Christians out there!

[Nocturnal]

How do you keep your faith up when bad things happen. How do you just keep on trucking like God tells you to? I know there are a lot of Christians on here and I know there are non-believers. To those non-believers, I just ask that you don't reply, I'm mainly looking to get some insight on keeping up with the faith.

 

[BannedTroll]

If you question your faith do you really have it to begin with?

 

[DaWhim]

no compassion without suffering? heck, everything happens for a reason.

 

[SchrodingersDog]

I'm a non-believer Nocturnal, but I do know that you just need to keep on trucking. If you enjoy being a Christian then that's fantastic, but that aspect of your life may not be able to inspire you during all the trials you'll surely wind up going through in life. Even as a non-believer I just know as a human that you need to keep going in life regardless of the roadblocks, otherwise you'll give up and wither. Try inspiring yourself with your sense of self-preservation and your other abilities - God given or otherwise - before you ask if your faith can help you out.

 

[Nocturnal]

Truthfully I do question my faith. I question if the Lord actually exists or not. I question it when I'm down most of all. I do see things that he points out to me. No he doesn't talk to me, or I don't hear voices. I just ask and I see things that I asked about. I just have a strange feeling like here, here it is, I'm showing you what you asked me. Do you understand?

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Truthfully I do question my faith. I question if the Lord actually exists or not. I question it when I'm down most of all. I do see things that he points out to me. No he doesn't talk to me, or I don't hear voices. I just ask and I see things that I asked about. I just have a strange feeling like here, here it is, I'm showing you what you asked me. Do you understand?

I really believe God exists. I am opposite. when I am down, I get closer to Him.

 

[SchrodingersDog]

Try doing the same thing you do now but leave the Lord out of it for a bit. When you ask questions try asking yourself first, and see if you start to feel more confidant in the things in life you can decode on your own without asking for divine guidance - and if your Lord really is there, there's nothing he loves more than you questioning your faith, she doesn't really want blind followers.

 

[gutharius]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
How do you keep your faith up when bad things happen. How do you just keep on trucking like God tells you to? I know there are a lot of Christians on here and I know there are non-believers. To those non-believers, I just ask that you don't reply, I'm mainly looking to get some insight on keeping up with the faith.

I am not christian so i probably should not be posting but I have a perspective on this that you may find beneficial. God can do something that is for the better good of all but that action can be perceived by you or I as individuals as very bad. If 100 years is a lifetime to us bbut a mere glimpse in time to god you have to look on the LARGER scale of time to see how the little bad things shaped and affected humanity to finally determine that there was some good that happened as a result. I see this as true in all things.

 

[ed21x]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
How do you keep your faith up when bad things happen. How do you just keep on trucking like God tells you to? I know there are a lot of Christians on here and I know there are non-believers. To those non-believers, I just ask that you don't reply, I'm mainly looking to get some insight on keeping up with the faith.

Nowhere does it say that believing in him, God will provide you with a wonderful, protected life. The truth is, God exists whether our life is great or not, and having bad things happen to you has no bearing on the truth of his existence.

 

[Xionide]

All I know is that I dont have my regular hard drive with all my files. Cause if I did I would post a fat teext middle finger.

*rolls on ground while chanting satanic verses while eating a dead skunk*

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
no compassion without suffering? heck, everything happens for a reason.

That's the single most annoying phrase on the face of the earth. The reason, if it exists, is the laws of physics, cause and effect, etc. To say "everything happens for a reason, because it fits into God's plan", is to add nothing to the conversation at all.

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Truthfully I do question my faith. I question if the Lord actually exists or not. I question it when I'm down most of all. I do see things that he points out to me. No he doesn't talk to me, or I don't hear voices. I just ask and I see things that I asked about. I just have a strange feeling like here, here it is, I'm showing you what you asked me. Do you understand?

Yep, I understand. The thing that often annoys me about Christians, though, is that they always talk about the power of belief, and that you need to get saved. I have a real dilemma here; I'm not being facetious. Here it is:

If someone like me doesn't have that magic feeling (belief), which is required to be saved, how are we supposed to arrive at it? Pure belief cannot be approached by reason alone. It's a priming-the-pump sort of problem-- you need a little belief to get the ball rolling. Has God abandoned me by not giving me this spark of belief? I can tell you for sure that I'm not suppressing it or anything.

A corollary to the first question: if belief is required for salvation, why do some Christians proselytize so fiercely? Do they believe that everyone naturally believes in God, and they just need to help nonbelievers overcome their doubts? If so, how can they be so sure that they're truly encouraging belief, and not just a thought pattern? What makes belief different from a simple behavioral pattern anyway (besides the fact that a believer says they have a special feeling)?

