There are a bunch of miracles happening in our world today. You just have to dig for them, because the enemy is trying to keep them underwraps.

CORRECTION! (I thought this for a long time as well, but) Satan cannot read our minds. He knows us so well only because he has his angels taking notes on us, all day, all night. He figures out our weaknesses, then makes the sin we so much enjoy look cute instead the atrocity it really is.

 True happiness. That's the key here. I'm sure they could find some place in their life where the emptiness feels almost overwhelming. You're not alone.

No. The penalty of sin is death. If no perfect person (Jesus) died, no one could have eternal life. Thank, God! (in all senses of the phrase. haha)

You know, I'm not completely sure. I would say yes, only if they don't believe that Jesus died for them, I suppose.

God follows through. Nothing else results in joy. Temporary happiness, possibly, but not true joy.

I'm glad you took the time to answer, these are similar to what I would have responded to, but probably would have been wordier, lol...

Keep seeking

haha, yeah. I thought about getting more indepth, but then reconsidered. She's already confused anyway.

I've thought about heaven/hell too... I made a decision not to care about my own fate, but rather to stand by my principles - in the end, they will prevail! And can sleep easy at night. Since you can talk to God and he's always watching, now's the time (while you're alive) to make your case + show him a living example of why you stand by whatever you do

"I don’t know what he directly means by that. Does he think that I’ll become one of those Christian writers someday…?"
I think he does, or that what you write will in some ways touch people. I don't think he's expecting it of you though, I think he's just trying to be nice but there's an element of belief showing in what he says

Good of you to go for Myles! Yeah, pretty much same for me - I don't think bible would teach me anything new, or the alpha-male types I used to cling to for support - I must look within myself. I also dislike authority because it uses force, rather than reason, and it's caused me pain before

I also sometimes think that God is speaking to me through songs I listen to
Hell yeah, that's why certain music is so popular, it's designed by the artist to speak to the soul. People can pick and choose what applies most, but don't take it as definitive, by any length, because it can be somewhat random what happens on the radio, and not all of it would be necessarily meant for you.

I’ve heard stories about Satanists becoming saved by Jesus Christ.
Jesus/God may've done it, but they both get all the credit
That said, I think it was wrong that Jesus be humanity's scapegoat for sin - how are we redeemed of our crimes by the sufferring of someone else? - We need to face our own punihsment to learn our lesson, then be released from it when we have

He was addicted to meth
I misread this as "He was addicted to math" lol!

1 - The need to believe (to cope), and trust
2 - I'd think both know, but I think free will puts what happens totally in human hands, God/Satan can at most only influence our desire to do things, but can't force a decision
3 - Being christian and being close to God are two totally different things - some christians are actually further from him because of fear I think. People don't have to acknowledge him to be similar to him, or to look within.
4 - I don't think anything one man could do could really save humanity - while we are still vulnerable to the Satan, we're not safe. It's extreemely hard, ardous work to turn a bad person good, jesus's death didn't directly do that.
5 - Depends whether they were a bad person and whether it really is necessary to use hell to make them a better person. Once they are, there's no sense in keeping them in hell
6 - Exactly High exposure brainwashes basically, and children believe anything adults say, and then people cling

My friend had testicular cancer and is being successfully treated for it. He has not used the word "miracle" about any of this.

 

My mother had thyroid cancer before I was born and beat it with medical care. Then she had me, followed by my two younger brothers. We have never entertained the idea that any of this has anything to do with miracles.

 

If by miracle you mean an amazing, unexpected event, then I don't begrudge the term. But strictly speaking, a miracle is when a higher power makes something happen that defies all possible explanation, like regrowing a cut off human limb or escaping the law of gravity. I submit that these things have never happened and never will happen. Belief in miracles is a poor argument in favor of religion, while the argument that religion consoles us in the times of life's greatest difficulties is strong. Despite this, many people dismiss all supernatural belief, even finding consolation unnecessary.

And I respectfully disagree.  I think that the definition of a miracle can be a little more open than you seem to believe.  Sure, Jesus performed miracles.  Raising Lazarus being the first and one of the most extraordinary that come to mind.  But I also think that smaller things can also be miracles.  Look up the Miriam-Webster definition of a miracle:
"2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment"

I'm not believing in miracles as an argument in favor of religion.  I believe in miracles because I know what, scientifically and biologically, should have happened to my Mother and it didn't.  What did happen is that God used my Mother to show people what true love meant and felt like and when she finally exhausted all of her energy her body gave out.

Again, I mean no disrespect.  Believe what you want to believe but there is no possible way that you can persuade me to call my Mother's 3 years, your friend's successful treatment, your Mother's successful treatment, and your birth along with your two brothers anything less than a miracle.

I hope all three of you can see this reply.  Here is a link to just one of the real miracles I have heard of, or seen with my own eyes.  In this case, my dad witnessed it, but he was a man of God and I believe it just as it was told, because I saw healings in services from time to time. It is worth the read.

Emily, miracles definitely still happen today, and there is no doubt about that.

Here is the link: http://bonniegirl.mindsay.com/miracle_of_all_miracles.mws  Read it and then come back to my answers to your other questions.

Sure, Misterskank can tell you what Christians are not, and that what we believe is a fallacy, but he can't give you the true road to the peace which only Christ can give.  So let him try on, to try to turn you away from Christ and his teachings, but I know that God has given you this inquiring mind for a reason, and that is because he doesn't have any grandchildren.

Your mother and father may be the best Christians ever, but there comes a time in all of our lives that we have to make the decision for ourselves.  And that is exactly why Christ put within us the power to make decisions, instead of just making us clean and pure and wonderful.  He wanted us to CHOOSE to ask his forgiveness, since he died that it is a free gift, and to accept his gift of salvation for ourselves, with all it entails.  It entails complete surrender to his rules, but only because He knows that they are for our own good and actually protect us in the long run. He didn't just want puppets or automatons, or he would have made us that way.  His angels are like that in a way. They can make the choice to rebel, as did Lucifer with those that went with him, but they do not have the choice of salvation, because until they don't need it. Even if they had to rebel, they would just go and join Satan and the others.

We are of the human race and through Eve,  and Adam who chose to follow her, have sin because they decided to disobey the commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  So, they brought the sin into the world and we have it in our genes when we are born, and that is why Christ, who is referred to as the "second Adam" had to come and take that sin away, so that we didn't have to pay for the innate sin by going to hell, but had a way out to come back into sweet communion and fellowship with God.

And of course, Satan knows he is doomed to go into the fiery pit that God has prepared for him and his angels, but the Bible says it has enlarged itself because he paints beautiful pictures that make sin look so beautiful, just as he lied and painted the fruit of the tree to be "something that will make you wise", when in the meantime, it took their innocence away and they were no longer under the protection of God because sin separates us from him and he had to send them away from the perfect garden that was their sanctuary, provided all of their needs, and in which they could walk and talk with God in the cool of the day. 

No, Satan is not omniscient, which is all knowing, or omnipresent, which means present everywhere at once. He is a created being, just as all of the creatures are. The only thing that God actually made with his own hands, is man and woman, and he breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. So yes, Satan just keeps his minions around to hear what is going on and what we say, but they definitely cannot read our minds.

So, to bring us back into that sweet communion and fellowship with God, He overshadowed Mary, and veiled himself in the flesh of his own son, Jesus, who grew up just as we do, and when the time was come, he took on the ministry of the father, to point them to the cross on which he would make the ultimate sacrifice to free them from sin that had just been rolled forward on the backs of the scape goats every year up until then, as the priests prayed over them and sent them out into the wilderness to wander until they died.  He was the ultimate "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (that was in the mind of God from then, but this was the fulfillment of that prophecy).

You asked why we say Jesus is the only one who brings peace when your friends who do not follow Christ seem to be better off than you do? Well, that will always be the way, Emily. When Christ has called someone from their mother's womb, psalm 139, they are special, and Satan knows that, and will try to make life just as difficult as he can, so that you will deny a Christian lifestyle.  The Bible even says that Christians look at "the wicked" and see that they seem to prosper. But just remember, that in this life we will have tribulations, unfortunately, but to be of good cheer because he has overcome the world.  Sure, it is not always easy here, but will be worth it in the end, when we live eternally in peach with the Lord. 

And also, we struggle much more when we are striving against what we know is right, and "kicking against the pricks" as the Bible says Paul was doing.  He knew that the Christians had something about them, and their teaching fulfilled the prophecy, but because he knew the God of the Old Testament, and that Jesus had to be the Messiah if what they said was true...he was kicking because he knew that the people he loved, the Jews, had crucified him...and he didn't want to give in to that and give his life to this man.  Yes, it is not always easy to follow the "narrow" way, but when we finally surrender, it is so worth the peace that we receive.

Finally, you have asked two more questions and here is my attempt to answer them.  A person who gives his life to Christ can ultimately lose his salvation if he rejects Christ and goes back like a dog to his own vomit.  Sure, the word says that "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" but if that person has not repented again, and turned back from and ungodly lifestyle before the coming of Christ, then he will lose out.  Yes, Christ died for sins, past, present and future, but that does not mean we can do what we like and still be saved.  It means that his BLOOD applies to all of the sins that we have committed and if we commit them again, unwittingly, or even knowingly, and we come to him in true repentance, he will cleanse us again in his own blood because of his word.  We have to be born again, and then live a consecrated lifestyle, i.e, one that shows God our interest in doing what his word says and what he prompts us to do from day to day, and also being witnesses for him so that we can help others also to have the salvation we have been given.  Then , he says, "he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved".

And the last thing you asked was, how do we know that he is the way, the truth and the life...that is the quote, but he is also a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path".  And the way we know he is not just like all of the inanimate idols that people worship, is because he was the only one who actually arose from the grave and came back as the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to fill the mouths and lives of his followers and still does that today.  He is the only one, that, when you pray, you actually "feel" his presence, moving in you and on you.  He is the only one who heals, saves and satisfies, and that you will only know when you experience it for yourself.  We do not go by feeling but by faith, BUT BUT BUT, the Bible says he dwells in the praises of His people and when we kneel down and use our voices to actually give him praise and adoration, he comes down and fills our mouths and our hearts with words we have never been taught, and a feeling that one can never describe, except when it happens to you.  That is the initial infilling of His Holy Spirit, who is our comforter and who gives us power to be witnesses and overcomers in this life. 

I know this has been long, but then your blog was long, and you had a lot of questions, Emily.  I do hope you will read it all, and read it carefully. I am willing to answer your questions that you ask in all sincerity but will not, of course answer them if you are just being snide or demeaning.

I am praying that God will lead you and guide you into all truth, for he is truly the truth the life and the way.

Love you, so much
me