There's a C.S. Lewis quote about the risk vs benefit of knowing God, what it is?
375103
It's called Pascal's Wager.
445166
I can't write a paragraph on it for you--if you want to know the source given for the quote:\n\nAll health is better than wealth.\n\n--from a letter written by Sir Walter Scott, 18th-19th century Scottish novelist
797136
I like the spirit of your philosophy, but as to the exact wording, it seems backwards to me. Try this: We don't know how, but faith allows us to know that everything is going to work out, somehow. Faith is a way of knowing, we can not know everything, but we can understand almost everything if we know the subject matter. More and more facts are coming to light for us everyday that we live if we live in faith, with one small exception. Death always catches us flatfooted. Unless, we are very old and or very wise and courious, and ready to find out.
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It means that we should have TOTAL faith in God that He will provide for all of our needs. Just as the animals that He has created do not worry about their needs and what will come tomorrow, neither should we. We should always trust in Him completely.\n\nAdditionally, this statement if meant for believers, so if they do not believe in God, then ferris bueller's comment about the starving children in Africa have no bearing on God's promise. You can't have faith in something that you do not believe in. \n\nAlso, for those who do believe, they still must have faith. Worry-warts sometimes cause more harm to themselves by trying to solve the problem quickly, as opposed to letting God solve it. Like, for instance, spending money on lottery tickets--trying to get rich quick--as opposed to spending the money on a bag of rice and some bread or flour (just an example).
842248
I've pointed this out as well....a choice of free-will has two equal options 'do that and be happy or do this and be happy', while a threat has one option, 'do it or suffer'\n\nPeople in here will try to word-play it with "you make the choice, not God' and other such parroted rehearsed babble, but it comes down to seeing it as it is.....a threat versus a choice
981633
For the Christian, God knows all. He knows what we will do and even think. But we don't. He has given us free will. So whatever decisions I make are new to me; I don't know the outcome, but God does.
897268
I think that the meaning to this quote is quite a spiritual one.  Since it is certain that you were born and it is certain that you will someday die.  So when a doctor tells you that you are plagued by an incurable cancer, you are experiencing the possibility of death only because you were born.  However, the key word is possibility and that is where "save for the middle" comes in. It is what you do with the gift (your birth) of your life (the middle) that provides determines your end (your death).
548310
Yeah!  Another good one is "It's all part of god's plan" when something goes wrong.  Why did that ferry sink and 250 people drown?...It's all part of god's plan.  \nNice plan, god.  What else ya got up your sleve?
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Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.\n- Ralph Waldo Emerson\n\nI do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.\n- Galileo Galilei\n\nBlessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.\n- Jonathan Swift
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Faith!  To have total faith that Gods will is what is right.  And, to accept his decisions...whatever they may be.  Knowing that He knows best.  \n\nLove!  Love others.  Love yourself.  Love God, above all.  And, no....I'm not a bible banger.  lol\n\nJust passing on what I have learned.  When I learned to accept the things in my life that happened....good or bad...and to realize that those things were His will....that they had a purpose in my life....I was much happier.\n\nFighting against what is meant to be, is so futile.  And, believe me....God is the one in control.  Yes, we can make some decisions...are are expected to use our brains and logic.  \n\nBut, when I lost my Dad to cancer....I learned who is really in control.  \n\nA lot of what makes us happy, is in how WE CHOOSE to look at a situation.
120870
Totally agree with Schneb, there is a quote here that says "Know yourself in order to know God" \nIt lost all the meaning in translation but I believe you got the point.
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Knowledge is power.  \n\nI rather stand in the light than have faith in shadows.
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A very astute observation.\n\nScripture assures as that God can know all things, but being all powerful certainly he has the ability to refrain from knowing certain things if he so chooses.\n\nThus, at Genesis 11:5-8 God is described as directing his attention earthward, surveying the situation at Babel, and, at that time, determining the action to be taken to break up the unrighteous project there. After wickedness developed at Sodom and Gomorrah, Jehovah advised Abraham of his decision to investigate (by means of his angels) to “see whether they act altogether according to the outcry over it that has come to me, and, if not, I can get to know it.” (Genesis 18:20-22; 19:1) God spoke of ‘becoming acquainted with Abraham,’ and after Abraham went to the point of attempting to sacrifice Isaac, Jehovah said, “For now I do know that you are God-fearing in that you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.”—Genesis 18:19; 22:11, 12; compare Nehemiah 9:7, 8; Galatians 4:9.\n\nSelective foreknowledge means that God could choose not to foreknow indiscriminately all the future acts of his creatures. This would mean that, rather than all history from creation onward being a mere rerun of what had already been foreseen and foreordained, God could with all sincerity set before the first human pair the prospect of everlasting life in an earth free from wickedness. His instructions to his first human son and daughter to act as his perfect and sinless agents in filling the earth with their offspring and making it a paradise, as well as exercising control over the animal creation, could thus be expressed as the grant of a truly loving privilege and as his genuine desire toward them—not merely as the giving of a commission that, on their part, was foredoomed to failure. God’s arranging for a test by means of “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad” and his creation of “the tree of life” in the garden of Eden also would not be meaningless or cynical acts, made so by his foreknowing that the human pair would sin and never be able to eat of “the tree of life.”—Genesis 1:28; 2:7-9, 15-17; 3:22-24.
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I'm a bit rusty on langauge arts, but here goes nothing:\n\nMany of C.S. Lewis' writings allude to the Bible, and have gained popularity among church groups because of this.
395408
That is a real good question.It takes time, but one day after I lost not only my faith,hope but belief in anything,It hit me that faith,hope,belief all involve risk,and that is a risk I don't think I will ever take again.To believe in anything or have hope or faith is to set yourself up for hurt or disappointment.
3005
Temptation can be avoided by knowledge. In the Bhagavad Gita "Knowledge is obscured by the wise man's eternal enemy namely desire..." If you know temptation will happen you can avoid it.
81699
I suppose you'd get something different from it than others would, so you're the only one who can actually answer your question.  Proverbs gives all kinds of advice.  Even if you're not a Christian, the advice can be applied to all sorts of situations.