How is it going my friend??? Any change of thought and/or feelings??
Keep on praying here!
Wramhuggles
M
Keep on praying here!
Wramhuggles
M
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Help me to believe...
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loki2004 said:
Hi there!
You just start.
I recommend that you begin reading the Word of God every day and then ask God for direction in what He is telling you in His Word. God is calling you out of the darkness into the light...
and the only thing that can truly tell you what God has in store for you is His Word.
~serapha~
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chunkofcoal
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crossrunner
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TheMainException
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It's a hard place to get to sometimes...and it can be very painful. But try your best to devote some time to praying to this God that you think may believe. Pray that you might believe and come to understand your existence and reason for being called to Him. He is there, he is listening, and he will answer your prayers...even when it seems like he isn't. I'll be praying too...I think this will be the most important step in your life if you choose to take this leap.
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crossrunner
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Bain_Adaneth
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Loki2004,
I know it's difficult. But keep reading the Bible to learn about God. And you have to pray to God. Pray from your heart, a real relationship with God comes from talking to Him from your heart. End with "In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." Don't worry, God will show you who he is if you really desire to know and seek Him. Jesus said him who seeks will find. Don't doubt the existence of God just because, but pull out the questions that you need to ask. Don't let misunderstanding keep you from searching for the Truth. If you have doubts or questions, seek to find the answer. Seek to know God. And when you want to take Jesus Christ to be your Savior, and believe that He has died for you, ask Him to be your Savior, and you will be saved. Thank you for asking this question. You have already overcome the first barrier by seeking the Truth, seeking to know God. The bible is the Truth, so read it and learn from it. Please ask more questions if you have them......God bless you, and I will pray that God will reveal Himself to you in a way that you will understand, and believe.....
I know it's difficult. But keep reading the Bible to learn about God. And you have to pray to God. Pray from your heart, a real relationship with God comes from talking to Him from your heart. End with "In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." Don't worry, God will show you who he is if you really desire to know and seek Him. Jesus said him who seeks will find. Don't doubt the existence of God just because, but pull out the questions that you need to ask. Don't let misunderstanding keep you from searching for the Truth. If you have doubts or questions, seek to find the answer. Seek to know God. And when you want to take Jesus Christ to be your Savior, and believe that He has died for you, ask Him to be your Savior, and you will be saved. Thank you for asking this question. You have already overcome the first barrier by seeking the Truth, seeking to know God. The bible is the Truth, so read it and learn from it. Please ask more questions if you have them......God bless you, and I will pray that God will reveal Himself to you in a way that you will understand, and believe.....
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lismore
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Hello friendloki2004 said:
I have found in my experience that yes if you speak out to God in that way then he will answer you by some means....a bible verse, dream, talking with a person, ideas in your head even a newspaper story can give you the answer that you prayed about........sometimes right away sometimes a little time. But God has always given me an answer
Hope this helps
God Bless you
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loki2004 said:Where do I start? I have been questioning God's existence for thirty years. All of my adult life I have been searching for some form of spirituality that feels right...eastern religions, paganism...I have an emptiness inside that I alone seem unable to fill. I was raised Catholic, but rejected it at a very early age. I am hoping that someone reading this will be able to set me on the right path. I acknowledge that there COULD be a God...I realize that compared to the vast Universe, my scope of vision is comparable to that of an ant. How can I get to the point where I believe?
Thanks, Loki
start praying and start reading the words of jesus christ for those are the words of god to his children,wake up my sister,you know that the world that you see is not the truth and you are searching search and you shall find,discover and you will believe
come back to god,christ will lead you follow him and all will end well.
you were on the right path now you are looking in the wrong places come back to the church of christ and ask god if you can be with him and he with you and your emptiness will be replaced by something that you cant emagine so beautifull
I wish you strength and wisdom
marc
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I have been in your shoes. I was raised Catholic until I asked my parents to convert to the Lutheran church in Junior High. In college, I started searching. Even though I was in a Christian church, I still had an emptiness in my heart. A few friends led me to privately confess to God that I was a sinner and that I needed Jesus in my life to forgive my sins. Everyone is a sinner and everyone needs Jesus. One of the things that kept me from him for so long were all the "laws" in the church. First there's the ten commandments, then there's all the things you're supposed to do in some churches. One thing I learned after accepting Christ into my heart is that there are only 2 important "laws." The first is to love God and the second is to love your neighbors as yourself. You see, God is Love. I hope you have let Him into your heart. I'll pray for you too. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to know more specifics about my testimony.
