The Christian Thread

I've been Catholic my entire life however I'm in a severe questioning phase right now. My faith in God hasn't changed, but currently I hold a negative opinion of him. Which perhaps is worse than atheism in His eyes.

Nice to have a thread like this though. Will definitely be stopping in here.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: I've been Catholic my entire life however I'm in a severe questioning phase right now. My faith in God hasn't changed, but currently I hold a negative opinion of him. Which perhaps is worse than atheism in His eyes. Nice to have a thread like this though. Will definitely be stopping in here.

I went through that myself which led to a break with the Catholic Church ... organized Religion and then God.  As I got older I discovered God in my life again...but have never...will never believe in the notion of Organized Religion.  My faith is my own.. don't need to share it.. nor be told what God wants of me..  if I stray... he'll sure enough tell me in his own way.  I have no doubts as to that hahha. 

someone_else wrote: I tend to be a soloist, to turn my back to organized religion, but despite this I go to church about 48 or 49 sundays in a year. Te call to be used as "living stones to build a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5) urges me to be an active member of a christian community.

I find church attendance (or at least regular fellowship with other believers) highly important because of this:

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." (Hebrews10:23-25)

It is good for Christians to gather together in order to "provoke one another" to good works, and, when necessary (and always with love and gentleness!), help out when another Christian is struggling with sin or some other situation.

I don't know where I'd be without the support and prayers of other Christians.

congrats Ben 

hahhahah....  that must have been quite a moment for him as well .. my father merely took pride in me when I first fired an M-16  and was able to chew Red Man without puking...

progismylife wrote: And since my dad is the reverend / pastor, the bible verse that is on my membership card begins "therefore, my son..."

, great stuff

Yeah, I'm a Christian myself (though I'm a bit of a weird sollipsist, individualist, philosophical type). I tend to disagree on all sorts of things with sensible types, but yeah, my faith helped me a lot at one point when I was genuinely a bit messed up, and it's a comfort more than a concern.

Oh, and, could I ask, any prayer for me would be appreciated... having some trouble with relationships at the moment and it's really messing up my feelings a bit. So, yeah.

TGM: Orb wrote: Oh, and, could I ask, any prayer for me would be appreciated... having some trouble with relationships at the moment and it's really messing up my feelings a bit. So, yeah.

That's one of the primary reasons I'm here in this thread- to pray for those who request it.  Done deal.

I accepted Christ as my savior in January of 2000. I'm still a work-in-progress, however. Our Pastor made a good analogy this past Sunday that even after we've stepped out of our spiritual desert and walk into the land of milk and honey, there's still a piece of us that will go back and 'play in the sand'. I still find myself battling this every day. I'm far from a perfect Christian, and there's a lot that I need to do in order to fulfill my walk of faith. This will be a good thread to refer to from time-to-time. I just hope that those who don't follow the same beliefs continue to be respectful to the author and the spirit in which this thread was created. So far, I'm pleasantly surprised.

We've been studying the book of Colossians the past month or so and it's very interesting so far. Our Pastor focused on Luke for about a half of a year, so he REALLY gets into it and dissects the scriptures. A passage that I found very uplifting can be found in Colossians 2:13-15:

"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

E


Edited by E-Dub - March 18 2009 at 00:42

Epignosis wrote: progismylife wrote: It was a real encouragement to the church, to see young people become members. I think I'm the 6th person under 30 to be brought into membership in the past year.  Our church is very small, and has few people under 30. I am 25, and I play electric guitar with the pianist there- yep, just the two of us. But hey, you "non-going-to-church-types" - how would you like to hear prog in church? I have performed work from Neal Morse, Proto-Kaw, and myself in my church.  It's cool!

Edited by Captain Capricorn - March 18 2009 at 08:32