Who is God? What do we have to do with him?

For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
---ROMANS 14.11-12

Actually you can experience God and I can show you who God is but it has to be his way.  That's the first problem:  We want it our way.  There were a few men that experienced this but not today.  Of course---faith---we have to have faith that God is right?  Right!---it's his way:

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: [then] came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace [be] unto you.
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed [are] they that have not seen, and [yet] have believed.
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
---JOHN 20.25-31 


Why do we have to have faith in God?  

But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
---HEBREWS 11.6

Which one of your five senses tells you that the LORD God is real?  Looks like your eyes and your mind are involved here:
 
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
---ROMANS 1.20

And God already did this for all men (and that includes women):

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
---ROMANS 5.6-10

So why do we read this book The Holy Bible?  Because it is a testament to the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.  That's the short answer:

For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
---HEBREWS 9.16



Who is Atlas Shrugged?  Is he real?  What does he require of us?  Did he justify us by his blood?  Is my reasoning with men out of the scriptures just superstition and a lack of logic?

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
---ACTS 17.2

DEFINITION OF "reason":  http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,reason

I SAW THIS COMMENT (to which he is entitled to make):
People like superstition bro! People like you or myself will bear the damnation for the sin of reason, because we think and act, while they wish and pray. They make their emotions their tool for perceiving reality. They hold their desires as an irreducible primary, as a fact superseding all facts. Logical men say "It is, therefore I want it". They say "i want it, therefore it is". Morons


LOG'IC, n. [L. id; Gr. from reason, to speak.]

The art of thinking and reasoning justly.

Logic is the art of using reason well in our inquiries after truth, and the communication of it to others.

Logic may be defined, the science or history of the human mind, as it traces the progress of our knowledge from our first conceptions through their different combinations, and the numerous deductions that result from comparing them with one another.

Correct reasoning implies correct thinking and legitimate inferences from premises, which are principles assumed or admitted to be just. Logic then includes the art of thinking, as well as the art of reasoning.

The purpose of logic is to direct the intellectual powers in the investigation of truth, and in the communication of it to others.

See how the art of thinking and reasoning is recorded in The Holy Bible:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=reasoned&t=KJV


SUPERSTI'TION, n. [L. superstitio, supersto; super and sto, to stand.]

1. Excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice; extreme and unnecessary scruples in the observance of religious rites not commanded, or of points of minor importance; excess or extravagance in religion; the doing of things not required by God, or abstaining from things not forbidden; or the belief of what is absurd, or belief without evidence.

Superstition has reference to god, to religion, or to beings superior to man.

2. False religion; false worship.

3. Rite or practice proceeding from excess of scruples in religion. In this sense, it admits of a plural.

They the truth

With superstitions and traditions taint.

4. Excessive nicety; scrupulous exactness.

5. Belief in the direct agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events, or in omens and prognostics.

SUPERSTI'TIOUS, a. [L. superstitiosus.]

1. Over scrupulous and rigid in religious observances; addicted to superstition; full of idle fancies and scruples in regard to religion; as superstitious people.

2. Proceeding from superstition; manifesting superstition; as superstitious rites; superstitious observances.

3. Over exact; scrupulous beyond need.Superstitious use, in law, the use of land for a religious purpose, or by a religious corporation.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, [Ye] men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
---ACTS 17.22

Here is the entire chapter surrounding the above verse.  It would do well to read it and see the superstition and the logic of reasoning out of the scriptures that took place:  http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Act&c=17&t=KJV#22 

Here describes the gospel in detail:  http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=1Cr&c=15&t=KJV#1 

Some people UNDERLINE and study "Atlas Shrugged" from one cover to the other.  Is that superstition and superstitious?  But they themselves say that they don't believe in the one true and living God who doesn't dwell in temples made with hands and who actually was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.  I find that God's word is true and that there is a marked contrast between natural men and spiritual men...as it is written:

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
---I CORINTHIANS 2.13-16

The gospel of George Carlin

George Carlin had his own ideas about the invisible God in whom he did not believe.  There really is much RELIGION today that both teaches and preaches a "good bullshit story" but it's not the truth in Christ.  It's really a sad day today and something really is definitely wrong.  But the gospel of Christ is really good news as pointed out above.

Can you see the wind?

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
---JOHN 3.8

What does this invisible God look like?

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
---COLOSSIANS 1.12-17 


If you were annoyed by the various chapter and verse quotes above and would rather read the wisdom of "Atlas Shrugged" or other philosophies,  just remember you are reading a book written by man.   

Bigfoot?

 You mean Sasquatch? :-)

I'll comment more on this later....busy now....

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
---HEBREWS 11.1 (faith defined)


In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  
---GENESIS 1.1

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
---HEBREWS 11.3


Hear what the LORD God has to say about himself:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=45&t=KJV#5

The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none that doeth good.
---PSALM 14.1

The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: [there is] none that doeth good.
---PSALM 53.1

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that [there is] none beside me. I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else.
---ISAIAH 45.6