New member seeking advice

[Jtyrer]

hello everybody

my name is johnathan from the UK,im a christian and i am 42 years of age and i feel as if things are changing in my life and somehow have experienced a current change in my attitude and im feeling very positive and i want to re-connect with god,i must be totally honest and confess that i don't go to church and people that i work with or socialise with are non-believers in the church or god but i am seeking answers,my thoughts are consistent on god,i have a good heart but i don't really show it and somehow i feel as if i have to rely on a tough image when really i just want to be a good person, enjoy life and love others

my nans passing early this week has encouraged me to connect with others but recently whilst thinking of god certain things have happened like a church pops up all of a sudden whilst driving (at the same time as im thinking of god),many other things have happened which are small but seem significant somehow?

i will be attending my nans funeral next week and i will be talking with the vicar about all of this

i also feel somehow that it is my time to connect with god,

this is the first forum that i have joined and would humbly like to join in with people all over the world, please guide me here!,im not up to date with the bible,im a sinner and im not in a circle of people who are followers of god but it really is time for me to join god

books,online help and being in the good company of believers on forums is what i need

many thanks for your time - johnathan

 

[Emli]

Welcome Johnathan,

The Father is calling you, so I know that He is going to be leading you closer to Himself again. Just make sure to pray and seek and study His Word.

Praying for you, and may God bless you and teach you everything that you need to know, in Jesus' name, amen!

 

[Sam91]

Hi and welcome to CF.

I am sorry for your loss.

Were you a Christian growing up?

 

[Jtyrer]

Hi and welcome to CF.

I am sorry for your loss.

Were you a Christian growing up?

Hi,thanks for the prompt reply, yes i was a christian growing up and i was confirmed at the church of england,i haven't been going to church since my mid teens however

 

[Jtyrer]

Hi,thanks for the prompt reply, yes i was a christian growing up and i was confirmed at the church of england,i haven't been going to church since my mid teens however

i feel a bit confused and i need guiding,thankyou

 

[Emli]

Hi,thanks for the prompt reply, yes i was a christian growing up and i was confirmed at the church of england,i haven't been going to church since my mid teens however

Have you been spending any time alone with God since then, praying or reading the Bible?

 

[Jtyrer]

Have you been spending any time alone with God since then, praying or reading the Bible?

no i haven't,reading a children's bible to my daughter is all

 

[Emli]

The first thing you need to do is to seek God in prayer, and ask Him to lead you. Because it's about you and Him. Whatever comes out of your heart is okay. He knows what's going on, and He knows what has to happen next.

Then you need to repent. Ask for forgiveness for living a sinful life without Him, and ask Him to teach you His Ways. And ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit if you don't already have it.

Pray to the Father in Jesus' name, you probably remember how to do this from church. Don't be timid, because He loves you.

No one on this forum can tell you exactly what to do. Only God can. But you can ask your questions here, and receive a lot of good advice. Just put God first. Study the Bible, and pray and seek His will. That's what we all have to do.

 

[Jtyrer]

The first thing you need to do is to seek God in prayer, and ask Him to lead you. Because it's about you and Him. Whatever comes out of your heart is okay. He knows what's going on, and He knows what has to happen next.

Then you need to repent. Ask for forgiveness for living a sinful life without Him, and ask Him to teach you His Ways. And ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit if you don't already have it.

Pray to the Father in Jesus' name, you probably remember how to do this from church. Don't be timid, because He loves you.

No one on this forum can tell you exactly what to do. Only God can. But you can ask your questions here, and receive a lot of good advice. Just put God first. Study the Bible, and pray and seek His will. That's what we all have to do.

Thankyou,i appreciate it, i could write a big reply but i think just saying that 'it starts today' is enough to thankyou

can i ask you,is there an updated version of the bible?

 

[Emli]

Thankyou,i appreciate it, i could write a big reply but i think just saying that 'it starts today' is enough to thankyou

can i ask you,is there an updated version of the bible?

