Hello everyone , just found this thread on the community list thread, I am baptist christian from Brazil, looking forward to everyones posts ITT.
Welcome! Im also from Brazil and used to go to baptist churchs too and really liked them
Hello everyone , just found this thread on the community list thread, I am baptist christian from Brazil, looking forward to everyones posts ITT.
I went to my first non denominational service at the weekend. It was ok.
I liked the good feeling in the room, very positive vibe. On the other hand, I do like the actual church, even hymns, it was all quite informal. I'm sure that works more for other people, but as I say, I like the church. I also liked the leaflets we got with more modern interpretations of whats in the bible.
Hi everyone. I haven't posted in forever, but I need to tell you about yesterday!
So I got a text from a friend some time during the afternoon. We're friends, but not really best buddies or anything, so I was caught off guard when she asked to hang out. I was kind of leaning toward saying no, since I'd gotten off a busy day at work a couple hours ago and wasn't feeling up to much else. And then she said she wanted to talk about God, and I went oookay, be there in a sec.
This friend was in a complicated spot, both in her relationship with God and life in general. She's going through a pretty tumultuous time with her partner, for starters, on top of battling depression and other things. The problem was that she realized that, even if the relationship gets smoothed over, there was still this empty hole in her heart. As for God, she knew of and respected Him, but never really pursued much of a relationship with Him. When I got there, there wasn't much that we didn't talk about. Her life, my life, mutual friends. But eventually things quieted, we'd both gotten fresh refills on coffee, and she said, "So...about God."
And I realized that the most amazing thing was happening to me. I've literally never done anything like this before, but I wasn't at all nervous. The answer is obvious, of course: it wasn't only me who was there, but God who was working through me. We'd already been there for almost an hour and we must have been there for two more.
All that said, I was still scared. Like I said, I've never been on this side of the conversation before. But I let God guide me, and after some time her and I went our separate ways. She'd gotten most of her questions answered, and of course I told her she can text me anytime.
So after getting home, I got something to eat, then plopped down on the couch and texted back a mutual friend who asked how it went. I told her a bit about it, and eventually said something along the lines of, "I told her that at the end of the day, the most important thing is putting God first."
"how do you do that"
...oh.
The conversation suddenly wasn't about Friend A anymore.
So, once more with feeling, God led the way over the next two hours and helped me to answer all of Friend B's questions as best as I could. It's a remarkable feeling, helping someone grow closer to God, and I was truly blessed to have the chance to do it twice in one day. And just like last time, I wasn't really nervous at all, because I knew I wasn't alone. At the end of the conversation she said that it was a talk she's needed to have for a long time, and it made me so happy that I could be the one there for her.
And that's my little story. Definitely more productive than most of my Saturdays, haha.
Hi everyone. I haven't posted in forever, but I need to tell you about yesterday!
So I got a text from a friend some time during the afternoon. We're friends, but not really best buddies or anything, so I was caught off guard when she asked to hang out. I was kind of leaning toward saying no, since I'd gotten off a busy day at work a couple hours ago and wasn't feeling up to much else. And then she said she wanted to talk about God, and I went oookay, be there in a sec.
This friend was in a complicated spot, both in her relationship with God and life in general. She's going through a pretty tumultuous time with her partner, for starters, on top of battling depression and other things. The problem was that she realized that, even if the relationship gets smoothed over, there was still this empty hole in her heart. As for God, she knew of and respected Him, but never really pursued much of a relationship with Him. When I got there, there wasn't much that we didn't talk about. Her life, my life, mutual friends. But eventually things quieted, we'd both gotten fresh refills on coffee, and she said, "So...about God."
And I realized that the most amazing thing was happening to me. I've literally never done anything like this before, but I wasn't at all nervous. The answer is obvious, of course: it wasn't only me who was there, but God who was working through me. We'd already been there for almost an hour and we must have been there for two more.
All that said, I was still scared. Like I said, I've never been on this side of the conversation before. But I let God guide me, and after some time her and I went our separate ways. She'd gotten most of her questions answered, and of course I told her she can text me anytime.
