A Very Sad Reality

I seem to be finding a lot of things lately to blog about, I'm sure you've all noticed that I'm not as quiet as I usually am.

I've had something that has been a bit heavy on my heart for the last while and I will admit I haven't consciously been giving it thought, but it has been in the back of my mind. And today, in fact about 15 mins ago I ran into something on Facebook that prompted me to write this blog. I think with this being in the back of my mind for so long and then what I saw on facebook kind of brought it to a culmination, it finally brought it to a point where I feel I now have something to say on the subject.

What I ran into on facebook was a video that an atheist had made - honestly I think his mommy forgot to give him his medication this morning and he looked a lot like the product of a brother/sister marriage, that aside, his video was a screaming and ranting attack against Christianity and Christians. Now my normal reaction to a video like this would be to turn it off and not give it more attention than it deserves...especially when the person is so obviously mentally unbalanced.
But something grabbed my attention and it was his description of why he is an atheist and where his believes were shaped as far as his upbringing.
In a nutshell, he was basically saying that he was raised in a cult that preached fire and brimstone and 'if you don't pull yourself right, you're gonna burn in hell" and then going on to talking about preachers who take 10% of a person's salary every month to fund their luxurious lifestyle. To the Christians who are reading this, what I'm about to say is going to shock you and may offend some, but please keep reading and hear me out.
I agree with him....there I said it.

The whole picture of his upbringing and why he feels the way he does was soooo clear to me, and my thoughts went further to "how far has this problem spread?" and how many atheists are atheists because of this precise reason?

We have cults in our society, some are blatantly in plain view, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon's, The New and Old Apostolic Church, The Seventh Day Adventist and let's not forget my personal favourite The Restored Church of God - if you are ever sad one day and feeling down and need a good honest laugh may I suggest go and Google The Restored Church of God let me tell you this man had me rolling on the floor in fits of laughter. I honestly still can't believe that first of all somebody could love themselves that much and second of all could possibly be that stupid. My husband thought I had lost what little was left of my mind.
Let me suggest, look up a video called something along the lines of - the true meaning of being born again or something to that effect. This man could be the poster child for the stupid and yes they walk among us.
Then you get the polygamist and underground cults, those that go into hiding, those that brainwash to an enormous extent and isolate their congregation from their families, and mess around with children and teach suicide pacts, those guys are dangerous. I actually asked the question recently, why aren't cults made illegal? Its simple...they fall under freedom of religion, the only time that the law can step in is when the cult starts to engage in illegal activities, such as gun smuggling, child molestation etc, before that they cannot be touched, how sick is that?

These children get raised in cults, cults that control through fear, what's the easiest way in religious terms to control through fear? tell them if they don't obey they're going to hell, it's that simple, the Catholic Church did it in ancient times to control the masses, then carried on with it when they discovered that it was a good way to make money....but that's a discussion for another time.
So these children get controlled through fear of going to hell (yes, hell is a real place, for those of you who doubt it, I will be posting a link to a video from a man who spent 23 minutes there in a vision.....not for sissies - you may need a change of underwear after this one), and this is these people's control mechanism. I think there are even some non-cult churches that do the same thing (shame on you!). And then these children leave the cult (if they can) and they go out into the world and start following preachers....and this is the part that makes my blood boil, you get preachers in the world today who claim to be doing God's work and in fact all they are doing is lining their own pockets....I have 7 preachers and evangelists that I follow and that I listen to and learn from and they are decent honest Christians and are honestly doing God's work although some have nothing better to do with their hands than nitpick and find fault in everything they do. But you get the fakes, you get the ones that are just in it as I said to line their own pockets and they target people and convince people to give 10% of their hard earned money to their church and then use the money to fund their private jets, fancy houses, fancy cars etc. I've even seen stories of preachers, who will do a healing service and they'll pay somebody who is perfectly healthy to come in in a wheelchair and let the so-called "preacher" pray over him and watch the guy get out of the wheelchair and walk away. And the people in the congregation don't know better so they throw money at the church.
Healing services are legit by the way, you just need to learn how to spot the real from the fake.
Now if I was in someone's position like that and got scammed and wronged in that way, I'd also be angry and I'd also turn my back on the church.
But, and I have to say this, I thank God for the grounding and foundation that I received at the school where I did Std 8 and 9 (which was pentecostal by the way), that I had it drummed into me on a regular basis who to stay away from, what to watch out for, what the signs are, what to be careful of. We were given the tools to protect ourselves, fortunately for us we were lucky enough to have that, others were not so fortunate and as a result have been harmed by scam artists and what we call false prophets, the Bible warned that they would come and guess what people...they have arrived and they didn't make a big entrance, they snuck in quietly through the back door.
Honestly, if my life had taken a different course and I hadn't had the most amazing teachers and people in my life at that time to guide me  and I had ended up being the victim of a scam artist I can't honestly say I wouldn't have ended up an atheist and that's a sad and scary thought. And I am soooo grateful to God that He put the people in my life that He did to teach me the right way.
And this is what makes me soooo angry, is that the fakes out their are giving us decent, honest Christians a bad name. Not only are they dragging our name through the mud, but they are dragging Jesus' name through the mud and I take great offense to that....if you wanna drag my name through the mud go for it, but when you start harming the person who saved my life, that's a whole different ballgame.
Anyway, I'm getting off the topic now....the fakes and the false teachers and the scam artists out their are giving us a bad name and the way I see it, it's gotten to the point where, people hear the word God, Jesus, Christian, Christianity and it incites a murderous hatred for us, and what really makes my blood boil is that they are sooooo dishonest and so deceitful, they really couldn't care and that makes me sooo angry that a person can be that slimy.

