MY older of two sons was found dead 31 May 2006. My only other son, only child, died 31 Mar 2007. He could not cope with the loss of his brother. I ma having a tough time and can't go on without them. - Donnis Livingston

Donnis,
I can't even begin to pretend that i understand your pain. But I can pray for you and ask you if there is anything else that i can do to help... - David

Donnis, I pray right now that the Lord would bring you comfort and hope. Just call upon the name of the Lord. I know He is able. - Carol

HE IS RISEN!!!! - Carol

Donnis - As David commented, I can't begin to fathom what you and your family are going through. Remember, God won't put you through anything you can't handle(I know it's easy to say), but you'll need His help. Seek help from God and I'll pray for you, and there's no doubt that others here will also. You may never know the reason for this happening, but I pray that you get comfort and acceptance and trust that God is taking care of everything.

Also, please talk to someone if you really feel like you "can't go on without them"....are you thinking about harming yourself? Please talk to someone. You don't know me but you can even talk and vent to me if it will make you feel better. Post a message to me on here and I'll gladly post my email so you can contact me. Sometimes venting to a total stranger who doesn't know you and won't pass any judgement really helps. But please talk to SOMEBODY.

Praying for you - Adam

Donnis,
As a parent it doesn't seem right for your children to die before you. I do not know how you feel but trust me my Mother-in-law does. She has buried three of her children and it has taken alot out of her and she has bad health. She has made it because of prayer and help from people who love her. Please don't do anything to harm yourself because this will only cause more pain to the ones around you that they will have to deal with what you might do. I am a Pastor of a church and I am dealing with a recent suicide of a dear friend. His family is torn all to pieces and now have to face many things that could have been avoided if he would have talked to someone. Christ will see you through if you will let him and if you would like to corespond with me post a note to me with your e-mail of get RFTH to send me your email address via the internet and then I will write and try to help if I can. Remember God loves you and he knows what your children might have gone thru in their life and he chose not to allow it to happen. You have people who loves you so talk to them. I will be praying for you. - Jerry

Donnis, It seems almost impossible that God would allow such suffering and grief as what you are going through. But He is there to comfort you and help you to feel some peace. Perhaps had your sons not died they would have been in situations where they would have had more pain and suffering than you can imagine. God alone knows. But I know that you must have some good memories of your sons that you can think on and share with others. I think you would have a heart to comfort other people who experience great loss and tragedy as you have. What I am saying is that the world needs you to keep alive those precious memories of your sons that God has given to you, His precious container (we are His temple). Also, only you may be able to reach out to someone who is hurting similarily. We need you in this world, Donnis, and so does God. May He bless you with the knowledge of what He can do through you. You are loved. Keep alive the memories of your sons through your life and giving. Please. - Janice

My wife and I have lost two brothers in the last six months. One was 49 and the other 55. If I did not believe that Christ rose from the dead AND substituted his ritgheousness for the sins of all his sheep, I don't think I could go on. By God's Grace, however, I believe this with all my heart. I also believe that their is no other way apart from him. I really don't care if that's "politically correct", because it is eternally important. "No one comes to the Father except throuh Him"! Grant - Grant

Christianity isn't worthless. It's just a little off. If only Christians would worship on Saturday, the actual Lord's day...the actual day Jesus ROSE...(see Hebrew Calendar 31AD)...you'd all be PERFECT! :-) So far...close, but no cigar. Hey, you all can't help it. Traditions are difficult to break...even when proven wrong. BEST OF LUCK GUYS! - Montana

Montana,
We have been thru this over and over, there is nowhere in the bible where God said to worship on Saturday.In Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. No where does the word Saturday enter into that passage anywhere. Also the word "rest" in the Hebrew (shabat)does not mean fatigue but means only "ceased" because it is connected to the completion of the work of creation. This thing where people wants to tell others that they are not right with God unless they worship on Saturday, shows that they need to get in the book and really find out what God is all about. Christ said "I must be up about my fathers buisness". I know you want people to worship on the day you choose to worship on but what you and I should worry more about is, first of all are they saved and ready to go to heaven? Don't show people your lack of insight into the word of God by falling into the same arguments that our forefathers did, strive to work with the people who are saved and are trying to get others saved. That is the great commision that Christ gave us. I am sorry to be so blunt but sometimes we all need it. - Jerry

What I don't get is why Christ took millions of years to appear, after all, humans have been around a long long time. By the time Christ shows up on the scene, billions upon billions of people would have died that did NOT have life everlasting. Why did he wait so long??

