Good morning and good afternoon,
I know most people in this forum are well over my years as a man in his 20s I am happy to be accepted into your community. I was raised in a Christian home and taught different theologies. My father a Presbyterian, my step mother a Pentecostal and my mother a roman Catholic. I was never really taught about Jesus Christ until I pursued him in HS out of curiosity. As a child I never understood who this God man was. In fact I was always afraid of God having nightmares of this angry God rejecting me. Perhaps all this steam from my relationship with my father growing up. My father expected so much from me and God expected perfection.
I could never please God and even when I beg God to provide me his holy spirit He it never provided. I still remain a sinner still committing the same sins over and over again. I didn't know what God wanted from me. This has gone on for some time always questioning my salvation and my relationship with God. Matters did not get better being a person who believed in eternal hell. If He expected perfection how could anyone to be saved? How could I believe that there of my friends and family would be taken from me? I could not understand how people could rationalize what they believe.
My hope was that God will save everyone and that God will do it. It surprised me that I was not alone and when I removed my selective reading I could see this truth. However every revelation had its doubts. As there are evidence to prove UR there is just as much evidence to believe in ER or ant doctrine for that matter. You can twist the Word to prove anything you believe so what does it matter what you believe. There is always someone out there that believes something different. I just get tired of this and I don't understand why God prolongs all of this confusion. I am even more confused now I know that God created the devil as evil. I know I read scripture where Jesus says Satan was evil since the beginning. I never interpreted as beginning of his creation.
The point is I have a hard time trusting God but I don't for Jesus because Jesus understands what we are going through. For instance, even though Lazarus died he was not happy even though he had to die to show Gods glory. I am convinced that God is concerned more about his glory than His love for us. There is nothing wrong with that but I an get worried about how far God will go to glorify himself.
Well those are my thoughts a rather depressing one.
Also, I am a software engineer so if you guys need help with the site or anything I will be happy to help. I work with mostly web stuff. Thank you for having me.
PS. I want to thank Seth for getting the moderator's attention in my account registration.
Hi Aerex,
Welcome.
I'm old, but remember quite well the things you are talking about as a young man.
Glad you found Tentmaker,
Enjoy!
Hi Aerex,
I believe many have wondered the same , that thought need to be taken captive , by Jesus Christ For he showed us the glory of God while in the earth :HeartThrob:
and its in the Spirit and life and the earth being mortal and carnal has not a clue about it
Its only the Law being born again Spiritual that we can keep the Law of God
I do believe God has to show us just how carnal we really are first before any true change begins to happen in our lives
You are on a good path that the Lord has made for you ,
the Lord directs our steps
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 20:24
A person's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?
Jeremiah 10:23
LORD, I know that people's lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.
A man's heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps.
I am one who believes that the many are spiritual and their owbn flesh has no clue about it
and you were asking as a child in the ways of God even as a crude and feeble little one , but still honest !
Just as Nathaniel spoke about Jesus and Jesus knew him before He ever knew Jesus .... :winkgrin:
46Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"
48Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."...
Many eyes of the Spirit are examining us always , and we are never even aware of it .
But some do know now , as they learn of the Holy Spirit , We just know by the Spirit , it is the truth .
I hope you are blessed here among the Holy Spriits presence
Hi Aerex, It must be real common for us to start out thinking our Father is pretty mean and angry at us. I spent quite a few years trying to get Him to like me. Now I understand that He loves the whole world (people) and so because of His love He sent His Son to be the savior of the world, 1 John 4:14.
Philippians 2:9-11 shows what His glory is all about.
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
We have the best Father you can imagine who has only our best interest in mind because of LOVE, and what He has done and is doing for us is what brings Him glory.
Welcome bro. We don't have to be perfect. Only Jesus was perfect. Just believe.
"For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God's approach present, not of works, lest anyone should be boasting." (Ephesians 2:8,9)
"So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the primitive passed by. Lo! there has come new! Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation. For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, 'Be conciliated to God!'" (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)
Welcome Aerex! Pray and ask for clarification for all of your concerns, if you haven't yet. He will always answer. Not always right that second but He will reveal Truth to those who ask in sincerity, He certainly always has for me. If you are more comfortable asking Jesus at the moment, go that route.
