Aye.
Christians at times let their emotions blind their method of spreading the word. Satan also uses Christians to do his bidding whether they know it or not, setting bad examples for non-Christians.

Sometimes I ask myself, why do people try the best that they can to push God out of their life, replacing him with worldly views and concepts. They try so hard to convince others that there is no God, saying there is no faith or whatever. You know what? You are fooling yourself if you say that. I'll tell you, it takes a hell of a lot more faith to believe that there is not a God then to believe that there is. For example a simple thing, lets say elevators. When you step on that elevator and press the button, how do you know that the thing is not going to lose power and fall hundreds of feet to your death? You put faith in it. You have faith in the equipment, the cord hanging, the maintenance guy repairing it. See what I mean? So don't go around and say that you don't have faith because if you do explain this: What happens if there is a god? What is your plan? You think that your going to die and rot in your grave and millions of years later turn in to valuable oil for the next evolutionary generation of homo sapiens to use? What if your wrong, then what? You're screwed that's what. I realize that is not the most solid argument one could dish out, but here's the point. You do have faith. That is what faith is all about.

I believe that in most cases people shun God is because they don't want to conform to the lifestyle he has set for us, that we should have it our way.

What disappoints me further is that our own Christians are conforming to worldly ways. The United Methodist Church allowed an openly gay pastor to be the leader of the said church. This kind of thing pisses me off, it?s not that she?s gay, but she is a pastor, who obviously should have read her bible a thousand times through and still is gay? That is why I left the UMC and joined Assembles of God which is where my youth group is. They are as solid as a rock. UMC is extremely apathetic. For years me and my family tried to get a youth center down at the church, (which is located next door to my house) they rejected it saying that they don?t want kids messing up their new carpet. Cry me a river. They claim to be Christians and they don?t want to reach out. It is a f?cking retiree country club. They have nothing going on for the kids up there. The pastor tries his best to do things, we tried, but the old farts will not conform. But you know what? They approved a 2 million dollar brand spanking new out of the box sanctuary, sent out little tithe commitments for paying off the mortgage but they don?t want to spend $300 to sponsor a youth get together. They did not need a new sanctuary; they barely use the space of the old one. Which in fact was going to be the location of the youth center, but no it sits there empty. There are kids on Friday night standing on the corner with nothing to do and what usually happens? They get bored; they use drugs, steal cars and raise hell. That was the purpose of the youth center, to get kids involved and do something healthy and safe and off the streets. But no, all they care about is their +$100k they retain in offering money, their f?cking mortgage, their f?cking air conditioning, their f?cking cookies and coffee after ?service?, their f?cking $20k elevator, their f?cking carpet. It is not a church honoring Jesus Christ; it is a f?cking country club for retirees and clich?s of the younger crowd. I got fed up and voted with my feet. Then they have the balls to call me up asking if I would be able to make the month?s tithe, and mow their lawn. Oh BTW about the lawn which is huge and they never use. They stuck a giant tree in the middle of the lawn so the kids can?t play a little game of football. ?Oh our grass.? Cry me a f?cking river. All they care is about how good their property looks. They cried to me after I busted my ass on the lawn for 4 hours that there was a little grass on the sidewalk and that I have to fix it. They are posers that are running a f?cked up old people?s country club. Absolutely pathetic. God does not honor that shit hole at all.

Let me tell you a sad story. This friend of mine lives close to my house. He is one of the bored kids on a Friday night. He wanted to go to the Youth get together, but it never happened because old sour balls didn?t want to help out the kids. So instead of going to the youth thing that never happened this is what he did. He ran away. Later they found him in a stolen car that he stole, and pounds of meth in the car. His life is ruined. And that is a FAILURE OF THE CHURCH. [/u] But the country club could care less, after all they were using the kids to scrub their f?cking carpet that day anyway.

Amen, brothers! It is a sad situation indeed.

My testimony is that the Lord has brought me into the oneness of the Spirit in the church. He has delivered me from the bonds of religion, and is my daily supply of life and grace. Calling on the Lord's name is crucial to living Him. It is a daily matter of life.

 I have seen the two-faced religious money hogs that take advantage of folks who have their hearts right with the Lord. It WILL be revealed, though. Remember that verse that says (I will paraphrase) there is nothing new under the sun, and that light will expose everything in due time? It will happen. But, what will make us one in the church will be the calling on the Lord our of a pure heart. When we do this, many things will happen. We will confess with utmost faith that Jesus Christ is Lord. We will grow in our spirit. We will coperate with God to the extent of enjoying Him and alowing Him to throw out the old sinful human nature within us. Even the Lord Himself will impart more of His very life and nature into us.

I love this song that we have in the glorious churchlife:

"God's eternal economy is to make Man the same as He is in life and nature, but not in the Godhead, and to make Himself one with Man, and Man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues."

The word economy is not heard commonly in today's churches much, if at all. in the original Greek translation, the word "oiconomia" is where economy comes from. In the early English translations, I believe it was called His plan. God's plan is His economy. The following link is for anyone who is interested in seeing some translation history and finding our more about God's economy::

www.recoveryversion.org

Brothers, I encourage you to pray for the Lord to show you what He desires in His heart. Yes, He is a loving Father that thinks about us all the time, therefore an earthly father thinks of his children constantly. He will take the role of the Judge on our judgment day, but since this is the age of grace, He is loving, kind, ever so patient, and merciful. You and I know that one day we will be judged. Therefore, we even as children of God must repent, and plead the Lord to cover us in His precious blood hat was shed for us. If we confess, the Word tells us in Jeremiah that He forgives AND forgets . Isn't that wonderful? And if we keep getting reminded of it, it is the enemy, Satan, that is bringing condemnation on to us. Reade Romans 8 in this case . Even ask the Lord to reveal what you need to repent. We don't even know what we need to pray. Even the Holy Spirit groans for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. I believe it speaks of this in the book of Romans, chapter 7 or 8. If I am wrong, please correct me.

