christian gone agnostic

Tricia, Hi my names Carmen. I was born into a family that were not Christians. When I look back God's people were sent to minister to me and also Satan sent his people to minister also . I had given my heart to the Lord when I was about 7 years old. Satan tried to steal me out of God's loving arms. But God never will leave you or forsake you he always will be with you. He will guide you into all truth. Nothing can separate you from the Love of God. When I look back over the years God is so very good.
Yes he is very much alive and real. And I pray he will reveal his wonderful character of his name to you . I pray that you will be healed Spirit, soul and body in Jesus name amen.

Please take note that the Prayer Forum is in the "for Christians Only" area of the board.

Non-Christians may come to the Prayer Forum sincerely asking for prayer, but non-Christians are NOT allowed to post advice or opinions in a Christians Only Forum.

Thank you.

Tricia, when we are saved, or born again, we must decide if we believe God's Word or not. If we do, then we must believe That Jesus is God the Son and that He CANNOT lie. If we believe that, then we must believe that those who say He is NOT the only way are WRONG. It CANNOT be both ways.

Here is what JESUS said. Look it up in your own Bible.

John 14:6: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

There are many many verses and Scriptures to back up His statement, though I willl not try to list them all here.

So based on what Jesus said and what the rest of God's Word says, Christianity IS the only way, and No you cannot do what you "feel" is right for you. You must base your actions on what God's Word says.

The love of Jesus is too great for mere human words. Place ALL your faith and trust in Him and He will never let you down.

Dear Sister,

Let me share a couple things that I pray will help somewhat. Oddly enough, what I am going to say was initially spoke to me by an atheist several years ago. But it is true regardless of who said it.

You really cannot decide what you are going to believe. Belief does not come by a decision. You did not wake up one morning and "decide" that you were going to believe the gospel, and you cannot in like manner just "decide" you are going to not believe it.

Belief come as a result of the discovery of truth.

One day you discovered that Jesus was Lord, that He died for your sins, and that He rose from the dead. Most people are not looking for this truth when they find it, I doubt you were either. It just kind of sneaks up on them unawares. You might say that the truth finds them. From that point on, they are helpless to the overwhelming integrity of it. God spoke, and it is so. You might say that faith does not come by the efforts of the believer, rather is comes by the integrity of the speaker. God has infinite integrity. We cannot help but believe.

But here is something that might help. Did you know that you could not even believe this in the first place unless He opened your heart and mind to it? That is correct. God has spoken to you! The mere fact that you know that gospel and take this matter seriously tells me, and should tell you, that He has spoken to you and therefore, at some point, you came  to believe. If you came to believe, then you are a believer. And people cannot just rationalize that away. Belief is of the heart, not the logical reasoning process. If your were a believer then, you are a believer now. Your mind may be having problems rationalizing things... but that is normal and it will pass. It may take years for your mind to catch up with your heart. That is OK! And even after you understand some of these things, the scripture says not to lean to your understanding of the facts, rather remain in faith and just believe.

I know there are a lot of things in the scriptures that are difficult to understand. Hang in there little sister. You are very special to God, and He loves you with a great love. I can feel His love for you as I write these words! He sees you every moment, knows your fears and sorrow. He understands your doubts and questions. But the answer at this point is to just be faithful. Get in with a good crowd of people who understand and will help. But what will help you the most is to try and help others with questions and doubts that you have already handled yourself. Give and it will be given to you.

PM me if you have any questions, or just to talk.

Love in Him

Didaskalos.

 

 

Originally posted by didaskalos
You really cannot decide what you are going to believe. Belief does not come by a decision. You did not wake up one morning and "decide" that you were going to believe the gospel, and you cannot in like manner just "decide" you are going to not believe it.  

Click to expand...

This makes more sense to me than Gerry's comment "we must decide to believe whether to believe or not"

On the other hand, I do think we make decisions as we gain more information. That information may be reasons to believe or reasons against belief, imo. When someone goes from being a Christian to an agnostic, then it's because the reasons not to believe have become more compelling to them than the reasons to believe and in effect they 'shift their allegiance'.

I mean, suppose you always ate a certain brand-name breakfast cereal. You like it. Then your friend says "the store's own version tastes just as good" - you just gained some information but maybe not enough to make you switch to it. Then you go in and the store's version is half-price. NOW maybe you have enough reason to switch. You try the store's one, you think "Wow, it really IS just as good" and you will probably never go back. Unless some new information sways you back to the brand-name one.

In a similar way, I would think that the balance of information in Tricia's life has changed and for her to recommit/have her faith in Christianity restored, she needs new information that would tip the scales back in Christianity's favor, as it were, to her.

That's how it seems to me.

In Christ
Helen

 

 

 

Helen God forces NOTHING on anyone. What Didaskalos is saying is that we are saved by grace through faith and THAT not of ourselves it is a GIFT of God. Yes, on our own we do not even have the faith to be saved. And unless we are drawn by the Holy Spirit we will not be saved.

That has nothing to do with what I said. Yes you do DECIDE whether you are going to accept God's Word for what it is. I know many people who are saved but have problems with God's Word. That is because they have not grown to that point yet.

There are lots of decisions we must make in our walk. We decide what we believe, and where we will attend Church and so many more things.

