Re: Introduce yourself!
Sorry you feel that way G_Town. I can't separate my faith from everything else. It's an integral part of my being. It affects everything I do, and why I personally choose to help others (why I'm on this forum in the first place).
I'm not talking about a religion. I'm talking about a relationship with the lover of my soul. The God who made me and has done everything He can to show me He loves me. I hope it doesn't offend just to say that my God is good and to tell why I believe so. I honestly know that many people don't truly know what Christians believe. It's not by my goodness that I'm saved - it's the exact opposite. I'm not perfect and never will attain perfection in my lifetime. It's my failings why I need the Savior Jesus - Perfect God in human flesh who did what I cannot do and offers salvation as a free gift. If I was perfect and didn't have the failings (sin), then I wouldn't need Him. But I do, and am glad He has shown me how much He wants me to be with Him forever.
Analogy: 1:
I can give a gift for Christmas to someone I love. I can have it wrapped with their name on the present. The person may know the gift is intended for him or he may not. But if he doesn't open the gift, it's really never his. Only when he opens the gift, is it truly his.
Analogy 2:
A man who commits a crime he is justly accused of is found guilty and goes to court for sentencing. The judge tells him the punishment - a fine in the amount the man cannot pay. Then the judge comes down from the bench, takes off his robe, and stands where the guilty man was standing - in his place in fact. The judge pays the price because he can pay it, and because he has mercy on the guilty man. The judge then goes back to the bench, puts on his robe, and tells the man his punishment has been paid in full. The judge tells the man he is free to go because the price has been paid. Who paid the price? The judge. Was the man not guilty? Yes the man was already found guilty. Did the man deserve the punishment, and deserve to have to pay it? Yes. But did the debt get paid? Yes. And that's what the law is satisfied with - that the debt was paid. This is an analogy of how God tells man he's guilty, how God took on Himself the punishment, and tells the guilty sinner the debt has been paid, and that he is free. This is the good news. The good news is not about "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" or "doing good" or "being better". It's about accepting what God has done for us. And that, my friend, makes all the difference. In fact, that is what makes us love Him back - because he first loved us and showed it.
"John 3:17 (New King James Version)
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
I'm not beating anyone over the head for not believing. It's a personal choice. God gives us that choice and won't make anyone believe in Him. It's your right, just like everyone else's - to deny/reject or admit/believe/accept Him and His love and His sacrifice. He'll still love you though. But it does you no good personally unless you know Him.
Not wanting any problems on the forum by any means. But to say I'm not allowed to have an opinion or a belief that I can expressly share, just because I happen to be in printing? Well, that's against the first amendment to the Constitution. We all have the right to free speech and the free exercise of religion.
"Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Do you think the Founding Fathers of America didn't believe in God? What do we see in the Declaration of Independence?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
"http://www.fff.org/freedom/0699b.asp"
It's sad when our basic rights are being stripped away because of how men have tried to tell us that these truths we see in our founding documents as a country weren't really meant that way. The same truths that were "self-evident" before our "enlightened" generation came along.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Don
