Spiritual Conversations with Friends / Family

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This one was a really interesting one... Another FaceBook Thread

• A.D. Mythology is more advanced than history and religion. Now it says here " one of the archangels, a cherub named Lucifer, son of the God walked in Eden blazing of jewels. His body a fire camellia, topazes, emeralds, diamonds, vigils, onyx, jasper, sapphire, cabonsal, and setinth. So in so many words the words Suton Lucifer they had to take out at the conference of Nice. As Alvin Boyd Kuhn said they had to go in and take out the word Lucifer. They had to take that word out and reduce it to one word in the Bible maybe two I don’t know. I know there is one in genesis or whatever. But they had to get rid of those text or you would know that Lucifer and Jesus was one in the same. One is the light and one is the bringer of light. Well if you are the light you have to bring the light.

 
• Stephanie Josiah I am lost on all of that. Sounds like a bunch of rubbish though.
  
  The Bible is pretty clear on the fact that Lucifer was an angel and since in the 3 persons of God there is not one that is an angel (one is Lord -Father and Creator, the other is Son, and the other is the Son's Holy spirit that comes to dwell in us when we receive Him)... None of the three persons/personalities of God are angels. They are one and were since the beginning - before time. Angels were made to worship and glorify God. Lucifer chose to glorify himself.
  
  His disobedience led to his downfall and removal from Heaven and God's grace. He then chose to tempt man, encouraging man to disobey God as well.
  
  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not destructive against each other... One would not tempt us in order to spite the other because they are One and in them is the perfect example of genuine love and relationship. (Not the romantic kind). So, in short... There is absolutely no way that Lucifer and Jesus are the same person. It would be counterintuitive to tempt man to fall, and then turn around and sacrifice Himself later on. Not to mention God's love for righteousness trumps that theory altogether.

   
• T.M. ur getting close to the truth at least

   
• A.D. Steph, did it ever occur to you that maybe the bible as we know it is not in fact 100% correct? Or that maybe some things got lost in translation?

   
• Stephanie Josiah Tell me something, have you read the entire Bible and do you have daily interaction with the God of the Bible? If so, we can continue this conversation and come to some conclusion based on what you and I both personally learned and experienced. Basically it's like: if we aren't in the same classroom... How could you tell me who my teacher is and what he teaches - and be accurate? I certainly wouldn't ask to hold your notes if I missed a class or two... Anyway I don't want to argue, I just felt like sharing since you felt so much like sharing. :-)

   
• A.D. U still didnt answer the question. Is the bible 100% accurate, yes or no?

   
• A.D. And this is not an argument

   
• Stephanie Josiah Anything can get lost in translation. That's why you have to do more than read a book to claim you know the author... You have to get to know the author.
  Many people could write about the exact same event and have different perspectives... But is the sum of all of them true? I believe the Bible is true. I believe it is the closest to the truth that any truth has ever been. Different people telling about the same events with very little discrepancies. Yea, and sadly... If people choose not to believe then what's the point of debating it. They have already made up their mind.
  
  But I don't believe in God just because of what the Bible says. I believe Him for everything He has done in my life and in the lives of my family. Without my personal experiences with Him... That Bible would just be another large book. And I've read PLENTY of large books as a Literary Major

   
• Stephanie Josiah If He could save my twin boys from certain death... Yea, busting all odds wide open... Told me plain and clear that I would have both boys (but one of them only for a time because he was so sick) I got three years I shouldnt have had with one and the other is completely healthy. I have strength to go through each day in spite of losing a child... Yea... Have had prayers answered over and over again. Had times I should have been killed and He literally walked me through a group of drunk and aroused men, at night, outside of a shut down club, and NOBODY DARED TOUCH ME. They offered a ride home, I declined, one even offered to walk me to my car as the others made inappropriate remarks and not one hair was harmed on my head. Now you know they've been pulling bodies out of the inner harbor and I could have easily been one of them that night.
  
