I know this is completely off topic but it seems to me that the topic of religion has become very narrow.
I am no theologist, pastor or priestess nor had I studied religion but I grew up in a christian home with christian values.
While growing up I had friends whom knew the Lord better than I did and viewed Him with a closer lens but never have I ever thought or had the idea that I was going to hell.
I am grown up and am living on my own (somewhat 110 kilometres from my mother) and now I encounter al sorts of different people around me. People who think that they know the Lord better than others and who had been sent to pass on a message.
I do believe that God chooses people to pass on His stories en who are chosen to work His miracles but surely not everyone in my area had grown up with all of the answer and all of the gifts the bible tells us about.
The point that I am trying to make is that these people make me feel guilty for not doing enough whilst they make me angry for judging others that are in a lower position than they are.
I know of wives who pray for their husbands to go to church or pray at a dinner table when they are home alone. The same wives who go to church alone and pray to the Lord in silent have to sit at a party and hear about all the wonderful words their husbands have said during prayer and the good inspiration they had been to others.
Unfairness is cruel.
This does not only happen to wive of course, many times the wives are also the ones at fault, being the best Christian at work and returning home only to disrespect her husband by not looking after their marriage.
I have found that people tend to preach without knowing what they should be saying. I am no priestess. I do not have all of the answers but I pray to the Lord. I have a personal relationship with Him. No one else has to know what our conversations are about.
It is not that I am ashamed to share but I know that no two people have the same heart, ideas or thoughts. Why should we pray together and rather focus on what we are saying instead of the One we are praying to?
I believe in intersession and I do believe that the Lord is where His people are in groups of two or more, but forcing a friend, brother, mother or husband to pray with you when they don't feel comfortable doing so, is unfair in so many more ways than one.
If you have the urge to pray for someone, by all means do it but stop pretending to know all of the answers and throwing everyone with ideas that they do not know the bible as well as you do.
Religion is a topic that had made me angry and bitter. It had not made me love the Lord any less, it had just caused me to take a deep breath and move even closer into my cocoon and rather spend time alone with God than shout the words over mountain tops.
I am no better than any other person on this earth for I too have sinned and gossiped and lied and sometimes I still do.
This article it not written to disturb or anger anyone but rather speak to those who feel the same as I do but never know where to start when it comes to speaking up. There are others whom feel they should start fitting in with the crowds of people who walk in flocks, don't be scared to walk alone.
The Lord, our Lord, my Lord would leave His entire flock in search of the one who had lost their way. So how far do you think He wouldn't go for someone whom He knows (and oh yes friends, He sure does know) what your heart is really saying, without you even uttering a single word?
Be kind to one another....