1. I'm not trying to shake the ground you walk upon. I think that your choice of beliefs promotes and emanates from goodness. But perhaps you don't give yourself enough credit for you being the source of goodness, apart from God. And, I believe that the divine and creative forces your body and life experience generate would be there whether you believed in God or not. That you choose to believe in some form of God is a natural consequence of our inevitable sense of spirituality. You are correct, but I like to keep it in perspective.
2. While the teachings of Christ revolutionized the world, many of its components were not unknown to the world before or since Christ. There is a redeeming and egalitarian quality about what he preached or is attributed to him if he actually existed. Just remember that in the history of mankind, we can conceive that a lot of people thought and acted with those principles way before Christ showed up on the scene. Therefore, you can choose to materialize all your humanity in one person (Christ) or realize that even without that person, the feelings you project are just as significant valuable.
3. You're absolutely right, there is a lot of exaggeration as well as facts in the Bible. That's what, upon sincere analysis and apart from the importance some the major religions of this world place on it, I conclude that as point of reference and lore, it's quite ordinary. It's difficult to trust its sources and therefore much of the stories in it. They say the Babylonians were prone to exaggerate their history (as well as the Egyptians). Yet, the Code of Hammurabi produced by the Babylonians is a great example of principles that we still live by today, which were copied in the Bible. Therefore, while it can offer guidance, the Bible is by no means an arbitrary source for our lore and for our cultural heritage, although it should be noted. We have the power to shape our future and to control what influences it.
The reason I reply to your wonderful comments is to expose the possibility for other choices. I am a non-believer. Yet, I'm not cynical. I am critical of religious affirmations, but I'm not beyond recognizing the need to feel spiritual. I am highly suspect of "miracles", but I'm willing to concede, upon a thorough investigation, that I don't know enough to conclude either way.
I've heard that the Unitarian Church (perhaps the "Reformed" version of it) is even more liberal and receptive than the Methodist denomination. Perhaps that's because they don't have specific tenets about what and whom to worship, even though they appear to allow you to worship and believe as you may. You might want to consider them. I'm thinking about it myself while planning to remain a devout agnostic.
I often think about this sense of "other" we have that makes us look up and be in awe and feel connected to the universe and maybe even gives us a sense of hope. That seems to me to be an innate human attribute, which is often corrupted and misguided when religion comes into the picture. If think about centuries of isolated natives in the jungles of South America, I can conceive of at least one society with rules and guidelines (your "rails") that make sense within the content of their society. Sure, some people will point out that some cultures were head-hunters, etc. But anomalies like that are true in our very society in spite of "rails", like shooting a young girl for advocating school for females or killing a doctor because he performed an abortion. Since the word "civilized" has been applied to any of us humans, even though we've had many conceptual and technical advancements, we've changed very little. Instead, we just have more stuff.