GreyDestiny

I wouldn't say one sin is better nor worse than the other. Sin is sin all the same, and all must be repented of.

It is a mix of both, law and faith, fear and love. God is our father.

Like a father, he has a set of laws/rules you are expected to abide by under his roof. Put things back where they belong, clean your room once a week, take out the trash when it's full, curfew is 7 PM, you name it. You get smart with him cause you'd rather draw on the wall, you get a red backside. Like a father, he does these things because he loves us. He wants our homes to be clean and nice, to keep us busy rather than lounging around in laziness. To teach us responsibility to both ourselves and the world, to show us to care as he cares. We must love him for this in turn.

Like how the meat must both chew the cud and have a completely split hoof, you can't have one without the other. Law without faith is empty. Faith without law is foolish. Fear without love, love without fear.... You get the idea.

I was reading this thing recently that said all of the wicked dead currently exist on the one end of Sheol that is a place of torment, and the other side that was made for the righteous dead has been empty since Christ's death and resurrection. All the wicked dead go to Sheol to await the White Throne, and only THEN will they be sent into the lake of fire.

I have hypermobility syndrome, also called "double-jointedness" in my elbows. This means that the ball-and-socket joints of my elbows either have additional cartilage or shallow sockets, allowing for a wider range of movement AKA I can bend my arms backwards naturally.

I was in 7th grade gym class and we were running the mile. I had already finished when I noticed a gym teacher, an older woman, standing off to the side looking bored and lost in her thoughts. I love messing with people as a kid (all in good fun, of course), so I got myself an idea. I bent my right arm backwards, held it, and ran up to her, frantic and panicking, "H-help! M-my arm! I was running and I-I tripped and it snapped!"

Looking back, when you are faced with something that you don't expect or haven't experienced, all professionalism and anything you've been taught goes right out the window. Her eyes grew wide, she went pale, and asks, "... W-what do we do?!" She started trembling and looking around for the other teachers, unsure of what to do and freaking out. I burst out laughing at this, her looking at me, very confused.

I put my arm back to normal and explained to her that my arm wasn't broken. She was still pale and shaking, holding my arm. She didn't believe me and kept trying to look at my arm. I had to demonstrate it with both of my arms, and it took a few minutes to convince her that my arm was not broken. I continued laughing at her and she frowned at me, "that isn't funny". She had a small smile on her face, in spite of her words.

I don't have a cellphone. I feel the same way. Too many people have seemingly forgot what it means to look each other in the eye and speak. Is it any wonder that so many issues today exist, when we hide behind our screens and ignore what we owe to one another?However, even I fall into the trap of technology. I'm here, aren't I? I find people exhausting, and with speech impediments, typing is far easier than speaking is for me.

I would say the beast would be an AI, kind of like Skynet without the terminators. While most would like to think of the internet as an anonymous medium, there is no such thing as privacy anymore. It just makes sense to take advantage of that. 

41 minutes ago, OneLight said:

Being circumcised is not a requirement to us, Gentiles, and only a yoke around the neck of the Jewish.  Have you considered the difference between what being circumcised meant in the OT and compare it to what is being taught in Romans 2?

You do make very good points; it is not required for a Christian. Many Christians are against the practice of circumcision. As one who practices the OT as well as the NT though, I see it as in keeping with the covenant. I've thought about what I would do if I had a son, and I think I would leave him uncircumcised. If he wished to change that later on, seeing things as I do, then he would have the choice.

Maybe... I find it difficult to agree because i'm rather opinionated when it comes to politics. We need to convince people rather than force them, I can agree with that. People just get so lost within the pettiness of it all, especially with the modern stubbornness where people are seemingly unable to engage in civil debate, instead pounding their chests and swinging from one tree branch to another. 

It's going to be difficult. They love aiming for kids, and they just keep aiming younger and younger. Not even the wombs are safe.

