Yes, friends, all you have to do is applaud a human sacrifice and the wall comes down. - Erik

Erik - it was not a human sacrifice. Christ went willingly to the cross to pay for our sins. - JM

The Great Wall of China was not engineered or built by men. It just has the appearance of being designed. It actually developed through millions of years geological processes. - Rick Y

Rick, I am not saying what you said about the wall is not true but can you tell me where you found that I would like to read it also because I have never heard that thought before.
Erik you will find out about that sacrifice one day, if it is true or not. - Jerry

Correction: you must applaud assisted-suicide and the wall will come down. - Erik

The walls, both the China wall and the wall between us and God, are man made. - Hal

I can't wait for the wall in Erik's heart to come tumbling down. - Becky

Ha! You're right Rick Y! And this table that holds up my computer will, if given enough time, become alive and walk right out of this room. - Austin

What is rather confusing to me is the observation I've made is the rather angry and unhappy tone of those that support a secular world. It seems to me you should be overjoyed. After all, our country has become basically a secular country. I'am old enough to remember when prayer was in the schools. We actually had bible reading from time to time. I'am old enough to remember before there was Roe vs. Wade. Now that aethists have suceeded in getting prayer out of the school, you should be thrilled at how our country has changed from how it was before that happened. Now we can get porno at the click of the button-very convenient. Oh heck, we can see simulated sex on tv and nudity on cable and at the movies. We have so much drug abuse there's several tv intervention shows. There are tons of alcoholics now since we don't have to bother to hide to go to the liquor stores anymore we can just go to the grocery store or drug store right down the water isle to get it. Anyone chosing to remain a virgin till marriage is considered peculiar so now we have over a half million abortions a year. I remember the awful days before we became a secular nation when no one had to lock their doors or windows. Now if a woman is raped in her home or apartment, everyone asks well didn't she lock her window? She should have known better. Now we have governors that have gay affairs or affairs with prostitutes or senators playing footsie in bathroom stalls trying to solicit sex with other men. We can go to websites for pedophiles and see children sexually abused. We can feel safe in private places knowing someone with a video camera came tape our private moments and put it on the web or follow women around wearing skirts and videotape them and put it on the web. We can get lost in the city or even smaller towns and be shot at by gang members. We can feel free to walk in any big city and possibly be mugged and beaten or perhaps killed. We have wide acceptance of gay lovers. We are losing our homes because of a failing financial system. Our borders are overflowing with illegals making our financial burden and our health system more strained. But wait all this sounds vaguely familiar. Sort of sounds like the bible verses Gracie found. But according to you it's just the Bible-what does it know. Well, lets review the verses anyway. 2Tim.3:1-5,7 "But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious, gossips, without self control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness atlthough they have denied its power," (and last, but not least) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Secularism and a world without God and His word what a world for our children to inherit. - Christ Follower

Can't deny the truth in the above post. One thing I was wondering is what does the devotional mean by, "sin is not a politically correct term these days...". Whats the politically correct term then? - Clint

I think they might mean that if you admit that there is sin you have to admit that what the Bible says when people do wrong in this world they are actually disobeying God and it is a sin rather than a crime or just being a socially unacceptable. - Christ Follower

Are you sure they were deleted or just didn't go through? Try again. Maybe they thought it was not respectful. Perhaps if they did delete it, you could word it slightly differently. I've noticed they seem to be letting an awful lot of your posts through. So try again. - Christ Follower

Clint, I believe what Bryant means is that in today's society (even within many churches), people don't want to hear the truth about what they're doing wrong (hence, the word "sin"). They just want to go to church and have "feel good" services and not take responsibility for their own acts of wrongdoing. - ME

Hmmmm, with Bryant and ME’s responses; it appears there are two problems. With Bryant’s statement, it makes sense for the world to avoid the term “sin” by substituting it with the word “crime” because it will avoid the “religion thing”. Bryant is describing the worlds lack of acknowledging the obvious and ME is describing the blinders that many “Christians” put up to justify their short comings. There’s error all around. - Clint

Clint, you sound suspiciously like Erik - Becky

Sorry said that at a weak moment :-) - Becky

lol! Let me clear up my post. The world not acknowleging the obvious... the obvious, being... there is a God. - Clint

Fortunately our church still uses the sin word- sin sin sin sin sin. Oh and not everyone that fills the pews of a church are necessarily true Christ Followers - Christ Follower

