farouk Posted February 14 Group: Royal Member Followers: 8 Topic Count: 26 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 6,398 Content Per Day: 12.16 Reputation: 3,269 Days Won: 31 Joined: 11/18/2022 Status: Offline Share Posted February 14 7 minutes ago, Starise said: Can a believer be happy in that situation? I think so. I’m a private sort of person so I like distance between my neighbors. In the future it may not be an option. I would learn to be ok with it if I was forced. There are some advantages to living in a community.Rural or spread out was always my choice. Paul said he has learned to be content. A roof over my head is good. Heat in winter is good. Good point from Paul. Sometimes - and do my wife and I know it! - age creeping up does make a difference to what the optimum accommodation arrangements should be............ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starise Posted February 14 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 13 Topic Count: 279 Topics Per Day: 0.21 Content Count: 13,083 Content Per Day: 9.76 Reputation: 13,562 Days Won: 149 Joined: 08/26/2020 Status: Offline Author Share Posted February 14 36 minutes ago, Renskedejonge said: It's everywhere, except in Spain and Italy. There you can buy a house for a euro. There just are no jobs there. Looks like they have done it on purpose. They can't fool me that all these governments were like: oh oops how could I forget? We need more normal houses. The rich just buy what they want. It doesn't bother them. Driving housing prices up forces people to live in apartments they can barely afford. They will never own the house or apartment, so those costs never go away. I think there are still bargains to be had here in depressed regions where people have left the town, but then you live in the middle of nowhere. The only other option is a very high mortgage, but God takes care of us and He can find a way for us to be ok. Divorce is especially bad. Often people who pay were not the ones responsible. That really hurts a family economically. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueFollowerOfChrist Posted February 14 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 3 Topic Count: 9 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,039 Content Per Day: 1.62 Reputation: 589 Days Won: 0 Joined: 07/26/2022 Status: Offline Share Posted February 14 2 hours ago, Starise said: Psalms 34:19-20 19 The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. Would it be more fun if you knew what you were trading it for? They get sick and loose family members, so I don't see any special protection over them do you? That's the point though. Christians know exactly what they're trading, unbelievers don't. It should give us a great comfort in this life to know that sacrificing pleasures in this world will yield an incredible harvest of endless joy and happiness in the next world. For unbelievers this life here is the only time they will ever be happy and then they will spend eternity regretting their selfish choices. For believers though we know that God rewards every single thing that we do in his name even down to the tiniest Good deed. Obviously the next life will be filled with far more joys and pleasures than we could ever receive in this life, but a lot of that also has to do with how much we lived for Christ in this life and whether we lived for ourselves or for him. So I know what I'm trading. I'm trading temporary pleasures for endless pleasure, and temporary joy for endless Joy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marathoner Posted February 15 Group: Royal Member Followers: 16 Topic Count: 71 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 10,137 Content Per Day: 7.06 Reputation: 13,091 Days Won: 97 Joined: 05/24/2020 Status: Offline Share Posted February 15 14 hours ago, Starise said: Many seem to see living as non believers more fun than living as a believer. Thoughts? No. I haven't forgotten what life was like before the Lord called me from this world. Life was very hard, and I languished under the terrible yoke of what I had endured in the house of my parents. As I have shared elsewhere --- I'm pleased to share such things --- my first attempt at suicide was shortly after my 11th birthday. I despaired of living even when I was a child. Before the Lord called me, my only solace was a 4-year term of enlistment in the United States Army. For the first time in my life, I was given something greater than myself to join to... in this case, serving faithfully as a soldier and carrying out my duties in a precise manner. I exceled as a soldier. I was too busy being a soldier to focus upon myself and the living hell I inhabited for so long. As I have related previously, my time in the Army was a foreshadowing of what was to come in Jesus Christ. Less than two years after I was honorably discharged from the Army, the Lord called me to Him. Many years passed while the Lord worked, delivering me not only from that living hell I was born into but also, sickness that brought me very close to death. The Lord never forgot me, brother. I was always in His hand. There's no comparing belonging to the Lord to that time when I was lost in the darkness. He's worth it all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marathoner Posted February 15 Group: Royal Member Followers: 16 Topic Count: 71 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 10,137 Content Per Day: 7.06 Reputation: 13,091 Days Won: 97 Joined: 05/24/2020 Status: Offline Share Posted February 15 When I sought to abdicate this life, I gave my life to the Son of the living God instead, offered freely with love to the Lord of glory. That's what happened after the Lord returned me from death's door to the land of health and the living; I gave my life as my offering to God. It was the most valuable thing I had to give, being homeless and destitute as I was. This pleased the Lord greatly. Over years of hardship and trial I learned what this flesh (and the world) has to give: fear, terror, and sometimes even horror, all of which led me to the depths of despair. There was nothing for me in this world at all but in Jesus Christ, there is everything... and more than we can possibly know or conceive of. I was rejected and cast out by those who were my family, but this was so I might come to know the One who loved me even before I was born. He gave me more brothers and sisters than I can possibly number. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teddyv Posted February 15 Group: Royal Member Followers: 6 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 4,264 Content Per Day: 2.93 Reputation: 2,302 Days Won: 1 Joined: 05/03/2020 Status: Offline Share Posted February 15 On 2/14/2024 at 6:04 AM, Starise said: Many seem to see living as non believers more fun than living as a believer. Thoughts? A couple thoughts: Some would argue that Christians behave a certain way because of the threat of hell. If that is how someone regards their faith, then yes, that is actually going to be a miserable way to live. The church has been known to not allow for much "fun" behaviour because of verses like "avoiding all appearance of evil". My parents, who grew up in the Reformed churches of Netherlands in the 40's and 50's, really hated Sundays because you could do nothing. My mother was not even allowed to read a book because of the "day of rest". It sucked the joy and made religion a burden. It was a case of "Sabbath made for man, not man made for the Sabbath". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starise Posted February 15 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 13 Topic Count: 279 Topics Per Day: 0.21 Content Count: 13,083 Content Per Day: 9.76 Reputation: 13,562 Days Won: 149 Joined: 08/26/2020 Status: Offline Author Share Posted February 15 30 minutes ago, teddyv said: A couple thoughts: Some would argue that Christians behave a certain way because of the threat of hell. If that is how someone regards their faith, then yes, that is actually going to be a miserable way to live. The church has been known to not allow for much "fun" behaviour because of verses like "avoiding all appearance of evil". My parents, who grew up in the Reformed churches of Netherlands in the 40's and 50's, really hated Sundays because you could do nothing. My mother was not even allowed to read a book because of the "day of rest". It sucked the joy and made religion a burden. It was a case of "Sabbath made for man, not man made for the Sabbath". Yes I could see that for sure. I think this is one of the things that scares some people away from the Christian life. I have never felt I gave up anything I didn't want to give up. I feel better because of it. MY "wanter" was changed. I DON'T live anything like your parents did. What is 'fun' to unbelievers can be many things some of them I can't go into here because we wouldn't be rated G any more, but I know it happens. None of that would be fun for me, so I don't miss any of that. Christians can have that kind of 'fun' to in the right contexts, so I'm safer and I haven't missed anything. Alcohol or drugs surrounds many parties of the unbeliever, and beer may seem innocent but if you drink ten of them you could puke and do things you would not normally do. Why does the world think this is fun? I don't see it. I want the best of reality not an insulator from it. Jesus said our burden would be light. In speaking for myself, so far it has never been a heavy burden. There have been plenty of times for rest and leisure. Most people separate work from 'fun' both Christian and non Christian. A time for each. Imagine 24.7 vacation. That would not be fun. We generally think of fun things as temporary outings for leisure, but we would not call them fun all the time, at least I wouldn't. Disney with my kids once was plenty enough, Cruises you get to eat like a pig, but I can't imagine being stuck on a cruise ship all the time. The Christian has realized that none of that is ultimately fulfilling at the deep levels our souls need apart from God. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RdJ Posted February 15 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 66 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,094 Content Per Day: 0.35 Reputation: 613 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/11/2015 Status: Offline Birthday: 05/25/1970 Share Posted February 15 4 hours ago, teddyv said: A couple thoughts: Some would argue that Christians behave a certain way because of the threat of hell. If that is how someone regards their faith, then yes, that is actually going to be a miserable way to live. The church has been known to not allow for much "fun" behaviour because of verses like "avoiding all appearance of evil". My parents, who grew up in the Reformed churches of Netherlands in the 40's and 50's, really hated Sundays because you could do nothing. My mother was not even allowed to read a book because of the "day of rest". It sucked the joy and made religion a burden. It was a case of "Sabbath made for man, not man made for the Sabbath". Oh horrible. I was on a Dutch reformed forum for a while and one young guy wanted to go fishing after church, but that was not allowed. And he complained that his parents would just go sleep. They took the resting very literal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FJK Posted February 15 Group: Royal Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 43 Topics Per Day: 0.10 Content Count: 3,349 Content Per Day: 7.92 Reputation: 1,305 Days Won: 1 Joined: 03/01/2023 Status: Offline Share Posted February 15 1 hour ago, Renskedejonge said: Oh horrible. I was on a Dutch reformed forum for a while and one young guy wanted to go fishing after church, but that was not allowed. And he complained that his parents would just go sleep. They took the resting very literal. Brings to mind the song about The Preacher and the Bear. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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