A philosophical Christmas query : What does God want from us?

chic

chic

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I was raised a Christian and learned about religion from an early age. Like most, I've had high points and low points in my life. Sometimes it's been easy to believe in God while at others it's been almost impossible, at least, challenging. What does God want from us? We're like animals to Him. Why is He so hard on us humans? How do you know if you please Him? Or are you just pleasing yourself and considering that pleasing God because you have such a good life? What is the measure of pleasing God.?

This is just our opinions of course. There are no correct answers. I have no clue what pleases God. Maybe someone else can shed some light on the subject for all of us. 🤔
 

chic said:
I was raised a Christian and learned about religion from an early age. Like most, I've had high points and low points in my life. Sometimes it's been easy to believe in God while at others it's been almost impossible, at least, challenging. What does God want from us? We're like animals to Him. Why is He so hard on us humans?
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First, I don't believe that God is "hard on us", he has given us life, and the ability rule our existence. It's the "free choice" that God gave us, that can be hard, so it is Life that can be hard on us. The lower animals have their aches and pains, but they live in the moment, and are free from the "big brains" stressors that we humans are plagued with.
What does God want from us? All the world's religions give the same answers, but for the sake of simplicity and familiarity, I'll just refer to Christianity's Ten Commandments that modern Christians are most familiar with.
No other gods before me
No graven images or likenesses
Not take the LORD's name in vain
Remember the sabbath day
Honour thy father and thy mother
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not commit adultery
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not bear false witness
Thou shalt not covet
 
As I've related, I don't lean towards the dominant Christian dogma of what people call God having unlimited magic-like omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence powers, that was pushed by philosophers of the Middle Ages. Actions without forces is impossible. To this person, the Old Testament clearly shows that has never been so. Nor to the dogma of an inerrant Bible that has always been about religious leaders and political powers over centuries fearing their flock may not otherwise believe them. Accordingly much denomination dogma has expanded what God is supposed to be and how he supposedly interacts greatly with humans. Instead suspect God and his race of angels are ancient AI ultimate intelligent entities with a prime directive of non-inteferance. Accordingly if so one should not blame God for lists of issues as so many do. For example why didn't he save [insert relatives name]. It could be argued, the Earth is an extremely rare zoo of DNA organic life.

The Old Testament tends to show God and his angels did not want we most important Earth creatures that have intelligence from doing evil, especially killing, sexual practices, etc that are easily reflected in the simple list of the Ten Commandments. All the subtle additions of men including Moses are what man has been allowed to fill in though Jesus clearly indicated they had been doing a poor job doing so. Long after Jesus days more of the same though there have always been many good people in the world trying to do the right things. If we humans continue to screw up they may return. The greatest gift imaginable for mortal intelligent entities is eternal life that Jesus sacrificed his Earthly existence for, is very much scientifically possibly real. For those that seek such, endure to the end, don't lose faith or hope.
 
Faith pleases God. I don't believe we are like animals to Him. I believe God wants us to have a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus. To have that relationship builds faith. I also believe that all of us has failed in obedience of His commandments and laws, and to please Him one obeys these as best they can. And, when one fails they ask for forgiveness and repents. Asking, again demonstrates faith that He will forgive.

I am not preaching. I believe all individuals have the unalienable right to speak and to believe, and worship, as they see fit, or not, as long as it isn't threatening or dictatorial. You asked, What does God want from us? I am stating my opinion, my belief.

If my faith were greater than it is and augmented with actions that reflected it, I would be more pleasing to God, and perhaps struggle less.
Romans 7:25
 
Nathan said:
What does God want from us? All the world's religions give the same answers, but for the sake of simplicity and familiarity, I'll just refer to Christianity's Ten Commandments that modern Christians are most familiar with.
No other gods before me
No graven images or likenesses
Not take the LORD's name in vain
Remember the sabbath day
Honour thy father and thy mother
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not commit adultery
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not bear false witness
Click to expand...
Yup, rather basic;

First four....love God

Next six......love man
 
Ever actually study The Bible?

I've been told many times, by my renegade friends;

'I can't believe in a god that kills people'

That discussion gets a bit deep....deep as one wants, really;

As for the flood -

Mankind was living past 900 years of age and fully corrupting itself. Finally melting down to total corruption - mankind would never have made it to today - at that rate. He would need to "push reset" - giving them lower life spans and remove a lot of the damage they had done, as well as a lot of the advantages they had - so they could not ramp up to such massive wickedness and self-destruction so fast.

