Catherine_schrader's Profile

to have a place to at least hear what God is truly about, even if it takes forever for it to sink in for some! A place of forgiveness and fellowship. But most importantly, a place to come and worship a truly awesome God, to be lead by the Holy Spirit, and to fill oneself up to be in the world again. An oasis in the desert if you will. Again, as for those hypocrites....it is important to forgive them as well and pray they will see the truth and live in the fullness of God's grace. Have I helped any??? At least know that you and your children are now my constant prayers, for you to have strength and courage as a single mom, that your children will grow strong and healthy and respectful of their mother, and that God will reveal Himself to you that you will know the truth for yourself. I still really feel like I am babbling...a preacher I am not!!! But I know that God loves us more than I know anything else in this world. he is so real to me and is with me all of the time...

Satan does not want anyone to "get it" that there is nothing we can do to buy our salvation, Jesus has already done that. There is nothing we can do that can't be forgiven, the Bible says His grace is sufficient. But we are required to give our lives to Him, our part of the sacrifice. When we truly do that, when we plant ourselves firmly in Him we begin to bear fruit accordingly, peace patience, love, understanding, gentleness, joy, self-control. The Bible says in Matthew 7:16 "By their fruits you will recognize them." If peoples behavior and actions and attitudes are ungodly, than they are too. If they are claiming to be Christians, then they have missed something somewhere. Again, I don't think we will ever be perfect, but there is a difference. As far as the attitudes of some of the people in church, I think it is important to remember that we are human, everyone brings their own history in with them. God will take it from there. But in the church it is important for all...

First of all let me apologize for taking so long to get back to you, I had some personal things come up and haven't been able to get online. Now, as for how I reconcile the two, that is a little complicated for me. I haven't been in a church for over 10 years for those very reasons. However, I am ready to look for one again. I am just looking VERY carefully. Anyone can proclaim to know Jesus. Even Satan states very plainly who he is. The difference is if Jesus is your Lord. Is he on the throne in your life. If he is then, he is also teaching you with the Holy Spirit, and what the Holy Spirit teaches is always in line with God's word, which does not teach condemnation, but grace and salvation. So, when I see "religious" people who a hypocritical and condemning, I simply know that they are very lost souls, and have fallen into Satan's lies. To me they are the best weapon Satan has, because they turn others away from a loving, forgiving God.

Finding a church that practices what it preaches is not nearly as easy as it should be. I don't know what happens to people. They start going to church for the right reasons and then get all jumbled up. I wish all churches could read what you wrote and maybe people would get it through their head that they ruin their testimony by treating people like that. I hate to say it, but it's all a matter of trial and error. When we left our first church we were lost and no where seemed right for us. I'm a fan of small churches with small congregations that view everyone as family. We searched high and low, going from church to church to church. Some were nice but not home, others were just wrong for us, and a few scared the crap out of me. LOL I'm not kidding there. We searched for almost a year. It wasn't always fun and sometimes we just got up and left. Thank God my great uncle started preaching again. We went to his church and it was just...Home.

Forgive me if you already got a response from me last night. I was having computer problems. I don't think that's a requirement at all. We are supposed to show Christian love to EVERYONE not just those who are living like we think they should. How can you convince someone to join you when you treat them like garbage? Jesus sure wouldn't treat them badly and neither should we. Different religions....well, we aren't supposed to listen to any other doctrine but that doesn't mean we should treat people of different religions any different than anyone else. The friends I mentioned earlier, 5 of the 6 are homo/bi sexual and one is Wiccan. They're good friends. I've even gotten two of them to start going to church. ^_^ The wiccan and I don't see eye to eye at all on religion. We've respectfully debated and I've told her about my concern for her. Sometimes you can't come to an agreement and that's us. We're still friends and treat other the same as always. We just agree to disagree.

No problem, Catherine. Christians are supposed to treat EVERYONE with the love of Christ. Jesus hung out with some of the worst kinds spreading the word, yet he showed them respect and love. He'd want us to do the same. The friends I mentioned earlier are some of the sweetest people I know and five out of the six of them are homo/bi sexual. I don't shun them, I treat them with respect and show them Christian love. They know I am straight and that I am Christian. They've asked me how I feel about their lifestyle and I've told them but I've also let them know that we are friends no matter who they love. How can you help who you fall in love with anyway? One of them is also Wiccan. Talk about different sides of the fence, whoa! We've talked, respectfully to each other about our respective religions and have come to a conclusion. Neither of us will budge but we remain friends. We just don't get into debate about it anymore. We respect each others decisons. I hope that helps a bit.

I know that if I decide that a Christian path is right for me, I do want it to go deeper than just going to church. I have read about daily meditations, and reading the scripture. I don't agree with one day a week faith....that is why I am trying to figure out what the faith really is. I have a basic concept of the religion, go to church on sundays, follow the ten commandments...that sort of thing....but I am looking for more than just that, if that makes any sense.

I would hope all the world would come to know Christ. I have no desire to be enemies with them. Quite the opposite, I am heartbroken that they do not know what I know and pray earnestly that God will reveal Himself to them. Am I making any sense???? I am very passionate about this and hope I am not rambling. To share This love that God rains down on me, to share the blessings I have through Him is the most exciting thing in the world!

person might see this love of Jesus', the way I live for Him and know that I am forgiven and that they might want what I have. Therefore they would come to know Him and no longer "stand condemned." That is my big commission as a Christian. Not to shove His Name down peoples throats, but to live so fully in him that others can tell I have something they don't. Then to share that wonderful love , grace and forgiveness with them. I want what God wants...for everyone to be saved according to His will. But the only way I think that can happen is through love. Why would someone want to be "like me" (a Christian), if am prejudiced, judgmental and a "bitch" toward others? I do not believe that people of whatever faith will go to Heaven if they are just "good people". The bible says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" It is ONLY through belief in Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven and promised eternal life in Heaven. It is because of this knowledge that

What you are saying about Christians being hypocrites is exactly why I wanted to specify that there is a difference between faith and religion. Unfortunately there are a LOT of people who want the comfort of a religion, go to church, play the pious coworker. But they never go any deeper than that. They never spend time in prayer and fellowship with Jesus and reading the word of God. There is no way to become more Christlike unless we know who Christ is. Reading His word and learning to listen to Him and trust in Him are the only ways I know to know Him. As for people who don't believe the same as me, well, God was pretty clear on that. In Luke 3 verses 17 thru 18 says "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already." The way I take that is that it is not my place to judge others. But instead to live my life so that another