Hi all! A little about my journey

[BlessedAssurance]

Hi everyone, it's so nice to be part of this forum!  I've learned a lot reading here.  I was up 'til 4am this morning reading.  And the joy and peace God gave me and that I woke up with at almost noon lol is amazing.  I haven't felt this peaceful and this close to God in 28 years.

I was saved when I was 17.  Not too long after I got away from God to do my own thing.  I knew though when I met him that He loved me so much and I felt his presence and knew I was changed.  I came back to Him a couple years later and was ok until I started hearing the teaching on "losing your salvation".  Had I "lost" mine?  That started years of torment.  Even the "once saved always saved" message didn't give me comfort, I wasn't sure if I could believe it.  And all the questions came to surface of how such a loving God could send most people to hell to be punished forever.  I pretty much had a breakdown over it, couldn't eat, lost 30 lbs....I was in mental torture.  I finally walked away from it all.  If God was going to do that then so be it, although I did think about it occasionally but had to force it out of my mind as best I could.

I read Carlton Pearson's 'Gospel of Inclusion' several years ago but just couldn't believe.  I wanted to, I hoped it was true but what about what I'd been taught?   Then recently, getting into AA (I was a teenage alcoholic before meeting God) and hearing the 3rd step, "turn my life and will over to God as I understood Him" posed a really big problem for me.  I couldn't go thru that again!  Then I remembered the teaching of Christian Universalism, Ultimate Reconciliation.  I read, searched, studied until I literally had a headache but had no concrete answers.  Here I was in agony and torture again until I asked Him to please show me if this was true and give me peace about it.  I couldn't even read the Bible, there were too many "threats" in it.  Having read explanations of threatening verses helped a lot and learning about aion really helped but trusting in God to not let me go down a wrong path was the answer and He did show me.  No, I still don't have all the answers and I don't know as much about the Bible as I want to, but I'm on my path with God, the truly loving God and Jesus who died for us all  .  It is finished!  This is such an amazing thing for me after going thru so much torment and agony.  I love Him more than ever, I feel his love and I never ever want to be in fear again.  I see the world differently, I see Him differently, I don't look at people anymore and wonder if they're on their way to eternal torment...I could go on and on, but I'm sure most of you know what I mean!  This is exciting!
 
Thank you Jesus!   :HeartThrob:

 

[Beloved Servant]

Amen.

God is good.
Many of us have "gone their own way" after meeting the Lord.
Part of the learning experience to prepare us for what's ahead in His grand plan.
I went through the exact same thing.
So now you're back and eager to be with Him in an even greater Revelation.

Allelujah.

[SQ]

 Welcome, your testimony is so familiar so much like mine and many others that are searching for the truths of God.
I was so relieved when I knew God loved us to much for Eternal Torment.  :happy3:

[WhiteWings]

 :welcome: :newb: :goodpost:

Keep on reading.
Keep on posting.
Keep on believing.

[jabcat]

Hi, welcome.  Be blessed, be a blessing.  Be helped, be a helper.

[BlessedAssurance]

Thank you all for welcoming me.  It's so good to have heart knowledge of this and not just hopeful head knowledge.  God has changed me and I'll never see things the same again.  ET is so foreign to me now...my spirit doesn't "get it" anymore...if that makes sense.  I'm praying for opportunities to share this with other people although I know what most people's reaction will be, at least initially.  And I'd love to have a church to go to locally that believe this.  There are none.  I'm glad I found this forum.

[Beloved Servant]

The Lord does seem to have His Lamp Stands strategically placed so that when He turns His Spirit up to a full burn there will remain no place in the world that is not illuminated by His Presence.


allelluiah

[Nathan]

It always makes me cringe when I read about how the church drives people further into torment rather than lead them into the freedom of Christ.  I pray you come to intimately know the difference between the voice of the spirit in your heart and the noise of religion in your head.  One leads to life and light, the other has an image of life and light, but it becomes bondage and darkness. 

But this is the day, this is the person of Christ that is now coming to man.  One that has no resemblence whatsoever of the image man has conjured up through reasoning and logic (flesh and blood).  I'm excited for ya to!

