Maybe this analogy can help you understand what your message FEELS like to non-Christians.\n\nImagine you are a married woman and one day a stranger approaches you and says, "My father loves you."\n"Okay, thats cute. But I'm married." you reply\n"Well it doesn't matter if you ARE married. The ONLY real marriage is to HIM! He LOVES you! Do you know he inflicted pain on himself JUST FOR YOU!" they insist getting emotional.\nYou are a little taken aback, "Well, I'm sorry but I NEVER asked for him to do that for me. This is emotional blackmail."\n"But you will be happy with HIM!" they press.\n"I am happy enough thank you"\n"But for how long? If you do not accept MY father he will let you be locked up in a dungeon tortured!"\n"WHAT!!!!!" You respod in horror. "What kind of person would DO that? That's SICK!"\n"No but HE doesn't WANT to. He LOVES you. But if you don't love him back you leave him NO CHOICE. You asked for it!"\n\nThat's a little like how it feels for us. Anyone indentify?
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You're right. I whole-heartedly agree. A prominent preacher put it this way, to tell someone that you just sold your house to buy them the antidote to (Make up the name of a disease here- we'll say "Moo-Moo disease") and you must take it now!  Well, you don't know what Moo-Moo disease is, what it does, you've never heard of it before- it could be made up, and you think this fellow is kind of crazy for selling his house to buy it for you.  You might politely take the antidote, or you might tell the guy he's crazy, or you might be offended that anyone would think you were diseased.  \n\nNow imagine this same man came to you and instead said something like this, "There's a new disease sweeping the nation called "Moo-Moo disease" It kills people.  I can see that you have all 13 signs of Moo-Moo disease and you have 48 hours to live.  Maybe he'd show you medical journals, news reports, etc.  Then once you're convinced you are dying, you will say "what can I do?"  And the man might reply, "I saw this coming, and I love you and don't want you to die, so I sold my house last night and bought you the antidote." You would be so appriciative.\n\nYou can not convince a person they need an antidote until you are concerned for their ailment, and convince them of it. Now, I believe that not accepeting the gospel will kill you- you've heard it before i'm sure "the wages (what you earn) of sin (anything not of God) is death." \n\nLook at the 10 commandments.  Can we agree just for a minute, for arguement's sake, that all these rules listed out are good to do, and probably were created by God? All the major religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity all for the most part believe God created the 10 commandments. So let's just say that these really are laid out by God to keep society functioning etc. \n\nIf this is the case, then these are the rules and God is the ultimate referee in the game you're playing. He knows the rulebook (the Bible) perfectly. Would you be disqualified?  Seriously look at them. They're accpeted by all major religions. The wages of commiting acts that go against what God says is eternal death- judge for yourself- have you never stolen anything? Cheating on taxes, board games when you were little- it all counts- Now you can say, "I live by my own rules," but if your teacher asks you to write a paper on flowers and you compose one on dinosaurs- you'll still fail.  The teacher sets up the rules and grades you by them.\n\nThink about a court case. There are laws similar to the 10 commandments set up in our society.  What if you walked in, and said, "Yes judge, I pulled the trigger on a gun while pointing it at that stranger, but I didn't kill anyone!"  or maybe you'd say, "Yes, but I volunteer in my free time- I'm a good person!  I pour into children's lives, I take in homeless people, I found the cure to cancer!"  But the fact would still remain that you broke a law and there is a consequence.  The family of the stranger you shot needs justice.  The judge can not just let you off because he is kind or good, in fact He'd do just the opposite if he were. The penalty for the law you broke is death.\n\nI'm sorry to ramble, please don't think me unkind.  I am not trying to offend you, only bring a little more light to the topic.  The beauty of the gospel is that in that courtroom a man named Jesus stood on the stand and told everyone that He was to blame for your crime.  That it was He who pulled the trigger.  Now you can shoo him off the stand and take your punishment, or you can accept that He did it because He didn't want you in jail to rot.  He thinks you have a lot of potential (-; (especially with all your volunteering!) I hope I have explained it a little better- so you understand why we tell you about Jesus as emphatically as we do- He saved my
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God doesn't put you through these trials, honey.  God loves you much more than you could ever imagine.  God has given each of us free will, the will to choose what to do, say, etcetera.  He gave it to us out of His love for us, and He will never take that away.  However, because we each have free will, we make decisions to do and say things that hurt others.  Your boyfriend breaking up with you and not wanting your friendship is his decision, not God's.  God doesn't like to see His children hurt and in pain.  But because of free will, we do get hurt.  Suffering is caused by others, not by God.  Like I said, He loves you much more than that.  He cares about who you are, what you want to be, how you feel.  I come from a harsh background myself: my father was a raging drunk and an alcoholic who physically and verbally abused me when I was growing up.  My friends laughed at me when I tried to tell them; they didn't think my dad was capable of such things.  My parents divorced when I was seven, and my mom lived half an hour away.  I rarely saw her.  I felt I had nowhere to turn, noone to turn to for comfort.  