Just remember that Jesus was God fully manifested in the flesh. Everything that He did, He did as His Father would do. God IS Love. Love, as Paul stated, is never self seeking.
The bible today is greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted. It has gone through many stages of translations and interpretations and picking through, and it is very easy to become disillusioned while trying to find the Truth. For example, in my opinion, it is a good possibility that our understanding of the word glory is not at all what God means when speaking of His glory. It takes prayer, prayer, prayer and patience, patience, patience, and faith, faith, faith, and slowly but surely the Truth is revealed as we are able to receive it. This is, of course, my experience and opinion. "Seek and ye shall find" is my belief. Remember Jesus said, "How many of you, if your child asks for an egg, would give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, oh ye of little faith!!"
Take heart, most if not all of us have been just as disillusioned at times. He is faithful. :HeartThrob:
THE SALVATION OF ALL MEN IS THE GLORY OF GOD!!!! for man is God's glory..and the woman is man's glory[for the
seed of the woman shall crush the serpents head]
BY MY SPIRIT[LOVE} for I will not always find fault..for then...even the spirit[love] would fail..........
....and love never fails..it hopes all things,believes all things...keeps no record of the wrong..covers a multitude
of sins.....
I did wonder Aerex, why I had so many questions that needed answering which were so important to know for inner peace - I mean about everything - I prayed every day for answers, prayed and prayed and asked desperately: "Dear God, why oh why do you not make it known to me? Why does not knowing cause me a painful confusion?"
One unexpected day, I realised that "out of nowhere" I knew the answer to one of my many big complex questions. This happened so many times, that it became normal to know the answer will come.
As each answer came, I wondered how I ever could have not known it, because it seemed so simple and obvious now, as plain as day. Then I realised that the answers had to come to me in a certain order so that the next answers could be understood.
May I say that while the confusion is borne, if only you can hold on to the thought of Divine Love in the highest sense according to your own heart, then something, even a little something of the realisation and revelation will come of what that confusion is working out for you, and why God is allowing it for now.
Peace, joy and revelation to you.
Well Aerex, I'm only 37... ;-)
I can relate very well to your struggles, since I have gone through a lot of them and still am going sometimes. I tend to read all kind of negative things in the Bible and often have ended up feeling condemned, horrified or so angry I wanted to throw the book all through the room.
As Lomarah wrote, God IS love. When I read that simple scripture, 'Love is not self-seeking' (1 Cor. 13:5), that was very liberating to me. I was struggling with those same thoughts towards God, and I realized I might not fully understand yet, but God's aim is not to seek anything for Himself. So even if He does things that seem not to benefit us (like creating evil) He doesn't do that for Himself (by example, so we would be more thankfull to Him) but He does that for our benefit.
Usually in the Bible people call each other to praise the Lord and He Himself is not saying 'praise Me!' That is because they are so excited about Him!
The other scripture Lomarah mentioned is my husband's favorite, Hebrews 1:3 (my husband is the kind of guy that just knows in his heart God is good from when he was a little child - very helpfull for a distrusting wife...)
'He is the sole expression of the glory of God and He is the perfect imprint and very image of God's nature...' In other words, if you see Jesus, you see God's real nature/heart!
Some other thoughts that might be helpfull in these struggles:
I've heard it explained the word GLORY actually means 'heavy laden with everything good'. So if we speak about God's glory, it's not about Him showing off how splendid He is. Actually, it is the radiation of His goodness, out of Himself, towards us.
If Lazarus died to show God's glory, he died to show God's goodness towards men - towards himself. Probably it's better to say he was resurrected to show God's glory (=goodness of heart towards us). I believe this has been a very exciting experience for Lazarus and his sisters and not a sad one, though they had to go through a painful experience.
