Faith really being challenged need Prayer! (Muslims, Christian, believers, Christ)

[Amaznjohn]

Originally Posted by ministers

I think you guys are having problems reading; first of all I have an amazing man of God by my side and four amazing children. Our children love God just as much as we do. I would love to talk to some of your children. My children are surrounded by love. I'm not going to keep responding to such negative energy. I am blessed with a beautiful family. God is awesome!

You're welcome to talk to my two children, one who is now at the University of New Mexico and the other a banker raised in a loving home with two parents who have been married nearly 34 years, but neither are on this forum. By the way, they are both atheists, not because we isolated them from religion, but because we exposed them to religions and expressed to them to look at the evidence and come to their own conclusions. Hopefully, your children will learn the same eventually because somehow I don't believe they've been given any other option at this point.

We need to be raising the next generation of scientists, not stargazers looking and waiting for the return of some mythical celestial being.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by ministers

I think you guys are having problems reading; first of all I have an amazing man of God by my side and four amazing children. Our children love God just as much as we do. I would love to talk to some of your children. My children are surrounded by love. I'm not going to keep responding to such negative energy. I am blessed with a beautiful family. God is awesome!

No one here doubts the love or loyalty or great qualities and wonderful intentions of your husband or children. Nor does anyone here, I'm sure, doubt your faith in god, even though many will not agree with it. In all probability your intentions are good and you mean well and find meaning in your role in life.

You may not be aware that this is the religion & spirituality form (R&S) which is dominated by agnostics and atheists, some fundamentalists, and people of miscellaneous beliefs, and it intended as a place for philosophical and religious debate. If you are looking for group reinforcement, the best you're going to do here is one level down, in the Christianity forum. Even there, Christianity is a "big tent" and there are going to be people there who don't understand the whole "glory to god, who told me us to leave our job and start a church in Texas" thing. An Episcopalian, for instance, would wonder why you would do that without a church appointing you there. It's an alien concept in much of Christendom.

The world is a much bigger place than your fundamentalist bubble, and people outside your faith are much more three-dimensional than the stereotypes you are accustomed to. For example, when you pull out the tired old "no atheists in a foxhole" concept, you should be aware that this bears literally no actual relationship to the reality of what it is like to live as an atheist. I can say this with authority because I am (1) and atheist and (2) a former fundamentalist. I have had many trials and difficulties in life, both as a fundamentalist believer and an atheist, and for me, coping is much easier as an atheist, rationalist and empiricist than it ever began to be as someone waiting around for god to Do Something on my behalf. Your mileage, of course, may vary. And right now, probably does. All abstractions work -- until they don't. Go back to your first post in this thread, and remember how you felt -- so upset that you were moved to reach out to random strangers on the Internet. Then go to your second post, just a few scant hours later. Then imagine if whatever epiphany you had that prompted that second post had never occurred. Or imagine being someone who doesn't care to live from one emotional crisis to the next, trying to read tea leaves and figure out where you went wrong so that god turned his back. Then at least TRY to understand that not everyone finds your way of life compelling or convincing. I lived it for thirty years, attended Bible Institute, was a church musician and communications director, studied my Bible, prayed, and in all probability was someone you would have been thrilled to have in your new little church in Texas. And I left it all. It happens. And when people leave they are still people, not morally depraved people secretly doing unspeakable things in dark places, but the very same people they always were -- loving husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, with jobs and taxes to pay and joys and heartaches. Not some caricature that you can safely banish to the shadows and write off as Never One of Us.

[Pleroo]

Originally Posted by ministers

I am a minister but right now I don't feel like one. My husband left a good job to move to Texas to start a church. Everything has went wrong and we have spent all of our money. My husband is a awesome man of God. I don't understand why God is allowing us to be on the verge of being homeless. I love God with all my heart. I just don't understand why he is not helping. My husband needs a job and has a clean criminal record and stellar work history. Please pray for me. We have four kids. If God is humbling me; it has worked because I am crushed.

As a mom who wants to provide for her children and keep them safe, you are in a very stressful position. I hope you and your husband can both harness the strength and wisdom you need to weather the storm and recover from this.

