AOG/Catholic marriage

[Guest ravenlost]

Help! I'm hoping that you guys can help me with this. I am a christian currently a member of an AOG church. I am very happy with my church and have seen wonderful things happen in my life and my childrens lives since we began attending a few months ago. Here's the problem. My husband was raised a strict Catholic. He went through a divorce six years ago.His ex wife cheated on him multiple times and sexually abused their two children. He has suffered a great crisis of faith as a result. I have been really trying over the last couple of years to remind him of God's love. It's hard because I don't understand a lot of what the Catholic church teaches. I don't want to get into the great Catholic Vs. non Catholic debate. I just really want to help my husband. He is questioning everything he ever knew about God. He was taught that he could get to God without Jesus. Through talks that we have had he now says that because our two different "religions" are so different he doesn't know what to believe anymore and he has stopped even trying to pray. I don't know what to do now. I can only share with him what I know in my heart to be true. Jesus Christ is God's one true son and we can only come to the Father through Jesus. You must be saved by the blood of Jesus to go to be with God when you die. How do I stay true to what I believe and still not offend or hopelessly confuse my husband ? He also says that he doesn't believe in the Bible. I've been praying about this matter for some time now, but things are just getting worse. I see him slipping into a real depression and he's so angry all of the time.

Any thoughts on this matter would be much appreciated.

[Matthitjah]

Grace to you Raven,

He must see in you his hearts desire,JESUS. Pushing him on the subject will only drive him further away. Let him see your Faith and the Life of Christ in you visibly.

He may not be praying? However you need to continue with zeal. Your weapons are not carnal. They are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.

Love him as only Jesus can. I say again, Love him as only Jesus can. Forgive him. Every chance you get? Love him.

He must see your Faith in action. Your Faith is in Christ Jesus. Our Faith is a tangible thing. It is an action not just words. Although the Word is the convicting part. Hammering him with words may be setting his jaw against the bit. However if your Faith is manifest for him to see? He will not be able to deny it. He will see Jesus Christ in you. The Truth will set him Free. Make him hungry for the Truth. Make him very thristy.

Ask him if he will read the Bible with you. Then set about to read the Gospel of John. Not teaching anything. Just read it with him. Pray prior for the Lord to soften his heart.

1Co

[Smalcald]

Well I don't want to get into the debate about Catholic vs Non-Catholic either.

I would suggest that your husband really explore what it means to be Catholic. I am not Catholic but I have many Catholic friends and they are strict, but they would very much disagree that one can be Catholic and believe that Christ is not necessary to find God. They are definitely Christian. So there is some disconnect going on with his view of Catholicism. However it may be just simply a crises of faith, regardless of being Catholic or Protestant, in which case I think Dr. Luke's advice is good.

The other thing, which may be making him bitter, is that for a strict Catholic he needs to seek an annulment from his first marriage. Now given the circumstances of that break up as you have described them, it may be causing him further pain to think about going through that process, I am assuming his first marriage was a Catholic marriage?

But the worship styles are very different, and the view of the sacraments is very different. I think he first needs to reconnect with a good view of his own past and his own Catholic tradition first, at that point he may find that it is good to move on, I don't think he will make a direct jump to your church right away, but of course I could be wrong, and God can overcome anything.

[Guest thirza]

reinsure how much you love him and the children. Then, open the King James Bible and The Living Bible Parapharsied. They all say the same thing. What a person does should not affect your Faith. Because his ex was weak does not mean that he is. Tell him you love him, and you would love for him to come to your chuch with you as your husband.

