Annoying

[sheila]

he knew being alone was not good[it is not good for the man to be alone]  our father's nature is 'good'

  our expierenc with good/evil...is Him making us in His image and likeneess.   He is with us through it

  all..and  will see all through it.He has wrath against evil...just as we have impulses of anger against

  evil acts...if the righteous should strike me..it would even be a blessing..how so?  because when

  God in His wrath against evil strikes it down...He also delivers the child into a better..more wonderful

  life free from evil[glorious freedom of the sons of God]....

   in the days prior to the flood the evil ones had so multiplied to such an extent..that the good/evil balance

  as a teaching tool was out of wack.   all those who 'perished' in the flood were also delivered of the evil

  that possessed them

  Father keeps cutting short the time allowed for us to suffer evil...He knows precisely when we are ready

  as it is His work to form us.

   lawlessness has increased in the earth..for the lawless oppositional evil tool  has increased again

  and in harvest He always first gathers the evil tools /seperate  them from 'wheat'..and the barn..is

  Father's provisions in heaven for the life of His redeemed child

[thinktank]

But what is God's wrath?  I have a hard time understanding it.  Will God defy His nature of agape love, and step outside of agape love to inflict harm upon a human because he is upset?  IMO, that confuses the subject.  While I believe in God's wrath I believe it's somehow believed that God loses His cool, blows a fuse and wipes about about 1000 people.  Can this be?  I have a hard time believing so.  I think we must take a look at what wrath is...and can be be sourced from love? 

Read the book of proverbs. To me wrath sounds worse than anger.
but the book of proverbs says
Wrath is cruel but anger is outrageous

[sheila]

well the wrath of man is...also says..the mercies of a wicked man are cruel

...and this...the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God....which to me..implicates

  that God's wrath does work His righteousness/justice/mercy

[jabcat]

God's wrath does work His righteousness/justice/mercy

And this quote from Shawn- "I believe God hates anything that seperates His children from his agape love.  I believe it does anger Him.  But, I don't believe God ever inflicts harm...just to inflict harm..."

I agree.  Since God IS love, and since the scriptures say He is far better than any earthly parent - I have to believe that anything God does, whether we understand it or not - is out of love;  no, IS love.  And is working for a greater, perfect purpose that we just can't as yet see clearly.  If the best earthly parent, even if upset about what happened or what direction things seem headed so disciplines because he loves and wants only what's best for his child , "how much more your heavenly Father".

[shawn]

Amen Jab!

[sheila]

 amen,indeed!

[jabcat]

 :dsunny:

[reFORMer]

Many years ago, and I wish it was many more, I experienced something of God's wrath.  I spent much time in reading scripture, prayer and fasting then.  I was also very earnest and persecuted; so, though knowing the Lord but a handful of years, I was entering into other realms to which God can give admittance.  Some lesser and lower aspects were seeing spirits that affected other people and knowing their natures.  Righteous in knowledge of exalted truth, I was beyond controversies where, abandoned to God, His will is all that is known.  Seeing color by color laid down of the rainbows in the dust of God's feet, closer to where what we call the world emerges into appearance (by which we are not to judge,)  I could also see through walls . . . higher above the face of the earth there is blissful peace of perfect everything . . . I arrived at a crossroads where I regarded His opening gifts less than using spirits of lust as lit lamps along an avenue to my carnal pleasures.  God kicked me so far away I never came back.  (That was what was meant to happen.)  The awareness of my dying away from His perceived presence was several years in coming.  One feature of growing intimacy with Him took me four and a half years to even recognize was gone.  It was (to me) many more years 'til I saw something of the immensity of my loss.  Only recently have I had a couple of glimpses that indicate a possibility of recovery, though I've hoped so for a long time.

[lomarah]

Wow reF. Thank you for sharing that.  :HeartThrob:

[shawn]

I agree ReFORMer, thanks for sharing that.  I have a deep fear of God abandoning me to my sins.  What you describe sounds dreadful...but I know even in the mist of your pain God's grace and mercy are there. 

[sheila]

I,too, certainly know He disciplines......and have cried out..like David.....'Please don't take your Holy spirit

  away"   He can and does that at times..and leaves us to the non-mercies of those evil influences

  for the destruction of our flesh.  Yet even in that strictest of discipline...He recovers us ar the death

  of our flesh.  But when the glory leaves the temple..what is there but desolations?

  and He says...for I will not always strive with man..that He is but flesh..lest the spirit fail before me.

[goodreport]

I don't think that God wanting to share Himself with a created family indicates need...or a deficiency.  Could His desire only be an extension of His goodness...a manifestation of His agape love rather than an expression of lack.

We also have a very unclear picture of what God did or didn't do before He created the earth. 

Shawn, I have so much to share re: God's created family, but need to refine my "findings" a bit more.  So for now, I believe that John 17 tells us much of what God did before the foundation of the world.

He shared love and glory and a glorious plan with His only begotten Son

John 17:5
and now, O Father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

v 6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world...
(Eph 1:4-5  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world...  v 5 in love, having predestined us ...)

v 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

So sorry, I'm typing this quite rapidly... I have only a limited amount of time on the Internet...

I believe that the Scriptures clearly indicate that God has only ONE begotten Son and only ONE created son... God is love   LOVE begets and LOVE creates... and so much more....