And what's the big deal. Why do we need "life everlasting" anyhow? Shouldn't we all focus on THIS life instead of thinking about the next (when you don't have a body anyhow, doesn't sound like a lot of fun). That's the big problem with Christianity - fear. Fear of dying. So you say "make me an offer I can't refuse". Well that offer of the "afterlife" is a myth.

What about the 4.0 billion people on Earth who do NOT worship Jesus (Hindus, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, Scientologists, people who don't know what they believe, etc.)...what happens to them? I know you'll quote me a Bible verse to answer this question, but I want you all to put on your thinking caps and think a little harder than you are used to doing. - Jonathan

Jonathan- you are asking them to do the impossible. Trust me- I've been living in this house for a while now. - Erik

Jonathan, first off I'll have to begin by saying that anyone who says they have all the answers to your questions are full of themselves. Even people like Paul in the bible never claimed to understand all of God's mysteries. I will say that we as Christians usually don't believe there were billions of years before Christ and therefore billions of people before him. Unfortunately the most dry parts of the bible are the geneologies of the Isrealites showing the lineage that Christ was eventually born through. Yes, there were of course other people in the world, but we don't believe they numbered anywhere close to billions.In the old testament God commanded the Isrealites to make blood sacrifices to attone for their sins. Christ came in order to die on the cross by literally representing the death of our sins on the cross.As far as the people before Christ and those that have never heard of Christ I believe having studied Revelations there has been some confusion between the translation of Hades and Hell. Don't get me wrong I believe there is a literal hell, because Christ said there is and that Satan and his angels will go there. There will be a judgement where it says the sheep will be separated from the goats. In other words those that have followed Satan's influences and rejected Christ will be separated and their fate is a literal Hell. The sheep or Christ followers whose names are written in the Book of Life will be allowed to live eternally with their Lord and Savior in a literal Heaven. Others who have never actually heard of Christ I personally believe have been in Hades or a type of pergatory and will be justly judged by God, but this is only people that have never heard of Christ at all. Others that have heard & not accepted Him I believe will basically send themselves to Hell by just the fact they have turned their back on Him and his death on the cross for their sins. We may not like or understand this, but there are many things in life that I don't particulaly like, but that does not make it untrue. As far as just living for this life Ecclesiastes says there is nothing under the sun that is meaningful in this life without God. Everything is just fleeting and vanity without Him. We should store up our treasures in Heaven because after all how many times have you seen a u-haul truck following a hearse? It says all these things are like chasing the wind.All Christians will have somewhat different opinions, but should not waste their time in vain arguing. Good luck and hope hopefully some of this is helpful to you. - Christ follower

Christ Follower, God Bless you for your comment. I aggree with what you said and I hope the ones who want to dispute God's word will try to understand that it is thru His love for us, is the reason he sent his Son to die for us. I know some has said we don't need to have a religous huddle and I understand that but sometimes it is hard to converse with someone who constantly tells you there is no true God without wanting to argue with them. But we know we are not to argue with them, we are just to tell them what the scriptures says and then it is up to them what they do with it. Also if you try to study the life line of humans in the scriptures I believe people have been around about six thousand years so you seem to be real close in your comment. For those who don't believe, the Bible is the only book in existence that has predicted itself and has fulfilled itself. I will hang onto it myself. - Jerry

You people are all nuts. I mean really. To deny science (which tells us that the Earth is actually 500 million years old), and the Universe - BILLIONS, is to deny the scientific process in general and that's a pretty bold thing to be doing. If the science that tells us the history of the earth, who lived on it, etc. didn't hold, then airplanes shouldn't fly, digestion shouldn't work, and the weak, strong, eletromagetic and gravitationl forces shouldn't behave the way they do. The laws of nature are VERY firm and those laws have, for a long time now, answered a lot of questions that disprove anything written from people who knew jack squat about the world.

