Hi everyone, I hope your day is going well.
You may not remember me as I last posted several years ago! Eeps.
I posted about how I was glad to be here and then disappeared. I am a college student and a working woman, and have had a rather wavery path in faith. Working to get closer to God.
I am asking for help today, to be blunt. A bit of prayer or advice, or both hopefully. I have two relationships that are big question marks and I very much want exclamation marks instead.
The first and hopefully most important is God. I have some questions regarding old testament issues and various related things, which I am trying to work through this summer.
The second is a young man I dated for a few months. We broke up in March. He is a lovely person but we do not quite see eye to eye on faith. He believes in God but is not religious. I am not quite sure what I believe, but if I am honest it seems the evidence points to Christianity.
After we broke it off, it was a bit difficult but after a bit I realized I needed to focus on finding my creed. So I am working on that.
Life moves along. But this last weekend he suddenly texted me and asked how I am, saying he misses me. Made me hopeful but also wary of the possibility.
I have heard from friends that a Christian simply shouldn't try to be with a non-Christian. Clearly it is complicated by my spiritual searching right now.
There are a few other obstacles I can see, but not insurmountable. If the question of faith was settled, it would be my main concern.
I guess I may be being foolish to even consider it again, it just seemed so neat that he messaged me.
But perhaps it's just a clever temptation and I need to refocus on the goal.
Maybe the more people I talk to, the better the possibility of a sensible choice. I talked to another friend yesterday, but you all have the added perspective of universalism, which may make some kind of difference.
Anyway, I thank you for reading this short novel, I hope you have a happy week!
Hi, Rilana :hiya: "He believes in God, but is not religious" - have you talked to him? has he heard about Jesus? and how our Father God is called savior? (from death, the natural result of sin - translated from the greek "missing the mark" - Since God is life, the breath, spark and force of life itself, and also is perfection, imperfection is the opposite of life.. which it seems likely to me came about because when thinking ability was endowed, along with it, comes the ability to make choices. [The choice of when one's blindness is removed and they receive the truth is up to God.. but the world is as is because God in His great wisdom is letting it run its course - this learning of good from evil (life from death).]
I would be very inclined to think that he would be much more open to the Universal Redemption gospel, if he is made aware of it.. I really think a lot of rejection of God of the bible, and Jesus is because of the harsh gospel that is preached.. due to the mistranslation of four (four) words into 'hell'. [Because by time the books/66 were tranlated, the non-christian religious view permeated the culture.. hell was dreamed up by the ancient king priest systems to control the people..]
About the Old Testament, it helped me a great deal when I researched history, as I found out the nations Israel was to war with and do away with were very heavily into human and child/babe sacrifice. A very bad thing you don't want to continue to grow and spread.. though there has been evidence of it all over the world in all lands, but this must have been a very virulent strain of it.. and these people God will resurrect and they will ultimately be part of that group which the verse Philippians 2:11 says, "Every tongue will wholeheartedly confess Jesus is Lord" (taking into account the original Greek it was written in). And of "all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD and all families of the antions will rejoice before Him.." Ps 22:27. I really have to wonder, if left unchecked, what quality of life one steeped in human sacrifice would have had anyway if allowed to continue..
:Pray: :Pray: for you and also for your friend.. (It seems like crazy times to me, as far as finding that significant other, we all have as a desire of the heart; or if not all, most..)
:Peace2: God bless!
P.S. - Is Rilana your real name? It's very pretty! Mine is glenda (marie) more commonly marie :gsmile:
1 Corinthians 7 12To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
15But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
I don't think it's terrible to have relationships and marriages where the two aren't fully in agreement about spiritual matters. I know people who are married and both Christian and still have divides over doctrinal issues.
Plus knowing UR, we know it is each in his/her own time that they will come to know the truth and be reconciled to God. We can love and share but trust God with the rest, we don't need to run around worried that all the "unsaved" will burn in Hell.
I'd pray about it and ask God to show you His way with these questions.
Hi marie, thank you for your thoughtful reply, that took time!
I talked to him a bit about it when we were dating, and was hopeful because he is thoughtful and appreciated that I think about things. But he had heard some bad things about Christians when in India, with them being exploitative, etc. So he is rather shut off to Christianity in general.
In regard to what you said about the Old Testament, that is a more helpful angle than just about any others I have read. Thank you, I will keep digging and praying as much as i can.
Thanks for the compliment, Rilana is not my given name, but an alias I began using years ago as a teenager. I like your name, especially in combination with glen. 😊
Thank you very much for your prayers too. Appreciated. 🌻
GodIsLove, thank you for those verses, I have been wondering about those concepts because I have read the passage in the past.
I love the peace that is possible with UR.
☺
I find it interesting that is says the children are made holy by the believer, I hadn't really noticed that before.
Here's a good example Rilana, psalm 37:28 says -
For the Lord loves justice,
And does not forsake His saints;
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.
Now #1.. when the Bible says the wicked are/will be destroyed/ruined/cut off it's true but Revelation says God resurrects all (so the question to me is what occurs then or next? Revelation only provides an outline.. but if we take into account "God is love" then the idea that they are only resurrrected from their graves in order to be dumped into a hell - lake of fire could just as well be translated, crucible of refinement - but I still think it illogical, if time doesn't't preceed it. "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD.." When? We know it's likely not this side of life. Besides the rest of the verse says "all families of the nations will worship/rejoice before Thee." Which all means more than those living at the 'end'.
#2 - if we look up some of the original Greek on Esword or biblehub.com, the word translated to read descendants also means sowed, and is translated that way many times. And it makes more sense that if the wicked are brought to ruin ( we all are ruined w/o Him) then their works will cease to be and will be cut off.. "the former things (ways!) will not be remembered/come to mind."
I was reading that psalm today and thought it a perfect example. The translators seem to have always picked the most extreme use of words.. But by time those translations the culture was thoroughly permeated with the idea of afterlife torment, originally myth/religion created to keep the people obedient. So "the grave"/hades/place of the dead became hell, along with three other words. Which it seems to go unnoticed how the verse is translated "and death and hell was cast into the lake of fire." - death and the grave are cast to the 2nd death.. Even in Rev 19, the beast and false prophet thrown to the lake of fire I do not think are ppl but institutions of man active at Jesus' return.. a world beast governing and a false prophet/teacher/teaching ( aka "strong delusion which caused Christendom to fall away from the faith.. but now i'm starting to stray/babble! But any evil or unrepentant folks who end up in the crucible of refinement for a duration (translated forever) obviously the refining does its work for Jesus said He would draw all to Him, Jn 12:32.
:gsmile: God bless!