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Old 12-28-2008, 07:21 AM   #5 (permalink)
NightSpirit
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You question seem to be whether there is really a God, being that there are so many religious concepts and varying beliefs.

I do believe there is a God and that as God, He is very capable of communicating with us. When I had similar questions concerning the accuracy of conflicting doctrines, I made the step of faith and asked God Himself to teach me, to somehow get the truth to me in a way that would satisfy my questions. He did that a short time later in a very dramatic way that erased any doubt that God does indeed hear and answer.

To experience that was so precious and life changing to me, to "know" a truth about God that I didn't come to by studying or figuring out.
I would hope you would seek and experience a similar encounter with God.

In my opinion, Bill Maher is speaking from ignorance about something he knows nothing about. He regularly disrespects people who say they have felt or heard from God, as being lunatics, even sometimes to their face. How could he possibly know the truth about what is going on in the spirit of another person between them and God? It is only an opinion that his relationship with spiritual matters has led him to believe.

I have had different experiences from Bill Maher that have led me to a different conclusion and to the Christian God of the Bible. While I can understand the viewpoint of others, even those who don't believe there is a God, it doesn't change what I know and have experienced for myself.

I know there is a God, a personal God, who has spoken to me many times, who guides my decisions if I listen to Him, who has often intervened in circumstances and life in ways that He has told me He would beforehand. I know Him as a God who is always loving, always forgiving, even if I get angry with Him or act like a spoiled demanding brat. I know from experience that He will allow me to go my own way but also that He stood ready to guide me back to Him and restore me when I got too far away from His will or principles and reaped the consequences of that.

Although I don't know anyone who has perfectly followed Christ and neither have I, I do personally know hundreds of other people who know this same God, in these same ways. And I have read the words or listened to the accounts of thousands of others who have experienced the God of the Bible as a real and tangible force, in ways similar to mine and to those of the people in the Bible.

What I have said above, should mean nothing to you, zip, nada, except as it rings true in your spirit, now or at some future time. I don't post to defend what I know or to prove anyone else wrong in their beliefs, even Bill Maher. I post to share what I know can happen for those who ask God to show Himself to them so they may respect and follow the truth.

It's all about the attitude and about what a person is seeking because the Bible said we will find what we seek. The most important part of knowing the truth about God is to be seeking the truth above all else. Some people seek peace through acceptance by an established group and some seek to be known as one of the enlightened, as discovers of new things and new ideas about God. They may find these things but it may not be the truth. But we can't judge another person for their beliefs because only God knows whether we are honestly seeking the truth. Sometimes we don't even know what's in our own hearts and may not be fully aware of our own motives.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." Not the smartest or most educated, not the most revolutionary thinker, not even the most pure in body or deed. But by the pure at heart, Jesus says God will be seen. That brings all the questions down to a level that is just between you and God, your creator and His creation.
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