I think this is an example of what we are all going through. We experience pain and death in this life on earth. I compare it to giving birth to a child. That really hurts, yet I've experienced the hard labour makes the new life that comes forth somehow even more wonderful - there is an exceeding joy I would not have experienced when the baby was, so to say, delivered by the postman. Also, the prospect (hope) of the baby that will be born, makes the pain endurable. As I was about to deliver my 6th child last year, I talked about it with Father. When I had my beautiful little boy in my arms :cloud9:, it was as if the pain I had gone through was as nothing, compared to the joy and value of a new life. That reminded me of Romans 8 and helped me with those questions I had been asking (why did you make evil? Is it really necessary for humanity to go through all that suffering? was there no easier way?)
'For I consider that the sufferings of this present time/life are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us! For creation waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known. For the creation was subjected to frailty (futility, frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it - yet with HOPE that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption into the glorious freedom of God's children. We know the whole creation has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now...'
I agree with the brothers and sisters here, cry out to God to show you what He really meant. I have several times seen that God meant something totally different than I could ever perceive with my mind. What I learned so far is:
The kingdom of God is ... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17) and God has given us not a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 tim. 1:7) So when my understanding of scripture and of God brings fear, depression, condemnation instead of peace, joy, soundness of mind... than it's probably NOT what God is saying. So I leave it there, stop reasoning about it, ask his explanation and expect one day I'll see it as He sees it.
I also cry out to Him to gain my confidence, and renew my mind and get rid of all that weird thoughts about Him.
Peace to you brother! Love will cast out fear.
Abigail, that could've just as well been me writing (apart from the 6 kids lol...)
One thing I forgot to mention earlier that I meant to mention, I asked God one day why He let's us all believe such different things, doctrines and whatnot. His answer was to help us learn unconditional love. Go figure hahaha!!!!!
(As in, we need to be able to love those whose views are not the same as ours. In case that wasn't clear in my previous post.) :)
Awesome hearts revealed,,, Lastpopost , Abigail and Lomarah !! :HeartThrob:
Hi Aerex,
Just a reminder that Jesus is the image of the Father. "If you have seen me you have seen the Father". He came to reveal God, in his own character, love, understanding and sacrifice for us, so......
The same Father who gave up His Son to pain and rejection, to show us His unlimited love, is the God who loves you and knows that you are not perfect(nor ever will be in this life) and wants only to make you whole, as a testimony of His grace.... for surely His love is His glory.
Welcome :o)
Welcome, Aerex.
'For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.' Hebrews 10:14
I always thought I needed to be perfect, too, Aerex.
But, in Christ, we are.
I am relatively new here, and just decided to embrace Christian UR, about a week ago.
Love this site.....I hope you will, too.
:welcome:
Welcome. I pray that you find relevant topics here for your questions. It's always nice to have other people to bounce ideas off of :)
I think the term glory, in contemporary culture, and with respect to man in general, is about removing oneself from the rest. God however, draws us closer. By my reckoning, God is glorified from us, certainly, but also from the world, our condition, from death, disease, gravity, sunburns and so on. I believe that one day we'll shed all of the that and understand which way is up, so to speak.
God is described in scripture as "secret" and "of mysteries," yet what we know, and what we can accomplish isn't a surprise to the Creator. I stumble in that constantly, ever trying to earn my way, when the way is paid and set before me.
Let no one undergoing trial be saying that "From God am I undergoing trial," for God is not tried by evils, yet He is trying not one. (James 1:13)
We are promised trials, which come from evil, over which God is glorified. After we endure what is set before us, all will be reconciled to Him. Tears brushed away, reunions, wholeness... and a good idea of how great is He.
To Him be the glory for the ages :)
If I can impart some advice, keep this close and never discount the wisdom therein:
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He Himself shall straighten your paths. (Proverbs 3:6)
Welcome to the Tent! Keep on, pray, read your Bible, for in doing so, the Spirit works in you to accomplish what you can not do for yourself. It is the work of a lifetime, and that is what a lifetime is for. The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Every life, however short and/or tragic, is accounted in God's treasure house, for there He saves up the people of His Kingdom. Only goodness and mercy lie beyond this present life, which is really just an eye-blink in comparison.
Amen Eaglesway Dandelion , Ian , Laz ,,
Excellent advice , and Hope you receive them blessings too Aerex .
