I think Jesus helps his followers(Many claim, many fail) to be better humans. The recipe he left behind warned followers to avoid crooks and evil like Jim Baker, Swaggert, Jim Jones, Gloriaville. His spirit pushed Christians to create concepts like hospitals, orphanages and feeding the poor. Unfortunately the garbage always infiltrated and turned good concepts into hells. I get that’s a vague answer, something I grapple with all the time.
Believers who regularly experience God's help in answers to their prayers know that He helps us. Have you ever been around believers who have many struggles yet are always praising God for His intervening on their behalf? I have regularly talked with many who share specific instances of direct answers to prayer often, and I have also experienced this. To those who have never experienced thousands of answers to prayer, there is simply no way to convince you. It is beyond your realm of experience. If you want "proof" in order to believe, look into Bible prophecy. There's enough proof there to make anyone who is going to evaluate it honestly, to at least intellectually accept the miraculous, although proof is not enough to bring about a change of heart toward God. God reveals Himself to those who seek Him on His terms.
That's a big problem. The "Chosen People complex". You need to drop that line of thinking. It is why so many other parcels of society do not like the Jewish religion. Go back and review what Yahweh did to help cement the Jewish flight from Egypt. The entity destroyed all the first-born of a race. That's called genocide.
You’re focused on temporal terms, God is focused on Eternal. That’s not to say he doesn’t care about our needs. You’re a parent and all your child wants is ice cream, do you make it eat it’s peas and carrots? There’s a peace when you place your faith in God. The point no longer revolves about what happens to me here, that’s not to say I don’t use the brain he gave me or work providing for my family. But when I’m in God’s will for my life I know God has my back, if not here then when I’m home.
Satan rules this earth at the moment, although his time is quickly coming to an end. Next time calamity strikes put the blame on the author of lies and evil.
Very good point. People look around at the mess of this world and rather than realizing that sin is to blame, want to put the blame for our sin and the consequences, onto God. They want to say to God, "Why did you make us like this and cause all these bad things to happen to us?" The reality is that God created the first humans completely good and they chose to rebel. Satan convinced Eve to disobey God in the beginning of this world and this resulted in Adam and Even and the rest of us becoming sinners and under God's judgment. Satan continues to work to cause harm to people and to incite more rebellion against God. Jesus said this about Satan: He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. John 8:44
I think when they began they had true godly intentions, but fell down along the journey by temptation. Therein lies the problem, the harder we try to be something we aren't, the more we begin to oppose it. Honesty to yourself becomes honesty behaviour to others, ie if you are dishonest to yourself, its impossible to be honest to others as a way of life. The concepts of religion are taught to us by flawed humans (everyone is flawed). Religion/Christianity has fine qualities but it is also flawed dogma, rules imposed to make you feel guilty, unworthy, inferior. Go to church, tithe, pray, marry in the church, appear to be good, don't smoke or swear, don't booze, don't eat pork or cow, or shellfish etc. Rules are made by religions so it forces you to conform, to group think. Unfortunately the brain is not wired to conform, the more you conform the more you break out. Example; look at any country where the govenment forces people to conform strictly to their principles, the people generally are unhappy imo.
What I was hoping to say but got distracted, it's impossible for religous people to be honest with themselves as they are always covering, making excuses for the dogma of church brainwashing. To cover/make excuses for the church mean you're a puppet, nicely controlled by the religous heirachy.