I'm not here to talk sense into you people. You've obviously gone WAY beyond the point of being able to reason with. I could should you the properties of a C-14 Carbon atom, how it exponentially decays (and how one can measure this in the lab) and then I could show you how such properties of this atom could be used to date things from which we know the age. Then I could show you how it would tell us the age of anything...but you would chose NOT to listen, because you're brainwashed. That's excellent. - Jonathan

Jonathan, I understand where you're coming from, but I've lived a looong time and have seen scientists change their tune about a lot of things and find out they don't know half as much as they think they do. They're still trying to figure out how to conquer certain diseases that to be honest they are beginning to realize that if you eat the foods the good Lord told his people to eat and stay away from others that you'll be a lot healthier. They are just now beginning to realize the complicated ways that the different colors of food can help different conditions and diseases. They've been trying to push pills with chemicals that have horrible side effects like ruining a persons liver or kidneys etc., when they're beginning to realize that the food and herbs that the good Lord gave us can help with inflammation, cholesteral reduction, and even have antibacterial and anti viral properties.So sorry if I don't buy by a long shot that they can exactly date things also because they've changed their own tune about the dates before. They are beginning to have to admit there was a flood throughout the earth as was described in the bible. So, I didn't say that I know it all, but one thing I know 100% is that they don't either. Oh and the other thing that I do know is the difference that Jesus Christ has made in my life! Even though you may think that there is not a snowballs chance I hope and pray someday you'll know Him also and even though you doubt it- I believe you will.  - Christ Follower

Jonathon, There is no doubt that you have some extensive schooling or maybe you are just a very good poker player, but I do not believe you are very old. If you are the way you use the younger language counter acts your education. After you get a little older and a little more mature you will learn that it is disrespectful to speak to people with such anger the way you do. Yes we might have gone off the deep end as you put it but still there is no denying the fact that people who belives the way we do has produced a pretty good place for scientific people like you to have the opportunity to speak up and share how dumb you feel Christians are. You are a prime example of how the bible (which was written long before you and I both were even thought of) say people will get smarter and smarter but will not come to know the truth. It also says people will even become weaker and weaker in strength but will increase in knowledge. This next generation is proof of that, they cant hold out to give an employer a good days work. I guess that must be a lucky guess for this book of lies that so many call it. I can tell we are going to have to put up with another person telling us how stupid we are but if we are so stupid then why do you want to even bother speaking to us. I guess in your intellegent world you must have gotten bored. I tell you what you should do, instead of telling us how wrong you believe the bible is why don't you prove it. At least Erik tries to do that, he doesn't show how disrespectful he can be like you came out of the gate doing. I have been around a long time and I have seen a lot of people who belives like you do come and they have gone also. We don't have to prove anything to you, Gods word will do that for itself. If you knew anything about history you would know that the bible has been proven that way time after time. - Jerry

Donnis,
My heart aches for you. Please seek some counseling help to sort this out.
And I believe that I am not alone in saying that I'll be praying for you alot in the coming days.
May He give you peace that passes understanding. Please keep e-mailing, we want to hear from you, and help. - marti mastbrook

Jonathan, Those of us who do follow Christ are wearing our thinking caps. We just think about different things than what you think about. We choose to be immersed in the Bible and devote our time to be better followers of Jesus and His Way. We do not spend our time going on the websites of atheists and telling them how stupid they are. You may judge who is making better use of their time but we are happy to let God judge us. Anyway, the door is open for you to choose Jesus as your guide through life. There are many variances of those who call themselves Christian. You may find the Way after all even though you so disagree and disrespect some on this site. God's peace to you. - Janice

