I don't want to live here anymore.

[Patchygirl1964]

I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I live in a house made of bricks that I have to pay £1400 a month for including to heat it up, just to keep me warm and pay for water so I can be clean. Go to work, come home, eat, sleep. It's the same thing every day. My youngest daughter is 16 and at college and she lives with me. I ask the Lord to use me. I have been asking for many years. I want it to be from the Lord though and not someone suggesting I volunteer my time for some charity. I have volunteered my time many times here in the UK but that wasn't for the Lord. I have always known that God would use me one day to help others. We all strive to be like Jesus but are we really striving to be like Him. It's easy to preach but we need to practise it also. Going to church on a Sunday for 90 minutes doesn't do anything for me except feel separated from the ones who think they are better than others. Church is just another building to me with a man who preaches who studied theology. It's never really from the heart and it's frustrating. My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

 

[SkyWriting]

I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I live in a house made of bricks that I have to pay £1400 a month for including to heat it up, just to keep me warm and pay for water so I can be clean. Go to work, come home, eat, sleep. It's the same thing every day. My youngest daughter is 16 and at college and she lives with me. I ask the Lord to use me. I have been asking for many years. I want it to be from the Lord though and not someone suggesting I volunteer my time for some charity. I have volunteered my time many times here in the UK but that wasn't for the Lord. I have always known that God would use me one day to help others. We all strive to be like Jesus but are we really striving to be like Him. It's easy to preach but we need to practise it also. Going to church on a Sunday for 90 minutes doesn't do anything for me except feel separated from the ones who think they are better than others. Church is just another building to me with a man who preaches who studied theology. It's never really from the heart and it's frustrating. My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

Any thought you have and any tasks that you do will be for the Lords work, if you let it. Even trials and tribulations and debt, and rent can all be in the Lords Honor....if you allow it to be. It already is His. You just need to give the situation back to Him so you can appreciate the journey He takes you on.

 

[Tolworth John]

. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

What is easier to steer a car thats rolling or one that has the brake on?

If you want to serve God, get involved in what ever activity moves you.

Be the social conscience in your church.
Bring to there attention needs and solutions that they can contribute to.

Ak questions of the preacher about how do we apply his sermon to every day life, like situation........?

 

[Patchygirl1964]

Any thought you have and any tasks that you do will be for the Lords work, if you let it. Even trials and tribulations and debt, and rent can all be in the Lords Honor....if you allow it to be. It already is His. You just need to give the situation back to Him so you can appreciate the journey He takes you on.

Yes Thank you. It's just frustration. Maybe it's me. Feel like I am stuck in the rat race.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I live in a house made of bricks that I have to pay £1400 a month for including to heat it up, just to keep me warm and pay for water so I can be clean. Go to work, come home, eat, sleep. It's the same thing every day. My youngest daughter is 16 and at college and she lives with me. I ask the Lord to use me. I have been asking for many years. I want it to be from the Lord though and not someone suggesting I volunteer my time for some charity. I have volunteered my time many times here in the UK but that wasn't for the Lord. I have always known that God would use me one day to help others. We all strive to be like Jesus but are we really striving to be like Him. It's easy to preach but we need to practise it also. Going to church on a Sunday for 90 minutes doesn't do anything for me except feel separated from the ones who think they are better than others. Church is just another building to me with a man who preaches who studied theology. It's never really from the heart and it's frustrating. My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

There is a difference between having religion and being truly converted to Christ. I was in a church for two years after receiving Christ as my Saviour, but I became frustrated because I was doing all the church stuff but I didn't know God Himself. So I started to seek God to find Him for myself and actually meet Him and know Him. One night I went out into the middle of a park and introduced myself to God. I told Him that He was in earshot of my voice and I needed to know Him personally or else I was going to give the whole church thing away. One moment I didn't know Him and the next I did! I can't tell you how that happened, but it did. Something happened inside of me and I knew God was real, that He were really there, and that He knew me personally. I heard His voice in my heart and He called me by my name!

