Do not blame God, blame the Christian hypocrites!

Christianity revolves around Christ, correct?

Why do MOST Christians treat Luke 12:33, Luke 3:9-11, and Matthew 25:41-45 like a joke??!!

16,000 Children dying of hunger EVERYDAY!! Wake up, wake up!!!

www.bread.org...

But why do MOST Christians still choose to live beyond the basic needs - food, clothing, cheap apartment, cheap-used car, keeping few possessions, etc...

But instead, choose to spend most their earnings on themselves and friends! They really don't care about the poor!! 10% on tithes won't keep you away from Hell!!

I'm not accusing Christians for nothing, I've been a Christian for 20 years!

You earnings/profits are not your own due to your hard work!! You have it because God simply allowed it!! It doesn't matter whether you're Christian or Unbeliever, it's God's!!

Unbelievers curse God because of Christians!! God commanded us to be the salt and light of this world, but do we do?? We keep all the light and salt for ourselves?? God's wrath is upon you!!

Nearly all Christians will go to Hell!!

Matthew 25:41-45
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Matthew 7:22-23
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

It's not enough that you help the poor only once!! It must be a life long commitment of austerity so you can help the needy as much as possible!!

Less to self, more to the Gospel and to the poor!! Keep your life and you lose it!! God so loved the world, He gave us Jesus for us to believe and to follow, so we can be of big help to the world!!

thanks for the laugh, I needed cheering up.

How can 16,000 children dying of hunger can be in any way funny regardless of anyone's fault??

Only very few is doing something about it.

One day, Humanity will simply be remembered as a race that is selfish to the bone. Wouldn't even make two sentences... Pity!

reply to post by ahnggk


I'm not laughing at the starving children, I'm laughing at you meant with as little offence as possible.

Thanks for opening this thread. I am too new to start threads, but this is along the lines of where I wanted to go. I will try not to expand too far on what you opened, so as not to be accused of hijacking.
Since Constantine made Christianity the official religion of his vast empire, and gave them powers to tax, own land, etc. the "business"of church has interfered with tbe simplicity of Christ's teaching. I have personally seen a church argue over the shade of red to replace carpet, while less than two blocks away a homeless man froze to death for lack of shelter. i have second hand knowledge of a homeless man being asked to leave a church during intermission of a Christmas presentation, because he was bothering the members. He was sitting on the front row, did not approach anyone and did not get up to eat refreshments. His crime was reminding the church og their shortcomings. He was escorted back out into the cold and shooed away.
I have seen a church go through the process of finding a new minister. A search committee finds some canidates, they take their turn preaching (usually on a topic given to them), one is selected. Negotiations ensue, what he wants: a new house in the country club, full insurance, full retirement plan, time to perform his "real job duties" of selling insurance, etc.. An agreement is reached and the next Sunday his message starts with, "I am so glad God called me here....", really?? If God had called him there, he would have shown up, knocked on the door a said God wanted him there and would have preached for free if needed.
Yes, I believe the business of church has robbed Christians of Christ's message.

reply to post by ahnggk


I admire the passion, but if we really wanted to point the finger, we would catch the strongest case of carpal tunnel

I have been taking West Civ Reformation at my local community college and during one of Eugen Weber's programs, former UCLA dean and historian before he passed, the narrator said a profound statement that really stuck to me, paraphrased: Religion is one of four variables a civilized nation would want to control in order to keep the public in control and do what the nation wants.

We can see this in play through all of history: the Crusades, Manifest Destiny, etc.

We can also see this in Jesus's time in Israel.

Jesus Christ lived in the theocratic state of Israel, and what did the Israelis expect from the Messiah? They wanted the Messiah to be the one that overthrew Roman occupation and help lead Israel to be a powerful nation, but not in the sense that God had in store. In my opinion, the Israelis were conditioned to believe they are the chosen people and therefore have the most power relative to the rest of mankind because they were listening to their "fathers," or the leaders of Jewish doctrine with all its drunken precept upon precepts, ( there are 600+ rules in the Mosaic Law, the majority having to do with the Sabbath. ) Mankind has always had an everlasting struggle with power, as evidenced by Eve's willingness to bite the forbidden fruit of knowledge between good and evil. Was it a bad thing that Adam and Eve bit the fruit? I say no because it started the human population to learn.

