How do you like your Christianity?

[Gail]

I thought I would do a multi-choice poll for once, just for fun!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Enjoy

[Clio]

I clicked other... because it's all encompassing. It's a relief, it's freeing, it's something that isn't Christianity to me, it's a way of life. It's the only life.

I wake in the morning saying "Yea Lord, I am here." and ask for the protection so necessary in the struggle in which I find myself engaged. I delight in asking His opinion on what I'm planning to do that day...

I ask His guidance on things as simple as Abba? did you send this money for the car? Or is there something else You want me to do with it? I spend time listening to Him, asking if I have the right slant on something He is showing me... I take the time to pray.

I often talk to Him driving down the road... it doesn't matter if I'm happy, sad, lonely, frustrated, angry... I talk to Him. After all, He already knows exactly how I'm feeling... it's not like it's a secret... and only through talking it over with Him will those feelings ever change.

My committment to Him is not based on feelings... I guess that's why I had such a hard time with the poll. My commitment to Him is based on what He did for me, when I didn't even love Him yet. It's a covenant relationship that is independent of feelings... my feelings are simply a wonderful gift that He gave to me after 5 long years of deadness and death inside where my feelings should be.

My feelings were sooo gone, I actually prayed to have Him restore them... and He made me wait what felt like forever, but now, I'm so glad He did. I wouldn't have stayed sane had He not made me wait.

Clio

[Nicodema]

I chose puzzling, lonely and empty -- because that's where I'm "at" right now. I don't LIKE it, don't recommend it, but I can't seem to find the way out of it.

Anyway, I was surprised to find I'm not the only one. Two other people apparently chose those same words, lonely and puzzling, and one other person chose empty.

I wonder who?

[Clio]

I still find myself lonely and puzzled, even empty of Him at times... but when I'm in that place... I seek out my prayer partners and we pray until something happens.

I find the tears I weep when I'm in that state and praying produce more healing in me than anything else... but it's soooooo hard to go there....

Nico you are not alone...

clio

[Bravus]

I chose puzzling because I dislike over-simplistic answers. God is a mystery, and I like it that way.

[Nicodema]

Quote:

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I still find myself lonely and puzzled, even empty of Him at times... but when I'm in that place... I seek out my prayer partners and we pray until something happens.

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You have someone to seek out in this regard. Good for you. I do not.

Quote:

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I find the tears I weep when I'm in that state and praying produce more healing in me than anything else... but it's soooooo hard to go there....

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I have wept plenty ... but I have found no healing in it.

Quote:

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Nico you are not alone...

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I am utterly alone. You have no idea how alone.

[Clio]

Nico, You are not utterly alone.

And you can reach out to me if you so choose. My prayer partners are all thousands of miles distant from me. We pray in IM chat online... The two women who have been my prayer partners for the most private agonies of my spirit, I have never met in the flesh...

You may add me to your IM system if you so choose. my yahoo im id is []prasinghm@yahoo.com.[/]

The tears I wept for the first few years of my seeking Abba Father did not produce healing... they only produced numbing emptyness. I do understand Nico... I've been there. Maybe not for the same reasons, but I've been there.

The tears I weep now are different... because I weep them in helpless submission on His chest...

clio

[Gail]

Re: Alone

I think that the FEELING of aloneness is probably greater than the reality, for God and His angels do know our trials. How can we ever know that other than by belief if we don't have a direct revelation of it?

[Guest]

Reality?

What is reality?

Everyone has their own truth, experience and reality based on their own perspective.

Religious surveys reveal that many have given up in the notion that there is absolute truth.

There is a difference in the feeling/experience of feeling lonely and the reality of loneliness. Sure we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses...invisible and visible...yet...

"As we walk in the light, as He is in the light , we have fellowship , one with another....."

When people at church have no real mature spiritual experience and most just say .."happy sabbath and how are you ?" and it dies there..what experience of real fellowship can one have?

This is crucial..people identify with similarities and intimacy can follow...yet the personal shields are up all over the church..due to several factors..

