- Nice to see you KittyStar, I hope you find what you're looking for here.
- Praying for you, Ami. Please get in touch if you'd ever like a chat :)
- Hi, Elfgirl. Perhaps you could have a look around on the internet for churches that you like the look of and see if any have online sermons. It might not be the same as being part of a study group but it could help with your ongoing study of the Bible.
Praying for you all,
Kate :) x
There are remarkable things all the time, right in front of us,
but our eyes have like the clouds over the sun
and our lives are paler and poorer if we do not
see them for what they are. If nobody speaks of
remarkable things, how can they be called remarkable?"
Hi KittyStar, welcome to RYL. I hope you will find lots of suppor there.
I am new to this thread too. I am not an official christian in that I wasn't baptized and don't actually go to church regularly due to transportation issues, but I do believe in the christian God and Jesus Christ. I only became interested in becoming a christina earlier this year (I'm 26 and was raised atheist). My husband is a christian and a theology sudent, but hte more he learns, the more critical of religion he becomes. I once started reaidng the Bible on my own, bu t I wold like to join a study group. Unfortnately, same goes that goes for not being able to go to church.
Transportation issues can suck. I pray that God will lead you to where you can go and be taken care of well spiritually whatever that means for you. Have you tried any online forums? There are some out there I'm sure you can go to.
As far as a person's faith with studying more mine has only enhanced. I was brought up in the Church of Christ but now days I'm more gnostic Christian. There are a few changes in things. I still attend a Church of Christ church (where I grew up) because I still like the churches ways and how they do worship and I always enjoy the sermons. With all that it has only enhanced my faith with the more I learn. So sometimes people just differ on that. I remember hearing an interview when I was younger from someone who was a scientist and a Christian. I don't remember his name or anything but it really rang to me.
He said that he believes in God but he goes by science too (my faith does that as well with gnostic Christianity) and he sees the two hand-in-hand. So when he's studying science in his mind it was like he was studying God too. So just an example of the other side of that type of change and study.
So if you feel lead to study more go for it. It might get you to a good place spiritually and with relationships too perhaps. :) I find it curious in an interesting way that you and your husband are doing the same thing but coming from a different place (I like studying people and such so something like that is interesting to me). With studying everyone reads things differently and people will come to different thoughts with reading the same thing. So don't let it discourage you from studying if you are wanting to.
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Originally Posted by ArtOfDeduction
Hey KittyStar - welcome to the site and the thread
I'm Ami *holds out hand to shake*
I hope you settle in and feel welcome. If there is anything we can pray for don't hesitate to let us know. I'm praying for you anyway.
---------------
Prayer request my end - am not having an overly good time so could do with some prayers please <3
Hi Ami. I like your name. Reminds me of a character on the anime "Sailor Moon" and spelled the same name. *hugs*
I'll be honest, it's been a little bit rocky, but I guess that's how it goes whenever you're new anywhere though.
Oh me? Thanks.
I've just been having my typical negative thoughts. Mostly with food since I'm quite over weight and have been working on that. The nights when you're laying in bed can be the worst. I guess I've lately been like Jekyll and Hyde with that. I've been obsessed before and didn't like it. Other wise just the typical struggles that I'm sure everyone here goes through in their times.
Thanks to everyone for the nice welcome. I'm glad I dropped in.
"Be yourself. Be proud of who you are. Even if it sounds corny don't let no one tell you you aren't beautiful." ~ Eminem
I am new to this thread too. I am not an official christian in that I wasn't baptized and don't actually go to church regularly due to transportation issues, but I do believe in the christian God and Jesus Christ. I only became interested in becoming a christina earlier this year (I'm 26 and was raised atheist). My husband is a christian and a theology sudent, but hte more he learns, the more critical of religion he becomes. I once started reaidng the Bible on my own, bu t I wold like to join a study group. Unfortnately, same goes that goes for not being able to go to church.
Does your husband study at a Bible college or a secular university? I study Theology at Bible College in England and it's really grown and challenged my faith but strengthened it too... I think, at the time when I started uni, I was at a point where I was on the verge of losing my faith and so I needed a good, solid, loving Christian community around me and so I came here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KittyStar
I've just been having my typical negative thoughts. Mostly with food since I'm quite over weight and have been working on that. The nights when you're laying in bed can be the worst. I guess I've lately been like Jekyll and Hyde with that. I've been obsessed before and didn't like it. Other wise just the typical struggles that I'm sure everyone here goes through in their times.