That happened in 1969, and I have never lost that sense of God being right there with me. I think that I was truly converted to Christ that night, because my whole life changed. Then I didn't worry about churches and all that religious stuff. I didn't worry about what I was going to do or where I was going to go. I was having personal fellowship with God and I just knew that what I did was going to be what He wanted me to do. He told me to just by myself and if He didn't like me, He would change me. And that is just what He did.

Now this happened away from any church, so I learned that God is His own Person and not the church, and the church is not God. This meant that it didn't matter what type of church I went to because if God led me there, then that would be okay. I have been involved in several denominational situations, and God has already been there for me. I am not worried about what other believe or do, and if I no longer have a place in a church, there is always another one down the road that God can send me to. And when I get there, He will give me things to do to minister to others.

So, my answer to you is to get with Christ, seek Him until you find Him. Don't try and find Him through a church or anyone else, because you won't find Him there. Get away by yourself, and seek Him directly. I would be very surprised if you don't have the same encounter with God that I had in 1969.

Then, the Bible becomes a new book for you, because then you experience God speaking to you through it. I have never memorized any Scripture, but when I need confirmation about something, the right Scripture pops into my head. So the Holy Spirit feeds me with the right Scripture without me having to memorize any. But in order for Him to be able to do that, you have to read and study the Bible in your personal time.

 

[Patchygirl1964]

What is easier to steer a car thats rolling or one that has the brake on?

If you want to serve God, get involved in what ever activity moves you.

Be the social conscience in your church.
Bring to there attention needs and solutions that they can contribute to.

Ak questions of the preacher about how do we apply his sermon to every day life, like situation........?

Thank you. The ones who have not heard, the needy are the ones that move me. I don't think this country is that needy though as someone is always helping someone no matter how small. I just need to relax and wait on the Lord. I am not happy at the church I go to. It is Anglican, church of England. It is very boring. I have been to other churches where they are money orientated and I can't relax. I find spending time alone with God is far better for me than spending time at a church. I get to hear God that way. In church people shout out what they THINK God is saying. They say "I think God is saying this and that" They think? They wouldn't have to think if it was from God.

 

[Patchygirl1964]

There is a difference between having religion and being truly converted to Christ. I was in a church for two years after receiving Christ as my Saviour, but I became frustrated because I was doing all the church stuff but I didn't know God Himself. So I started to seek God to find Him for myself and actually meet Him and know Him. One night I went out into the middle of a park and introduced myself to God. I told Him that He was in earshot of my voice and I needed to know Him personally or else I was going to give the whole church thing away. One moment I didn't know Him and the next I did! I can't tell you how that happened, but it did. Something happened inside of me and I knew God was real, that He were really there, and that He knew me personally. I heard His voice in my heart and He called me by my name!

That happened in 1969, and I have never lost that sense of God being right there with me. I think that I was truly converted to Christ that night, because my whole life changed. Then I didn't worry about churches and all that religious stuff. I didn't worry about what I was going to do or where I was going to go. I was having personal fellowship with God and I just knew that what I did was going to be what He wanted me to do. He told me to just by myself and if He didn't like me, He would change me. And that is just what He did.

Now this happened away from any church, so I learned that God is His own Person and not the church, and the church is not God. This meant that it didn't matter what type of church I went to because if God led me there, then that would be okay. I have been involved in several denominational situations, and God has already been there for me. I am not worried about what other believe or do, and if I no longer have a place in a church, there is always another one down the road that God can send me to. And when I get there, He will give me things to do to minister to others.

So, my answer to you is to get with Christ, seek Him until you find Him. Don't try and find Him through a church or anyone else, because you won't find Him there. Get away by yourself, and seek Him directly. I would be very surprised if you don't have the same encounter with God that I had in 1969.

Then, the Bible becomes a new book for you, because then you experience God speaking to you through it. I have never memorized any Scripture, but when I need confirmation about something, the right Scripture pops into my head. So the Holy Spirit feeds me with the right Scripture without me having to memorize any. But in order for Him to be able to do that, you have to read and study the Bible in your personal time.