So, at sixteen, I took seventeen prescription pills in an attempt to kill myself.  I felt I could no longer live with the tears and the bruises and a shattered heart.  Luckily, my mother found me and I spent three days in the hospital.  During those days, I came to know God in a very real way.  He showed me that He loves me, and cares about me.  I couldn't describe how wonderful that felt.  All my life I felt unloved and unwanted, yet all along, the God of the universe loved me beyond my comprehension, and wants to know me.  He allowed my suffering to happen, but it wasn't because He wanted me to suffer and hurt.  It was because my suffering was at the hands of my father, who chose to drink, chose to hurt me.  God loves you beyond your wildest dreams, honey.  He would never intentionally put you through anything that would cause you to hurt.  It happens because of other people, not because of God.  I hope this helps; I know it's kind of long.
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This was a little hard to follow, though I think I understand what is going on. There is obviously some bitterness going on; otherwise they wouldn't feel the need to insult this person. Show them I Corinthians 13, where it gives the characteristics of Christian love. And Philippians 4, where it speaks of thinking on "whatever is true, pure, right..." You shouldn't have to say much, the Holy Spirit will. Much prayer for wisdom on your part is necessary. James 1:8 says if we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us. Lastly, don't accuse them. Just tell them kindly that you felt that it may not be loving of them to do these things. Hope it goes well!
102026
I think I might have an answer to part of your question, if I may. Of course, I can only speak from my own experience, but here goes. Maybe the reason we don't post questions about our relationships with our spouses, friends, family & other such issues is that we get our help from the Lord. We have His big book of answers, that helps guide us along our way. We also have each other, being connected by the same Spirit. We pray, asking God for guidance. We go to our Pastor's, asking for deeper answers from parts of the Scriptures that we're not acquainted quite so well with. You see, some issues need to be given into God's hands. You've seen some of the dating & relationship posts here...would you trust your relationship issue with most of the people that post on those sites? It's not intriguing when you think about it. But, one of the reasons I come to this site is to use my years of various experiences to help people. I don't always use Scripture, because it's not always required, especially when someone wants to know how to get wine stains out of their carpeting. Or how to get their two year old to talk. Things like that are practical, everyday experiences. Being that I've been married for over 28 years, raised two kids to adulthood, and have a mess of other experiences, I can help people...and I do. And yes, I am a "devout" Christian. I treat everyone with respect and answer every question carefully, even the ones that are nasty or just plain goofy. It's part of my nature to treat everyone as I would hope they treat me. For the most part, if you give respect, you get it back. This forum is a wonderful, yet scary thing. Through this site, I'm getting a different view of the world than the evening news ever could give me. There are just so many hurting young people out there, and I want to reach out to them. It's more than just the "mom" in me, it's the Lord Who is in me. Everything that gets to me has to go through Him first. I hope this helped answer your intrigues. <*)))><
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I can somewhat say that I understand how you feel or where you are coming from.  But you know, we shouldn't be living only for the riches of this world. God is still looking over you, do not be fooled by the devil trying to make every problem seem like the end of your life as though you are all alone in the world and no one cares.  He thrives at that.  The Holy Spirit is there, right with you.  Please talk to Him right now and ask Him to make His presence felt.\n\nAt times, I've have to do some silly things just to see if God was still listening to my prayers.  Once I asked Him to send down a piece of plain white cloth from no where. Less than a minute later I saw a beautiful all white bird flying down to my bedroom window. That was so comforting, even though I was going through the toughest time in my life.  I just knew that God was with me and loves me.\nRemember this...\nHeb 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.\n\nI'll make you another example.  My grandma prayed for over 35 years for my grandpa to be saved. Everyone thought she was crazy (including their children). But one morning, I saw him take all his expensive bottles of whiskey and pour them out on the drain. From then on, he never looked back.  He loved the Lord till his death.  \n\nJesus Loves You and I do too
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Allow me to clarify some of the confusing responses.\n\nGod is love, Jesus taught us this over and over again in all of His teachings and sermons and parables.  God is love.  And while God's love for us is a higher love, consider the love between parent and child as well as husband and wife as examples of that love, as there are similarities in both.\n\nIf you are a man, would you defend yourself, knowing that if you do not you will die and leave your wife and children without you?  Would you defend them, if necessary?  Of course you would, if you love them.\n\nSometimes in love, it becomes necessary to be "violent", in other words, defend yourself.  I'm not talking about initiating violence, but sometimes you must defend what you love.  God is okay with this, just read the history of the Jews.\n\nAs a Christian, I must look first to God to see if this is within His will, and the better I know Him, the quicker the answer lol.
