I'm not quite sure if this belongs in the announcements section, nor my leaving thread, in retrospect...

BUT, I'll put it here anyway.

I'm back from Destin, Florida! Uhmm, I stayed five days on the beach with my homeschool's high school, which consisted of 57 kids. We stayed at Condos on the beach, and really had an amazing amount of fun. There were a lot of stories, but I'll only indulge on one that was really the most changing for me.

As most of you know, I am a Christian. But I am an odd one. I don't go to church, because I believe that it's corrupt, unjust, hypocritical, and judgmental. Don't get me wrong, I believe we are supposed to judge people; but not biased off of what WE think is right or wrong, but what God has shown us to be right and wrong, and already judged.

But I do not attend a church, honestly, because I fear that being in one, and being around so many people like that, they will begin to rub off on myself, and cause me to lose faith. So I left, and began to study the bible myself. Now I don't know too many stories, or anything like that, so this is all pretty new to me... But for the past few months I've just been thinking/reading. And I've come to find that the book of Romans, in the bible, answers SOOO many questions that I've had all of my life. Like:

If our God is all-knowing, and if he IS love. Not that he CAN love, or DOES love. But that he IS love. Then why would he create Lucifer, or Satan, the author of all evil, and the author of all the things that would screw up God's perfect world in The Garden of Eden? Why?

Romans 9:22. Pretty much all of chapter 9, stopping at verse 25 explains so much about our creation and God.

Well, the point is, on the last day, the day we had to spend twelve hours riding home, I got put in the van with my two favorite girls. One of them, is one of my best friends and I am saddened by the fact that she just graduated. And the other is a girl whom I believe I have very strong feelings for, and have since September of last year. The feeling is only one way, I've known for quite some time, but on the ride home she found a way to get me in her van, and we cuddled up to watch movies on my Zune, and I saw a completely different side to her that I have ever seen. I am not going to say that I love her, because I am not that foolish, (I hope, lol) but I will say: that whatever my feelings are right now, are quite strong and quite unfaltering.

On our ride home, we stopped at a gas station, and made all the girls sit on the first few rows, and the all the guys sit in the last few rows because the sun was going down, and they wouldn't be able to see what we were doing very well. Well I had my arms around her, and wasn't about to move. But after waiting until literally, the person in charge of myself (each sponsor gets five kids that he/she has to watch.) made us move. So needless to say, when we were moved I was quite hopeless in the fact that I knew I was going to have to sit next to two, testosterone filled, penis-wielders for the remaining three hours. One of them though, I was excited about. His name was Michael. And he is one of the most bible filled man I have ever met, and I am sooooo glad he is going to be my senior next semester.

Anyway, I looked over at him, and remembered all of the talks we'd had about the bible together. So I looked over to "the girl" in front of me, and asked her to hand me my bible from my carry on bag. She did so, and I looked over to Michael and said, "Hey, lately I've been reading from Romans, what about you?" We talked for a minute, and we decided that we were going to read, starting at the beginning of Romans, and just go until we got home. Of course, no one looked/paid any attention but "the girl" and Michael. But I didn't care, I just yelled (I was sitting in the most far back row) and said, "If you want to read with me, just get your bible." Michael did so, and I just read aloud Romans chapter one. But We stopped every two verses, and at times just every one verse, because I felt that if we didn't analyze all of it, then we're just reading and not getting anything. So I kept my head down on my lap which was holding my bible, and just kept looking at Michael and kept bouncing different thoughts off of him, and by the time I got to about verse twelve, I finally looked up, only to find that my entire van had their bibles out, seat-belts unbuckled, turned around, with eyes wide open, staring at myself. And I kinda freaked out. But I kept reading, and kept saying what I thought it meant, and we all talked about it. And next thing we knew, it had been three hours, and we were home, and still on chapter one.

So I guess what I am getting at, is this: I have found many, MANY mistakes in myself, and I apologize to all of you for these mistakes. Mainly one of them being my language. I have truly found out the HUGE amount of power that not just my words have, but all of us. I mean, God created the universe by SPEAKING it, into existence. So if he made us in HIS image, then what kind of power does OUR words hold?

But I am hopefully going to start a bible study during the summer, partly to keep all of the people leaving the school together, and to ensure that all of my friends and myself will be able to see each other. But mainly because I believe I can do it. If I've learned something through reading, that someone else hasn't, I would have failed my job as a Christian then by NOT showing them the things I've found. And besides that, it's fun! I mean talking for three hours about ONE chapter in the bible that is EXTREMELY short, was amazing for me. To witness something like that, and to witness all these people who no longer want to hear the things their church is spreading about how "Jesus loves you. And he died on the cross. But he loves you, and you should love your neighbor and your enemy!"

They don't want to hear that anymore, they, along with myself, only want to hear the truth. And there's a whole lot more truth than just the fact that my God loves me.

I apologize for this long post, really. But yeah. Just know that I love a lot of you guys, and I am glad that I have come here to meet some of you, even if our beliefs differ, that still does not mean I don't care for you deeply. I know one of you knows who you are. :)

But I'm back guys, and now I've got some reading to do. I hope I didn't miss too much.

Love,
Your Admin, Matthew.

Welcome back, Boyo!

=D

Sounds like you had loads of fun. ^_^

Do you go to a catholic or private school or something?

Well, as good friends as we are Revan, we have COMPLETELY different views...

Which is just cool if you consider all the crap we've been through together...

I was a Christian up until about two weeks ago, when I have decided not to believe in religion until I figure things out about the world and the human situation.

And, as far as girls are concerned... My parents are never home... And so they come over to my house every weekend...

Though Revan, I congratulate ya on reflecting on the faults you have.

I am very versed in the Bible, and I am very capable of showing you the answers to the questions you posed.

Though, you really just gotta know where to look.

Welcome back Revan, I missed your sorry ass.

Damn boy, that was almost tl;dr. I'm glad you've found your place. Haven't found mine, to be honest, but I'm not gonna push it with the whole religion thing.

Welcome back though, Revan. You've been missed.

Welcome back revan! Nothing happened much while you were gone.

Same here man, and you too Knux. I missed all of you guys. Like, I didn't really think about this place until the second day, and then I just was like: "Aweeee... I-07!"

But yeah. It feels good to be home! I'm waiting on Haru to answer my PM before I start Role Playing.

Except UNSC got tech. Anyways Revan, its cool that you point out your flaws like that, Its being humble in a sort of way. Anyways welcome back.