Help my unfaith.

Have you been seeing a doctor for your OCD. That might help with your faith problems if you're not already seeing a doctor.

Kostilaks said:

I suffer from ocd so I pray to the Generic God who is different than Christian God.

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Why then do you post on a 'Christian' forum about praying to a false god.

Just as you need medical help for your OCD and seeking help for it from unqualigied people won't help you.
So seeking spiritual help from a false god won't help you spiritualy.
May I suggest praying to Jesus, reading your bible and attending a church.

Kostilaks said:

Why believe in Jesus?

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In Jesus Christ we believe to have eternal life free from all the crap we suffer from down here, and in Jesus Christ we believe to have forgiveness and hope while we're here. If there is a God who throws Himself away for our sins, I WANT to believe in that God. I WANT to believe in love so high, I WANT to be able to have hope in His name, no matter the situation I'm in. I WANT and NEED God to know better, love better and be more able than any love, wisdom or any ability I can muster from myself. I'm miserable enough to know that I need Him. I do have the Bible and all His promises, and I hang on to His promises and His grace.

Do I have doubts sometimes? Yes, but I know it's my weakness, not His, and even in my doubts I can bypass myself and depend on Him. Can I prove anything to you? No, I can't. I can only try to treat you with kindness. But since I believe in Christ, who according to the Bible does not change as He's the same yesterday, today and tomorrow - it's so much better for me than believing my own mind or my fleeting feelings as they go where they please, especially if I have an illness of the mind, because they often make our feelings to be our enemies. We are easily thrown around by our own minds and feelings, but God and Christ is like a rock, immovable, withstanding everything.

Pray to Jesus Christ, have a foundation in His promises instead of your fickle feelings, and also get help for your condition. That is my advice. God bless you brother.

Tempura said:

Pray to Jesus Christ, have a foundation in His promises instead of your fickle feelings, and also get help for your condition. That is my advice. God bless you brother.

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I would like to point out that @Kostilaks has had this discussion several times. He doesn't seem to want to let go of generic god or can't for some reason. Maybe the OCD.

devin553344 said:

I would like to point out that @Kostilaks has had this discussion several times.

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I know, I think I've been answering his questions, which are all very similar in nature, for as long as he's been a member here. I don't want to give up because I know there have been times when people have tried to encourage me, and I was like a brick wall for so long. I've had my brick walls against God's love too, and He only knows how many I still have left. Eventually something came through though. Sometimes it's good to be resilient. I don't believe I'm much of a helper, but I also don't believe Kostilaks means any harm, he's just a confused man in need of peace - and of course you didn't suggest otherwise either.

Kostilaks said:

I suffer from ocd so I pray to the Generic God who is different than Christian God. i said myself to do an ocd compulsion before returning home. i left house and i forgot but i was too bored to get back. my ocd started giving me thoughts without my will like "promise not to return and you will be fine"it is an ocd trick that makes me to ignore and feel good while I ignore the old compulsion and later try to trap me with a new one. i froze myself and ignored the ocd suggestion-trap. I even fast prayed to the Generic God in my mind and informed Him of the situation so I can feel calmed down. like i am free to do what i want no promises. ignoring the old ocd compulsion was hard. and had second thoughts of returning back but i kept ignoring it. suddenly, i was in a state that my head was with thoughts without my will like "it is good that you did not return home to do the ocd compulsion cause it would have been worse you may have promised not to return home" i do not remember why the thoughts without my will happened but i felt relieved. now ocd is telling me stuff like " ha! you felt relieved? maybe the promise of no returning home is maybe valid because you felt relieved. are you sure the thoughts were without your will? " Why believe in Jesus? How I know if the Bible is real? many people answer like " believe and no questions" so many religions why Christianity is the right one?

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I would encourage you once again to get help for your problems and there is no such thing as a "Generic God"

Tempura said:

I know, I think I've been answering his questions, which are all very similar in nature, for as long as he's been a member here. I don't want to give up because I know there have been times when people have tried to encourage me, and I was like a brick wall for so long. I've had my brick walls against God's love too, and He only knows how many I still have left. Eventually something came through though. Sometimes it's good to be resilient. I don't believe I'm much of a helper, but I also don't believe Kostilaks means any harm, he's just a confused man in need of peace - and of course you didn't suggest otherwise either.

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True, You're suggestions can only do good here!

Kostilaks said:

Why believe in Jesus? How I know if the Bible is real? many people answer like " believe and no questions" so many religions why Christianity is the right one?

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Personally, I am Catholic, and I think that being a Catholic gives a person a huge advantage in believing in Jesus and knowing that the Bible is the Word of God. But I do not want to get into that in this thread. I sense that you are hurting. I want to help you and not get into a theological discussion with others. So I just want to talk about what Protestants and Catholics can agree.