We cannot know God from our own little human perspective , I believe it is knowing Him from the Spirit that your answers will come and they do come from God and they ALL are to His glory ..
Just keep asking and knocking and seeking ,,, I found looking in the Word we have Gods Spirit and Christ Spirit , that relationship as a Father and a Son
And no good parent would want anything bad to happen to their children but suffer with them them when they do and there is Holy spirit increase of the 7 fold, wisdom and blessing and strength and might and understanding and awe of the Lord and rest , our rest is the peace of Jesus within our being
We can go in and out of the Spirit . I am sure many can vouch for that also .
Romans 8 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
Glad you come and hope you will stay and find some peace in Jesus , God bless ..
Thank you for the kind words and I will try to keep them to heart. I did daily read the Word and prayed but I have stopped because it has not helped me. I have never heard an answer from God when it comes to my heart. I am still messed up inside. I am still an angry, prideful, cynical, selfish person even through I don't show. People say I am kind and sincere person. I could believe that but I know this is not true. What difference does it make if I read the bible or if I pray when it doesn't change me?
Maybe I am just not one of his chosen people.
Hello dear Aerex ,
I dont think I am chosen either
But the great thing about God is it does not matter that I think .
Only He can change our minds , we all struggle every day is some manner .
I wonder what you do mean by ,
'' Chosen '' for what ?
Thanks , Rose
http://bible.com/1/jhn.6.44.kjv No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
http://bible.com/1/jhn.6.70.kjv Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
http://bible.com/1/jhn.13.35.kjv By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
http://bible.com/1/luk.6.46.kjv And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
There are many others.
I think it's strange that you say you don't trust God but you do Jesus when Jesus is the word of God, the image of God, and the only-begotten son of God. I think you need to forgive your dad, trust God, and let God's love flow through you to others. Then you will feel blessed. I don't know what answer you're looking for that you say you haven't heard from God, but you shouldn't let doubt cause you to lose faith or hope. That's just Satan messin with your mind. Faith is just belief. It seems you believe in God. So you are "one of his chosen people," but you're holding on to some anger about something that is keeping you from experiencing peace.
"Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22,23)
You need to realize that your dad was a victim of evil just like you. So you can't live the rest of your life being mad at him for demanding perfection. Parenting makes people crazy, and nobody is an expert because everybody just learns on the job. And kids get so much influence from peer pressure that it makes a parent's job harder when you're just trying to do what you think is best for your kids. I think it's kind of funny that you say you're not into the word of God because God won't talk to you. You need to read Paul's epistles to learn about transcendent grace because that's the era we live in. God loves you even though you're not perfect because he made you that way, and he doesn't expect you to be perfect. He sacrificed his only-begotten son so that you would experience immortality. All you have to do is believe, and the best way to know all this is to read an accurate translation of scripture daily so you're not consumed with doubt, guilt, and worry. None of us are any better than you. We just open our hearts to God's love to let it flow through us to our brothers and sisters on the planet, and we get blessed by doing so. If other people see that you're "kind and sincere," they obviously see something that's there, but you're just believing Satan's lie that you're not really like that. You can't let Satan con you. His method of operation is deception. That's why you need to know the truth to stand against Satan's deception. You're right that people can use scripture to try to prove whatever they want, but you won't believe anything that's a lie if you know the truth. Even Satan used scripture to try to con Jesus when he confronted him in the wilderness after Jesus had been fasting for forty days, but Jesus just kept coming back with more scripture. You need to be familiar with an accurate translation of scripture to know when it is being distorted, and the only way to do that is to read it daily. When you do that, God talks to you through the words in scripture as crazy as that may sound. It's not called the inspired written word of God for no reason. I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. So I wasn't familiar with scripture when I was a kid, but, after I left the church, years later I realized scripture really is the inspired word of God. So don't complain that God doesn't answer you if you don't listen to what he's saying to you. Here's a link to the most accurate translation of scripture that I know of. http://concordant.org/online/index.html Read Paul's epistles to learn about grace. Then you'll be blessed. If God only wanted somebody that was perfect, do you think he would have chosen a murderer of Christians to be the apostle to the nations? Choosing Paul made it obvious that it is only by the grace of God that anybody is saved and has their life changed for the better. Stop believing Satan, bro, and believe God. God loves you, and he wants you to believe that. God has conciliated himself to you through the death of his son. You just need to conciliate yourself to God. Then there will be reconciliation. That is something that everybody has to go through, and everybody on earth and in the heavens eventually will. That's universal reconciliation.
