The Gospel

[slingblade]

God loves to answer prayer for those still in darkness so fight the good fight and stay on the straight and narrow path that leads us home!

Bull. Nothing but lies and delusions.

Or are you perhaps suggesting that your God will answer the prayers of those still in darkness, but once He's got you, He ignores you from that moment on?

Yeah, that must be it. Kind of like the way some men (some few) will romance a girl in lavish style, but once they marry, she suddenly becomes the Maid-of-All-Work and brood mare. Good-bye romance; I've got what I want!

God's a Cosmic Cad.

 

[supercorgi]

Kathy,

All I was saying is that the church is no different from the rest of the world. I wrote what I personally have seen and experienced. I know from others that it is no different at other churches. It's human nature. We are animals; fancy ones perhaps, but still animals. If you think that Christians are somehow above sexuality in church, then you you are living in your own Fundy World, certainly a long way from reality.

You're not wrong Trantor. The minister at the church I went to while young, had to resign in a scandal because although he was married, he had an affair with one of the parishoners. When his wife filed for divorce, it all came out in the open. Even those who are always telling us to be moral are frequently hypocrites.

 

[supercorgi]

I had people praying for me for 10 years! God loves to answer prayer for those still in darkness so fight the good fight and stay on the straight and narrow path that leads us home!

Wow, 10 years. Either they weren't praying very hard or god was on one hell of a long lunch break!

So Kathy, why didn't god step into your life a little quicker?

 

[bluess]

Wow, 10 years. Either they weren't praying very hard or god was on one hell of a long lunch break!

So Kathy, why didn't god step into your life a little quicker?

He did right after kathy was addicted to drugs.

No, it was after (like in that idiotic Carrie Underwood song "Jesus Take the Wheel") she ALMOST died in a car accident.

No, it was after the guy she was seeing when she was split from her husband ChristianDude beat her up.

Oh, that's right. kathy has presented all three stories and has not yet replied to repeated requests for clarification.

Once again, kathy, which one, and why did you lie about the other two? Or have you been saved three times, maybe the first two times didn't take?
Or were all three incidents simultaneous?

 

[shemp]

Most of the replies in this thread seem to be on the order of "Kathy is an idiot, I wish she'd go away." So why don't you all just stop feeding the troll?

 

[kurious_kathy]

Bull. Nothing but lies and delusions.

Or are you perhaps suggesting that your God will answer the prayers of those still in darkness, but once He's got you, He ignores you from that moment on?

Yeah, that must be it. Kind of like the way some men (some few) will romance a girl in lavish style, but once they marry, she suddenly becomes the Maid-of-All-Work and brood mare. Good-bye romance; I've got what I want!

God's a Cosmic Cad.

Sling it sounds to me like you are blaming God for what your ex did to you. It's not God's fault that your ex sinned against you. I understand it can be quite a challenge to rise above the pain of the past, but you can do it!

 

[kurious_kathy]

Once again, kathy, which one, and why did you lie about the other two? Or have you been saved three times, maybe the first two times didn't take?
Or were all three incidents simultaneous?

Bluess, can't you see what is happening in our culture? There are so many people out there who drink and use drugs. We do have a quick fix society.
The perscription drugs can be just as harmful as the other stuff even though our doctors are supposedly montering us. I think the hardest thing I've had to deal with is getting off the anti-depressants. Perhaps if I had dealt with the underlying issue which was sin I aloud in my life, I would not have been so blind. Why do you think I was taking anti-depressants?

Looking back I now see if I had done it God's way I may not have had all those stupid problems. God did for me supernaturally what I could not do for myself. And it's no small miracle that I am alive and set free from the way I was living in the past. It was my own rebellion towards doing it God's way that caused me greif.

Only God can turn a life around! I think I like so many others out there just have a hard time surrendering our will to God's will! If anyone thinks they are complete without God they are just fooling themself! Jesus is Life!

 

[UrsulaV]

Bluess, can't you see what is happening in our culture? There are so many people out there who drink and use drugs. We do have a quick fix society.