I don't personally believe that God operates by crushing people anymore than God operates by providing special protection to us when we are "serving God". (I used to have that mindset, so I'm not judging anyone for it.) The consequences of our decisions are ours to own as well as the decisions themselves. But that doesn't mean God isn't there with you in the consequences.


All the best to you.

[Ginge McFantaPants]

Not a smart move, OP. You have 4 children who are depending on you to support them, and giving it all up to "start a church" is irresponsible. My husband left a good job for full-time ministry, too. Ten years later, the rug was pulled out from under him, and it did not end well. He sat around praying and waiting for god to intervene and provide a safety net...even as our savings dwindled and we had to live in someone's garage for 5 months. He finally wised up and realized that there was no victory around the corner, so he went out and got a real job.

[old_cold]

You and your preacher husband share an account here or are you both ministers or..........?

[perry335654]

Originally Posted by ministers

I am a minister but right now I don't feel like one. My husband left a good job to move to Texas to start a church. Everything has went wrong and we have spent all of our money. My husband is a awesome man of God. I don't understand why God is allowing us to be on the verge of being homeless. I love God with all my heart. I just don't understand why he is not helping. My husband needs a job and has a clean criminal record and stellar work history. Please pray for me. We have four kids. If God is humbling me; it has worked because I am crushed.

I have a little trouble with what I am reading in the op's statement. If you are a person of God why should that completely diminish you as a minister. One should know that it is God's timing, not yours, so this should not be a big surprise to a preacher, maybe a novice who has currently come to the Lord but not a person of the cloth.

I know this started on the Texas Forum and moved here to R&S,maybe should have been put on Christianity for better results.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by perry335654

I know this started on the Texas Forum and moved here to R&S,maybe should have been put on Christianity for better results.

Yes, I had forgotten about that. The OP didn't even START here. She got moved. You're right, Christianity would have been a far better fit. She wants to preach to a choir, not actually work out real world problems.

[Cheesesteak Cravings]

Originally Posted by mordant

Yes, I had forgotten about that. The OP didn't even START here. She got moved. You're right, Christianity would have been a far better fit. She wants to preach to a choir, not actually work out real world problems.

And to think these people are supposed to help and guide others? Yikes.

You can't help others if you can't help yourself.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by Cheesesteak Cravings

And to think these people are supposed to help and guide others? Yikes.

You can't help others if you can't help yourself.

Likely, their view of themselves is that they are "overcomers" and in this case they have done so. Name-it-and-claim it types pride themselves on being "just regular folks" down in the trenches with the same struggles as their followers. In fact there's a distinct tendency to exaggerate their tribulations to build "street creds". At most, the OP would admit to a moment of weakness ... a faltering of faith during testing. In fact, she has basically already done so.

For better or worse, in those kinds of churches a lot of what makes people willing to submit to your leadership is if you had the courage to "dare great things for god" and if you have remarkable exploits to tell of. In other words if you have more balls than they. There is after all little or no church hierarchy behind such clergy to vet them. They may not even be formally trained -- they may essentially be lay preachers.

In all honesty there is no one in or out of theism who counsels people who is not human, therefore, you constantly run into, say, marriage counselors who end up divorced themselves. If we held it as a standard that everyone who gives advice must have transcended and evolved out above the human condition to which we are all subject, there would be literally no one to do that kind of work. And you can always argue that you learned from your mistakes, know first hand the what the struggle feels like, etc.

For this reason, I am not so interested in such people being perfect and having totally "arrived" as I am in them being genuine, caring, objective, ethically beyond reproach and in touch with reality and best practices. In other words I can forgive someone taking a "leap of faith" even if I think it's naive, provided their family was in agreement and if they learned from their mistakes and would not counsel others to be equally foolish.

Whether or not someone at the fundamentalist end of the spectrum often rises to even that standard, especially the reality and best practices part, I leave as an exercise for the reader.

[medellinheel]

Being a Christian is hard. You will face numerous trails and tribulations. This is to test your faith. ie Weed out the weak or false faith.

True faith is enduring in the good and the bad times.