Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations\;
The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:25 am Post subject: Religions
Throught out my life I have come across alot of people from those who have harden there hearts to Jesus completely and to those who are just to oblivious to God. I have met some people on my campus who are not christian they are muslim and other religions. I have also met people who have looked down on what religion I am.
I am Catholic and all of the sudden I am like a disease and that my beliefs are wrong that I cannot possibly be going to heaven. With just looking at me. This has happed to me with christian groups here on campus. I also had a girl in highschool who was in my christian organization that I belonged to told me that she needed to change me and proceeded to try. I finally had enough and told her that I am saved I have asked Jesus to be my Lord and savior what more do want me to do I am going to heaven. She left me alone from then on.
The girl in highschool has always made me weary about other religions and as there called at Mansfield, "Bible Thumpers". Those who push religion so hard on someone that they actually push away from christianity. I have tried to be open minded with others and try other churches and I feel at home with the Catholic church. The youth group in the Rochester Diocese teaches salvation and you do not go to heaven by buying yourself in or by works. It is a great program. The retreats are awesome and have given me expericences that have forever changed me. This is a new relgious movement. I admit Catholics in the past did believe that works save .No religion in my eyes is better than another. If the church teaches salvation than its doing the right thing for its followers.
A church that bashes or critisizes another is not a church I would be interested in attending. From a very young age I was taught to treat others as you would like to be treated. In other words don't think your better than anyone else. I was always taught don't critisize anyones religion unless you actually sit down and talk about beliefs do not go on assumption.
The person you meet who is Catholic might not beleive the same as what you have heard or a Baptist might not believe that the Catholics are all bad and are Catholic bashers. I am guilty of this too but I am getting better. I try to be opened minded with others and if they say something that I know is wrong in my heart I do not get up and point my finger at them and tell them your wrong and yell at them. I just say now there is something that I disagree with you on. I just hope we can get past the names of the religion and be open minded and do not just assume just put back what you have heard and just for curiousity sake just talk to them. This is my church trouble. This is what I believe that you get to heaven by being saved and asking Jesus in to your heart. Now what do you believe?
It is unfortunate that you have had trouble in the past, but it's also good that you haven't taken a negative attitude toward religion in general, as I know some people have.
There is no "perfect" religion, and I use to think I will only go to a Baptist church, and the I dated a Lutheran, and I was like, oo this is an evil church (sadly, I was raised to think that Baptists were the only ones that were Christians). Granted, I learned that other religions do share some of the same qualities, and yes, we are all different. I even attended a Baptist church once where there was a female minister. It was a pretty bad experience, I just felt a terrible uneasyness
Over the past few years, I have been learning about different religions, both by visiting and speaking with knowledgable people from that religion and as well as speaking with my Pastor (Pastor Gary, you all should know him! *whispers* look on the homepage). Okay, so where I am going with this is right here: I believe that the biggest thing that divdes us is doctrinal interpritations as well as man-made rules. I'm not a big fan of man made rules when it comes to churches. Look at the Israelites, they had a Theocracy(?) where God was their king and He did great, but the people insisted they have a king that they could see
The biggest thing I have learned is if you attend a church (regardless of denomination), do not be afraid to "challenge" what they have to say if you feel it goes against the Bible. The Bible should be the final authority on things, not man made rules. Too many Christians today use "feelings" to dictate how they will live. For example, I knew someone who said that Christians should not oppose homesexuality becuase they Bible does not come out and say, "...being gay is wrong." It does, but I will save that for another day
In closing, it's good to be open minded, but also be aware that you are not sucked in by false teachers, since there are many out there! Read your Bible, and know what God's word says, becuase in the end, that is the only authority we will have to answer to!
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*whispers* look on the homepage). Okay, so where I am going with this is right here: I believe that the biggest thing that divdes us is doctrinal interpritations as well as man-made rules. I'm not a big fan of man made rules when it comes to churches. Look at the Israelites, they had a Theocracy(?) where God was their king and He did great, but the people insisted they have a king that they could see 