  Countless other experiences... You see, it is the sum of the parts, reading, applying what I've learned, praying, praising God for all He has done and continues to do. Sure I could choose to chalk it all up to coincidences... But I've lived too many God filled moments to put my hope and trust 100% in any book but His :-)

   
• A.D. So the bible is 100% accurate? And im not goin against God in any way whatsoever, but people put the bible down as a historically accurate account and i wanna know if thats what people really feel, coz if there's even 1% of inaccuracy then which part or parts would be inaccurate?

   
• A.D. And God has blessed me many times over but it's not His fault if his book gets taken and bent outta order coz its up to us to seek and to find. If i was the devil the first thing i would do is manipulate the book

   
• Stephanie Josiah Or you could just claim that you and Jesus were one and the same LOL

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An Answer to a Friend's Question on Facebook - Pretty much a "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

This question was posted in one of my Facebook events online.  A friend wanted to know if anyone had an answer to her husband's question about why bad things happen to good people and how  some atheists argue that God is not God or good because of how He picks and chooses how and when to intervene.  I could only answer her from what I personally believe, what others have taught me, and what I have lived.  I think the most powerful testimony I can give is that I have lived through proof that God is both good and God and the two cannot be separated.  :0)  Let me know what you think of my answer.


... Okay, my answer on why do bad things happen to good people: define good... Are we good because we are less bad than the serial killer? Are we good because we are valued more? God says that we are ALL His workmanship and if we believe that is true, then surely He does not play favorites. Is my son worse off because I lost him? Or is he better off? Define better. Most of the issues we, as humans, struggle with are because our definitions are based on what we know. How could we possibly know what is better for us, good for us, or why things happen the way that they do? We have what God tells us and we can believe that He knows what is best and trust Him... Or we can keep eating apples that promise us that we will be wiser than our creator. I could ask, "why my son.. why my family... why did we have to lose someone so important to us?" but God's definition of "good" is that we had three years with a little boy (our Ishypoo) that we, by all medical odds, should never have had. That is nothing short of miraculous! Then add on the fact that He went out of His way to remind us that we were not alone as we battled all we would have to battle. All the blessings. All the revealing moments. Sure, we have pain in this world... we struggle, we fight, but that is because this world is fallen... that is because of us and us alone. And who is to say that the ones who think they have been so cheated and are not valuable... who is to say that they are not actually the CHOSEN/the rarest most world impacting? I once asked a youth camp counselor, "why would He have even made that tree if God knew we would bite from it? If He knew about all of the evil and hurt and horror that would be unleashed from that one disobedient decision?" And I'll never forget what the counselor said... He told me that [God loves us, loves us enough to allow us to love Him... not force us... not program us like robots... but to be the champion for our fallen lives... to bring us victory.] There is no victory without a struggle and no love without sacrifice. My son is in Heaven now, his destiny was and is the same as ours. We have a choice to live the gift of our lives to the fullest; blessing and honoring God by living and following after His footsteps... or we can leave this world at whatever age having never grasped His love. A child murdered by this world, but knew God as a best friend and father - has eternal life and that's harsh but it is long-term... we are talking eternally good. But if I were to live to be a thousand years old, as a "good person" and never struggling in pain for a moment and nothing bad happens and I don't know who God is and I die... Now that's very bad. Let God be God and let's stop judging how He reigns. He always intervenes... just not always how we would want Him to. Anyone who doubts God is good or makes good decisions... need only look to a very different tree and the man nailed to it for all of us. And He wasn't just good - yet evil happened to Him - He was and IS perfect :)

 

PS~ sorry for being long-winded but that was a couple doosies he asked... And I can only speak to what I have learned and lived. I challenge people, who don't believe, to make God personal to them... that's the only way they'll ever know for themselves that He exists. Like refusing to breathe air will kill you, you have to take it in... give it a shot... make it part of who you are inside... sure, you can't see it... but it will fill you and you will live and you will know for yourself that it is real because you breathed it in and it gave you life.