Thanks to everyone for the nice welcome. I'm glad I dropped in.
Don't really know if I belong in here, but after years of being atheist/anti-theist I am sort of rediscovering my faith which has been really good and comforting in some ways, but I'm finding it very hard to gel belief in God with my homosexuality.
I know in my heart that being gay is just how I am, I can't change it and frankly I don't really want to, but I just don't know if I can pray to and worship a God that would send me to hell for something I can't change about myself, or else condemn me to be alone for the whole of my earthly life.
There's a few other issues and things but I've started attending the Methodist church my grandma and mother attend and I am beginning to realise I really need to explore this blossoming faith and see if it's going to stick and/or grow, or whether I'm just grasping at straws because of my illness. I don't think I am as I was fairly anti-religion when I started to get these feelings.
Just wondered if I'm welcome in this thread or not really. Anyway, thanks for giving me a place to get that off my chest.
'Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.'
['There is only one thing we say to death. Not today'.']
'We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. Oscar Wilde
Its hard to dance with the devil on your back. Sydney Carter
I, too, am struggling with my faith and sexuality atm. I have been a Christian for 6 years and I knew before then that I was most likely gay, certainly not straight but when I because a Christian I suppressed those feelings because what I was learning at church was that I couldn't be gay and be a Christian. But as I've grown in my faith, as a person and I've matured I have come to the belief that God loves me, he made me and I can't change who I fall in love with, or who I'm attracted to and so how can it be wrong. If this amazing God of love, compassion, sacrifice, kindness, gentleness created me - how could that be wrong?
There will always be Christians who will disagree with me and tell me I'm sinning for being gay or whatever but I know MY God and I know he loves ME for who I am and I know he wants me to be happy and if I fall in love with a woman and I come out as gay then I'll take whatever comes my way because I love God and he loves me and he will keep me safe.
I'm always around by PM to chat to you more about this and if you want me to pray for you I will.
@Katy,
I, too, struggle with my faith and sexuality. I am questioning as far as sexual orientation goes, in a heterosexual relationship though. I honestly don't belive the christian God would send gays to hell. A lot of what is in the Bible, was influenced by the peopel who wrote it nd their time. Then again, in order to believe thsi you'll have to believe that the Bible is not the inerrant word of God. I personally belive the Bible wa inspired by God as much as it was written by man. Many Bible passages about homosexuality are also mistranslations (eg. in some passages in the NT the Greek says simply "sexual immorality", and older translations say things like "masturbation"). Have you considered reading about a gay-friendly church or attending one?
@Kate,
I do read sermons online, and listen to church radi online sometimes, but my Internet connection is rather slow.
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller
Thanks to both of you, it's reassuring to know I'm not alone. Ironically I'm also worried about my large amount of gay friends turning on me if I identify as a Christian so it's pretty much a no-win situation.
I do struggle with that- I kind of tend towards the whole well is the Bible the word of God or isn't it? And if it isn't how did He let His word become warped. But then another side of me says to myself well God gave mankind free will, and if they chose to mess up His word and lose it in translation and stuff then that's unfortunate but just part of free will... I don't know *headdesk* being an atheist was so much easier.
'Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.'
['There is only one thing we say to death. Not today'.']
'We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. Oscar Wilde
Its hard to dance with the devil on your back. Sydney Carter
You're welcome. I see where you're coming from and I would say that if your friends love you and are true friends they'll accept you no matter your sexual orientation or belief system. I've got many friends who have different beliefs to me and a lot of non-Christian ones but they accept that my opinions and beliefs are mine and they are tolerant of that and I am to them. True friends will love you no matter what and if they have an issue with you for whatever reason then that is their problem and not yours. I hope that they will be supportive and accepting of whatever choice you make about your belief in God.
Secondly, with regards to the Bible, the way I see it is yes it's God's word but also it's the Old Testament which speaks about this topic and Jesus came and set us free from that law, because God knew we can't keep every one of those laws. Now, all we have to do is:
Quote:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
That's Matthew 22:37-39. So as I see it, we love God, we love others and the rest is between us and God... sexual immorality is just as bad as lying because to God sin is sin, no matter what it is and so if God convicts someone then that's between them and God, it's nothing to do with me. We've been set free from the Old Testament and now we live in the truth and knowledge that God loves us and nothing can take that love away.