Clint, what error are you refering to? Check out your last post and tell me how you conclude that Bryant's statement "makes sense," but then you lump it in with the "error all around." I don't follow that logic. - Austin

CF- I'm sorry to inform you, but crime rate is down overall in the US. People tend to have a misperception that there is a high level of crime because of dramatic media coverage, but actually the statistics show that crime rates have declined over the past twenty years. If we look at other countries- specifically "atheist" countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Japan we find very low crime rates. The idea that things were so much better in the past is a common fiction. - Erik

What I meant by "error all around" is the world is in error when they try to come off like there is no God. And the people that call themselves "Christians" even though they pick and choose what they want to believe... the 2 Tim 4:3 Christians. Hopefully, that clears up my rambles. - Clint

Yes crime rates do fluctuate from year to year, but are you seriously saying that it is anywhere-anywhere close to what it is what before prayer was taken out of schools? What is so appealing about countries where prostitution and drugs are so rampant and even legal in some cases? Makes me want to take my children there. Can you seriously tell me that the things I wrote about were nearly as rampant then as now? If that is your true beliefs there is nothing else I know to say, but I'll keep praying for you. - Christ Follower

Erik, crime rates are down. Agreed. This is something I have discussed, at lenght, with various criminology students.

With crime rates down, what has religion given us? Whole streets burned out by sectarian arefare in Belfast between different sects of Christianity. Hundreds of people kidnapped, killed and tortured by rival religious death squads, ofter for no other reason than membership of a different Christian denomination. Beirut/Lebanon - we all know of the ongoing religious wars there that, rival any simple nudity on TV (isn't it God's creation anyhow?). The religiously driven bloodlust in the Bombay/Mumbai conversion. Belgrade and "ethnic cleansing". Of course, one could go on for several volumes of books for religious-inspired violence.

Atheists don't feel the need to kill each other over things they don't believe are even there. - Christopher

Most people have no idea how bad their sins affect themselves, the people they love, their family---even co-workers. I'm very thankful to work with a lot of God-fearing Christians in my office. That in itself makes us a very cohesive unit.

- Kevin

If we followed God's laws in the Bible we wouldn't need man's laws. None of the things that Christ Follower listed would even be an issue if everyone followed God's rules. There is a huge huge difference between being "religious" and being a follower of Christ and God's word.Pleas Take your eyes off other people and put them on Christ. - Becky

CF says "Can you seriously tell me that the things I wrote about were nearly as rampant then as now? If that is your true beliefs"

I don't have "true beliefs." I have only evidence and reason. Can you define your terms? What do you mean by "since prayer was taken out of schools"? What specifically do you think is "worse"?

And why do you think it is that there are so few social problems in atheist countries? You can walk through any major Japanese city at midnight and never be afraid of rape or robbery or murder. They don't lock their doors at night. How do you explain this since they have no God and no Bible and no Christ? - Erik

It is sad to me that you have no true beliefs. I'am not going to get caught up in an all day back and forth in what is worse and what's not. You can reread what I wrote earlier. The fact that most people never had to worry about being murdered,raped, and the other things I listed is what I for one consider worse. I personally had a friend murdered. As far as Japan, or whatever, my guess would be that they probably lock offenders up and throw away the key basically. I'am not that familiar with them, only with movies that I've seen where they had a lot of sleazy prostitution and a strong Japanese mafia, so being as I haven't been there I can only specualate on that. I do know someone that has, so perhaps when I talk to them I will know more,but I don't believe for one moment that people there are behaving themselves because they don't have God in their lives. There is some motivation for it and I again suspect a strong prison system. And frankly again I don't think that they're portrayed kidnapping women for prostitution and the such in films for just absolutely no reason. And as far as your knowledge and reason is concerned I again refer you to the last 2 lines of what I wrote earlier about crime. God's word covers that better than I ever could. - Christ Follower

Denmark, Sweden, Japan, Canada, and other "atheist" or secular countries are some of the safest in the world. Religious countries, the U.S., Iraq, Ireland (Belfast), Lebanon, Israel, Iran, and onwards, have been historically some of the most dangerous. How do the theists respond to that?

