CHEAP AND YUMMY BROWNIE RECIPE!
6 TBSP cocoa, 1/4 C butter, 1 C sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/3 C flour, 2 eggs, Cook 350 - 25 mins.

10/13/07

ON RELIGION... GOD OR NO GOD...THAT IS THE QUESTION!

GOD OR NO GOD POST NUMBER TWO CLICK HERE

GOD OR NO GOD POST NUMBER THREE CLICK HERE

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Well it's time to try out churches again. Why? Kole has been saying,

"Take me to church. I want to go to church! Mommy...Daddy I want to go to CHURCH!!!"


CRAP!


We've been home churching some since my whole leg ordeal. We had just begun attending a new church when that happened and the kids hadn't really liked the kids church and though I enjoyed the service, Brian and Kazz didn't care for it at all...soooo ....we home churched.


Our church lives have gone something like this. Brian and I went to church our whole lives. We were evangelicals for the most part. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Virgin Mary...Jesus died for us...The whole 9 yards. I attended church every time the doors opened and that included 2 and 3 week revival meetings.


I was saved at 7 years old, baptised at 12 and then again with Brian after we were married. We decided to do it together.

okay fast forward to today...

Lots of questions have come up since we've seen the fall of so many Christians. Like, hey they talked in tongues and stuff. I would think that if God himself caused your mouth to move that you would believe in Him enough to not get caught with hookers and embezzle money and molest little children.


You know?


Then a couple of our son's friends started asking us crazy questions like...


1. Is it really "free will" if God is going to kill the people who don't serve Him? You know like the slave owners who killed their slaves if they didn't serve them. Isn't that more like slavery except that after He kills us He is then going to burn us forever and ever in an unquenchable thirst. But you know that's only if we don't serve Him.


2. If God knows everything then why did He create a human existance knowing that they would fall and that Satan would rule them? Not only that let's throw in the fact that their own flesh would cause them to want to do things that God has decided are sinful!


3. Why did He make Satan if He knew that Satan was going to cause sin in the first place?


4. Why did He send His son to save a lost world when He could have just not made it in the first place? And why did Jesus have to die for a world that could have just not been made in the first place?


5. Why is the Bible so out of order, hard to figure out by oneself and over the top vague?

If this is life or death for eternity, why didn't He make it like, T-totally Black and white-no messing around with letters to different churches and burning bushes and arcs. Why not just say, this is the way and that's it...No way around it, no different points of view?


Like, you know, even the Catholics...which is a pretty old religion, had it way wrong a whole bunch of times...the whole flat earth thing....killing "witches"....molesting kids. These are the leaders of God's church..Oh but we are all sinners. Yes so that led to another question...


6. Why did he make sin again? Did He make Satan? Was He all knowing when He made Satan?

Can you say, "blank stares?!"

I mean they have real questions!!

And with kids these days, "Just have faith." IS NOT GOING TO CUT IT!!

Personally, I don't think anyone knows the answers to these questions.

I'm fairly certain of it.

But Here is the thing though...and what I've said to them thus far...


GOD HAS TO EXIST!


Seriously...let's just think logically for a second.

A non-living atom cannot become a living atom. That's that. Life doesn't just happen no matter how many million years it bounces off other molecules/atoms etc... water does not create life...it helps it along...but does not create life.


I found a quote that best describes my view. It is from a man I do not know but his words are pretty darn close to the conclusion I've come to when deciding of faith or no faith...atheism or God...


"The entire universe is evidence for God! If there is no God, there should be no cosmos—nothing at all. As an atheist, you’ve got a whole universe of evidence to explain away! How did something come from nothing? How did life come from non-life? How did intricate design come from non-intelligence? On the other hand, Christianity points to the universe and says, 'It is unreasonable, irrational, and illogical to believe that all of this came from nothing. There must be an all-powerful, all-intelligent Creator.' As a Christian I have a universe of evidence. Where’s your evidence for atheism?"


NOW...Where does that leave us and our thinking as Chrstians in my home?

Here's the deal...

We Believe. That's A-Number one.


We don't have all the answers and waiting to get to Heaven to get answers isn't going to suffice for these kids. I'd like to take them to church!! They have sat in our our home church and liked it. But now times they are a changin'. We need to find a no non-sense church. They are thinking...now let's get them learning!!

Jesus is the way the truth and the life...but RELIGION...screws with that!!


So I say to my husband...

Where can we go to ask these questions and get real answers?

Not, "Oh you just have to have faith..."

because...you know...bull crap!...That's just plain bull....


"Just have to have faith" can fill a lot of slots in this life...Buddha, Wiccan, Paganism...


We just want to be able to walk into a church where people ARE NOT saying...

Bless you brother and sister so and so...

Have a blessed day...blah blah


WHO TALKS LIKE THAT!?!


So very fake.

Well if anyone has answers to these questions please feel free to post away! Until then pray that we find a church where kids and teens like to go and God is able to change their lives in a wonderful way.

We have a 15 passenger van. We just need the right place to haul the kids to! LOL

Wow this parenting thing...jeepers...who knew it would include the community kids too!!

5 comments:

Heather said...

Because you KNEW I would have to say something :)

the whole flat earth thing....
When did they Church teach that? Don't say "Galileo," Copernicus came first, he taught heliocentrism, and he didn't get into trouble.

killing "witches"....
Witches had a much harder time in Protestant areas, like northern Germany; Switzerland; Scotland (last one in 1724); Salem, Massachusetts. Not France, Italy, Ireland.
There was someone in the Church at the time who said something we should pray for those deluded witch-burners. Cite pending...

molesting kids.
I AM NOT DEFENDING THE MOLESTERS' BEHAVIOR. I know you wouldn't say that, but I want that out there first. I want to say "All faiths have this problem" but that doesn't make it okay, doesn't make it right.
But the Church is made up of fallible, imperfect individuals. To blame the Church for their wrongdoing is like blaming the House of Representatives for one congressman getting busted. As you have said, we all sin.

Okay, I'll stop there. It's late.

DP said...

It helps if you look at a church (any of them) as a hospital. Specifically, a hospital for us sinners. Not every doctor in the hospital is going to be a good one. Some have the bedside manner of loan sharks, and some are quacks.

And not every patient who goes in is going to be cured. As we all know, sadly some patients never get better.

The critical question is: what kind of medicine is being practiced at that hospital? Do they say "it's all in your head" and tell you to tough it out? Do they wave crystals or ferrets over your injuries and proclaim you cured? Do they say "all of western medicine from Hippocrates and Galen through Salk is a sham" and their doctors "just know better"?

I'd avoid those hospitals like jock itch, and I know you would, too.

[More later--this is more involved than I thought and I'm running out of time.]

HISchild said...

Don't ever underestimate your circle of influence!!!

I don't want the village raising my kids either but you might be the village for those that don't mind.

More on my blog later.

momwithbrownies said...

I'm the village!!
Oh my that's scary. LOL

momwithbrownies said...

Heather and Dale,
My next post is in response to you guys. :-)