I've not been on the forum for some time myself.  I've missed this venue of communication. 

[BlessedAssurance]

Thanks again everyone, it's so nice to have a place like this to come to and read and learn.  I don't know the Bible like most of you do but I do know that I've always, always! questioned how God could send most of creation to an eternal everlasting torment. 

I've been talking with my best friend, we've known each other for 20+ yrs.  She is also a Christian.  I gave her some "hints" to research this on her own but finally sent her links to Tentmaker and some other sites I've come to love dearly (like Charles and Paule Slagles's site).  I just sent them today, she hasn't had time to research or read any of them.  I don't know what the initial outcome will be, she may reject it all as "heresy" like I did several years ago but I know a seed will be planted.  I know she too has wondered about eternal torment.  We've talked about it before. 

Anyway, this seems to be the only place I post.  Like I said, I don't know the Bible like most of you, but I do read and am learning a lot.  It's just that right now I don't have much to add, .....yet! 
:girlheart:

[jabcat]

Your presence and gentle spirit is worth a lot. :thumbsup:    We're all learning, and it sounds like you're already helping.  :bigGrin:

[CHB]

"Blessed Assurance" Jesus is mine, oh what a fore tast of glory devine.
I like that song.

Welcome  :happy3:

CHB

[jabcat]

Heir of salvation
purchase of God
Born of His Spirit
washed in His blood  

:angelharp:

[WhiteWings]

I've been talking with my best friend, we've known each other for 20+ yrs.  She is also a Christian.  I gave her some "hints" to research this on her own but finally sent her links to Tentmaker and some other sites I've come to love dearly (like Charles and Paule Slagles's site).  I just sent them today, she hasn't had time to research or read any of them.  I don't know what the initial outcome will be, she may reject it all as "heresy" like I did several years ago but I know a seed will be planted.

From small seeds grow mighty oaks

I know she too has wondered about eternal torment.  We've talked about it before.

Maybe you don't need to plant a seed at all.... Maybe you just need to water it///

[CHB]

This is my story
This is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story
This is my song praising my Savior
all the day long
:Whistle: :violin:

[Nathan]

I can't believe you guys did this to the song.  I saw this happening before you started it.  God gives each of us a verse of his glory and as we share, we all sing the song of praise, but each person adds a verse and the song begins to grow in all of us until we all come into perfect harmony, singing a song that no "man" (carnality) knows. 

How sweet his glory is.

[BlessedAssurance]

Just wanted you all to know I have been reading.  I wish I had the knowledge you all have!  But no ET is in my spirit and I know it will never leave. 

The song Blessed Assurance came to my mind when I came to understand all of this thus my screen name.  I know this post is "old" now but I still have that blessed assurance and I have that blessed assurance for those that have passed on that may not have been born again before they left this earth.  My father in law is one. 

When he passed suddenly, back when I believed in ET, I asked God to please send me a sign that he was ok.  I had a hard time even sleeping wondering if he was being tortured forever!  And maybe this wasn't the best thing to do, to ask for a sign, but I asked God to send me a red or blue bird to let me know.  Does that sound silly? 

When we moved from our other home and moved into my FIL's home a red bird appeared at my front door.  Then, when someone was inquiring about buying our other home the same type of bird appeared again.  And the day the insurance paid for this home was the last time that type of bird appeared.  I've not seen one like it since then.  Does God honor our doubts and fears from what we've been taught by sending us the sign/s we ask for?

Was this from God?  Or am I putting too much into it?  I really think it was from God. 

Oh, and not planned, we moved in this home 5 years to the day that my MIL passed.  I had to look at her death certificate to know it was the exact day.

I guess this may all seem a little crazy or superstitious but to me I think God does send us signs if we ask. 

What do you all think, especially according to what the Bible says?



Also, my friend I talked about wants nothing to do with the thoughts/beliefs of no ET.  Her (now ex) fiance' even sent me scripture about Jesus and Nicodemus, "proving" that we had to be born again in this age.