So after getting home, I got something to eat, then plopped down on the couch and texted back a mutual friend who asked how it went. I told her a bit about it, and eventually said something along the lines of, "I told her that at the end of the day, the most important thing is putting God first."
"how do you do that"
...oh.
The conversation suddenly wasn't about Friend A anymore.
So, once more with feeling, God led the way over the next two hours and helped me to answer all of Friend B's questions as best as I could. It's a remarkable feeling, helping someone grow closer to God, and I was truly blessed to have the chance to do it twice in one day. And just like last time, I wasn't really nervous at all, because I knew I wasn't alone. At the end of the conversation she said that it was a talk she's needed to have for a long time, and it made me so happy that I could be the one there for her.
And that's my little story. Definitely more productive than most of my Saturdays, haha.
Like Mariolee said, very inspiring. Cool to hear stories like these!Hi everyone. I haven't posted in forever, but I need to tell you about yesterday!
So I got a text from a friend some time during the afternoon. We're friends, but not really best buddies or anything, so I was caught off guard when she asked to hang out. I was kind of leaning toward saying no, since I'd gotten off a busy day at work a couple hours ago and wasn't feeling up to much else. And then she said she wanted to talk about God, and I went oookay, be there in a sec.
This friend was in a complicated spot, both in her relationship with God and life in general. She's going through a pretty tumultuous time with her partner, for starters, on top of battling depression and other things. The problem was that she realized that, even if the relationship gets smoothed over, there was still this empty hole in her heart. As for God, she knew of and respected Him, but never really pursued much of a relationship with Him. When I got there, there wasn't much that we didn't talk about. Her life, my life, mutual friends. But eventually things quieted, we'd both gotten fresh refills on coffee, and she said, "So...about God."
And I realized that the most amazing thing was happening to me. I've literally never done anything like this before, but I wasn't at all nervous. The answer is obvious, of course: it wasn't only me who was there, but God who was working through me. We'd already been there for almost an hour and we must have been there for two more.
All that said, I was still scared. Like I said, I've never been on this side of the conversation before. But I let God guide me, and after some time her and I went our separate ways. She'd gotten most of her questions answered, and of course I told her she can text me anytime.
So after getting home, I got something to eat, then plopped down on the couch and texted back a mutual friend who asked how it went. I told her a bit about it, and eventually said something along the lines of, "I told her that at the end of the day, the most important thing is putting God first."
"how do you do that"
...oh.
The conversation suddenly wasn't about Friend A anymore.
So, once more with feeling, God led the way over the next two hours and helped me to answer all of Friend B's questions as best as I could. It's a remarkable feeling, helping someone grow closer to God, and I was truly blessed to have the chance to do it twice in one day. And just like last time, I wasn't really nervous at all, because I knew I wasn't alone. At the end of the conversation she said that it was a talk she's needed to have for a long time, and it made me so happy that I could be the one there for her.
And that's my little story. Definitely more productive than most of my Saturdays, haha.
That's really cool! Helping people to understand their relationship with God is a blessing in itself, but even so God bless you for doing it. I'd be interested to hear the Cliffs Notes of what your reply to her question over text. It's a question that I think can be both very personal and broadly universal.
Very inspiring story and God was definitely guiding you throughout that conversation. :)
Martiniii332. Remember having dimr decently profound talks on such a faithless (forgive me) forum haha.
(Sorry, life got crazy for me.) Do you mean the "how do you put God first" question? It's been a few days now, but I think I said something along the lines of making your first thought in any situation be about God, and not try to solve things on your own. It's unfortunately anecdotal, but specifically in my case, that was something markedly easy to do once I started to take my relationship with God more seriously.