Praise the Lord brothers, and I am grateful to you and the Lord that this site is open to including the Lord Jesus in these forums. It makes it infinitely better.

I won't take offense at that, it's simply where we have a different opinion. I don't see myself as any of those things. I have seen more anger in firm believers around me than I have in 'non-believers' that I have met, more arrogance, more pride, more stubbornness and derision in their texts. I have many friends who are either unsure as what to choose yet, sure that they won't be ready to choose anywhere soon and some who are outright atheists, who are all loving and warm people. I can trust them, and they can trust me - we are close and open to eachother.
And yet, this is not enough: our feelings, our contemplations and our desires are just fraudulent, fake, superficial, 'worldly' and so on. We are foolish for not hopping on any particular bandwagon, we are worse than that:


And I see people of one religion denying the faith of others. Accepting A, denying B without realizing how precisely this is looks like the acceptance of B over A by others.

If I know already what I am seeking for, I have set off on the wrong foot. In this great world it is not my place (and to my opinion, nor that of any creature) to affirm and fix the voyage from the start. But hey, at least I respect the decisions of those who have made their choice - they are not fools to me, even though I do not agree with them. That I am a fool to some merely make me happy that I don't share in their arrogance. If that's not you, then fine, if it is, I'm sure there will come a day when you will be able to see things in a different light and I hope to be a part of that in some way.

That's good, because I don't see you as any of that either.  If I did, I would tell you upfront.
This is a problem with a lot of people.  There are any number of "holy rollers" that condemn people simply because they think differently.  The bible's message is that God is not out to condemn people, but to save people from condemnation through forgiveness and sacrifice.  This is lost, unfortunately, on many a believer and non-believer alike.  The difference is the believer has no excuse for it.
If it were easy, life would be short for all.  People wonder about the meaning of life, but for me at least, the answer is simple.  Life is the process through which you discover who you are, and choose what you will become.  That takes, well, a lifetime.  There are many good people who have not found God.  God forbid that I would condemn such people.  Indeed I wish more people, believer and non-believer alike, were as you describe.
Your actions define you, my friend, not the opinions of those around you, and nobody said your feelings or desires were false, only that there are many blind people in the world.  We who do believe in a God ought to trust God to know the hearts of men, but "by their fruits" we do know how to react to people - this includes other believers.  I look at the fruits of this modern generation, and I see some very, very bad things going on.  We can't just turn a blind eye to the bad behavior of people in this world, and make excuses for it.  Crime, war, apathy - all this goes on day after day, corrupt motives of people of all classes, from peasants to politicians causing suffering continually.  That is what I was speaking of in my earlier rant.  Included in this is hypocricy and apostacy among believers.  We, as believers, should be more compassionate and more understanding than people who do not believe.  We should hold ourselves to a higher standard, and indeed hold ourselves more accountable because, if we are saved as we believe, then we know right from wrong and it is our duty to behave better than those who are still in the process of discovering which way they wish to go.  That we feel assured of our knowledge I do not see as arrogance either.  To a believer, we should be more sure of God, and less sure of ourselves, but our acceptence of God we should always be sure of.  I know you value uncertainty Tab, but as a believer, I value the certainty of God more than I value my own soul, for without God, my soul is meaningless and all the things I hope for and love, and the future I look toward every moment of every day of my life turns to ash and dust, and I am left a cold and barren creature.  Doubt of God has no place in a believer's life.  Doubt of self is always there, as we are still imperfect creatures with sinful natures.

As far as trust, human nature is what is not to be trusted.  Do you trust yourself to always do the right thing, and to be perfect, and never act selfishly or cause injury to another?  How many people do things they regret later?  Human history is written in suffering, oppression, and bloodshed.  Yes, there is capacity to do good, but far too often man gives in to the temptation to do evil instead.  A man should not think too highly of himself, nor be too sure of his intentions.  If you never question yourself, you will surely think you are doing good when you are doing evil.  How many people, who do evil to others, in the end think they are actually doing good?  Still, we trust that God has written in our hearts what is good and what is evil, for we all know not to murder, or steal, or desire what belongs to others, or disrespect our elders, or dishonor our mate in secret with another.  For if the unbeliever can say, "it is wrong to steal", and the believer says, "God says it is wrong to steal", then for both the law is the same, "thou shalt not steal", and we all know it to be wrong.  Likewise if the unbeliever says "It is good to give to the poor, and show mercy", and the believer says, "God says we should give alms to the poor, for God has mercy on us", then we all know it to be good.  In this way we can discern what is good and what is evil, for God writes it in the heart of the believer and unbeliever alike.

Acts of goodness, whether done in His name or not, are counted for God for all that is good is of God, while acts of cruelty, even those done in His name, are counted for the devil, for no evil comes of God, but is of the devil.  It is not about "hopping on bandwagons" at all.  It is about what kind of person you are, and what choices you make and why.

Nobody knows, from the day they are born, or hatch, or however they enter the world, what they are seeking.  They just know that they are.  This is part of the great mystery of life is that nobody can define your life's quest, it's yours and yours alone.  We are all free to find our own path.  If there is a God as we believe, and He desires you to be in His family more than you may desire not to be, then in some way at some time in your life He will make Himself known to you.  I have faith in that because I have faith in Him.  Otherwise we're all free to make our own way, whatever way that leads.[/color]