[Pax]

Help! I'm hoping that you guys can help me with this. I am a christian currently a member of an AOG church. I am very happy with my church and have seen wonderful things happen in my life and my childrens lives since we began attending a few months ago. Here's the problem. My husband was raised a strict Catholic. He went through a divorce six years ago.His ex wife cheated on him multiple times and sexually abused their two children. He has suffered a great crisis of faith as a result. I have been really trying over the last couple of years to remind him of God's love. It's hard because I don't understand a lot of what the Catholic church teaches. I don't want to get into the great Catholic Vs. non Catholic debate. I just really want to help my husband. He is questioning everything he ever knew about God. He was taught that he could get to God without Jesus. Through talks that we have had he now says that because our two different "religions" are so different he doesn't know what to believe anymore and he has stopped even trying to pray. I don't know what to do now. I can only share with him what I know in my heart to be true. Jesus Christ is God's one true son and we can only come to the Father through Jesus. You must be saved by the blood of Jesus to go to be with God when you die. How do I stay true to what I believe and still not offend or hopelessly confuse my husband ? He also says that he doesn't believe in the Bible. I've been praying about this matter for some time now, but things are just getting worse. I see him slipping into a real depression and he's so angry all of the time.

Any thoughts on this matter would be much appreciated.

Get to a Christian couselor ASAP. From what you have wrote, your husband has been through hell and back. Divorce is devistating, not to mention the sexual abuse against his own children by his x-wife. The Catholic-Non Catholic thing is the least of your problems for now. Your husband has to be mentally and emotionally healthy or else he is going to continue to tailspin. There should be a Catholic Social Services in your diocese. They will often times do counseling for free or little charge. If that doesn't work than get to a good Christian couselor. I might also add that what your husband was taught about the Catholic Church is not correct. The Catholic Church does believe in the trinity, and the Bible. This is coming from a practicing orthodox Catholic. I will pray for you, your husband, his children, and his x-wife. God Bless.

[irishcowboy]

Divorce is not an unforgiveable sin, nor is the remarriage after the divorce, contrary to some peoples feelings and thoughts on the matter..... even for a catholic, God can and still does forgive those that have divorced, just as he does for any other sin.

people tend to rate divorce as a terrible sin, greater i think cause it is more visible then others.... a person using the Lords name in vain is one of the ones broken most often, ( it does not just pertain to cussing, but using His Name for no reason ) and yet, now days, it is very common to hear people using it, even church goers..... a person can not see some one "coveting" some one elses stuff, even some one elses wife, so this is probably not even thought about....

this berating of those that are devorced tends to place a heavy burden on their shoulders.... and people, specially church goers, tend to add to the burden, to the point that the person feels they are doomed to hell forever....... not bad enough they may have just gotten out of a pure abusive relationship, and now with the church people they are in a differant type of abusive relationship.....

God Does forgive all those that ask.... and those that accept it have been forgiven....

mike

[Guest ravenlost]

I want to thank all of you who have replied so quickly. I'm at work so I'll have to make this quick. My husband did seek an annulment from the church, but backed off because they wanted him to contact his ex and give them her address. He refuses to have any contact with her because she is very vindictive and he's afraid she would use it as an excuse to hurt the kids. She already stalks them. He feels very guilty about the concept of the divorce and doesn't feel that he can go back to church. He feels "unclean". He refuses counceling of any kind....

All your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated.

Thanks, Jen

[Arthur Durnan]

I certainly agree that believing prayer & a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit is the POWERFUL & MOST PRODUCTIVE way to go. However, since someone else brot the matter up about the Church of Rome being "Christian", I must offer a demurrer. It is entirely wrong & unacceptable in every sense of those two words - in the light of Hebrews Chapter Ten - to sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ over & over & over again, times without number - as in the Roman sacrifice of its mass, a repugnant practice of the Vatican unknown in Holy Writ! Why keep Jesus Christ ON the cross when He had to die & rise again only ONE TIME?

And, too, Roman philosophy re a papacy, its infallibility, a strange in-between place called purgatory, a confessional box, Mary's "immaculate conception," her "bodily assumption," "cardinals, archbishops, nuns" aplenty: Pray tell, what is biblical or Christian about all that baggage?

NEITHER Jesus Christ NOR His Apostles or any associates claimed "Roman Catholicism" as I.D.

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[Smalcald]

Oh yeah, that helps a bunch.

We can take the religous debates somewhere else.

[Arthur Durnan]

I don't follow your exuberant response....so it's okay & quite biblical to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ a million times in the Roman sacrifice of the mass? Why suspend oneself in amber on this extremely important point?

I quickly remind you that someone else brot the matter up re Romanism being "Christian." I offered a simple demurrer.

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com