If I could slip in another related story, something else happened last week that pretty much defined what God means to me. I'm being hit with a lot in life right now. I've made some mistakes in the past, and it took them this long to catch up to me. When I was at work one day, my supervisor came up to me and said, "I'm going away for a few weeks, and when I get back we'll do your evaluation." As someone with anxiety, this just about sent me into a spiral. With everything else going on, now I need to worry about an evaluation too? After he left, I sat down to get some water, my chest aching, my thoughts swirling. As worry began consuming me, I thought to myself, "I'm going to shut up and pray about it." I asked God to cast away my anxieties, and no later than I had finished praying did my chest stop aching and my mind calm. Even now I sit back and think, if my first instinct wasn't to turn to God, I still might be terrified over it all.
All that is mostly where I got that answer from, but I recognize that someone, especially anyone who hasn't fully trusted God before, might have difficulty with that, so I also told her to pray about it and see what God Himself tells her. Like you said, it's a very personal thing; everyone walks their own path with God, so what works for me might not work at all for her. I've poked her with the subject a couple of times since then, but she's been really busy, and it's possible she's just not quite ready to take the leap of faith yet. But I know that God is with her anyway, and that's plenty of comfort for me.
That is what I meant, yeah. And thank you for sharing that story! Even as someone with scrupulosity I've found that God Himself has always been a soothing presence in my life in some way, even in calls to repentance. I'd say you're correct in the approach that you've taken with your friend, but that your instinct about the nature of trust in God is very fundamental when it comes to your capacity to achieve this. It becomes easy to turn your first thought to God if you keep in mind that God is merciful and that God loves you-- trust has to be the foundation of that kind of behavior, because then it can become a deeper instinct. It sounds to me like, when you decided to take your relationship with God more seriously, you already had this nailed down-- perhaps, with your friend, helping her to get to this point is important?
I've been reading the Epistle to the Romans lately, and it strikes me how as Christians our relationship to God is defined significantly by an emphasis towards joy-- rejoicing in God and in each other is important to who we are. Even while Romans is (at least so far) a work primarily concerning itself with defining a Christian's relationship to the law and to sin and how it's different to the past, it takes great pains to emphasize the positive aspects of our relationship with God as what provides us a measure of distinction compared to what came before. The nature of salvation through grace rather than works, as a concept, reinforces this. It's not through our own efforts but through God and His kindness to us that we partake of and maintain a connection to Him. The concept of righteous action, in Christian thought, is connected deeply to this subject-- the concept of being dead to sin and alive for God being a chief example of this shift. Even the apostles themselves all go through this-- it's not until the resurrection and their reconciliation to Christ that they become the saintly martyrs that are resolute in their devotion to the Lord. We don't succeed of our own power but by the grace of God-- and acknowledgement of this grace, and this mercy, is crucial to growth in our own relationship with God. So if your friend has some difficulties, maybe the place to fix them is to start with trust. Just felt like I should mention these things.
That last paragraph was a nice reading, im in somewhat a bad spot these days and in troubling times its kinda easy to forget things like this. Reading this also made me remember about the books i read of christians who faced really hard challenges, like being years in prison away from their familys because of their faith, among other things. In all these books these different christians always reported the same thing: that they never were miserable, that no matter how hard or desparate things got, they were still happy and because of their relationship with God.
So uh thanks for making me remember these things
I'm glad to hear this-- I'm grateful to God that something good came of my post. I'll be praying for things to get better for you-- don't lose hope! It's just like Romans says (5:3-5):
"Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."
How does the rest of Christian-ERA handle dating people who are agnostic? Or just dating in general?
I know that's a loaded question. The pre-marital sex thing has had me avoid dating for basically my entire adult life. But I think I met someone I really like who doesn't necessarily share those values. what do
Well obviously lol. I've just tended to avoid it because I was afraid of it possibly ever getting to that point.Well, dating doesn't typically mean immediate sex. First, ascertain that you have the internal capacity to JAHO-- just ask her out. If you don't date much, you want to be sure that you can ask her out just to dinner or a movie or something. Step two is, after a couple of dates, if you're really compatible, ask her if that's something she'd be willing to hold off on. Honestly, agnosticism doesn't even sound like much of a problem. If it were atheism, I could see that causing problems in a relationship-- but just agnosticism? Nah, shouldn't be too big a deal. I've heard of a pretty broad range of religious relationships. Just agnosticism shouldn't be too hard.