I realized another thing that gives Christians a bad name is those Christians that will attempt to force the Gospel down your throat, they attempt to bring you to Christ through inciting fear (hell), some of them preach a God that is angry, unforgiving, cold, heartless...that's not the God I know (another subject for another time). They will harass you and brow beat you and put you on a spot everytime they see you. And I can't berate them for it...let me explain, right before Jesus left He left us with a job to do....He told us to go out and make disciples of all nations. And that's what those Christians are trying to do in a nutshell, so that's why I can't berate them for it, because I know that they mean well and that they mean no harm in what they are doing. But we come back to what I am always saying...there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and yet again the way they do things is the wrong way. They don't realize that what they are doing is bringing people to Christ the wrong way, these people are getting saved under duress.....they are going to resent the person, they are going to resent the church, they are going to resent Jesus...it's just all wrong. You can't force a person to do something they don't want to do and except them not to resent you or hate you for it, it's that simple, God is a gentlemen beyond measure and He would NEVER force Himself on anyone, so why do we think we have the right to do it? answer me that?. But they are coming from a good place and they mean well so if it happens to you just take it from where it comes and don't hurt them, just give them the courtesy of listening and maybe even pay attention and let them be on their way. They're not trying to hurt or harm you, so don't hurt them.
I learnt a simple lesson recently, a person will not commit to Jesus until they have a revelation of Him, of who He is, of the sacrifice He made for them and more importantly a revelation of His love them. That's not to say that our human minds can grasp the extent and vastness of His love for us, we can't our human minds do not have the capacity to grasp it....we can manage only a fraction of it and even that is enough to flatten us...literally. Let me explain.
I'm going to tell you a story about Staci...a quick story.

I became a Christian at 16, mostly because I believed it was expected of me....it wasn't a waste though, I gained a large amount of knowledge and it gave me a foundation and a grounding to come back to.
I have found something to be very true through hearing people speak about it and reading things etc and I found it with me as well. People tend to project onto God the image of their earthly father, so, if your father was cold and distant etc that's how you're going to see God, if your father was loving and caring that's how you're going to see God, there's nothing with you or with that happening, it's human nature. Which is why we need to get to know Him and figure out who He is really and how He sees and feels about us.
At 16, I did exactly that and I spent the first 2 years of my Christianity, believing that I needed to prove myself to Him that I needed to fight for His approval, that I needed to work to be good enough for Him and I always felt like He wasn't there like I was the reject He had to put up with and that I would never be able to measure up to His standards.
Fast-forward 12 years, I'm 28, I'm dating an idiot still attached to the umbilical cord (mommy's boy). I'm practicing witchcraft, I'm fully into paganism and am working toward high priestess status (It's ugly I know - trust me that's the tip of the iceberg - a subject for another time however). And me and mommy's boy were driving to his house one day when he turns to me and says "my mom says you're not a god-fearing woman", I decided to make this a teaching moment and to revert to my Christian grounding and replied "I know, I don't fear those that love me", to which he replied "no, you don't understand what I'm saying" to which I asked him if he was sure he'd like to get into this argument with me, that ended the discussion. Fear has no association with love and it's a very short step from fear to hatred. I could never hate My Father, so no I am not a god-fearing woman, because I don't fear God, I love, respect, honour and worship Him...there is a difference.
But long story short, I always wondered where God was during the horrific times in my life, during the times when my ex-husband was beating me, the day I buried my son, all these things - where was He?. And it took me 16 years to figure out that He was right by my side the whole time, He had me in His arms the whole time, the problem was me, I refused to acknowledge or to turn to Him, so if I felt like He had left me and that He wasn't there I only had myself to blame. In that moment of realization I suddenly realized exactly how much He loved me, I realized the concept of  "I will never leave you, nor forsake you", the realization of His love for me was so over-whelming that I curled up into the foetal position and to say the least the dam wall that had been standing for 16 years, burst and I cried for 4 hours. Now, I understand. So when I say it is capable of flattening you, I mean it literally!!

Now to end to off this blog, I want to make an appeal. I have recently come across a number of facebook pages that were aimed at the Christian community and I find atheists coming onto the pages and start attacking us and hammering us and picking fights with us and starting arguments with us. I have to ask why? what are you gaining out of this? I just do not understand it at all...why so much anger and hatred? Why do you feel so threatened by us that it sparks this aggression? you seem to protest a little bit too much about a God you say doesn't exist, to the point that you almost seem to be on a witch hunt looking for Christians to pick a fight with? and if you believe that God doesn't exist, why does it bother you so much? these pages on facebook as I see it were designed as a place for us to come and get to together and meet with other Christians and chat and just spend time together online. The last thing we want is to sit and argue with atheists who are doing nothing but trying to get a rise out of us and just plain be nasty.
And you know what this is what I want to say to you....we are all adults and are all capable of making our own choices in life and we don't need anybody's approval for the choices we make. You made a choice to be an atheist and my heart goes out to you and I'm sorry for you but that was the choice you made for yourself and I respect your right to make choices for yourself. The same as it was my choice to be a Christian and the same as I respect your choice, please offer me the same courtesy. I don't need you to approve of the choice I have made for myself nor do I care about your opinion of the choice I have made for myself.
So, feel free to come onto the Christian pages everybody is always welcome, but don't come onto the Christian pages with the intention of looking for a fight. You are more than welcome to join us there, but respect our beliefs and our choice in being Christians same as we respect yours and if you're going to come onto the pages with malicious intentions rather stay away...its not welcome.
Its just common courtesy.

Well that concludes this blog for today :)

And as always if I offended anyone....your bag of cement will be on it's way to you shortly, we don't want you to delay in getting started on that bridge.

Shalom and God Bless
xxxx