I think God did some poetic justice by giving the world what it needs from the Israelis and not what the Israelis wanted, and that is Jesus Christ.

Anyways, I am happy that the world is in the state it is in right now with its confusion. Why?

Because it lets a person diligently search for the truth, and in that search for truth, we will fall and scrap our knees, but God will let us fall and be there to help pick us up, hoping that we will learn from our mistakes. Sometimes He knows that He will have to step in, but I do think that He would rather us learn from experience.

reply to post by Sinny


None taken then!

@Bullshirt

Those are certainly the worse examples of Church values I've heard. Perhaps I could say I'm even lucky for most churches I've been to are 'missionary churches' for pastors/founder themselves are missionaries who gave everything up to build the church in a foreign land.

They would literally drive cheap, old, beat up, but small cars so it's still fuel efficient, not for the show but they were doing their best to have as little to themselves but more for the poor.

But the problem was their members. No matter how hard our pastor preached, they would just laugh at what he's saying! Believing not everyone is called to do great things for God and the poor. Sad. real sad!

Many would complain, we have nothing left after paying the bills, that's a simple problem - get a cheap place to rent, sell that luxury SUV, get a cheap/used car, sell your possessions that is beyond the basic need of food and clothing and not being used for the Gospel, settle your debts, burn your credit card, eat less!! eat less!! quit your hobbies, they idols anyways, stop useless leisure/recreational activities, stop worrying about your kid's education, save on electricity and water...

It doesn't matter how much you earn, it's never your money, it's always God's!! Even if you earn million bucks per year, still drive a cheap, small, used car!! rent cheap apartment, have only few possessions...

...Less to yourself, more to others. Stop loving your life and your family in the flesh!! Love them in the Spirit!! Get out of the addiction to pleasure, luxury, enjoyment, and wealth. Love your life, you will lose it later!!

Give to the poor, give to those who had none!! Give to the poor!! Don't Stop giving!!

In a year, we who are 'blessed' with much are collectively doing a worse crime than Adolf Hitler did, both unbelievers and Christians alike...

The unbelievers for their cold hearts and love of money and Christians for their cold hearts, love of money, and disobedience to Christ!

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Originally posted by DelayedChristmasIn my opinion, the Israelis were conditioned to believe they are the chosen people and therefore have the most power relative to the rest of mankind because they were listening to their "fathers," or the leaders of Jewish doctrine with all its drunken precept upon precepts, ( there are 600+ rules in the Mosaic Law, the majority having to do with the Sabbath. ) Mankind has always had an everlasting struggle with power, as evidenced by Eve's willingness to bite the forbidden fruit of knowledge between good and evil. Was it a bad thing that Adam and Eve bit the fruit? I say no because it started the human population to learn.

I think God did some poetic justice by giving the world what it needs from the Israelis and not what the Israelis wanted, and that is Jesus Christ.

Nearly all who live in the State of Israel right now and those who claim to be Jews in USA and Europe are not God's People...

Only very few of them are... ...You shall know them by their fruits. God's FEW people - "the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel are scattered about the face of the Earth. They are the ones who will readily/easily accept the teachings of Jesus and follow Him for the Law has been written in their hearts, only confused by the false doctrines rampant today.. They will be blessed by his teachings not treat them as a burden.

It's a big mistake what many Christian churches are teaching to support the State of Israel, which is not yet God's promise of gathering them together! They do not show the fruits of the New Covenant for they love money and power! The Lost Sheep are still scattered around world!

The Lost Sheep will be quick to abandon the concepts of the world, greed, desire to get richer, etc. And be willing to give everything up for Jesus. The Lost Sheep has grown weary of eating meat (partaking of the flesh) We must do our part in preaching the Gospel to all nations, to the ends of fthe Earth in the hopes of finding the Lost Sheep of God, and guiding them back to Him!

reply to post by ahnggk


Preach the Truth Brother!