Oh my word, you are an amazing man. (I hope you are a man and not a woman and Osccar could be your cat) I cannot Thank you enough for what you wrote. I did exactly what you did. I was just 9 years old and my whole life I have had that personal relationship you have just wrote about. Isn't God amazing. I am so happy to meet you on here. My relationship with God is all that matters. I am learning about Him every day. Many many Blessings to you and your family and Thank you Lord.

 

[Tolworth John]

I am not happy at the church I go to. It is Anglican, church of England. It is very boring. I have been to other churches where they are money orientated and I can't relax.

I'm always reminded of Duncan Campbell when people complain about church, how having come to a vibrant faith in Jesus, he continued to faithfully attend his local church. He much later heard that his faithfullness was a contribution in the savingof the minister of that church.

Go and be a light, you want to serve so serve where you are.
Can it be harder than learning a language, culture and going abroad?

 

[Patchygirl1964]

The saving of the minister of that church? ok?

 

[Johnny4ChristJesus]

I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I live in a house made of bricks that I have to pay £1400 a month for including to heat it up, just to keep me warm and pay for water so I can be clean. Go to work, come home, eat, sleep. It's the same thing every day. My youngest daughter is 16 and at college and she lives with me. I ask the Lord to use me. I have been asking for many years. I want it to be from the Lord though and not someone suggesting I volunteer my time for some charity. I have volunteered my time many times here in the UK but that wasn't for the Lord. I have always known that God would use me one day to help others. We all strive to be like Jesus but are we really striving to be like Him. It's easy to preach but we need to practise it also. Going to church on a Sunday for 90 minutes doesn't do anything for me except feel separated from the ones who think they are better than others. Church is just another building to me with a man who preaches who studied theology. It's never really from the heart and it's frustrating. My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

What about working and living at a children's home with your 16 year old and helping young unwed pregnant mothers learn how to become healthy moms? Are there any Christian-based children's homes where you could share your faith and help others in need? You would be a full-time missionary serving to take care of orphans or others in need of seeing God's Light through you.

 

[Thess]

I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I live in a house made of bricks that I have to pay £1400 a month for including to heat it up, just to keep me warm and pay for water so I can be clean. Go to work, come home, eat, sleep. It's the same thing every day. My youngest daughter is 16 and at college and she lives with me. I ask the Lord to use me. I have been asking for many years. I want it to be from the Lord though and not someone suggesting I volunteer my time for some charity. I have volunteered my time many times here in the UK but that wasn't for the Lord. I have always known that God would use me one day to help others. We all strive to be like Jesus but are we really striving to be like Him. It's easy to preach but we need to practise it also. Going to church on a Sunday for 90 minutes doesn't do anything for me except feel separated from the ones who think they are better than others. Church is just another building to me with a man who preaches who studied theology. It's never really from the heart and it's frustrating. My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

You, my friend, are speaking as though you are 100% a child of God! Don't be discouraged, instead, KNOW that you are waking up! You are becoming wise to the world as you move away from it, no more a part of this world than the moon. We are living in a type of emotional matrix, where we know not what it is that we're doing. Sound familiar? Jesus said this, Paul said this as well as Stephen as he was being stoned to death.

What you are describing is essentially the doctrine of hardened hearts. The hardening of hearts is an incredibly useful tool, for example, The disciples hearts were hardened prior to Jesus's death and resurrections, for if their hearts had not been hardened by God Himself, the disciples would have been murdered, too, hauled off with Christ. So while it seems unfair that the disciples hearts were hardened, God's doing so saved their lives and more, the hardening of hearts is what made the Gospel of Christ live on as it is today.

I, myself, feel like a complete foreigner in this world. Both sides of my family have rejected me and all of my friends have either left or I left them because of their hypocrisy towards God. I literally have not a single family member or friend in my life....but here is the deal: God envisioned me before the creation of the world, so He thought of me and He created me. How amazing! And while I was placed in the middle of large group of insane, unregenerate people, I was still a sparkle in God's eyes, AND SO ARE YOU. When I came to know that I was deeply loved by God, I became that much more invincible. God has a plan for you and it is being worked out right now. Pray for the truth. I promise you that you diligently pray for the truth, you entire understanding of things will change and your R12-2 experience will begin if it hasn't already. Pray for truth constantly. For if your prayers are born out of confusion, they will be coming from the same place as the Easter Bunny Rabbit, Santa Claus and the Jolly Green Giant.

