mrbenja0618 said:
Jesus said this in the book of Matthew, chapter 6:“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
That is certainly good advice from Mr Jesus
So, yes there is reward for being righteous or being good. BUT, only if you do it with the mindset of not seeking reward. By doing it just to be righteous/good. God wants us to choose to be righteous because we desire to be righteous.
Of course, one could argue, that we do good things because we feel it's right, and because we feel good about doing them. It could also be argued (and it has) that so called "selfless" acts are also "selfish", that is, we do them because we know we will feel better about ourselves in the end. Not that it's a bad thing, after all. The result is still a good deed, and a good deed never goes unrewarded. If the person who receives it isn't what we call an asshole, he will certainly return the good deed.
[Dissertation about the Grand Canyon]
Yeah, but you really can't compare a finite hole in the ground (no matter how big) to an infinite Deity, can you? Even if you never ever ever leave the house, you're still going to somehow have the experience of a hole in the ground.
You don't know everything either. I could even ask if you know half of everything, and you would probably tell me no. You couldn't know half of everything, just like I couldn't. But let's just say for the sake of discussion that you do know half of everything. But, alas, you still do not know everything, so I ask you. Is it possible that this Jesus/God/Heaven thing could exist on the other half of the stuff you haven't learned yet?
I'll tell you, I don't know a quarter of everything. But to use a poker analogy, if I may, by looking at the cards I have in my hand, I can tell you, I'm pretty sure the rest of the deck is cards. There's not gonna be a blue whale in it.
Again, not arguing. Just giving a new perspective, and I'm up for respectable conversations. I just have to exit when people get rude/angry or start barking back and forth. I've been through that, and it does no one any good. Not saying you planned on doing that. But that it has happened to me on this thread. =)
Yeah, it's really useless when it happens.
I know you said more in your original post, but I need to go milk the cat or something. =)
I'll have some in my tea, thank you.