The reason you should believe in Jesus over any other founder of another religion is because Jesus is the only one who backed up His claims by a verifiable miracle attested by eyewitnesses. Most of the Bible was written in the first century, even the biggest critics of the Bible would concede this. Let’s not think about the Bible as the Word of God right now. Let’s just think of the Bible as a collection of ancient manuscripts written in the first century. Let’s not even accept any miracles, even the resurrection of Christ, just because the manuscripts say these miracles happen. But let’s look at the manuscripts to determine what probably did happen.



The one thing that we can take from these manuscripts is that there were people who SAID that they saw these miracles happen. This is especially concerning the resurrection of Christ. The original twelve disciples of Jesus (Matthias replacing Judas) went around saying that they saw and touched Jesus after he had been executed and buried. Now, just because they SAID that they saw this does not make it so. But we have to look at the other alternatives if it did not happen. The other alternatives if Jesus did not rise from the dead are three:

1. It was a legend that developed through the centuries

2. The disciples lied.

3. The disciples hallucinated.

4. Jesus did not really die

Alternative #1, this was just a legend. This view is that the disciples never even claimed that they saw the resurrected Christ. The problem with this view is that even the staunchest critics of the Bible would still date the New Testament documents within the first century. It is not enough time for legends to develop.

Alternative #2, the disciples lied. The problem with this is that all but one was martyred for his testimony – the one not martyred was placed on a deserted island for the rest of his life. A person may die for a what he thinks is true but is a lie, but who would die for what he knows to be a lie? Who would spend the rest of his life on a deserted island for the rest of his life for something he knew to be a lie?

Alternative #3, the disciples hallucinated. But the disciples testified that they not only saw Jesus from afar, they testified that they saw him up close and personal; they ate with him and touched him – for a period of a month, before he ascended into heaven. This is not how hallucinations work.

Alternative #3, Jesus only fainted on the cross. He was revived in the tomb and went to his disciples and they mistakenly saw him as rising from dead. But the problem with this theory is in examining how he died. According to the historical documents we have, it was very gruesome, they scourged him, which meant a cat-o-none-tails with a sharp piece of bone and glass hitting his back and legs over 50 times. It would literal tear of his skin. Many would die from this alone. The they drove a crown of thorns into his skull. Then he was forced to walk one mile with a heavy cross over his shoulders to his place of execution. When he arrived, he was nailed to the cross. And after a few hours on the cross, a soldier thrusted a spear into his side to make sure he was dead. The Roman soldiers were not idiots. They knew how to kill someone. Also, Pontius Pilate place 19 soldiers around the tomb. And there was a one-ton boulder rolled onto the entrance of the tomb. We are believe that a revived Jesus, with his skin ripped off, with a crown of thorns driven into his head, with nail-scars in his hands and feet, and a spear thrusted into his side, was able to move a boulder, overcome the soldiers, walk into Jerusalem on his scarred feet, and appear to his disciples in all his majesty to the extent that they though Jesus rose from dead.



Now, this is all just looking at probabilities. We cannot say for absolute certainty for none of these alternatives is not the way it happened. We cannot even know with absolute certainty that Elvis is dead! That is how history works. We believe in the what has the highest probability of what actually happened. Since the probability is that Elvis is dead, then that is what we should believe. And, unless you have an anti-supernaturalistic bias, the probability is that Jesus has risen from the dead. Now, since we do not have absolute certainty that Jesus rose from the dead, I do have to step out on faith. But it is a reasonable faith. It is reasonable to believe it happened.



And this is not the only thing that makes it reasonable. A sceptic would have explain the tomb being of a body, how someone who his regarded today to as a great moral teacher even by the sceptics, would have been a nut or a villain if he was not who he said he was, the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible) prophesies of the coming Messiah of when he would come, where he would be born, and how he would die being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

But why make that leap of faith? It is because Jesus has made some serious claims on our lives, according to our historical documents in the Bible. He said that he who believes in Him will not perish but may have eternal life. We cannot just sit on the fence. Jesus demands our commitment. He died on the cross for our sins, and He demands that we commit ourselves to Him. Basically, faith is an act of the will, not a feeling. You chose to believe. If it turns out that we are wrong (a remote possibility) and you make that commitment, you have nothing to lose that you would have lost anyway; after you die you will cease to exist as everyone else – with no consciousness that you were wrong to follow Christ. If we are right (a strong probability, which by faith is to me a certainty) and you do not make that commitment to Christ then you have lost everything. And you will know it for all eternity.



So to me, turning to Christ is the most logical thing to do. The evidence points to the probability that Christ is who he said he was. And we have everything to gain and nothing to lose in terms of eternity..

Kostilaks said:

Why believe in Jesus? How I know if the Bible is real? many people answer like " believe and no questions" so many religions why Christianity is the right one?

Click to expand...