Prayer was taken out of schools because it was unconstitutional to have it in there. If we have freedom of religion in our society, then we should be free to choose between atheism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Great Jube Jube up the Mountainism,...whatever. We should not be promoting ONE religion in schools where we supposedly have a freely religious society. I'm not sure why secularists, or anyone that agrees with the Constitution, has to spell that out. If you don’t like the fact that the U.S. is a freely religious society, then I suggest a country that forces you to be a certain religion like Saudi Arabia.
- Christopher

Okay I googled some of the countries you mentioned and from their official census websites (check them yourselves) Denmark's "official" religion is Lutheran. I saw that on several websites. 95% Lutheran, 3% Catholic and 2% Muslim. Last I looked Lutheran was a Christian religion.Canada has no "official" religion but 42.6% are Catholic, 23.3% protestant, 6.8% Anglican, Lutheran 2%, Baptist, and 1.9% Muslim. Last noticed most of these are "Christian" religions. I'am not even going to bother looking up the rest since you obviously are verrry wrong. - Christ Follower

Chris Follower- I appreciate your honesty, but I have to say that the movies aren't really the best place to get your information about the world.

As for your theory on Japan "locking offenders up and throwing away the key"- the Japanese incarceration rate is 67 per 100,000 citizens. The US rate is around 700. Ten times higher.

Also I never stated that the Japanese have less crime BECAUSE they lack a belief in God. That may be the case but I'm not making that case. I'm only showing that your claim about secularism or atheism or aprayerism or whatever leading to lawlessness is clearly false.



- Erik

Christ Follower- the official religion of Denmark is Lutheran but that's like saying the official state song of Georgia is "Georgia on my mind" therefore most people like that song.

Here are some rates for you:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html - Erik

Well, I guess all of you can continue playing,but I've got things to do and I think this subject has been exhausted. - Christ Follower

Erik, thanks for that web page (link). - Christopher

A note to our readers:
The truth is, we have rarely hidden a post, even though many of them have been very cynical; however, if you will read the Notice, we do reserve the right to hide any comment that we feel is inappropriate or mean-spirited. This site is intended to be one of encouragement and faith-building to those who are followers of Christ, or who are honestly seeking Him; not as a forum for mocking the very foundation of our faith. While we encourage people to ask questions about each day's devotion, and are happy to provide a place where Christians, as well as non-Christians, can question and defend their beliefs, we are not obligated to tolerate blatant disregard for the integrity of this platform. In the future, please respect our very simple posting guidelines, or don’t be surprised if your post is edited or taken down.
- RFTH

I for one wouldn't really believe everything I read on a website that had atheist in the address anymore than some would trust if it had chritian in the link - Becky

Sorry, I can spell I just can't type. - Becky

It is a known conception that people are going to do what they want to do. If they want to go worship allah, Buddah, or just howl at the moon that is their buissness. Erik I don't know how old you are but things was alot more peaceful on the home front in the 50's and 60's. Yes we had woodstock and the hippie movement that sparked some very ill feeelings. I remember the civil rights moments and when our men came home from Viet Nam how they were spit on and cussed because they did what they were commanded to do. This happens because people love themselves more than God, and I am talking about those who claim to be christians. I know atheists dont believe in anything and I for one am willing to let them do that if that is what they want after I have told them about the love of Christ. You see if a person claimes to be a Christian the are instructed in the bible to tell the lost about the Lord, after they do this then their blood is not on the believers hand. Again people will do as they want too this is why the bible says the following. 1Cor 14:38 But if any man be ignorant let him be ignorant. Yes I know America was known as a Christian nation at one time but that is not the case now, we are becoming the laughing stock of the world. When America was a "Christian nation" other nations respected and feared our nation. Crime is rampant in our country but it is not because of Christians or atheists it is because our judicial system is a joke. If a killer is taken to court they are slapped on the wrist and then turned loose real soon. I believe if a person is found guilty they should have to pay for their crime. But the devotion is correct in my view that the secular desires have taken a toil on our nation. I live my life by the 24 chap of Joshua the 15th verse "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord". - Jerry

OOPS I posted my comment on the wrong devotion. It was for yesterdays devotion, Sorry - Jerry

I just want to say that I am not enjoying reading the comments any farther. I am a Christian, not religious. I think it is good that Erik and others who are athiests are reading these because with our prayers, they might take the time to read what we are trying to tell them. As for us Christians writing, including myself, we have to be less emotional in responding to Erik and the others who are trying to make us doubt. Our Heavenly Father and his only son Jesus, are in Heaven watching us, what are they thinking? We are not glorifying God here or Jesus. Please continue to write, but don't let ourselves get aggitated by others. We cannot change them, but we cannot give up hope either. - julie

I agree with Becky's earlier comment. Please do not judge Christians by pointing out the failings of man, and certainly not the failings of our or other religions. A true Christian is someone who follows Jesus Christ and his example. We may not always do that perfectly, but a true Christian will try his or her best, and the world would be a better place if everyone did.