I believe in you for sure and I know with total certainty that God believes in you, too. You are clearly being prepared. Do you understand? You are clearly being prepared right now, so revel in that! Now go, become more confident so that you can share more! Your post was fantastic.

 

[Soul-searching]

I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I live in a house made of bricks that I have to pay £1400 a month for including to heat it up, just to keep me warm and pay for water so I can be clean. Go to work, come home, eat, sleep. It's the same thing every day. My youngest daughter is 16 and at college and she lives with me. I ask the Lord to use me. I have been asking for many years. I want it to be from the Lord though and not someone suggesting I volunteer my time for some charity. I have volunteered my time many times here in the UK but that wasn't for the Lord. I have always known that God would use me one day to help others. We all strive to be like Jesus but are we really striving to be like Him. It's easy to preach but we need to practise it also. Going to church on a Sunday for 90 minutes doesn't do anything for me except feel separated from the ones who think they are better than others. Church is just another building to me with a man who preaches who studied theology. It's never really from the heart and it's frustrating. My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong. Lord send me where you want me, away from greed. There is nothing fair or equal about this world.

I do understand your longing for wanting more. What i feel is in the way in most cases, is people not seing things in the small perspective, and having too high expectation. To learn how to change something, we must first be grateful for what we have, and what we have done. By that comes faith and opportunities to do something new. If our whole view is based on negativity, that is what we will attract. Not everyone is the same, and even though there is great unfairness in this world, there is also good, and good people, we just need to open our eyes and see it. Not all people need to save the world. It´s equally important to give a hungry man something to eat, or help an old lady over the road, save a kitten, you name it, because that is something big. If you can care about others, love others, help others in need, then that is all it takes, and by that you are doing something big.

 

[maintenance man]

My church was a standard church building, and they went and spent £1.2 million pounds for an extension so they can have more tables to eat and yet half a mile down the road the homeless were begging for something to eat. It's all wrong.

I know your frustration. We build these big worship facilities that take an enormous amount of money to simply maintain while people across the street are having a hard time making ends meet. And later, when the congregation gets older and attendance begins to fade away, only half of the facility is used.

Nevertheless, I can make a strong argument for the big facility when it's used properly.

There is a trend to go back to home churches of only 10 - 20 people that honestly take care of each other. I like the concept, but it leaves out the value of a strong children's ministry, and an uplifting music department, and the financial power a large congregation has to send out missionaries or do other community service projects.

I used to say, like you, "It's all wrong" but now I'm more inclined to say "It's all mixed up."

There is lots of good being done by many different churches and organizations outside the church. It would be nice to see it all come together in a unified effort in some way.

As individuals, we need to trust God put us right where He needs us and take a careful assessment of what He is asking us to do with our resources. Your post on this board has opened the hearts and minds of many - Praise God! I often have the feeling that God is very subtle and incremental - not inclined to getting things done all at once. There's much to be learned in the slow and steady process. We are being trained for eternity. That's a long time.

I'm praying you find a clear sense of God's direction in your life. Blessings!

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Oh my word, you are an amazing man. (I hope you are a man and not a woman and Osccar could be your cat) I cannot Thank you enough for what you wrote. I did exactly what you did. I was just 9 years old and my whole life I have had that personal relationship you have just wrote about. Isn't God amazing. I am so happy to meet you on here. My relationship with God is all that matters. I am learning about Him every day. Many many Blessings to you and your family and Thank you Lord.

I am a man, and Oscarr was the nickname my mother gave me as a child. I just put the extra r on the end for it to be accepted as my user name. I have three cats, Daisy, Mitten and Reizo.

It's not really that I am an amazing man, it is that we both have an amazing Saviour!!

