Does God care if we are happy?

[DPC poultry]

Ecclesiastes 3:12 " There is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live"

 

[Louieandthecrew]

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Yes, I do agree

 

[CoyoteMagic]

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It also says.............
18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

basicly you may work like a dog but there is nothing you can do about it.

PEOPLE!! You can't take things out of context if you want to prove your point!

 

[Robo]

Ephesians 3

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

God wants us to be happy, but we suffer for our own good. God did not create suffering or pain. He created free choice so that we may expeirience real love. When he gave us free choice we chose suffering. God created us to be happy, as C.S. Lewis said: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” He is saying that God knows there is pain and that it will shape us into better people. The only way we can expeirience real love and real happiness is by expeiriencing pain. I hope this will help you.

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Quote:
It also says.............
18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

basicly you may work like a dog but there is nothing you can do about it.

PEOPLE!! You can't take things out of context if you want to prove your point!

But, after all, this is not God or Jesus speaking, but this is Salomon speaking after trying all kinds of things that this world has to offer and figuring out that it's all worthless. (I have some great notes from a teaching my pastor said on this and if you'd like to hear them shoot me a PM

I say this because some of you would very muchly DISlike to hear it

)... I know, muchly isn't a word

 

[CoyoteMagic]

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Who chose?! surely it wasn't me. I would have never chose to have gone through the suffering I have. Heck, I wouldn't want anyone to go through the suffering I have been through. With this you are saying, a child chooses to be abused, a woman chooses to be raped, a man choose to for his family to die. So much for a merciful god

 

[Louieandthecrew]

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Who chose?! surely it wasn't me. I would have never chose to have gone through the suffering I have. Heck, I wouldn't want anyone to go through the suffering I have been through. With this you are saying, a child chooses to be abused, a woman chooses to be raped, a man choose to for his family to die. So much for a merciful god

You chose suffering by not choosing Jesus. This is what she/he is trying to say.

Please, don't go off on me here, but you can PM me if you'd like. I've really liked browsing through this thread.

 

[Wolfwoman]

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That statement means that people that have chosen Jesus don't suffer.

That's very simply, not true.

 

[redhen]

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Who chose?! surely it wasn't me. I would have never chose to have gone through the suffering I have. Heck, I wouldn't want anyone to go through the suffering I have been through. With this you are saying, a child chooses to be abused, a woman chooses to be raped, a man choose to for his family to die. So much for a merciful god

Yep.. so much for that idea...
I've never though he was merciful... actually the exact opposite of that. If you pizzed him off your toast.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

So what ya'll are saying is that because that little kid over in the Sudan is dying of malnutrition is because he didn't chose Jesus. He may have never of heard of Jesus how is he suppose to have chosen.

How about the little one growing up in poverty in Guatemala? Those kids are in the church by the time they take their second breath. They didn't choose the right one?