Nicole
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Loki, you remind me a lot of myself some time ago in my life.
When I was 8, I began questioning the Lutheran church, where I was raised. What made us right, and others wrong?
Much of it had to do with the fact that those who were leaders of our church were such hypocrites, that even a young child could see it. I won't go into the details of this issue, suffice it to say, they were that obvious.
Why NOT Catholicism? There were, after all, more Catholic churches in our town than Lutheran. I attended them, and witnessed services in Polish and Latin. But not English. No help there.
What about the Methodists? I attended those, and found them to be no different at all in the tradition than Lutheran.
So what was going on?
Well, life took hold and off I went into it. I eventually was grounded in the precepts of Science, and the search for the Truth. I believed that God (and yes he did exist in my mind) directed me toward that search, and I endeavored to learn. I believed in facts, I still do of course, but that they were the door upon which I should be knocking.
I wasn't searching for meaning as much as I was searching for Truth.
My sister and I were separated at birth. We were both adopted out of a family to separate ones, and we never met until I was 18. She was heavy into drugs, and sexual problems, the bar scene, you name it. Suddenly, one day, she was different. She was at peace, she even LOOKED like a different person entirely. She claimed she had found Jesus.
Time went by, and I concluded that each time I had heard of a person finding Jesus, and therefore God by default, they had each found the 'end of the rope'. That they had nowhere else to turn, their lives were so badly managed.
And that this could be a defense mechanism brought about by a mind trying desperately to keep the person from destroying themselves.
I held onto this belief.
Then, she and her husband invited me to visit them. I knew what was coming, those Christians love to 'convert' people, so I went armed with what I perceived as the truth. I was WELL prepared for the debate that I knew would commence at some point...
We finished dinner on the first night, it was 6:30pm. And it began...
They cornered me in the living room, and started thumping the Bible at me. I countered with Einstein, and this went on for NINE HOURS.
As a little side-trip to this long story, I was in fact maneuvering them into a logical corner where I would hit them with such a convincing argument that they would have to concede defeat. I was just biding my time, and honestly, I still to this day don't remember a single word that was said that night...
Anyway, it was 3:30am now. And they had fallen RIGHT into my trap. I was about to counter the last point with a logical checkmate, when suddenly...I believed!
I remember looking at the table, in full knowledge that I was about to win this argument, and there it was sitting there. A copy of the TRUTH! It was so clear, so suddenly, that it was exactly like a lightning strike in my soul. All this time, the TRUTH WAS RIGHT THERE! All I had to do was read it!
I believed. Jesus IS the Son of God. He DID die for my sins. I was WRONG.
Why do I believe I was saved?
Because, there is no reason for me to believe it, yet I do. There is not one shred of evidence to convince me, in all that time, in even my entire life up to that point. I just suddenly...understood.
Looking back on that moment in time, I realize now that there was no other possible way to convince me, except for my belief to stem from nothing at all. This goes against my nature.
LOL God is so SUBTLE in his dealings with each of us. It's so personal in nature, that I find it hard to believe that my story would touch anybody else on this Earth in the same way it touched me. Each one of us has a different path to His door, and we don't HAVE to find it.
He has already done the grunt work for you! ALL you need to do is believe, and when that time comes, it may not seem like a conscious choice. Don't let that discourage you.
I will say this...
In my case, and certainly I can't speak for others, it was not a choice 'I' made. It just...happened. From one moment to the next, I was His, and there was nothing I can think of that could have changed that.
In the years since then, I have not given up on science. Certainly science isn't the answer, it hardly even asks the right questions. But there is mathematical reason, there is logic, and each time I approach these workings of man, they convince me further of the faith I have in the Almighty, and in His Son.
A few things I have come to take for granted through science include the fact that God trascends time. It's said in many places in the old testament, "Before the foundations of the world were laid, there AM I." He certainly knows me, he knows my beginning, he knows my ending, from one moment to the next, he understands me better than I ever will. He knows the mistakes I will make tomorrow, but he does not love me any less for my failures. He did, after all, send his Son to be crucified for ME of all people.