Janice, first of all I apologize for implying that people here are "stupid" and "crazy". I guess to me, having studied science for many years and having thought this through fairly thoroughly over my life, it baffles me completely that anyone can remain a worshiper of something that, in my mind, is nothing short of a complete fabrication by humans. Humans wrote the bible, humans invented religion, and humans invented God. We as people have the creativity and the intelligence to make this stuff up and historically, it's all we had to go on, thus I understand its genesis (pun intended). Today though, where there is so much knowledge and scientific evidence that goes against religions (not just Christianity), and knowledge of our world that I really don't understand why it's still around.

My only conclusion is people are ignorant of scientific principles and history. There is no way Jesus could have been born to a virgin - it's not scientifically possible. Thus I chose to accept tangible reality vs. legend and hocus-pocus. I've met Catholics who really believe that the bread/wine in Mass is really Christ, however if I told peeople I could turn my breakfast cereal into Elvis Presley, people would deem me insane. Thus, why don't we think Catholics are insane? I guess there is deemed sanity in numbers.

At the end of the day, I'm a constitutional guy, and I believe in Freedom of Religion, but people are never content to quietly worship. They bring their beliefs into their jobs (like the US President!) and they try to stop scientific progress. That's why atheists around the world have had enough, and you've seen best sellign books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and other well-known atheists.

I'm not even a "full atheist". There may be SOMETHING out there, but I sure as hell don't know what it is. And neither do you. I'm not doing to fill the void, though, with unproven and irrational human ignorance and legend. - Jonathan

Okay, but who is writing science and history books-men? - christ follower

Jonathan, Thank you for your comment. I think I am understanding that you are agnostic or somewhere between agnostic and atheist. I am glad that you have been able to obtain so much knowledge in science. There is a place for that. Have you ever read the Bible through? I challenge you if you have not to read it through and see if it does anything for you. Consider it a scientific experiment if you will. Keep a journal and write down your feelings about what it is saying each day. It would be interesting after your scientific approach to hear if you might develop a bit more respect or even find something in it for you. You have nothing to fear but fear itself as the saying goes. I think some people do not read the Bible because they think it might have something for them that would indicate areas of their life that need improvement. Are you up for the challenge? - Janice

Most people don't read the Bible because it's boring, and they hate to be reminded of the fact that Tom Clancy is a better writer than God.
I actually enjoy reading the Bible, even though sometimes it's too violent and sexually perverse for my tastes. - Erik

Yes, men and women who are thoroughly testing hypotheses through carefully controlled experiments that have been verified by other men and women a 100x over. Mathematics drives physics, and physics drives chemistry and biology. Thus saying you don't believe in tenants of science, is kind of like saying you don't believe 4=4.

It's like evolution. It's a theory that has been tested over and over again and it has, backing it up, a large body of evidence that is verifiable and testable. Scientists worldwide have tested evolutionary theory and there has never been one experiment that has gone against it. - Jonathan

Janice, I have nothing against reading the bible, and I have read a lot of it in the past. But I have never gone through it cover to cover, no.

How about reading the Koran Janice? Are you up for that challenge? I'll read the Bible if you read the Koran cover to cover...deal? - Jonathan

Jonathan, Your comment is so timely. I have considered checking out the Koran from our county library because I have heard various opinions about how it advocates violence against nonbelievers and I want to know from the actual source what it says. I do not have a problem with reading the Koran except that I am a slow reader and it would cut into my Bible reading time. I am open to the thought as I hope you are to reading the Bible cover to cover. It was not until I read the Bible all the way through that I finally got the whole picture and understood about God and how much He loves me. I treasure knowing God loves me no matter what and I do not think I will find that love from the god portrayed in the Koran. Thanks for becoming a bit more mellow in your comments. - Janice

Janice, I think you'll find that the Koran, like the Bible, advocates a lot of different things. There are versuses you can pull out of the Koran that argue that Muslims should love everyone regardless, and then there are others that state that a violent end to infidels is the only way. They are both in there.

