Christian Advice

Dear God,
                “Pray, everything will be okay...”
These words alone define the simple, heartfelt faith of a Christian. To a fellow Christian, it is just a reiteration of the known; a kind of moral support.
But to a non-Christian, it is a kind of savage curse. How can everything be okay without doing anything? How can just a prayer do anything at all? This isn't even advice!
I agree. To a non-christian, with no faith whatsoever, these words are empty; these words imply that one must sit around doing nothing until God notices. These words aren't advice to do something useful (at least in their context); they're like advice to do nothing.
Until there is faith that prayer is relief for the soul, prayer is equivalent to doing nothing. And this faith cannot be achieved by simply telling someone to try prayer (one does not simply try a new existential philosophy). This faith is created when the person learns to trust Christ and the beautiful story of the Bible-which has been passed down through the ages.
I believe that when a random person comes in need of advice, a Christian's standard response shouldn't be one which asserts their own faith, but one which actually tries to help. The building of faith must be gradual. A time of crisis, especially, isn't the best time for such faith-building, or a time to convince someone to step into the murky waters (as far as they're concerned) of a different religion.

I'm glad I've gotten that off my chest; I always feel pressurized to help people in need, but never know what to say. I really want to tell them to stop struggling and just believe (I clearly want to preach what I just can't seem to practice), but I also really don't want to be cast aside as a useless adviser.
I want to help, but I just can't seem to bring Christianity into the equation.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                 I wonder what how You would respond to that video..Was it perfect, hitting the point, correct? Or was it borderline offensive? Of course, everything he said about Jesus was true; he has the exact same views on Christianity as me (which makes me feel less bad about myself). But what about everything he said about the Church...I mean calling it a perfumed casket? It's an accurate analogy, but it's still rude. I believe the reasons the church today is as Orthodox as it is, are the people inside it. The clergy is aging. (Pope Francis, on the other hand, is incredibly unconventional; I have hope in him. Maybe he could call the next Vatican Council? Isn't it time for one anyway?) We need newer minds running the Church, I understand.

                     But when he says, "Religion is man searching for God, and Christianity is God searching for man," I started to disagree. Why would I not? Many has to search for God too, He (You) can't do it all. Man has to reciprocate the love of God (by man I mean human). 

                      In the end of the video, he (the guy) even quotes Romans 4:5 - 

"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,"

To simplify this: But to he who doesn't work (is lazy, lethargic etc.) but atleast believes in Jesus, his belief makes him a good person.
          Could that be true? It doesn't seem very right. How could a bad person, who knows that he/she is bad, abuse the grace of God and get away with it? I mean, I could go to Church and absolutely adore God, but if I keep not being a good person won't I be a bad person?
         Paul's letter to the Romans confuses me greatly. Greatly.

I agree that the Church is not "a museum for good people, but a hospital for the broken." I agree that sometimes Christians are a bit judgmental, and turn up their snobby noses, but the core principals are still right. The people still have the right principals to live by; they've just never been in a position where they could be bad, and so they don't understand sinners. We must always try to look from the other person's point of view. That is why it is so hard to judge people; they are so complicated.
           Overall, the poem is beautiful and bold. It strongly, and rightly, criticizes the stereotypical church, and makes its point be known. I love it, and I love that there's someone putting his views out there today :)

Cheers.

Dear God,
                Reading the early books of the bible is like reading a story written for kids. Surely the story was simplified for the people of Israel to understand, for Moses, who wrote it, to understand.
               The lightning-quick 6 days of creation must have 6 millennia for us; the tower at Babel...I don't even know. Genesis is a series of stories written in an overly simple manner, and it often doesn't have a moral. What does the story of the Tower of Babel tell us? People mustn't be unified or they will plot bad things (that seems to be coming true....and it also explains are emphatic hatred of communism). The book seems to be explaining things that just are...like "why do people talk different languages?," or "what is the story behind the rainbow?" instead of teaching us, and instructing us through the wisdom of the ages.
               People who attack Christianity, they only find faults in this section...They obviously don't get that You told Moses the simplified version :/ that must be it.

                   It's just that the Old Testament is so different from the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is fierce, he's scary. He's the gruff, but protective, father-type. While God in the New Testament is God The Father, the one we run to when we're in trouble, the one who pats are heads as we cry into his shoulder, the one who is undeniably (undeniably...I say it twice because I know. I just know) personified by Professor Dumbledore.
          I've always questioned that...why did You have a sudden change of heart? But then I realized that You didn't have a change of heart, we did. People started to respect those who ruled with love better than those who ruled with fear. People started to withdraw from You, and You decided to show Your real self.

