Umm, the church puts you on a never-ending guilt trip. Nothing you ever do, nothing you ever think is good enough to please their God. We sin when we get up in the morning, we sin all day long, we sin when we go to bed at night. It is not sinful to be human and to think and feel things others don't think and feel.
It all boils down to brain chemicals working properly. If your brain chemicals are fully charged, you don't care if fairies fly over the altar during mass. You only care about those things when you are depressed and crabby.
You're right. Nothing we can do can possibly please a holy God. That's why He sent His Son. The Word of God says that Jesus became the propitiation for our sins. When He becomes our Savior, He gives us His righteousness as well as salvation. From that point on, whenever God looks at you, he sees His Son. From that point on, you are, in a spiritual sense, perfection.
Uh, yeah.
That's absolutely right! And still he LOVES us, isn't that Amazing?!?! You have never known love until you have truly offended the one you really don't want to alienate -- and he chooses to reconcile with you anyway... because he loves you. I have had someone demonstrate this for me in real life, and it's the most inexpressibly amazing thing to go through. It truly does make you want to dance sometimes and just act plain goofy because you have no other way to express it. (I'm getting a lump in my throat now, thinking about it!)
Speaking of our sinfulness, it's all right in the Bible just like that. Only you're only getting and therefore relaying half the picture! And that may be for whatever reason... sometimes when the church is even faithful at preaching it, people have a hard time believing both parts because they feel like they have to DO something to earn God's love... did our babies have to earn our love when they were born? No!
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD . "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. " Isaiah 1:18"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
"I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
I will build you up again
and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.
Again you will take up your tambourines
and go out to dance with the joyful." Jeremiah 31: 3, 4"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:7
"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate." Luke 15:17-24[John the Baptist speaking - the last known prophet] "He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." John 1:27
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:10-14
And many many many others....the theme which comes out is not that we should expect to be perfect, but that we should proceed in a direction more and more like Christ, and having a personal loving relationship with him, closer than with the ideal spouse, more tender, loving, and nurturing.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." Romans 5:6-11"In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:17-19
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ?Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 8:31-38This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." 1 John 3:16-20
If you have guilt, take it to the Lord, cry and accept his forgiveness as many times as it takes for it to sink in to your heart, and don't take on any more guilt that doesn't belong to you. It's very hard to learn to do this, for most people, yes, but it is a healthy thing to do. The Lord forgives abundantly, if you truly wish to be in fellowship with him, but remember that his forgiveness has little to do with how YOU feel about the sin or how others feel about it. I don't think he even requires us to formall confess every unconscious sin we may partake of, but confession of those we know of does us good.