Wow, way to totally not answer his question in any way. You're a weaselly li'l thing, aintcha?

 

[kurious_kathy]

Wow, way to totally not answer his question in any way. You're a weaselly li'l thing, aintcha?

God was trying to get my attention for many years. I wasn't listening in the past, but now I am.
How's that Ursula, I blew it big time in the past because I wasn't abiding in Christ. We are told if we stay in the Word we are abiding in Christ. I live each day hungering for more of God's Word which is now keeping me going.
I wish I had listened a long time ago! Once I started being obedient to God and knowing him through his word, my life started turning around, BIG TIME!

 

[bluess]

God was trying to get my attention for many years. I wasn't listening in the past, but now I am.
How's that Ursula, I blew it big time in the past because I wasn't abiding in Christ. We are told if we stay in the Word we are abiding in Christ. I live each day hungering for more of God's Word which is now keeping me going.
I wish I had listened a long time ago! Once I started being obedient to God and knowing him through his word, my life started turning around, BIG TIME!

And you started being obedient to god:

1. After you became a drug-addict
2. After you ALMOST died in a car accident
3. After some guy you were boffing beat the hell out of you

Pick one. For someone whose religion spouts about truth, why can't you answer this ONE question?

Most of the replies in this thread seem to be on the order of "Kathy is an idiot, I wish she'd go away." So why don't you all just stop feeding the troll?

You know, I suddenly understand the troll-feeding compulsion. Maybe I should just quit cold turkey.







Nah.

 

[ceo_esq]

Ursula,

This is off-topic, but I finally got around to checking out your website (my work server wouldn't let me, you might remember) ... you are talented. I wish I had such gifts.

 

[Roadtoad]

Trantor this is sick! This shows how evil some peoples hearts are, they only see the bad, never the good. There is corruption everywhere in this world, but you choose to look at the church instead of what's going on in the world. The sins of the father passed down from generation to generation until someone chooses to follow Christ and resist the devil. The only way things change is if we do.

I have heard many people here rubbing it in as far as my past goes, what you aren't seeing is that I have turned from my sins now. God changes people and gives us the strength to overcome the sin in this fallen world. I can't change the past, but I can turn from a life of sin and start trusting God.

What about you guys. Are you gona stay rubbing the past in peoples faces , or are you gona choose to forgive them? I wish this world was a nicer place to be, but it's not. And why Satan chooses to try to destroy Christians and their testimony is beyond belief. The theif only comes to kill and destroy!

Except, as has been noted, this tends to be the way the real world works, Kathy. Saw it time and again. You have girls with something to show and they do what they can to show it. They're within the limits the church will accept, but the bottom line is, they're playing the same game as the girls who don't go to church.

Funny. Peggy, for those who have met her, is not "Miss America" material. But to me, she's the most beautiful woman ever. Yet the women in the church have treated her like absolute sh**, because she's not a size 4 or less. And as a result, they never got to know the wonderful woman who spends her time sewing clothes for her friends, and her friends families, who gives food to the hungry, who goes out of her way to serve others. (Funny, I seem to remember when I attended Church, that was what a Christian was supposed to be doing, instead of playing the games Trantor mentions.

Frankly, Pauliesonne is dead on, Kathy. You need serious help. You aren't proclaiming Christ, you're playing a game and deluding yourself. Ten years of praying, and either, 1.) you missed the message that God's grace was sufficient for you, or 2.) there wasn't a God to answer the prayer in the first place. Whichever you decide it was, you're accomplishing zip-do, except to irritate the locals. Not a good idea.

 

[UrsulaV]

Ursula,

This is off-topic, but I finally got around to checking out your website (my work server wouldn't let me, you might remember) ... you are talented. I wish I had such gifts.

Aww, jeez, make me blush. *grin* Thank you!

 

[kurious_kathy]

And you started being obedient to god:

1. After you became a drug-addict
2. After you ALMOST died in a car accident
3. After some guy you were boffing beat the hell out of you

Pick one. For someone whose religion spouts about truth, why can't you answer this ONE question?

After all three things happened, yes I was humbled and asked God to forgive me and help me turn my life around. I did not like seeing what becoming so worldy had done to me. I would have lost everything if God had not intervened in my life.
The only reason I was able to pull the divorce papers and be reconciled with my hubby was because I started to see that was truely where God wanted me to be. Without faith I could never make amends and trust things could be worked through.
And then the fact that my hubby waited patiently on God to see if I could be turned around is amazing. My husband kept on loving me even though he had every right to give up and move on to find a new wife. Why didn't he do that, because he believed God through His word and knowing that God's will was truely to help the covenant relationship of marriage work and be blessed. I am constantly reminded of the pain I put Him and my kids through and feel terrible I went astray. I only have a marriage back that's being healed because of faith in the one who ordained marriage. If God wasn't a God of mercy and more than second chances I would definitely not be here.
I now live my life in the humility of the cross.

 

[kurious_kathy]

Kathy,

All I was saying is that the church is no different from the rest of the world. I wrote what I personally have seen and experienced. I know from others that it is no different at other churches. It's human nature. We are animals; fancy ones perhaps, but still animals. If you think that Christians are somehow above sexuality in church, then you you are living in your own Fundy World, certainly a long way from reality.

Mating Behavior is a basic human instinct. Anywhere where people congregate, you will find it.

I am glad that you have changed your old ways. It's good to be a good person for it's own sake, not because you fear the fires of Hell. To improve yourself and to learn is a very worthy goal in life.

Thanks for at least noticing that I have made a change for the better. The only reason for that is because God's spirit now lives in me to help change me from the person I had become. I use to let my sin rule me, now I don't.

I do not agree with your philosophy on us being like animals though. We are given a soul unlike the animals. Our souls have a conscience which is the ability to choose right from wrong, good behaviour from bad behaviour. I know we can look at people sometimes and wonder if they have a conscience, but I believe we humans are set apart from all other species or life forms on this planet.

We were created in the image of God for a reason. He doesn't need any of us, but we were created to have fellowship with him and eachother. A person who receives Christ is reconciled to have a relationship with God, and everyone has that choice. It's good to trust in God's plan to save us. I know without a doubt His love is there for anyone who asks.

 

[Pauliesonne]

Kathy, I have one HELL of a f**king toothache which has stopped me from sleeping for two full days and even that's more tolerable than you!!!!!!!

 

[bluess]

After all three things happened, yes I was humbled and asked God to forgive me and help me turn my life around. I did not like seeing what becoming so worldy had done to me. I would have lost everything if God had not intervened in my life.
The only reason I was able to pull the divorce papers and be reconciled with my hubby was because I started to see that was truely where God wanted me to be. Without faith I could never make amends and trust things could be worked through.
And then the fact that my hubby waited patiently on God to see if I could be turned around is amazing. My husband kept on loving me even though he had every right to give up and move on to find a new wife. Why didn't he do that, because he believed God through His word and knowing that God's will was truely to help the covenant relationship of marriage work and be blessed. I am constantly reminded of the pain I put Him and my kids through and feel terrible I went astray. I only have a marriage back that's being healed because of faith in the one who ordained marriage. If God wasn't a God of mercy and more than second chances I would definitely not be here.
I now live my life in the humility of the cross.

Thank you. Finally.

As I said before, I'm happy you're happy. You believe that your change in behavior is related to being saved by Christ. I will defend your right to believe.

However, you continually assume that everyone has made as many really BAD life decisions as you. This appears to limit your ability to empathize with the rest of us, who see no need to accept an irrational belief system to ease pains which we don't have.

You also assume that your beliefs and decision pattern are appropriate for everyone else. Slingblade (by the way, Sling, did you know you're one of my heroes?) has described the painful details of her life and why your god came up short. So have Fowlsound and Roadtoad. Rather than LISTEN and respond point-by-point, you've played 'blame the victim' with real style.

