Oh boy can I relate to your post. As a matter of fact I feel so similar to you, and its so rare for me to hear this from another person, that I’m having a hard time seeing your post as anything but a message directly from God. I too am struggling with my faith, and I’d like to share with you what I’m thinking. I have a feeling it’s going to be a looong reply so I’ll leave this one first, but watch in the next few minutes for my direct reply to your questions.
Thank you for being here in this moment for me to talk to you. I just had a feeling I should come on here and seek out help and your post was the first one I saw. I don’t believe in accidents, so thank you for being brave enough to post today.
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I think you’ve done a fine job of realizing your delima.
You have a lacking faith in God, which is different than than seeing God as the problem. Sometimes, it is God Himself that puts doubts into our minds - as He is inviting you to walk closer with Him.
The question is, what do you want to do with what faith that remains in you.
I think most Christians do go through a point in their life where they wonder why God put us in such a terrible world and question his existence. Most of the time, it passes. Sometimes, especially with the influence of friends, it doesn’t. Eventually, you will find your own way. Think about it for a while. Is religion important to you? Would you be happy as a non-religious person? Only you know what is right for you to believe. If you want to continue to be religious and you feel that is right for you, perhaps try going to church. And ignore those who try to change your opinion. I wish you the best.
I cant seem to reply with the email i used to first reply, so here’s one from another email….
Thanks again for posting this. Wow, where to start. I guess the first thing I would want to say is that there is no doubt to me that two things are true. God is most certainly, in my personal experience, REAL. And religion is not your only path to God.
I want to address two things in this reply. The evil that seems to spew from most people nowadays, and also the truth behind my relationship with God, and how it requires nothing but my prayer. No religion, building, sacrament, or even Jesus( I know this one may be hard to digest, but in my experience its real).
First the evil around us and the atheists and their points of view. I too am really becoming jaded by the evil, dishonesty and conflict that people seem to be so proud of in this world. Its almost as if they wear their hatred and malice as a badge of honor. All I can say about this is that there are others out there that aren’t like this, and life is about learning and becoming stronger through the journey, not having things always work out easily and therefor having no need for us to change.
I think that the atheists have incredibly good points in terms of why they say religion isn’t productive or good for the most part. They’re right in my opinion. No where in the scriptures does God or Jesus state that we need to be in a building going through certain rituals and abiding by certain rules to have a relationship with him. Don’t misunderstand, there are plenty of PEOPLE in the bible that state these things, but it doesn’t come from God or Jesus. That matters to me. I agree with the atheist point of view that ‘religion’ not spirituality was designed from the start to control and manipulate people into doing acting and thinking a certain way. I also believe that way is not the easiest path to God. I know God is real and I KNOW I have a very personal and wonderful relationship with him. I don’t think he cares one bit about anything except how we treat others, and how we treat ourselves. Since I have followed those guidelines I have had the most instant connection to God. It’s more that anything a religion can deliver in my opinion.
I think the reality of what God does for us through conscious and subconcious prayer is astonishing. This may sound strange, but I was never raised religiously in any way. I was raised in a science-based family and taught to only believe what I could see with my own eyes. This is just as limitting as the views of someone steeped in religious dogma(in my opinion). So as an adult(I’m 36 now) I never beleived in God….until something amazing happened.
Here this part out as it may be different than anything you’ve thought before and it’s probably not the kind of think that most religious people, or atheists for that matter, will easily adopt. None-the-less its the most real thing in my life and it’s the only thing I have to cling onto when times get tough, like now in my life.
The amazing thing that happened to me was when I discovered God through science! It’s true, science has in my opinion proven the existence of God in an academic and repeatable way. It wasn’t this way even 15 years ago, science hadn’t progressed enough yet, but today it’s true.
What I’m talking about is quantum mechanics. It’s a very complicated part of our understanding of the universe, but it’s real. And here’s the clincher, in quantum mechanics the definition of the ‘quantum soup’ is exactly the same as the definition of God in the bible! And the preservation of energy and the real tangible power of just your thoughts and feelings follows perfectly the bibles definition of prayer.
too long for one post, more in the next reply…..
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Quantum mechanics says that the quantum soup is what facilitated the beginning of the universe, its what binds all of us together, we are small parts(images) of it, and it responds DIRECTLY to all of our thoughts(or prayers) without fail. I know this may seem far fetched, but I believe that’s only because so many people are closing their eyes to the science behind it. It’s the most real thing in my life and it’s the only thing that I can count on every single time, without fail.
Here’s my evidence of God. It may take some time to understand, but I have a feeling once you understand it, you’ll never turn back.
