Should I dump everything and leave?

Aldebaran

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The thing is many of their ways is my ways. So I'm worried about being influenced by them. And I don't have the freedom to completely change my ways until I leave.

Could you give some examples? It might help me to give you some more specific practical advice.
 
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Roseonathorn

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Maybe You can have some time of Your own in Your room where You read Your bible, if You still live with Your parents. I think You could be a blessing to them, helping them in ways You have not before. I know of a pastors wife that works in the field of clinical psychiatry in the local hospital and she started when she was a christian. No need to run anywhere. Take a deep breath and take one problem at a time and negotiate with Your superiors and tell them of Your new faith and willingness to do good and not sin. Perhaps they can help You bloom where You are planted or lead You in a good direction. I do not know Your speciality but if You abhor sin maybe You might need a fieldchange Like rather be a person that takes care of older people than a person that abort babies. I know I could not abort babies but if the whole healthcare feel awful to You, then rather study something else while You are Young. It gets harder to study and less possible the older You get with family and all. If You know You will never want to work with healthcare but You still have knowledge from the field, perhaps a personal trainer might be an alternative or nuitrition expert or masseuse for back neck and head and such. Then You would have to learn to sell stuff and run a business too.
 
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Chris.79

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You see, I want to change my life for God, to repent of all my sins, but I feel I may need to dump everything and everyone to do that. I live with my family and they aren't believers. And till now I was finishing college so I could get a full-time career ( healthcare because I want to help people) so I could save up enough to move out and live as God wants me to. But even then would I be living within God's terms if I kept in contact with friends and family, who are not believers? By leaving would I be following God or just running away from it all?

But then I'd put my family and friends through grief if I did that. And I'd be living on the streets cause I don't have enough to live on.

I feel so lost and Idk what to do to follow Jesus properly. Christians tell me to pray and ask and repent receive the Holy Spirit but nothing happens. And I don't get any answers from God.
People make god and the bible complicated and its not...the two most important of gods laws are Love god and love your neighbor as you would yourself. Buy loving your neighbor you are loving god..by helping others you are loving god. And understand your gonna screw up over and over and over again and god is okay with that...you ask him to forgive you and keep trying. Better yet here is the story of the good samaritan it is one of my favorite of Christ's parables and sadly it is one that alot of Christians ignore.

Luke 10:30-37New Living Translation (NLT)
Parable of the Good Samaritan
30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
 
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PeaceB

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You see, I want to change my life for God, to repent of all my sins, but I feel I may need to dump everything and everyone to do that. I live with my family and they aren't believers. And till now I was finishing college so I could get a full-time career ( healthcare because I want to help people) so I could save up enough to move out and live as God wants me to. But even then would I be living within God's terms if I kept in contact with friends and family, who are not believers? By leaving would I be following God or just running away from it all?

But then I'd put my family and friends through grief if I did that. And I'd be living on the streets cause I don't have enough to live on.

I feel so lost and Idk what to do to follow Jesus properly. Christians tell me to pray and ask and repent receive the Holy Spirit but nothing happens. And I don't get any answers from God.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.​

You should continue to pray and discern what it is that God wants you to do. If he wants you to leave, then you should leave. If he wants you to stay, then you should stay.
 
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Aldebaran

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Sounds like good churchy world based advice.. Cant find scripture for it through.
I Wil read through the rest of the posts.but so far all have been ... scared ?...to post the obvious words that Jesus said.
Probably because ya can't preach what ya don't ..or never have..practiced.

Not really. Remember when Jesus was asked by the Roman soldiers what they were to do? He didn't tell them to change professions. He basically told them to do their job honorably, not stealing what isn't theirs, etc.
 
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Jesus4Ever

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You told us that you worried that so much as keeping in contact with family and friends would threaten you. So how do you suppose you can function in the world after you leave home? You will be surrounded by non-believers in your workplace and most other associations, pasttimes, clubs, etc. you have anything to do with.

I'm hoping once I leave God will take me to believers
 
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GandalfTheWise

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There are scriptural examples where God's calling can be to stay in the present situation.
I Cor 7:12-16 talks about being married to unbelievers being an acceptable state. Mark 5:1-20 tells the story of the healed demoniac who wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus told him to go back to his home. "“Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” II Kings 5 tells the story of the healing of Naaman. After that, Naaman decides to serve the Lord but asks for one thing, that the Lord overlook the fact that he has to go into a pagan temple with his boss. The prophet's response is "Go in peace." In I Sam, there is the story of how Hannah leaves the small child Samuel in the house of Eli (surrounded by those under God's judgement for sins).

As a rule, Christians are selective about which of Jesus' hard sayings to actually implement literally in their lives. Virtually all Christians interpret Matt 5:29-30 symbolically and rightfully so!!! "29 If your right eye causes you to stumble gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." For the most part, we all ask ourselves questions like "what does it mean for me to give up a vital part of myself to serve God?" meaning what things do I hold near and dear that I need to surrender.