Also, we do not live in a theocracy, nor do we want to...at least not until this world has passed on. We want the ability to worship freely, for other religions to do the same, and for atheists to have the right not to. We are, however, as Jerry says, called by Jesus to spread the good news. That is the purpose of this Web site, and the RFTH ministry. It really is good news, too, and it should be of no threat to atheists or anyone else. But, many of today's atheists are disciples of people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who are incredulous or just plain mad that anyone could possibly believe in God. Hitchens lumps Christianity in with violent religions like fundamentalist Islam, and paints the worst possible picture by basing his argument on the lowest common denominator, ignoring all the good that Christians and other religious people have done.
- Rick Y

as someone who has been in Japan let me tell you Erik-there is murder and rape in the streets at night. You protest too much in regards to your beliefs and non beliefs. I am praying for you. - Jan- Mexico

Every atheist I have ever met has never accomplished anything but the strengthening of my faith in God and in the salvation I have received through Jesus Christ, His Son. I am so strengthened because their words, ideas, and actions speak loudly and clearly that they do not know my Lord. And if they do not know my Lord, how can they be expected to fully understand my beliefs? Christianity is like a foreign language to them. If they do not know Jesus Christ personally, how can we in the Christian community expect them to grasp and profess what we all know to be Truth? Until the day they come to personally experience the transforming Truth that we have experienced and have accepted, they can never know and they will only oppose us. Only God can know a man's heart, and whether or not he is ready to receive the Word.

Ephesians 4:18 says, “They are darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts."

I understand the atheist, but he does not understand me. All I can do is pray and continue to profess the Truth. - Gracie Benz

Every atheist I have ever met has never accomplished anything but the strengthening of my faith in God and in the salvation I have received through Jesus Christ, His Son. I am so strengthened because their words, ideas, and actions speak loudly and clearly that they do not know my Lord. And if they do not know my Lord, how can they be expected to fully understand my beliefs? Christianity is like a foreign language to them. If they do not know Jesus Christ personally, how can we in the Christian community expect them to grasp and profess what we all know to be Truth? Until the day they come to personally experience the transforming Truth that we have experienced and have accepted, they can never know and they will only oppose us. Only God can know a man's heart, and whether or not he is ready to receive the Word.

Ephesians 4:18 says, “They are darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts."

I understand the atheist, but he does not understand me. All I can do is pray and continue to profess the Truth. - Gracie Benz

Wow, some really nice posts, and I agree with what a lot of you said.

We SHOULD be allowed to worship freely, I admit that much. I will never back down on my belief that "Freedom of Religion" is a necessary part of society. Government can not tell us what to think. We are all free thinkers and in my mind, there is nothing wrong with questioning things. It's healthy human inquisition.

I remain an atheist. But you have all given me something new to think about. For the most part, I don't question the message that Jesus Christ apparently tried to bring to the world. Loving our fellow man is something I believe (as an atheist!) we should ALL be striving towards. But it is also my belief that breaking down barriers (i.e. religious barriers) is yet but one step in the right direction.

I wish you all well and will leave you now. Not all my posts have made it into this form, but I hope that I've made some of you think about things as well. We can all learn from each other.
- JonathanChristopherOlberman

Is it possible to believe in God but not be a Christian, Muslim or any other denomination? - Frits

According to the scriptures Satan believes. - Becky

Jonathan - while you are thinking about stuff, ask yourself why you felt the need to post as three different people on an anonymous website. That is strange behavior.

Frits - people who believe in God, but think that Christians, Muslims, and Jews have Him wrong are called theists. - Austin

Probably basically to make us feel a little more pressured.I don't think there was too many of us didn't catch on. It may have helped to get more of his comments posted. Who knows. - Christ Follower

Yes, it would have been easier knowing for sure which names or name to pray for :-) - Becky

It's an excellent question, Frits. There are thousands of other organized religions that believe in God, and then there are many that don't have a concept of God per se but do have spiritual practices (eg Buddhism).

Thomas Jefferson, for example, is commonly described as a deist- someone who believes there was a God who got the whole thing started but who doesn't interfere in people's lives. This is in contrast to theists- who believe in a personal God. Christians, Jew, and Muslims are all theists. Monotheists to be exact.