Many wolves walking around in sheeps clothing,

Many non-Christians acting more Christlike than so-called Christians,

the LORD will separate the wheat from the tares at His Glorious Coming,

The sheep hear His voice and obey His commands,

God bless us all,

Amen

reply to post by ahnggk


You quoted my favorite verses in the Christian bible. I think it's also one of the best ones to point to when demonstrating the derailment of the Christian church.

The message from Jesus in this was simple: The way you treat others is the way you treat me. If you don't help them, you don't help me. Etc, etc...

Yet many in that religion would rather buy an extra egg McMuffin in the morning instead of giving a couple bucks to the panhandler right next to them. Things that require self sacrifice (charity) is glossed over while things that allow them to judge others (homosexuality) are brought to the forefront of importance.

reply to post by ahnggk


Why just Christians? Why not Islam? They seem to kill a lot, rather than letting people starve to death.

Heck, let's toss in the Buddists and Hindus as well.

For that matter Republicans and the worst of the lot The Democrats for not doing much at all with helping their fellows in life.

Hell, let's toss in the Atheists as well...because we ALL know that they are high and mighty, don't we?

What's your point?

Mans inhumanity to man?

Yea...we get that already.

reply to post by TDawgRex


There are common denominators between men who are inhuman to each other, regardless of beliefs,

and common denominators between men who are loving and generous to each other, and spiritually enlightened or at least living by certain Universal Spiritual Truths, principles and virtues.

People living in abundance of lusts of the flesh, lusts of the world, lusts of power, greed, money and wealth, regardless of faith, are living in sin and following the dark path.

People living with an abundance of love, charity, hope, compassion, faith and kindness are following the light path, regardless of belief,

The reason we are confident in our belief though is due to the fact that people who are the True Body of Christ, and people who truly understand the message of the Bible, have truly discovered the Way, the Truth and the Life.

We are 100% sure we have discovered the Way to God Almighty,

not that people who don't know Jesus can't go to heaven, they can, and they do,

But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most surefire way to earn a ticket to heaven, and to live a peaceful, long, happy, abundant life on earth.

With true Faith in Christ, you can be broke, homeless, crippled, and/or imprisoned and tortured, yet still smile and be at peace.

Tell me that's not following God....

God bless,

Amen

reply to post by ahnggk


House payments are cheaper than apartment rent.

reply to post by godlover25


Thanks, I needed that.

Though I am not a follower of Christ, I do believe in a higher power.

It just irritates me when people blame religion for their own failings.

I tried to balance emotion and rational with my response. Some will say I succeeded and others will say "Epic Fail."

Either way...I feel better now.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Those who are truly aligned with the Great Holy Spirit, and speak out of an abundance of love for Him,

There words will bring peace and love and wisdom,

They will not cause confusion or be bitter, lest they come from the mans own spirit or the spirit of the wickedness of the world...

You can tell a mans heart by his fruits,

You're very welcome, and glad I elicited a positive response

God bless

Originally posted by ahnggk
Nearly all Christians will go to Hell!!

Matthew 25:41-45
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

Well, from the Protestant perspective, saying that people will go to hell for not doing good works is an invalid statement, and, even for Catholics and Orthodox, using this as a reference is a bit problematic, because how much is enough? If you feed one hungry guy, once, does that satisfy Christ's challenge? The bit about the "rich young man" seems to be more a matter of Christ demonstrating that, for him, wealth was his god, in that he preferred it to following Christ.

Personally, I think that it is all about mindset. Yes, if a Christian is constantly seeking wealth, and hoarding it, this would be indicative of the person who probably exemplifies "the love of money is the root of all evil". But if a person lives their life, keeps God at the fore, and is charitable to the best of their abilities, I think that's more what God expects, as opposed to living ascetically and giving every dime you earn away. That would be admirable, but I'm not sure that it's necessary (and, again, if one is a Protestant, it is absolutely not necessary.)

Perhaps this can best be expressed through a personal anecdote. I do pretty well, money wise, and over the years, I developed a bit of a detached view of it -- I could spend a couple hundred dollars on a meal without thinking too much of it. Then my wife passed away, I had a lot less things to spend money on, and I just started giving it away. You should see my mailbox -- every day there's at least one fund raising letter from someone that I've given money to in the past, asking for more. Everyone from Habitat for Humanity to the Humane Society to a variety of religious and military support organizations.

