Newbie and have lots of questions

[discipler7]

but we no longer live under the law.

While on earth, almost everyone lives under some kind of Law. US citizens live under US Law, eg convicted murderers can be executed, convicted robbers and rapists are jailed, convicted traffic offenders are fined or jailed, etc. For US Gentile Christians, they should live under US Law and also God's Law.
....... At ACTS.24-29, God requires them to keep any law of Moses which is not a burden, especially morality laws, eg the Ten Commandments(EXODUS.20), DEUT.18:9-14, etc. They are exempted from burdensome laws, eg circumcision, kosher foods, etc. Faith in Christ for salvation also includes faith in the Word/Law of God because Christ is also the living Word.(JOHN.1:1 & 6:63)

In comparison, God requires Jewish Christians to continue to keep Moses Law as before, as many laws as possible, because it is not a burden to them.

Christians should keep God's Law and follow Christ. That's true faith.

Through Moses, God gave His Law to the Jews in order to curb their inborn Adamic tendency to commit sins/evil.(ROMANS.5:12) God wants to pour His blessings of good-stuffs upon His people through His Law.(DEUT.28, MATTHEW.19:16-22)
....... God wants to give His final blessing of the eternal kingdom of heaven to His people through His Son, Jesus the Christ/Messiah.(JOHN.3:16)

The Jews lost their blessing of a great and wonderful kingdom of earth(= Judah/Israel) by breaking God's Law unrepentantly and finally lost the blessing of the eternal kingdom of heaven by rejecting Jesus as the Messiah/Christ and "killing" Him on the Cross.
....... Christians should not be like the stubborn Jews who rejected Jesus Christ and the Word.

 

[faroukfarouk]

Hi, how are you? I really do have lots of questions.

Growing up, first of all, I was emotionally abused daily. I was called stupid, loser, sob, worthless and dealt with my "father's" scorn daily. At 7 years old, after being blamed for pipes that were bad, I actually fantasized about hurting myself to appease my "father". My needs were never met. My family took my to fire and brimstone churches where God was seen as this jerk who seemed to enjoy frying people for sin. Love was taught as something you got if you behaved and were a robot. Feelings weren't allowed and if you got them, you were yelled at for having them. Get saved or go to hell was the refrain. I never hurt myself, but found out in my teens I had three ulcers when I was younger (scar tissue on my stomach). Mom loved me, but dad hated me. I was a sensitive child so it hurt even worse. My dad also kept my from friends at a young age (so he wouldn't be found out). I was beat a few times for no reason.

I learned to totally stuff my emotions with food then sex. I was suicidally depressed from 16-18 and generally depressed afterwards. I'm Bipolar and remember my first stone high from it at 13-14. Sex just made Bipolar better. Never got married. I had no trust. No, I didn't sleep with everyone in the neighborhood. AIDS was why.

Got saved at 24. God wouldn't leave me alone. I actually got saved way younger at 6 because the one church taught God had a plan and I figured her would rescue me from my nightmare. He didn't. It didn't stick. The first six months of being saved was great. I actually felt loved for the first time in life. I had no idea what it was and it felt good. Got the Holy Spirit and it was okay for a season then became a nightmare. Nothing I ever did was good enough for God. He nitpicked and made my life miserable. Finally, at 42, I said, "God all you do is make me feel bad about myself so get lost." He actually left. The heaviness lifted.

Finally, at 46, I got the right medication and all the questions. Got saved again at 45. But, the nightmare that was Christianity haunted me. God loves everybody, big deal. But, about six months ago, I was asked a question: Does God like me? No, it doesn't seem like it at all. I really don't know if God likes me, and if he did or does, why the nightmare? I told him, "You're my refuge? When exactly were you a refuge? Really, when? I was scared of you for 25 years. So, where was this refuge? I actually put up with you for 24 years too long. I hear this loving God and it was constant nitpicking of me."

I have simply collapsed under the weight of it all. Perfection, which I no longer care about (God, you saved me, deal with all my faults, or simply get lost, pal). I haven't felt God's love since being saved at 24. I told him, "why don't I get it like others do? Your preachers preached all that fire and brimstone crap. You seemed to be fine with it. You never said anything different."

Does he like me? Why don't I ever feel any love from him?

Hi; good to see you. Good to reflect on the deep love of John 3.16: God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...'

