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We've already talked about this in the past, Miss Hepburn. But yes, my entire spirituality is based around my personal relationship with God. I do read religious texts like the Bible because they contain a lot of good wisdom for life. But my actual beliefs aren't based on anything but my own relationship with God.
We've already talked about this in the past, Miss Hepburn. But yes, my entire spirituality is based around my personal relationship with God. I do read religious texts like the Bible because they contain a lot of good wisdom for life. But my actual beliefs aren't based on anything but my own relationship with God.
Did the Holy Spirit make 33,000 Christian denominations?
Safe to say He isn't with any of them.
We are discussing a gift from a Jewish feast given to converts of Judaism, how many of those 30,000 denomintaions are converts to Judaism?
But each and everyone claim a Sacrifice from a Passover they don't believe in, in a holy spirit they don't believe in from a feast they don't believe in.
Nobody has the power that was given to those first disciples and those first converts, to think any different is just silly. Every religion can claim the same and the Christian has no thing to boast above any other religion, I don't see anyone indwelled with the power of Shavuot, if there is somebody, what is his name?
You want to know my 'born again' experience. Is that it? I was told that I was five years old when I received Jesus as Savior. I have no memory of it or of any experience. But at some point I did believe and continue to do so.
Experiences are irrelevant. A person can get skunk drunk and receive Jesus as Savior, and his only experience is going to be one hell of a hangover the next morning.What matters is that when a person receives Jesus as Savior he enters into an eternal relationship with God. His 'experience' after that Should be to start growing spiritually.
The drunken ramblings analogy is not even close, Mike. For me, it was more of a moment of expanded consciousness. I was saner at that moment than I had been before or since. I saw that the misdeeds I had been tormenting myself and others with were more of our different perspectives added in with the wounds we carried around. No one (in my circle I do believe there are people so damaged they are to be avoided) was evil, just hurting. We act on that hurt trying to attaching self-worth to intelligence, education, beauty, accomplishments or anything that we can point to as "I". When I felt it in danger I got defensive. I felt a state of complete acceptance so I started to be able to let my guard down because none of it mattered anymore. I had the acceptance, right here, right now of the most powerful thing in the universe. I was part of it. I could, if I chose to, impart that type of acceptance to other people. Truthfully I'm still working on being able to do that but I know it's possible because I felt it given to me.
]The drunken ramblings analogy is not even close, Mike[/u].
For me, it was more of a moment of expanded consciousness.
I was saner at that moment than I had been before or since.
I had the acceptance, right here, right now of the most powerful thing in the universe. I was part of it.
I could, if I chose to, impart that type of acceptance to other people.
Truthfully I'm still working on being able to do that but I know it's possible because I felt it given to me.
Friggin A !!!!
Boy, do I have huge respect for you after this!
We are discussing a gift from a Jewish feast given to converts of Judaism, how many of those 30,000 denomintaions are converts to Judaism?
But each and everyone claim a Sacrifice from a Passover they don't believe in, in a holy spirit they don't believe in from a feast they don't believe in.
Nobody has the power that was given to those first disciples and those first converts, to think any different is just silly. Every religion can claim the same and the Christian has no thing to boast above any other religion, I don't see anyone indwelled with the power of Shavuot, if there is somebody, what is his name?
We've already talked about this in the past, Miss Hepburn. But yes, my entire spirituality is based around my personal relationship with God. I do read religious texts like the Bible because they contain a lot of good wisdom for life. But my actual beliefs aren't based on anything but my own relationship with God.
