Diana_P is offline Diana_P Post #1  May 8,2011, 4:59pm
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So our preacher gave a very interesting sermon this Sunday. Sometimes he gets a little off topic but that is what really draws you in and makes you think. The point of today’s sermon was that, “God has no deficits.”

My neighbor and I have been friends ever since I moved into this house. We went to church together today and could both improve in the attendance area, but recently her faith has really been faltering. I blame it on the on again off again relationship with the father of her children. He’s been stringing her along for years and quite honestly simply making her life miserable! She hangs on to dear life to the hope he will one day marry her but I don’t ever see that happening, ever.

Anyway, she and I got into a heated conversation about today’s sermon.

“How did you take today’s sermon?” she asked.

“I thought it was pretty interesting,” I said.

“No, I mean what does it mean that God has no deficits?” she asked.

“Like the preacher said it means that God doesn’t need anything because God made everything,” I explained.

“That doesn’t make any sense! If God is perfect and has no deficits then why does he need us to love him?” She asked.

“God doesn’t need us to love him…..he wants us to love him,” I said.

“But still, Diana, that doesn’t make sense! Why would the Creator of all things WANT something that he doesn’t really need?” she asked.

“Aren’t there things that you want that you don’t need?” I asked.

“But I don’t have the power to create whatever I want like God does. The preacher said there isn’t anything that we can give to God that doesn’t already belong to him. He kept giving all these examples how God has no deficits. So what does God need us for?” She asked.

I couldn’t come up with a logical answer and my biblical knowledge is somewhat lacking so I had no answer of faith either. What would you have said to my friend?
 
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Wonderwoman402 is offline Wonderwoman402 Post #2  May 8,2011, 5:15pm
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Apparently, your preacher's version of G-d is greedy.
 
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hermes01 is offline hermes01 Post #3  May 8,2011, 10:27pm
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God...Infinite Power....does NOT 'need' anything......all there IS...IS God....What 'HE' 'SEES'..is beyond the word 'perfect'

'He' is beyond the word deficient
 
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PreachersSon is online now PreachersSon Post #4  May 8,2011, 11:00pm
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I think it was William Jennings Bryant who said that most people can argue with you forever, as long as you let them ask the questions. "Any three year old can come up with questions that no thinking adult can answer."

That is like asking "Why does God love us?" Because, honestly, we, as humans, aren't particularly lovable. It's a "Why" question, and not a "what" or "how" question, and "Why" questions are notoriously hard to answer rationally.

The best I can give you is Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God. But those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children." In other words, there are just some things we will never know, or understand. But those things we do know--such as, since God created everything, there is nothing He needs that He doesn't already have--we should embrace. But trying to figure out "why" that is true will probably be a pointless exercise in insipidity.

"There is nothing so stupid that some philosopher somewhere has not already said it." Unknown

As evidence of this, have you read much Kierkegard? Or Nietzche?
 
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llw11 is offline llw11 Post #5  May 9,2011, 5:34am
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sounds like your friend is asking too many questions. religion does not like it when you ask questions, .
 
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charmingphlsphr is offline charmingphlsphr Post #6  May 9,2011, 1:43pm
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Diana_P wrote :
I couldn’t come up with a logical answer and my biblical knowledge is somewhat lacking so I had no answer of faith either. What would you have said to my friend?
The individual you were speaking with is still having problems distinguishing the differences between 'want' and 'need.' God's creative power doesn't negate the possibility of want, nor does it preclude the potential process God decides to take. The better question would be "what does God want from us" or "why does He choose this path to take?" The first is easy to answer, though the latter requires the mind of God or revelation from God, neither of which we have in the Scripture pertaining this single inquiry. On a side note, I think Kierkegaard came closer than anyone else I have read from.
 
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acelticsteve is offline acelticsteve Post #7  May 11,2011, 8:34pm

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Diana_P wrote :
So our preacher gave a very interesting sermon this Sunday. Sometimes he gets a little off topic but that is what really draws you in and makes you think. The point of today’s sermon was that, “God has no deficits.”

My neighbor and I have been friends ever since I moved into this house. We went to church together today and could both improve in the attendance area, but recently her faith has really been faltering. I blame it on the on again off again relationship with the father of her children. He’s been stringing her along for years and quite honestly simply making her life miserable! She hangs on to dear life to the hope he will one day marry her but I don’t ever see that happening, ever.

Anyway, she and I got into a heated conversation about today’s sermon.

“How did you take today’s sermon?” she asked.

“I thought it was pretty interesting,” I said.

“No, I mean what does it mean that God has no deficits?” she asked.

“Like the preacher said it means that God doesn’t need anything because God made everything,” I explained.

“That doesn’t make any sense! If God is perfect and has no deficits then why does he need us to love him?” She asked.

“God doesn’t need us to love him…..he wants us to love him,” I said.

“But still, Diana, that doesn’t make sense! Why would the Creator of all things WANT something that he doesn’t really need?” she asked.

“Aren’t there things that you want that you don’t need?” I asked.

“But I don’t have the power to create whatever I want like God does. The preacher said there isn’t anything that we can give to God that doesn’t already belong to him. He kept giving all these examples how God has no deficits. So what does God need us for?” She asked.

I couldn’t come up with a logical answer and my biblical knowledge is somewhat lacking so I had no answer of faith either. What would you have said to my friend?
there is none, at lest to us. It has to do with love and what it realy is. If I love some on because I need them then I do not realy love them but I am using them. 1Corinthians 13:5 "(love)...seekith not her own..." (KJV) if love does not seek its own then what does it seek? le answer is the well being of the object of love, or the beloved. "love consist in this:not that we loved God, but that He loved us and and sent His Son to be a propitiaon for our sins" and "we love Him because He first loved us." 1st John 4: 10, 19 Here is the great mystory God's love, we do no deserve it, we can not earn it, and we can't live up to it, but he loves us any way. He even loves us when we denie his exixtance. Judging for what you hve told us about your friend I would sugest she just reach out and acept the unconditonal love God has to offer, and put her past, hopes, and dreams in His hands and bask in His sunlight.
 
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