Wow, I knew I should have checked this page over the weekend, but was having too much fun to dare go near a computer. Advice of the day: Don't EVER arrange for a 6:00 a.m departure flight, with 50 minutes to connect to the next flight, AND expect to somehow make it to work for a 10 - 14 hour shift of gruelling brain activity three hours later. Chances are, you'll wake up late, nearly miss your departure flight, get a one hour flight delay in Chicago due to weather, miss your connecting flight, and arrive at your destination 2 hours later with only an hour to spare before you start work. All that means you'll have to call in at work and tell them you can only work a half day, no point in even trying to lie that you're sick.
Interesting comments on previous post. I can definitely see F.D and Joe rub each other the wrong way (no pun intended BTW). I will have to say that Joe has a point about going to church and finding sinners (you really didn't need to quote all those verses to make your point, but it's well taken). Only problem is, people act as though it's a crime to be a sinner in church, and you'd think some sins are worse than others when clearly, a white lie is as bad as murder; the perpetrators suffer the same fate. So this business of attacking others is truly pointless cuz I can assure you that all the mud slingers are not entirely blameless, just don't walk around thinking you're better off than the next person.
I will be the first to admit that church and christianity as a whole have had a positive influence on my life, just like Kenyangal and plenty of others, I suspect. If I hadn't had that influence, I don't know where my life would be right now, but I do know that it wouldn't be great. At one point in my life, I actually did believe in God, "felt" his presence, prayed for everything, read my bible everyday, and to epitomize it all, I got baptized. However, whatever it was I was searching for, I never found it in God, and I soon realized that to ME, it made no difference whether I prayed, read the bible, etc or not. Things happened anyway. I stopped going to church for a very short period of time, then realized that I'd never really skipped church and my week was never complete if I didn't take that break. So I kept going. And I still go. It's a comfort thing. Not the kind of comfort that makes me think I'm any less of a sinner cuz I go to church, but the kind of comfort I get when I eat I big fatty rich piece of German chocolate cake. And sometimes when I get sick of the "booty this, booty that" songs on radio, I simply switch to the gospel channel. The music is as relaxing as the R & B I adore.
Q, I admire your courage to step outside of christianity and explore other religions. In the end, sounds like you came right back to christianity, perhaps with a better appreciation for it than you did before. At the back of my mind, I don't question God, the existence of God, or any of the other questions many people struggle with. What I do question is His character. Weird? No, I don't know what kind of loving, caring God sits by and watches his people suffer, yet he does nothing about it when they cry out to him for help. That, right there, is my problem. Quite frankly, I don't care much for what other people in the church are doing. I don't care that Ted Haggard had gay sex, bought meth or did whatever, yet continued to preach. Nobody should let other people's hypocrisy affect their faith; after all, you're not worshipping church pastors, other church members or whatever. You're worshipping God.
Having said all that, I still hate hypocrisy, and that's why I refuse to become one of them. My spiritual life is as messy as my emotional one, yet I can't abandon it all together. Maybe someday God will touch me in that special way that others seem to be touched. In the meantime, I will continue being me with a clean healthy conscious. I will never use religion as an excuse for not doing something. Many people prove over and over that's not very effective and only end up living with guilt. Like Legal Kenya pointed out, this is a topic we can discuss till we drop dead, and nothing will have changed.
Religion and Politics. Everyone has their beliefs and nothing you say or do will change those beliefs. So to each his own. All the same, if you're in the U.S. and can legally vote, go out and exercise this freedom. Let your voice be heard and if you don't, then you have no right to bitch about things later. You have your chance, use it. Steve and I are voting tonight after he gets off work.
Ps. As requested, I'll stick to black font. I'm a colorful individual and the different colors do reflect my mood for the day, but I don't want anyone being blinded, so I oblige. Black only for now, until I can't stand it anymore :)
9 comments:
Having read this post and the last i must say i am almost at a loss of words.i think from this post you clearly come across as someone who is struggling with faith yet in your other post you seemed like you were justifying sin.if i had a chance to direct you to the right path i would say .
life is about loving God.
Loving God is obeying God.
i wont quote for you bible verses i wont tell you what i dont do or do or what you should do but loving GOD is obeying God.Deep down inside i know you know what that means. i think someone said if you go against God you will loose.
ps there was no fight with FD tearing him to bits would have been too easy ,i just wanted himself to hear out loud whay he was saying.its no use begging God for mercy while not having mercy on others
You said
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At the back of my mind, I don't question God, the existence of God, or any of the other questions many people struggle with. What I do question is His character. Weird? No, I don't know what kind of loving, caring God sits by and watches his people suffer, yet he does nothing about it when they cry out to him for help.
