A question of values.......

[bassin_bug]

I was not raised in the church and only remember going on Easter Sunday or to some Christmas celebration. I did attend church back some 20 years ago after I got out of college and was very active in church as far as helping keep the grounds mowed, flower beds looking nice, setting up and taking down chairs and such. After a couple of years in the church my wife and I seperated and got a divorce. To make a long story short, I did not like the way the Deacons of the church treated me after I got a divorce even though 3 of them had went thru divorces themselves. I did not attend church again until a couple of years ago, very bitter towards the church and felt if there was a God then why did he allow these Deacons to treat me the way they did. I started attending church again because of all my health problems and thought that must be the reason that I kept getting sick and having surgery. I even got to the point that I was baptized and was asked to stand up in front of the church and tell my story. My family all showed up and a full congregation sat there as I spilled my guts to all the bad and good that has happened to me. Many teary eyes and such and a lot of pats on the back afterwords. That lasted all of about 2 weeks before I was back in the hospital with emergency surgery. Then another surgery, then another staff infection and so forth. I got so bitter that I left the church and have not been to a service in over a year. I am to the point that I am not sure if there is a God. If there is a God then why do bad things happen to good people, why do good people like my wife's Stepdad get taken away due to Cancer a week after he retires from work 13 years ago but a piece of garbage like her real father (who only 2 people on EARTH care if he is still alive) is still kicking and being the gripy piece of crap that he is. I have a ton of questions and maybe I am more bitter than most maybe I have a reason to be more bitter than most or maybe I don't. ...... but I just am so bitter at how my health has turned my life upside down that if there is/was a God then WHY?.......I would think Heaven is a place that would accept me.

With all due respect, Ellnut, I disagree with you totally for blaming every bad thing that has happened to you, and others, on God. I'm going to say what a lot of people on this board could possibly have been thinking but would not say it, lest they offend you. If I recall, you were grossly obese when you started having surgery. God didn't open your mouth and shove the food in that made you fat; YOU made that choice. You made the decision to have the surgery, God didn't make you do it. He didn't give you staph infection, your body did or you got it from an unsterile operating room/instruments, hands, etc. It goes without saying that you probably had a lot of excess skin when you lost the weight and have had to have it removed or are planning to. Before you automatically assume the staph just attacks you, find out the SOURCE of it. My mom had it after surgery because her home health nurse did not follow doctor's orders and elected to cleanse the wound her way instead of using what was prescribed. God didn't give her staph infection, the nurse caused it. My 25-year old sister died of cancer and left TWO babies still on the bottle and in diapers. God didn't give her cancer, her body did. On May 22, I had a serious vehicle accident in which the truck rolled 5 times and I was trapped for around 45 minutes, hanging upside down by a seat belt, in a truck that was upside down. God didn't cause the accident and neither did I, so who should I blame for all these injuries, including both broken feet? The accident reconstructionist, insurance adjuster, and MS State Trooper said they think the tandem brakes locked up on a U-Haul trailer that I was pulling causing it to jackknife, when I hit a dip in the road. My truck rolled down a steep embankment and into a ravine that took the wreckers almost 3 hours to pull it out. I will NEVER blame God and am not ashamed to tell you that, while the truck was rolling, I was screaming to the top of my lungs, "Jesus, help me." HE DID! and I am alive to tell it. The State Trooper called me and said he didn't see how I could still be alive. One week later, a lady had an accident at the same place and was killed.

It seems to me that, when things are going good and you are doing what you want to do, you believe in God. When you hit a rough patch and don't like how things are going, you don't believe there is a God. You need to make up your mind, ONCE AND FOR ALL, and make a choice whom you will believe in. If God, then serve him in the good times and the bad times. If yourself, then worship yourself, serve yourself and heal yourself, but stop acting like the the people you call "hypocrites" that you have just criticized.

Heaven will not accept you, or anyone else, based on your good works or your sickness. It is only through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ that was shed when he died on The Cross.

[Hlleonard]

On May 22, I had a serious vehicle accident in which the truck rolled 5 times and I was trapped for around 45 minutes, hanging upside down by a seat belt, in a truck that was upside down. God didn't cause the accident and neither did I, so who should I blame for all these injuries, including both broken feet? The accident reconstructionist, insurance adjuster, and MS State Trooper said they think the tandem brakes locked up on a U-Haul trailer that I was pulling causing it to jackknife, when I hit a dip in the road. My truck rolled down a steep embankment and into a ravine that took the wreckers almost 3 hours to pull it out. I will NEVER blame God and am not ashamed to tell you that, while the truck was rolling, I was screaming to the top of my lungs, "Jesus, help me." HE DID! and I am alive to tell it. The State Trooper called me and said he didn't see how I could still be alive. One week later, a lady had an accident at the same place and was killed.

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The faith a person holds in whatever deity they believe in seems to go a long way in improving their lives and in a lot of cases it even makes them a better person,that is not always the truth as we have seen in the terrorist activity connected with the muslim faith and chriatianity during the witch hunts... For you to need your god after the accident would seem to say he was asleep at the switch in his duties to look after you before the accident... If you can be grateful to your god for saving you then you must blame him for allowing the accident to happen in the first place... We are biological creatures and regardless of what we like to believe we aren't all created the same as in Mr. Smith's case, he seems to have some monsters in his life he has to deal with that others of us don't... I have a daughter with disabling birth defects that she has dealt with the entire 40 years of her life, she doesn't blame a god or anybody else for her problems,that's just the way it is.

[bassin_bug]

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The faith a person holds in whatever deity they believe in seems to go a long way in improving their lives and in a lot of cases it even makes them a better person,that is not always the truth as we have seen in the terrorist activity connected with the muslim faith and chriatianity during the witch hunts... For you to need your god after the accident would seem to say he was asleep at the switch in his duties to look after you before the accident... If you can be grateful to your god for saving you then you must blame him for allowing the accident to happen in the first place... We are biological creatures and regardless of what we like to believe we aren't all created the same as in Mr. Smith's case, he seems to have some monsters in his life he has to deal with that others of us don't... I have a daughter with disabling birth defects that she has dealt with the entire 40 years of her life, she doesn't blame a god or anybody else for her problems,that's just the way it is.

You have taken what I said and twisted it so badly that it is unrecognizable. There is no reason for me to explain it again because you still won't get it. 'Nuff said.

[Hlleonard]

You have taken what I said and twisted it so badly that it is unrecognizable. There is no reason for me to explain it again because you still won't get it. 'Nuff said.

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Maybe taking part in a debate isn't wise if you are offended by other folks point of view... I apologize... You have a nice day.