The single most powerful thing that changed my life and illustrated what faith can do scientifically are both videos designed to help people understand quantum physics. The first is a movie called ‘What the bleep do we know’. Please do not discount this because it’s a movie. It is, in my opinion, the most powerful(and underrated) video production of modern times. The ‘down the rabbit hole’ edition contains more good stuff so I recommend that one if you can find it. But here’s a clip from it that PROVES what prayer can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_dmYT…
In this clip you see what scientist have done to illustrate and duplicate how our thoughts directly change the world around us.
Here’s another clip that illustrates that EVERYTHING around us is constantly changing JUST because we are observing it. Our thoughts and prayers are REAL energy that have a direct influence in the physical world around us. In fact our thoughts dictate what the world around us is going to be. All the time, whether you believe it or not.(Just like the bibles definition of God and prayer).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPepr…
Please watch these with an open mind trying to leave the religion out of it(it’s just you and God), and consider that this is what prayer actually looks and functions like. My life has been very different since viewing God this way. It shows us how we can be connected to God directly, and how in reality it’s impossible to be separated from God(the quantum hologram, or quantum soup) even if we tried.
It’s easy for me to believe that when the books of the bible were written it was impossible for them to see it as anything but mystical, but its as scientific as the light switches and computers we use daily. Finally science has caught up to religion, and I am grateful for that so much.
God is so very real, but he’s not keeping score of what you do. Life is balanced perfectly and he is here to help us through it with as little drama as possible. I’m going to stop now even though I could go on for hours. Please keep your faith, God is with you even now, and he could care less about what ‘religion’ your a part of. He only cares and listens to your feelings and thoughts, and will bring more of those things to you. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to express my direct-to-God and religion free faith with you. And I wish you the very best.
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I forget to mention the second video. This one is more popular but please try not to judge it until you’ve actually seen it, and understand how real and repeatable the affecet of your thoughts on the world are, and how the preservation of energy disctates that your thoughts are a measurable type of energy that is changing your workd right now, whether you believe in it or not.
The second movie is The Secret. This is not in any way presented the same way as the first movie I mentioned. Much less science, and a lot more ’steps to take’ in this one. Watching this showed me how to approach what I had just learned in ‘What the bleep do we know’ in a practical way to make my life better. If viewed all by itself it can easily be taken as just a motivational video, but its far more than that if you understand the science it’s based on.
These two videos illustrated for me what faith is, and I have had some truly extra-ordinary things happen in my life since I found faith and built a personal relationship with God.
Best of success!
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Cell wrote:
Pray to God and ask Him. He will show you the truth.
I am happy that you are EVEN concerned at all.
The day that you dont care at all of the things of God is the day to be concerned.
If the things of God no longer matter to you, (Heaven forbid) then that would be cause to worry.
As far as your confusion between christianity and ALL other world religions, think about it for sec…
ALL OTHER WORLDS RELIGIONS IS MAN’S ATTEMPT TO REACH GOD.
All other world relgions say “do this”, “do that”, “work!”
Jesus said “It is finished”. “All who come to me I will in no way cast away”
Jesus already DID the “work”.
And that is a very happy thing to consider.
May the Lord make you happy as you meditate on Him.
Ok, I must be honest before I advise you and let you know I’m Jewish :)
Yet, your dillema is shared among many people from many religions out there.
Is God really exists?? did he created everything?? Is he good or perhaps evil or maybe he don’t really care?? even if God do exists is Christanity is the right way to worship God? maybe Jewish? Maybe Muslim? something else maybe? really - how can we tell what is right? after all we are not getting any physical signals from God lately…
I will share with you few conslusions I had regarding this matter in hope it might help you a bit.
Proof of God:
If I exist - somthing created me (my parents to that matter) - and somthing created what is created me - and so on recursivley until two conclusions possible:
1. the recrusive of creation is never ending.
or
2. somthing created the 1st bone in this chain.
Now, if you take conclusion (2) - that somthing is in fact God.
however if you take conslusion (1), you can notice a repeating rule in the chain, somthing is always creating somthing.. so who decided on the rule?? I mean if it’s rule and it is repeating than it is not random - so someone decided on it - that will be God.
Proof that God care for what is going on in here and it was aimed for:
A great being will not create somthing without a plan.
A table will not exist unless someone planed to create it in order to be used for some purpose and since we already learned that everything is created by God - everything has purpose in God plans.
Proof that God is good:
evil cannot exist without good and good cannot exist without evil and since we expirencing both in our lives and not just humans but any creature we able to study in respect to those measures.. God must be either good or Evil but cannot be ambient or careless. since we already agree that God must have a plan and a plan must have a purpose.. so it have to be of service of somthing good as evil has no purpose and need no plan.