Personally, I am Catholic, and I think that being a Catholic gives a person a huge advantage in believing in Jesus and knowing that the Bible is the Word of God. But I do not want to get into that in this thread. I sense that you are hurting. I want to help you and not get into a theological discussion with others. So I just want to talk about what Protestants and Catholics can agree.



The reason you should believe in Jesus over any other founder of another religion is because Jesus is the only one who backed up His claims by a verifiable miracle attested by eyewitnesses. Most of the Bible was written in the first century, even the biggest critics of the Bible would concede this. Let’s not think about the Bible as the Word of God right now. Let’s just think of the Bible as a collection of ancient manuscripts written in the first century. Let’s not even accept any miracles, even the resurrection of Christ, just because the manuscripts say these miracles happen. But let’s look at the manuscripts to determine what probably did happen.



The one thing that we can take from these manuscripts is that there were people who SAID that they saw these miracles happen. This is especially concerning the resurrection of Christ. The original twelve disciples of Jesus (Matthias replacing Judas) went around saying that they saw and touched Jesus after he had been executed and buried. Now, just because they SAID that they saw this does not make it so. But we have to look at the other alternatives if it did not happen. The other alternatives if Jesus did not rise from the dead are three:

1. It was a legend that developed through the centuries

2. The disciples lied.

3. The disciples hallucinated.

4. Jesus did not really die

Alternative #1, this was just a legend. This view is that the disciples never even claimed that they saw the resurrected Christ. The problem with this view is that even the staunchest critics of the Bible would still date the New Testament documents within the first century. It is not enough time for legends to develop.

Alternative #2, the disciples lied. The problem with this is that all but one was martyred for his testimony – the one not martyred was placed on a deserted island for the rest of his life. A person may die for a what he thinks is true but is a lie, but who would die for what he knows to be a lie? Who would spend the rest of his life on a deserted island for the rest of his life for something he knew to be a lie?

Alternative #3, the disciples hallucinated. But the disciples testified that they not only saw Jesus from afar, they testified that they saw him up close and personal; they ate with him and touched him – for a period of a month, before he ascended into heaven. This is not how hallucinations work.

Alternative #3, Jesus only fainted on the cross. He was revived in the tomb and went to his disciples and they mistakenly saw him as rising from dead. But the problem with this theory is in examining how he died. According to the historical documents we have, it was very gruesome, they scourged him, which meant a cat-o-none-tails with a sharp piece of bone and glass hitting his back and legs over 50 times. It would literal tear of his skin. Many would die from this alone. The they drove a crown of thorns into his skull. Then he was forced to walk one mile with a heavy cross over his shoulders to his place of execution. When he arrived, he was nailed to the cross. And after a few hours on the cross, a soldier thrusted a spear into his side to make sure he was dead. The Roman soldiers were not idiots. They knew how to kill someone. Also, Pontius Pilate place 19 soldiers around the tomb. And there was a one-ton boulder rolled onto the entrance of the tomb. We are believe that a revived Jesus, with his skin ripped off, with a crown of thorns driven into his head, with nail-scars in his hands and feet, and a spear thrusted into his side, was able to move a boulder, overcome the soldiers, walk into Jerusalem on his scarred feet, and appear to his disciples in all his majesty to the extent that they though Jesus rose from dead.



Now, this is all just looking at probabilities. We cannot say for absolute certainty for none of these alternatives is not the way it happened. We cannot even know with absolute certainty that Elvis is dead! That is how history works. We believe in the what has the highest probability of what actually happened. Since the probability is that Elvis is dead, then that is what we should believe. And, unless you have an anti-supernaturalistic bias, the probability is that Jesus has risen from the dead. Now, since we do not have absolute certainty that Jesus rose from the dead, I do have to step out on faith. But it is a reasonable faith. It is reasonable to believe it happened.



And this is not the only thing that makes it reasonable. A sceptic would have explain the tomb being of a body, how someone who his regarded today to as a great moral teacher even by the sceptics, would have been a nut or a villain if he was not who he said he was, the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible) prophesies of the coming Messiah of when he would come, where he would be born, and how he would die being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

But why make that leap of faith? It is because Jesus has made some serious claims on our lives, according to our historical documents in the Bible. He said that he who believes in Him will not perish but may have eternal life. We cannot just sit on the fence. Jesus demands our commitment. He died on the cross for our sins, and He demands that we commit ourselves to Him. Basically, faith is an act of the will, not a feeling. You chose to believe. If it turns out that we are wrong (a remote possibility) and you make that commitment, you have nothing to lose that you would have lost anyway; after you die you will cease to exist as everyone else – with no consciousness that you were wrong to follow Christ. If we are right (a strong probability, which by faith is to me a certainty) and you do not make that commitment to Christ then you have lost everything. And you will know it for all eternity.



So to me, turning to Christ is the most logical thing to do. The evidence points to the probability that Christ is who he said he was. And we have everything to gain and nothing to lose in terms of eternity..