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Hold on, I'll read it.\n\nOK. The entire chapter is a prayer to God. It starts with the caption "a prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord."\n\nThe person in Psalms would have been a Israelite (or Jew), not a Christian, but the purpose of this chapter is still relevant. \n\nWe have a relationship with God, and we are allowed to tell Him how we feel, but should do so respectfully. There is nothing wrong with telling God that you are mad, sad, hurt, or whatever. And when you think about it, what's the alternative? Lying to God? I wouldn't try to. \n\nTo answer the second question, this verse is not about a Christian (or a Jew) turning his back on anyone. There are situations when a Christian is entitled to sever ties, end a friendship, even end a marriage. If someone murders your child, God does not expect you to be around that person or support that person. If your friend constantly gossips and back bites you even after you have talked about it several times, there is no requirement that you maintain a relationship with him/her. If your spouse has sex outside your marriage, you are permitted to divorce him/her. \n\nThere are a few things a Christian must do in cases like these, though. One is to forgive. The other is to not judge the person, only the behavior. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to trust, nor does it mean you withhold consequences (like jail, or divorce). It only means that you release the person from the spiritual punishment of holding a grudge, and in doing so, you free your self from the burden of holding a grudge.
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This is a tough one.  Your original question reminds me of Matthew 10:37-39.  I had trouble with that passage as a child.  I couldn't imagine loving anyone more than I loved my parents.  And frankly, I knew it wouldn't be okay with them, which was threatening.\n\nWhat I've learned is that what we sometimes call love isn't very loving.  Sometimes we condition it such that it is merely a means of control or selfishness.\n\nI believe God calls us to love Him most, because if we love on His terms, we love everyone else better.  When we learn to define love as patience, kindness, truthfulness, hopefulness; having endurance and belief; able to bear all things; lacking envy, pride, rudeness, self-gratification, evil thoughts; not easily angered, not gloating over the failures of another, and neverending - when we define love as serving others instead of demanding that they please us, we love them to their highest good.\n\nMy husband and I both come from dysfunctional homes.  Abusive homes.  What we learned about love in our families, we knew we didn't want to pass on to the children we hoped we'd have or to incorporate into our relationship.  We promised to help each other love God most - even more than we loved each other.\n\nAnd that's hard sometimes.  But loving God most, helps us keep our family patterns out of our relationship.  It helps us love each other in ways that would not naturally flow from what we learned in our upbringing.
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Kewtasabutton, \nGod Bless you for asking this. So many people are afraid to and then when they do, there are more people afraid to answer.\n\nGod loves you and me just as we are, you remember that. Now that does NOT excuse your sin or mine. But it helps you to understand how much He loves you. \n\nI have been a Christian since 1993. Have I been perfect? NOT ONE SINGLE DAY. I do try not to sin, and I always ask forgiveness for my sins. All sin is the same in God's eyes whether you kill or tell a lie. Sin is judged completely different in man's eye. You can tell a lie and not go to jail, but if you kill you will. \n\nGod says that all men are short of the glory of God. All means all. It means you, me, any preacher, pastor, and the Catholic Pope (I want go into my opinions of that). \n\nThe things that you are struggling with are no match for God. He can conquer all of your sins. The devil is getting you to do all of these things and then running back to God and tattling on you, trying to convince Him that you don't deserve to go to Heaven. But God has already stated that fact about all of us. Sweetheart, as long as you accepted Jesus into your heart, and you are truly asking forgiveness, you will overcome all of these faults. Satan is attacking your morality and your sexuality. He may win several times, but God will let you use this as a testimony one day. \n\nDon't go out and sin all you can, now. You still must do your very best to resist so that God can help you. \n\nGod doesn't expect you to change all at once, He just expects you to have the desire to. And, based on what you are saying, the desire is there, and it WILL happen. It may take a while.\n\nYou are absolutely precious!
