Posted on 03/07/2006 12:06:20 PM PST by Stoat
I will pray for her.
It's incredibly sad and tragic to see people hold their faith during good times, but when things turn dark, painful and agonizing, they turn their back on faith and walk away. She needs gentle support to eventually return. She does not need people throwing barbs and judging her.
why am I not surprised she doesn't know these things?
I don't know why you're so uncompassionate about very real human doubt and frailty in the face of terrible grief. Why don't you tell us?
An understandable pitfall in a me-centered world.
We expect things to go well, and blame God when they don't. I don't see anything in the Bible that promises a life full of blessings and good fortune. That fits more with false gods like Allah.
This world is not our home, and to think of it as such is to deceive ourselves.
Nonsense.
She's still active in the church, she merely no longer feels she can serve as pastor and preach forgiveness as she struggles with it. I think the headline misrepresents what was in the story.
It is a sad story indeed. But, we must not despair over our losses. We must honor our dead for the good they did. These crimes were done TO us, not caused BY us. None die without meaning in this war. We should not be trying yet to issue forgiveness to the enemy who would slit your throat out of an insane religious perversion. The enemy must learn that righteousness will ultimately prevail, not murder of innocents. When the lesson is learned it will be time for forgiving, but not before.
john 3:3 Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."
You're right. Religion is a very dangerous thing--and has only a superficial relationship with faith.
"As far as the earth is above the earth, so are my ways above your ways, saith the Lord".
Nonsense.
I'm betting you are right. We should pray so anyway.
Muleteam1
I'd go even father and cite Mark 16:16:
"Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but those who do not shall be damned".
Unless one is born again (with water), in addition to belief, one is lost. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists cannot fathom this unless they first believe and follow through.
It is hard, but we must try to remember how fleeting and unimportant this world really is.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. “
Nonsense."
Forgive me that, given the screen name you chose, I find it ironic to the point of tragic comedy that you mock the most essential truth of life.
I didn't see where she said she didn't believe in God.
I read her saying that she couldn't forgive the attackers, and didn't feel she could stand up there and preach forgiveness from the altar when she can't bring herself to do it. Therefore, she stepped away from preaching.
It says she's working on something else within the Church.
Where did it say she says she "Can't believe in God"?
I read that she found that she can't bring herself to OBEY what she believes God commanded, having doubts about the command. Seems to me that she does not want to be a hypocrite. That's a different thing than not believing in God.
Actually, it's belief in God, but recognition of one's own limitations.
"A man's got to know his limitations." - Dirty Harry
Anger is a stage in the grieving process.
If she believed in the God of the Bible, she would understand that our sufferings are well, rather predictible. Not to be glib about hers...it is dreadful. But seems that she should find consolation in that the fact that her suffering is perfectly consistent with the God of the Bible.
The headline doesn't match the story, though. The lady feels unable to function as a Christian priest, because her personal feelings were getting in the way. Nowhere does it say she lost her faith in God, or in Christianity.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. “
Thanks for your wise counsel.
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