Actually God has a spiritual plan for everyone. That should eliminate alot of confusion. However God at times gives special callings or gives specific purposes to some lives... for instance Paul the apostle was called or God purposed for him to preach to non Jews, thus God interupted his life, knocked him off a donkey and blinded him for a short time. God's plan is for everyone to believe in Jesus and be like Jesus in heart and character. God is not so much interested if you are a engineer, or writer, or musician, pastor or a cook at McDonald's vocationally he is interested in us having His love and heart.
Thanks. I guess this confirms it: God's plan includes millions of dead African children. What a great guy! I'm sorry, was that out of line? A bit harsh?
You were not attentive to my post. I said the spiritual plan God has is for us to be like Christ and have His love. That means that God's plan for the children in Africa is for the rest of us to feed them, protect them and love them. That is why I send money to feed children in the Republic of Congo, how much money did you send to feed these children who are dying. You don't have to tell me, just realize that God expects His plan to be followed and if we follow it we will sacrifice everything we have to love and help others, especially the most disadvantaged in Africa. It is no mystery that God's plan is not being followed because people don't care about God. That is why there are wars, human sex trafficking and whole continents perishing. How sad it is to blame God instead of taking personal responsibility.
It's easy for us in with wealth to make sense of and accept the idea of a grand plan that we don't fully understand. It's just that the starving children in Africa got the short end of the stick in this grand plan. At least in this life. I wonder if you would be as receptive to the idea of a grand plan if you were one of those starving children.
Are you telling me starving children in Africa are just soulless puppets putting on a sad drama in order to "test" the faith of those more fortunate? Because that is all I'm getting from your post. I really can't understand what the "plan" was for those who have perished so young in war and poverty.
I am saying God's precise and exact plan is for the rest of us to take care of them all. God's plan is for us to love eveyone else. Americans spend enough on video games, downloading music, and beer to feed most the children in Africa. In other words the children are dying because people are not doing God's plan. God is expecting us to love every other person the same as we love ourselves. So the reason children suffer in Africa is because we are not doing what God wants us to do. If everyone does God's plan no one goes hungry or unloved.
There is no test and faith has nothing to do with this , God wants us to take care of those children, the only question you need to answer is if you are doing your part.
I am willing to starve so they can eat. The grand plan is that if you have more than food and clothing for yourself you should give the rest to someone who has nothing. Just do your part.
And I'm sure you feel really good about yourself for sending money to "feed the children of the Congo", money which you have absolutely no idea where it's really going to or how it's used. Nothing like helping in a most impersonal way to make us westerners feel better about our existence. But that's beside the point. Question remains, did those in poverty and suffering just get the short end of the stick in the whole plan?
I don't feel good about what I am doing at all, I feel good about helping children there is a big difference. The lady that feeds the children I've know for 20 years, she also built a school and a clinic, she is single and loves the children she feeds. They have been in civil war, she has been threatened with guns pointed at her head but God has kept her alive and she still feeds hundreds of children. She adopts the children and I know them personally. You don't know what you are talking about. There is poverty and suffering and there are resources to help those who are poor. There is plenty of money to help the poor. I really don't worry about what others do, but if you want to know the plan of God it is for YOU to do good to the less fortunate if it is in your power to do so. That is called loving your neighbor, even if they live across the ocean. It is just doing what Jesus did. The people who get the short end of the stick in my opinion are the selfish, greedy people who do nothing.
I dont believe people have to help others , I believe it is God's plan for everyone to do it, it is a choice. God's plan is rarely carried out by people so there are wars, poverty and prejudice I don't fault people for what they do or don't do, but if you are asking me what God's plan was or is for starving children it is for us to feed them.
Seems like people will never understand this, but you're right & if everyone followed that plan, the world would be amazing.
I think sometimes people just aren't aware of what a big difference their little contribution can make to help someone, to encourage someone. I do think Americans have an exess of things to give to the less fortunate. I don't think in anyway I do enough, I just want to do something.
One thing to note is that prayers are a quality that exist in all religions, developed independent of another. So I personally feel praying for someone is more to satisfy one's own angst. Because many such times, we can't actually do anything real. Put it another way. Suppose a loved one is sick. If you are a doctor and can treat it, you would. If you're not a doctor, then you pray because that's the only thing you are capable of doing. No one prays to god if they can solve the problem themselves. Huh? Isn't it obvious? America is a Christian country. "Pray" and "Hope" are almost interchangeable. "I pray he recovers" and "I hope he recovers" basically say the same thing. But the former if spoken out loud is considered more sincere and better accepted. I am atheist. But a lot of my superficial thinking and speaking mannerisms are automatically inline with Christian values. I'm not the type who refuse to speak Pledge of a Alligience and has to show what an awesome atheist I am.
Look, don't get me wrong. I agree with what you're saying about helping those in need. This has become more and more central to my faith, and I wish others who call themselves Christ followers would see that this is God's calling. However, I'm just not okay that we don't have anything else to offer in response to the tough questions about suffering, why it exists, etc. I wish we would be more thoughtful about these issues instead of just, this is God's grand plan. We don't understand it but we just gotta do our part. I think dback816 said it well - Because that's basically all I get as well from the typical response of Christians trying to explain suffering. It just doesn't sit well with me.
Yup. Eliminates all the confusion. He has a spiritual plan, but everything else is complete random chance, right? So if something good happens, God has nothing to do with it, and if something bad happens, God has nothing to do with it, yes? Look, either God is omniscient (all-knowing - which would include the future) or he's not. If God is all-knowing, then the future is predetermined. Thus prayer for intercession is useless. I've yet to see any statement that effectively counters this idea.
First of all I don't really believe God is all knowing or that God even works like that. According to the bible God is love. Love isn't all knowing exactly, but everyone knows pretty much what would happen if people always acted in the most loving way. Secondly, That's a false choice. Assuming I bought into the idea of God as a person type deity he could know every possibility. That's different than predetermined. It's actually knowing more than a predetermined path because he would know every possibility based on every random choice any man, animal, or natural happenstance would take. If it's not predetermined and there are 50 trillion pathways instead of just one, and God knew all of them, that would be knowing more, and be more omniscient than just knowing one predetermined path.