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I am a christian, but by the way I live my life sometimes you couldn't tell. I do the best I can when it comes to being kind to others and by that alone I would be fine. I never cheat on my wife and I love my two kids. I am never stingy with my money and I even pray for the health and that my worse enemies prosper.\n\nLooking at it that way, you would think that I was a saint.\n\nBut now lets look at the downfalls. HeHeHe\n\nI get angry easy and I am very impatient. I can't stand ignorant people and even though I am nice to them, In my mind I wish they would drop off a cliff. I am not a very motivated person. I have a great mind to accomplish great things but I always want to take the easy way out and sit on my butt and watch television. I smoke. I don't read my bible enough and I'm a hypocrite in a lot of ways. I can complain about things I don't like in some people but turn around and do the very same thing. \n\nHope this was what you was after. LOL, I feel dirty now, I'm going to go take a shower. LOL. God Bless.\n\nI just want to fix a few things that was said to the gal above me. Not trying to cause a war, just want to make a point. First, the beard thing was in the old test, and when that was said, It was that men shouldn't cut the edges of their beards to make them pointed. As far as the shrimp goes, that to was in the old test. Later in the new test, someone asked Jesus about that and he said that we shouldn't call the things he made clean, unclean. No big deal, just wanted to point that out.
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Understanding the loving nature of God is difficult when you chose to blame everything negative that happens on God.\n\nGod is not responsible for these things, we are.\n\nBlaming it all on God is convenient but it is just using God for a scapegoat, it is not truth.\n\nDon't misunderstand I do understand the thought process that leads to these feelings that God is not loving. For years I ascribed to them, and felt the same way.\n\nOnce I figured out that it was just nonsense that I had been thinking I got over it.\n\nNow I appreciate the love that comes from the source even if I don't always like what I make from it.\n\nLove and blessings Don
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Any man that would feel that way about a Christian woman certainly doesn't understand the things or God. \n\nPray and ask the Lord, first of all, if it is His will for you to be married. and secondly, ask Him to send you the man that He wants you to be with. God knows what is best for you. \n\nRead I Cor. 7\nalot of this is talking about marriage but some of it pertains to those that are not married.
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I, even as a christian, do not believe that you NEED to say I am a christian or any other religion to be close to God... actually I hate to admit that I am a christian because belonging to a group like that seems ungodly in and of itself, just because I do not want to put any group above God.  But I do kind of know what you mean because I feel very differently than either of my parents about religion, however, the one thing I have going for myself (and my parents ARE ministers) is that they accept, because that is what God taught.  They like it that I have come to my own understandings, they would never deny me on the free will that God gave.  I do not usually suggest arguing with parents (even though sometimes it is ever so much fun)... but I might suggest that you let your mother know that you are God's creation and not your mothers, although thank her for providing you with life and love along the way. (I know that brings it in to the realm of believing again, but at least you will be challenging her on her terms).  Also, if she brings up the bible in ways that are meant to say you should live like this and this, let her know that that is not your relationship with God, we are all different because God created us that way and you will not slap God in the face by living the way others do because God's plan for you is not the same as your mothers, and for the bible, make sure you let her know that while it is a wonderful teacher, you are not going to put an idol above God, that is idolatry and you have a relationship with God not a book.  Again, I know that is still not getting you out there saying you are a non-believer, but while you consider what it is that you do believe this may help take the heat off of thinking and looking at religion differently than your mother.  God created us each uniquely, your spirituality is not going to be the same as mine, or your mothers.  God gave free will to be used, so yeah for you for using it and thinking instead of following blindly without knowing your relationship with the God you may know.
597024
Linda, Sweetie, one of the very FIRST things you need to learn as a Christian in Yahoo, is patience. You're gonna run into alot of these abusive comments, some people think they are being witty.  If they manage to get a rise out of you, they think they have somehow "proved" some sort of point.  I think they figure that Christians aren't supposed to get angry, or have hurt feelings, and when we react to such vicious comments, they can congratulate themselves that they have provoked us, and therefore, our God must not be real.\nWhen you really stop and think about it, they need our love and our pity much more than we need their approval.  Pray for them, but, don't let them push your buttons.\nGod bless you.