One of my favorite sayings, perhaps one of the most important things that one can draw from science...the universe is essentially infinite, with an infinite number of facts. But, there can only ever be ONE TRUTH. There can only ever be one 'the way things are'. For science to be able to learn that truth, the human race would have to learn every fact, and have the intelligence to digest all those facts and come to the proper conclusion. Still, science can never learn what is on the other side, in that dimension that is Heaven. Therefore, without this important set of facts, that which exists in Heaven, science can never properly learn the absolute truth.
Instead, God provided me with a copy! Thousands of years of writing, all in a neat package. What a bonus!
Let's talk Einstein. Recently, physicists have been dumbfounded by one very important question in the make-up of our universe:
If the nucleus of an atom is all protons and neutrons, a tremendous positive charge that should repel itself, then what is holding it all together? Shouldn't everything just fly apart in a massive explosion?
Einstein discovered what he referred to as...the Strong Force. There is a force in existence that binds all this together. Although modern science created a proposed particle, which has never been proven, and called it a gluon, Einstein's own conclusion was...that this is the Hand of God.
As the Bible predicts, the Universe will be destroyed in a great fire, as God lets go His hold. This is an accurate prediction of what exactly would transpire if the Strong Force suddenly winked out of existence.
Lately, astro-physicists have developed a new theory. The Universe was not created in a Big Bang, but instead expanded very rapidly to near its current size. Why so fast?
According to science, time and space are intertwined. If the size of the universe was that of a pea at the beginning, time would have been proceeding at and EXTREMELY rapid pace. It is entirely possible that the 50 billion years of evolution that science had previously been saying occurred, actually occured in a matter of seconds, or minutes.
Fascinating.
Each new discovery provides for me further proof of His plan, and His existence.
But then, a saying I hold dear is also this:
"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't believe, no explanation is possible."
Each one of these things, that serves to reinforce my faith, and proves to me His existence, is also in the minds of those who don't believe further proof that He doesn't exist.
This is ALL about Faith. God has said so, and the fact that He has provided us not one shred of evidence for His existence, further reinforces my awe at the undertaking. To me, as a human being, it's not possible. But all things are possible with God.
It never ceases to amaze me.
Maybe all this will help you find your Faith. Maybe it won't. LOL personally, I don't see how it could. But then again, I'm not in charge here
Perhaps one last thing to think about -
You are not supposed to understand. You are only supposed to believe. Nothing more is required. John, chapter 3, verse 16 - this is all there is, there is nothing more.
The rest is between you and God!
(A quick edit) NONE of this, you will notice, has anything at all to do with Religion. If you come to believe the above, the church you choose will be perfect for you. But be advised, regardless of the RELIGION you choose, it's your FAITH that makes you a member of The Christian Church, and this trascends all doctrine.
When I was 8, I began questioning the Lutheran church, where I was raised. What made us right, and others wrong?
Much of it had to do with the fact that those who were leaders of our church were such hypocrites, that even a young child could see it. I won't go into the details of this issue, suffice it to say, they were that obvious.
Why NOT Catholicism? There were, after all, more Catholic churches in our town than Lutheran. I attended them, and witnessed services in Polish and Latin. But not English. No help there.
What about the Methodists? I attended those, and found them to be no different at all in the tradition than Lutheran.
So what was going on?
Well, life took hold and off I went into it. I eventually was grounded in the precepts of Science, and the search for the Truth. I believed that God (and yes he did exist in my mind) directed me toward that search, and I endeavored to learn. I believed in facts, I still do of course, but that they were the door upon which I should be knocking.
I wasn't searching for meaning as much as I was searching for Truth.
My sister and I were separated at birth. We were both adopted out of a family to separate ones, and we never met until I was 18. She was heavy into drugs, and sexual problems, the bar scene, you name it. Suddenly, one day, she was different. She was at peace, she even LOOKED like a different person entirely. She claimed she had found Jesus.
Time went by, and I concluded that each time I had heard of a person finding Jesus, and therefore God by default, they had each found the 'end of the rope'. That they had nowhere else to turn, their lives were so badly managed.
And that this could be a defense mechanism brought about by a mind trying desperately to keep the person from destroying themselves.
I held onto this belief.
Then, she and her husband invited me to visit them. I knew what was coming, those Christians love to 'convert' people, so I went armed with what I perceived as the truth. I was WELL prepared for the debate that I knew would commence at some point...