I'm unaware of your children's ages, but if they are still quite young, perhaps it might work to go about it like a 1st grade teacher might. Flashcards, interactive learning, and quizzes. You could summarize the passage on the flashcard and have a depiction of the events within that text. Maybe even have them draw a depiction on their own notepads. Have a vocal quiz on chronological events, like first asking who the first people were, and then asking for their sons names. This simple way of going about it can kind of seem like they are missing points, but kids are fairly simple. They will come to appreciate the complexity of Christianity when they get older.

If they are past a certain point, then getting through to them will be much harder, perhaps impossible. They already have evolution on their minds, the sex ed they have been taught, and so forth. If all seems hopeless, just keep in mind that God does not wish for our children to be led astray. Implant these ideas into them, and then see if they choose to be Christian or not. Let Jesus take the wheel, as they say. 

Well, i'm a bit of an oddball Christian. In my eyes, the new covenant basically says we can now be saved through the blood of Christ rather than having to sacrifice animals and sprinkle their blood about on an altar; it does not make the old one irrelevant. I engage in a kosher diet, I believe in circumcision, I look at the bible as a whole rather than just picking at lines.

However, typical Christian views are that because of the blood of Christ and a few other passages in the NT, the OT laws and practices are obsolete. God gave Peter a vision of a table covered in non-kosher meats. Peter said no, as he hadn't ever eaten of anything common or unclean, and God replied, "that which I have created, you should not call common or unclean". Many state this as proof of Christians not being bound to OT dietary laws. However, Peter explains it a few lines later that it was about MEN, not food. 

I'm sorry, but I kind of chuckled at the use of the anime Sword Art Online as the movie's cover art.

You see this message everywhere these days, it seems. It doesn't help that, for some insane reason, many lunatics out there wish to hamper free speech. If a priest stands atop a box in public and starts preaching about scriptural truths like homosexuality being wrong, you always get crowds of people screeching at them, assaulting them, you name it.

I was supposedly raised Christian. I say supposedly because someone handed me a bible and expected me to read it, much less understand it. It's a bit hard for a child to appreciate such things, especially with fairly minimal guidance. I would do the motions everyone else was doing, but again, as a kid, didn't really get it. Then there was a spot of drama in the church that we attended, and thanks to disagreements, my parents were invited to never return. They haven't been to a church since then, thus ending any Christian education when it came to myself.

As a young child, I was academically inclined. I loved reading and I did my homework. Then along came the idea of atheism. My focus on education led me to believe that all of the answers were held within science, and so I dove into the atheist hype. I did not believe in God as there was no scientific proof. I would giggle as I argued with people online about his existence. Imagine every edgy atheist teenager ever, you get the idea. However, the more that I came to learn, the more I realized it was impossible to know everything. This realization caused me to look back and do critical thinking, and in my mind, the existence of a creator made infinitely more sense than *Poof!* the universe appears in all of it's complexity out of nowhere.

This did not mean I turned to Christianity at first, oh no, I was still affected by my teenage years. I basically tried obtaining my own belief system, largely spiritual in nature. I worshipped nature, I believed in rebirth, my own idea of the afterlife and what the creator was... I bounced around a bit. Deciding it was all too messy and i'd rather not associate myself with ideas put forth by smelly potheads, I then began my search into more established religions. This first led me to the idea of buddhism, which is what I mainly clung to during this time. I tried looking here and there and there and here and none it seemed right to me.

It was then that I picked up that bible that was handed to me as a small child. If the answers were not elsewhere, perhaps they were here. So, yeah, my initial draw to Christianity probably wasn't the best. It was more of doing the motions like I did as a kid more than anything else, you know?

For some background, one must know that I was having issues with myself, issues that still bother me to this day. Namely, my sexuality. With no moral boundaries at the time and access to the internet, I deeply bathed myself in adult material. While I know most don't believe in such a thing, it became... Kind of an addiction. My self control was lost. I tried employing psychology to assist, namely the idea that if you punish yourself for doing bad things, you can teach yourself not to do them. Hurting myself didn't do much for me, so I tried displeasing myself by inducing vomit. If I messed up, I would shove my fingers down my throat so that I came to associate release with the nastiness of puke. It really didn't work, either. Again just mainly doing motions, I started praying about the issue. It was worth a shot, right?

