"This is the moment that we all live for: are you ready?"

BTW. m.facebook.com is faster

I talked with Aaron Nickerson yesterday at Busch. He mentioned how, in Christianity, the focus has [in a bad way] shifted to salvation |whether you will get into Heaven or not| instead of the important things still to be done/ things in the current time frame, not the "some day in the future" frame. Most of the aspects to Christianity have shifted that way as well, even the outreach/ministry. What happened to "The Kingdom of God is at hand.."?

I also believe the church in America is too inward focused. There are too many issues between Christians that prevent us from 1) having a relationship with God and 2) sharing the love of God with others. If you can't even love a neighbor, how could you possibly love an enemy?

So I was thinking: What really constitutes salvation?
[In Islam, no one can avoid hellfire, but depending on how little they sin and how many good deeds they do they can lessen the time spent paying for their sins. An interesting point is that any reference to entering Heaven includes 2 requirements: belief in Allah (God) and doing good deeds.]
Is a deathbed confession and change of heart really enough to forgive a life of NOT serving God?
How do you figure the differences between 'service to humanity' and 'service to humanity for God'

I don't think God would have made it so complicated. So why are we making it so complicated?

The Shadow Proves The Sunshine

Its amazing how dark of a time it is lately. Several people that are dear seem to be in an eclipse.. only it's one of those things that you don't understand, so you don't have the joy of seeing the rarity of the eclipse, but rather have the fear of never seeing the sun again. "..and you say that you don't want to see the sun anymore" _Paramore_

I know how easy it is to look back on a dark time and see just how much you overcame, but when you're in the pain and darkness, it's nothing but crap. "When the burden seems to much to bare, remember the end will justify the pain it took to get us there" _Relient K_

Something I learned is that it is better to take a break and avoid completely losing [it]. In this time, it might be good to pull that philosophy out of our bag. In all honesty, leaving the church could be the worst thing for the church, while the best for us. That makes quite a dilemma for us. Drastic moves would be disastrous, but it seems like the only thing we are willing to do. I would say, "Any progress is better than none" as much as I will be hurting to move faster..

"We are crooked souls trying to stay up straight.. the shadow proves the sunshine"