I have no “logical” proof for Judasim or Christanity and etc as the correct way to worship god. I studied alot thinking of God and I will tell you that I have a very long to write proof to the followings a well:
1. we are living in the past - God is in the present, so in everything we do (which is in the past) we just choosing a way to uphold an already manifested present :)
2. the whole reality is a relection of God and you are part of that.
by the way I’m not religous and share your conflict from time to time too.
Pray and read your Bible. Pray for strength and understanding. Then think about all the beauty in the world that can only be explained by his true creation. Just because you can not touch it or explain it all does not mean that it does not exsist. In fact it just means that you have to rely on your faith even more. Yet if you tell the Lord how you are feeling and ask him for guidance….your realtionship will grow and your fears and doubts will go away.
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maria3122 wrote:
Pray and read your Bible. Pray for strength and understanding. Then think about all the beauty in the world that can only be explained by his true creation. Just because you can not touch it or explain it all does not mean that it does not exsist. In fact it just means that you have to rely on your faith even more. Yet if you tell the Lord how you are feeling and ask him for guidance….your realtionship will grow and your fears and doubts will go away.
Well said.
Anon, the God of the Old Testament kicked a$$ and took names. It was really the only way to get mankind’s attention. As mankind “matured,” we could be receptive to a message of love. This whole process is known as “salvation history”. Here’s a “taste” of it:
“Salvation History seeks to understand the personal redemptive activity of God within human history to effect his eternal saving intentions.[1]
“Originally conceived in the Christian theological tradition, the Salvation History approach views all events in human history (specifically those recorded in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament) as providentially oriented toward God’s plan for the salvation of His chosen people. In the context of Christian theology, this approach understands events such as “the fall” at the beginning of Genesis, the covenant established between God and Abraham, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem as seminal moments in the history of humankind and its relationship to God; namely, as necessary events preparing for the salvific event of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
“Salvation History is a teleological approach first advocated by Paul in the New Testament, who taught a dialectical theology wherein believers were caught between the “already” of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the “not yet” of the coming Parousia (or Christ’s return to earth at the end of human history). He sought to explain the Christ through the lens of the history of the Hebrew Scriptures, for example, by drawing parallels between the blood sacrifice demanded by God of Abraham to seal their covenant and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. “When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:11-12
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatio…
You can read many articles and books that are attacks upon Christianity. The authors of these diatribes have confused Christianity with Churchianity. Jesus never said to treat certain people badly.
Read some articles on salvation history. And read “Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis.
Seek and you shall find!
In all the books and opinions I read and listen to, I begin to think that religion is something that our minds grasp in order to feel secure and function as normal human beings in society. That feeling I had inside when I was younger, was it just a purging of emotions because I felt mentally attached to God, rather than spiritually? I don’t know. Yet, some part of me clings to the image of God. I don’t want to end up in Hell but neither do I want to die knowing that I wasted my life believing in a false being.
this is excellent insight.
the truth of the matter is that most people are actively building a model of the world and that model (when one is attached to it) takes the place of reality. and as a result this model becomes a source of much pain, confusion and ignorance, because it is not actually reality. it is very good that you can recognize a feeling as a feeling, an image as an image and a thought as a thought. its not easy to be honest about these things. if we are… we are apt to change and most people don’t want that. regardless, these mental constructs (although they are useful at times) tend to impose themselves upon you and stand between you and true knowledge.
God is there. And we’re talking about the focus of your faith–Jesus Christ–who was prophesied to be the messiah by over 100 prophecies in the Old Testament. He’s the real deal.
If you seek God, he will reveal Himself to you. As a child, you felt a close connection to God because of your purity of heart and your innocence.
That is how you must approach the kingdom of heaven–with the purity of heart and innocence of a child.
But here on earth, you must also realize that God is preparing you for the kingdom of heaven–and sometimes that means letting you do things on your own. But He is always there. He’s no mere construct of our psyches or figment of our imaginations. He’s as real as you or I.
Try to find our what is your part to play in the Divine Plan, and seek to play that part. Remember that the chief weapon of the Enemy is doubt. The Apostles doubted, and they deserted Jesus. But they returned. And all but one went to meet his death as a martyr.
And believe me, these very ordinary and frightened men would NOT have done that if the Resurrection of Jesus Christ had not been real!
i have been a christian for many yrs. bit always falling short. been on drugs, cheated on my husband, lied all the time, had abortions, sin has always been a part of my life. hate it, did not grow up with any truth, just a rotten sinner, hoping god would clean me up… yes i know the verse’s in the bible and also excepted jesus as my savior to make a difference in my life. i know he shed his blood for my sins, but feel so ashamed, i want to love, have real joy,peace all he says i can have. i have to wait on him, i pray i do not give up,my life depends on his mercy. i know the word says he loves me, thats even hard to believe. i must wait.
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