Easter Is More About This Than Just Another So Called Holiday...

Well at least to me it is!!!cr8crshr/Bill

https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2021/04/04

So true.

We'd dress the boys in their little suits. My daughter and wife had nice dress's and I had a suit on today. We took the kids to Mass and than dinner at my mother in laws
The kids went to Catholic school and knew the real meaning of what today was all about

steve from staten island said:

We'd dress the boys in their little suits. My daughter and wife had nice dress's and I had a suit on today. We took the kids to Mass and than dinner at my mother in laws
The kids went to Catholic school and knew the real meaning of what today was all about

Click to expand...

Not being of the Faith we did also attend Church and Easter Sunday was a great gathering of both the Youth and Adult Congregations...Cr8crshr/Bill

We went to church this morning, but we do every Sunday. It helps keep me grounded in an angry, divided world. Faith isn’t for everyone, most of my friends aren’t into it, some vehemently so. I don’t push it, I basically don’t care. It works for me.

It seems to me if we stuck to the Town Commandments we wouldnt need any other laws.
YMMV
Today is a true holiday. Holiday is the one word version of Holy Day.
The term is over used and abused.

Sahara said:

We went to church this morning, but we do every Sunday. It helps keep me grounded in an angry, divided world. Faith isn’t for everyone, most of my friends aren’t into it, some vehemently so. I don’t push it, I basically don’t care. It works for me.

Click to expand...

When my wife first became ill, I was still working two jobs, plus 1 month before her diagnosis I started a big renovation on the house. The first two years she was sick was rough on her, surgery and chemo. Not know what lay next. I was stressed out like you wouldn't believe, I was angry, tired. I was betrayed at work when my co workers knew what I was going through. Cooking cleaning running into Manhattan for chemo, caring for her, feeding her. My salvation was I went back to church for about three years straight and than little by little I became disenfranchised with the comments of the Pastor. Its a longer story I won't go into. Now almost a decade later 2019 was a bad year for my wife, than in march of 2020 my mother in law passed. I took care of that woman the best I could and I still grieve for her all the time. Plus now more medical issues with my wife.
A few days ago I read about returning Catholics who fell away from the church. What made sense was were I read that priests can be mistaken, there not infallible, while my faith has always been strong I felt as if the church and I were disconnected. I realized that Our Savior was always there and not to turn away from him because of something mortal man said or did
Today Easter Sunday I attended mass, it helped me in a time were all I see is sickness and death suffering around me

There is one member here who I won't identify who reached out to me some years ago. He had his church congregation pray for my wife. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to him for his kind words and support
Do not ever doubt the power of prayer
Thanks

We believe in the Power of Prayer in our house and we
work to serve and worship the Lord!

Nope, don't believe one bit of it. I wouldn't start a conversation like this but since the topic was brought up. I was raised Lutheran. Parochial school from K through 8th grade. I remember a line from the recent war movie called The Outpost. One soldier says to another about the Muslim faith. "We can't both be right." The second says, "Yes, but we could both be wrong."

Out of the thousands of religions in the world past and present, what makes you think yours is right and the other thousands were wrong. What if you were born in Iran? Do you think you would automatically convert to Christianity? Even Christianity has splintered into hundreds of different factions. They are all convinced they have it figured out. They can't all be right. I just got over my fear of retaliation from a God that has been the main belief of our particular culture. What if I was born in India? What if I was born 500 hundred years ago from a Native American tribe? Never heard of one dang word from our Judeo/Christian Bible? None of it makes sense to me.

I

That’s why it’s called faith.

Sahara said:

That’s why it’s called faith.

Click to expand...

Oppression for the masses.

I’ve been a follower for a long time. At some point in your life, you have to make an educated, to the best of your ability, to believe or not believe. Looking at the evidence, Jesus is real or He is the biggest hoax ever conceived of man, and we came from a monkey through evolution. You either follow His principles of treating your fellow man as yourself or get everything you can from anybody and live like there are no rules. I choose to believe Jesus. I have a friend who was a devoted atheist for many years. He argued with everyone that Christanity is a bunch of lies. Then one day, a friend asked him the one question he could not answer. “ What if you are wrong and Jesus is real?” His investigations led him to be a believer because the evidence is overwhelming to him. That’s the way it is all conceived. We all get to choose what we believe.

fastmark said:

I’ve been a follower for a long time. At some point in your life, you have to make an educated, to the best of your ability, to believe or not believe. Looking at the evidence, Jesus is real or He is the biggest hoax ever conceived of man, and we came from a monkey through evolution. You either follow His principles of treating your fellow man as yourself or get everything you can from anybody and live like there are no rules. I choose to believe Jesus. I have a friend who was a devoted atheist for many years. He argued with everyone that Christanity is a bunch of lies. Then one day, a friend asked him the one question he could not answer. “ What if you are wrong and Jesus is real?” His investigations led him to be a believer because the evidence is overwhelming to him. That’s the way it is all conceived. We all get to choose what we believe.

Click to expand...

You can be a kind, good person and NOT believe.

Ironbuilt said:

You can be a kind, good person and NOT believe.

Click to expand...

Absolutely, you can also go to church everyday and cheat people the rest of the week. Life is a choice, you just have to figure our why we are here in the first place.

