[PAX] realtionships with dieties

Yet, as Christians we recognize the Holy/Other-Worldly side of God and must endure the ever-present divide between us and God's unknowable-ness. Our intimacy and relationship with him is done entirely of his own willingness and work, and not of our own due to the very nature of the Divine.

 

Another Christian view...

I think God does respond to our openness...this has been my experience anyway. I also have run into the idea of "knowing" God by "unknowing" Him...presuppositions and assumptions can really be limiting. Things are never what they seemed initially...infinitely more deep, limitless.

I relate to God best in silence...there is a deep sense of knowing there. It is curious how that silence works...something happens...and I'm not sure what. The essential relationship is about connection...not achievement, or behavior, or intellect (although that does play a role on some level.) Connection covers all these.

I have been actively, intentionally on this journey for 40 years...it has been very meaningful and has made a huge difference in my daily life.

 

I am New Age

I don't really have a relationship with anything in the respect, it is more of a knowing/feeling. The closest thing I have to a relationship is having faith that the universe and spirits around me have my best interest in mind, and are there to make sure I don't fall off track. I feel like they know me and trust me, and that is conforting.

 

^ Here, here.

You're right that Christianity is centered on the concept of a close relationship with God. But, you hear deviations from that, such as God is a mystery or unknowable. But, Christ, the ultimate christian himself, taught the exact opposite. Christ's purpose is to bring us to God, to bring us to a real knowledge of God, to bridge that gap that separates us from God.

John 17:2-3 as just one example.

 

That would make sense being that I'm a Calvinist.

 

I don't blame you. But regardless, hooray for different perspectives!

 

There is not one specific entity that I worship and engage with, but rather the universe - the all and everything of which I am a part, is what I by virtue of my existence, resonate with.

I consider myself universalist, in the sense that I accept every possible interpretation of the world. All faiths and religions, regardless of their differences, are human constructs, and reflect a universal human desire to understand the cosmos and our place within it. Whatever leads people to Love is good, and righteous, but I am not concerned with details of proofs, as there is little point getting bogged down in trivialities and differences, when one can focus on universality and what we all have in common.

Two claims I make with some consistency: God and the universe are the same thing, and God is Love. How to define Love? Well there's a question, but suffice to say I feel it, and I feel that it comes from God, from the universe, and that it resonates through me. Everything that is not love comes from a failure to allow the resonance of Love - willful ignorance of the flow of the divine within us. That is how I understand it anyway, but as a universalist, I allow that every other viewpoint is also true and an equally valid interpretation of what is essentially unknowable.