Easy to be introspective - and I know it's hard - but good to keep 'looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame' (Hebrews 12.2)

 

[Southernscotty]

While on earth, almost everyone lives under some kind of Law. US citizens live under US Law, eg convicted murderers can be executed, convicted robbers and rapists are jailed, convicted traffic offenders are fined or jailed, etc. For US Gentile Christians, they should live under US Law and also God's Law.
....... At ACTS.24-29, God requires them to keep any law of Moses which is not a burden, especially morality laws, eg the Ten Commandments(EXODUS.20), DEUT.18:9-14, etc. They are exempted from burdensome laws, eg circumcision, kosher foods, etc. Faith in Christ for salvation also includes faith in the Word/Law of God because Christ is also the living Word.(JOHN.1:1)

In comparison, God requires Jewish Christians to continue to keep Moses Law as before, as many as possible, because it is not a burden to them.

Christians should keep God's Law and follow Christ. That's true faith.

Through Moses, God gave the Jews His Law to the Jews in order to curb their inborn Adamic tendency to commit sins/evil.(ROMANS.5:12) God wants to pour His blessings of good-stuffs upon His people through His Law.(DEUT.28, MATTHEW.19:16-22)
....... God wants to give His final blessing of eternal kingdom of heaven to His people through His Son, Jesus the Christ/Messiah.(JOHN.3:16)

The Jews lost their blessing of a great and wonderful kingdom of earth(= Judah/Israel) by breaking God's Law unrepentantly and finally lost the blessing of an eternal kingdom of heaven by rejecting Jesus as the Messiah/Christ and "killing" Him on the Cross.
....... Christians should not be like the stubborn Jews who rejected Jesus Christ and the Word.

I am pretty sure that they meant living under the old covenant law of Moses. We are now in the New covenant and under grace. All the law and prophets are fulfilled by love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27

 

[faroukfarouk]

I am pretty sure that they meant living under the old covenant law of Moses. We are now in the New covenant and under grace. All the law and prophets are fulfilled by love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27

Being under grace is indeed the message of Galatians; as well as other NT passages.

 

[Southernscotty]

NY passages?

 

[faroukfarouk]

NY passages?

Oops, I meant NT.

(I haven't got NY on the brain. How about ARK ?)

 

[Southernscotty]

Oops, I meant NT.

(I haven't got NY on the brain. How about ARK ?)

LOL I was wondering about those New York scriptures, My bible left those out. lol

 

[faroukfarouk]

LOL I was wondering about those New York scriptures, My bible left those out. lol

I corrected the original post; thanks.

 

[Southernscotty]

corrected the original post; thanks.

Just picking my friend. I have been in a ornery mood all morning, I may have had to much coffee. LOl

 

[faroukfarouk]

Just picking my friend. I have been in a ornery mood all morning, I may have had to much coffee. LOl

Try decaffinated...

Anyway I'm glad we have had the opportunity to quote the Scriptures in response to the OP.

 

[Southernscotty]

Try decaffinated...

Agggghhhhhh That's blasphemous, Im screaming heresy here on the decaf. But amen on the scriptures

 

[discipler7]

We are now in the New covenant and under grace. All the law and prophets are fulfilled by love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Luke.10:27

DEUT.6: = 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

LEVITICUS.19: = 17 ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

You are actually keeping two of Moses Law when you follow LUKE.10:27. If you keep one law, I think you are obligated to keep all the Law because ... GAL.3: says, "10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”"

Actually, Christians should just need to know that it is not the keeping of the Law which saves them from hell.
....... They just need to know that the keeping of the Law brings them God's blessings on earth and also protects them from the devil(1JOHN.5:16-19) = avoid the risk of losing their salvation, like the wife of Job who had likely cursed God and died while suffering horribly for Job's ignorant sin/evil-deed.

 

[Southernscotty]

Love is the fulfillment friend. Love is what He wants from us and what He has always wanted. Love isn't two seperate laws. It is one and if you love then you have fulfilled the law because love does no harm, It is not self seeking 1 Cor 13.

 

[seekingmuch]

Well, I do have severe trust issues due to a serial abuser in my "father". So, it is very hard to trust someone who says, "I love you unconditionally" like God does. What do I think? Okay, what is your angle, God? (that's exactly what abused kids think) What do I owe you for your "unconditional love"? It also doesn't help that churches offer up so many "God loves BUT...." messages all the time.

Love is also acceptance. Does God accept me for who I am (even if I really don't know who I am?)?