Having rather unconventional personal relationships I'm not sure how I feel about myself, I can't give you much advice past that.
How does the rest of Christian-ERA handle dating people who are agnostic? Or just dating in general?
I know that's a loaded question. The pre-marital sex thing has had me avoid dating for basically my entire adult life. But I think I met someone I really like who doesn't necessarily share those values. what do
Romans 14:14 is giving me a lot to think about. Romans 14 in general. Enough so that's all I really feel qualified to say right now.
Reading over it right now, and I like the message (if I understood it correctly) not to just our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially if it's because their faith is "weaker" than ours.
I still have insecurities about my faith, so personally I feel like I'm in the latter category haha
And just like clockwork, another anti-Christian thread pops-up on ERA. I doubt there's another forum proliferated with so many hypocrites.
I dont know which thread it is, but this unfortunately is pretty common here, the off-topic forum in general is pretty toxic in my opnion.
And just like clockwork, another anti-Christian thread pops-up on ERA. I doubt there's another forum proliferated with so many hypocrites.
Download "The Word For Today" if you haven't already done so. It's awesome.
I don't know how hot this topic is on a global scale, but here in Western Europe, a lot of people left the Roman Catholic church because of sexual harassment cases from the last 70 or so years. To me, it's clear that these people leave because they joined the club mostly for the feel-good atmosphere or not necessarily for their in-depth faith in who God is and He has to say to them. Those people left because of the organisation itself, not because of the reason why the organisation exists. I think that's actually pretty worrying. How much Biblical knowledge does the average Christian have? And how eager are they to learn more about who God actually is, what he does, why he does things, why "he doesn't show up", etc.
Something I've been dealing with lately is death. It's so wild to me that if there is no afterlife we'll never truly know because we'll be in oblivion, which almost seems unfair. I used to have faith in such, but as a medical student currently who sees death everyday in textbooks and hospitals I am having a hard time of separating the self and the brain. Currently I am still a Christian but I suppose I just always lower my expectations in life and am pleasantly surprised. This has now infected my worldview of an afterlife.
Anyone have any thoughts?
I'd argue this might not be fair to people. If all your life, you've received your instruction from God from a handful of authorities, and the presence and grace of God is said to be transforming, what might the resulting reaction be when you discover this authority has been tainted from the beginning? I think it's kind of reductive to say that finding out the people responsible for teaching you about God were actually either abusing children or enabling abuse is leaving because the feel-good atmosphere isn't there anymore. A lot of people leave and don't have their faith in God shaken. I believe in God-- not so much Catholicism or Catholic liturgy, but certainly the Gospels. Something had to go wrong somewhere. I wouldn't say it's wrong to walk away from the church environment under those conditions, and I don't begrudge people then left wondering-- who should I go to? Who can I trust? Who has the truth, and who's merely pretending? You might characterize it as a lack of eagerness, but perhaps a lack of knowing where to start is more accurate. I forget-- do you do stuff with numerology and the like in your Bible study? I can kinda sympathize-- I went through some rabbinical sources contemporaneous with the Second Temple era to try and understand mystical movements from the time.
Wow thank you so much Deffer that's really interesting. So you're saying that what we typically think of the soul is actually defining the self and that the soul is something deeper than that that continues after we die?
I suppose it's just because I have been suffering from a lot of death anxiety lately and have become an entirely different and more depressed person, and so I've been contemplating all of this for a while now.
It's a hard situation of course. I don't mean that anyone who leaves "the"/a church is bad, or whatsoever. In fact, I'm not part of a church myself, in the traditional way. Your point of tainted authority is exactly my problem: a lot of groups have created their own traditions and rules that I personally feel only cover the essence of the Bible. God is consistent; the Bible does not contradict itself; which means its authority can't be tainted. The fundamentals of these uproars lie outside God's Words. That's so frustrating to me.
