Thank you, Casey. I admit, I have a long way to go in understanding all that is Godly and I'm sure I won't know everything until I can ask Him in person someday face to face.

Its true Bible based Christianity does have a litmus test for believers and that litmus test IS the sacrifice God made of his only Son, Jesus Christ. The reason I believe it is so important to most denominations is that in the Old Testament, the priests had to concecrate the sacrificial meat, they had to bathe, they had to wear certain kinds of clothing, they had to do this and that and to the letter of the law in order for God to be pleased with their sacrifice.

True love saw our helpless state and had pity on us flailing about in our sin. To me, Casey, love requires extreme sacrifice sometimes. In my own life I've certainly been called upon to put things on hold that I wanted for myself and have lost a lot but in losing I've gained so much!
John 3:16 says, "For God SOOO loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him won't perish, but will have everlasting life."

Christ asked the apostle Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter's reply was, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." The litmus test for knowing if someone is of God or an enemy of God is to mention the shed blood of Christ to them. A person who is not of God is angered by the blood of Christ. They don't even know why it angers them so much. A demon possessed person can't speak of the blood of Christ because it is so powerful.

I would never want to be guilty of demoting or denouncing the shed blood of Christ. The Jews sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts so that the death angel would pass over them. The firstborn of everyone who didn't sprinkle the blood on their doorpost was destroyed.

Love is misrepresented so much of the time. It isn't all warm fuzzies. Love is a verb just as rushing water can both sooth the throat and flood an entire community killing many people. It is like a fire that warms you on a chilly night and destroys an entire forest.

Even the ancient religions have a ying and a yang, a Shiva and a counterpart for their lack of a better way of explaining the phenominom of goodness in its many forms. The whole point of the sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ, is love. What kind of love would lay down their very life for the likes of you and me? Only God would do that. Our creator and the lover of our soul.