There are many different translations of the Bible. Some good, some less good, in my opinion. I would assume that you have read the King James Version when you were young, being from the UK? There are old versions and newer versions of it, I think. I tend to switch between KJV and NIV, the New International Version, but none of them is perfect.
You could download a Bible app that has all the translations and see what works best for you.

 

[discipler7]

books,online help and being in the good company of believers on forums is what i need

.
For a start, here's my summary of the Bible or Word of God.

0. God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. God has His throne in heaven.(EZE.1, REV.4) Satan and his demons rebelled against God.(ISA.14:12, EZE.28:17, REV.12:4-9)
....... God-in-heaven desired to replace the spiritual rebels with S'piritual humans. Earth is like a test-bed for this purpose.

1. On earth, all humans are born sinful/evil/satanic because of Adam's Original Sin = unclean/dirty/unholy = bound for hell when they die.(ROM.5:12)

2. No humans on earth can see the true face of God and live.(EXO.33:20, JOHN.1:18 & 5:37)

3. To save fallen humans, God-in-heaven endeavoured to come down to earth in lesser forms as the invisible Spirit or as the visible human(= Angel of God or Jesus Christ). (JOHN.8:58/EXO.3:14, JOHN.1:1 & 14, 1TIM.3:16, 2COR.3:17, ISA.9:6)
....... As the Spirit, God-in-heaven gave His Law to Moses and the Jews, in order to curb humans' inborn tendency to commit sins/evil-deeds/satanic-deeds.(DEUT.28)
....... As Jesus Christ, God-in-heaven gave the apostles and Christians the sacrificial Lamb of God on the Cross(JOHN.1:29), in order to save them from hell when they die = the free gift of salvation or the kingdom of heaven through faith.(JOHN.3:16, MATT.4:17, GAL.2:16)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

A good analogy of our One and Only God is our one and only sun.
... God-the-Father-in-heaven sends His invisible Spirit and His visible Son-Jesus to earth to sustain immortal life = the sun-in-outer-space sends her invisible warmth/heat and her visible light to earth to sustain mortal life.
.
.
.
.
The Bible or Word of God can be broken down into 2 parts, the Old and New Testaments/Covenants, ie,

(i) if you wanna have a good n long life on earth, you need to keep the Law/Word of God.(DEUT.28, MATT.19:21, ACTS.15:24-29, cf; 1COR.5:1-5 & 11:30, 1JOHN.5:16-19),

(ii) if you wanna go to heaven when you die, you need to be saved from hell by Jesus the Christ/Messiah/Savior.(MATT.5:27-30, ROM.5:12, LEV.17:11, HEB.9:22, JOHN.3:16, 1COR.6:9-11, REV.22:12-15)

Christians should aim to achieve both, ie to gain both blessings from God, eg MATT.19:23.
.
.
Bc of our inherited Adam's Original Sin, we have the dual problems of INVOLUNTARY satanic/evil/sinful thoughts, eg immoral lust, hate, anger, greed, selfishness, jealousy, fear/worries, doubts, etc, ...and VOLUNTARY satanic/evil/sinful deeds, eg blasphemy, idolatry, murder, adultery/fornication/rape, stealing, lying/cheating/defrauding, etc.
....... The former resulted in being cursed/sent to hell when we die(GEN.3:14-16) and the latter resulted in being cursed by God with a sad and short life on earth. God's Law solved the latter and God's Son solved the former.
....... Usually, before someone committed murder, he/she had originally harbored hate or greed or lust or jealousy or etc in his/her heart and mind.(source is spiritually from Satan - JOHN.8:44, MATT.16:23 & 23:27, MARK.7:21, 1JOHN.3:8)) IOW, all humans are born satanic/evil/sinful/unclean, from their hearts to their feet.
.
.
At ACTS.15:24-29, God/Jesus requires Gentile Christians to begin their born-again lives of the Spirit by keeping 4 easy or non-burdensome laws of Moses, ie avoid eating blood, strangled animals, foods sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality = minimum legal requirement. They r then given time to learn to gradually keep the other laws of Moses which are not a burden, esp morality laws, eg the Ten Commandments at EXODUS.20, LEVITICUS.10:9, DEUTERONOMY.18:9-14, etc.
....... In comparison, Jewish Christians are required by God/Jesus to continue to keep Moses Law, as many as possible, because it is not a burden to them.
....... Eg, Gentile Christians should still avoid homosexuality and continue to eat non-kosher foods because the former is not a burden but the latter is a burden(ie it's a burden for them to keep the food laws).
... Faith in God's Son, Jesus = faith in God's Word/Law/commandments because JOHN.1:1 says the Son is the Word and is also God.

