3 Deacons, 1 pastors daughter that has a son in Seminary, 5 Sunday School teachers, a missionary going to Africa, tithers, hell believers, family and friends in Heaven, parents teaching the children that Jesus was born on Dec 25th.
That's what I experience every Christmas when I go visit my family.
I pray to God that I don't get the holier than thou attitude, and I had a real difficult time this year. It was very stressful for me.
My sister-in-laws dad died a few months ago and at the funeral the pastor started talking about how he is fishing and hunting in Heaven, well it came up again. His widow passed out a poem about it during the unwrapping of presents. I could only get thru 2 paragraphs before I put it back in the stack (while nobody was watching).
Well, my step-dad (a Deacon) is having some issues with the new pastor and my Mom told him about me going to the B-T conferences. He started asking questions about the return of Jesus, Heaven, tithing, and somehow we got on the Hell topic. It did not matter what I said, he could not see/hear what I was saying. I mentioned that I could email him some articles from B-T's and he refused the offer. OK, that's fine with me. I know God is in control.
Well, he mentioned our conversation to my sister-in-law, so she cornered me and wanted to know why I did not think her dad was in Heaven. I offered to get my Bible from the car, but she stated I could make the Bible say anything I wanted.
The conversation ended with "I don't care what anyone says, I know my Dad is in Heaven!" Before I could stop myself, the words "well I guess the Resurrection of the dead when Christ returns is a load of crap then!"
You could see the fire and tears in her eyes.
I could not wait to "get out of Dodge"; it was very uncomfortable for me the next day. So, I just stayed away from everyone and spent the rest of my time with God in the mountains of Ruidoso, NM. before my 8 hr drive back to AZ.
I really don't want to spend another holiday around them, but my Mom is in her 70's and complains that I only see her 4 days/year, and my step dad is battling prostate cancer.
You folks are the only ones I can speak with, so thanks for reading.