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Original poster

Does God withhold blessings from Christians who are living in disobedience?

479 replies

Jewcy · 03/05/2013 18:00

I am a Christian but my husband is not. I am desperate to be a better person in God's eyes but can not escape the instruction in 2 Corinth ch 6 re being unequally yoked to non-believers. I am nearly 42 and desperately trying to start a family (I mc'd last year). We are due to fly to the Czech Republic in June for donor egg IVF but I can't help worrying that God will not bless me with a child whilst I continue to willfully live a disobedient life. I entered into a relationship with my husband knowing that it is not God's will for me to be with a non-Christian. Am I to be forever outside of God's will? My prayer life has become almost non-existent as I don't feel I can appeal to the Lord for his blessings re a baby and yet it is all I can think about.

I guess the real problem here is that my obsession with starting a family has superceded my devotion and surrender to God's will. Please help me Sad

OP posts:
Spero · 05/05/2013 21:31

Ah, the old canard - how can you have a moral compass of you don't believe in god?

It's quite easy actually. I don't do stuff to people I wouldn't want done to me. So I don't rob, kill, cheat or lie and I try t be kind.

I don't need fear of hell fire to make me good.

Sorry op for diversion. I wish you all he luck in the world for your treatment - and I really do think it is luck and science involved here, not an angry or cruel god.

daftdame · 05/05/2013 21:33

Nicholas do you not think truth exists separately from what we can, as humans, realise?

Re. Ellsberg paradox, what is your take on it?

Dismissiveness is a negative assertion, to be more scientific you should admit when something just not known.

Original poster
Jewcy · 05/05/2013 21:34

So there is your answer op - just ignore the bits of the Bible that make you uncomfortable.

None of the bible makes me uncomfortable. My discomfort lies in my seemingly endless ability to live exactly how I please when there is a loving God who wants the very best for me.

I've had some marvellous reassurances, though, from the kind people on here Smile

OP posts:
daftdame · 05/05/2013 21:36

By the way, I do not hold with any killing back, I merely accept hubris.

Spero · 05/05/2013 21:36

I thought the whole point of this op was how upset a certain part of the Bible was making you?

Sorry if I have missed the point.

But I appear to being told that you can disregard the OT if you feel like it, which must be a comfort of sorts.

bruxeur · 05/05/2013 21:38

God's finely tuned moral compass stopped the Pope from speaking up about the Holocaust. He's a real swell guy. But hey, fuck'em, they were only jews. That's almost as bad as gays!

bruxeur · 05/05/2013 21:40

So Lev 18:22 doesn't make you uncomfortable, OP? You're not uncomfortable about being a bigot?

Spero · 05/05/2013 21:42

And don't fogey all the kiddy fiddler priests quietly shipped off to other parishes. Thank goodness Christians have their Bible to show them the way! Heavens knows what evil disgusting things they would do without the Good Book t guide them!

Sorry for being so snipey but very little pisses me off more than being told I cannot have a 'moral compass' because I don't believe in any god(s). I find that very insulting.

LynetteScavo · 05/05/2013 21:43

" I have never been so wretched as when I lived by my own rules and for my own pleasures."

But isn't that what you are doing now, being married to a non-Christian, and having IVF?

This is NOT what I believe...it's what I think you think God wants.

Personally I think God wants people to be happy and kind and have babies and bring them up with love.

You need to stop beating yourself up. I think you get a lot of comfort from prayer, and you aren't praying much atm because you don't think you deserve that comfort.

I think you should pray....not necessarily for a baby, but for guidance.

BackOnlyBriefly · 05/05/2013 21:47

None of the bible makes me uncomfortable

Personally I don't like kids being mutilated and killed, but it takes all kinds to make a world as my old mum used to say.

daftdame, I do not hold with any killing Have you told god that you disagree with him?

Spero · 05/05/2013 21:51

Don't worry, of god was advocating killing people, he didn't really mean it, or it was acceptable at the time or insert justification of our choice here.

Yup, without faith it is all entirely bonkers.

So op, embrace your faith. Trust your god. Trying to dissect scripture seems sure fire path to unhappiness and uncertainty.

daftdame · 05/05/2013 21:51

spero I didn't tell you anything, I asked.

Crimes are committed by all sorts, but do you believe in forgiveness and redemption. Or are the most faulty completely doomed? Is there anything to predict these faults? What next, eugenics?

Spero · 05/05/2013 21:53

But how on earth do you think it is a question worth asking? Do you really think atheists are immoral and lacking moral compass? What about Hindus? Buddhists? Jains?

daftdame · 05/05/2013 21:55

back so you know what God thinks but do not believe He exists? If He is merely a figment of my imagination what right have you to define him?

Spero · 05/05/2013 21:56

And what on earth do you mean by 'doomed'?? To hell? What do you mean by 'faulty'?

I will abide by the criminal law, those who commit crimes are punished accordingly. I try to forgive people who wrong me as bitterness is very corrosive. When we die, we die.

That doesn't mean I am wallowing in chaos or entropy. It means I try to make the best of this one life.

daftdame · 05/05/2013 22:06

spero what you believe is your choice entirely and the same goes for me.

What are you doing on a spiritual thread, you can't be surprised surely?

BackOnlyBriefly · 05/05/2013 22:07

daftdame I am pointing out the inconsistency in people's positions. For that it isn't necessary to establish whether god exists or not.

You defend god's actions in the OT yet you say you don't approve of killing. That is a contradiction.

daftdame · 05/05/2013 22:13

back what do you do with the things you don't understand? The things that are beyond understanding? Do you believe these things just don't exist...

bruxeur · 05/05/2013 22:14

Ah! The god of the gaps argument.

God's been getting quite a lot smaller since the Enlightenment, hasn't he? Do you think he's well?

BackOnlyBriefly · 05/05/2013 22:19

daftdame There are plenty of things I don't know. It doesn't make me despair and nor should it. It's perfectly ok that there is more to find out. what I don't do is make up something to explain them. Thunder & lightning was frightening once and that's why people thought gods caused it, but now we can make lightning and learn how it works in school.

Not sure why you think some things are 'beyond understanding?' and how would you know?

daftdame · 05/05/2013 22:20

Alive and well.

Do you lot come out in force on spiritual threads? bruxeur et al..

You seem quite satisfied with your 'answers' so I'll let you be.

bruxeur · 05/05/2013 22:30

God will be as dead as Thor and Zeus soon enough. Perhaps those unwilling to think for themselves will be Scientologists by then.

Ilikethebreeze · 05/05/2013 22:32

Can I just say that I dont think it is helpful for Christians not to talk nicely on here to non christians.
I am a Christian btw.

Ilikethebreeze · 05/05/2013 22:32

I dont think atheists are necessarily immoral or lacking in moral compass to much of an extent either.
And fwiw, Spero, you sound to me like you behave very well. [better than some Christians].
I am a Christian btw.

Spero · 05/05/2013 22:41

Thank you breeze, I try and sometimes I fail but I will always try. So if there is a god I hope he will understand why I could not find faith.

I don't want to mock or deride anyone who doesn't think what I think. But nor do I think I should absent myself from threads about religion - even though I don't have a faith, I find it very interesting because of course so many people do believe in so many different kinds of gods and I am interested in why and how they have faith.

I joined this thread because I thought it sad the op was not finding comfort in her faith and I still struggle to understand why if god is love any of his followers should be so scared and so unsure of his love.

I am afraid I am still struggling to reconcile the unambiguous hatred of the OT with the message of Jesus.

But I do hope the op finds happiness, even if it isn't with a baby. I would wish that for everyone no matter what god they follow.