I was lying in bed one night, trembling with effort. My mind was attacking me, bombarding me with images of women. I kept mumbling to myself, "I ain't ever gonna do it again, I ain't gonna do it..." I then felt a hand on my head. It did not feel like a physical hand, more like... Energy. The feeling it gave off was soothing, and the images and trembling began to fade. I fell asleep soon after.

I hadn't gone far into the bible at this point. I thought it was just a dream. The next morning, I was reading the OT when I came across the first mention of it. Someone claiming that God's hand was upon their heads. I wish I could track down the specific verse, but it hit me full force at that moment.  

That God was real.

That God was the answer I had been searching for.

I don't know if there is a spiritual explanation for that. I will say two things, though:

1. I have to back up what Frienduff Thaylorde said. 

2. Much of a person's appeal comes in the form of their confidence. Not overconfidence, mind you, but a comfort within one's own skin, at least. I can understand where you come from because I have insecurity issues as well, but we have to overlook what petty people have said in the past and might say in the future. Words are just words and people are just people. I'd say go for it. If they really were so shallow as to turn you down because of a poor physical appearance, they weren't worth it anyway.

I have to be honest, whatever you just said flew right over my head. I'll try to answer like I understand, either way.

Maybe the two of you just have similar interests? You were meant to be friends?

If I were to randomly meet someone who was pretty much just like me, i'd be scared of an obsessive stalker. Maybe i've watched way too much Dateline and creepy youtube videos, I don't know.

Well, look at it this way. If you don't get married, you just slept with someone else's wife. Not in that... Particular sense, but still. Nobody needs that kind of temptation, anyhow. 

Ah, traditional art. I applaud you, it's rare to find these days. Nice shading, by the by.

   I was getting on-the-job training from a guy we'll just call Jeremy. Now, during my training, Jeremy not only put his work on top of my own so that he could slack off, but he was also apparently training me incorrectly hoping that i'd mess up and get fired. Instead, Jeremy got fired and I seemingly have a new trainer, in the employer's hope of breaking me of the false training I was given by Jeremy.

   While I was working under Jeremy, I have to admit to not being too terribly fond of him (if you can imagine that). Like I said, he would walk off and leave me to do two people's work.  The revelation that he was teaching me the wrong things has also significantly lowered my opinion of him. He also mentioned, however, that he needed this job because he had kids. He mentioned he moved to the area from a few states away, hoping to find work. He didn't seem to be lying.

   On one hand, he has kids to take care of. One the other, if he really needed this job, went through such effort to obtain it, and wanted to stay there, why was he so unambitious? 

   I feel like I should wish him and his children well either way, but I also just feel weird doing so for a guy who pretty much did it to himself.

He... He still looks like a man.

I just don't get how people work anymore. I don't understand how lunacy can become so commonplace so quickly.

I'd agree with Yowm. She was dishonest, but at least she didn't string him along forever.

It's a bit like welfare. Some of our money goes towards those who truly need it, but likewise, some of it goes towards people who would rather abuse the system. We help people either way. We can only dislike what someone chooses to do, after all, rather than the person. 

As for a purpose in people's lives, I don't think so. Think about all the kids in your graduating class you never spoke to and who's names you don't recall. Why, I never knew my year had a Chinese exchange student. We were probably in a class together and I just never noticed her. It would be rather pointless if her purpose in my life was for me to look in an old yearbook and be perplexed at her presence. 

   Sigmund Freud had a whacky theory. That men lusted after their mothers and women after their fathers. Many of us laugh at this, myself included, but there is a hint of truth in it. You see, the reason why a kid might gravitate towards a parent, let's take a mama's boy for example, is because he is unknowingly learning what to look for in a mate. He will have kids someday, so what better a natural template than his mother? It sounds gross, but people tend to choose partners that remind them of their opposing gender parent. People fear the unknown, so they seek what they know. Like a young girl raised in a home with an abusive father. This girl will seek out aggressive men simply because it is familiar.