Even so - He gave them a 120 year message for repentance and if they had accepted it - then no flood.

==========

As for Sodom and Gomorrah

Notice in Jude 7 that it is a signal to all mankind not to follow that path where as we see in Genesis the entire city except for Lot - was corrupt. Having a couple of cities (relatively small by comparison to today's mega cities) serve as a warning/example for generations to come was a price that was paid.
Still if they had listened to Lot's teaching about his God - they could have been spared. In fact Abraham bargained with God so that if only ten people were not corrupt out of the entire city it would be spared as Nineveh was spared in Jonah's day.=====================
God's plan was to allow himself to die for all the sins of all mankind in all of time - but to do that He could not allow Satan to turn the entire world to evil and self-destruct before there even would be the Messiah - nor could He just yank everybody's free will away and turn them into compliant robots.

So that means the "choices have consequences" system where bad choices result in a corrupt and self-destructive society - would be allowed "to a point".

Of late I've been studying the correlation between David and Goliath and Jesus' time on earth.
Never really knew there was one.
David was the lone one.
Somewhat of an intercessor.....standing in place of his people
Much like Jesus, our intercessor
Standing in place of us.

I could jam this forum with my findings, but won't

Just gotta say, it's really worth the study


I won't bore anyone with my findings, but, studying, if one really wants to know, is eye opening and fascinating.
 
chic said:
I was raised a Christian and learned about religion from an early age. Like most, I've had high points and low points in my life. Sometimes it's been easy to believe in God while at others it's been almost impossible, at least, challenging. What does God want from us? We're like animals to Him. Why is He so hard on us humans? How do you know if you please Him? Or are you just pleasing yourself and considering that pleasing God because you have such a good life? What is the measure of pleasing God.?

This is just our opinions of course. There are no correct answers. I have no clue what pleases God. Maybe someone else can shed some light on the subject for all of us. 🤔
Click to expand...
Why would anyone need to please God? It’s not about “pleasing” God. It’s about being a good person. God gave us freedom of choice, freedom of choice is not about pleasing anyone.
 
chic said:
I was raised a Christian and learned about religion from an early age. Like most, I've had high points and low points in my life. Sometimes it's been easy to believe in God while at others it's been almost impossible, at least, challenging. What does God want from us? We're like animals to Him. Why is He so hard on us humans? How do you know if you please Him? Or are you just pleasing yourself and considering that pleasing God because you have such a good life? What is the measure of pleasing God.?

This is just our opinions of course. There are no correct answers. I have no clue what pleases God. Maybe someone else can shed some light on the subject for all of us. 🤔
Click to expand...
Most of us have been raised with the belief that God is unconditional love, and it is given to all of "creation" in equal measure. There is NOTHING we can do that pleases God. It is how we feel about what we do, that gives us that feeling of being estranged.
 
I think the Creator wants us to learn life lessons while on earth. There are clues in the bible and clues in the Ten Commandments. I think it boils down to this: She wants us to love each other and treat each other respectfully as we are all God's children. I think the more of life's lessons we learn the closer we will come to this ideal.
 
God is our Father. We are His children. He sent his only Son to die for ALL our sins. Every one of them. How much more love can He give? It is God who falls at our feet not the other way around.
We have to do some of the work instead of blaming God for everything that goes wrong. Who do we credit when things go right? Ourselves!
We have free will. We make our own troubles and blame God.
Here and now since I became a Christian and was baptized in 2008 accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior, every blessing you can imagine has been given to me. Regards to a loved one: From blessings of curing stage 4 cancer, yes curing. From surviving two heart attacks, one that was a widow maker. From myself nearly dying when I was 13 in a hospital in Hawaii.

Blessing of a financial nature and protection and deliverance from accidents and people that nearly killed me. I know who has saved me.
I tried life my way, now I choose to follow Jesus.

No one can follow the ten commandments. You break one and you have broken them all that is why God in His mercy sent Jesus to wipe away our sins.

¶ "The Spirit has made us adequate to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter (law of the ten commandments) but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2Corinthians 3:6).

"Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses, because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?" (2Corinthians 3:7-8, Exodus 34:27-35). ( Here it is again speaking of the ten commandments in stone).