"through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens" (Colossians 1:20)
Know that you are loved, brother. God loves you, and you've got some brothers and sisters right here on this forum that love you. We don't love you because we know you're perfect or even because we expect you to be perfect. God loves you, and we love you in spite of your imperfection. So lighten up, and enjoy life being confident with the knowledge that we're all imperfect, but we're justified through Jesus Christ. And someday, at the consummation of the eons, all evil will be nullified, and even death will be abolished when God is all in all.
"He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight, in love designating us beforehand for the place of a son for Him through Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 1:4,5)
"For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God's approach present, not of works, lest anyone should be boasting." (Ephesians 2:8,9)
Quote from: Aerex on June 03, 2015, 04:26:59 PM
Thank you for the kind words and I will try to keep them to heart. I did daily read the Word and prayed but I have stopped because it has not helped me. I have never heard an answer from God when it comes to my heart. I am still messed up inside. I am still an angry, prideful, cynical, selfish person even through I don't show. People say I am kind and sincere person. I could believe that but I know this is not true. What difference does it make if I read the bible or if I pray when it doesn't change me?
Maybe I am just not one of his chosen people.
Welcome to the purging of yourself.
Trust me, I went through the exact same thing.
I saw how selfish I was and that selfishness was the biggest problem in the world. I decided to try to not be selfish. When I did that I realized I was trying to love just as I had heard in Church. I started to study and memorize love from the bible, and that is when I found Jesus.
I don't have but a few moments today, but I wanted to share just a little. God is working in you. Inside. The conversations that you are having with yourself are conversations with God. It will take some time, but you will start to know the difference between your own voice and God's voice.
You are chosen to go through this and come out the other side a victor through Jesus Christ.
Welcome to the club!
Here is a verse that ministered to me when I was young. It was one of my memory verses.
Romans 7:18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
The Apostle Paul had the problems that we have. I'd say that he had it worse because he struggled with the Mosaic law.
That thing that really came alive to me in the verse was "For to will is present with me".
Paul wanted to not fall short, but he just kept on falling short. The will to do good is present with us. We are good.......not our flesh, the part that God created, our spirit.
For a really good handle on how much you are loved by God, read the Pauline epistles over and over and again. That guy knew that he was loved, and struggled much.
.
:thumbsup:
Quote from: Aerex on June 03, 2015, 04:26:59 PM
Thank you for the kind words and I will try to keep them to heart. I did daily read the Word and prayed but I have stopped because it has not helped me. I have never heard an answer from God when it comes to my heart. I am still messed up inside. I am still an angry, prideful, cynical, selfish person even through I don't show. People say I am kind and sincere person. I could believe that but I know this is not true. What difference does it make if I read the bible or if I pray when it doesn't change me?
Maybe I am just not one of his chosen people.
I do relate much to your bible-reading-and-daily-prayer experience.
One dear brother in Christ sometimes encourages people to NOT read the Bible for a while. Yet all the time he and other brothers and sisters keep speaking the Word to them, from the Spirit. It has helped me to listen to people who know God very well and let them speak the Word, 'life', or in articles. At the Tentmaker I've read a lot of 'brain' stuff that helped my brain to see the truth of UR. Yet what helped me most were the articles that spoke more to my heart. Especially 'Absolute Assurance in Christ' and the Saviour of the World series.
I'm not very good at 'praying' either. Yet one very childlike thing you can always do is just cry out to God. He's promised He will save all those who call upon is name (chosen or not ;-))
That can be as simple as: GOD! HELP!
God our Father sent Jesus to us to suffer and die to redeem us from sin and death. Our Father sent Jesus to show us to the Father. To teach us about Him, to show us His heart and His character and Jesus told us God is Love. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but through me." Jesus is compassionate towards us, so is Our Father. If you know Jesus, you know the Father. :HeartThrob: :dsunny:
Hi Aerex,
Welcome to the forum.
