I'm a G-d fearing Jew.
I still write G-d with a hyphen because in Hebrew School they taught us that if a page with "G-d" written on it ended up in the trash bin, we would risk no dishonor.
I think about everything I do in terms of where I might end up, figuring if there is a place to end up in and if I do something good in life, I get a check mark; if not, I get an x, and my final destination is determined accordingly.
It's a confusing outlook, I know, but a hedge because no one really knows a damn thing about G-d in the real sense of how He/She operates. We pray. We ask for guidance, wisdom and forgiveness. We atone for sins. We dedicate ourselves to family, goodness and charity. But whom are we really talking to? We hope it's G-d.
But we don't really know.
I only bring this up because in the last few days I've watched two mesmerizing events on my laptop. One was Glenn Beck's speech in Washington; the other was an extraordinary video of a small Taliban commando unit, shot last Fall by a Norwegian journalist who was granted access to their activities by its leader, a young man named Dawran Safi.
The settings couldn't have been more disparate - Beck, standing at a lectern in front of the Lincoln Memorial; Dawran, hiding out in an Afghan mountain fortress, from where he ordered his troops to machine-gun passing American convoys. He had his two small children with him.
What linked these impossibly different events was the role G-d played in their unfolding. Beck implored Americans to turn back to G-d to restore honor to the country. The implication - to me, anyway -- was that G-d would then do the right thing and protect us as a nation.
Dawran and his men imbued their attacks on the American troops with reverence to Allah, as if carrying out their mission would protect them and earn them future credits for their allegiance.
G-d, Allah, Supreme Being, the Creator: these are all one and the same, right? Why would G-d be any nicer to Americans for revering him than to Taliban snipers for doing the same? Dawran was no less certain that he was serving G-d than Beck was.
It all kind of made me wonder what the hell G-d really wants, if He/She wants anything at all.
Much of what I know of Islamic fundamentalists comes what I read and see in news accounts. I'm not sure their reverence for G-d or Allah has done much for them, at least here on earth. They haven't built much, they don't seem to eat well and they don't have a lot of material goods, apart from machine guns and grenade launchers.
And they're probably still a ways off from their goal of turning the world into a Caliphate, ruled by Sharia Law.
So I see this as a lesson for the Glenn Becks of our country. G-d is going to do what G-d is going to do -- or not -- so far as I can tell. I'm good with quiet, respectful prayer. I love my religion and what it teaches me about living a life of honesty, good deeds and high aspiration.
I know that was part of Beck's message, and that's fine as far as it goes. But I'd hate to think that we Americans are relying on reverence for G-d as a quid pro quo that's going to keep us safe or restore some honor that Beck thinks we've misplaced.
Fear G-d, sure. Respect G-d, that's good with me. But I'm not sure He/She has an answer to wars, a bad economy, high unemployment and a lousy real estate market no matter how much we pray. We'd better take care of those things ourselves -- or risk the consequences.
Er...what god? I've never seen one.
For those who believe in one, should they follow the written scripture message rather than worshiping the messenger they will find fear [proceeding with cautious learning] of god shows the individual the way out of *a bad economy, high unemployment and a lousy real estate market.*
From the Judao-Christian scriptures, god provided man everything without a social life requiring economy, employment and estate market. Actually, at man's suppose creation (Genesis 1:26-29) there was not even family except the species with earth every life's real estate and source of food. It wasn't until a need for the ground tiller (Genesis 2:5) was decided that we have man living in territories, groups, and having dos and don'ts. From those dos and don'ts imposed on man came the need for those things and more.
Should man cautiously learn the way of life preceding our earth's tilling, the whole of earth would return to it natural way of peace with earth being a shared home for all life and every life obtaining its needs for survival from the abundance of life on earth. Thereby, man's health would improve, the only employment being obtaining our needs and real estate being free.
A very good article with questions I've asked myself.If you believe Jesus is God,as I do,you'd have to agree with Jesus when he said his Kingdom is not of this world. His people are in the world, but not of it.Jesus did not come and overturn the tables of the Roman rulers and he did not rail against the romans,but against those religious leaders of the day and some of their followers who proclaimed they were of God and spoke for God,but were not of God and preached contrary to what God taught.
As for God being the same God but called by differnt names, I don't think so.The islamic terrorist and taliban worship a differnt God,one who's personality is not at all like that of Jesus.I know God by looking at Jesus in the bible,others look elsewhere.God is who he is no matter what we might want him to be,that is very true.But the God I believe is The "God", is not at all the same God as the taliban worship.No more than the author of this article is Paris Hilton,no matter how much some of you may wish he were :)
Worry about taking care of people; God can more than take care of herself/himself/itself.
AND THE ANSWER IS : " ARE WE ON G-d's SIDE? "
In chapter five of the book the book of Joshua, Joshua, newly come into the land of Canaan, was near Jericho reconnoitering the land as all the Canaanites had yet to be vanquished. Joshua came upon a man whose sword was drawn standing in his path. Many Christians, as do I, believe this to be the pre-incarnate Christ. Here is what happened.
Joshua 5:13 ¶ And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
15 And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
let's all just live morally just lives and call it a day. even though that is kind of hard when x is killing x
And their side asks God's blessin';
And we meet out on the field,
Never seem to learn our lesson.
But yeah, a barrage of "G-d" in place of "god" hurts the eyes.
http://glennbeckreport.com/glenn-beck-lies/lie-of-the-day-archive/