CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Mmm not sure I'd say "friends" in specific... Yeah it's a huge part, but not THE biggest... God wants us to have friendships and all, but I'd say it's simply the purpose of following Him^^

Well, that is the reason God made us. For fellowship. If there was nothing to do, what was there to follow?

hmm I think our ultimate purpose is as Tenshi no Ai says, to serve him. We had fellowship with God...and at the time that's all we needed, until we mucked it up...

Sure we need friends in our lives. But I think ultimately, our purpose has changed a bit. Now we are to spread God's Word to the lost...that includes our friends...

Matthew 28:18- 19 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

you arent necassarily wrong though.. ^^

You said this in the chat, and you got the same reaction. I don't agree with you. We were made to serve the Lord.

God made man because he wanted someone(s) to love him and worship him freely. (By their own choice of doing so)

Sorry, I don't want to turn this into a theological debate thread.

But I think God was not lonely. As a Trinitarian God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit enjoyed fellowship with one another in unity since eternity.

Nothing in creation was required to bring Him fulfillment, He was and is already fulfilled. Our existence is contingent.

I do think He greatly desires to have fellowship with us, but that does not automatically mean that He needed fellowship with us.

I thought it was 42.

I'm going to say you're on to something. Yes, we were created to serve God. Ther is no question about that. However, I believe we were [as evidenced by the Garden of Eden] specifically tasked with ruling the earth and caring for it, as well as having fellowship with God. That, of course, was revised to include sharing the Truth with all of mankind. So yes, the purpose of life is friendship, but it is much more than that. However, we probably shouldn't take this too far, as it's bound to go too far.

But I think just about everyone in this thread is on to something so far.

.rai//

Tidus stole the punch line...bad Tidus!

But to be seriously the meaning of life is certainly given in the golden rule:
do unto others as you would have them do unto you,which is also stated as
love God and your neighbor as yourself.To put it another way God doesn't want us to so much to serve him as to love him.Love of God is much more important than simply serving God.Anyone can serve a god without loving the said god,but this is not what God really desires.God wants our total undivided love.
When we learn to love God not because we have to but because we want to we are on the road to discovering what the meaning of life truelly is.

... Iguess I will meet an oposition in belief about this, I kinda thought that there would be more people to agree because of all the ones around here that agreed. Yes, we are to serve Him, yet, what was there to do in the time when it all began? Now, we are to follow him because there are things to do. Yet, when at the begining, were almost as the animals were, no knowlege of right or wrong, no other desire than to be with God and fellowship. What else was there to do? Now, our pourpose is to serve to bring it back to that way, perfect. The original meaning, I and some others believe, is being with God and fellowshipping. What are now to tell others and get them with God, and back the way it was. I think that sums up what I mean. I think of God as my No. 1 friend. He gave alot for us. He went through so much trouble. I would do that for my friends, wouldn't you???

The original meaning, I and some others believe, is being with God and fellowshipping.

I think you're right. Also, because God made us for fellowship with Him, and each other, it explains why loneliness can be so painful. Also, fellowship with God should help to ease that loneliness, right? Even if we don't have close friends etc. at the moment. Or do we have to have both to be really happy, I wonder?

Oh.

I thought it was Halo 3.

Ditalover wrote:Yes, we are to serve Him, yet, what was there to do in the time when it all began?

Well... I mean God is God. For all we know he could have been playing Final Fantasy XII... providing he really wanted too. Of course if he didn't, he could have been playing Zelda: Twilight Princess.

hmm... Like I said you aren't entirely wrong...

however I think God knew that things were going to change.. I mean he is GOD.

Besides...we DID have something to do...and that was BE WITH God, and name the animals. ^^;

I am not sure what you mean when you say go back to the way things used to be...if you mean spending time with God I guess I get it.

However, our society today isn't like that at all.. WE DO HAVE A JOB TO DO, that job is made up of many tasks. OF them: Follow/ Love God with all our being(this includes being good examples to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the lost) 2. Spreading God's love/ word to the lost, and so on and so forth.

So I guess what I am trying to say is, yeah life back then was about fellowship, but I am not quite sure if it is as simple as that anymore...they sorta tie intogether... but more complicated now...now we have a mission. A BIG mission.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments", Jesus said. That was no simple guilt trip. A pure and complete friendship ("Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints", "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend", "For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us") is the desired end of our relationship with God. Not that he won't positionally be our lord, but he doesn't want to have to pull rank forever.

Ultra Magnus wrote:Sorry, I don't want to turn this into a theological debate thread.

But I think God was not lonely. As a Trinitarian God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit enjoyed fellowship with one another in unity since eternity.

Nothing in creation was required to bring Him fulfillment, He was and is already fulfilled. Our existence is contingent.

I do think He greatly desires to have fellowship with us, but that does not automatically mean that He needed fellowship with us.

I think I've walked long enough in the faith to realize it is fruitless to question God's motives. To critics, that may sound like God is a tyrant beyond reproach but... well, that's half true (the beyond reproach part). It is simply that God is so beyond our ability to grasp that trying to think about it would probably make your head explode.

Nevertheless, I am thankful that God saw it fit to create us at all.

God doesn't have any motives other than he wants his creation to love him as
totally unconditionally as he loves us.I picture it this way,think of a cat resting on it's master's lap purring away as it sleeps and is petted at the same time.

I believe that the meaning of life is somewhat different for every person - to me, I believe that I am here to serve other people. As people seem to be the most important thing to God, I believe that helping others should be my priority.

corinthians says If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but hav enot love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and I have faith that can move mountains but have not love I gain nothing.

It seems to me like even fellowship is as nothing if you don't have love. The purpose of life is to love and be loved.

My opininion...
1:God made us
2:He loves us
3: He protects us...
So what we are going to do... Thank him and give our lives under his control...
It´s all what we can do for God... And he has done everything fo us...
To be thankful and thank God for everything in faith (even tought something bad happens) is a worthy gift for Lord Jesus and his/our father in Heavens

I believe that fellowship is a result of a life of obediance, but at the root purpose of all of this is to bring glory to God. Not just have fellowship with Him, or serve Him, but we were created to reflect Gods Glory. How do we do this? By obeying and serving God, as we serve God we develope a relationship with Him and thus grow in fellowship with Him.

Chief end of man? Glorify God.

Friendship, glorifying God... both very important and meaningful.
If you go back to Ecclesiastes Solomon makes some really excellent points as he explores different questions. Well, it can be a little depressing at times, lol, and when he was around, Christ, of course, hadn't yet come into the world... but in the end he concluded with this:

[quote="Ecclesiastes 12:13"]
13 "Now all has been heard]

Now, while that's good on how to live your life, I guess it doesn't really speak so obviously about the meaning of life. However, in reading through the book I found that (though of course I don't know it exactly) everything definitely comes back to God. So the meaning of our life is found in God; though I'm sure you, my fellow Christians, already knew that.

The way he explores how some things are so meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:2 " "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.") and the futilities of things like wealth, toil, etc, is really interesting (though at times depressing ). But it really shows how without God, there is no meaning to our lives.

Ecclesiastes is a good book. Though a bit depressing at first, the writer teaches us that instead of striving to understand God’s creation, we should simply enjoy God’s wonderful work and understand that everything He has done is intended to lead us to revere and serve Him.