When one is passionate, enthusiastic, involved and are in a spiritual corpse ,churchian crowd...what kind of fellowship can one expect?

Nico's post doesn't surprise me in the least....look at Elijah after Carmel...the in your face ,confrontational man of God...and then listen to him ask...Am I the only (LONELY) one.?.and God said ..I have 7000....

Elijah felt alone..didn't seem to hang around the other 7000...of course they didn't get chariot limo service either..

with 30-60 minutes of church and 6+ days of WORLD...the felowship quotient is all over the map.

I observe some churches where the sheeple are all out of the place in 10 minutes after the sermon and I see some churches where they hang around and FELLOWSHIP for 30 minutes or longer...even if they don't stay for the potluck...

remember the thread of mine where I griped about the deacons turning out the lights ion the sanctuary in 5 minutes???

Real sensitve social types ..right????????

and on and on.....

of course there is a connection to the use of the "L" word and the proliferation of NFDMTTS too

[Clio]

Quote:

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of course there is a connection to the use of the "L" word and the proliferation of NFDMTTS too

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Would you mind explaining JB7?

I have no idea what you are trying to convey here....

Thanks!

[Gail]

But I understand what Jim is saying. It has to do with connectedness, which is vital for any relationship at least, and probably needed for emotional survival

Connection with God

Connection with other believers

Connection within yourself

[Clio]

I get that part. I just don't get his shorthand...

[Guest]

L=Laodicea

NFDMTTS= non fat dry milk typical topical sermons

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

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I am utterly alone. You have no idea how alone.

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[:"red"] "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." [/] Matt 19:29 KJV

This promise puzzled me for many years after becoming a Christian, as I saw no discernable tangible evidence of its'

fulfillment. Then I tied in another of Jesus' observations of the person who puts their life in Jesus hands.

[:"red"] "But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!" [/]

Matthew 12:48,49 KJV

While it is true, it is sometimes difficult to determine who your brothers and sisters in the faith, truly are, yet when the nuts and bolts of friendship develop, during times of stress they begin to rise above others by their actions of love exercised toward you.

Keep looking up!

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

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I get that part. I just don't get his shorthand...

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The acronym chosen by Jim Bob reflects far more of a heart condition than a church condition. Jesus went through far more than any of those of His followers ever will be called on to suffer. Yet His Spirit never left Him in His ardor for upholding the principles of His Father, even to His death.

And I don't believe there were any less NFDMTTS in His time of walking in the flesh on this earth. It may very well have been His Spirit revealed the same Spirit John the Baptist had, upon deferring to Jesus ministry, something most who feel it their calling to place blame in the laps of others in the church, do not appear to have.

[:"red"] "He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.] " [/] John 3:30 AMP

[Gail]

bump (I like to see the poll) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Robert]

How do you like your Christianity?

Why sunny-side up of course!

[NormF]

I like that, Robert. Sure it's simplistic, but so what?

Attitude ain't everything, it's just that the rest are so far behind it's hard to see any of 'em.

Regards,

Norm

[Bravus]

Yeah, I think the intention of the poll was to ask how you *like* your Christianity? (i.e. what are your ideals?) It kinda got derailed along the way (no one's fault) into 'how do you *experience* your Christianity?' (i.e. what is your current reality?) That's a pity in a way, because it would be interesting to see the responses to just the actual poll question: I'm assuming loneliness and fear aren't part of *anyone's* ideals, and it's sad that they're part of our reality...

[Bravus]

Oops, or was it? I guess I was answering the question in the thread title, rather than the question in the poll. Or has the latter been edited since? Two quite different things, IMO.

[Nicodema]

If I had answered about what I would LIKE rather than what I actually EXPERIENCE, my answer would have been far different.

I LIKE: happy, peaceful, intellectually satisfying, stimulating, inspiring, and full of joyful mystery and everyday miracles.

[Naomi]

Hye Doug,

You make an excellent observation. Let's do it!

Naomi