We finished dinner on the first night, it was 6:30pm. And it began...
They cornered me in the living room, and started thumping the Bible at me. I countered with Einstein, and this went on for NINE HOURS.
As a little side-trip to this long story, I was in fact maneuvering them into a logical corner where I would hit them with such a convincing argument that they would have to concede defeat. I was just biding my time, and honestly, I still to this day don't remember a single word that was said that night...
Anyway, it was 3:30am now. And they had fallen RIGHT into my trap. I was about to counter the last point with a logical checkmate, when suddenly...I believed!
I remember looking at the table, in full knowledge that I was about to win this argument, and there it was sitting there. A copy of the TRUTH! It was so clear, so suddenly, that it was exactly like a lightning strike in my soul. All this time, the TRUTH WAS RIGHT THERE! All I had to do was read it!
I believed. Jesus IS the Son of God. He DID die for my sins. I was WRONG.
Why do I believe I was saved?
Because, there is no reason for me to believe it, yet I do. There is not one shred of evidence to convince me, in all that time, in even my entire life up to that point. I just suddenly...understood.
Looking back on that moment in time, I realize now that there was no other possible way to convince me, except for my belief to stem from nothing at all. This goes against my nature.
LOL God is so SUBTLE in his dealings with each of us. It's so personal in nature, that I find it hard to believe that my story would touch anybody else on this Earth in the same way it touched me. Each one of us has a different path to His door, and we don't HAVE to find it.
He has already done the grunt work for you! ALL you need to do is believe, and when that time comes, it may not seem like a conscious choice. Don't let that discourage you.
I will say this...
In my case, and certainly I can't speak for others, it was not a choice 'I' made. It just...happened. From one moment to the next, I was His, and there was nothing I can think of that could have changed that.
In the years since then, I have not given up on science. Certainly science isn't the answer, it hardly even asks the right questions. But there is mathematical reason, there is logic, and each time I approach these workings of man, they convince me further of the faith I have in the Almighty, and in His Son.
A few things I have come to take for granted through science include the fact that God trascends time. It's said in many places in the old testament, "Before the foundations of the world were laid, there AM I." He certainly knows me, he knows my beginning, he knows my ending, from one moment to the next, he understands me better than I ever will. He knows the mistakes I will make tomorrow, but he does not love me any less for my failures. He did, after all, send his Son to be crucified for ME of all people.
One of my favorite sayings, perhaps one of the most important things that one can draw from science...the universe is essentially infinite, with an infinite number of facts. But, there can only ever be ONE TRUTH. There can only ever be one 'the way things are'. For science to be able to learn that truth, the human race would have to learn every fact, and have the intelligence to digest all those facts and come to the proper conclusion. Still, science can never learn what is on the other side, in that dimension that is Heaven. Therefore, without this important set of facts, that which exists in Heaven, science can never properly learn the absolute truth.
Instead, God provided me with a copy! Thousands of years of writing, all in a neat package. What a bonus!
Let's talk Einstein. Recently, physicists have been dumbfounded by one very important question in the make-up of our universe:
If the nucleus of an atom is all protons and neutrons, a tremendous positive charge that should repel itself, then what is holding it all together? Shouldn't everything just fly apart in a massive explosion?
Einstein discovered what he referred to as...the Strong Force. There is a force in existence that binds all this together. Although modern science created a proposed particle, which has never been proven, and called it a gluon, Einstein's own conclusion was...that this is the Hand of God.
As the Bible predicts, the Universe will be destroyed in a great fire, as God lets go His hold. This is an accurate prediction of what exactly would transpire if the Strong Force suddenly winked out of existence.
Lately, astro-physicists have developed a new theory. The Universe was not created in a Big Bang, but instead expanded very rapidly to near its current size. Why so fast?
According to science, time and space are intertwined. If the size of the universe was that of a pea at the beginning, time would have been proceeding at and EXTREMELY rapid pace. It is entirely possible that the 50 billion years of evolution that science had previously been saying occurred, actually occured in a matter of seconds, or minutes.
Fascinating.
Each new discovery provides for me further proof of His plan, and His existence.
But then, a saying I hold dear is also this:
"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't believe, no explanation is possible."
Each one of these things, that serves to reinforce my faith, and proves to me His existence, is also in the minds of those who don't believe further proof that He doesn't exist.
