Ordained minister announces he is giving up God for a year!

Ryan Bell, an ordained minister from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in LA has announced he is giving up God for a year to explore atheism.

He explained that he needs to detox from some of the difficulties of his past experience in the church so understandably he has been asked to stand down from his position in the church.

I find it hard to comprehend why anyone would experience the unfailing love of God that never lets you down, to explore atheism. This could only happen if he’s never enjoyed a personal relationship with God so I was curious to see what he said.

Click on this link to watch now as Ryan explains why he’s made this decision

When asked what he would do at the end of the year he replied that he already decided he will never go back to the conservative view of Christianity. At the start of this year off from God he already professes to be agnostic.

What would motivate him to turn away from God? The better question would be what would motivate someone to become ordained to represent God to others when he has little information or understanding of God.

Ryan spoke as someone who sadly has never had a personal connection to God so I can see why he would find it unfulfilling to represent God when doesn’t even know Hm, but what motivated him to go public with his decision?

He said how happy he was that an atheist he met has raised thousands of dollars to support him as he begins this quest without God.

When we become confused about what we believe, there are always people ready to tell us what to believe. That’s why its important to know what we believe.

The Bible, the word of God that has an answer for every situation we will face in life says this about the role of those who would represent Him:

He (Jesus) is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.

Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Ephesians 4:11-15

Its so sad that Ryan didn’t see the real God he was representing but the Bible also has something to say about this:

Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from what we believe; they will follow lying spirits and teachings that come from demons. These teachers are hypocrites and liars. They pretend to be religious, but their consciences are dead. Read more here – 1 Timothy 4:1-2

God’s Message:

“Cursed is the strong one
who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
and sets God aside as dead weight.
He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
in a land where nothing grows. Jeremiah 17:5-6

I wonder how someone like Ryan, still seeking for truth, would become an ordained minister in the first place but God can stay close to him through this journey and reveal Himself to him. We have the right to choose to run away from Him but the great thing about God is that He’s never too far away as Psalm 139:7-18 says

I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there.

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night – but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous — and how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me! …

And God also cares this much for you.

The beautiful Image above is by Gordon Adler, Musetouch

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