I'm glad that only a small amount of the 'church leavers' are actually leaving the faith. I hope they'll find a new home, and find new incentive to research what God has said. Of course "a lack of knowing where to start" can be a big problem, but there's so many groups to only preach in public, there's so many resources online, so many message boards where people talk about faith, so I hope and think that they'll find a new place if they want to.
As for the Bible studies I attend, yes, there is some numerology in there, but I think it's less than 20% of all time spend. It's just something we add to the mix when we're researching texts and certain words come up. It's not something we specifically study.
In the Gospel of John the Good Lord says that He won't lose even one of those who was entrusted to Him (except for Judas, of course, and this for the fulfillment of the Scriptures). Maybe that only counts for the original Apostles, but it's my hope that maybe that holds true to this day. Maybe the flaws and sins of man can drive people away from one institution or another, but I'm confident that God can't be denied those He wishes to call His own so easily. Someday, somehow, I hope they'll all come home-- whatever that home may be represented by on this Earth
That's about what I'm going for, yes. What we think of as the soul is probably different from the true and enduring component that's at the heart of a personal journey with God. Death anxiety is hardly uncommon to our species either-- it's a frightening reality that every fiber of our flesh strives to escape while simultaneously being something we can't escape-- neither the evidence of it nor our personal experience. All of us die somehow, even if it's just the body. So you shouldn't feel bad about having it, but you should reflect on your life and those things which you consider you-- and try to break through to the reality of it.
I don't necessarily disagree-- the main issue is that it's hard to know who's pushing an agenda with regards to the word of the Most High-- particularly when it comes to, say, somewhere in the US where religious affiliation is so politically pointed and basically everywhere you look there's someone out there trying to push an agenda through faith organizations. At least, in my mind, Scripture gives me hope. In the Gospel of John the Good Lord says that He won't lose even one of those who was entrusted to Him (except for Judas, of course, and this for the fulfillment of the Scriptures). Maybe that only counts for the original Apostles, but it's my hope that maybe that holds true to this day. Maybe the flaws and sins of man can drive people away from one institution or another, but I'm confident that God can't be denied those He wishes to call His own so easily. Someday, somehow, I hope they'll all come home-- whatever that home may be represented by on this Earth.
John 10
22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
Everyone who is a sheep of Christ (verse 27) will be given eternal life (verse 28), and noone who has chosen to become a sheep of Christ will lose that eternal life ("neither shall any[one] pluck them out of my hand.").
But who is qualified a sheep? Well, that's everyone who believes in Him. Verse 26 points out that believing in Him is the key identifier for His sheep. Everyone who believes is a sheep of Him; everyone who does not is not. Trust/Belief/Faith in Him is key.
I don't see why that can only be applied on the apostles. I'm confident that it holds true for everyone between His rise from the dead and the second coming, when the Ecclesia (translated to church in a lot of English translations, unfortunately) is completed. Whether they're part of an 'official' church or not doesn't matter. Internal, personal faith is key.
Regarding the topic of church leavers, I want to share something I have been discussing with church mates about over the weekend. There was a pretty solid sermon in a local parish that addressed this issue.
A preamble: Here in Singapore the issue of the decriminalization of homosexual intercourse is a hot talking point again, and it is also an issue where I disagree with the ultimate stand of the church on because I feel strongly for the separation of Church and State, and having prayed about it I continue to feel more strongly about basic human dignity, love, and understanding, than ideological doctrine about protecting some vague "slippery slope".
