Some scary stuff in book of Matthew.

[Zack702]

Because our physical lives are still temporary to this day. People still grow old and die to this day. The ground still produces weeds, thorns, and thistles, we still earn our food and rewards through only the sweat of our brows, women still have tremendous pain while giving birth, and people still wear clothing and coverings when it's 90s and 100s outside unlike Adam and Eve who were totally naked and had no shame at all (Genesis 2:25)

What if someone stole something of yours that cost $1000 dollars.
Could you find it in your heart to forgive them ?
According to law you are required to.
Also according to law they are required to pay you back the $1000 dollars (ten fold) wether or not it is from the heart.

God lifted the curse from the ground of the Earth in the times of Noah.
And for that reason large cities like Babble and Egypt were able to flourish and house many slaves.

I think that parts of these are consequences of the changes that were effected in us when we became knowing so to speak. For example pain and worry and being afraid and ashamed.

Even still God's main message is solid. That is if you do what is right and turn away from doing what is wrong then you will be accepted and remembered. I think this was just as true for Adam and Eve as it is for us.

[buster]

Also, as far as I know it, before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the law contained just one individual rule only; Thou shall not eat the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. But today, after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the law now contains upwards of 600 individual rules and places us all on a tight rope over the Lake of Fire, plus a scripture that says that anyone who breaks one of the 600+ individual rules, even by mistake, will be cast into the lake of fire and will suffer eternal torture, pain, and agony forever. (Matthew 5:48, for instance) And in fact, I do see the walking the tight rope over the lake of fire as another consequence of eating the forbidden fruit.

[Saved7]

Ok, so now that we know what the real issue is here, I think it would be wise on your part to do a couple of things. One is please please pray that God would reveal HIMSELF to you through His Word, help you to know know Him more. That's key when reading the scriptures, otherwise all you're going to see is a God that is all about rules rules rules and one who is impossible to please.

The other thing is this, spend a lot of time in prayer, just talking with Him and listening for Him to speak, seeking to know Him more. Not just once in a while, but daily, and not just for a week or so, but the rest of your days. As time passes, you'll know Him more, and as you pray to know Him more, you will know Him more, there is so much to God that we can never know all there is to know. And I don't mean to know ABOUT Him, which it seems that's what you have here, you know ABOUT Him, but you don't seem to know HIS CHARACTER, Him.

God is not angry with man, neither is he trying to rain on our parade, he wants to REIGN IN our parades and He wants us along side of him in that parade.

Apart from missing out on His character, you seem to be missing a huge piece of the puzzle. From the beginning God had the plan of redemption laid out for man, before ever a man was formed! Do you understand what that means? Before man sinned, a God of love, loved His future creation and planned on redeeming us before we even sinned. "The Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world." Buster, he's trying to bring us to a perfect place, he's not trying to condemn us. He's trying to save us and He has already saved you because you believe. How simple is that!!! You didn't have to do the work, Jesus did it for you, you just believe and follow HIm. He gave everything for you, this should make you WANT to lay down everything for him as well.

God is trying to form us and bring us into a place where we look so much like Christ that people see God in us, that God is glorified in us.
2 Corinthinians 3: 18But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This is far from a curse buster, indeed it is the greatest blessing of all! But if we are not willing to lay down our sins, then how can we have this blessed opportunity? He's given us the power to overcome sin, and He's even given us the tools and believe me, righteousness is far better and weighs so much less than sin.

Romans 6:20For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Buster, I could go on until you are jumping out of your seat with joy from what God has done. But then it wouldn't be in your heart, you wouldn't fully grasp the goodness that God has shown toward us. With that said, I leave you with this, what I have written here, pray to God to reveal more of this to you, pray that He will cause your heart to truly know him in a deep and intimate way, and continue to pray for this. Don't give up because you don't get it right away, but keep going, pound on heaven's doors until you get what you want. But when you do get what you want, don't be surprised if you keep pounding because you want more! I know that I do.

Blessings to you and in your journey to find God.

[buster]

God lifted the curse from the ground of the Earth in the times of Noah.
And for that reason large cities like Babble and Egypt were able to flourish and house many slaves.

I wouldn't exactly believe that. Even today, gardens and farms still need to be weeded periodically, as I am sure many gardeners know. The soil in garden patches and flower beds still, to this day, produces over the course of the growing season undesireable (and even invasive) plants such as dandelions, crab grass, quack grass, lambsquarters, ragweed, curly dock, purslane, garlic mustard, creeping charlie, and sometimes even downright nasties such as common burdock and even occasionally tall thistle, poison ivy, and stinging nettle.

[MoreMercy]

buster, you are eating a sandwich with your fingers mixed in between the slices of bread.

Try looking for God in His word first, don't look for "your fingers" or your fellow's fingers in it.
Just look for Him in it...



Father have mercy on us.

[tango]

Another thing that bothers me is indeed the "love your enemies" part. I mean, who would ever want to walk up to someone who does nothing but harmful things to him, and has even did something really mean to him a few hours ago, and say to that person; "Want to come over for dinner and a movie tonight?" Anyone, even Christians, in general would want to simply avoid physical and social contact with that person until the person changed for the better.

Where does the Bible say I have to invite the people who hate me to dinner and a movie?

There's a big difference between giving my enemy a drink when he is thirsty (i.e. meeting a specific need), and inviting him round to my place for a slap up meal and unfettered access to my drinks cabinet (i.e. meeting a generic desire).