Quote:
Originally Posted by L8Gr8Apost8
The drunken ramblings analogy is not even close, Mike. For me, it was more of a moment of expanded consciousness. I was saner at that moment than I had been before or since. I saw that the misdeeds I had been tormenting myself and others with were more of our different perspectives added in with the wounds we carried around. No one (in my circle I do believe there are people so damaged they are to be avoided) was evil, just hurting. We act on that hurt trying to attaching self-worth to intelligence, education, beauty, accomplishments or anything that we can point to as "I". When I felt it in danger I got defensive. I felt a state of complete acceptance so I started to be able to let my guard down because none of it mattered anymore. I had the acceptance, right here, right now of the most powerful thing in the universe. I was part of it. I could, if I chose to, impart that type of acceptance to other people. Truthfully I'm still working on being able to do that but I know it's possible because I felt it given to me.
I felt the peace and connection when I was around 10 or 11 and knew it was spiritual, but I also knew that the Pentecostal church I was brought up in was not where that spirit was even though I gave it a very good shot at believing what they taught, in my teens I would ask questions but the answers I got basically meant that questioning was of the devil and you will go to hell if you are not a Christian ie their type of Christian (this was in the mid 70s)
I could not subscribe to something that seemed at odds with the experience I had that resonated with the scriptures of forgive and it will be forgiven you, love God and your neighbour as yourself, that had the feel of expansiveness, and the view that God was saving Christians to heaven and eternally tormenting non Christians, this was not something that I thought out and I suffered for years with anxiety because I retained a dissonance of what I felt and what I was indoctrinated with and I never worked it through until years later when I had a breakdown.
The drunken ramblings analogy is not even close, Mike. For me, it was more of a moment of expanded consciousness. I was saner at that moment than I had been before or since. I saw that the misdeeds I had been tormenting myself and others with were more of our different perspectives added in with the wounds we carried around. No one (in my circle I do believe there are people so damaged they are to be avoided) was evil, just hurting. We act on that hurt trying to attaching self-worth to intelligence, education, beauty, accomplishments or anything that we can point to as "I". When I felt it in danger I got defensive. I felt a state of complete acceptance so I started to be able to let my guard down because none of it mattered anymore. I had the acceptance, right here, right now of the most powerful thing in the universe. I was part of it. I could, if I chose to, impart that type of acceptance to other people. Truthfully I'm still working on being able to do that but I know it's possible because I felt it given to me.
Well said, L8. It is difficult to convey the experience verbally, but this is excellent. Those who do not experience it will have difficulty accepting it, but that is not in our hands. That is up to God.
You want to know my 'born again' experience. Is that it? I was told that I was five years old when I received Jesus as Savior. I have no memory of it or of any experience. But at some point I did believe and continue to do so.
Experiences are irrelevant. A person can get skunk drunk and receive Jesus as Savior, and his only experience is going to be one hell of a hangover the next morning. What matters is that when a person receives Jesus as Savior he enters into an eternal relationship with God. His 'experience' after that Should be to start growing spiritually.
Quote:
Originally Posted by L8Gr8Apost8
The drunken ramblings analogy is not even close, Mike. For me, it was more of a moment of expanded consciousness. I was saner at that moment than I had been before or since. I saw that the misdeeds I had been tormenting myself and others with were more of our different perspectives added in with the wounds we carried around. No one (in my circle I do believe there are people so damaged they are to be avoided) was evil, just hurting. We act on that hurt trying to attaching self-worth to intelligence, education, beauty, accomplishments or anything that we can point to as "I". When I felt it in danger I got defensive. I felt a state of complete acceptance so I started to be able to let my guard down because none of it mattered anymore. I had the acceptance, right here, right now of the most powerful thing in the universe. I was part of it. I could, if I chose to, impart that type of acceptance to other people. Truthfully I'm still working on being able to do that but I know it's possible because I felt it given to me.
My point is that a person may or may not experience or feel anything when he first receives Christ as Savior. The example I gave was one such possible experience. If someone were to accept Jesus as Savior while drunk, he is very likely going to have a hangover rather than feel an 'expanded consciousness.' Again, it is not the experience that matters. What matters is the fact that when a person receives Jesus as Savior he is immediately born again into an eternal relationship with God whether he has some kind of an experience or not.
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