So the sermon itself wasn't about pro or anti stands about the law itself, but rather that the priest shared how parents have approached him about their children leaving the church over the church's stance on such issues, and how to address that. The powerful part of his message was that ultimately it is not exactly a bad thing if someone decides to leave the church over something they feel strongly over in a moral sense. Because it means they care. Young people caring and feeling strongly about something means they are thinking. If they are thinking and caring about something, it's a positive because apathy is so much worse. And he highlighted that someone leaving the church over a moral issue does not mean they stop believing in God. It simply means they cannot reconcile their moral compass with the church's. And that means it is something that can be bridged if there is better understanding on both sides and more dialogue. It is important to engage, and failure to reach an understanding is what separates people within a community. I don't necessarily agree with every single point in the sermon, but the main intent was so positive and resonated so much with me that in the next month I hope to find time to seek him out to have a more personal discussion about these issues. The division between communities and even between churches (Catholics and Protestants, various denominations, etc) is something I have been reflecting very strongly on lately and I feel God has been speaking to be on these issues and pointing me in a direction where I need to explore how I can help in regards to this in my local communities.
I hope that this is useful for anyone thinking about these issues. If anyone is interested in the sermon in question, shoot me a PM and I'll share the Youtube video. I'm not going to link something like that on ResetEra just in case. Haha. ^^;
I absolutely love reading this thread. I feel like God has continually placed me in very secular, even anti-religious environments and communities, with only small pockets of respite in between, so it's always incredibly refreshing to see other people discuss the things I believe and think about on a regular basis. It's like finding an oasis in the desert. Actually, I have music that describes how it feels regarding my earthly journey: Resident Evil save rooms, baby. No better analogy.
Anyway, I've been struggling with something relating to this. God and Jesus are the crux of my life. I've put my entire life investment in the Kingdom to come and in doing God's work here on Earth and on contemplating the word of God and in accepting my suffering here as a way to learn and grow and become closer to Him. But I spend so much time in secular communities that I often feel like my real self is always clogged up inside of me. I can never talk about what I'm really thinking about. I'll often relate an event to scripture in my mind, only to have it silenced before it can come out, because nobody in my group will want to hear me talk about religious stuff.
I think my job here is to make people understand God in a more organic way, to understand how to live in his Love, in a way that comes from the heart before it comes from the church. But it is so hard at times. I know this sound INCREDIBLY egotistical, but I often wonder if this is how Jesus felt living among the people of his time. What's that line? "I have so much to tell you, but you aren't yet ready?" He said it after his ressurection, I think, and I think about it all the time. How patient was he, how much did he hold back so that we would understand him better with where we were at the time? How frustrated did he feel, not being able to tell us things more plainly, because we wouldn't understand what he was talking about? I'm obviously no Jesus, and my situation is quite different, but like many things I've read in the bible, I see its echoes in my everyday life.
I also worry I am actually too afraid to talk about God and Jesus with the people I'm around, because I might lose them as friends. It leaves a big hole in my heart, and I feel it tugging at my soul. I feel like I'm always caught in vortex tugging me between the world and between God's kingdom.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now. God bless you all.
It's always the personal ones that are hardest to answer. Why personal prayers to God went unanswered. Even if I knew, even if I had the silver bullet, how would you tell someone that truth. My big moment with this involved a friend who lived through the Bosnian genocide and suffered severe bullying-- to the point of being beaten-- by religious kids in the immediate aftermath even after he prayed for it to stop. I had... nothing for him except the vague idea that maybe his prayer had been answered some other way. And "couldas" are not really satisfactory when talking about severe trauma.One thing they all mention to me are questions like "Why God ordered kids and women slaughtered in the old testament?" "Why God allow war, famine and all manner of evil in the world?" one close friend even asked me "Why God allowed a adult person to abuse me as a child?" i try to answer these to the best of my abilities, though i dont think im wise enough to answer these questions.
When I was in my 20s I worried about that constantly. What would others think of me being somewhat serious about faith? Should I say grace before a meal if no one else at the table is religious? If I talk about spirituality or religion a little bit to share something I really care about, would they think I'm weird? Thinking too much about stuff like that made me self conscious and probably contributed to me distancing myself from God as well because -I- perceived that others would perceive that it wasn't cool. It's all projection.I also worry I am actually too afraid to talk about God and Jesus with the people I'm around, because I might lose them as friends. It leaves a big hole in my heart, and I feel it tugging at my soul. I feel like I'm always caught in vortex tugging me between the world and between God's kingdom.