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Post by Vince on Nov 19, 2022 22:37:54 GMT -5
Yep - John 15
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."
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Post by whetstone on Nov 21, 2022 17:26:06 GMT -5
This is a pretty hard question to figure out the answer for but mostly what it is about is the stuff people were willing to sacrifice for God. You know like how Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac. God sacrificed Jesus for us I guess. I don't know. I honest don't know what I think about that cause isn't a parent supposed to protect there kid? Why would Abraham kill his own child? Why couldn't God just forgive us without putting his son through all he did?
I am supposed to write about what I would sacrifice for God. I don't think I could ever sacrifice a person who I love. I don't think I could even sacrifice Wilburt or Miss Hissyfit. 
For the parents. If you had to sacrifice one of your kids to save the others like God did with Jesus would you be able to do it?I think you have to put Abraham's sacrifice into the context of the time - - sacrifices of living things like lambs was common. In other places like South America and the pacific islands human sacrifice was common. And if you really think your God is telling you to do something, wouldn't you do it? When you think about it that way it isn't that much of a stretch to sacrifice a child. The question of why God required a sacrifice to forgive the sins of humanity is a tough one. Why did he have to send his only son to die so that sins could be forgiven? I have no clue. I get asked that question by my fourth grade CCD kids all the time, I give them the 'party line' answer but then I say it's like a parent that is really angry because the kids did something bad - someone is going to get a beating - so your big brother steps up and takes the beating, even though he wasn't the one that did anything wrong - but then the parent is happy again and everyone is forgiven. Not a good analogy but it kind of gets the point across. I think it's good to think about these things. Not that there are any right or wrong answers but so you think. Sacrifices don't have to be big, little things you do for other people are sacrifices in their own way and I believe they make God happy too. |
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Rosie
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Post by Rosie on Nov 21, 2022 17:58:11 GMT -5
That is just so confusing in my head you know. I know I am crazy but I don't know about how I think about that. My dad is like the one who protects me from bad stuff and how could I believe that if I knew he would sacrifice me if a God told him to. It seems to me that if a God said to go kill Roseanna that I would need my dad to be there to protect me from God. I don't know.
I think I am maybe glad that my dad don't believe in no religion stuff.
You know sometimes people get voices in there head to so how did Abraham know it was God and not some crazy voices in his head?
I would never sacrifice somebody I love for anything cause I would rather take a knife and put it right in my own heart.
God loves in a sort of funny way cause he lets bad stuff happen to people he says he loves and he don't step in to help them or nothing. It don't add up in my head is all. You know honest I want to believe like some people do but some stuff just don't make sense to me.
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Libby
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Post by Libby on Nov 21, 2022 18:55:58 GMT -5
I'll take a stab at this too. Why would God need his son to be sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins? He could have simply said I forgive you if he wanted. The problem with that is talk is cheap.  People needed a visible sign of their repentance and God's forgiveness. They couldn't simply sacrifice a sheep for something so big. They needed the perfect sacrifice and Jesus was that perfection. He was the willing and perfect sacrifice. He was sacrificed and his resurrection is the proof of God's forgiveness. It's not easy to understand but God's ways are not man's ways. I have to believe that Abraham was only able to willingly sacrifice his son because there was a special bond, a special understanding and love between him and God and that it was God who made that kind of love possible. I don't think most people could love to that degree without divine intervention. Sweetheart you have to concentrate on the little sacrifices. No-one is capable of making the kind of sacrifice that God asked of Abraham or of his son without God's help. |
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Post by whetstone on Nov 22, 2022 8:44:36 GMT -5
What Libby said!
And Rosie YOU ARE NOT CRAZY. I really wish you would stop saying that. You are a warm, loving, caring, intelligent, thoughtful, wonderful young woman. To know what you don't know and to be confused by things - and to know you are confused is a sign of INTELLIGENCE not crazy. To question things is a sign of INTELLIGENCE not crazy. To be able to verbalize what you are questioning and confused about is a sign of INTELLIGENCE not crazy.
The crazy and stupid people are the ones that never question, the ones that think they know everything but don't know what they don't know, the ones that spout off about things they think they know but don't. The people who refuse to research or to seek out sources that differ from their own viewpoints. They might even sound smart about what they say, but that doesn't make them right.
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Rosie
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Post by Rosie on Nov 22, 2022 20:03:21 GMT -5
I wish God was not so confusing. 
You know that is how come my dad is an agnostic person I think. If God would just be more transparent so there wouldn't be so many questions then I think he would believe. He is right when he says religion is the best hiding place for evil and he don't do blind faith stuff.
God isn't something you can get answers on cause there is no facts like there is for what water is made of or something. You got to end up just believing what you can't prove with science and stuff you know how I mean. My dad is a believer in science and me to I think but I want to be good at believing in God to. I don't know.
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Post by Kittykat on Nov 27, 2022 23:41:06 GMT -5
God isn't confusing honey, the problem is religious zealots like your school teacher make him seem complicated. God is love.
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quinn
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Post by quinn on Nov 28, 2022 8:59:25 GMT -5
Rosie, you don't want to call your teachers religious zealots where they can hear you.  I have to admit that I find God to be confusing at times. I believe God is the source of all love but he is a great big ball of contradiction. All you have to do is read the Bible to discover that. It's hard to reconcile the God of the old Testament with the God of the New Testament. |
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Rosie
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Post by Rosie on Nov 28, 2022 19:08:46 GMT -5
I said to my new Bible teacher that God is confusing and he said to me that I'm not wrong but that we are all going to work on making God less confusing.
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Post by Vince on Nov 28, 2022 19:47:34 GMT -5
To paraphrase a quote about the nature of the universe:
Not only is God stranger than we imagine, God is stranger than we CAN imagine.
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Post by Tatiana on Nov 30, 2022 18:37:20 GMT -5
God isn't confusing honey, the problem is religious zealots like your school teacher make him seem complicated. God is love. Have you ever read the Bible? God makes himself confusing. He's a man of mystery.  |
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Post by scarlette on Nov 30, 2022 21:02:22 GMT -5
A man of mystery? Time for a Hallmark movie?
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Addy
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Post by Addy on Nov 30, 2022 21:27:39 GMT -5
He doesn't need Hallmark. He's already had a million movies made about him.
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Ruby
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Post by Ruby on Dec 17, 2022 11:28:59 GMT -5
I would never forgive my parents if they wanted to sacrifice me. Maybe next they'll want to throw me into a volcano so it doesn't erupt.
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Rosie
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Post by Rosie on Dec 17, 2022 20:09:53 GMT -5
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People needed a visible sign of their repentance and God's forgiveness. They couldn't simply sacrifice a sheep for something so big. They needed the perfect sacrifice and Jesus was that perfection. He was the willing and perfect sacrifice. He was sacrificed and his resurrection is the proof of God's forgiveness.
