find God

that there is a MASSIVE difference between God and religion.

I’m seeking one, but not the other.

Have really straightened up my life in a gazillion different ways, but still haven’t truly placed beliefs in my life like I know I should. Doing this will definitely put my life into a perspective that I can respect, pour my self into. Outlook and responsibilities will be stronger I know. Life as I see it now is great, but I’m looking for fantastic. (Spoiled and unrealistic?) Until then…

God is the ideal that man can never achieve. Just like a computer program that can define infinite recursive functions. No computer in the world can compute that even if the concept can be simple to understand. Man can understand God as an omnipresent and omnipotent figure but can never achieve that. Human being has the dream to achieve immortal status (infinite life span or infinite time) but this is not possible. Just as there are no computer that can calculate the infinite number, no human can find God.

I started just talking to God and feel some relief but havent truly found myself or God yet. Still keeping this as a goal though so maybe one day…..

is that I really think that God is another word for serenity.

It’s not necessarily that serenity from prayer, attending Mass or services… not clinging to stories of faith and redemption, not enveloping yourself in fear, guilt or shame and repressing it so that you come out of it a “stronger” person.

It’s that peaceful feeling you get on a day when it rains and you see a resultant rainbow.

It’s a bear hug from someone you love.

It’s breathing in the air at an Irish shoreline.

It’s thinking of someone else instead of yourself.

It’s a Sunday afternoon spent reading and listening to Dead Can Dance.

It’s driving for two hours alone on a stretch of highway, blasting a mix CD and singing along.

It’s watching a thunderstorm from 45 miles away in a deck in Colorado at 10 o’clock at night.

It’s making someone laugh so hard, their voice goes up an octave.

It’s making someone so happy, they tear up.

It’s watching snow or leaves fall.

It’s hearing yourself breathe as you watch a sunset.

It’s not elusive or painful or impossible.

It’s there in so many ways… just like the notion of God, however one defines it, him, or her.

after my mom died in october, i lost touch with my spirtuality. i was really upset that he took my mom at such a young age, and i’m still at a loss to why he did it. i just want to find God in my life again and find my faith, because i know that it is something that should always be there for me.

I have always believed in God and in Jesus. I believe in the teachings of Jesus and have decided to live my life accordingly (to the best of my ability). However, being from a catholic family it has always seemed necessary to me that once one “finds God” they find a faith, a group, a system that they fit into to. After a long time of fighting with what I believe and what that particular Church teaches, I came to realise that I do not belong. I am not a Catholic, I am not a Muslim, I am not a Jehovas Witness. I am me and I have my own faith. This came about as I pondered the following things (please bear with me).

God, our Creator, our higher being, and Jesus, the all-loving, sacrifical lamb who died for the WORLDS sins, are claimed to decide on “Judgement Day” who goes to heaven and who goes to Hell? Jesus, who healed lepers, Jesus who had unconditional love regardless of race or health, is going to “judge” us? I can’t say I believe this. I believe Jesus took on the sins of the WORLD when he died on the cross, not just the sins of the Catholics etc. Would Jesus truly discriminate upon those who chose a different path? Would those who chose say zen buddhism be sent to eternal damnation because they didn’t choose the “right” way? I think not.When you have unconditional love for someone, you love them regardless of religion, regardless of sexual preference or race.

Also, it is a commonly accepted belief that God himself carved out mankind. If God made people, he made gay people. He made transgendered people. He made people of different colours. He did not do this for his own comic benefit. If God created gay and transgendered people (it is my belief that some people are born gay, and some are born believing they are in the “wrong” body) he did not rule them out of heaven. I do not believe that God only loves those who are in same raced marriages with legitimate children who are regular mass attendees. God loves people. ALL people. To consider that God is prejuidice is ludicrous.

Organized religions use fear as a way of administering control over a people. Some religions use Jesus and God ase a scapegoat for their own shameful prejuidices against the people of the world. A religion who claims homosexuals, transgendered people and people of colour are going to hell is simply and plainly stupid.

I hope that when deciding upon where to find God you think carefully.

I think I found god in a way. I started talking to god a while back. I don’t say amen, or get on my knees when i pray to him. I talk to him throughout the day, maybe when I’m on my way to school, or in the shower, or before I fall asleep. I don’t know if anyone is really listening or anything and I’m not a religious guy. (havent been to church in i don’t know how long). But i found what I needed out of god. Its medicinal to just talk aloud. Ask for things that you really care about and give thanks to what you have. I have lots of questions for god and voice them out loud quite often. My friend just passed away the other day and I find comfort thinking that there could even be a small possibility that he could find his way to a better place with god…
anyways its enough for me to say I’ve completed this goal.