I feel so "uneducated" about the Bible compared to you all.  Just wanted to check in and let you all know I'm still around and see if this seems totally left field to you all.  :)

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I believe the Lord meets us where we're at, including meeting our needs on whatever level we can receive from Him on. Blessings and welcome to the forum..... :thumbsup:

[jabcat]

I'll just relate this;  one day prior to God revealing UR to me, I was praying for my agnostic brother, praying for him to be saved (seemed "hopeless" in this life - you'd need to know him).  Anyway, a clear thought came to me along the lines of "he will be saved, just not as you expect".  A few years later I understand that thought a little better.   :bigGrin:   Praise God!

[BlessedAssurance]

Hi Cardinal, thank you so much.  Yes, I do believe God meets us where we are.  That is such a comfort isn't it!

I meant to add, there were people in the family at the time of my FIL's passing that were trying to find out if my FIL had been born again in this age.  We were all wondering even though we had talked to him about it lots of times before he passed on after my MIL passed.  We knew she was born again in this age.

And the Pastor that held his funeral said he was told that my FIL was saved but that it wasn't coming from him directly, from the Pastor that is.  In other words, that was what he was told, that he couldn't be sure.

I have also heard Pastors, in my years of going to church, refuse to "preach" a funeral because they didn't know how the person that had passed had lived in the last years of their life, or since being save in this age, so they couldn't be sure they were with God.  If they were "still saved".   How very sad is that?   And I've heard them tell family members their loved ones (one lady I can think of in particular) was in hell because he never believed, never got saved in this age.  That to me is the ultimate cruelty of ET. 

[Beloved Servant]

It's astonishing that, the true nature of God, which is love, is so easily dismissed by the mind of man.
All is vanity.

[Molly]

Was this from God?

Yes, it most certainly was!


Matthew 5:4
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I don't know if you believe in/know about the gifts of the Spirit, but I'll tell you a true story.

I was taking care of my boss's mother, who was nearly killed in a car wreck. He had the hospital home health coming in to her 3 times a week, but I was there every day all day. Anyway, this one woman had been coming in to bathe her regularly and I felt the pull of the Spirit on me for her and one day I asked her if I could pray for her.

She told me later she only said yes, because she thought I meant I was going to add to her my prayer list, LOL; not that I was going to "pounce" on her in person that second, which I did. The Lord gave me a word of knowledge for her. It was this.

He said, "Forgive your father, he didn't understand, he is with Me."

I knew NOTHING about this woman, so I had NO CLUE why she broke into sobs just as her nurse supervisor walked thru the door. So she excused herself and went out the door, and it turns out she had a week's vacation the next week, so we never saw her for 10 days, not knowing why she reacted so strongly.

Here is why. He had been a violent alcoholic and did not know how to be set free and was finally afraid after a gun incident with his family, that he should kill himself while in jail to prevent him from maybe killing his family. He did so.

As if that wasn't tragic enough, the "church" told her mother and her that he was in hell for committing suicide. This kept her out of church from the time she was 14 years old (when it happened). She was by this time, now in her 40's, and after the Lord gave her that, she spent her vacation week in some church every single night praising God and turning her life back over to Him.

She has been my best friend now for over 10 years, and she has never wavered in her walk in all that time. Whom the SON sets free is free indeed, whether in this life or the next. Blessings....

[onlytruth]

thats awesome Card! :icon_king:

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: He is awesome, is He not? Blessings...

[BlessedAssurance]

Hi everyone, Cardinal's was the only post that was showing when I replied, I didn't mean to ignore the rest of you. 

jabcat, that is wonderful.  Isn't it such a relief to know that God does take care of everyone in their time.  And we can rest in that.

Beloved Servant, yes it is astonishing.  I can't (now) understanding how I didn't accept this all sooner.  It had to be when I was ready, God had to get me there.  So many burdens are lifted, I see life differently and can truly love God now. 

Molly, I'll never forget my little bird.  What a loving Father we have. 

Cardinal, yes, I believe in the gifts of the Spirit, what an amazing wonderful thing for her to have that burden lifted.  God is so good.  Yes, it is tragic what a belief in ET can do to people's heart's and soul's.

I was mad at God for a very long time for "being who he is", now to know how he truly is brings so much peace and joy.   

God is awesome.