You got me thinking about fear and how much it cripples people and holds them back from their true potential.
From the Bible we know that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..." But that knowledge is Christ Himself. Fear of God brings us to the need for mercy and Jesus is that mercy that God provided.
So, with the knowledge of Christ there is no need to be "afraid" of God. You are FREE indeed! Everything is going to be okay no matter how bad things may seem. Do your best. Reach for the stars without fear of judgement. Fear not to follow your heart. I trust God will not lead you astray. It's okay to be happy! God is love! This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Great thoughts from everyone. Thank you all for sharing.
Steve
May God gather us all under his wing as a hen gathers her chicks.
Steve
Quote from: sdileo on June 05, 2015, 03:27:57 AM
Hi Aerex,
Welcome to the forum.
You got me thinking about fear and how much it cripples people and holds them back from their true potential.
Steve
Me too Steve,
A couple more memory verses from when I was young.
1 John 4
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:
Fear is based in deep seated doctrine. The more we meditate on love, the more we change the deep seated doctrines that we don't even know that we have. Love unseats our wrong notions about God and everything.
God loves us. The perfect example of God's love is in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Archetype for us.
Another memory verse for me when I was young was:
1 Corinthians 13
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
The more we meditate on love, the more fear retreats, and we become like our archetype.
So how do we know that we are in him? The love of God is shed abroad in our heart as we continue in love.
We learn to love God because we know that He first loved us.
You are a disciple of Christ because you continue in love.
The struggle that you are going through is part of growing up in Christ. It is awesome that this life is working in you. For me it is also very encouraging, and inspires me. I remember it, the struggle of long ago. You are not joining a religion, you are finding the pearl of great price, that is in you, allowing the Spirit to transform you.
Like I said, you are making me remember. I'm not normally a big Bible verse poster, but these are the ones that had a great impact on me back in the 1980's. They are still my base for "proving all things".
Romans 12
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Memorizing scripture that makes an impact on you, helps in the transformation process. I mined them back then, all those years ago, when one spoke to my heart, I memorized it. I had a memorization system that I did several times a day. Fear started to dissipate, when I started to really believed that I was loved.
You don't have to follow anyone else's system, please don't, it will slow your progress. Doctrine is not our lord. That actual living Lord of heaven, that is in you, Jesus Christ, is our Lord, each one, individually.
Philippians 2
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
You are in a relationship with God through Christ Jesus. It is a very exciting way to live.
Hi, Aerex, from one angst-ridden twenty-something to another. :)
I very much resonate with your feeling as if God has not 'chosen' you to receive understanding and even Love, because you still struggle with sin. Keep in mind that a typical reaction to being part of a destructive religious belief (such as eternal conscious torment) is an overly condemning conscience. Even the most conservative of Christians would assure you that anyone with even the smallest inkling toward God--faith "the side of a mustard seed"--has been 'chosen' as His own. And, of course, universalists go even farther and maintain that God has already successfully 'chosen' the whole world to receive His Love in Christ.:)
So keep in mind that you are dealing with years of religious hurt, and rest easy with your conscience.:)
I also very much understand fearing God and yet not Christ. God as Father so often appears wrathful and judging, while God as Christ, for me, has always seemed so human and loving and approachable. I reckon this skewed view has a lot to do with the typical Christian view of penal substitionary atonement--that Christ died to save us from God's terrible anger. But most Universalists reject penal substitution, and on good grounds, I think you'd find after some reading.:)
I'm realty, Christ introduced Jerusalem's highly legalistic society to the notion of God as infinity loving Father, and whoever embraces Christ's love embraces the Father's love also.:) But sometimes I still find it easier to picture Christ when I'm praying, because the Son is how I most clearly understand the Father's Love.:)
Anyway, welcome! (I actually just joined too!)
In the Light,
Kate
Hi Kate ,
Just now saw your post
I really enjoyed it . :HeartThrob: God bless you ! :thumbsup: