wolfbiblemoon

I know this means to not believe that the stars and sun influence your life, but I don't think there's any real issue with being in awe of signs that occur in the sky, some of those things are pretty amazing sights.

Israel begs God not to destroy everything for their sins because they don't control their own destinies and can't determine what will happen to them. Well, exactly.

Jeremiah is getting to be another repetitive book, God just keeps threatening that he'll do all this bad stuff because noone worshipped him properly and he's feeling all jealous about it.

AS for Jeremiah himself, some people are getting fed up of all his prophesying and are plotting to kill him, but God says he'll get them for their plotting.

God will punish all the people in the lands around his land and then take pity on them because then they will believe in him and follow him, really?

Oh, and I wanted to share a little something on the subject of souls that makes interesting reading.

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From: (Anonymous)

this part in jeremiah was talking about the practice of astrology and such. 1 corinthians 2:13,14 tells us that those who refuse to acknowledge god will always follow worldly reasoning. Real faith in god will never make sense unless you experience him for yourself. It truly is a matter of "faith". What do you put your faith in? People, yourself, things, ideas? When everything in life crashes down around you where do you turn? When people disappoint or you you lose your health or a loved one or your past just haunts you where do you turn? Because for me there was a time I had nowhere but god and once I found that it was the world that no longer made sense. I'm not trying to bring about sarcastic comments, just wondering your honest thoughts.

From: (Anonymous)

I loved what you thought

From:

voodooskeleton.livejournal.com

Just like a child, who also can't make sense of the world, with an imaginary friend!

From: (Anonymous)

Just as god calls us to be.

From:

zteccc.livejournal.com

Sure, there are amazing sights in the sky, but they don't have any impact on our lives. We make our own decisions, not the stars.

Chapter 10 talks at length against worshiping idols because that is what the nation of Judah was doing at that time.

The section about Judah pleading not to be destroyed is juxtaposed with the what they were doing at the time. This was the typical "God if you get me out of this, I'll change my ways", but they didn't take any steps to change their ways and return to the covenant. They were making this same prayer to all of the idols they worshiped at the same time which suggests that their prayer to God wasn't really all that genuine.

The repetition comes from the type of book. The book of Jeremiah chronicles the discourse between the prophet Jeremiah and the people and rulers of Judah, since that discourse went on for many years (giving the people plenty of time to change their ways), it can indeed get repetitive. Note that Jeremiah is a prophet and the warnings are prophetic warnings about an invading army that will come at some point (the Babylonian empire did indeed come and conquer Judah to fulfill his prophecies).

Jeremiah, being a prophet of God was indeed protected by God. Similarly, Elijah was protected when the king of his day, Ahab, wanted him killed.

God gives countless second chances. The people will go through a period of punishment, but will learn from this and will return to a faith in God. They, of course, know that they broke the covenant, and will seek to return to God's favor. Yes, really (it happened just this way, so Jeremiah's prophecy was shown to be true).

From:

wolfpurplemoon

We make our own decisions, not the stars.

I agree with that, but it seems that within the bible God makes all the decisions which isn't much better than thinking the stars control your fate.

From:

wolfpurplemoon

1 corinthians 2:13,14 tells us that those who refuse to acknowledge god will always follow worldly reasoning.

And what is so wrong with worldly reasoning? I think any reasoning is better than "just having faith". If your life has crashed down, and people disappoint you then I can see the appeal of believing it's all for a greater purpose, but that's just deluding yourself. And if I have health problems I'll be putting my faith in doctors and modern medicine, just a little thing we have because of that worldly reasoning.

From:

zteccc.livejournal.com

Does it really seem that way?

If God really made all the decisions, then people would always do right things. They wouldn't sin, they wouldn't worship idols, cheat each other, etc.

I think it is quite clear (in the Old Testament) that God sets a standard, and consequences for not meeting that standard, and people are asked to do their best to live up to it. When they don't, the consequences take effect. Many times in the Old Testament, people do genuinely repent and God always restores them to prosperity. When they do not, then justice prevails.

From: (Anonymous)

Often unbelievers equate faith in god as superstition. But faith in the unseen is a common everyday occurence for all. We have faith that the unseen restaurant worker hasn't poisoned our meal. We have faith in gravity. And scientists scientific research depends on it. Although the objectivity of science is often stressed, their work vests on several theories began in faith. They start by believing there is an orderly reality to be observed before its ever seen. Faith sees the invisible but not the nonexistant.superstition sees the unreal and nonexistant. As we learn to discern between unreality and invisible reality, we discover a world of difference.
However faith is only as valid as the object it is placed in. For example, a sick little girl is taken to a witch dr by her father. The father may have complete faith in him, but no matter how much his faith in the potion, it won't save her if it is mere water. Some years ago a man in texas found he had inherited a fortune from a relative in england he had never heard of. Even though he was completely broke, he would not believe it. He died starving. The objective truth remained, but he missed out because of his lack of faith in the unseen.
Everyone believes in something. In the realm of everyday human experience, we tend to treat facts as facts. Few of us have trouble accepting the concept disbelief can't destroy objective facts. Yet many think that by saying he isn't real they can wipe him from existance. The object of someones faith, not their intensity of belief or disbelief determines its validity.
Since the object of the christians faith is jesus, we must ask ouselves is he is a valid object for our faith. It is only by putting the hypothesis to the test of personal experience through a relationship with him that we can prove him trustworthy and absolute.
Is it only psychological? In studies psychologists try to keep the factors constant in those who have testified to a personal encounter. But the only true constant is jesus.christianity differs from autohynosis, wish fulfillment and all other such phenomena in that the subjective experience is securely bound to jesus resurrection. The fact that this happened has no meaning to me personally or experientiallyuntil I receive him into my life. But if I have only the experience
Ill begin wondering if it was real. It has to be recognized that the experience is based on a solid foundation of an objective historical fact.-paul little.

From: (Anonymous)

Hi My name is Simon from Australia, I am down as anonomous due to not being able to go live. I have been following you on youversion and love to read your thoughts. I am also encouraged and challenged by the responses given. I am and have been a Christian for a long time. I just wanted to encourage you to keep reading and even though you are looking from the outside in dont be afraid to ask God to show you a few things about what you dont understand. I have also started reading the bible in a year for the first time aswell and have just completed it. There are alot of things that I dont understand, especially about the OLD testament prophets, but slowly things are being revealed to me. I hope you find what you are looking for on this journey and keep searching. Because as a Christian and has someone who lived not as a Christian for a long time before that, it is much better with God then without. All the best I love it!!