How’re you gonna be running around talking about how God’s your Father while simultaneously rejecting the fact that there are rules He put in place for you?
This whole idea of “God just wants us to be happy as long as we have faith we’re saved.” conveniently ignores the fact that He’s still our Abba; Father.
Only a totally inept dad would let kids as unruly and stupid as humans run amok without any guidelines.
Refuse to listen to the devil when he whispers to you: give me now,
and you will give tomorrow to God. No, no! Spend all the hours of your
life in a way pleasing to God; keep in your mind the thought that after
the present hour you will not be given another and that you will have to
render a strict account for every minute of this present hour.
– From Unseen Warfare, St. Theophan the Recluse and St. Nicodemus
“As all men are touched by God’s love, so all are also touched by the desire for His intimacy. No one escapes this longing; we are all kings in exile, miserable without the Infinite. Those who reject the grace of God have a desire to avoid God, as those who accept it have a desire for God. The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist…The denial of God springs from a man’s desire not to have a God—from his wish that there were no Justice behind the universe, so that his injustices would fear not retribution; from his desire that there be no Law, so that he may not be judged by it; from his wish that there were no Absolute Goodness, that he might go on sinning with impunity. That is why the modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion—he would be incapable of such a resentment if God were only a myth. His feeling toward God is the same as that which a wicked man has for one whom he has wronged: he wishes he were dead so that he could do nothing to avenge the wrong. The betrayer of friendship knows his friend exists, but he wished he did not; the post-Christian atheist knows God exists, but he desires He should not.”
Sometimes Christians make you feel like God is just obligated to love you and He only tolerates you, and while God does absolutely hate sin, He doesn’t love you because He has to. He designed you. He likes you. He wanted you. He doesn’t just loves you in a “God loves the whole world so He has to love me too” sense. It’s personal to Him.
Wide Spread Interests 