Here’s my post if you’re interested: http://fruitoftheword.com/2009/08/21/death-penalty

With the question, “Does God accept us as we are?” we must also ask ourselves, “Why did Jesus resurrect?” He died on the cross to bring us to heaven, yet he comes back and shows us that he is the Messiah through his resurrection. But I believe there is more to this resurrection than we think.

Romans 6: 1 – 4 says it all. It says we can no longer live the way of the world lives, we must try with all we have to live like Jesus did. This is because our sins died with Christ, yes, but through his resurrection we must live in righteousness (right standing) with God. In a sense, we have to resurrect with Jesus, as our sins have died with Jesus. If we were only dead, we could do nothing.

When you first meet with God however, God will accept you, just as you are. So long as you turn around to face him (repent), humble yourself before him telling him that you are nothing compared to him, and “resurrect with him,” God will give you the strength to change. Jesus says, “If anyone were to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me,” and “You have heard it said, ‘Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

If God only accepted us as we are, he wouldn’t have given all those commandments to the people of Israel and to the people of the church, to try and live as he did. It’s not easy, and there are many churches that ignore this responsibility that we have as Christians, but ultimately, yes God loves us and accepts us, but he wants us to change, to be like he was.

I can understand that aspect.

I went in a different direction in which I felt if I faced the neglect of my childhood I would be almost saying I didn’t love them, or they didn’t love me. I had them on this pedestal that they were good people – and overall they were – but could never give myself permission to see the reality of the ills of that time in way that truly needed to be seen. I guess I felt I was taking something away from them as people or something. Its strange. I just had a really hard time facing the face that I could still love them, and accept what happened at the same time. lol Does that make sense?

My folks raised with me with the tools they had available, and yes they did a better job than the parents that raised them. I did face that time, and there was a period I was very angry. I think I needed to feel that, but I was able to move past it. I did learn that the habit patterns of the emotional disconnect as a child does harm you once you reach adulthood, and to this day I struggle with that. It wasn’t safe to air feelings for a long time – most of my life – and its like pulling teeth at times to try to force myself to do it anyway. You know you need to, but that fear of being attacked over that does scare you to death! lol!