Lately, my wife and I were discussing a current event and we started saying.
“maybe God was trying to help us move on? or maybe God was testing our resolve to stay? or maybe we are being punished for missing our tithe 4 months ago? or maybe God is blessing us?”
At any given situation, you can have a discussion about what God might be up to. Every positive or negative moment can turn into a discussion about the intentions of God. People do this with every election, every natural disaster & even the recent US world cup win.
Here’s a quick way to short-cut the discussion: ask.
For any given situation, I could set up a list of 193 objective might have for the circumstance (I used to only be able to write up a list of 87, but then I went to a Christian college…).
You go to the doctor with sniffles. The doctor could probably list off 10 different reasons your nose is running. That’s not helpful, useful, or meaningful. If the doctor can tell you the 1 REAL reason, then you’re golden.
So just ask God what he’s doing. Historically, God has seemed to enjoy conversing with us.
Do you suppose all the gazillions of people talking about the intentions of God after every natural disaster, etc. just never thought to pray about it? I’m pretty sure people are asking. If God was answering them, don’t you think we would have heard some answers by now?
I don’t know, ask….
No, I’m not asking God, I’m asking you what you think.
Has God ever answered you when you asked? What did you ask him, and what did he say? Have other people asked too, and received the same answer?
Yes.
So… you’re just going to ignore the rest of my comment?
Hey buddy, add me to the list of people who have gotten definite answers.
What were the questions you asked, and what were the definite answers you received?
Well, man, that’s a bit personal, don’t you think? I mean, I’d be glad to tell you but I’d want to get to know you a little first. You seem like you’re asking from a genuine place but it’s a big step and I’m not sure this is the place for it.
If you don’t want to talk about it, I’m not going to force you or anything — but I think this is highly relevant to the topic of the post and you did leave a comment asserting that you’ve gotten definite answers from God. I figured you were volunteering to talk about it; I didn’t mean to cross a line.
I’m an atheist, but I feel like I ought to really examine alternative claims and think about them. If you have talked directly to God about his plans and intentions and gotten direct and clear answers from him, I really want to know what that was like for you. Did you see God? Did you hear him? What did he look and sound like? Or did you just get a gut feeling that something was true, and attribute that feeling to God? Have you asked God about geopolitical struggles, or major natural disasters, or other stuff like that? From your reaction it sounds like it was something very personal in your private life. If God has told you the reason for the Gulf oil disaster or something, I would hope you’d share that experience and that knowledge with people.
NFQ, i don’t speak for all jesus-people in my understanding here, but it’s mostly based on my excruciating study of the biblical books of job and proverbs:
But it seems pretty evident – from my understanding – throughout scripture that God used natural disasters to punish only those places COMPLETELY turned from God (from your previous post, you wouldn’t qualify here). God produced “the flood” after all of humanity had turned. God punished Sodom & Gamora when not 1 moral/righteous person could be found. So to say that some natural disaster happened because of gays or witchcraft or drinking is pretty far fetched.
On the other hand, the narrative arch of the scriptures moves in a way that might make some questions about God’s intent with disasters. I wouldn’t have agreed with this 10 years ago, but in my life journey I’ve come to think that God isn’t an angry God.
Rob Bell’s video “The God’s Aren’t Angry” verbalized it for me a bit. You can rent it at your local library if you want.
Here is the first 4 minutes via youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SygrK4QV2TY
It’s not so much that you’ve crossed a line, but that I haven’t found in my days that most folks will really understand another person’s personal revelations. This story is very special to me and means alot to my relationship with my wife. You need context. More generally, I see the same thing, maybe the many thousands of people who are genuinely asking God about disasters and such are _receiving answers_ and not sharing them, because the answers are to the person asking?
Thanks for your tone NFQ. I checked out your site and was pretty impressed with the tone and honesty you explore stuff with. Cool to see that.
The God I believe in – whether created in my imagination or experienced in reality – would have me respectfully & compassionately cohabitate the planet with everyone.