I do sometimes wonder, to those who hold the Bible as some sort of blueprint for moral rectitude, have any notion of what is actually written in it?? As you would know, the following offences merit the death penalty, according to Leviticus 20: cursing your parents; committing adultery; making love to your stepmother or your daughter-in-law; homosexuality; marrying a woman and her daughter; bestiality. You also get executed too for working on the sabbath, a point made again and again throughout the Old Testament. We all know the story (right?) in Numbers 15 how the children of Israel found a man in the wilderness gathering sticks on the forbidden day. They arrested him and then asked God what to do with him. As it turned out, God was in no mood for half-measures that day. "And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death: all the congreation shall stone him with stones without the camp."

What's shocking is, not that these things happened - I'm sure they did not. What's shocking is people use this useless book as a moral code as for what is right and wrong.

God of the OT is an evil monster. God of the NT, through Jesus, gets a little nicer, but not everyting JHC said was golden either. - Jonathan

Jonathan, Again you are timely since I was just today reading in Leviticus (I am a bit behind on the church Bible reading schedule). Yes,all those punishments for broken laws were so harsh even to the point of death. God is all holy and righteous and sees all sin deserving of death. He is above all and makes the ultimate rules. But because He has love for the people of His creation He had a plan to save people from the death they deserve for their sinning. That of course is where Jesus comes in. You probably already know this. Anyway, on the spiritual level we have our sins covered by the blood Jesus shed on the cross when He died in the place of each of us sinners who are believers. I agree, I would not want to be under judgement from God without the provision of Jesus. I do believe those things did happen back in the OT days just like awful things happen today like the beheadings in the Middle East. There is another god people are following who do the beheadings and suicide bombs. It may be the god of the Koran or a god of their own making but it sure isn't Jesus they are following. I hope you will read the Bible all the way through and see if you get the message of how much God loves you. Some day you may need to know of His love more than you need it today. I do want to read the whole Koran so I can see not only individual verses but the whole picture. - Janice

I don't know...I feel bad for that guy just picking up some sticks. Maybe he was just trying to get some firewood so his family could have some heat and not freeze to death. Does no one care about the wife and children he may have left behind? Besides, picking up a few sticks isn't a lot more work than brushing your teeth and taking a shower. Do you really NEVER work at all, in any way, on The Sabbath?

Any God that commands someone to death for picking up a few sticks, is not a god I want to worhips.

I work on Sunday all the time. I've got things to do, which I can't get done during the work week, and I don't believe in Christianity, or any world religions anyhow. - Jonathan

Jonathan, you sound just like Jesus in your statement above (about the Sabbath).

"I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"

It's all in Luke 6 1-10. I can tell from your comments that you know little to nothing about Christianity. Before you condemn any religion you'd better first seek to understand it, especially when you sound just like its leader. - Austin

You're right Austin - I know little to nothing about Christianity. But I don't need to know everything about the tooth fairy in excrutiating detail to know she doesn't exist. - Jonathan

Jonathan, you don't make any sense. You seem very confused and you constantly contradict yourself. And the "tooth fairy?" That old comment? If you aren't going to be intellectually honest with yourself or others, don't waste their time or your own. - Austin

I love these false dilemmas/arguments from consequences that the Christians keep putting up. "If evolution is true, then you're calling God a liar, and we KNOW you wouldn't do that..." or "If Jesus was just a man then he was the worst fraud in history, and we know that's not true..." or "If Christ didn't rise from the dead then our faith is worthless and we are liars and we are wasting our time and you're momma probably don't love you..." - Erik

You guys are all nuts. Listen to you. By the way...regarding Saturday Sabbath...read the story of Jonah..."three days and tree nights" is not Friday to Sunday. Whatever...you're all good. - montana