The Christian Christmas Story

[fuzzygobo]

The best I can do is show people what my relationship with God has done for me, how it filled such an emptiness in my life. But I'm not in the soul-saving, fire and brimstone racket either. You don't get extra points in Heaven for converting people. If people do come to God, that's their decision to make, not mine.

Jesus was the most loving, compassionate, understanding person who ever walked this earth. But he was also the most assertive when demonstrating why he was here. When pointing out the shortcomings of the Scribes and Pharisees (the "religious" people who thought they had all the answers, but were so blinded by laws and rituals they lost compassion for others), Jesus was no shrinking violet.

To paraphrase in modern terms, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

And Jesus cared.

 

[dwayne1115]

I was and maybe still am called to preach. When I was a Teen the church I attended taught me that I need to be a soul saver, fire and brimstone type of person. They taught me really well on how to look at others living in there wicked ways, and try to scare them into some kind of salvation. It has taken me years, and I still struggle with it from time to time on changing that mindset. In the end that kind of mindset has hurt so many relationships (mostly family) that even to this day I'm still trying to repair.
The reason I'm saying all this is, never lose sight of who Jesus really is. Study how he lived, and be as Christ like as you possibly can. Because in the end that is what being a Christian is all about, being Christ like.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I think what intimidates so many from coming closer to God (or even acknowledging his existence), is feeling there must be some strings attached. Maybe some were dragged to church when they were younger (like me!) and the experience wasn't pleasant.

Maybe it's getting familiar with the Bible. In all fairness, even reading just a chapter a day, it takes about a year to finish. And it can be easy to get bogged down in certain passages.
After 20 years, reading several translations with the help of study guides and group discussions, I still can't claim to know everything. But there are a number of verses that have served me so well throughout my life.

I too have a problem with the "Bible-thumpers" who expose their hypocrisy, self -righteousness, and narrow vision for all to see. For nonbelievers, I can see why people like that would turn you off. But looking past that, and realizing God WANTS a relationship with you, it's amazing what you might find. But as I said earlier, anyone's choice to believe or not is theirs, not mine.

 

[CensoredAlso]

What holds a lot of people back is the seeming contradiction of a loving God, versus their own lives which can be pretty trying. Why were you created just to be miserable? That is something I have always struggled with.

 

[D'Snowth]

I seem to recall Alan Alda (who was raised as a Roman Catholic) saying something similar to that effect is what caused him to wake up one morning as a non-believer who couldn't go back, on the grounds of if there's another life awaiting us that's for more spectacular than we can fathom, then what's the point of this existence?

 

[CensoredAlso]

I seem to recall Alan Alda (who was raised as a Roman Catholic) saying something similar to that effect is what caused him to wake up one morning as a non-believer who couldn't go back, on the grounds of if there's another life awaiting us that's for more spectacular than we can fathom, then what's the point of this existence?

Yes, exactly. That is something I will always struggle with. Of course, on a good day, I do try to remember this:

"Patience, my brothers, and patience, my sons. In that sweet and final hour, truth and justice will be done."

 

[dwayne1115]

I seem to recall Alan Alda (who was raised as a Roman Catholic) saying something similar to that effect is what caused him to wake up one morning as a non-believer who couldn't go back, on the grounds of if there's another life awaiting us that's for more spectacular than we can fathom, then what's the point of this existence?

For me the way I look at it is like this. In the beginning when God created us we did not have sin, and pain, and war, and death, and thorns. It was Heaven on earth. God gave man one rule not to break eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. When man was temped and did eat the fruit it cause not only him but the rest of the generations to come to live in a world filled with pain sorrow and death. That is why Jesus came to the world so that we might be able to re gain in a sense what we lost when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden.

 

[Dominicboo1]

I believe in a God (most likely Christian in my opinion), but have my own beliefs that whatever you believe in this life you get in the afterlife if you're a good person. I'm not a devout Christian, but I DO believe in Jesus. I do have to agree certain people make it very hard (the Westboro Church or whatever they call themselves) to see what Christians are supposed to be. However then there are good Christians such as the ones here like Dwayne that try to put the Bible into a context that hurts NOBODY. Do I know what are sins according in God's eyes? No, not at all. Even if the Bible is mostly right, nobody knows 100% what God meant by everything in the Bible. Parts such as six days, or the Earth being the center of the Universe could very well be metaphorical and not literal. Other parts might be meant mostly for the times. (Various forms of sexual orientation that I and my boyfriend who is a Christian discussed). Again I can't know this for sure, because I haven't had a literal, verbal conversation with Jesus and I doubt anybody alive LITERALLY has, and not just felt a presence. Does that mean I don't think anything is a sin? Heavens, no. (Sorry for the pun) Why is murder wrong? It's more than just God says not to do it, it's that muderers are destroying a life. They are preventing the good that the victim would have done, and worst of all harming the families of the victims. Why is theft wrong? Again, it hurts others and makes them worry they lost it. Do I believe everything in the Bible to be literal? No. Do I think there's a God, and that he's here to help us in moments or moral dilemmas, and comfort us in times fo pain? Yes. I know this probably 100% wrong. (Other than why murder's wrong of course...), but I will keep believing this point of view until I die and find out for myself.

 

[dwayne1115]

I don't have any scripture to back up what I'm about to say,but here goes.

I think that everyone sins, and that sin is something in the heart, that blocks us from God. What sin is in one man's heart may not be sin in another man's heart. Regardless of what it is all men do it, and that is why God sent his son Jesus to pay or to cover up those sins.Then once a person asks Jesus into there heart he slowly makes it to where that person dose not want to sin, and live more Christ like. Again, I don't have scripture to back this up, it's just what I think.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I don't have any scripture to back up what I'm about to say,but here goes.

I think that everyone sins, and that sin is something in the heart, that blocks us from God. What sin is in one man's heart may not be sin in another man's heart. Regardless of what it is all men do it, and that is why God sent his son Jesus to pay or to cover up those sins.Then once a person asks Jesus into there heart he slowly makes it to where that person dose not want to sin, and live more Christ like. Again, I don't have scripture to back this up, it's just what I think.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

There's your backup.