When you ride your bike please wear your helmet and shield, because you have bugs in your teeth, eyes, ears and nose and you have no business talking about the Bible when you post this type of nothingness, if there is such a word. I thought the Bible said, Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews. Who wants to get back to you, when it is like talking to a doodle bug. I use to catch doodle bugs with a long blade of grass, when I stuck it in their holes and snatch them out, when I felt them bite on the grass. Any of you other guys ever done this.

I am going to venture a guess,and please, everyone, do NOT think I am trying to rescue Rumi. Nor do I want to offend anyone, but I value both truth and religion.

Religions and churches are not synonymous. We know there is bad history behind many religions - and that being the case people very well may expect that many have been blocked to salvation. I don't see how that can be negated (nor proven). It's a distinct possibility. I personally feel that many churches do NOT reflect Christ or His teachings. I give as example the Westboro Baptist gaggle of crazies. I also personally feel that people who see themselves AS Christians often turn people away from God;hence away from salvation. I had a grandfather that did such. He not only drove people away from Christ, he drove people away from him (my grandfather). People hated to see him coming because they knew a needless and belittling sermon would exist until he took his leave. I won't speak for anyone but me, but I tolerated him as long as I could and when I left home, I never saw him again. I politely told him where I stood and I left. His two sons knew and told me they were glad someone finally spoke up to him. He ran his home like a jailer. He was the last thing I would ever expect to actually be a Christian.

I was raised in the church, but NEVER pressured to do so by my parents. I understand Christians and churches. I think many,many good people are Christians. I also think there are many good people who aren't Christians. Additionally I know some people who claim to be Christians cannot possibly be because they behave like sons of Satan. I support Christianity in its present form, and I see aberrations as just that: anomalies, NOT the norm. I do believe that sometimes people get caught up in things and use their religion as their crutch, and that can agitate others.

I suspect something along these lines is what rumi was thinking about when he presented his post.

I look at Christianity today and all I see is big business. Every church and bible study I ever went to was just a history lesson. Anybody can read the Bible and get the history of mankind's travel down through ages. I was doing the same thing until the holy Spirit opened up my Spiritual eyes and ears. Then the Holy Spirit started to let me see the mysteries of God in the scripture. That opened up a whole new vista of knowledge for me. Unless the Holy spirit opens up your spiritual eyes and ears you will never see or understand the mysteries of God's word. And at the same time you can't share the mysteries of God's word. I tried but all I got was arguments and people saying I was wrong. So I just quit sharing. I found out that if you share God's mysteries with someone the Holy Spirit has to open the other persons Spiritual eyes and ears before that person can understand.