i prefer chris :)

Amen.  Good thoughts and important questions.  Some stuff for me to think about. 

ryc:  Exactly.  I love coffee and tea.  Depending on the situation and feeling.  I'm doing well. God has really blessed me.  My stomach irritation is slowly healing through some herbal probiotics (as oppossed to antibiotics) and enzymes.  The good natural stuff of God's earth so I'm not taking all that chemical induced pills.  Praise God and God is just really trying to teach me a lot of things and get my attention at times I look away or get distracted by life.  Thanks for your brotherly love.  They shall know us by it.  God Bless!

Thanks for the comment.  I've been trying to catch Josh & Grace on the phone.  I spoke to Josh a few minutes this eve; but he was busy.  It sounds like the coffee house project is going well.  I will pray for a new job for you & healing for headaches.  When I am in sin do you think God still answers my prayers?? humf?  I am walking on the edge by pursuing a guy who is not a Christian.  I am tired of waiting for God to send  Christian man; so I am willing to go for a good man.  I certainly am not perfect either; yes, I know the word.  You see the first time around I chose a Godly man who I thought was strong-solid in the Lord. The truth is, sin and rebellion and holding onto rage, bitterness, & hate can turn any relationship into a nightmare & destroy a family. That turned into 26 LONG years (not all were bad; but most) of torment.  Sorry for whining and being a battle weary sister who is tired of waiting. I love you guys.  Willow looks great! I am planning on coming up for Christmas.  I may be a puddle by then.  Tell Lana that the little dresses she & Grace made were awesome!

Well what are you saved from? MMMMMMM, well Sin, Hell, Death. To name a few, but what are we saved from? Well as far as I understand and there is more, God has saved us from the punishment that we deserve for our sins. But many don't believe they are that bad or they can work there way into heaven. We can't work are way to heaven. Yes we should work out or salvation, but this is to know what you believe, and as far as doubting your salvation, well It is God who started the work and according to His Word He will complete it. SO if you doubt His Word I guess you can doubt your salvation.   Sin?, Hell??, Death???  If that is what a Christian is "saved" from wouldn't that mean that these things cannot effect them, in any way?  It would be a past tense "saved".  I prefer to use the phrase: a conditional assurance of salvation.  What conditions, you ask?  Well, obedience, of course.  If you love him you will obey him, right?  Prophetically speaking, you are saved if you continue in him.  Hence the phrase "work out your salvation".  It has nothing to do with your ability to be righteous.  It has everything to do with your willingness to obey him and believe him.   On a seperate note, define hell.   -Isaac

No offense taken, sorry if it came accross that way.

I do not worry about the things in the Bible for contrary to how others tell me I must be to have a relationship with our father in Heaven, I know mine quite well.

I fill my heart and mind with good thoughts (despite my presence yesterday in CA, at the original house of sin and debauchery know also as the home of the Raiders, I am home in Hawaii now) and do nothing but good deeds and pursue rightenousness for us all.

And I am also aware that a lot of scholars think that Jesus is really greek for Joshua and "another" example of a mistake in the bible.

I feel the Bible is full of a lot of hot air and this can be seen in the fact that there are ten commandments.  There really only needed to be one.  Honor thy mother and father and the rest would happen by themselfs.  Besides a lot of the stories and practices from the NT an OT are repeats of other faiths, so for me it is just about our relationship with him, that being strong it translates to a wonderful, caring and loving relationship with everyone else here on earth as well and that is the ultimate respect.

I pass judgment on NO ONE especially based on the written words of men when they could be wrong.  I mean how in the heck can I walk down the halls of the same place in Heaven where Joshua, King David, Moses and Yeshua all dwell and have passed any judgment of any sort, on ANYONE, even if the Bible says this or that?  The messages in the Bible are for the reader.  Period.

At least that is my feeling.  I was just a little frisky the other morning.  Sorry.

Have a great day with lots of good thoughts.  (and careful with that Isaac.  He is a smart guy and a blast to chat with.)