We need to properly differentiate between involuntary satanic/evil/sinful thoughts and voluntary sins/evil deeds, and between involuntary or inborn Gentile and Jewish Christians.

Analogy about involuntary evil/satanic thoughts and voluntary evil-deeds/sins - black crows often squawks noisily over our heads but we should not let them build their dirty nests on our heads.

 

[Dave G.]

Welcome ! I agree that God is calling you, all you need do is respond and believe, trust in Him and let Him guide you. Trust in Him more than in yourself.

You can go to Bible Gateway ( online) and read any version of the bible made just about. You should have a good bedside/in house paper version of your favorite,least for me the organic feel of paper and leather bound has a meaning of reality. But Bible Gateway is great for out and about, for scripture searches and for commentaries. I would suggest to you the ESV, NKJV and NASB as good starting points. The older NIV is more accurate than the new versions ( around 1978 was good).

 

[R. Hartono]

God bless you Jonathan,

If i can restart my life as a young man, i would only want to live in God.

 

[miamited]

Hi jonathan,

Welcome! I'm sure you will find folks willing to help you in your search here. Myself, I believe that it begins with truly understanding who God is and what He is asking of us. That knowledge comes to us through the Scriptures with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As you read through the Scriptures, if you decide to do that, I think you'll find from Genesis to Jude an historical account of all that God has done in this realm. The Scriptures tell us that God created all things. The writing that we ascribe to John tells us: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Basically there is nothing in all of our universe, both known to us and as yet unknown to us, that God didn't make. He created a realm of life and He created all of this realm for man. A place that a creature God has made, called man, could live and eat and have life.

The first man, Adam, sinned and through that sin, the nature of man to sin has been passed down to every one who has ever been born by the union of a man and a woman. That includes me and that includes you and it includes the pope and the president and everyone else.

However, God has provided a way out of the eventuality of where our sin nature will lead us. The Scriptures tell us that there will be a day in which all mankind is judged. Now, this is one of the places that causes men to stumble. Some of us, since there isn't any verifiable proof that such a day will come other than what we read in the Scriptures, want to deny that such a thing will ever happen. Some say that when we die we just cease to exist and the world just keeps going on and any single individual will just never be again. Some believe that we will be reincarnated until we get it right. But the Scriptures tell us: Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.

So, what is this plan that God has set in place that we can escape the day of judgment? The Scriptures tell us that it is through the knowledge and acceptance of Jesus as our Savior. Jesus is God's Son. He was not born in the usual manner of a man lying with a woman as you and I and every other person living upon the earth today were conceived. Jesus said that if we believe in him we can find eternal life with God. We will be given peace with the God and Creator of all that is. Our sin nature and all the sins that come from that will be forgiven and on the day of God's judgment of all mankind, those who have truly accepted Jesus as Lord in their hearts will be saved from the other eternity of eternal struggle and pain.

Is this what you want?

God bless,
In Christ, ted

 

[mukk_in]

hello everybody

my name is johnathan from the UK,im a christian and i am 42 years of age and i feel as if things are changing in my life and somehow have experienced a current change in my attitude and im feeling very positive and i want to re-connect with god,i must be totally honest and confess that i don't go to church and people that i work with or socialise with are non-believers in the church or god but i am seeking answers,my thoughts are consistent on god,i have a good heart but i don't really show it and somehow i feel as if i have to rely on a tough image when really i just want to be a good person, enjoy life and love others

my nans passing early this week has encouraged me to connect with others but recently whilst thinking of god certain things have happened like a church pops up all of a sudden whilst driving (at the same time as im thinking of god),many other things have happened which are small but seem significant somehow?

i will be attending my nans funeral next week and i will be talking with the vicar about all of this

i also feel somehow that it is my time to connect with god,

this is the first forum that i have joined and would humbly like to join in with people all over the world, please guide me here!,im not up to date with the bible,im a sinner and im not in a circle of people who are followers of god but it really is time for me to join god

books,online help and being in the good company of believers on forums is what i need

many thanks for your time - johnathan

Hello, Jonathan. Welcome to CF.