*Please consider what I am about to say with patience and charity of heart. I am going to give a few good reasons to believe in the Roman Catholic Church
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. consider this article, read it very carefully
http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html
Reasons to believe besides those that are noted in this document:
tens of thousands of miracles have been historically documented and cited by the Roman Catholic Church, while the world calls them phenomenon and unexplainable events. Some of these miracles included public mass resurrections of more than 50 people. The people that presided over these miracles are Roman Catholic and produced private and mass conversions in every class including the well educated, such as scientists and philosophers, the virtuous, the honorable, the uneducated, the nonbelievers and skeptics, the rich, the poor, the liars, royalty, thieves, killers, depraved, and prostitutes. Most of these converts (even the worst among them) made sincere conversions and most of them lived upright and honorable Christian lives from the moment of their conversion to their death. Some of them became saints, which are Roman Catholics who lived a life of Heroic and Supernatural degrees of Virtue. Many of them also became Martyrs, which are people who were persecuted and killed for being Roman Catholic and refusing to deny their loyalty to Jesus Christ and His Church. There are still many Christians who are being persecuted today for their loyalty to the Catholic Church in other parts of the world such as in South America, India, China and the Middle East.
If you witnessed such a miracle, or have historical proof of such a miracles and the people that have produced them lived joyful and faithful lives of supernatural love, mercy and virtue and they promised eternal life with God would you follow them? If they lived in great joy, mercy and love under persecution, rejection, abandonment and death would you not also want to have their joy, mercy, love, and strength they have. If they had supernatural power over the world would you not believe them if they said that they are the ambassadors of God. It is more reasonable to trust someone with supernatural power over the world than some philosopher who can only talk and write to prove himself when it comes to reality, since the supernatural one has more power over reality you should trust him and not the person who is weak.
By having supernatural power proves their authority over reality, of course they cannot contradict the truth of science, so they must have a higher reality, they must be apart of something that is greater than natural science. The truth that they have must be higher and more important than nature of the material world. If someone has power over death and offered you life over death you would trust that he can give it to you?
It matters- can you trust him? You would not trust a normal man because he can be filled with lies and malice. So who can you trust? Someone you believe to be filled, by their very nature, with truth and goodness is someone you can always trust. God by His very nature is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. He is the source of everything good and true. You can not trust a man, but you can trust a man sent by God.
So the question becomes: “How can you be sure this man is sent by God.” “How can we be sure God as sent this man to give us the truth of God?”
God in His infinite Goodness would give us a way to know if this man is truly sent by Him. And that is proven by the Truth, Goodness, and Beauty the man proclaims. Since God, by His nature, is of these qualities His messenger will bear His mark. In other words, the Man has to be filled with a Supernatural level of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty and Power that can only come from God.
If a man lies and is filled with vices you can be sure, even if he produces miracles, he is not of God, and probably gets his power from some evil source. God reveals Himself through creation, God is filled with order, truth, and beauty. Lies is not the nature of a creative God of harmony and mystery. So the messenger, if their is one, must be filled with truth, harmony, goodness and power over things man can not normally control.
The man must produce signs and miracles that further and reveal the Truth of God, Harmony, and Goodness to a supernatural extent. But keep in mind, God would not produce miracles if they cause confusion, destruction and fear if God is a God of harmony (not confusion and division), creation (not destruction), and peace (not fear). In this modern age miracles will not help, they will cause fear, hate, division and other bad things because of media, and confusion, but if it truly is from God it will not cause these things. God brings miracles, if He does, when it will help further the Truth (God Himself is the embodiment of all Truth). God will not produce miracles in a bad messenger, someone who He has chosen to reveal the Truth but does not want to do the will of God, because God will not support the actions of a bad messenger.
Even if the Catholic Church is the true and only Church of God, God will not support the actions of a bad catholic by offering signs through him or her. Only a true messenger and proper example will God reveal His secret Truth. Why would God support someone to reveal His Truth and Goodness to someone who does not proclaim the Truth and Goodness with all their actions? The bad messenger will only cause confusion and division on the proper way to follow God. God, if He choses to reveal Himself, will not support disobedient fakes and liars.
God is Truth and Goodness, those that are disobedient to Him are doing things against Truth and Goodness. Roman Catholic Church has lived up to her calling, although she has struggled she will never fail. Man fails his duties to God, God does not fail. If God has a Church than He will protect it since it would be the human source of His secret Truth, even though some of the people in the Church may not live up to their calling.
You may ask : “Why would God allow this if it hurts the spread of His Truth?” God may allow things that go against Him (evil) for a higher good. God is not evil, but tolerates evil (from his own creation) for a higher good. He gave us the ability and dignity to reason and chose, we can chose lies, we are free to go against Him if He calls us to Himself. He did not make us evil (against God) but with the capacity of producing evil. Evil was here before we were born so we can assume that someone before us already has brought evil to the world. God Himself tolerates evil for a higher good He already knows and planned.
let us put are trust in God, that He knows a higher good will come by tolerating evil with good. God has revealed that the day will come where there will be no evil, and only supreme good that will compensate infinitely for the evil tolerated. So let us unite ourselves with the good and true, since what is true will last forever, like 1=1, and goodness will outlive evil.
Read the new testament and use REASON. Read especially Christian Apologetics on the relationship of faith and reason, objective truth, how we know God, the problem of evil, miracles, the Resurrection, and the Divinity of Christ. You can go online but if you want to get a book the best book would be “Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli.
do not take yourself to be a subjective creature who cannot know the truth and that cannot receive the revelation of God. God, although infinitely higher than all of creation, can interact and do whatever He wills. Who are you to say that God cannot become man? God sets the standard of reality, truth, goodness, and beauty. if He plans to do something than it will happen. If He chose to reveal Himself to humanity, His love and His plan who can rightfully contradict Him and say that He cannot do that or that He cannot PROVE that, if He Himself is the standard of reality and of the Truth?

I think it is interesing that when you are young you believe in magic and everything that now sounds too good to be true. When I was young I had no doubt that there was a god. But now I guess I just don’t know any more. I feel like I sometimes feel so empowered by something more than life. Like god is with me and there is no doubt in my mind. But othere times I just don’t know. I have decided to try to get rid of the negitive things that push me away from finding god. I don’t really know why, but I feel like I am at the door but I just can’t figure out how to open it.