Rutledge, A+ on having the courage to come onto a secular message board where there is a lot of hostility towards Christians, and have a whole topic dedicated towards it. I've thought about it so many times, and I deeply commend you for doing so. I routinely pray for people on this board, but I've never had the cajones to step up and start a thread for it. Awesome, awesome job to you.
That being said, it's really easy to pick and choose passages to fit your belief system, or lack thereof. It's when you approach the topic of Christianity with an open mind and heart that you really can begin to understand and accept it as the true word of the living God. I can say with a firm stance that the Bible is holy, God is real, and God reveals Himself through it. If you read the Bible and not just cherry pick verses, you'll see the nature of God is not any of the adjectives Pants described Him as.
People are going to believe what they want and find some way to support it through the Bible. But Christianity is more than that. It's a REAL, THRIVING, deeply powerful relationship with God. I can't stress the concept of REAL enough. I wasn't a real person before I found God. I was a slave, and my chains were cut through the freedom of Christ; not the bondage of serving Him. And it's a gift that comes anytime, to any person, and it's what life's all about and made for.
I probably won't spend a ton of time in this thread because I can already see it spiraling out of control by hostile people who won't take the time to really understand what it is they're condemning. 1 Corinthians 1:18 pretty much sums it up: 'for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the -power- of God.'
If anyone ever wanted to chat about Jesus or religion with open and honest conversation, I'm ALWAYS up for it. I also found this website ministry to be totally awesome:
www.gotquestions.orgBiglovetoyouall.