This is ALL about Faith. God has said so, and the fact that He has provided us not one shred of evidence for His existence, further reinforces my awe at the undertaking. To me, as a human being, it's not possible. But all things are possible with God.
It never ceases to amaze me.
Maybe all this will help you find your Faith. Maybe it won't. LOL personally, I don't see how it could. But then again, I'm not in charge here
Perhaps one last thing to think about -
You are not supposed to understand. You are only supposed to believe. Nothing more is required. John, chapter 3, verse 16 - this is all there is, there is nothing more.
The rest is between you and God!
(A quick edit) NONE of this, you will notice, has anything at all to do with Religion. If you come to believe the above, the church you choose will be perfect for you. But be advised, regardless of the RELIGION you choose, it's your FAITH that makes you a member of The Christian Church, and this trascends all doctrine.
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q_mark said:Hi,
How did that happen?
When I consider that moment in time, it almost seemed to me that, in the knowledge that I was about to win the argument...
...that I relaxed my guard for just a moment. And suddenly, the truth was revealed to me. What confirmed it was the instantaneous nature of the Baptism of Fire, where I received the Holy Spirit, and was suddenly humbled.
There is NO justification for this anywhere that I have found in my own being, or in my life. The event, in and of itself, has become the defining moment in my life. The moment I was born. Everything changed.
I was not at the end of my rope, in fact from a human standpoint, my life was just FINE! I didn't need to be saved, or so I thought...
I have come to realize that those moments in my life where I am shown where I am wrong, are those moments that I am most grateful FOR.
As a Christian, I find myself constantly under fire from those who are not believers. They quite often have this impression of me that I am somehow judging them by nature of my Faith, and therefore I am not welcome in their presence.
This is not true.
As a Christian, I am certainly assured that I AM a sinner, if nothing else. For me to judge another would require me to be perfect in nature, and I am not that, not by a long shot.
I often tell them directly that, really the only difference between me as a Christian, and them as unbelievers in our lives, is that I KNOW I am a sinner. By nature of this knowledge, then, I am more their servant than their superior in any way, shape or form. What they have done in THEIR lives is between them and God.
As a Christian, then, I am not devoted to telling everybody else where they are wrong. To do so only serves to strengthen their prideful nature, and push them that much further away from the Lord.
And I personally struggle with pride all the time. In order to receive instruction in my heart, pride cannot be present, and the mind must be quieted, all thoughts put aside. THIS is hard, especially for me. My mind is always on fire, always thinking, always worrying, always sinning...
But it's the quiet spirit that the Lord loves, and this is the reason. Through those periods of calm and quiet, of peace, He speaks.
I believe that this was the first time in my life that I experienced that moment of peace and calm, and this helped to open the path for His Grace to enter in.
Nevertheless, it doesn't matter. The fact remains the event DID take place. Why it took place could quite conceivably be beyond my ability to understand. Let's face it, this is GOD that we are talking about here after all, and His ways are beyond interpretation.
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Loki, I see you are familiar with Norse Mythology, it is quite interesting to say the least. As to your question, I do not have a solid answer for you, and I would doubt anyone that does. In the end, no one really knows what happens after death, or if there is a God or not. But I want you to think about something, and this is very serious, if you knew the true nature of spirituality, if you knew what happened after death, if you knew the level of your own significance, would that make you happy? Are we really worthy or capable of having complete knowledge. I would say no, however, the thirst for knowledge is a great tool, and you my friend clearly have it.
I could offer you quick solutions, and simple explanations as to why you exist, and what your purpose is, but I don't even know you. In the end, I believe that our meaning and our purpose are up to us to decide. As an atheist, I believe life is the most precious commodity we have. So my advice to you is to continue to seek knowledge from all walks of life, always being critical of what you are told. And if you ever do figure out the true meaning of life, keep it to yourself. For such knowledge, should not be told, only discovered.
I could offer you quick solutions, and simple explanations as to why you exist, and what your purpose is, but I don't even know you. In the end, I believe that our meaning and our purpose are up to us to decide. As an atheist, I believe life is the most precious commodity we have. So my advice to you is to continue to seek knowledge from all walks of life, always being critical of what you are told. And if you ever do figure out the true meaning of life, keep it to yourself. For such knowledge, should not be told, only discovered.
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