Posted on 05/19/2013 12:21:32 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
Edited on 05/25/2013 2:44:13 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Going back to biomass isn’t a bad idea given the current state of my life.
Search what you can about primary hyperparathyroid disease. You’ll find that not a lot of people know about it, and its symptoms are attributed to aging. I’m not yet 30, but I feel very, very old. I’ve been openly waiting for a sign for a long time now, but have seen nothing. Consider me a skeptic, but I’m waiting for a sign before I go back to the church. I rarely feel the energy, or want to shower before 10am if I don’t have to, and go to a mass for an hour.
Never once did I say “end it now.” I said work with your doctors. The fact is, all the Christians on here are insisting that God brings love, joy, peace, and happiness. If a sufferer isn’t feeling it, is it because God is doing something wrong? Well, no, that can’t be, can it? It must be the sufferer. Look at the things you and others are saying to him: seek God, pray, open your heart, look to him, blah blah blah... all the things he’s been DOING FOR YEARS. It’s not working. Why? Well... he’s doing it wrong. That’s what you are telling him. If he cannot feel God’s peace, the fault lies with him, not God. Right?
Who’s Yehova? The only religious teachings I’ve had were Roman Catholic.
Exactly.
True but we also have to do something that is very difficult for us to do. Some things must be turned over to The Lord and ask His Will be done. His Will may well not be what we wanted or expected but can in time bring greater things. Adversity is GOD's tempering tool for us as fire is to steel.
I have two cousins also confined to wheelchairs for life. One can use her arms and hands OK. One can move nothing but fingers just barely. What was GOD's purpose? A mans soul perhaps that nothing or no one else could reach? A hardened USMC WW2 combat vet who saw action on the islands in Japan? Friends couldn't lead him to the Lord. But seeing his grand kid keep on keeping on touched him. I saw the man a couple years before he died bawl like a baby as a hospital Chaplain {Retired Military} was talking to him. When his time came he was ready. He was changed though still rough around the edges. What is a lifetime of her affliction vs the mans eternal soul being lost? But she has reached and inspired many others though.
GOD's thinking and plan of salvation He began in Genesis is something our mind can't fully grasp.
Well, Jesus Christ can come to you right where you are. He’s not that far away. A million light years are but an infinitesimal space to God. But God is focused on you right where you are, right now. God brought you to read Free Republic and this thread right now. This isn’t an accident. We are all glad to pray for the Spirit to approach you, but only you can say yes when the Spirit does approach you. You aren’t a “hunk of biomass” to Him. You are a soul and a spirit, who happens to have a decaying body right now. That soul and spirit will go somewhere when that body dies, and where it goes depends on the kind of spiritual wind you are riding. God also says He loved the world, and last I checked you were part of the world.
God is not shy to announce His presence to doubters and skeptics, if they are sincere about asking out to Him for enough proof to take hold of. God probably won’t stick a whole encyclopedia of proof in your lap at first, but if you are sincere in asking, you WILL see something.
I bet there is someone who has written something that is very similar to your story. Call a priest and make an appointment to go in and talk with him. God bless you.
Yes; God leaves plenty of room for our efforts... in fact accepting the Holy Spirit always results in doing SOMETHING... with the giant caveat that our efforts have to be centered around the Holy Spirit to be blessed. Works, once faith is exercised, aren’t a matter of whether, they are only a matter of how much.
I do not envy the present position of those who are suffering near totally paralyzed in wheelchairs. But that too is a challenge of exercising faith. My challenge isn’t their challenge. I have seen different woes. But I also understand more and more in my heart how God can work the most grueling experiences for my good.
I’ve had asthma all my life; had to be rushed to the hospital a couple of times during my youth. I may face thyroid cancer down the line. I have leg pain, difficulty breathing sometimes, which stems from pain right below where my heart is; sometimes I have pain where the prostate is, forcing me to stand up from sitting down.
And just now, my short term memory and typing are failing me. Like I’ve said, I’m not yet 30. Why am I facing problems those three times my age usually face?
He might actually be doing “right” things (as much as prevenient response is concerned) and still not quite have reached the peace, that doesn’t mean he is not pointed in an appropriate direction.