[tango]

More than less. As of now, I believe the Lord is still unhappy with mankind for eating the forbidden fruit, and that our entire Earthly lives are to be spent in nonstop limbo if we are to have any chance at all of going to heaven. In fact, when I am down and I think of what Adam and Eve did, I usually imagine Adam and Eve in the absolute most worst part of the lake of fire. Kind of like the second post in a thread found at http://www.topix.com/forum/world/syr...TFPJ3BU6B1MSTF

Part of following Jesus involves a change of heart. The things we used to enjoy doing become the things we don't particularly want to do any more. So there's no sense of God spoiling all our fun, just a sense of us realising such things were empty all along.

Think of how a child might regard going to McDonalds as a great thing. Then a teenager might continue to go to McDonalds on the basis the food is OK and it's a place to hang with their friends. Then as an adult they taste fillet steak and realise that what McDonalds serves isn't comparable in any way at all and is just cheap rubbish. Have they had their fun spoilt, or have they just realised there's something so much better out there that they don't want the rubbish any more?

[Noeb]

I wouldn't exactly believe that. Even today, gardens and farms still need to be weeded periodically, as I am sure many gardeners know. The soil in garden patches and flower beds still, to this day, produces over the course of the growing season undesireable (and even invasive) plants such as dandelions, crab grass, quack grass, lambsquarters, ragweed, curly dock, purslane, garlic mustard, creeping charlie, and sometimes even downright nasties such as common burdock and even occasionally tall thistle, poison ivy, and stinging nettle.

Scripture says it. I believe it. You don't have to. Maybe they are undesireable to lazy people with a garden, only wanting certain things in that garden, but that's not the context of the garden or the curse, which was work in the garden and after they sinned, growing food. Besides, some of those you listed are edible, and have medicinal and culinary uses. The curse was that it would be very difficult to grow food because of weeds, not that they did not exist. It's not difficult. People either forget or do not know that when God created Adam and put him in the garden, He told Adam to work.

[buster]

Additionally, everyone who gardens knows that, if those weeds are not pulled out and thrown into the garbage, they will multiply, spread, and eventually kill off the crops in the garden. When weeds get big, they can block out sunlight and pull water out of the soil that is highly valuable to the crops. This is especially serious when weeds grow in areas where certain low growing crops such as wheat, soybeans, broccoli, cabbage, pumpkins, squash, and lettuce are grown. Same thing even goes with lawns and common lawn weeds such as crabgrass and dandelions; if you don't pull them out, they'll eventually wreck your lawn. And pulling weeds is a rather daunting task that is capable of leaving one sore and achey.

[Zack702]

Additionally, everyone who gardens knows that, if those weeds are not pulled out and thrown into the garbage, they will multiply, spread, and eventually kill off the crops in the garden. When weeds get big, they can block out sunlight and pull water out of the soil that is highly valuable to the crops. This is especially serious when weeds grow in areas where certain low growing crops such as wheat, soybeans, broccoli, cabbage, pumpkins, squash, and lettuce are grown. Same thing even goes with lawns and common lawn weeds such as crabgrass and dandelions; if you don't pull them out, they'll eventually wreck your lawn. And pulling weeds is a rather daunting task that is capable of leaving one sore and achey.

Even still the ground yields vegetables and fruits every season. I have fruit trees and they bare fruit every kind apple,cherry,peach and plum every year. I do nothing to them and they are totaly covered in lichen.

I plant vegetables usually every summer and sometimes I never weed the garden. It will be full of weeds and still have vegetables. I just think that the curse that was before the flood was far worse than a few weeds which are normal. Vegetables grow easily these days even with weeds all around.

[Saved7]

Mod note: I think we may be getting a bit off track here, if we're not careful we'll slip into whether or not the earth is cursed still as opposed to trying to understand Matthew.

[Dani H]

Additionally, everyone who gardens knows that, if those weeds are not pulled out and thrown into the garbage, they will multiply, spread, and eventually kill off the crops in the garden. When weeds get big, they can block out sunlight and pull water out of the soil that is highly valuable to the crops. This is especially serious when weeds grow in areas where certain low growing crops such as wheat, soybeans, broccoli, cabbage, pumpkins, squash, and lettuce are grown. Same thing even goes with lawns and common lawn weeds such as crabgrass and dandelions; if you don't pull them out, they'll eventually wreck your lawn. And pulling weeds is a rather daunting task that is capable of leaving one sore and achey.

Yes but the purpose of pulling weeds is so that the plants you want can thrive and produce fruit.

Buster ... if you focus on the negative and punitive, then that's what you're going to end up obsessing over.

God is glorified when we produce fruit, though.

You're standing in front of a bunch of weeds, going "oh my".

So pull them, till that soil, plant good seeds, tend the plants, grow the fruit, and eat it.

[buster]

And this is especially what frightens me to death. Matthew also mentions the Lake of Fire many numerous times, seemingly way far more than it mentions Heaven. And I have seen numerous videos on Youtube of interviews with people who have seen the lake of fire and came back, including this one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRSjzY0s0SM What is most informative about it is between 6:00 and 6:50 in that video.

[Noeb]

Matthew is Jesus fulfilling the law -teaching what the law really meant- leaving all in the lake of fire. Why don't you read John for a while now?

[buster]

One night, I actually broke down and cried after seeing a couple of Youtube videos of the lake of fire. And nowadays, I really and totally believe what that plane crash guy said about the Lake of Fire, that you would never want any human being, even the worst behaved ones, to ever go in there at all. Not Saddam Hussein, not Adolf Hitler, not Osama bin Laden, and more than likely, not even Kim Jong-Il.

As Matthew is the first book of both the Gospel of Jesus and the New Testament, I really have a feeling that both God and Jesus must be all about rules, rules, and more rules, and that the "follow the rules, or be cast into the lake of fire forever" is part of man's punishment for original sin.

But the truth is, nobody is perfect. I am not perfect, my parents are not perfect, even priests and pastors are not perfect, every single person (except for Jesus Himself) who has ever walked the Earth has sinned before.