 

[Sam91]

Hi again Johnathan.

We have a great sermon today on Luke 15! I just thought of it again, go read it!!!

3 Then Jesus told them this parable. 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Read the other parables in that chapter too!

 

[Anhelyna]

Welcome Johnathan

You are getting lots of help here - and I wonder if it might get a bit unwieldy in this thread - which is really meant for a brief introduction

Perhaps you would consider posting in Christian Advice - Christian Advice which would give you a chance of keeping it all nice and tidy

Hope you enjoy being with us here

 

[2PhiloVoid]

hello everybody

my name is johnathan from the UK,im a christian and i am 42 years of age and i feel as if things are changing in my life and somehow have experienced a current change in my attitude and im feeling very positive and i want to re-connect with god,i must be totally honest and confess that i don't go to church and people that i work with or socialise with are non-believers in the church or god but i am seeking answers,my thoughts are consistent on god,i have a good heart but i don't really show it and somehow i feel as if i have to rely on a tough image when really i just want to be a good person, enjoy life and love others

my nans passing early this week has encouraged me to connect with others but recently whilst thinking of god certain things have happened like a church pops up all of a sudden whilst driving (at the same time as im thinking of god),many other things have happened which are small but seem significant somehow?

i will be attending my nans funeral next week and i will be talking with the vicar about all of this

i also feel somehow that it is my time to connect with god,

this is the first forum that i have joined and would humbly like to join in with people all over the world, please guide me here!,im not up to date with the bible,im a sinner and im not in a circle of people who are followers of god but it really is time for me to join god

books,online help and being in the good company of believers on forums is what i need

many thanks for your time - johnathan

Hello, Johnathan (from the UK)! Welcome to CF! That's great to hear that you feel God is working some new things in your life.

While many of us here could offer you an entire boatload of advice, I'd rather just say that within the Christian faith, as each one of us finds it and encounters it, there are a multitude of things to consider. However, the trick is to not think that the Lord really intends for us to fully understand it all, even in the course of our entire lifetime. It's probably better to see faith in Jesus Christ as an ongoing opportunity for exploration and discovery and to take small steps in our journey of faith, and then to try to apply what we've learned about the Christian life as best we can.

Anyway, blessings and cheers to you from the U.S.!

Peace,
2PhiloVoid

 

[gym_class_hero]

Hey Johnathan, God bless you. Here's a link to a great preacher/evangelist from England.

www.canonjjohn.com

 

[faroukfarouk]

hello everybody

my name is johnathan from the UK,im a christian and i am 42 years of age and i feel as if things are changing in my life and somehow have experienced a current change in my attitude and im feeling very positive and i want to re-connect with god,i must be totally honest and confess that i don't go to church and people that i work with or socialise with are non-believers in the church or god but i am seeking answers,my thoughts are consistent on god,i have a good heart but i don't really show it and somehow i feel as if i have to rely on a tough image when really i just want to be a good person, enjoy life and love others

my nans passing early this week has encouraged me to connect with others but recently whilst thinking of god certain things have happened like a church pops up all of a sudden whilst driving (at the same time as im thinking of god),many other things have happened which are small but seem significant somehow?

i will be attending my nans funeral next week and i will be talking with the vicar about all of this

i also feel somehow that it is my time to connect with god,

this is the first forum that i have joined and would humbly like to join in with people all over the world, please guide me here!,im not up to date with the bible,im a sinner and im not in a circle of people who are followers of god but it really is time for me to join god

books,online help and being in the good company of believers on forums is what i need

many thanks for your time - johnathan

Hi; good to see you. Sorry for your loss.