My Christian experience has been pretty lousy. Been in quite a few churches and didn't make one long-term friend. Being single in churches is really hard when they have little to offer you. Not one church in my town has a singles ministry. One did, was in it and the core group alienated the ones of us not in the clique along with the minister in-charge of it blessing their actions--a bunch dumped the whole church over it, and they eliminated the singles ministry years later because, in the words of a minister there, "they wanted to be mainstreamed and not separate." ROFLMAO! I considered going back now 20 years later to it and found that out. I figured , probably new people and none of the original group around, but they got rid of it.

I was suicidal and a Pastor I paid a fortune in tithes to told me, "there's nothing I can do for you." I should've went to media and ruined that prick. I checked the church's website. He's still there in-charge.

I read this blog where this single woman was invited to lunch at her church by a couple. I was like, wow. I asked God recently, "Where is this community churches are supposed to provide like what this lady got?"

 

[discipler7]

Well, I do have severe trust issues due to a serial abuser in my "father". So, it is very hard to trust someone who says, "I love you unconditionally" like God does.

There are good fathers and there are bad/evil fathers. God is a good Father who will keep His promises/Word to His faithful children.
....... The human race is a fallen race(= evil/sinful) and Satan is the ruler of this world. Whatever blame lies with Satan, his demons and fallen humans(especially our first forefather, Adam), not God.
.

My Christian experience has been pretty lousy. Been in quite a few churches and didn't make one long-term friend. Being single in churches is really hard when they have little to offer you.

The Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Wheat and Tares(MATTHEW.13) say that Satan and his lackeys are present amongst His Churches and His people and they should beware.
.

MATTHEW.7: = 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ....... how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! .......

14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to (eternal) life, and there are few who find it.

 

[Monna]

Does God accept me for who I am (even if I really don't know who I am?)?

Jeremiah 1 relates the following (plus a lot more of course):

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,..."​

I suspect the same is true of all of us. It is only partially comforting for me to think that God knows me better than I do. He knows the "essential me." I remain confused about the difference between "the who that is me" and "the who that does what I do." Or.. to what extent am I distinct from what I do; to what extent does what I do define me? I have been raised to think (and I actually want to believe) that God loves the essential me while at the same hating the sinful things I do; that He focuses on what He planted in me from before my birth, and what I can be through His transforming work, rather than on just where I am now. At the same time, He is always working with me at exactly where I am now. Because love is an active verb (not a fuzzy feeling) His continous working with me on changing me to be like His Son is a proof of His love, somehow, of how I am just now. Does that make sense?

I don't know exactly where/how I am just now from God's perspective. I do know that I am not where/how He wishes I were, and would have been if I had followed Him as faithfully as I should have. And beyond knowing in general terms that His determination is that I shall be like His Son, I really don't know in any detail how that will translate into my own unique character and personality.

In a different way I can also say I don't know who I am. I do know that my self image is very different from the image others probably have of me. The difficulty is that many people around me probably don't tell me the truth about their image of me, any more than I tell them the (whole) truth about how I see them. So who any of us really is, is probably only clear to God Himself.

I got terribly sidetracked by looking at how professing Christians treated me (in my view) worse than atheists and agnostics did, not just once, but over and over again. I wanted very sincerely to turn my back on the church (as an organisation and as an institution) because of the rampant hypocrisy I experienced there. But fortunately I had had a incredibly real and direct encounter with Jesus in a very traumatic event when I was a teenager, so I never wanted to abandon Him or be abandoned by Him. I realised 40 years later that going through that trauma and that encounter with Jesus, was probably permitted precisely to keep me close to Him, while I went through the process of dealing with my own hypocrisy in despising other believers for theirs.

In it all, I have learned one thing beyond all others .... He does not give up on us. He does love us. And He always acts in love, because He cannot do otherwise, even if we don't see His action as love at the time.

 

[Southernscotty]

Well, I do have severe trust issues due to a serial abuser in my "father". So, it is very hard to trust someone who says, "I love you unconditionally" like God does. What do I think? Okay, what is your angle, God? (that's exactly what abused kids think) What do I owe you for your "unconditional love"? It also doesn't help that churches offer up so many "God loves BUT...." messages all the time.

Love is also acceptance. Does God accept me for who I am (even if I really don't know who I am?)?

My Christian experience has been pretty lousy. Been in quite a few churches and didn't make one long-term friend. Being single in churches is really hard when they have little to offer you. Not one church in my town has a singles ministry. One did, was in it and the core group alienated the ones of us not in the clique along with the minister in-charge of it blessing their actions--a bunch dumped the whole church over it, and they eliminated the singles ministry years later because, in the words of a minister there, "they wanted to be mainstreamed and not separate." ROFLMAO! I considered going back now 20 years later to it and found that out. I figured , probably new people and none of the original group around, but they got rid of it.

