Wow:) Excellent input. Thanks guys
dogcombat--I was thinking that I should go back and read the 4 part Myth of Free Will. Its been some time and I figured that the details and verses I needed would be in there. I'll get on that today.
YellowStone and Chris R--Thanks for the verses. Pro 16:9 was the one rattling around in the back of my head somewhere, but I couldn't quite bring it to the front:)
Beloved--I think you hit the nail on the head when you mention that they "credit
the self for the ability to "make" things come to them. God is only there to shower them with physical blessings.
Many of the people that are jumping on the Law Of Attraction bandwagon don't even credit God, but rather "The Universe." I haven't asked enough of my friends yet, as to what they really believe this energy source really is in their minds, to get a good feel for what they think. But it seems to me that many are giving credit to "The Universe" because it's easier to think of it as an unintelligent energy source, as opposed to an intellingent thinking God that coud actually have any degree of input or control.
I think the main thing that has been bothering me has been that everyone who I've heard talk about the LOA lately has been coming from the free will point of view, at the very least. Many of the others have been coming from an even more extreme New Age perspective. The challenge is that most of it sounds pretty good, and much of it is. It really forces you to get back into the scriptures and see what's really right and what's really warped.
On a different note, thanks gmik and others for the welcome invite. I've been reading on bible-truths.com for over a year now. About 2 years ago I got really unhappy with the church. I've grown up in a conservative Christian home all my life, typically attending Baptist churches. It many ways its been great and very helpful to me, but several things that I had questioned about what the Bible really said or meant at some point or another in my life were all hitting me again. I guess God was working on me:) One day I decided that I would question every single "doctrine" that I had been raised to believe and find the true answer for myself in the scriptures. Then I would either know it was true and why or I would know it wasn't and I could give a scriptural account either way. Somewhere along the way I came across bible-truths.com. Man was that a relief. I wasn't the only one out there, and somebody else (mainly Ray) had already done a lot of the homework for me!
I haven't really gotten into the forums much, simply because there's just so much info on the main site and so much to absorb. But I really was wondering what other like minded people thought about LOA and it seemed like that would be an appropriate topic to get started with.
Other than that, I'm just a cute little white boy livin' on the beach in Florida, the father of a wonderful 9 year old little girl, who's an entreprenuer at heart. Anything else you want to know...feel free to ask;-)
Thanks again for all the input and I'll work on becoming more involved and a part of this community from here on out.
Mike