"Must you betray me with a kiss..."

[sierra21]

[quote name='

[KeilanS]

Wow... this has gotten a little bit crazy.

You both have the right to post here in my opinion, however it is important that you respect each other. If that means just avoiding topics made by Alisha (or if Alisha is reading this, topics made by Aiden) then so be it.

From what I can get out of this, you are both very confused by the situation as anyone would be, and I promise you that hating each other won't help. You don't have to be friends, but at least respect each other. I don't think there is anyone to blame, stuff like this happens, thats just the way romance and dating works. Somebody ends up hurt no matter how hard people try to prevent it.

So I think you should both avoid each others topics and get on with your lives. You had a relationship that didn't work out, it happens and is part of life. The pain will fade. We will try out best to help both of you in the future.

God Bless you,

Keilan

[Footsteps]

I want to apologize to the girl who is/was the object of the original postee's scorn. I made a post a couple of days back about how he should be thankful that he was "rid of her" and this was a rude remark on my part. I am bringing to much of my personal baggage into this thread and judging her solely on his remarks and not hers also. It's wrong of me to do that. I really don't know exactly what's going on bewteen both parties invlolved and they both will have conflicting opinions as to "what happened" between them. So, I officially butt out of this thread and leave it up to ppl who are wiser than me....and to the Lord.

[BrandonL]

I read through the first post. Then i scanned the responses. All I can say is wow. I want to reply to the original poster.

There is a lyric from a song by Kutless.

"A young child looks through a great stained glass window

Watching the people go by

Everyone seems to be wearing a red coat

His mother sees jackets in white

Now he can't understand why does she see it this way"

The image given here is of a young boy who looks out the window at the world and sees opression. His mother looks out the same window and sees purity. The point is that perspective alters reality. The situation that you described is entirely different than what she described, yet you are describing the same situation. In her mind, she may not be lieing, and in your mind you may be telling the truth, too. So, since I can't possibly know the ins and outs of the situation I'm not going to even address that, because I have no right to judge it either way. In fact, I considered reading the thread that you referred to (the one which you were apparently rebutting). However, by the time I had finished reading your post, I had so many concerns that I decided it was entirely unnecessary to read the other.

Near the beginning of your post, you say that you do not consider yourself to be a Christian because you don't want to mar His name by associating it with yours. I understand that point that you are trying to make, but I fear very strongly that you are grossly missing a very important point. You see, you describe a man in your post who is unworthy and abused. You say that this man was victimized and that resulted in a lifetime of pain and hardship. You curse this man for being so vulnerable and you regret that this man has let himself be vulnerable again, only to be once again victimized.

It is quite common for a victim of abuse to put himself back into the situation where he was abused so that it can happen again. This may sound strange or illogical, and that's probably because it is quite so. On the outside, anyways. But let's take a minute to examine more than just that part of it. Why on earth would you curse yourself for being vulnerable only to become vulnerable again? Why didn't you learn the lesson the first time? I bet you've asked yourself these questions more times than you would care to count by now. I bet you have wondered why God would have ever let this happen to begin with.

I have wondered similar things in my life many times. I grew up a "childhood Christian," so I had the oppurtunity to learn about Christ from a very young age. You take the time to point out that you missed those oppurtunities, so I am going to take the time to address that. The only thing I learned about Christ growing up was how desperately I hated Him. This is probably an idea that you can relate to. Because, it is an idea that I'm pretty certain many people can relate to. God is not attractive when you look at Him from damnation. He looks like a mean kid holding a magnifying glass, and I felt like an ant. Before Christ paid the penalty for your sins, God was your enemy.

Enemy? Yes. The Bible talks about Jesus being the ransom paid on your behalf. Well a ransom is generally paid to someone, right? Who was this ransom paid to? Satan? Hardly, he has not authority over you. The answer is simply God. God became man (Jesus) so that He could pay your ransom back to Himself. In short, He was your enemy, but you were never His. To reconcile this problem, He stepped in and corrected your problem to adjust your perspective so that you could see Him for who He is.

Why does God allow bad things to happen to us? This question has plagued mankind since Adam first looked at the outside of the closed gates of Eden. "If only"s will get you nowhere. The fact of the matter is that He is God, I am not. I may wish that something could work out a certain way, but my wishes mean nothing. I may pray for something to happen, but God is the One who determines what is going to happen, with or without my help. He allows these things to happen for one purpose and for one purpose alone: to demonstrate His love for us. You may wonder how God allowing you to be abused can demonstrate His love. Well, let me ask you this. If you never experienced pain would you ever experience health? If you had never been in the dark, could you ever be in the light? God created us. He's not ignorant about our plight. He knows that we can never truly understand Him because He is the One who created our minds and put the limitations on our logic. He is also the One Who will give us the understanding, wisdom and, most importantly, faith to bring us through the circumstances that we see in our lives. Because He is God, and we are not.

You say that you do not like to call yourself a Christian because you don't want to mar the name of God. I understand why you say this. And I strongly disagree with you. You cannot mar the name of God. You cannot bring shame to Him. Because when you are covered by the blood of Christ, God does not see a fallen man any more. God now only sees a new creation, made perfect and sinless. God sees His beloved son.

You can continue to say that you do not want to call yourself a Christian. I won't say the same thing, though. I may have made mistakes in my life, and I assure that I've made many. I may have experienced pain in my life, and I assure you that I have. But I have also experienced Jesus in my life and I have no choice any more but to fall to my knees in desperate and very vulnerable defeat before the Cross of the One who lifted me out of Hell and brought me back to Himself.

Suddenly, the pain and trials of this earth are meaningless. I don't even have the right any more to complain. Yes, I still stumble. Yes, I still doubt. Yes, I still hang my head in shame of the man that bears my name. But that man is dead. He died years ago. In his place, I was given a new name. I was given a new spirit. And I was given the rescue that I so desperately needed.

The only thing about man that does not fail is that man will always fail you. God will never fail you.