odd
He's in my head.
It's no surprise to us that the evil god you rant against is only in your head. Tell us something we don't know.

That means the evil and doom and gloom you see is also only in your head. It's called delusion, and that's one of the reasons why it's a fringe belief.

You're welcome.
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@Salixes
All you have to do is sincerely invite Him in.

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@ronjs
All you have to do is sincerely invite Him in.
And then what?


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@drafterman
He will let you know what's next.
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@ronjs
Oh? How long does that usually take? I'm going on 3 decades almost. I hope he decides to do it before I die, since my immortal soul and eternal torment are on the line here.
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@drafterman
His timing, not mine
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@drafterman
"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

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@drafterman
God is revealed in the walk.


"without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."


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@ronjs
Let me rephrase:

Among the billion or so Christians, who presumably have let god into their hearts and received a response, how long, on average, did that take?

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@Mopac
That is not what ronjs said, no.
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@drafterman
Scripture has more authority than ronjs.


Not to negate what he is saying.


But this is an absurd question...

"Among the billion or so Christians, who presumably have let god into their hearts and received a response, how long, on average, did that take?"

I say that not to be disrespectful, but because it is an impossible question to answer. Ronjs gave the right answer when he said "His timing"


But I am giving you a better answer. Not better because it is more true, but better because it gives you direction. 


No one here is able to know whether you sincerely seek God. That is something only you can know. What I will tell you is that the faith is revealed in practice.


"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"

Orthodox Christian praxis purifies the heart. So as Jesus Himself said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."



Without orthopraxis, one cannot truly be orthodox.


drafterman
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@Mopac
Scripture has more authority than ronjs.
But it's his statements I am responding to and asking about.

Not to negate what he is saying.


But this is an absurd question...

"Among the billion or so Christians, who presumably have let god into their hearts and received a response, how long, on average, did that take?"

I say that not to be disrespectful, but because it is an impossible question to answer.
If that's his response, then that's his response. It'd seem rather odd, that given the immense importance on achieving salvation, and the billions of people and thousands of years this has been going on that people wouldn't have bothered to collect even the most rudimentary of data.

Ronjs gave the right answer when he said "His timing"
Perhaps it is the most accurate answer given the available data, but it is hardly a useful one.

"When will the bus get here?"
"The bus-driver's timing."

But I am giving you a better answer. Not better because it is more true, but better because it gives you direction. 


No one here is able to know whether you sincerely seek God. That is something only you can know. What I will tell you is that the faith is revealed in practice.


"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"

Orthodox Christian praxis purifies the heart. So as Jesus Himself said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."



Without orthopraxis, one cannot truly be orthodox.
I don't doubt that, through rote repetition, I can slowly alter my own system of beliefs to be consistent with Christianity. A form of self-hypnosis if you will. It's certainly the tactic proposed by Pascal.

I'm disclined to use this method since it can be used for any belief, regardless of veracity and I'd like my belief system to be as closed to reality as is possible. Unfortunately this requires some method of validation of the truth of a statement before accepting it as true, which is not being offered here.

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Prison. 
I think we should start this search for God in jails / prisons.
I've been leed to believe that god goes around from jail to jail revealing himself to prisoners.   
I don't know.  it's just a hunch. 





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@drafterman
Whatever God does is generally considered imminent meaning it could happen at any time, seconds from now, hours, days, years or decades.
Some of us may not
hear              
from Him soon, and some may become the next Billy Graham tomorrow. My eventual death may be my only purpose in this life or he may require much from me leading up to it, I just don't know. 

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@ronjs
Right, but we're talking about a religion whose members sat down and thought it was important to calculate the estimated year of birth of Jesus and base an entire year-system around it.

Then, a while later, decided the primary reason for fixing the calendar of months was so that Easter was in the right place.

I just find it odd, that given the importance of this kind of thing, that no body bothered to keep data on this stuff happening. Is it completely random or is there some sort of normal distribution at work here?

How long did it take for you?
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@ronjs
Whatever God does is generally considered imminent meaning it could happen at any time, seconds from now, hours, days, years or decades.

Could it also be never? 
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@drafterman
I don't doubt that, through rote repetition, I can slowly alter my own system of beliefs to be consistent with Christianity. A form of self-hypnosis if you will. It's certainly the tactic proposed by Pascal.



Oh heavens no, that has nothing to do with our practice.


First of all, you have to understand that when we say heart, we are talking about The Nous.
Then you have yo understand that The Truth is God.