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I'm no expert, but our pastor had an interesting (if rather long) story that might shed some light. Call it "Things are not what they seem".
Senior and Junior Angel on safari stop at a rich man's house and get sent down to the basement to sleep, instead of the guest room. Senior Angel sees a hole in the basement and seals it. Junior Angel goes "Huh?".
Both visit a poor farmer's house and are given the little food in the house and the farmer's comfy bed. They get up in the morning and the only milk cow is dead.
Junior Angel says to Senior Angel, "Why seal up the rich man's basement and let the poor farmer's cow die?"
Senior Angel says "Things are not what they seem. I saw greed in the rich man, and there was gold buried behind the wall in the basement, so sealed up the wall so that the gold is never found."
"The Death Angel came over last night and wanted the poor farmer's wife, so I asked him to take the cow instead".
i could have said it better
Sis we can now understand you as joe has put it as you 'struggling with faith' as oppossed to your previous post.
The bottomline is that no one has the right to point fingers at anyone. Even if some are acting as if they are the most holy, we just dont know what they've bn thro. Could be a by-product of their experiences like yours - s'mthing you were searching in God you didnt find and its kinda you gave up - but you stil do church anyway.
Sorry for the hassle always leave at least 2 hrs in between connecting flights for your own sanity.
Let me make a point here that I hope isnt lost among the beef.We are all sinners and were born that way, plus it is in our nature to sin. But we can choose to sin and not. It isn't right to sin willingly but yet go to church everyday, claim to be a christian and look down upon those who are not.
You can't say you are walking with God when there is hardly any change or evidence of Christ in your life. The only diff between many so called christians and no-christians is the fact that they go to church.
Look at Haggard, he had the gumption to stand on a podium and in God's name criticise people for committing the same sins he was committing. Christianity is not a shirt you put on once in a while when you feel like, it is a life style you are meant to live and breathe. If you are not working towards it and with God you need to stop wasting time calling yourself a Christian.
Acolyte you do actually have a point and i guess what i am Saying is that people need to look past the Haggard's or even the not perfect Joe's in church because those are side shows.Not saying that those in church leadership can do what they want .they have responsibilities .
when you do get to heaven on judgment day haggard, joe, kamau,Monica wont be an excuse that will fly . it will be what did you do and what was your relationship with God was.As you pointed out we are not perfect but condemning yourself to hell because someone else "aint living right" pardon my english doesnt make any sense to me.The walk of faith though influenced by environment is purely one between you and Jesus.not your pastor,bishop haggard kamau otieno and God.
i think the haggard issue shows we are not perfect and as such thats why we need JESUS to perfect us. His resignation should be commended, he didnt runaway and cover his sin and more importantly he didnt try and justify it as right.I THINK THAT WAS THE WHOLE BEEF -THE JUSTIFICATION
Well there really goes my future name "future diplomat" diplomacy is an art of agreeing to disagree, but am suprised that this issue has survived. Joe with you using words that I would tear him to pieces really tells alot of your attitude. I have re-read what I wrote and again I stand with what I said. I live a life of conformity in the real world. listen to gay bashers, judgemental, hateful and discriminative people (some christians) everyday of my life, And I smile and play the part, On the internet I will not. I will discover myself, through rants and also through responses that I get from other people.
Since I wrote those sequels about morality, I have gone ahead and gone through the bible read about sexual imporality and about any sex mentioning in the bible, and all i can say is there is much to learn, but I will still give myself space to think, vent, rant and speak my mind
I will just give my $0.02 and try not to get sucked into the furor :-)
I grew up in a staunch Catholic (extended) family, even attending Catholic-run schools. I used to go to church religiously but lately a bit less. At some point in my life I felt like I was playing games with God; after all, how could I go to church then a few days later do the things that were considered 'sinful'? (Keeping in mind the very vivid idea of the flames in hell that had been drummed into me ....) Then one day someone said something to me, that changed my outlook on life 'God doesn't sit waiting to pounce on you the minute you do something wrong. He actually wants to encourage you every time you fall, to give you that little extra push that makes you believe in yourself more and more each day.'
Religion is fraught with gray areas. Faith is believing without questioning. Being strong enough to know that we cannot have all the answers.
Great views, and F.D, I think your response is diplomatic enough, so your name stays. But let's kill this topic already. Religion, politics, fun topics to debate, but the debate will never accomplish anything in my opinion. But, it's nice to see the different perspectives each person has, and sometimes, it's surprising how much people have in common.
So for the Joe's out there, keep holding on to your faith, and for those of us that haven't gotten there, well, we'll keep searching, ignoring, whatever it is we're doing. Maybe someday, we'll also be struck by "it"
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