I don't expect to change your mind about your faith, nor do I have any desire to do so. But I would expect that after being told by many people that your demonstration of your faith is turning people away from your god that you would take a second look.

Okay, Shemp wins. I will no longer feed this troll.

 

[wolfgirl]

However, you continually assume that everyone has made as many really BAD life decisions as you.

And even though many of us have made bad decisions in our lives, we take responsibility for turning our own lives around without having turned to false imaginary friends to help us. Most of us simply, well, grew up and realized that we were making mistakes and knew what we had to do to change.

This appears to limit your ability to empathize with the rest of us, who see no need to accept an irrational belief system to ease pains which we don't have.

Exactly. When we say we're happy with our lives as they are, she can't even begin to comprehend how we can be happy and complete without her imaginary friend's guidance.

Let me say it again, Kathy. I am happy, almost embarrassingly so. I live a full and complete life. I have made many bad decisions in the past, some of which I am still paying for, and most of which I will always regret. But I learned from them and managed to get my life on the right track through hard work and determination. I now enjoy a long and happy marriage, good health and great friends. I don't blame any supernatural beings for my misfortunes, as I brought them all on myself. Neither do I give credit to any supernatural beings for my successes, as I worked hard to make them happen. I have suffered as most people have, but I believe I am stronger for it. At this point in my life, though, I am mostly filled with happiness and hope. And I manage all of this with absolutely no imaginary friends, only real ones. Why can you not accept this? (Or that people in other religions also find redemption and salvation in their beliefs, just as you do in yours?)

 

[Freethinker]

And even though many of us have made bad decisions in our lives, we take responsibility for turning our own lives around without having turned to false imaginary friends to help us. Most of us simply, well, grew up and realized that we were making mistakes and knew what we had to do to change.
Exactly. When we say we're happy with our lives as they are, she can't even begin to comprehend how we can be happy and complete without her imaginary friend's guidance.

Let me say it again, Kathy. I am happy, almost embarrassingly so. I live a full and complete life. I have made many bad decisions in the past, some of which I am still paying for, and most of which I will always regret. But I learned from them and managed to get my life on the right track through hard work and determination. I now enjoy a long and happy marriage, good health and great friends. I don't blame any supernatural beings for my misfortunes, as I brought them all on myself. Neither do I give credit to any supernatural beings for my successes, as I worked hard to make them happen. I have suffered as most people have, but I believe I am stronger for it. At this point in my life, though, I am mostly filled with happiness and hope. And I manage all of this with absolutely no imaginary friends, only real ones. Why can you not accept this? (Or that people in other religions also find redemption and salvation in their beliefs, just as you do in yours?)

Wolfgirl, I already said it in another post today, but I'll say it again! Amen!

 

[Trantor]

Kathy,

I do not agree with your philosophy on us being like animals though. We are given a soul unlike the animals. Our souls have a conscience which is the ability to choose right from wrong, good behaviour from bad behaviour. I know we can look at people sometimes and wonder if they have a conscience, but I believe we humans are set apart from all other species or life forms on this planet.

We are not "like" animals, we ARE animals. A chimp has 98.5% of the identical DNA to a Human. Chimps have learned human sign language and have a comprehension ability that is similar to a Human three year old child. Yet, you say they have no soul.

Humans are the smartest animals on Earth. The ability to choose right from wrong is a learned behavior, that is helped by the Human brain's greater capacity. Most animals can be taught what is correct expected behavior and what is wrong behavior. There have even been cases of Humans isolated from other Humans, where there was no Human interaction and those cases, the Human behavior was like any other animal in nature.

Kathy, I suggest that you watch the "Animal Planet Channel" or perhaps read some material on animal behavior. You may be surprised to learn that animal behavior is very similar to Human behavior. Be sure to pay special attention to the behavior of the "Alpha Male" in groups. You may see(if you dare) some stricking similarities to the Church Preacher.