Quote:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39
And I believe that our sexual orientation can't separate us from God's outstanding, amazing love either.
I don't happen to be gay but ultimately I believe that someone's sexual orientation, no matter what that might be, has nothing to do with me and besides, Matthew 7:1-5 says
Quote:
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers eye."
so to me, looking at it from Christians being intolerant of sexual orientation then I just think that, at the end of the day, your relationship with God is precisely that, your relationship, and that is entirely personal.
Think I've been a bit waffley but I hope you get the gist. Basically, I'm a straight Christian and I wouldn't judge anyone's sexual orientation, Christian or not, because I believe that judging just isn't my place. Hope that helps in some way!
Hi everybody who is new! It seems that I haven't been around for ages, but I think from the looks of things, it is just that you have all been posting today.
Hi *waves* :D
Welcome to the Christian thread.
Hope you find it useful.
My mum and I are thinking of doing a Bible study in the village to help out the people who are struggling to get to a Bible study that they like.
Mary
Death is one moment, and life is so many of them.
Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.
~ Tennessee Williams
I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad,
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.
I'm actually a girl. My nickname was given by a friend and stuck ;)
I know i posted yesterday asking for some prayer but yeah, I just wanna specify what I'm after prayer for.
On and off all summer when I've been at church or in a worship setting I keep seeing these dark, demonic shadows lingering around and walking past me. I find it really hard to worship when this is happening and I know I'm under a lot of spiritual warfare. Anyway, on tuesday I managed to get through a worship service without seeing them for the first time in a while and it was great. I really felt Gods presence moving and his Spirit in me and I could feel his power seeping out of me. I recieved prayer at the end and it was good. I guess what I'm asking for prayer for is that I continue to see God and not Satan. So that I can worship and gain my relationship with God back.
With sexuality just thought I'd chime in. Jesus himself never talked about issues with sexuality. He's in the gospel's so the books that do talk about it in some way are from Paul and he's not the Savior. In the end with things like that I look to what Jesus says. LGBT people have been around as long as straight people so I figure if it was important to Jesus he would have said something, right? But the most important thing is the verse that was mentioned about judging others and that just says a lot to me. Paul seems to have a lot of issues with sexuality in general. So it's been thought (I've heard from people talking about it) that he might have been suppressed with his own sexuality whatever that means for him. So he could have been brought up to think sex in general is bad even with a straight married couple.
I've heard from some Biblical scholars that there's different thoughts on that. For ex the verse about a man lying with a man as with a woman I've heard it was about a practice back then with young boys and I think it tends to be right because notice how it doesn't talk about women with women or anything, right?
A radio host I listen to mentioned this and how Jesus hung around people who society in the Bible thought were the worst of the worst. Look at how he treated prostitutes, tax collectors etc. He loved them. He blessed them and sent them on their way. The prostitute at the well (if I'm remembering correctly) I think is a good example of how to treat people.
Jesus only had two commandments: love God and love your neighbors as yourself. If anyone gives you grief about sexuality and being a Christian just point out that too.
And yes God loves everyone for who they are. God is love.
"Be yourself. Be proud of who you are. Even if it sounds corny don't let no one tell you you aren't beautiful." ~ Eminem
God gave us free will, if you wanna go right to the basics of it, we choose to cut and so it's not that God allows us to but the fact that we choose to. We can choose to self harm or we can choose to pray and reach out to God in those moments. God won't just take away urges, we need to call on his name and truly want to change.
Joy I agree with the above about free will, and also I think what can help is to reach out to God in those times of extreme distress, doesn't have to be a formal prayer even (in my view) just reaching out in your heart and asking God to help you. Still working out this stuff myself but that is what I can gather so far.
'Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.'
['There is only one thing we say to death. Not today'.']
'We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. Oscar Wilde
Its hard to dance with the devil on your back. Sydney Carter
i agree with both the above. sometimes it's hard to find the right words, but the Holy Spirit can pray in us. might not always help us not to cut in that moment, but the more we try to let God in, hopefully we can find other ways to cope.
*hugs* 
Thanks. 