The Old Testament is a bit of a mess that I can't quite understand. Besides telling us an underestimating story, it does nothing.
I hope You'll help me figure it out.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                The coolest passage in the Bible (at least for now)?
Romans 8: 1-13

Wait. Wait, does this say what I think it says?

So when I read this, I was all like-

Does this say that as long as your mind is strong, your body's sins are forgiven?

"By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh," Oh. My. God-ness (I will never take the name of the Lord my God in vain. Ever). It does say that.

But, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God," so even if our sins through our flesh are forgiven, we do not please God. The whole situation is nuetralized: we neither please God nor displease him (as long as our mind is strong).

But as I read on, I saw that the Spirit of God not only make ones mind strong, but also ones flesh.

So in the end, it is the Holy Spirit that will make all things good for us; They (as in the holy spirit/ Jesus/ God: I refuse to believe on the Holy Spirit as male, They aren't even a person!) will make us strong so that the weak, forgiven flesh will become as strong as our Holy-Spirit reinforced (for lack of a better word) minds.

This passage shows the freedom of christianity, it shows that You love us and understand that we cannot help but sin! It shows that You care for us, and You are giving us the choice, the freedom, to do what we want, but You are suggesting that we take Your help (which of course, we will take eventually!) without forcing us to take it.

            Christianity is a religion of freedom and choices :)     

Cheers.

Dear God,
                It's Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week- home stretch. I broke my lent yesterday to watch a movie that wasn't even worth it. Technically, since Jesus only fasted for 40 days while our lent season is 46 days long, I've got a 6 day buffer, but I feel like a terrible person (probably because I broke my lent for something so stupid, with the lamest excuse ever).  I should redo yesterday; I wish we could do that.
           Have I ever completed my lent? No, I have not.
But maybe that's the point; maybe we only have to try our very best to do what Jesus did. Maybe the whole point is to fail and realize the sacrifices Jesus made for us. Maybe.
           Through lent do we realize our human weaknesses, or do we overcome them? This lent all I learnt was that I am an extremely shallow person who is incapable of being happy without watching happy endings in movies (I've been watching final scene clips on YouTube all through lent, because technically they aren't movies). I've learnt that I rely on human things to make me happy, but the thing is, I am human. Jesus gave up earthly things for 40 days, but I can't. Why? Jesus was human then too.
           I think that the point of lent was to make us stronger humans. It was supposed to make us understand that there is so much more to life than just earthly pleasures. It was supposed to make us less dependent on our human tendencies, and make us more like God, like Jesus.
          So this holy week, I'm going to try to lose my human tendency to sin. I'm going try, and I'll keep trying till I do it. I see now that the point of lent is to try your best to be more like God. When you fail, it only teaches you how strong Jesus was, and when you succeed, it shows you that human pleasures aren't nearly as good as God's idea of pleasure.

        I'm sad I broke my lent because my decision had been conscious. I thought about it, but I still did it. But I'm happy because I know that, as Jesus did it when he was human, it is possible to do it.

Cheers.

Dear God,

                Do you think that the world is bad today? We all do seemingly bad things but don't even feel it. Some things that seem so right in our eyes are wrong according to the Bible. It seems like a silly question to ask, but who's right- the Bible or the people? I often think of the Bible as an incredibly sexist book; times have changed haven't they? Shouldn't that make things different?
                For example, dating is a thing today that was absolutely forbidden in the biblical times (when you married someone you didn't know and had kids with them; case closed). Today marriages come out of love and long-term relationships, and they're full of love. But these long-term relationships are preceded by a number of short ones which don't work out but are a part of life; they give us memories and make us who we are. Casual dating, I admit, is wrong (unless one's looking for love, one should not go around and just have sex). But sometimes short-term relationships were serious and just didn't work out. These short-term relationships are also considered adultery, I know. But how, other than by dating, can we find the one who's supposed to be our soulmate?
                  In the biblical times, marriage was more like the thing to do; a rite of passage. Today, it's more of a luxury; a lucky chance. Today, people marry because they love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives with each other, not because it is what you do at the age of 35 (or 17 as in the case of the biblical times). Today, it feels so wrong to marry someone without at all dating them first. How can you spend the rest of your life with a stranger?
                Is our gut feeling against instant marriage wrong, or is it time for you to tell us how to live again? I would prefer if we had some sort of clarification. Times have changed.

Cheers.