The situation described in the OP (if I am understanding it correctly) is a fairly common one where someone becomes a believer and realizes that they are surrounded by unbelievers. There are some steps one can immediately take to change the effect of the situation. One, start attending a church (or campus ministry or Bible study) and start establishing relationships with other Christians. Two, start having personal devotions by reading the Bible and praying. Three, start listening to Christian music. There may be local Christian stations where you are at. There are many internet stations that stream Christian music of a wide varieties of styles and genres. (I did a skim of policies so I think it's okay to mention this on CF. If not, I can edit out this section in parentheses. I do analytics for a non-commercial Christian station with web site 97x.fm which plays a rather eclectic combination of indy to hip-hip to rock to pop by a wide range of Christian artists which could be a nice introduction to a wide range of styles and artists for someone with no previous exposure to Christian music.) These are things that could start to be done immediately.

It is possible that God is calling for an immediate move. However, my observation of many many Christians over decades is that this is relatively rare compared to a more orderly transition where He is calling us to go in a particular direction toward a particular destination that progresses in a relatively orderly fashion. That's not to say the destination is always immediately apparent and sometimes faith is involved. (Our last move to a new town years ago involved renting an apartment sight unseen. After over 30 years of continuous employment, I left my last job at God's leading in my mid-50s without having a new one in hand.) But there is usually some clear sense of direction of moving towards something rather than only dissatisfaction to escape current circumstances.
 
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Neogaia777

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You see, I want to change my life for God, to repent of all my sins, but I feel I may need to dump everything and everyone to do that. I live with my family and they aren't believers. And till now I was finishing college so I could get a full-time career ( healthcare because I want to help people) so I could save up enough to move out and live as God wants me to. But even then would I be living within God's terms if I kept in contact with friends and family, who are not believers? By leaving would I be following God or just running away from it all?

But then I'd put my family and friends through grief if I did that. And I'd be living on the streets cause I don't have enough to live on.

I feel so lost and Idk what to do to follow Jesus properly. Christians tell me to pray and ask and repent receive the Holy Spirit but nothing happens. And I don't get any answers from God.
Why can't you keep in contact with, well I can understand maybe some, but not all, of your friends or family?

As a believer you should be able to just be a for the most part silent example to them to the point that it would move them to shame by living and being a Christian, by being love, no matter what, will put them to shame on the inside at the very least... Could lead to jealousy/envy...

Tell them anytime you want to talk about my or religious beliefs, let me know, other than that, just don't poke at me or my beliefs or provoke me into rebuking you and putting you in your place and we should be okay...OK...?

God Bless!
 
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Alithis

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The text states no such thing.


Please. You wrote "Probably because ya can't preach what ya don't ..or never have..practiced." about people you know nothing about. My response to you is "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye."

I will do the same.
It's only a hypocrisy if your pretending something. But I deleted posts as I did not realize I was in the advice forum.
 
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You see, I want to change my life for God, to repent of all my sins, but I feel I may need to dump everything and everyone to do that. I live with my family and they aren't believers. And till now I was finishing college so I could get a full-time career ( healthcare because I want to help people) so I could save up enough to move out and live as God wants me to. But even then would I be living within God's terms if I kept in contact with friends and family, who are not believers? By leaving would I be following God or just running away from it all?

But then I'd put my family and friends through grief if I did that. And I'd be living on the streets cause I don't have enough to live on.

I feel so lost and Idk what to do to follow Jesus properly. Christians tell me to pray and ask and repent receive the Holy Spirit but nothing happens. And I don't get any answers from God.

I remember a quote from Paul when he said we cannot really free ourselves of sin completely because we would have to leave the entire world. Also, I believe we were sent to act as a good example. Like it says elsewhere in the bible, if you have a lantern, you do not hide it under your bed but you leave it out for all to see. Same as the light of God within you. Of course, now that we are in the world of sin and we want to set a good example and let God's light shine from within us, we have to deal with temptation! And that is what our sacrifice is to show our love to God.
 
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mcarmichael

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You see, I want to change my life for God, to repent of all my sins, but I feel I may need to dump everything and everyone to do that. I live with my family and they aren't believers. And till now I was finishing college so I could get a full-time career ( healthcare because I want to help people) so I could save up enough to move out and live as God wants me to. But even then would I be living within God's terms if I kept in contact with friends and family, who are not believers? By leaving would I be following God or just running away from it all?

But then I'd put my family and friends through grief if I did that. And I'd be living on the streets cause I don't have enough to live on.

I feel so lost and Idk what to do to follow Jesus properly. Christians tell me to pray and ask and repent receive the Holy Spirit but nothing happens. And I don't get any answers from God.
Definitely finish college.
 
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