Why doesn't God stop gun violence

More like apprehension.

 

Y'all need to step back to see the big picture. Even then, you won't, but it's a damn sight better than the myopic view held by far too many.

I think you're seeing just fine. That's (y)our problem. We know we don't know.

 

Maybe he exercises free will.

 

Well we know he doesn't exercise crossfit or we'd never hear the end of it...

 

My use of a simple analogy was an error .
What I meant was that He will not force His will on us. It has nothing to do with strength or weakness.

 

Unless, you know, you turn around and look at some city you're leaving, and shit.

 

Can we know for certain that it wasn't a cover story for murder?

 

You salty dog...

 

So, kids choose to get cancer on their own?

 

Of course not.

 

Yeah...they usually do it right after deciding if they are going to be gay or not...

 

You are wrong Bible breath. You don't know if there's a God or not. No one does since it cannot be proven one way or the other. Ergo, (I like that word) by default everyone is an Agnostic.

 

If one really looks at our surroundings, including our home, the Earth, the other planets, and the Universe, and as we learn more about them every day, it seems unlikely that all of it formed by chance. What are the odds? Is the big bang hypothesis correct? If so, what existed before that? What caused the big bang? Whatever that was, where did it come from?
Yes, I know that our simple planet is something like 4 to 6 billion year old, and a hell of a lot of evolving and changing can happen over that length of time, but it's so frigging complicated. By that I mean everything is complicated. Was it happenstance? The mind reels at the thought.
Just saying.

 

What is reality?

 

That dumb bitch that got caught smuggling a snuke in her snizz.

 

Which is basically using a whole lot of words to say, "I don't understand it, so god must have done it."

 

you read, but don't hear/understand what i am saying. it is my fault. i am not explaining it well. i'll try again. and before you say it, i get you don't believe in God. i'm simply answering the way i do for you and others, as i DO and i am trying to stay on topic with the point of Ravi's message...which started this entire thread.

1. Love is the most important thing. God is Love.
2. God wants us to experience Love. This requires free will. (for those that dont like free will, well i'm sorry. i don't know WHY it had to be this way. I DO know that you can't make someone LOVE you. they choose to or they don't. this is the definition of free will.)
3. God feels that LOVE is so important, that he allows free will, to allow YOU to experience love.
4. For whatever reason, GOD knew and still allowed man to have this free will, even though he KNEW we would misuse it. i don't know WHY. it just is.
5. if you have free will, then you must have a choice. that means there is a right/wrong. a good/evil. that means evil was in the world and we were free to choose it. i dont know WHY. it just was. As soon as man chose to do something God had instructed them not to do, evil was having an impact. EVIL causes the pain and suffering in the world. EVIL is that which is not God.
6. Now evil can be seen everyday. just look at the hearts of men such as manson, or stalin or hitler or mao or......the list goes on....but it includes my heart too. its the state of man
7. that means that the little girl who gets cancer has it because evil is in the world.
8. now you can rightly say that if God is God, he can just make it go away. i agree with this. however, God can not contradict himself. he cannot be what he isn't. He is God. SO, he cannot sin. He cannot do evil. so, yes, there is a limit on God in that he cannot NOT BE GOD.
9. Since God must be God and God is love, then all things that he does are in furthering love. his love for you. his love for me.
10. but we come back to the sticky part....free will....i believe YOU must choose to love. he wants you too. he waits for you too. but he won't make you.
11. since some chose NOT love, then again, evil stays in the world. how does that cause cancer? i don't know. but i believe it does. it causes ALL the pain and suffering in the world.
12. knowing that this path to love was so difficult, God, in his infinite wisdom, provided the cost to overcome sin. he personally (note that all relationships require your personal action) took on the evil of the world and paid for ALL evil/sin by dying on the cross. he did this because he LOVES us. so, now, knowing you have free will, he isn't going to MAKE you accept this. he took on all this pain/suffering/humiliation, went through death, all to give you the OPTION (free will) to chose or not chose him.

i find the fact that GOD was willing to suffer, for me, for you, even though he knew we would spit on him, incredible!!
i find the fact that GOD was willing to take one for the team, even though he didn't have to, so that i can experience LOVE, incredible!!
i focus on GOD. therefore, i focus on LOVE. when we chose to ignore God, we are choosing to focus on evil...aka...not GOD. this is your choice.
regardless of whether you chose LOVE or not, you will continue to have PAIN here on earth, because evil exists too. evil will continue to make our lives hard. this difficulty doesn't go away, no matter who you are....(i could list the gatzillion people who seem to have it all, but then commit suicide..why? i don't know, but i bet it had something to do with not having LOVE). i do know that when i sin, i can 100% tell you that LOVE was far from me at that time. i know that when i am far from LOVE, that i am the most unhappy.

so again, all of this boils down to a choice. God made the first one. He gave you LOVE and the free will to chose it (a necessity of LOVE). now each of us has to make our choice.

i choose LOVE.

 

this is a good question mongo.

first off, the part that is crystal clear is God's redeeming grace. yes, that is the most important part as it allows me to forgive myself and others and to pursue and fellowship with God. it allows me to enjoy LOVE.

i go to church to worship. as you well know, just looking at all the comments on this board, we all want to be independent. we all think we deserve more than we do. yes, some of us work more than others, but at the end of the day, it is about "me, me, me". i go to church to express my thankfulness to God for all that he has done for me. i go to church to praise him out loud. i go to church to be around other people who view God as i do. (we are all social creatures, right?). again, if i now have access to LOVE, i want to be around it as much as i can. with others viewing things as i do, i also go for accountability. no man is an island.

i read the bible because it is my manual. plenty of us don't read the manual (especially at Christmas time as we try to put together the toys ), but when i rebuilt my first engine, i certainly read about it. when i started riding, i read about it. well, since God is the maker of life, i find it pretty logical that i should read his manual. can you ride without reading the manual? sure. can i experience life without reading the bible? you bet i can. however, if i know what the bible is and i have access to it, i would be a fool not to read it.