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Endure2 said:thankyou everyone,
the truth is, i just dont know who Jesus is anymore. my feelings and struggles lately havent caused me to come to a new idea about him,
You know what you're seeing here? Part of your sinful nature. Don't worry - it's still therebut just to become indiffrent about, i just havent thought alot about it.
angelwind said:This is true of me too brother Rupert...when I think of what you said...even after all the mistakes I have made...unbalanced teachings...my own sins and rebellions...I don't want to be without Jesus either...it was worth it all...to struggle thru and make it to a better place today...knowing much lies ahead...but resting more fully in the finished work of the cross and the love of God.
Looking forward to my eternal home...more and more everyday. Jesus is more wonderful every day...even now, even here.
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.
For if the word spoken thru angels proved stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.
Hebrews 2:1-4
kellyc said:edure, i recognize a lot of things you say because when i was young i felt them too. as time went by, i kind of decided to make no decisions about Jesus. i let it go. i didn't have to do anything at all. i had been asking God to give me more faith, but it didn't seem to work. i just stopped. maybe you are at that point to. we get burned out when we are the ones trying to be worthy of Jesus. you might have forgotten that God already sees you as perfect. there's nothing you can do to make yourself a better christian. maybe that is what you were doing all along? i guess if you try too hard you often fail, because you are trying the wrong things. i wish you all the best, and will pray that you realize how it is to be free in Christ, there is no condemnation. you don't have to try to be "good".
Apologetic said:I don't want this to be some kind of arrogant "been there, done that" reply, though it may sound like it at first glance. Let me first tell you that I know and have experienced what you are going through.
Our feelings are always a burden when they are down. But your feelings can never bring you closer to God. Neither can your struggles do so. Give up trying to save yourself. Give up. Christ died for us sinners, and you are one of us. What we humans tend to do, is mix our sanctification process into our status before God as justified through faith. Faith - remember - faith can become a "work". Don't strive to believe. Faith is such a difficult thing to define. Faith is proved by coming to Jesus with whatever is troubling you.
God is a God who hides Himself (Isa 45,15). Don't forget that. But wait for Him.
I know what it's like to not want to read the Bible or pray anymore. When it happened to me, I asked myself why I had become so tired, and I found out that it was because I had fallen into legalism and my faith was in danger. Are Rosenius' books availible in English? If so, you should read one of his. He was an evangelist during the 1800s. You sound to me like you're heavy burdened. Now here's a word from Jesus to YOU: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt 11,28. Just come to Him, and if you feel like you can't come to Him, tell Him so and He will come to you. There is nothing in you, as you are in yourself, that can make you stand up and walk over to Jesus. Let Him do it. He wants to be solo in saving your soul. Let Him be just that
You know what you're seeing here? Part of your sinful nature. Don't worry - it's still there. And it's gonna stick with you till the end of your stay on earth. But Jesus' blood is the payment for all sin, including our hideous, cold, indifferent and evil nature. It is Jesus' love that should be flowing through you, not your own. And His love doesn't depend on your feelings. In fact it doesn't even depend on your existance.
God loved you before He created the world, Endure2. He planned your creation along with everything else. And together with the fact that He knew YOU would want to follow His Son, Jesus. Now God is putting you on a test. He never puts us on tests we are unable to endure. Count on Jesus, and you'll be counting right.
God knew you would be a sinner, and He knew every person on earth would be a sinner because Adam would fall and sin in the place of the whole humanity, thus passing on the sinful nature, and every person would perish rightfully in the flames of hell, by God's justice... UNLESS!
Unless God sent His only begotten Son to earth to make complete payment for all of the sins ever to be comitted in the world. Jesus did so. He lived your life the way you should've. He believed in God the way you should've. He treated people and loved them the way you should've. He prayed like you should've. And finally, He bore the just and fair wrath of the Holy Lord God which you should've paid the penalty for in life and eternal death. He paid your debt in full (John 19,30) in His flesh when He died on the cross. He rose again in your place for YOUR justification. Your salvation is finished. There's NOTHING more for you to do. God is satisfied with Jesus' sacrifice. That's it. That's the gospel.
You say it's a fool's story to you, well yes, to the mind it is a fool's story and a fool's hope, but to every child of God, it is God's power to save people from eternal death.
Courage, courage, dear heart.
Gods Revenger said:PRAISE GOD! Your post also touched my heart and revealed to me what it is I needed to know to heal the wounds in my heart and soul. This gave me the answer I longed to know and didn't even know it! *lol* Right now, my spirit is at peace and I thank you, Apologetic, for your post. It was food to my soul.
thanks.
I don't know you,but we all go through times when we do start questioning. Believe me,in another post I stated that I am a struggling Christian, well I have even considered leaving the faith all together. I keep telling myself daily 2 thingsEndure2 said:i dont know why im making this post really, just thought i might should.
alot has happened and changed over the past year for me, alot of ups and downs, alot of choices good and bad, im not the same person i was 1 year ago.
no where near.
i dont know if i believe in God anymore, i know i use to post here alot and alot of people liked what i posted, but i honestly dont feel the way i use to anymore, its not like it use to be, im certainly not who i used to be.
i dont think i believe this anymore...
and even all the recent reconvertions i made recently, trying to make my life right again... i just dont think i can do this anymore, it feels like im living someone elses life, like a life full of cliches and idealism and lofty thoughts, sometimes it doesnt seem real. sometimes it seems like i try to find God but im really beginning to think no ones there, its like i sense that no one is really there.
