Daily Quotes on Religion: October 4, 2007

Interesting perspective. He's welcome here.

Thank you for this. I am having quite a bad spell and it's nice to know that God is still my companion.

God is always welcome in our home and our hearts. Thanks for sharing this.

I understand his thinking, but disagree because I think God is all and is in all. A person may try to block out God, but God is still there.

I liked it Svetlana, existence of God is about faith... He is certainly with me all the time ..

I believe that God is THE dwelling ... and it is God's Spirit that indwells the entirety of God and all parts and aspect of God which we each are as gods, realized or not.

I believe this to be correct. God dwells in my heart and home and keeps me safe. But of course He has always been with me even when I didn't know who He was.

The Hasidic Rebbes, Like Zen masters, were intensely parasitical. It doens't matter where he is, if we do not recognise his presence, for us it is inoperative.

Interesting quote and more interesting comments. I guess we all arrive at it from different directions.

How true. How true. I pray that I always allow God in everywhere with me.

Sveta, Thank you for this Hasidic gem of wisdom.
This quote from the Talmud reminds me how great Creation is. "The sun will set without thy assistance." It is very much like the title of Barry Stevens' book from the 60's "Don't Push the River, It Flows By Itself".
Thank you for the invitation to be here, Sveta. Peace be with everyone.

GREAT THOUGHTS..

Thank you all, my dear friends!;-) As always, your comments were both interesting and uplifting.

I want to post a question before the group - would it be better to remove the older sayings as the time goes to replace them with the newer ones, or leave them all on my page?

Also, my warmest and deepest gratitude to Michele, Clarke and other members who submitted their sayings & writings to the group.

Love and blessings - S.

Sveta, another wonderful quote! Reminds us of our free will and the impact it can have on our relationship with God.

This is a very parochial and narrow view of God's presence. "God dwells wherever man lets Him in." It denies the fact that God is in all of His creations." He is in every tree, every bear, dog, wolf, spider, flea, gnat, mosquito, etc. What does man have to do with those creations? "God my dwell in every [wo]man who lets Him in, but to narrow the presence to such a self-centered extreme is, to my mind, ridiculous.

Delete Nothing ... keep it all.

Thank you for your comments, my dear ones... I see that opinions differ, as it should be with almost every thought worthy of pondering. ;-)

What I think the rabbi did mean is that God respects our freedom of will. Of course, God's presence in everything is fully recognized, but He/She will never intrude by force unless we welcome God in. ;-)

Dear Jerry - I'd love to, but I'm afraid there would be too many, so my original material would dissolve... anyway, let's wait a bit and see. ;-)

Love and blessings to everybody - S.

Svetlana, maybe I did not understand just what you were referring to by : " I want to post a question before the group - would it be better to remove the older sayings as the time goes to replace them with the newer ones, or leave them all on my page? " ??

What I was referring to was for you to not delete the Articles and their threads from the Gather system, all should be retained as Gather does have the 'capacity' to keep it all ... or maybe there is a 'problem' that I am unaware of ....

"God dwells wherever man lets Him in."

It may be a "parochial and narrow view of God's presence" but it is valid due to our free will.

God is not welcome in many schools, colleges, events, political parties, forums of debate, etc.

God being there and God dwelling there are two different issues. God is everywhere as the students replied and were correct. But God truly dwells only where he is invited. God and Christ Jesus are gentlemen. Christ says in Revelation 3.20 -
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

Dwelling is living with, entertaining, enjoying ones company. It is much more than the state of just being somewhere; it is a state of fellowship and relationship.

Donald, you say in part (all of the 'other' I agree with you) that " God is not welcome in many schools, colleges, events, political parties, forums of debate, etc. "

I do not want to start an argument, but in reference to the dislike of the interjection of the "God" issue is so often due to the fact that so many of the "christians" that seek to put God into those places are actually really attempting to place their own RELIGION of Christianity there ... and they seem to believe (many of them) that God and Jesus are completely interchangeable, one and the same for 'their' practical purposes ... and that may well be so for those purposes.

But most that would have NO problem at all with involvement with an UNconditionally Loving God, just want nothing to do with specific religious views about that. It is really that simple in my mind.

Jerry, I have been told on a few occasions that I should not interject my beliefs in a forum such as Gather. The problem I see with this is my freedom of speech and religion; my freedom to share my thoughts and beliefs conflict with others. This is similar in schools and other forums. I agree that freedom of religion does not allow me to enforce my beliefs on others and I would fight trying to force others to believe as I believe. Alternatively, I also will fight and find it offensive that Christians are criticised for their beliefs when participating and sharing them in these forums.

A good example of this is the beliefs of Mitt Romney. I do not agree with all of the Mormon religion; but at the same time I would defend Mr. Romney's rights to have these beliefs and believe he has as much right to participate in the political forums and run for president as any other. Often it is not believers in Christ, God, or a religion that make it an issue but those that do not agree with them. Who is abrogating whose freedoms? Who is trying to exclude who? This is the kind of exclusion I see and disagree with in many of these forums.

Donald, yes it is often said that religion and politics should never be discussed by people that prefer to get along with each other ... yet those are the two most important subjects that affect so much of our lives, not to mention deaths in more ways than one.

Therefore I see Gather as one of the very best places to bring all such out into the light of day to possibly open some minds, with very important things to be considered and reconsidered ...

But I still maintain that it is the difference between God and Christ that is the bone of contention regards religion in public forums ... maybe not so much the actual difference as the way those beliefs are presented by the practitioners. IMnsHO of course.