Through Him

I just can't get this out of my head. My heart struggles with what I have been taught the fate of a certain group of people are, since they have chosen to live an alternative, atheist, or agnostic lifestyle. I might even be thrown in the same category for questioning the Creation Story. According to the church I grew up in and some friends and family, they are going to hell and will not be welcomed into the City of God at the end of their lives. I am struggling with accepting a God who looks at all their pain of loneliness and rejection and adds to it. Is this true? Is this the way He really is? I want to get to know the LOVE of God, but in the right way. Have we been placing His love in a box that we can pull out and pour on people when we're comfortable with it, but keep it hidden when we're uncomfortable?

Take this link for example http://www.tillhecomes.org/coked-up-whore/#comment-3185 . If she found herself in this situation, with no way out, and she's not aware that Jesus can rescue her, I still believe that he WILL reach down and RESCUE her, even if she doesn't ask him to, because he says THROUGH him, men (and women) are saved. And what does it really mean, To Be Saved, anyway?

So where does this put my friends? If they have been taught incorrectly about God's love and acceptance, and this resulted in hurt, rejection and/or hatred of Christianity, then are they really to blame for not accepting Christ? Or are we, the "church" to blame? If they don't ASK God to forgive them and Jesus to save them, does that mean He won't, because He wasn't asked? Or He won't, because they rejected Him first?  Is He as petty with His feelings as we are? It seems petty to think that if we don't love God, He won't accept us. I just struggle big time with this one.



Quote from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

"We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ. We do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him. "

I love that.

Non-Foolish Atheists

I wish I were brave enough to share this link with my friend who thinks atheists are fools. But just reading it myself made me feel better. Jeremy Myers gets it.

This article also made me feel worse. I AM A FOOL.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Can I vent a little? Thanks! I'm trying to get better at jumping on the computer as soon as I can when a thought hits  that I really want to share. I usually have to chase my kids off the computer, reminding them that it's not theirs, and enduring their constant questions of when will I be done.

Anyway, two thoughts that are bugging me today.............One: I read this on a friend's facebook page this morning: Happy National Atheists Day!   ‎"the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God".............I am having a hard time with this. I have good friends and relatives who are atheists, and I don't believe they are any more  foolish or wicked than I am myself. That statement, though pulled from the Bible seems very judgmental and mean. I know there's lots of stuff in the Bible that doesn't make you feel good, but to call others' fools as a way of shoving it in their face that you believe you are going to heaven and they aren't is very Christ like. I don't think David was taunting people when he said this.....I think he was simply enjoying his relationship with Christ and saying, man, y'all are missing out, in a loving way......as in come join the party! Not as in, You scum, you're going to hell, and I'm so glad, cause you deserve it, cause you're so stupid!!!!!

Rant Two: Yesterday a friend of mine was trying to remember if she had had her 20th anniversary yet.....and she said, Well my oldest child is 18, so I BETTER have been married 20 years!........I just bristled when I heard her say this, as if she had to prove she had been a good girl all her life. As if she would have had a child pre-marriage that it would make her a bad person. Why do people think that the obvious things we do that aren't approved of, make us bad people?!?!?!? What we do does not make us a better or worse person!!!! Grrr.......everybody has got their panties all up on a wad so tight while riding their high horses that the slightest though about them doing something wrong is a very bad feeling for them. I say, dig out the wedgy, get comfortable with yourself, and reach out to those who lead different lives then yours, and learn from them.