Devil’s wind? There was heavy drinking on both sides of the family. I don’t have a problem with consuming alcohol on a regular basis; my ONLY problem with it is I still don’t know my limits, and go from buzzed to waking up, not remembering what happened. I wasn’t a bad kid - didn’t get into fights, nothing of that sort. Didn’t do homework, but that wouldn’t be considered a sin, would it? Never felt an overwhelming urge to go to bed with anything with a pulse, as such, I only just had a short term girlfriend end of last year, in which I finally went to bed with someone, at the age of 27.
Ensnared by the devil/satan? I laugh in his face. You’ll have to dig deeper than that.
Well, in a way it would be like telling the proverbial fish about kinds of water. The first thing the fish will ask is “what’s water”? (You are probably familiar with the adage that the last thing a fish notices about its environment is water.) But it matters to the fish if it’s being told it should swim to the ocean and avoid that stream which heads to the sewer pipe.
Anyhow... what we call sins here are the outward showing of a situation of spirit called “sin.” How bad or not it looks from the outside isn’t the issue. It’s not like adding up brownie points or demerits. It’s a symptom of separation from God. It needn’t be pea soup barfing dramatic to be the wrong (rebel against God) spirit, and all the wrong spirits are going to be sent to hell in the end.
Either way, if God is not granting him all that peace and joy you claim he could, even though he has sought him, there are only 2 explanations: A) God is withholding that relief, B) or God doesn’t exist.
Anyhow, your situation poses a challenge. It’s clearly a bummer. It would be a bummer to me. But it has highlighted a spiritual need. Do you really think that God’s best wish for you is to end in ennui and despair? I don’t think it is. That’s the Evil One’s wish.
And of course the church changes its rules anytime it wishes,,,
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3021468/posts
You partly perceive a necessity in the situation. God sometimes says “wait.” Quite often entry into salvation will be accompanied by a very tangible burst of God-directed joy. That makes sense, because there has to be something to say yes to. But what may follow (and did follow in my own case) is not intense bliss ever after on earth, but a rough road where it raises the question whether that encounter was for naught, while God is watching the person show proof that he believed by pursuing a repeat encounter. So yes God can withhold, but if the sincerity is there, the withholding will only be temporary.
Go elsewhere to scoff would you. Thanks.
When I was 37 my ability to concentrate took a leave of absence. That is part of my disability. My sensory processing as far as optic and auditory is dysfunctional and with it comes what is called sensory induced Myoclonic seizures. certain sounds or visual stimulation make my upper torso above the shoulders shake violently as frequent as several times a minute or on real good days once or twice.
My Inner Ears have been dysfunctional since birth and my legs and feet are distorted from that and club feet. IOW Arthritis has set in with it and I walk with a cane for balance. When the seizures first hit me so did PTSD from the accumulation of previous events and more I didn't mention like thing a baby died in a wreck I was involved in where a woman rear ended my old K-5 Blazer with a Honda. The baby slept through it. Before that our daughter was seriously injured in a wreck. I arrived on scene as the rescue squad was covering her body. I freaked thinking she died but it was so they could use the jaws of life to extract her. Her knee cap was destroyed though.
My ailments though disabling aren't as serious as yours but I do understand lack of concentration real well. In late 2011 I did my dads Hospice care in his final weeks and hours with Prostate Cancer. Doc says mine is enlarged and is to be watched at this point. I'm in my mid 50's now.
About 8 years ago I lost my immunity to Mold again. Going back on allergy shots was the answer. I have it under control that and the pollens but the attacks were like Asthma. In fact doctor thought I had both. Right now the shots and antihistamines keep it in check. Before that I was hitting the Albuterol a few times a day.. It took the shots a few months to finally give relief.
Semi-Pelagian beliefs are not wrong because they are an "-ism," but because they do not work, either as to Scripture or reason. Again, you are merely postponing an inevitable dilemma. Fallen man can generate saving faith within himself or he cannot. It is unworkable to try and skirt the problem with time tricks. The Scriptures know absolutely nothing of such imaginative devices. They are nothing but an accommodation to secular philosophical peer pressure, and that path, if followed to its logical conclusion, will lead one to the edge of Nietzsche's abyss. I know because I have been there, and do not care to visit again.
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