But my favourite charity is called Compassion International, which is a Christian group that operates centers in Third World countries and allows you to sponsor children that go to them. The kids write you letters, you write back, and the money that you pay every month goes to support the centers, providing the kids with food and education. (For the inevitable complaint that I'm "promoting Christianity" -- save it, I know full well what I'm doing.)

Every time that you write the kids a letter, you have the opportunity to send them some extra money, which goes directly to them, rather than the center, and this spring, I sent $100 to each of the two boys in Bolivia that I sponsor for Easter. I received a letter and picture back from one of them a couple of weeks ago, and the picture was of him and his Mom, and massive amounts of food and goods that they'd bought with the hundred bucks, along with a nice set of clothes for him.

That picture meant more to me than anything I'd whizzed away $100 on in the past, because, while to me, that amount of money was almost irrelevant, for them, it was significant. That, I think, is where God's grace comes in and transforms us. He blessed me with the skills that have allowed me to earn a good income, and the grace of charity that makes giving it away such a good experience. In that way, this boy and his family in, effectively, another world, find their lives improved by someone who loves them just as people, not for any reason beyond that.

We, all of us, can better the world one life at a time, but we should start with changing our hearts to welcoming the grace of charity, rather than doing it out of fear that we'll be "going to hell" for not giving away enough.

reply to post by adjensen


Not to mention in the verse he used and you quoted Christ is talking about the sheep and goats judgment. Christians aren't there. That's the judgment for all people alive at the time of His return to see who gets to populate the millennial kingdom and who doesn't. What those folks will be judged on is how they treated the Jews during Daniel's 70th week.

OP have you been spying on me to see how I live my life?

Yes, I live in luxury... compared to most who live in third world countries.

We live in a three bedrood double wide mobil home (its huge...compared to the hut Obama's brother lives in.)
We drive a ten year old truck.
We, like a lot of our Christian neighbors give food to those who need it.

An example of that: a neighbor hitchhiked to her house. She stopped by to visit. I figured she might not have any food, since she had been gone for quite some time and probably couldn't have carried much food while hitchhiking. So I offer to give her food to take home. I gather two bags of food she wouldn't have to cook since she hadn't had time to get propane to fuel her stove. However, she refused the food and instead wanted me to drive her to town to get beer and cigarettes.

So now you are going to judge me by the way some self-proclaimed Christians live? They will answer for any wrong-doing. Jesus will judge them, it is not my place to do so.

It is not my place to feed the world, only those who come into my sphere of life. This I try to do.

The gift of poverty is one of the spiritual gifts dispensed by God (which are not dispensed indiscriminately, as Scripture makes clear) - if we were all commanded to live our lives in poverty this gift would not be included along with the others as we would all be called to poverty and all, by default, endowed with the gift of poverty. As it is, we are not. Only some are. Just like only some people have the gift of interpretation, the gift of tongues, the gift of helps, the gift of singleness, etc,.

It's quite simple really. If every servant of Christ on earth were to live a life of poverty - many many demographics and contexts would remain untouched by a witness. Many richer neighborhoods, schools, universities, many professions, many avenues would not be traveled by Christians as we would be sequestered in an impoverished lifestyle. We can't all be nomadic like Christ was and we can't all be hermetic like John was - how are we to be the light of the WORLD with such a narrow window to minister? We're talking a very limited target audience here, if we're all to be poor.

Likewise, those who ARE called to poverty - are done so because obviously God has a very specific reason for this - whether it be to minister to fellow paupers or to be refined in the struggles that so often accompanies poorness.

As for me, I've always been poor. Grew up poor, work 3 jobs and I'm still poor. I also give tho I could probably give more, in all honesty. I do have a child sponsor in Ethiopia through an organization called Compassion International (pretty sure I saw another poster who does as well - wonderful!). Her name is Muselima ... and she continues to be a source of hope for me. She's stronger than I'll ever be. What a blessing to be giving to her though she gives me much more than I can ever hope to give her.

Regards,

FTE