I was suicidal and a Pastor I paid a fortune in tithes to told me, "there's nothing I can do for you." I should've went to media and ruined that prick. I checked the church's website. He's still there in-charge.

I read this blog where this single woman was invited to lunch at her church by a couple. I was like, wow. I asked God recently, "Where is this community churches are supposed to provide like what this lady got?"

I am praying for you and I am so sorry that you have been treated so badly, If I can ever be a help to you by prayer or just a friend to talk too please feel free to PM me. I am a pastor and I know that we get busy, However there is no excuse for such behavior as you tell of. I am so sorry for his actions towards you, please don't judge all pastors based on a select few, Many of us genuinely care.

 

[seekingmuch]

I got terribly sidetracked by looking at how professing Christians treated me (in my view) worse than atheists and agnostics did, not just once, but over and over again. I wanted very sincerely to turn my back on the church (as an organisation and as an institution) because of the rampant hypocrisy I experienced there. But fortunately I had had a incredibly real and direct encounter with Jesus in a very traumatic event when I was a teenager, so I never wanted to abandon Him or be abandoned by Him. I realised 40 years later that going through that trauma and that encounter with Jesus, was probably permitted precisely to keep me close to Him, while I went through the process of dealing with my own hypocrisy in despising other believers for theirs.

That's cool. I never really had an experience like that with Jesus. Jesus seems like this unapproachable king. I saw him once, it scared me and since then I've thought that. God makes all the decisions and the Holy Spirit carries them out. I really don't understand what Jesus does except he prays without ceasing. His name is power.

Thanks for opening up to me. Honestly, what was the experience?

 

[seekingmuch]

I am praying for you and I am so sorry that you have been treated so badly, If I can ever be a help to you by prayer or just a friend to talk too please feel free to PM me. I am a pastor and I know that we get busy, However there is no excuse for such behavior as you tell of. I am so sorry for his actions towards you, please don't judge all pastors based on a select few, Many of us genuinely care.

Pastor, that wasn't the only pastor to turn me away. Another big shot did almost the same thing. I just wasn't suicidal. He told me, "you need to go see your therapist." He didn't want to talk to me at all and really wanted me to leave. I guess I wasn't a big donor enough. Of course, I'm sure, in the grand scheme of things, I didn't matter to these two pastors. I'm sure their groupies would've made excuses for them.

Since you offered, how come I never feel loved by God? I heard people say, "I feel God's love everyday." I told God, "why am I special and haven't felt that for 25 years?" He hasn't answered. Somewhere in this convo, someone said, "Maybe you are closed off to it?" Other than God constantly ignoring me, he sure does have the ones that make excuses for him. I've written 10 books now and not one peep out of God. Why? I was so high my first book and I got to thinking about it after the third one--God never said anything to me, I was like, "Well, God, you blew it. That was important to me and you never said one bloody word." Now, I don't care what his "opinion" is. Art is subjective. Honestly, I think I am just wasting my time.

 

[Southernscotty]

Pastor, that wasn't the only pastor to turn me away. Another big shot did almost the same thing. I just wasn't suicidal. He told me, "you need to go see your therapist." He didn't want to talk to me at all and really wanted me to leave. I guess I wasn't a big donor enough. Of course, I'm sure, in the grand scheme of things, I didn't matter to these two pastors. I'm sure their groupies would've made excuses for them.

Since you offered, how come I never feel loved by God? I heard people say, "I feel God's love everyday." I told God, "why am I special and haven't felt that for 25 years?" He hasn't answered. Somewhere in this convo, someone said, "Maybe you are closed off to it?" Other than God constantly ignoring me, he sure does have the ones that make excuses for him. I've written 10 books now and not one peep out of God. Why? I was so high my first book and I got to thinking about it after the third one--God never said anything to me, I was like, "Well, God, you blew it. That was important to me and you never said one bloody word." Now, I don't care what his "opinion" is. Art is subjective. Honestly, I think I am just wasting my time.

Ok well to start I sure aren't after your money because I volunteer my ministry so we can help others in need so please don't think that. :] As to why you are not feeling loved by God may be several reasons. 1st we have to realize that sin places a barrier between us and God. A Holy God will not come into a sinful relationship and bless you, "if you are constantly slapping Him in the face with things that He detest. {Hatred, adultery, fornication, etc:
Sometimes we have sin that we don't even realize that we have, Like unrepentant sin and unforgiveness in our hearts towards others. Matt 6:15 states you must forgive to be forgiven. Could this be you?