Posted on 11/16/2013 3:16:42 PM PST by freedom462
What I mean by this is, who else here was from a background and upbringing that did not center around God and did not center around Biblical morals at all and was raised in an environment where God was not a part of the lives of their relatives and closest friends?
I wonder because it often seems like overwhelmingly posters around here were raised in a Biblical and Godly manner from birth and had parents who taught them these values and about turning to God from the time they could walk.
So I was wondering if there are posters here who were not in that situation and had to turn to God later in life. And if so, what was the difference in before and after turning to God? Did you find it had a profound effect on your ability to empathize with others and see things from their perspective? Did it make you less selfish and less antagonistic and did it make you more independent, productive and self sufficient? What were other changes that happened?
I, for one; LOVE 'em!!!
Genesis 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
There are more than one reason for this.
I'd say that a lot are AFRAID to really walk the way they talk.
It was just a few months earlier, in May, that I darkened a churches door just a few blocks from where I was living.
Living?
Yeah sure. Screwed up two marriages after initially accepting Christ in the service. Hadn’t been attending a church since returning from overseas, in 1963.
Finally, giving up, Looking in Saturday paper for church ads, looking for a Baptist one, since I got ‘saved’ in one in Moses Lake, Washington, when that ‘voice’ again said, “What about the church down the street?”
What church?
I drove by and the sign said “Wesleyan”, something I’d never heard of. ‘They might be weird or something...’
I tried it the next day and my fears were confirmed - they WERE weird!
They took me in and kept me!
(And I need to get off this computer and get ready to go there this morning.)
bttt
Great testimony and isn’t it interesting that when you first asked for a ‘sign’ the devil showed up in the form of JW or Mormons...or charismatics speaking tongues.
We need to heed 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil is seeking whom he can destroy. He is proactive; he doesn’t sit around twiddling his thumbs waiting for one of us to trip over him.
Way to persevere :)
Oh, you mean the “Christians” you have met are not perfect?
Why would that surprise you?
Therefore I take it to mean that it is crucial that we love ourselves, and by extension, each other. On this forum, and on other Christian outlets, I see a whole lotta Christians lacking in love for their fellows, and I expect down deep, for themselves. With repect, believing in "the one He has sent" hinges on believing and acting upon his commandment to LOVE. Belieiving in Him without loving yourself and others, is like looking at food but not eating it.
If we want to win America back, if we want to restore Christian values, we must LOVE and be patient with the poor dumb kids (er ... young adults!) with all the tatoos and the body piercings and liberal brainwashed mindset. Instead what I see among all too many Christians, is anger, something close to hate, for all the "stupid Americans" who voted for leftists.
Not to sound like a hippie, but "love is the answer." Instead of wanting to kill or jail people for having a wrong sense of entitlement and a wrong "belief" that governmnent should fund abortion and punish people for turning away from open homosexuality and such, we must deal with them the same way we would like to be treated, and certainly the way the Almighty dealt with us: with loving patience. That is, if we want to take Christ at his Word.
I enjoy reading the FR religious forum because of the always friendly "give and take" discussions.
LOL, You know, like: "Take that you ...." and "Don't give me any more of your totally incorrect references, you ....".
LOL!...more truth to that then we’d like to admit!
I was 33 when I lost my dad.
Before I found out that he died, I was on my way to the nursing home and my little daughter said to me, “Don’t worry Mom. Grandpa is with Jesus”.
The SON losing a FATHER at the age of 33 preaches !
They are being as real as Jesus was when He called the Pharisees and Sadducee's “whitewashed hypocrites", "snakes", and accused them of preventing people from entering the Kingdom. There are various religious threads one can choose from to "talk" religion and "share"....but the Debate thread is clear you enter at your own risk...the temperatures can and do get hot....generally speaking it is not the place for the overly sensitive or those who cannot bear being challenged for what they believe.
I have found that the debate thread forces me to go to the scriptures because they raise some very interesting challenges....you learn also how to defend your beliefs...
If and when it gets more heated then one can handle...you leave "the kitchen"....because they are cooking hot and heavy....steam rolls and people sweat....but in the end you have a smorgasbord feast.
Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are
You are, of course, right.
However; LOVE has no meaning without the BELIEF that is behind it.
True...
It brings to mind the SLC bunch of 'mormons' excommunicating anyone found actually following god's command of polygamy.
Just as many false religions throw the name of Jesus around to justify their belief systems.... so too the word Love is abused and misused today.
The only thing which will save this nation is for people to have change of heart..and that can only occur when the Gospel is presented to them. Everything else is simply a band-aid covering a serious wound that needs surgery.
Patience with people does not mean you tolerate the intolerable.....especially when it flys in the face of a Holy God and His clear distinctions of what is right in His eyes as well as evil. Our God is a God of "distinctions"....he expects that we too will identify these and expose them for what they are...not cover them over with a false front of toleration...or false love. If we avoid doing so then the ability to discern good from evil gets blurred and redefined...just as we see today. I think as that day approaches closer we will and are being called to all the more expose the false masks of religiosity and or churchianity which so many are wearing....
I agree with all you said, and I lurk on most all Religious debate threads for the same reason -- most make me think, and make me research scripture and Religious history.
Sooooo "Take That" and "Don't give me all that Passion Stuff" (tongue still in cheek)
John 3:13 is the summation of what Christ was stipulating. So every soul/spirit intellect that has passed through this flesh age, or as Peter calls it the world that is NOW in IIPeter 3 passed the first requirement.
However, apparently NOT all that passed that first requirement to ‘see’ or ‘enter’ the kingdom of God will.
Why oh Why are so many so fixated on this flesh body, when it is the soul/spirit intellect that was first created gets placed into the womb of woman to pass through this flesh journey????? It is Written that when the flesh dies it returns to the dust/dirt from which it came and the soul/spirit return to the Maker that sent it. Ecc 12.
Belieiving in Him without loving yourself and others, is like looking at food but not eating it.
***I think Elsie’s got it right. The main message of Christ was that He had to die for our sins to pay the price, that He was God Himself. Sure, the most important COMMANDMENT was what you say, but that isn’t the Main Message.
Here’s an example: the first believer in our timeline. The thief on the cross. Do you think he loved himself? I don’t. Did he even have a chance to fulfill ANY of the commandments? NO. And yet, Jesus said that thief would be with Him that day in Paradise. What the thief responded to, that was the main message. Yes, the commandments are important, but that is not the main message or Jesus would have walked him through something related to them
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