Have you formed an opinion and rejected God because of the behavior of others?

It took me along time to realize a persons behavior should not be a reflection on the character of God, but it is. I hate to say it, but in the past I have probably put a lot of people off myself. Of course since then, when I realized these things I asked Him to forgive me and went on to do differently. These days so many people hate God, or just refuse to give Him a chance, they judge Him by what they hear and see reflected in others. It's not fair to God and it sure isn't fair to those denying themselves a loving relationship with the Father. It's so sad.

You are right, God did give all of us a free will. We can all chose to do right or wrong. so if we chose to do wrong, why do we blame that on God.We are not to blame God for anything, when we do, we are missing out on so much.God is a God God, He wants the very best for each and every one of us. We should never let anyone stand in between Him & Us.We should not judge other people, that is up to him to do.

You're right, we can only blame ourselves.

I don't blame God, I blame the fact that we are human and thus have no idea what we are doing or why we do it most of the time =) Ok, I'm half kidding. The thing is, I wish people had been created or evolved to not assume things if they didn't know. This is one of our biggest downfalls. We don't know everything, and we seem to constantly be on a search for whatever eludes us at the moment, whether it is the latest technology, a cure for a disease, some way to stop obesity, what to do with a backup of jail inmates, you name it. I don't think it's God's fault that sometimes we are just downright rude, stupid, lazy, judgemental and mean excuses for people. Sometimes I wish he or she would do something about it though, like 'hey you, don't go judging someone for who they choose to love' or 'shame on you for looking at what someone wears instead of seeing how you could help them.'

More people should be like that, unfortunately most people I have come across blame God for the behavior of others and never get to know Him themselves.

Did you really get to know Him as an individual before you rejected Him? Absolutely..with all my heart and soul actually. As time went on though and my eyes were opened to more in life and my mind also became opened I realized that god, christianity and all of it just didnt mesh....Don't get me wrong though, i still think that for those who find what they need in god etc etc its great..for them...for me though, continuing on that path would have been denying me myself, my true core being and that is never acceptable IMO

Did you really get to know Him as an individual before you rejected Him? Or did you believe in an idea and got tired of it and moved on?

Wow, I am giving you the best response because of your honesty. I don't think I have every heard anyone say they knew Him and then turned away.

I don't understand a lot of things that go on either. I believe in God, but to be truthful with you, I don't believe God looks into the womb and decides to give people handicaps. I think it's just something that happens for what ever reason. I hear people say God made a tornado hit and destroy thier town and things like that. I just don't believe He works like that. I do believe God set certain laws in motion, like the law of gravity and the law of the weather, stuff like that. The miracle of a human being forming in the womb is a wonder in it's self. But because human beings are such fragile creatures, I can see how the timetable of formation can be thrown off and possibly cause a person to be born with a handicap or other problems. But to listen to you, you sound to me like you have been formed into a wonderful person, you can obviously see beyond the limitation of being able to walk, and have grown into a person who has come into the fullness of things that really do matter, I hope your room mate is able to come into the truth that you have found and be happy. After all, we're only here on this earth a little while, we'll be in heaven and perfect for eternity. I watch my own body growing older and falling apart. I have to remind myself that this body isn't who I am, the essence of who I am is residing in this flesh. God bless you and thank you for sharing.

Duck, think of our family. Can't you guess?

Was it because of all the rules and stuff, like hair cutting and pants waring?

Can you share what and why you rejected the church for awhile?

My apologies, I was in all sincerity referring to myself about ignorance. This is definatly a one on one decision and it's a one on one experience. I'm sorry if I offened you. I was talking about myself and myself alone. I wasn't trying to insinuate anything, just making conversation and talking about my own choices and stuff.

So you never really came to know Him on a personaly level. Without all the other stuff that comes along with it. I know when I was first saved, I was so busy listening to what everyone was telling me was right and wrong that I never really gave myself the chance to come to know him on a one one basis. I never gave him the opportunity to lead me into truth. If it hadn't been for some of the things I experienced in those early day in the midst of my ignorance I would have probably cast it all aside myself. I am referring to myself as ignorant, not others.

It may work for you but my choices are my own. I don't believe in the mainstream religions and I certainly don't appreciate being alluded to being ignorant. I've studied many religions in their entirety, including yours - I know the religion like the back of my hand and it is not my religion. I respect the fact that it's yours, I respect the fact that you have your beliefs and I only ask for the same in return and quite frankly this is the type of comments and actions (attitude if you will) that I was talking about. I don't care to be preached to, I don't care for prostelizing sent in my "general" direction. All I care about is mutual respect for each others beliefs.

I've doubted him before too. Especially when I was relying on feelings instead of faith. People use to say 'You can't go by feelings, you have to go by faith' I had no idea what they were talking about and no one picked up on that I didn't get it I guess. Fortunatly God knew and eventually I can into understanding.

I have a mental image of a gentle, loving, indulgent smile as we stumble our way through our human journey, learning the various lessons here that we set out to experience.

I've seen that before too, I am sure I have probably been guilty of it. Now it just makes me cringe to think of some the stupid holier than thou attitude I use to have. I would like to think I've learned as I went along, I'm really glad of Gods understanding grace when we do things so out of so much ignorance.

Yes I did. You can't get your mind around that can you? You can't understand how someone could "know" and then decided that what they "knew" was not true. Well that's how it happened for me and I don't expect anyone else to "believe" that's how it went for me, but there it is believe it or not.

yes, I believe people can know and decide it isn't what they want. I was just asking, didn't mean to bother you.

Did you ever know? Believing isn't knowing, did you actually come to the place where you knew before you rejected him?

You have some very strong feelings about this subject. I won't lie to you, I am indeed curious about what happened. I didn't meet Christ until I was a grown woman, I didn't know anything about him other than hearing His name used in vain or in cussing. But when my time came, I was fortunate to be led to a little country church and I hadn't been indoctrinated with anything so I was very child like and I watched these people in awe...I remember thinking to myself, if this is God, I want some of it lol. Anyway, to make a long story short, Christ saved me, he spent years overlooking my outrageous ignorance. I've often wondered how many people I put off or discouraged getting to know Him thru my bad behavior. I am so glad that He is forgiving.

Alrighty then.

It's sad, I don't how tolerant people are now but I use to see a lot of that too, 'If you don't believe like me your not going to heaven.' 'If you don't go to my type of chruch you won't make it to heaven.' And I was guilty of having that type of attitude too. I grew out of it. I know He forgave me and I've moved on. What bothers me though is I wonder how many people never had the chance to know God as God, an individual and a spiritual being that cares for His people.

I don't believe there is anything wrong in questioning anything. I've done a lot of questioning myself over the years since I've been saved. I can honestly say I have never had a question that really gnawed at me that wasn't eventually answered. And the answer never came from me asking another person and them giving me the answer. As for needing him, yes I do, but not on the level I once thought I did. I don't need a church organizations spin on things, I work it out as I go. He did say to 'work out your own salvation' as long as what I do lines up with the word I'm content.