The discipline has nothing to do with hypnosis or implanting ideas in the head at all for that manner, it is about SEEING CLEARLY. It is moreso about looking at the influences and passions that enslave us, and being freed from these things so that we can better live as an Icon of The Truth.


I am not using the word "truth" arbitrarily. If you don't accept that I mean exactly that, it will only be confusing as you will be asking yourself, "What truth?". I mean, The Truth itself.

And directing oneself towards The Truth creates a very real "gravity" you could say. It creates movement. But more importantly, it opens you up, as Ron was saying to God so that the cleansing power of The Holy Spirt, which is The Spirit of Truth, works in you.

If it sounds mysterious, it really is. It is something to be experienced. It is known through the experience. Just as a scientist who performs no scientific experiments is hardly a real scientist, someone whose faith is absent of works is dead. Functionally, no faith.

That is really the faith that you have to have. That God exists. That if there is a way to see God, there has to be a right way.

There is nothing unreasonable about Orthodox Christianity, there is just a lot there, and even the things we do that look strange or illogical to the uninformed observer have very real and good reasons behind them. Point being, much of what the faith is about is presented in such a way as to give the opposite impression.

Why is this? It is to protect the faith. One can not come to the faith without charity and humility. The door is shut. All you will see is a bunch of weirdos wearing funny clothes burning incense with the thought creeping in your head "I know better than this".


But if what I am saying is true, and I can only insist that it is, there is a great deal more to it than meets the eye.


It is Truth Worship. When it comes right down to it, we worship The Truth as God. Whatever one takes as a god, that effects their behavior. We recognize that The Truth is so above all other gods that they are hardly gods at all. 

What we practice is not self deception. Self deception is idolatry, and it is an abominable thing to intentionally do. From that point, you are not practicing true religion, but witchcraft.


We don't practice witchcraft.











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@Deb-8-a-bull
Prison.
I think we should start this search for God in jails / prisons.
I've been leed to believe that god goes around from jail to jail revealing himself to prisoners.  
I don't know.  it's just a hunch.

Jailhouse religion is a thing.

It is easier to find God when you are not distracted by the cares of this world. Easier when you don't have the armor of wealth protecting you from the hard blows of reality.

Interestingly enough, a monk's bedroom is called a cell. Penance? Penitentiary?

Not a coincidence.

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@ludofl3x
Not likely
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Like ronjs said, you have to be sincere. Sincerity comes with action, it isn't just a whim.


"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

You have to ask. You have to seek. You have to knock.



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@Mopac
Oh heavens no, that has nothing to do with our practice.
Take it up with Pascal, man:
"Bless yourself with holy water, have Masses said, and so on; by a simple and natural process, this will make you believe."


First of all, you have to understand that when we say heart, we are talking about The Nous.
I don't know what that is.

Then you have yo understand that The Truth is God.
I don't believe that.

The discipline has nothing to do with hypnosis or implanting ideas in the head at all for that manner, it is about SEEING CLEARLY. It is moreso about looking at the influences and passions that enslave us, and being freed from these things so that we can better live as an Icon of The Truth.
Whatever terms you want to put it in, your words imply an acceptance of belief and practice prior to validation of that belief. I don't agree to that.

I am not using the word "truth" arbitrarily. If you don't accept that I mean exactly that, it will only be confusing as you will be asking yourself, "What truth?". I mean, The Truth itself.
I don't know what "The Truth" means. I am only aware of logical propositions which can be true and false.

And directing oneself towards The Truth creates a very real "gravity" you could say. It creates movement. But more importantly, it opens you up, as Ron was saying to God so that the cleansing power of The Holy Spirt, which is The Spirit of Truth, works in you.

If it sounds mysterious, it really is. It is something to be experienced. It is known through the experience. Just as a scientist who performs no scientific experiments is hardly a real scientist, someone whose faith is absent of works is dead. Functionally, no faith.

That is really the faith that you have to have. That God exists. That if there is a way to see God, there has to be a right way.

There is nothing unreasonable about Orthodox Christianity, there is just a lot there, and even the things we do that look strange or illogical to the uninformed observer have very real and good reasons behind them. Point being, much of what the faith is about is presented in such a way as to give the opposite impression.

Why is this? It is to protect the faith. One can not come to the faith without charity and humility. The door is shut. All you will see is a bunch of weirdos wearing funny clothes burning incense with the thought creeping in your head "I know better than this".