SteveSS said:

Nope, don't believe one bit of it. I wouldn't start a conversation like this but since the topic was brought up. I was raised Lutheran. Parochial school from K through 8th grade. I remember a line from the recent war movie called The Outpost. One soldier says to another about the Muslim faith. "We can't both be right." The second says, "Yes, but we could both be wrong."

Out of the thousands of religions in the world past and present, what makes you think yours is right and the other thousands were wrong. What if you were born in Iran? Do you think you would automatically convert to Christianity? Even Christianity has splintered into hundreds of different factions. They are all convinced they have it figured out. They can't all be right. I just got over my fear of retaliation from a God that has been the main belief of our particular culture. What if I was born in India? What if I was born 500 hundred years ago from a Native American tribe? Never heard of one dang word from our Judeo/Christian Bible? None of it makes sense to me.

I

Click to expand...

Those who seek, will find Him.
I used to wonder the same thing until I really got into the teachings of the bible. There are promises of revelations and salvation to any who desire to look.
The bible is also full of stories of gentiles ( non Christains) who questioned and or were touched by Jesus and became followers.
God gave all men the freedom to choose and unlike many He offers His Kingdom to all that choose Him through faith.

if the lord was not in my life i would have been dead along time ago . he has been beside me everyday and i love him for that . on Easter i go to a sun rise service on an hill and it is awesome to see and hear the word of the day our lord died and rose up for us.

All religions believe in a higher being. Some are based on nothing other than graven images. These are man made idols. Others a deity that is beyond all understanding. Of those the major two, one believes that all who don't should be destroyed and promises seven virgins as the reward. The other promises to walk beside us daily, eternal life, to lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, and a place prepared for us in heaven with streets paved in gold. Following Jesus is not an easy road, but the road I chose. I'm just glad that I was protected until I made that choice. All will have that choice before your time is up here. The decision is yours, make it count.

SteveSS said:

Nope, don't believe one bit of it. I wouldn't start a conversation like this but since the topic was brought up. I was raised Lutheran. Parochial school from K through 8th grade. I remember a line from the recent war movie called The Outpost. One soldier says to another about the Muslim faith. "We can't both be right." The second says, "Yes, but we could both be wrong."

Out of the thousands of religions in the world past and present, what makes you think yours is right and the other thousands were wrong. What if you were born in Iran? Do you think you would automatically convert to Christianity? Even Christianity has splintered into hundreds of different factions. They are all convinced they have it figured out. They can't all be right. I just got over my fear of retaliation from a God that has been the main belief of our particular culture. What if I was born in India? What if I was born 500 hundred years ago from a Native American tribe? Never heard of one dang word from our Judeo/Christian Bible? None of it makes sense to me.

I

Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused here??? You state above you were raised Lutheran but attended Parochial School K - 8th. Most Lutherans I know would be attending a local school as opposed to a religious one. cr8crshr/Bill

No, in my small town we had all the normal schools then we had a Catholic school and a Lutheran school. Both of those were kindergarten through 8th grade. Parents paid extra for those schools. 9th grade was the first year I went to public school. We covered every bible story 20 times. Went to Sunday school every Sunday then church AND Vacation Bible School.

15,000 children die every day. Are they evil? Don't their parents pray for their children? Take a walk through a pediatric intensive care unit, then talk to me about a loving god. Plenty of priests and pastors convert to atheism every day. The most common reason is, God, can be all-powerful or all-loving. He can't be both and allow so much suffering in the world.


There is that common line about God works in mysterious ways. I don't buy it.

One of the evilest things I see religion doing right now is preaching the Prosperity Gospel. Send these preachers your money and God will bless you with riches. Then the preacher buys a private jet. Wouldn't your god see through this and stop it? Listen to a God debate on the internet then tell me I'm wrong. I'll skip child-molesting priests.

Here's one of my own theories. Let's say you own a rental home and the renter skips out on the rent. You are out that money but you own the home you don't have to pay someone else that rent to make up for theirs.

So, God, the Father had to send his son as a sacrifice to die for our original sin to be wiped out. He's God, just forgive us. Who was he sacrificing Jesus to? God makes us believe in Jesus so he doesn't have to send us to hell a punishment he made up. It's extortion made up by churches to control the masses.

Here's another one that drives me crazy. A tornado hits a church Sunday morning. 99 people are killed but one guy survives. Then he thanks God for saving him. WTF? Just like the Holocaust, 6 million Jews were killed but a few were rescued. Oh, thank God. I sometimes go with my mother to her Lutheran church. After a devastating forest fire that destroyed many people's homes, this preacher was thanking God for saving one home that wasn't burned. Don't even get me started on Martin Luther the founder of all protestant religions. He was a mean SOB.

So Jesus said, "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." I would consider almost everyone in the USA rich by world standards, therefore you are NOT going to heaven. You do not have to be religious to be good.

But you can pick and find fault with everything, if you look for faults to fit what you want to say.
A few years ago a gay guy in Toronto was killing other gay guys. Using your logic, every gay guy must kill guys. Or because he was white every white guy must be gay. He was old, therefore every old guy must be white. Or gay. Or both. Every guy in Toronto must be one or any combination of those.
A truck driver kidnapped and killed a hitchhiker. Therefore all truck drivers must kill hitchhikers, right?

Some Christians have done some terrible things, and you judge them all by that. Some non believers have done some terrible things. Do you judge all non believers the same way?