I am not in conflict with Didaskalos. We are talking about two different things.

What I actually said was we must decide whether to believe God's Word or not. And that is a true statement. You cant pick and choose which parts you will believe and which parts you will not. Either it is ALL true or it is not. You will decide what you believe.

Originally posted by HelenM
This makes more sense to me than Gerry's comment "we must decide to believe whether to believe or not"

Click to expand...

But faith is a decision--based on knoweldge--not an emotion.

A Christian is a person who chooses to follow Christ, someone who made a decision at some point in their life that Christ is truth and they will follow. It is a point-in-time thing, a day when that person said, Christ is true and I accept that and will live for Him.

Amen Gerry and HelenM. We are all saying the same thing, just from a different position. Praise Him. Thanks to you also lambslove!

 

I prayed for you that God will just give you what you need and give you peace in your heart ........I've felt pretty much like you.....
I was just starting to do some worship playing the piano and singing.......
when I sang this I sing a simple song of love......(to my Jesus, ..my loving saviour) I suddenly had tears in my eyes and felt God's love. I'm just asking God to 'clear this up' for me and will protect me from these doubts so they won't overcome me again. In all I've expirienced..when I was totally down and doubts were overcomíng me.. God IS faithful. Recently he
has strenghtened my faith so much (and I was soooooooo down before)
now I started doubting again and it was just so horrible. wow

God please take our confusion away and restore us..its in Jesus name I believe and pray. Amen

Originally posted by Gerry
What I actually said was we must decide whether to believe God's Word or not. And that is a true statement. You cant pick and choose which parts you will believe and which parts you will not. Either it is ALL true or it is not.

Click to expand...

I understand that if God says something it must be true since God cannot lie.

Regarding your statement that the Bible (I assume this is what you are talking about) is ALL true or it is not: how do you know it is all true?

I'm not saying it isn't. I'm simply asking you what your basis is for believing it's all true. I assume you have one...

Maybe it would help Tricia if you could share it.

 

Originally posted by lambslove
But faith is a decision--based on knoweldge--not an emotion.

A Christian is a person who chooses to follow Christ, someone who made a decision at some point in their life that Christ is truth and they will follow. It is a point-in-time thing, a day when that person said, Christ is true and I accept that and will live for Him.

Click to expand...

For some people, yes, they can identify a point in time when they made a decision to follow Christ. One minute they weren't and the next they decided to (and since then they've probably been trying with varying degrees of success if they're anything like me )

Others can't identify a point in time and I'm not going to say they aren't Christians just because of that. Sometimes it is a gradual thing, that Jesus becomes more important to someone and so they can't look back and say "On this day I was not a Christian and on this day I was". It doesn't mean they aren't now. With God all things are possible...

 

 

When Jesus Christ is seemingly lost in a fog, confusion, doubts and questions all pick at the mind. One of the greatest attributes of our lord Jesus is his lovingkindness. Everyday they are new: When we face the circumstances of trials and temptations and feel quite overcome with the wieght of them I will tell you Jesus understands. We cannot always see the dangers that come upon us but nevertheless his concern for our souls is priority with him. There are many believers now undergoing  intense trials right now, they are beaten and starved, they are in fears and hardships but even though they are so severly tested, our Father has them securely in his hand.  Please know that Satan does come to devour those whom he will, but our encouragement is to be stedfast and diligent in resisting him. He cannot destroy the believer unless we simply conceed to his sins. Yet many a believer who has fallen into failure and has looked up from the pit of a hellish situation knowing he himself has jumped into it willingly, God has brought up and forgiven him.

"There are no pits so deep that God is not deeper still" corrie tenboom. I would encourage anyone who fails to know this that Christ points to a word in scripture that says  

Col 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Go to Christ and find your life in him, he will not turn you away!

When  you realize that there are times that your flesh seeks to live and wants down from that cross upon which Christ places it you must know that your only error is to think that it cannot be immediately placed back upon that cross. Oh the fleshly mind of man resists death and would convince your spiritual minds of its necessity of living. God would have you understand the old man is dead, that he cannot rule, the new man is Christs and that man loves to use its faith to live pleasing to God.

Dont lose heart! Victory is immediate through Jesus Christ who loves us and will make a way of escape from temptation and bring healing to those of us who stumble. 

Josiah&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG onmouseover="this.style.cursor='hand';" style="CURSOR: hand" onclick="smilie('');" alt=clap src="http://www.christianforums.com/images/smilies/clap.gif" border=0>

Let's all keep in mind that this is a Prayer Forum, and not a place for debate of any kind. Please honor and respect the sanctity of the Prayer Forum. If you are a Christian, as defined in Rule #6, then you are encouraged to offer prayer and Christian advice in this forum.

Hellen, you bet I have one. But the Moderator is right. This is not the place. Perhaps if you want a debate post your doubts in Apologetics. That is what that forum is for.

Regretably I will not join you there as I am not into debates, and I have learned today that the forums is no place for me anyway. It is time I moved on to more productive endeavors.

Bless God and Praise Jesus forever.

To the Born Again Christians here I say, I will see you up there or in the air!

Gerry, I didn't say I had doubts. That was your own assumption.

Auntie, I apologize for posting outside what's permissible here.

In Christ,
Helen