What are your religious beliefs? (Vanity)

[HungarianGypsy]

Go for it! I love stories.

BTW, not only would I like to read stories, but questions are good. They get things moving. :-)

[PastorBooks]

“I could just study World Religions, but I like to have a personal aspect on things. What do you believe?”

Well, I’m a Christian pastor-to-be, so I’m not impartial by any means. Your question is loaded. How to sum up a life of a relationship in a few sentences? It’s like asking a married couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, “What’s it like to be married?” It can be answered... but how many things left unsaid!

HungarianGypsy, Jesus isn’t a religion to me. He’s my friend. He isn’t a theology or a theory or some feel-good concept. He’s the one I can turn to when I have no where else to turn.

For example, today was one of the roughest days in years for me. I’m going through a very difficult time, and today the stress was so high I thought I was losing my mind. My prayers weren’t the peaceful feel-good “Bless me, bless us, us four no more” kind of prayers. Praying, to me, is life and death. I need Jesus to be strength to me when I don’t have anything left. Skeptics will say that my faith is a sign of weakness. But I’ll tell you, that those terrible moments that I’m in the most desperate need of my life, those times of the deepest sorrows and fears, are the times when Jesus rescues me out of them. I’ve seen things that could not happen, happen, because I prayed.

Doubts? Yes, I’m full of them! Just before I saw this thread I emailed a friend asking her to pray for me, telling her I was having so much fear. Ministers feel it, too! But doubts about Jesus... no. My life can turn into pure torment, and I will know that Jesus will never leave me. He’s seen me through so much. It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship. Like marriage.

So, HungarianGypsy, your question is so large that only a simple response can answer it. Jesus is the nicest Person you could ever meet. I love Jesus, and He most definitely loves me. And, believe me, it’s not because of anything I was or ever did. He loves me because of who He is, not because of who I am. It’s grace. I can’t earn His love or forgiveness, but can ask for them and I have them. In the worst times of my life. Let this blow your mind... Jesus is closer to me than my future wife will ever be. She’ll be beside me; Jesus is *inside* me.

So you ask why I believe. It’s like asking me if I believe in my arm. Or my breathing. Yes. He is my dearest friend, my very life. And like that couple married 50 years, there’s no way to explain that relationship in a few sentences.

Tonight, if you don’t mind, I’ll say a prayer for you... that you’ll find Him, too.

Your fellow FReeper,
PastorBooks

[Abigail Adams]

A big “me too” to PastorBooks!

I am a Christian—a Protestant but I don’t claim any particular denomination. I belive in God. I believe Jesus died and rose again, paying the penalty for my sins. I believe in the Bible as the absolute and only word of God. God changed my life when I was 16. I attended church before that, but I hadn’t really committed my life to God or trusted him until then. Jesus is my best friend and the Lord of my life. I am going to Heaven because of what Jesus did for me. We can’t earn our way to Heaven by being good or doing good things. It’s not about what we do, it’s about what He did. And it’s a free gift for those who will accept it!

[GCC Catholic]

Wonderful; My computer ate what I had written though :( ... I should know better than trusting Windows 98.

I'll give it another shot tomorrow morning though.

[PAR35]

That is a question that can be answered at many levels. At the core would come the Nicean and Apostle’s Creeds. For a more specific answer, one of the historic Confessions - Westminster, or Belgic, and the Catechisms, Westminster or Heidelberg. Or do you want a systematic theology?

Links to those Creeds and Confessions, and others, here:

http://www.reformed.org/documents/

[RichardMoore]

There are two things that polite society will not tolerate discussing: religion and politics. That is why we come here.

That said, I am Catholic, a convert from fallen away Epicopalianism.When I was confirmed at the age of 12 I had to learn the Nicene Creed(seen here in another reply) and recite it to the Bishop. Many years later I decided after going to several Novena nights with my wife that the Eucharist is the Real Presence of Christ. Nothing else makes sense to me.

Jesus founded a Church, His Church, which still is here today not because it is filled with sinless people but because He said it would endure. And I choose to believe Him

Jesus I trust in You!

[RichardMoore]

Very well said

[RichardMoore]

I've been to Mark Twain's home in Conn. and he was a very unhappy man.

Harriet Beecher Stowe lived next door and she was a much better person to emulate.

Not many people know that Twain's favorite book that he wrote was Joan of Arc. He spent 12 years researching it.

[Larry Lucido]

Shouldn't mention the time I almost nailed one of the preachers

Good thing I kept reading. LOL!

[OpusatFR]

I’m Catholic, born into a Catholic family of converts from Lutheranism with Jewish roots.

At one time I considered converting to Judaism mainly because at that time I was intensely identified with my grandparents. I even went through instruction at a local synagogue.

God allowed me to see and experience a lot in the world, some good, some bad and some horrible, and I came back to the Roman Catholic Church because He showed me it is absolutely and unequivocally Truth. I’m not saying that to provoke discussion. This is my experience.

I am and will always be Catholic by the Grace of God.

[Between the Lines]

I Believe
By Norma Stephenson

I believe in the old rugged cross,
I believe there my sins were all lost,
I believe Jesus lives,
I believe Jesus died,
I believe that He rose from the dead.
I believe He lives by His Father's side,
and His Spirit lives in me.

I believe from an old rugged cross
Comes a call to every heart
I believe Jesus died
I believe Jesus lives
I believe that He's coming again
I believe He lives by His Father's side
And His Spirit lives in me.

I believe on an old rugged cross
Jesus paid for my sin.

I believe He lives by His Father's side
and His Spirit lives in me.
Yes, His Spirit lives in me.

[Uri’el-2012]

I kinda like the idea of Messianic Judaism, where one follows the Torah, but still believes in Yeshua.

There are some resources on my FR home page.

b'shem Yah'shua

[gulfcoast6]

Wow, what a message you just gave. I too believe the same and that there is life after death in Christ. He has done so many miracles for me I can’t even find the starting on to tell, I know that He is my all and I strive each day not to disappoint him.
Toby

[onedoug]

I believe your Christianity and your Catholicism are deeper and richer for your experiences with Judaism.

God's grace to You and Yours.

[Jeremiah Jr]

Jeremiah 16

19 O YHVH, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say,

“ Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”

20 Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods? 21 “ Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is YHVH.