im just not who i use to be, and a large part of me doesnt want to go back, i feel likes its all a bunch of grand stories, like im being fooled into a playing a part of a grand scheme that isnt real.
this is honestly how i feel right now, it was the worst yesterday.
i tried to repent of my sin and ask Jesus to help me, but it seemed like he wasnt there. and all of a sudden its like it dawned on me, that God isnt real, it was never real....
and the life i use to live and things i use to fully believe, they all seem like a big sharade now... a bunch of fools dreams.
it seems like reality and common sense is telling me to walk away from all this.
i havent made up my mind about anything, im scared of alot, scared to face my christian friends becuase i dont want to hear what they'll say, and scared to walk away from christianity becuase its all ive ever known and a part of me feels like im betraying my oldest and longest friend, but its really beginning to seem like its just a hoax and its all for nothing.
i just dont know anything anymore.
i dont believe anything whole heartedly anymore.
but nosticism doesnt look so foolish to me anymore. i used to condemn it, but now, im this close to falling into it head over heals.
Lets boil it down to basics. Please forgive my bluntness. I may be completely wrong. Is your greatest struggle with lust and touching yourself?Endure2 said:im not allowed to be a christian if i dont resist lust, pray everyday, read everyday, strive for holiness, try to live up to the ideal christian person
Endure2 said:yes it was.
that was what i could never truely definitly stop.
but... though i dont want to be the tradegy in a christian story be the example of what not to be, and i hope these people are still my frends,
untill God finds me one day and shows me diffrent with more than words, im not a christian anymore and im not going to let this bother me anymore.
everyone,
i hope i dont seem crude, evil or ungrateful.
but i cant do anything else.
If you go back and re-read your post you can see the problem is obviously rooted in selfishness. This is the reason you receive nothing of the Lord, who is our Source of strength. Uproot the the spirit of selfishness, which is leavening your religious experience, and God's Spirit will address itself to your heartEndure2 said:guys...
i just dont believe this anymore, becuase i dont want philosophy or reasoning or words, if he is real then i want to see him myself, im sure hes more than capable.
i dont mean to sound arogant, but i cant try to live something that calls for me to give up alot of things i enjoy doing and to believe in something i really dont know for sure is real... when the brilliance of mans understanding and witty thinking comes to an end... it may not have ever been true.
im beginning to feel christianity is based on ignorance and fear.
ignorance of another explanation or rebuttal to the lofty thoughts, proverbs, apparent truths or explanation of our existence and deep fear of a dreadful end without his grace.
and i cant trade what is so hard to believe isnt real and trustworthy, for something that seems so vague and fruitless.
when i ask him to let me see him or show me a miracle or something beyond just apologetics or reason, it doesnt happen. and im not demanding of him, but really sincerely asking him... i want to see him... but he never shows himself to me.
i feel like i was just brainwashed all my life.
i cant trade all i do have and do enjoy for something i cant see in a hope that is may be beneficail.
i dont want to live this intense lifestyle that christianity calls for... for what?
i dont see anything.
and if im truely wrong and deceived... then im not just fustrated or angry or kinda mislead... im on my way to a dreadful hell... and God knows this... if he loves me then why doesnt he talk to me so i will stop this doubting... and not burn for eternity? doesnt he understand that if hes real i really do want to see him, if hes real i want to know.
if hes real, i want him to show me and help me do what he wants from me.
i hope he isnt angry at me, i hope he doesnt let me wander blindly into a burning hell unknowingly just becuase i began to doubt or maybe even got a bit arogant.
i hope he doesnt turn me to a pillar of salt just becuase i looked back like he did lots wife...or have his servants destroy me, my wife and children just becuase im an unbeliever and i might corrupt his prize children one day when i just dont know any other way to live, like he did repeatedly in the old testament.
how could he do that to me? im the weak one arent i? the petty human creation? how am i supposed to be the strong one?
maybe hell do me like he did Job when Job eventually doubted and cursed the day he was born, in the end God openly rebuked Job and corrected him and asked "where were you when the heavons were formed? what do you know?" thats fine with me... its better then burning for eternity becuase i dont understand and got tricked.
i want to see him if hes real, experience him... and i dont want this bunch of bull that says things like "well hes too holy" ... im tired of patching up the gaping holes in my life with these goofy littly half baked explanations and these foolish ideologies about suffering through and not letting your eyes fool you and God speaks in diffrent ways or OH... maybe the devil is wrestling with my angel and he cant come to me!
i refuse to be a part of some unseen war between light and dark and the forces of good and evil, i dont want to be a white night in some holy war.
and i dont want to be a part of some secret society that knows things and does things the rest of the word doesnt know or know how to do... becuase "THEIR ALL DECIEVED... WE KNOW THE TRUTH THAT THEY CANT UNDERSTAND" unless they go agaisnt better judgement and convert.
i want to live in my little house on a hill and have a wife and kids and work a job and one day die and be no more and forgotten about (though a nice afterlife would be nice)... i dont want to be a part of some constantly intense lifestyle of fighting unseen demons and evil and having to save a world of people destined to burn in a fiery dungeon if i dont... and their bloods on my hands! having to read and pray and read and pray or else the evil will win!
i dont mean anyone anyharm... but it all seems to utterly foolish to me sometimes. Christianity is just so so lofty... and it seems to have given me nothing but heartache and worry...
this just isnt for me anymore, it seems to offer so little in return of my full devotion or maybe even my mortal life, everything except the real true walk with a real God that loves me and is there for me.
Lee.
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