 

[Patchygirl1964]

I know your frustration. We build these big worship facilities that take an enormous amount of money to simply maintain while people across the street are having a hard time making ends meet. And later, when the congregation gets older and attendance begins to fade away, only half of the facility is used.

Nevertheless, I can make a strong argument for the big facility when it's used properly.

There is a trend to go back to home churches of only 10 - 20 people that honestly take care of each other. I like the concept, but it leaves out the value of a strong children's ministry, and an uplifting music department, and the financial power a large congregation has to send out missionaries or do other community service projects.

I used to say, like you, "It's all wrong" but now I'm more inclined to say "It's all mixed up."

There is lots of good being done by many different churches and organizations outside the church. It would be nice to see it all come together in a unified effort in some way.

As individuals, we need to trust God put us right where He needs us and take a careful assessment of what He is asking us to do with our resources. Your post on this board has opened the hearts and minds of many - Praise God! I often have the feeling that God is very subtle and incremental - not inclined to getting things done all at once. There's much to be learned in the slow and steady process. We are being trained for eternity. That's a long time.

I'm praying you find a clear sense of God's direction in your life. Blessings!

 

[Patchygirl1964]

It is a long time to be trained for eternity, but how long is long enough for us. To God, one day is like a thousand years but to us it is one day so we are unable to understand the power of the Almighty. He is Almighty and we strive to be like Him but again its an understatement. I love God with all my heart and He knows that. I just don't get the church. It is good for us all to gather together but I don't see how that helps us. It hasn't helped me.

 

[Patchygirl1964]

I live in the real world as much as the world is real. I cannot comprehend bad things happening to our children. I can comprehend the elderly though as they have had their time on earth. People are living more than 70 years. I work with the elderly and they are so disrespectful. I was always told to respect them, yet they dont respect us. I am humbly submissive but that doesn't mean people can walk all over me. God knows my heart. He knows what I am about. After all He created me. People may judge me and they will never be a judge on this earth. Only God is my judge. God is my Father. I love Him with all my heart. I don't want to disrespect Him. God knows whats going on. We presume we do because we want to be like Him.

 

[maintenance man]

I just don't get the church. It is good for us all to gather together but I don't see how that helps us. It hasn't helped me.

I think that's a real problem that the church in general needs to deal with. Church attendance here in America is on the decline and I believe it's much worse in the UK. I suppose, depending on which church we're talking about, they will say the church doesn't change - it is what it is. My point of view is the church needs to adapt and respond to today's culture - the devil has adapted and is doing quite well - the church needs to become more relevant or it will simply disappear.

 

[Patchygirl1964]

I think that's a real problem that the church in general needs to deal with. Church attendance here in America is on the decline and I believe it's much worse in the UK. I suppose, depending on which church we're talking about, they will say the church doesn't change - it is what it is. My point of view is the church needs to adapt and respond to today's culture - the devil has adapted and is doing quite well - the church needs to become more relevant or it will simply disappear.

Im talking all churches. Its the people that are destroying it. Its very cliche where I live and most people think they know more than the Lord or that they know Him more than we do.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

It is a long time to be trained for eternity, but how long is long enough for us. To God, one day is like a thousand years but to us it is one day so we are unable to understand the power of the Almighty. He is Almighty and we strive to be like Him but again its an understatement. I love God with all my heart and He knows that. I just don't get the church. It is good for us all to gather together but I don't see how that helps us. It hasn't helped me.

I have written two books - "Is Your Church A Fellowship Centre Or A Religious Temple?" and, "Why Do You Go To Church?. I wrote the first one, and then when I compiled the second one, I included the material from the first one in it.

The first book is a comparison between our modern churches and the New Testament Church, and shows what a church should be.

The second book is an examination of the motives and reasons why WE go to church, and it contains some of the motivation by which we SHOULD go to church.

If anyone wants a digital copy of these books, PM me and I will be glad to attach one to you. I don't charge for them when I invite people, because it is important to me that the message gets out to those who are disillusioned with their church and start to wonder what church is all about and why so many who love the Lord and want to serve Him feel like square pegs in round holes when they attend their church.