If I were gonna pick a religion I would probably go with either Buddhism or Sufism or maybe Christian atheism. It's not as strange as you might imagine. George Lucas, for example, describes himself as a "Christian
Buddhist."

I would say that religion as it is commonly practiced is more of a hindrance than a help. As Bill Maher says, "Why do I need this big bureaucracy between me and God?"

Good will to you on your journey. - Frits

Having Christ as Lord and Savior is the difference, Eric-I mean Frits :-) - Becky

Yes Frits, A person can believe in God and not be a Christian. There are churches all across the world that are full of them. Many believe in God but have not fully surrendered their life over to Christ. It is a dangerous thing to be in that kind of situation, but it happens all of the time. A lot of the time the blame can be placed on us ministers for not preaching the truth, reproving,and in general calling sin SIN. Some times we get tired of having to stay on people and we want to feed the ones who are not going out and openly sinning, we want to preach a smoother mesage but when we look around we see sin being commited all around us. Any preacher who will tell you they are not guilty of doing this at one time or another is just fooling themselves ( this used to be called just plain telling a LIE ). All christians need to be on their guard and be ready to give an account of the hope that we have within us. God Bless all and I pray you have a great weekend serving the Lord. - Jerry

When I was younger I actually had an atheist friend. We somehow became friends mainly because we ended up with all our classes together each year. She was often very moody and angry and I knew during those times to stay out of her way. She eventually accepted Christ and was voted most changed when we had our class reuntion. She was extremely intelligent like our "friends". My point is she told me it was like someone had totally turned her eyes around in her head and like she was seeing the world through new eyes. I wish this for all our friends. That there will be such a change in them that everyone will notice. - Becky

Thanks for the various comments. My journey is long and difficult. The label Theist is probably not correct. Bahá'í Faith, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism are all theistic religions. Monotheist perhaps? Either way, my next question is: what is wrong with seeking a personal relationship with God instead of submitting to organised religion? Intelligent enquiry should be encouraged instead of blindly accepting a set of beliefs? - Frits

Frits, It is a good thing to have a personal relationship with God. He made us as individuals and so I think He wants to know us that way, too. Also for those who believe in Jesus we bring our personal sins to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and our sins to be covered by the blood Jesus shed on the cross. This is all in the personal realm. But God has a place in His heart for corporate worship also. We as Christians are all part of the body of Christ with Jesus being the head. We all are given special roles to play as parts of the body of Christ. There is so much more good that can be accomplished when the body functions as a whole. Of course some churches are broken and going in all different directions so they are not very functional. Sometimes there are those who forget that Jesus is the head of the church. But aside from that the church is considered the bride of Christ, His beloved, and there is no substitute. There are some things you can do on your own to glorify God but there are other things that will be lacking without the gathering together with other believers. I remember that you do not seem to believe in sin so you probably do not agree with all I wrote but I hope at least some is helpful. God bless you. - Janice

Frits, There is not anything wrong with wanting a personal relationship with God, but first a person will have to decide if they believe if the Bible is Gods word given to man. If they do not believe it then they need to decide what do they want to follow for their spiritual direction. The Christian faith believes that the Holy Bible is the inspired word of God and that it is the instrument in which we will be judged by, according to a Holy God. In his word we are instructed to forsake not the assembly of our selves in like manner. Also Christ even attended the church services of the local Jews when he entered a town. This example is why we attend church services today. As for the different denominations this is due to the fact that people cannot get alone so we come up with a belief that suits our own feelings. This is alright if the different beliefs will line up with the Bible, but many today do not seem that way. Intelligent knowledge is alright and needful in any belief but it must be used with Gods word and some common sense. It doesn't matter what you or I teach in our services it will not make any difference if we don't tell the truth of the death, burial and ressurection of Jesus Christ. Without the blood being applied to our hearts we will not make it into Heaven. I know that alot of people today does not believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God and some believe there are scriptures that contridict each other but if we read them and consider the full context of the verses we will see that they do not contridict or oppose each other. This may not be the answer you are looking for but as children of God we do need to look at his word with total belief in what he has given us. - Jerry