   Then again, I can't provide much of a personal answer as my parents are divorced and my father remarried (I grew up in my father's home). My real mother, i'm honestly not too familiar with. I visit her on holidays sometimes, but still, I don't know her as well as my dad and stepmom. I'd say i'm closer to my stepmom; she's approachable and i'm always concerned about worrying my dad too much. Looking at it from the angle of Freud's views, I should be into women like my stepmother, right? Not really. In fact, my ideal woman isn't like my mom or stepmom.

My parents were more religiously inclined when I was younger, but it didn't last long. There was a spot of drama in the church we attended, and due to disagreements, they were invited to never return. They really haven't been to a church since. It's too bad; I wish I had spent more time as a Christian.

My earliest memory of church is that I was given a bible by a churchgoer (it might have even been the priest, I don't recall) where they wrote my name and the date the bible was given to me on the inside cover. It specified the church's "daycare" setup they had during the service. I gave it a look at the time, but lacking any pastel pictures, I put it aside to collect dust. 

So many years later, I picked up that very bible, the one that I read today. 

On 1/20/2018 at 3:11 PM, 1to3 said:

First I'd change your profile name to SunnyDestiny, as  we are much of the time what we think.

You are a child of God Redeemed and blessed by His ongoing Mercy & Grace for you.

Oh, lol. My two favorite colors are brown and grey. I went with grey because BrownDestiny sounds odd. 

i have struggled with this particular sin before, as I lived in it daily for multiple years before I found God. This loss of control has diminished somewhat now though; my body isn't quivering as much, so i'm able to have some semblance of relaxation. 

I've considered taking up a trade before. I've thought about making furniture, stained glass, or perhaps becoming a translator/language teacher. I'll keep that in mind for the future, but for now, i'm just going to seek out a factory job. All of my immediate family work in factories and they love it, so I assume it's in my blood.

Thank you for your post. God bless you.

I'd agree, but i'd also say it's addressing hypocrisy. I can't judge much because I think we're all a bit guilty of it. However, many do not seem to understand such a concept because they believe everything is fine as long as one says, "sorry". Empty words have no meaning, for it is what lies in the heart that matters. If one does not truly repent and work towards bettering themselves, they are worsening themselves.

I have started a new job recently. As my grandma would say, take what job you can get, THEN look for the job you want. I honestly don't know if i can appreciate following such advice.

This job has only stressed me out. One of those jobs that puts you down for part time but is just shy of 40 hours, so they get lots of work out of you without having to pay you benefits. People apparently quit often, and I can see why. My feet are sore, my back is in such a pain that it hurts to stand up or even just stand, and I am exhausted. I can't seem to rest; I try to relax but my body won't quit quivering. I find myself praying under my breathe just so I can get through the day. I can see it in their eyes, they expect me to stay. I'm currently trying to find another job in the hopes of escaping any corners/traps they might try to use to keep me there longer.

In any case, alongside all this stress, i've found any grip on my thoughts and feelings lacking. Any focus I can have is messy and limp. As such, I have found myself relieving the stress by... Sin. I don't wish to specify, but it feels terrible because I know it is wrong and i do not wish to do it. I do not feel it's right to blame the job for my own wrongdoing, as it is MY wrongdoing. I just find myself uncertain and unfocused. I am grateful for the opportunity to work, but not much else.

So, what i'm wondering is, if anyone has any advice on how to deal with stress? Like I said, i'm looking for other job options (I wish I had more time to), but I just need advice on how to get through this. I hardly have time to myself, let alone think.

How do you feel about Christians in the military? 

I don't imagine many would have issues with support roles (mechanic, medic, certain coast guard jobs, etc) but feel free to include those if you do.

I feel that the real issue is a diminished view of what marriage is. Marriage SHOULD be a very serious and lifelong commitment under God and one not to be taken lightly. There is a reason why it typically takes place in a church and why "till death do us part" is typically in the vows.  Too many people view marriage as "something you do". Why, even something someone MUST do, whether they are a Christian or not, whether they wish to or not. This mindset has led to the trampled versions of marriage that exist today. I do not think a divorce should happen unless there is cheating or domestic abuse. 

In terms of this scenario, I probably wouldn't go. I'd still wish them well, though.