 

[MidasKnight]

Think of it this way about our life here in the physical body and our missions here on earth....




It was never said to us that it would be easy ............. only that it would be worth it in the end.


We are expected to go through hardships of faith / the body / emotions ... that's how we grow in the spirit. But also the good times in ones life help us learn and grow in the spirit. This life is a school for us all and nobody here ( or who has been on earth in the past ) is better or higher up than the other. We all learn our lessons an complete our missions at our own level spiritually. And hardship is just one type of learning here.

 

[Double Trouble]

Bad things happen to everyone, believer or not, good person or bad. I think it's natural to start to question your faith when tough things happen, but it's usually in those times when things are toughest that you seem to get someone to lean on. I've always enjoyed this story as a good illustration:

One night a man had a dream. He dreamt he was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it. "LORD you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why, when I needed you most, you would leave me".

The LORD replied, "My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you".

A lot of things happen, both in your personal life and around you that make you wonder why God would allow them to. For example, I look at the devastation of the tsunami and wonder why all those people suffer. Just remember that we don't see the big picture. We don't know what the master plan is. We see things through our eyes. How many times do we wish or pray for something to happen, only to realize later (in hindsight) that it not happening was better afterall?

 

[SchrodingersDog]

The worst thing your life can be is easy.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

How do you just keep on trucking like God tells you to?

Because you're supposed to be joyfull in the lord. Rain falls on the just and unjust alike.

 

[Gravity]

Originally posted by: SchrodingersDog
The worst thing your life can be is easy.

:thumbsup:

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: BannedTroll
If you question your faith do you really have it to begin with?

Unquestioned faith is blind and pointless.

 

[Chunkee]

I just started tearing up reading the story of the man that lost his children and wife in the mudslide. How aweful.

I immediately said a prayer for him and his family. I do question sometimes my faith. I also know God understands that we question but in the end, we trust it.

Tragedy happens to all. And I feel that it is to teach us compassion. So many people go through life and read and hear about tragedy and saddening things and do not wince or even blink... until, it happens to them or someone close to them.

Reading that story on CNN, just made me think of how that man felt digging through the debris and finding his dead family. The pain and anquish he felt and still feels must be numbing.

In doing so, I felt compassion for him and said a prayer. I pray many many times a day... and it helps. God teaches us many things, and as most lessons in life, they can be painful.

So, those are my thoughts. Just pray that each time you go home on the busy highway, that you make it home safely, and that something horrible has not happened to your little girl or your wife.

jC

 

[daveshel]

I think that you have to question your faith for it to mean anything, like to validate it. Then it remains a matter of free will. At least that is the way it is for me. And, yes, that initial spark was something that was difficult to wait for, and it's like the harder you try the harder it becomes, but you just have to be open to the miracles of everyday life.

 

[bbqbread]

i ask myself should i let depression destroy me or should i NOT let it destroy me. i then pray so i can carry through that I may be of a blessing to someone. Sometimes its only through trials and tribulations that one becomes directed in the right path.

 

[Dogmeat]

Disasters have been happening throughout time. They tend to make me take a closer look at what is important in life. Nowhere have I read that being Christian means the world is going to be just "peachy" and nothing bad happen. Everyone who is born is going to die (here in our 4 dimensional life).

My faith is that by believing, after I pass from the trap of our 4 dimensional world, I will be open to other dimensions (my spirit (conscious energy)) which no mortal may comprehend while here in our known universe.

So when "Bad" things happen, yes it is sad, but it reinforces my belief that this world is just a 4 dimensional filter that God is sending us through to see if we can individually handle being open to other dimensions with out corrupting the higher levels.

What makes disasters seem so bad is that the News Media hypes it to no end (I'm not saying that it isn't terrible). The fact is, a great number of people die each and every day from accidents to disease to natual causes. Why is this not just as sad?

 

[slightlyhuman]

I was born and raised in a southern baptist church. My parents have always encouraged me to stay in church, etc. I get off track A LOT but I have never lost my faith. I am not the best christian and don't claim to be but if asked if I believed in God, I would say yes and stay by my words. It's encouraging reading some of these posts and I had no idea there were a many christians on the boards as there are.
I pretty much keep to myself with religion on the internet because it tends to get ugly, quick. There is really not any point with my post but I just wanted to post in this thread and say thanks for the encouraging words.

<3

 

[dquan97]

For me, though things may not be easy currently, I know that God has a plan for my life and that this experience is a part of that. Here are some helpful booklets:

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/topics.html
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/cb042/cb042.pdf

 

[FoBoT]

i try to be thankful for what i have, and keep in mind that it could be much worse