What IS God

[Gray]

4 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

What Bible version is that?
KJV says "35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him."

Very different meaning.

The original Hebrew can apparently be translated either way.

ETA, sorry, didn't answer your question. It's not from a particular version of the Bible. There is a rabbi who translates it this way.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Gray

[Gray]

4 hours ago, hope_for_things said:

Interesting you can tie this to that Deut scripture, its amazing what concepts about God we read about.  Its much more expansive than the typical, God is X and God is not X kind of discussion.  Thanks for sharing.  

Thank you! This concept has been  transformative for me

Edited July 14, 2017 by Gray

[Maidservant]

My experience of GOD is

 . . . the ISness of life and of every moment

 . . . the exquisite taste of life and the world--the laughing and the crying, all smooshed together

. . . a treasure hunt: there is only God, and I look upon everyone and everything, trusting the revelation that will come to reveal HIM in that person or that moment--I am *never* disappointed

. . . me running and laughing, HE running and laughing after me; he knows he will catch me, and I know I will let him; lovers

I wrote the following a year or so ago.

///////////////////////////////////////////////

LOVE FUGUE

Did you leave . . . or did I?  (Elliot in the television show Mr. Robot)

If you were music, I would listen to you ceaselessly . . . . Anna Akhmatova

I remember the day I was told (by my mother) that I was God's child.  I am?!  Crazy joy.  I was nine years old.  I excitedly ran to tell my sister and her friend (who were eight), so that they could know.  It's a whole different world if you are God's child.  Someone known.  Someone seen.  Someone upheld.  Someone with gifts on the way.  That world.  The child's world.

Fast forward through--everything.  Tons of s***.

I'm tired.

All the things I used to know, now feel like a pillar I got plastered into just to keep the structure from falling down. [reference to a human sacrifice practice of some ancient cultures]

And God?

He's really tired too.  Wounded and weeping.  Defeated, really.  It's a hard world.  Would get any God down.

I just want to BE with him.  There's nothing to prove--not me, not him.

You are the only one who has understood even a whisper of me, and I will tell you that I am the only person who has understood even a whisper of you.  Jonathan Safran Foer

He knows where I am.  If he wants to be with me, he knows where I am.  He's invited.  He can lie with me in my bedroom, sit with me in my kitchen.  Walk down the road with me.  He knows where I am, and if he chooses to find me, I'm not going to send him away.

But does he come?

God and me.  Screaming at each other.  Where are you?!?  My God, My God, why have you forsaken me??? . . . Adam, where are you!?!

I don't need anything from you, God.  There, there, shh, shh, it's okay.  I'm not going to take anything from you, ask anything of you, judge you, leave you, misunderstand you . . . I'm just here.  I promise I won't obey you; I won't sacrifice anything; I won't keep the rules; I won't pay you;  I won't fear you; I won't do any rituals; I won't wear the right clothes; I won't say the right words.

I'll just be me.

You just be you.  That's okay by me.

That heart of thine shall be mine,
and this heart of mine shall be thine.
—Chāndogya Brāhmaṇa, Chaper 1

If you need me, God, if you miss me, you can come.  I'm here.  Sit awhile.  Rest.  Show me your bloody palms and I will kiss them and bind them and put medicine on them.  I'll put my arms around you and you can cry.  I won't mind.  I won't tell anyone.  I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. 

I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.  John Steinbeck

You don't have to fear in my presence.  You can just breathe.  I will breathe, too, unafraid--sad, mad, broken--exhilarated.  All of those kinds of breathings.

And I will come and be your noonday sun and make your shadows palaces of light. And you will show me your flowers. Thomas Merton

Because it's always you. 

I feel I stand in a desert with my hands outstretched, and you are raining down upon me.  Patricia Highsmith

Sit with me, tough, fragile, Beloved God, and we'll breathe together and the world will continue.  Sit until you feel strong enough to rise again.

And I'd choose you
In a hundred lifetimes,
In a hundred worlds,
In any version of reality,
I'd find you and
I'd choose you.
~~The Chaos of Stars

Does he come?

“Pooh,” said Piglet.
“Yes, Piglet,” answered Pooh.
“Nothing, I just wanted to be sure you were there.”

Edited July 14, 2017 by Maidservant

[rchorse]

Quote

I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of a being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man.

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make himself visible—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1971/04/the-king-follett-sermon?lang=eng

 

[Atheist Mormon]

23 hours ago, hope_for_things said:

Religions often debate about what God IS in an ontological sense, but I would like to set that question aside for this thread and talk about what God IS from an experiential perspective.  What IS God to each of you, individually, experientially, what IS God.  I think this list of descriptions will be constantly growing and changing, but let me go first with what God IS to me.  

God is love

God is wonder

God is a voice inside my head

God is confusing

God is hurt

God is essence

God is the beautiful leaf, the majestic mountain, the crashing wave

God is silence when I need the comfort and I get nothing

God is there

God is nowhere

God is....

I like your post, except that I gave up chasing this elusive non_existent, almighty, imaginary entity long time ago....It was like a chasing after uninterested, non_responsive woman of my dreams that I don't even know she exists or pigment of my imagination. 

I have to fly to Salt Lake for a sad reason that I lost my best friend. We used to joke about making sure we'd let aeachother know whomever is gone first to other side. Of course the silence rules for the simple reason that the Brain is dead.. But it is not that bad...... the Life is a huge Gift for all of us.

[hope_for_things]

8 hours ago, Maidservant said:

My experience of GOD is

Wow, I'm speechless at this post, just contemplating, so much to think about.  Beautiful, thank you so much for sharing.  

[hope_for_things]

42 minutes ago, Atheist Mormon said:

I like your post, except that I gave up chasing this elusive non_existent, almighty, imaginary entity long time ago....It was like a chasing after uninterested, non_responsive woman of my dreams that I don't even know she exists or pigment of my imagination. 

I have to fly to Salt Lake for a sad reason that I lost my best friend. We used to joke about making sure we'd let aeachother know whomever is gone first to other side. Of course the silence rules for the simple reason that the Brain is dead.. But it is not that bad...... the Life is a huge Gift for all of us.

I understand, I'm not sure God is an almighty entity, God might be very well be non_existent.  This is why I wanted to hear from people's experience.  If your experience with God is nothing, non-existent and always has been, then I honor that.  I can't imagine a world where we all experience life the same way, our brains work differently, our perspectives will be different.  I honor your reality, and I'm not saying God IS for everyone.  

Also, so sorry to hear about the loss of your best friend.  Best wishes

[thesometimesaint]

16 hours ago, Atheist Mormon said:

Sorry, that shows how much you've read origin of the species.

I've read On the Origin of Species. It is a very good book. but hardly the first to propose such. BTW Darwin had no knowledge of DNA the mechanism for evolution.

Are you proposing God doesn't know about DNA?

Edited July 14, 2017 by thesometimesaint

[BlueDreams]

Well first, it's not "what" for me it's "who"....or "whom," to be exact.

I experience God as a relationship, a familial one. With Father and Mother and Christ both father and brother...my savior and rebirth. I trust Them. And feel loved by Them. Sometimes I'm angry with them, sometimes I'm grateful. Sometimes I'm just catching up on thoughts about my day or questions in my heart. Sometimes they come in very unexpected moments and sometimes I'm desperate to have them but they're a little distant as They give me space to work something out first.  In unexpected beautiful moments I know them and know that I am known. There have been precious moments where I feel them as if I would feel my brother or a friend  sitting next to me but not touching. The presence of a hug. The sensation of a smile. The gentle care of a hand near my face. And in Them I am loved. 

The experience of God is a means of either communication or becoming. I have communed through paint, nature, temple, and community. In other people's care and love. Through angels both seen and unseen, mortal and spirit. Through learning and communing with those I serve and those who've served me. In charity and kindness. In symbols and my garden. In a still small voice and peace.  

I've experienced God by receiving more of the nature of Christ through the HS. This is through pain and experience. Struggle and sweet joys. In moments where I see myself more and more in my PB....this person He's always known was there. Through going and doing. Through success and failures. Through loving another. And learning how to love. Through my weaknesses. And by humble submission. And in the end a stability of soul that grows deeper and more poignant by the day. The world seems brighter to me, more rich. Even as some of it feels darker and depleted by fallen man.

I resonate in my experience with 2 Cor 4: 6, 8-9; Isaiah 61:3. Lately I've resonated with certain hymns more than I usually do as well. 

For me and where I'm at in my life God is not a question mark, but always round about me. They are a discovery of faith and knowledge that builds on what I knew and learned before. They are meaning and bring meaning to all that I experience even if the experiences themselves are confusing. They are what me feel whole when I've been broken, and loved when I'm alone. 

God is the only ones I trust implicitly. Though I am not perfect and can still rebel, doubt, fear, and question Them at times. In those moments I turn to them further. Wait and see....in time all that I've needed has been found cementing that trust a little deeper.

 

With luv,

BD

Edited July 14, 2017 by BlueDreams

[Atheist Mormon]

4 hours ago, thesometimesaint said:

I've read On the Origin of Species. It is a very good book. but hardly the first to propose such. BTW Darwin had no knowledge of DNA the mechanism for evolution.

Are you proposing God doesn't know about DNA?

Not only that, according to the Scriptures, God did not (neither Jesus) have a clue the world was a sphere. 

[Atheist Mormon]

7 hours ago, hope_for_things said:

I understand, I'm not sure God is an almighty entity, God might be very well be non_existent.  This is why I wanted to hear from people's experience.  If your experience with God is nothing, non-existent and always has been, then I honor that.  I can't imagine a world where we all experience life the same way, our brains work differently, our perspectives will be different.  I honor your reality, and I'm not saying God IS for everyone.  

Also, so sorry to hear about the loss of your best friend.  Best wishes

Yea, This death thing sucks more than anything in the scheme of Evolution I know......I like your thoughtful posts nevertheless.

[Rivers]

Just add an extra "o" and God is Good.

[thesometimesaint]

19 hours ago, Atheist Mormon said:

Not only that, according to the Scriptures, God did not (neither Jesus) have a clue the world was a sphere. 

Who wrote Scripture? Mere mortal men with all types of wrong idea's attributing something they didn't know about to God. As I asked earlier. Tell me everything you know. I have a minute.

Edited July 15, 2017 by thesometimesaint