But if what I am saying is true, and I can only insist that it is, there is a great deal more to it than meets the eye.
Then I guess that just sucks for people with even the modest amount of skepticism or critical thinking. A shame that things would be designed in such a way. Seems like if I wanted people to avoid eternal torment and that outcome depended simply on them believing I existed, I wouldn't act mysteriously. I'd act openly and obviously. I wouldn't leave any question or doubt as to my existence.
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@drafterman
Pascal is irrelevent to me, as he was part of a church which broke away from Orthodoxy over 500 years prior.

If you don't believe that The Truth is God, then you don't know what God is. I don't believe in whatever superstitious conception you have of God either.

You can't please God without faith. That is just how it is. Extreme skepticism is not a virtue, quite the contrary, it keeps you from accepting what we mean by what we teach. You have to come to God like a child, ready to be taught. If you have pride, God will humble you. If you come with humility, there is grace.

The reason the faith takes the form it does is demonstrated by my work here. I speak very plainly about the faith, and it is still not believed. 


And so, all you get are parables because you won't accept the plainly spoken and lucid truth.

The plain and lucid truth is that Christianity at the core is about loving The Truth, and living it.

Because you can't accept this, all you get is parables.





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The world doesn't like The Truth, it prefers its idols.


That is why the world killed The Truth. The Truth became death, conquering death itself. You cannot kill The Truth. It will rise again, and on the last day all will be judged by it.

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@drafterman
Then I guess that just sucks for people with even the modest amount of skepticism or critical thinking. A shame that things would be designed in such a way. Seems like if I wanted people to avoid eternal torment and that outcome depended simply on them believing I existed, I wouldn't act mysteriously. I'd act openly and obviously. I wouldn't leave any question or doubt as to my existence.


There is no legitimate question or doubt about God's existence. The question is really, "Who is God?"

The Ultimate Reality is God, and there is no reasonable doubt.

And the thing is, if you love The Truth, you don't look at the world and think, "Oh, Things are this way, but it would've been better if it was different."

This type of thinking leads to delusion. Making peace with the way things are in a great way is making peace with God.


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@Salixes
Well, if we technically go off the "Omni-god" definition... you are staring at god, your bed is god, the air you breath is god, i'm god, your parents are god, etc. If you get what i mean. The funniest part is searching for god... wouldn't it be interesting that the reason why god has split up into creation is possibly to escape being god? It's funny to me bc humans try so hard to become god, feel god, be one with god, be god... if ultimately, the truth is god would like nothing more than to not be god.  
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@ronjs
Not likely
Why not...? What if god specifically created atheists, agnostics, spiritual people, and other faiths away from him bc simply he finds that more interesting? I mean, god knows exactly what its doing... past, present and future. Don't you think the urge to convert say an atheist to your views is more of a human phenomena and/or desire than a gods? 

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@drafterman
You invited Jesus into your life?? Wow.

But if you thought the bus driver analogy was apt, I can see why He didn't come.

Jas 4:3 - You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Jas 4:4 - Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Jas 4:5 - Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

Jas 4:6 - But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

Humility Cures Worldliness

Jas 4:7 - Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Jas 4:8 - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
----------------------------------------------------
God is not akin to your bus driver.
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@Mopac
If you don't believe that The Truth is God, then you don't know what God is. I don't believe in whatever superstitious conception you have of God either.
"The Truth" has no semantic meaning to me, so I have no beliefs about what it is or isn't.

You can't please God without faith. That is just how it is. Extreme skepticism is not a virtue, quite the contrary, it keeps you from accepting what we mean by what we teach. You have to come to God like a child, ready to be taught. If you have pride, God will humble you. If you come with humility, there is grace.
Good thing I only talked about modest skepticism, not extreme skepticism.

The reason the faith takes the form it does is demonstrated by my work here. I speak very plainly about the faith, and it is still not believed. 


And so, all you get are parables because you won't accept the plainly spoken and lucid truth.

The plain and lucid truth is that Christianity at the core is about loving The Truth, and living it.

Because you can't accept this, all you get is parables.
It's almost as if this a wholly inefficient and ineffectual way to get believers.

There is no legitimate question or doubt about God's existence.
I have legitimate questions and doubts about God's existence.

The question is really, "Who is God?"

The Ultimate Reality is God, and there is no reasonable doubt.
I have reasonable doubt.

And the thing is, if you love The Truth, you don't look at the world and think, "Oh, Things are this way, but it would've been better if it was different."

This type of thinking leads to delusion. Making peace with the way things are in a great way is making peace with God.
I don't know what "The Truth" is to love it.