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I have never been hurt as bad as when the "church" hurt me. I felt raped, betrayed and abused. This is not a pitty party, I am doing fine thank God
It amazes me the lack of love, caring, understanding and plain COMMON SENSE that "church" goers (NOT ALL) can have. To ask me to return to that system, would be like asking an abused wife to return to her husband. To not take the time to AT LEAST understand, it's an insult and I would much rather that you kept your distance, instead of having to hear to your senseless bickering about how wrong and bitter I am. It's so important that we realize that true church is about people. It's not about religion or denomination or any of our petty arguments. Religion that is pure, according to the scripture, has everything to do with people... There is no church building that can substitute "loving on the least of these." This might sound harsh, but until we find our identity in Christ, and allow His love to flow through us and onto others, we will never fully grasp the concept of true church. WE are many parts that make up the Body of Christ. IF we can't even get along with one another, then we aren't functioning as intended. Christ is the Head of His Church. No man. No building is a substitute for a relationship with Christ. In the same way, these things aren't a substitute for loving people. Ecclesia - the Spiritual body of Jesus Christ - the true 'church'.. I have often witnessed pastors preach to their congregation and reprimand them saying:" How many of you have extra rooms in your house or clothing that you don't wear any more, but don't open your home to someone in need of a place to stay or give that extra clothing or food to someone in need?" Then immediately after the service these very same men turn away someone who comes to them for assistance! Pastors, deacons, ministers, lead by example! Someone somewhere along the line got the idea of putting on a "play" for people and calling it church. The spectators sit quietly waiting for the performance to begin. Each week they start with colorful music and someone leads them in four or five songs. Then the spectators sit down and wait for the announcements. Once that’s finished, the spectators are encouraged to give money to the "playhouse". Then the spectators sit quietly and listen to a guy stand up and tell them what God is saying.
When he finishes, all the spectators file out the door, pick up their children and head for home. On the way home they discuss the play. How the worship team did, how the Pastor preached and so on. Seven days later, they return and experience it all over again.
I call it a "rerun" of a play because if you have been to church for three years or more, that’s exactly what it is.
They basically quit filming new episodes, and are now playing the spectators reruns of old episodes. It’s the same thing every week. Perhaps this is why Christ’s ministry was only three years.
Some Christian religious groups, after presenting salvation as a free gift of God’s grace, turn right around and teach new believers that their continuing relationship with the Lord now depends on their performance. If they don’t live holy, go to church, read their Bibles, and pay tithes, etc., then the Lord won’t bless them or answer their prayers.
That kind of thinking will block a person from receiving the love of God. When their performance falls short, and it always does, their own hearts will condemn them. They just can’t believe God could love them. The truth is that God’s love for us has nothing to do with our performance. He loves us because He is love (1 John 4:8), not because we are lovely.
Understanding that God’s love is unconditional will revolutionize your life. It certainly has mine.
I find it interesting you compare this to being raped which cannot actually be true unless you have been raped and know exactly what that is like.
I also find it interesting you go on about being one with Christ in your heart yet you post a passage from the Bible further down your post. The Bible being written by man who interpreted the words spoken by God.
So which point of view is yours exactly? The one with Christ in your heart or the manmade version?
That is beside the point and, in part, inaccurate.
The inaccurate part is that not all famine (or other calamities) is caused by humans. Some of it is, as they say, "acts of God". One example I happen to remember, Hurricane Gilbert destroying crops and causing widespread famine in Mexico, particularly the Yucatan peninsula, many years ago. Unless you want to rationalize that god was just punishing Mexican peasants for being particularly sinful, that was just s__t falling from the sky on innocent people. To the extent it was ameliorated, it was by the quick action of humans, not god.
The "beside the point" part is that even to the extent humans are involved, suffering is still the result and no amount of suffering is acceptable to a fully benevolent, all-powerful, all knowing god who is supposed to "know our frame, that we are but dust" and have compassion on us. Unless he's not one or more of those three things. Tap dancing around that you can produce flawed rationalizations (usually, some variation on free will being a necessary evil) called theodicies ... but none of them work. In part, because you claim to be headed for heaven where everything is perfect and suffering somehow is NOT necessary -- nor, apparently is free will, since no one will be capable of sinning and therefore will be ROBOTS, as you folks often like to claim about what life on earth would be like without free will.
If god is capable of producing your version of heaven then he is capable of making earth that way or at least bypassing that nonsense altogether by simply removing our instinct for self-preservation so we can all slit our throats and walk the streets of gold.
Are you sure there is a heaven. I am not!
All I said was that the creation is perfect as it is. And that includes natural disasters.
Who in the world wants a perfect life? What is the point? Why would you want God to make the life of everyone perfect?
All I said was that the creation is perfect as it is. And that includes natural disasters.
Who in the world wants a perfect life? What is the point? Why would you want God to make the life of everyone perfect?
You realy should read your bible
Be ye perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect. Common, look it up, I have not opened a bible in over 10 years and I still know it backwards.
You realy should read your bible
Be ye perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect. Common, look it up, I have not opened a bible in over 10 years and I still know it backwards.
Catholics are not bible literalists. Furthermore, the bible is just an allegoric book for spiritual growth written by men from another era.
If you were once a bible literalists I can understand why you are an atheist; it makes all the sense in the world.
You realy should read your bible
Be ye perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect. Common, look it up, I have not opened a bible in over 10 years and I still know it backwards.
The quote is about being perfect in love, i.e loving everyone and how we should be like God in that. It's a common error.
Catholics are not bible literalists. Furthermore, the bible is just an allegoric book for spiritual growth written by men from another era.
If you were once a bible literalists I can understand why you are an atheist; it makes all the sense in the world.
Man does not possess the design skills to write what is written in God's Holy Word!
The bible is the only book on this planet whose author claims to be God!
Catholic Priests believe man wrote this book.
The very first sentence in the bible proves beyond any shadow of doubt - man is not capable of such a design.
PROVE IT: duplicate 35 instances of 7 in just one sentence of seven words consisting of 28 letters in any language you choose!
The truth of the matter is: YOU can't do it - Even if you use a powerful computer!
The odds are absolutely absurd!
The bible was written outside of our time domain by "someone" named God who knew the end from the beginning!
It is more than obvious since Jesus Christ fulfilled 300 predictions about himself that He had no control over.
These predictions were precise - explicit and specific & exact. 300 out of 300; There are 1,800 predictions about his second coming!
You would be wise to consider man does not have that type track record. The accuracy of fulfilled prophetic events is staggering.
A wise man will hear and increase in learning - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom - To depart from evil is to get understanding; With all thy getting - get wisdom!
There is not one person on this forum that will be able to construct a simple sentence containing 7 words - 28 letters with 35 instance of 7.
But I am willing to bet in advance the slurs & comments that will follow. If man did it you would be able to duplicate it!
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