Before you condemn and doubt me, you asked the question of what God wants from you. In your heart you already know.
 
chic said:
I was raised a Christian and learned about religion from an early age. Like most, I've had high points and low points in my life. Sometimes it's been easy to believe in God while at others it's been almost impossible, at least, challenging. What does God want from us? We're like animals to Him. Why is He so hard on us humans? How do you know if you please Him? Or are you just pleasing yourself and considering that pleasing God because you have such a good life? What is the measure of pleasing God.?

This is just our opinions of course. There are no correct answers. I have no clue what pleases God. Maybe someone else can shed some light on the subject for all of us. 🤔
Click to expand...
I think the answer to your question is expressed perfectly in Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Click to expand...
 
Aneeda72 said:
Why would anyone need to please God? It’s not about “pleasing” God. It’s about being a good person. God gave us freedom of choice, freedom of choice is not about pleasing anyone.
Click to expand...
God begs us to accept the overflowing cup He offers. God is faithful — Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” It is God who is faithful not us.
 
Gary O' said:
Ever actually study The Bible?

I've been told many times, by my renegade friends;

'I can't believe in a god that kills people'

That discussion gets a bit deep....deep as one wants, really;

As for the flood -

Mankind was living past 900 years of age and fully corrupting itself. Finally melting down to total corruption - mankind would never have made it to today - at that rate. He would need to "push reset" - giving them lower life spans and remove a lot of the damage they had done, as well as a lot of the advantages they had - so they could not ramp up to such massive wickedness and self-destruction so fast.

Even so - He gave them a 120 year message for repentance and if they had accepted it - then no flood.

==========

As for Sodom and Gomorrah

Notice in Jude 7 that it is a signal to all mankind not to follow that path where as we see in Genesis the entire city except for Lot - was corrupt. Having a couple of cities (relatively small by comparison to today's mega cities) serve as a warning/example for generations to come was a price that was paid.
Still if they had listened to Lot's teaching about his God - they could have been spared. In fact Abraham bargained with God so that if only ten people were not corrupt out of the entire city it would be spared as Nineveh was spared in Jonah's day.=====================
God's plan was to allow himself to die for all the sins of all mankind in all of time - but to do that He could not allow Satan to turn the entire world to evil and self-destruct before there even would be the Messiah - nor could He just yank everybody's free will away and turn them into compliant robots.

So that means the "choices have consequences" system where bad choices result in a corrupt and self-destructive society - would be allowed "to a point".

Of late I've been studying the correlation between David and Goliath and Jesus' time on earth.
Never really knew there was one.
David was the lone one.
Somewhat of an intercessor.....standing in place of his people
Much like Jesus, our intercessor
Standing in place of us.

I could jam this forum with my findings, but won't

Just gotta say, it's really worth the study


I won't bore anyone with my findings, but, studying, if one really wants to know, is eye opening and fascinating.
Click to expand...
Amen. It is God who is faithful, not us. If you accept Him everything good will be yours. I attest to this. It impossible for man to follow the ten commandments, the letter or law, this is why He sent Jesus, thereby making a New Covenant. His New promise. By accepting Jesus one intrinsically will the follow the commandments anyway. Yet, none of us is perfect. All sins were/are forgiven. Heb 8:12 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25 "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
 
Aneeda72 said:
Why would anyone need to please God? It’s not about “pleasing” God. It’s about being a good person. God gave us freedom of choice, freedom of choice is not about pleasing anyone.
Click to expand...
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him." Heb. 11.6 God is faithful.
 
Nathan said:
First, I don't believe that God is "hard on us", he has given us life, and the ability rule our existence. It's the "free choice" that God gave us, that can be hard, so it is Life that can be hard on us. The lower animals have their aches and pains, but they live in the moment, and are free from the "big brains" stressors that we humans are plagued with.
What does God want from us? All the world's religions give the same answers, but for the sake of simplicity and familiarity, I'll just refer to Christianity's Ten Commandments that modern Christians are most familiar with.
No other gods before me
No graven images or likenesses
Not take the LORD's name in vain
Remember the sabbath day
Honour thy father and thy mother
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not commit adultery
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not bear false witness
Thou shalt not covet
Click to expand...
Re: the Ten Commandments: "But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code." Romans 7:6 God saw no one can keep the law that is why He sent Jesus.
 
I don’t believe God wants anything from anyone. In my opinion God the whole, complete, all that is known and unknown past, present and future of all & all. God is undefined by logic but known by many.
Any way what I am saying because God is all including you and me in oneness to all, it is not what God wants from us, instead it is how we navigate our thoughts and actions in assistance with one another to support or destroy what is and what will be.
 

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