Frits it's not that you can't be a Christian or follow Christ at least, as an individual. In fact I accepted Christ while watching a Billy Graham crusade on television as a teenager before I was able to drive. My parents didn't go to church so I wasn't really able to go. I did read the Bible on my own during that time. Christ does encourage us to assemble together. There are several reasons for that. One reason is to learn and grow from other followers. Another is to be of service to the Lord, community, and each others. I guess to give and not just receive. That, unfortunately is where I think a lot of us as Christians fall short is just wanting to be fed and not wanting to be of service as Janice mentioned being the body of Christ in some way. Fortunately, a lot of churches have grown themselves and are better suited for seekers. My pastor tells visitors that they can come as long as they wish to see what we're all about and if they wish they can remain anonymous as long as they want . They sort of encourage visitors to stop at a table to get a small gift so they can give them some information and say hello, but that's really up to them. We personally only expect members and regular attenders to give any kind of offering. Usually we announce that, but sometimes they forget, but no one is ever ever pressured in that way. A lot of churches have drastically changed in that they are much more informal. I sing in our choir and we even wear jeans. We have a band that includes drums. In other words we just enjoy ourselves. As far as when a person does become ready to accept Christ and possible serve in the church, there are sooo many ways to do so. At our church we even have a off site community service where we give out food to the needy, clothes, furniture,help people get jobs,cars and just a variety of things. On campus there are tons of things-choir,helping direct traffic, sound techs, lighting techs, band members, bible teachers of adult, teens , and children, ushers,music teachers and assitants for children, people to help decorate the stage etc, people that are trained to help people in times of trouble or sorrow, others trained to help in marital difficulties, people that serve coffee every Sunday, pass out bulletins and just so much more. That's sort of what the body of Christ means. That each one of us are equipped to serve Christ in a different way. If someone is having difficulty realizing where their gifts are, they have sort of a quiz I guess you'd say to help someone fit their personality with somewhere to serve. Having said all this hopefully no church will grab anyone and immediately try to get them into a place to serve. It is all done at your own pace at our church and no one necessarily does anything. We have 3 services and there are a lot of people who just attend, but I think they're missing out on a lot. I personally am not typically a social person, but love the social interaction that we have in our choir. I absolutely love it! We support each other in the good times and bad. It's best to get in a group bible study, because just like our choir they support each other as well as learn about Christ. Well, I hope I haven't scared you off from possibly thinking about checking a few out. I go to a baptist church, but we dropped the baptist from the name so all are welcome. There are nondenominational churches that likewise welcome all. I hope again I haven't turned you off with too much info, but maybe again it will help. Whatever you decide to do we'll continue to pray for you in all aspects of your life. God bless. - Christ Follower

Thank you so much for your elaborate replies. Actually, I do go to a local church but am so full of questions that the end is not in sight yet. I'll continue to explore. - Frits

I belong to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. We find truth and value in many traditions. Often we will have someone from a different faith- from Bahai to Quakers- come and talk about their beliefs and practices. Everyone is welcome with the UUs. Even atheists. - Erik

Frits, my humble advice would be to immerse yourself in the scriptures particularly the New Testament and proverbs for now and explore what it says to you. Then it is much easier to find a church that suits your belief system rather than trying to stay at a church or go to one that doesn't quite feel right. Like the old saying- If you don't know what you believe in you can fall for anything. If my pastor started preaching something that I did not feel like corresponded with the scriptures I would have to go elsewhere. It's when someone preaches or teaches outside the scriptures that cult like churches can form and people will tend to worship their leader or even themselves and not put Christ first. If you can picture a throne and then all your life's situations and people floating around it, like your job, family, friends, etc. Now picture who is sitting on that throne. Is it Christ or is it you. That's basically what we mean by a Christ centered life, that He is on the throne of our life and all else including our selves revolves around Him and not us. I'm not going to tell you that it's always going to be easy to live that way, but if you try I will tell you that your life will be more fullfilled and joyful. I don't mean to ramble on and I hope the way that I expressed things haven't confused you further. We will be praying for you, and just the fact that you are seeking gives me every confidence that you'll find Christ because He Himself said in Matt.7:7" Seek and you shall find." - Christ Follower

Erik and Christ Follower-thank you once again for your comments. I attend a local Anglican Church on Thursday mornings simply to stay in touch. The Minister and others know that I am reading up very extensively on matters related to religion and spiritual matters in general. The Minister is brave enough to tell me that she does not always have an answer. At this stage, I feel more comfortable in seeking a personal relationship with God (Universal Intelligence) than sitting in church following established rituals. Having said this, I remain open in my thinking and have not closed off anything. - Frits