8998
I know without any doubt that God Loves us..ask yourself this question? Do you ever feel like something is missing in your life? Can marrying the right person fill that gap? Can having enough money fill it? Can having good health fill the emptiness? For everyone that has asked themselves that question and they have found out that the answer is no..The emptiness that we feel is the separation from God, when we accept His son Jesus into our lives, then the Holy Spirit will come into our hearts, then a veil is lifted from your eyes, and the Truth shall be revealed, and the pit in your stomach shall be made whole..For God is Love..and satan is death..Amen!!\n\nIn answer to your question, I was not brought up in any church, God was NEVER mentioned in our home, my mom abused me as a child, my dad molested me also..I was going to commit suicide when my brother asked me to go to church, so I went to make him happy, I hated being in church, I called everyone there Jesus freaks..the next Sunday, I could not stand the emptiness any longer, so I said well I tried everything else, I will try God..Praise the Lord..I am glad I did..Amen!!
344471
Im a Christian but i still agree with you.. When Im hurt i dont wanna here just pray or go read your bible. Even as someone who does believe in God, that jus doesnt help me be comforted. Thats the problem with a lot of christians, they jus give the "right" answer and move along instead of maybe actually trying to spend some time with the person or really listening. I know how it feels to have your heart broken and what got me thru wasnt reading my bible and praying, although i dont think those thingss are neccessarily bad, it was suport from my closest friends, who probably did pray for me. Anyway i think you should call those people out on it and see what they say, if they knew how you felt about their advice i think it would change their actions next time theyre put it that situation. Well i hope ive maybe helped a lil and that your heart isnt broken anymore. God Bless.
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If you truly want to know why good loving people sometimes get angry with Christians you actually need to listen to what they are saying. You need to try to understand how what you are doing is making them feel.\n\n It hurts your feelings when someone pokes fun or makes disparaging comments about what you believe in. You know it does. People’s beliefs are precious to them, just as yours are precious to you. Simply thinking or saying but my beliefs are right and theirs are wrong does not help. In fact it is always seen as arrogant and often comes off making the one saying it sound like a fool.\n\nPeople believe in what makes sense to them from their perspective, even if it makes no sense logically when it is looked at from any other perspective. Look around you at the great diversity the creator has given us to experience in this life. See the colorful and ever changing panorama that we have here to experience within. If this shows us any one thing about our creator, it makes it apparent that He/She loves this idea of diversity. If you look at any aspect of life, trees, birds, languages, or even sunsets you see an almost dizzying array of possibilities. This life we have been given by our Father/Mother God is a veritable feast of diversity from which we may chose what pleases us. \n\nSuch is the gift this life we have been given. Why is it so hard to imagine that our creator’s obvious love for diversity would not extend to the way his children expressed their love for him? If it seemed appropriate to have thousands of types of insects, birds, trees and sunsets etc. how likely is it that She would have suddenly become so narrow minded when it came to ways to express ones faith. Think about it. Just for a moment forget what you have been told over and over about their being only one correct way to approach God. Would this God who so obviously thrives on diversity even want that?  When viewed from this perspective it makes one wonder about the source of the my-way or the highway idea of god. Sounds a lot more like ego bound narrow-minded human control issues than the work of our God who seems to have made diversity his trademark.\n\nThere is only one God; He/She has had many names. After all should we expect people who speak different languages to all call God by the same name? This would hardly seem to be a logical expectation. Jesus told us to love our neighbor, not to judge our neighbor or try to fix our neighbor, Only to love them. We are hardly being loving when we are insulting the way they express their love for our creator by telling them we have a better way. This can only make us seen like an arrogant know it all. The obvious consequence being our comments will hurt their feelings and they will say or do something to return the insult.\n\nIf we want our faith to grow we need to stop going around singing “MY Gods better than your God “. We need to shut up about their beliefs and start teaching by example. If we have learned anything about loving our neighbors like Jesus asked us to, it will show. People will be drawn to this loving belief system and want to know more about it. This is what being a Christian means. Anything else is just being an arrogant know it all.\n\nLove and blessings\ndon