Define sin, that's a pretty broad topic. An abomination against God? Who's god? It seems like the definition of sin changes throughout times, reflecting the current societal norms. There are certain things that will always be wrong, no matter the culture, the religion, the time etc. But I don't know if you can really define the word sin and pinpoint it. Obviously, I'm not saying that life is a moral free for all or trying to argue a subjective morality because of differing opinions. In the past years I've questioned and for myself feel I've found the answer (what I believe in, not necesarily what's right) I don't feel when it comes to morality and virtue that religion is neccesary, if anything, religion would seem to be a deterrant. When it comes to morality it seems that religion (not the belief in God, or spirituality, organized dogmatic religion) does one of two things. 1) It uses fear and scare tactics or offers incentives for people to do the right thing. The promise of Heaven or the threat of Hell causing people to behave in a accordance to moral codes without really knowing why they are doing what they are doing

2) Or, more commonly I feel religion can contradict morality,blurring the line between right and wrong. Killing is wrong, well we know religion has contradicted that. Loving others who are unlike ourselves, tolerance. Well, we know realiong contradicts that on a daily basis.

Sin, Grace etc are not a concern for me. Living a moral life is my concern, in order to do that, religion (not God or spirituality) must be taken out of the equation. By doing research, it's very easy to see how one can live a moral life independent of religious convictions. Not only does religion not establish a moral code, I don't even think it's neccesary and the purpose of living a spiritual life is to break down that wall, the veil of ignorance that religion provides.

Aside from the typos, I notice I had a few, I feel I answered the questions you asked. Morality is a confusing topic. I strongly believe that there are certain things that are right and wrong. Many philosophical arguments describe a morality independent of religion. Check out The Social Contract Theory by Thomas Hobbes, I believe. It seems like a logical assumption, that morality works on a foundation of laws and these laws must have come from somewhere, so they must've come from God. I understand that argument but I feel it's a pretty weak. First of all, which God of which religion are you speaking of? Any member of any other religion could say their morals came from their God which would imply that morality is relative. I don't believe morality is subjective, there are certain things, independent of culture, religion and government that are consistently right or wrong. This is what I mean by religion contradicting morality. I know many atheists, agnostics who are more moral than people who claim to be deeply religious. But on the other hand I know plenty of immoral atheists, agnostics etc. What's I'm trying to say is that it's not a matter of what you believe, or claim to believe, it's how you act that defines your morality. Of course, morality will always be a constant debate and I'm not trying to persaude you, my spiritual beliefs are much different than yours, we both know that, that's fine. To close, I think it's important to make a distinction between religion and morality. Morality needs to be objective, to keep an order, a consistnecy in laws and moral code. Religion (whether you believe it or not) is subjective, full of a variety of opinions and beliefs, neither of which objectively superior to the other. Religion, more often than not strays people away from living a moral life because one person believes one thing the next person believes something completely opposite. To state that religion is needed to lay a moral foundation implies that there is one God, and there is only one true God. This cannot be true because Spirituality, one's personal relationship with God, needs to be subjective in order to be meaningful.

Extreme Christian dogma claims that only the ones who believe in Jesus Christ, are saved and all that nonsense and the rest will be 'left behind'. Why would a loving God, who created all of us in his image, send over 70% of the world to hell, simply because they were born in a part of the world that doesn't teach Christianity, and they know nothing about it? There are people in this world that have never heard anything about Christianity, and I know the church sends missionaries but how can you reach them all? It's likely to assume that you could've been born in the Middle East, born a Muslim and taught that Christianity was evil. Do you understand how spiritualy is subjective? It has to be, in order to be meaningful, if not, then it's dogmatic and without any personal meaning nwhich is what I have against the Christian religion. I belive Christ to be a great role model, I believe in the teachings of Christ. I do not however, believe in the ideology behind it, I refuse to surrender to ignorance, I will use my intellect and question everything before me in search of the truth. I want to know why I believe in certain things, and understand the nature of it all. Religion is a barrier that needs to be broken down to discover the truth. I have chosen to explore it and it has changed my life, much in the way Christianity has changed your life (see, it's subjective)

I KNOW YOU!!!!! *dances*

Dude. Yes. I will come over... sometime.
Maybe tomorrow! Before hockey.
But. Yes. I think Thanksgiving should be not on Thanksgiving day. Because I totally am cooking my family Thanksgiving for them. So I think that the church thanksgiving should be like... some other time. Oh well. Um. Yeah. I shall come hang out with you sometime then. =D
I don't know when. But. It will be sometime.