by gskern » August 24th, 2005, 10:42 pm
A few points, for clarity (oh how I love Clarity):
1. It's GSKERN... note the (relatively simple) spelling...
2. I am most definitely Male...
3. I NEVER said that God directly talking to us -- literally -- was "not possible"... indeed, I have demonstrated (I hope) a sincere eagerness to talk to someone, anyone, who has LITERALLY had a LEGITIMATE, audible, one-on-one encounter of the SAME sort as (if you'll remember my comparison) I would have with my friend at the coffee shop...
THAT is the experience that I have described as "rare". Usually, when pressed, people who profess to have had such experiences finally break down and admit that it's more of a "feeling" or "awareness" or a "sense of God's presence" or some such highly-subjective encounter... Might those encounters be God? Certainly! Might they also be the Mind talking back to itself? Why of course. We simply don't know.
And all the babble about "personal relationship with God" is, to me, highly suspicious. I personally believe I will glorify God more if I leave off all the feel-good prattle about a "relationship" and focus purely on understanding His revealed Will, and then obeying...
Not to say that there aren't some "feel good" moments... I've enjoyed MANY of these, often while I'm meditating on something LEWIS wrote... but I am careful not to mistake my own reveries as "encounters with God"... I will see Him SOMEday, and until then, He is (quietly, mysteriously, from what seems like a distance) changing me....