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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSB who wrote (18258)	6/25/1998 1:06:00 AM
From: Raymond James Norris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

Mike: I noticed that Emile answered the question which you addressed to me, and after reading the ensuing exchange, I would have to say that is pretty much the way I see it How do you know that God is your spiritual Father? In so much as I am able to comprehend that which the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes to the word of God, I am more sure that it is God who is THE ONE AND ONLY, EVER WAS OR EVER WILL BE, than the atheist who dismisses God and claims, by their rejection of His Supreme Being, that He cannot be proven without a doubt. I've always wondered then, if they're so sure, what it is that they're sticking around to see or experience. Is it the agony of growing old which they look forward to? Is it that one place they've yet to see before they die? What? What is it that is compelling them to hang around, if there is no supreme deity whom I know as God? All very good points but I am not atheist. So what is my point? My point is that by certain reasoning, together with my emotions which I cannot uncouple from my thought process any time I please, I have come to the conclusion, through experience, that the feeling which came over, in, and upon me once I accepted that Christ is the only begotten Son of God.... According to the Bible, people should rest solely on reason and emotions should not be relied upon. Proverbs: "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool; but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." "Come let us reason together." These are God's words. He does not go on to say anything about resting one's faith on "feelings" or how they are moved. I believe many of it can be forced upon the body and fail to see the difference between Christians falling to the floor overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit and Buddhists falling to the floor overwhelmed with spiritual enlightenment. I'm sure you feel the Buddhists must be forcing their feelings on them but you can't prove they are and the Buddhists can't prove you are. Why? Because you're relying on something that cannot be proven and rests on the individual's own feelings, their heart. If we took the Christian and Buddhist and questioned them on the experience, we could not determine which one was genuine and which one was false. Of course the Christian does not believe the Buddhist is being inspired nor does the Buddhist believe the Christian is being inspired. And that is the fault and trade off of "feelings" playing any role in decision making towards the true and righteous path. You are in a sense telling me if I showed you hordes of facts and proof that God was one and that Islam was from God, you could ignore it all because of your "feelings" derived from the experience with the Holy Spirit. Does that make logical sense? To ignore in the face of facts based on our own feelings. It's like a Christian trying to convert a Jew and the Jew answering him that despite the overwhelming proof that Christianity were the true path, he gains a feeling through Practicing his religion unmatched in Christianity. So as I said, if you choose to let those feelings influence you, that's more than fine. It's your choice in this life and invariably you will be judged by it. But for myself, feelings are not sufficient. It is not sufficient because the feelings you expressed to me in your post are no different than hundreds I've heard from other religions including Islam. 2. Is one, whose parents are Muslim, automatically Muslim? In Christianity, even if one's parents are Christians Muslims believe every person born on this earth is born a believer. No one is born with sin (Ezekiel 18:20, Deuteronomy 24:16, Jeremiah 31:29-30, Ezekiel 18:1-9). Muslims believe that the parents of children often times give them religion, even though they are born Muslim. At the age of puberty, the person will then choose his/her religion. At that time, he/she may choose a religion other than Islam and that his choice. Do you believe that true faith in God can accomplish unexplainable acts of healing or miracles? Only God can do Miracles. No one has the power, not even Jesus (I do nothing of my own). So God may do a miracle but no has the power to do it, even if they are believing in one God. They can pray to God and ask him for the miracle but this nonsense of touching people is absurd. Have you ever been in an assembly where the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) was so strong that you were overcome with a desire to fall to your knees to praise God without the prompting of another? We do not believe that God is divided into three parts. God is one, not three that make one. So we don't believe in the Holy Spirit in the sense that Christians do. But I have been overwhelmed with desire to fall to my knees and praise God. 5 Times a day actually, as it is a requirement of all Muslims. But you probably don't care about my feelings since they aren't your feelings or consistent with your feelings. But I'm sure if I told you that the Holy Spirit moved me, you'd believe me. May the Peace and Blessings of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, be Upon you. Ray