Most personally convincing reasons you don't believe.

[Silver]

'Bitterness' is in the mind of the beholder.  To be bitter one must assume that their want/will should supersede that which they have been subjected to.

Interesting to see that you have incorporated new age hooey into your Christian hooey.

[purplepurpose]

Your a female?

If your saying females do not know bitterness, then you must be transgendered.

And no.

What I was suggesting is that men are ambitious or greedy. Your selfless attitude is alien or rare to modern world. Choking your ambitious is like putting a wild animal in the cage. You don't need to use that nonsense psychology like "your just assumming, submit, I am happy because I do Gods will". When wild animal is caged it feels pain... And thats is unacceptable, even if you trying to pretend otherwise.

[Angrboda]

Your take on this whole mess is based on the idea that this parable was ONLY used to tied the whole Sermon on the mount (3 chapters in the book of Mt) together.

No, that is not my whole take on it. I'm well aware of Luke 6, as I am that it says "my the words" in Luke, which given my nonexistent Greek sounds like what he's referring to are those specific words he spoke that day or lesson. Matthew is even more explicit in referring to "these words".

[Angrboda]

You're beginning to sound like a used car salesman, Drich.

Funny that you mention that.. One of my business has me own a independent car dealership. (We do sell used cars but most of what we sell are new.)
That said sincerity is the quality i believe you think is thinning. I can assure you that I believe and stake my own eternal existence on what I have shared. I'm all in here penny and pound.

No, I mean you literally sound like a used car salesman.

Why? Is it because I am simply reading what is on page and stopping with what is on page. Not filtering it first through the traditional church view?

You're stopping at what's on the page is one problem.  There's ANE literary traditions which you fail to take into account, for one.  Reading the passages in Genesis 2 it becomes clear how each segment of Genesis 2 is connected with some variant of the Hebrew word for 'and'.  This concatenation of events is not an indicator that they all happened contemporaneously, but that they form a series of events, starting I guess you can say on day 3, but not limited to day 3.  You're no bible scholar, Drich.  Others have looked at the Hebrew for millennia and come away with different answers.  I trust them a whole lot more than your reading of English "Easy To Read" versions of the bible.

....I have made no bones about my lack of understanding and education. That however makes no difference in my usefulness to God. Before I came here I spent 5 years debating and studying under men like you have describes and over time I found that they (like you) rely on a 'traditional understanding, and their educations in that tradition to validate what they believe. To them, and to you I ask, if your prize of knowledge is based on tradition, then what separates you from the Pharisees and Sadducee that Christ had such contempt for??

This is quite the leap you're making here. I don't know much about Pharisees and Sadduccees and Jesus attitude toward them, but I doubt it was based on a contempt for people who practice good scholarship. Re: where did Nod come from, etc.? Again, you're asking that it all make sense and is consistent. These are ancient myths you're dealing with Drich. A lot of times they just didn't make sense (not speaking of the bible in particular, but myth in general). Your problem is you require it all to make sense and be consistent. And it leads you to postulates such as your monkey man which really have no foundation in the bible other than in your overly literal and poorly informed exegesis.

[Pat Mustard]

This is what the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is (what we are supposed to be A/S/K-ing for) It is direct contact with God. My proof of God is meaningless outside as an example of what God offers to do for each and every single one of you who will simply "meet Him in the upper room" by Ask, Seek Knocking for the Holy Spirit.

Bit of a random musing, actually; You know what I've never really heard? A theist/apologist teaching that God doesn't answer some folks because he hates them. Or rather, knows they wouldn't make a good fit, so to speak.

That would be a perfectly "plausible" explanation as to why some people never hear back from Him, next to Him just not being there, of course. 
At least as likely as "not believing right", it would seem. 
Though, I can certainly understand why you all would think that would be no good could come of telling telling some folks that they will never be 'called'. 

If your God already knows who won't make the cut, that would make A/S/King an exercise in futility for some, wouldn't it?
Heh heh...If people have A/S/Ked and received radio silence, may they should just take the hint.

I thought that was the whole point of calvinism, "god hates the rest of yiz, but he loves me and my homies. No matter how depraved we get (and we go pretty low) we gets to heaven, no matter how good yiz are ye gets hell."

[Pat Mustard]

If your saying females do not know bitterness, then you must be transgendered.

And no.

What I was suggesting is that men are ambitious or greedy. Your selfless attitude is alien or rare to modern world. Choking your ambitious is like putting a wild animal in the cage. You don't need to use that nonsense psychology like "your just assumming, submit, I am happy because I do Gods will". When wild animal is caged it feels pain... And thats is unacceptable,  even if you trying to pretend otherwise.

Dripshit selfless? He's made it abundantly clear that without his private Big Brother, he'd be out raping, killing, stealing and j-walking every day of the week. The only way to be moral according to Dripshit is through fear of god.

[purplepurpose]

Constable dorlf, what pisses off people(including me) is that he wishes to become a container for holy spirit or walk down the path of martyrs.

His extreme example might be just for the preaching purposes, he might be turning on "savage" mode to preach better.

[robvalue]

I expect several people put on an act here, to represent what they think Jesus/Muhammad/whatever would want them to be like, rather than how they actually are.

Who exactly is acting and who isn't is hard to tell.

[Drich]

If your saying females do not know bitterness, then you must be transgendered.

And no.

What I was suggesting is that men are ambitious or greedy. Your selfless attitude is alien or rare to modern world. Choking your ambitious is like putting a wild animal in the cage. You don't need to use that nonsense psychology like "your just assumming, submit, I am happy because I do Gods will". When wild animal is caged it feels pain... And thats is unacceptable,  even if you trying to pretend otherwise.

To be honest and I know I am running the risk of being called a braggart, but I have met tremendous success honoring God's will, by simply doing the best I can with what God gave me. I have no disillusion bout what I know and who I am/What my education would allow me to do in life. I have been given far more by God than I could ever achieve on my own. I'm kinda like the son of a business owner who keeps getting more and more of the business just because I am related and I do/am faithful to what I have been given.

It's all Kinda spelled out in the parable of the talents.

So can one find contentment following God's will? Yes if he is simply honest with himself about who he is and is faithful to what he has been given.

I strongly believe we were all built for a specific purpose, and will never truly be happy till we are doing the job we are designed to do. Many of us have bought the lie that power and independence is the only key to happiness. To that I'd say ask Robin williams, Prince, Michael Jackson or bill cosby what their fame and fortune bought them while they were alive. Happiness is contentment. One can not be content until he comes to terms about who he really is and acknowledges the limits that bind him. In other words if you truly believe the sky is your personal limit, then you will never be able to be happy/content till you own all of it. even then (as per the examples of the men I just listed) contentment/happiness can be just as illusive.

And that's what it is all about right? To be happy? Truly genuinely Happy.

[quip]

And that's what it is all about right? To be happy? Truly genuinely Happy.

No, not necessarily. Happiness is a transient emotion...incapable of being maintained.

Are you willing to accept the possibility that the truth (whatever that may be) may not align to your succored preconceived notion of it?