In the past few weeks I have criticized a lot of people, both men and women, using nothing but philosophy and reasoning without giving a glimmer of myself for someone to in turn criticize. I view this as one-sided and even immoral and I offer my apologies. I do not, however, apologize for anything I have said. I have only answered as truthfully as my perspective can allow.
I must commend those who have made themselves vulnerable to everyone in this community.
Here is my confession.
As Paul often struggled with the law as his great temptation, and even the thorn in his side, I struggle with nihilism. In the same fashion that Paul struggled with grace as a fundamental portion of the Christian experience I struggle with purpose as a fundamental portion of the human experience. This is not clinical depression as it is not self-centered. My heart mourns the cogs and sprockets of the political/industrial machine in which we all play a part with no choice.
How can we even have a choice when the political/ruling class, who are supposed to be under our employ, do not even consider the will of the masses and instead forces us to give up our rights and sovereignty? Anyway, this is my struggle and in a way my hell. Please tell me where the meaning in life lies and please don't give me the uber-spiritual, cookie-cutter church answers (cop-outs).
Ok, so after having some time to view the various remarks to my confession; to my admission of vulnerability. I realize that I must say something. Please bear with me, this is kinda lengthy as I try my best to answer each of you. Some of you I kind of lumped together... sorry about that ;p
Tabetha, thank you for the kind words. I will begin to write possibly as soon as I finish this post. Your strength is compassion and that makes you beautiful. I've read a ton of your posts and while I disagree with a majority of them, you are gifted with compassion in a way that I am not.
To the rest of you, you gave some pretty good advice or at least some of you did. I never said that I didn't want a spiritual answer; I just didn't want an overly spiritual answer... there is a difference. A lot of my friends from youth group aren't serving God. After analyzing, looking for a common denominator, I found that they had hypocritical parents. Now in a way we are all hypocrites; but these parents held their children, my friends, to a standard that was terribly higher than the standard that they held for themselves. At any point when these poor youths questioned their standard in comparison to their parents, they were promptly punished and the parents became less practical and more spiritual in both their reasoning and their lifestyle but there behavior never changed. I wanted both practicality and spirituality in an answer to my problem.
I've also noticed that the people on these forums are way too spiritual. It's like they want so much to sound like scholars and theologians to let anyone see who they are. It's like they want to show only their holiness and none of their humanity and I say to look at Jesus who was the perfect balance of both.
Now back to nihilism... I never said that I was a nihilist, just that I struggled with nihilism. Someone said not to worry about what our political leaders did because we can't change it anyway, I believe that lostinJesus said this... welcome to my world. This is where my "What's the point of anything?" came into play. I can't ignore what our leaders do; and anything they do they should be held accountable for.
Dr. King, in his letters from the birmingham jail, said that a threat to justice anywhere is a thread to justice everywhere. I say a threat to virtue anywhere is a threat to virtue everywhere, a threat to holiness anywhere is a threat to holiness everywhere and a threat to freedom anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere. In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote that the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Is there not a cause to take up our cross for America? This is one of the things that brought me out of my nihilistic "slump."
When I was a child I used to have night terrors. I remember to this day having a bad dream and then lying in bed, awake, afraid to move or breathe or make any sort of noise. Every hair was on end and I could sense evil in the room. I used to be afraid to go to bed at night and my mom would tell me that I simply had to realize that I was dreaming and then I could be whatever I wanted to be so long as I could control my dreams.
I believe that God reminded me of this for a reason. I can sense evil at work in this country, this cause for all mankind. I have great dreams but when I consider the impossibility of them coming to pass it causes me to question the point of anything. In a sense it makes me afraid to fail which causes me to be afraid to try. God encouraged me to take control of my dreams even to dare to fail. That was the end of my slump.
But there is a part of nihilism that I believe is useful for Christians. The introduction to the "Nietzsche Compendium" states this about nihilism concerning Christianity and the prophets of the Old Testament:
"For Nietzsche, the real challenge men and women face today is the one they have always faced: to find a way to comport themselves toward the reality of the world they confront with playfulness, joy, and high spirits, despite its fearful aspects. He does not underestimate the difficulty of this task but maintains that once we have recognized that our ideals of the future or "beyond" (meaning heaven) are narcotics with which we numb ourselves to the undeniably real pain of existence and blind ourselves to what is nonetheless beautiful, good, strong, and true in it, we are faced with a choice: living with this knowledge and needing to find a life-affirming way to do so or anesthetizing ourselves once again."
All this to say that as Christians, we should not allow the view of heaven numb us from the stark reality of earth. It is on us to see the undeniable pain of humanity and take action to stop it.
betsygirl2, you're right. Jesus said that the poor will be with us always. But didn't you fail to take that scripture in context? What was going on when Jesus said that? I believe that Judas Iscariot was criticizing the prostitute for "wasting" a year of wages on Jesus' feet when he thought that the money from the box would have better served "the poor." In the same verse the Bible mentions that Judas was a thief and right after He said "the poor will always be with you, but I will not always be with you." Imagine how much sex that box represented. Also remember that it took several years to save enough money to buy something that costs a year's wage. That box was literally the fruit of a lifetime of sinfulness that that prostitute broke at Jesus' feet. Jesus' comments weren't against the poor; He was saying that this woman's reconciliation was worth far more than anything that Judas' could have given to the poor. But Judas was a thief so he would have kept it for himself.
By the way, the concern I have for the poor is in directly related to the liberty that the government infringes upon that allows someone to prosper. If we don't have the freedom (through regulation, or government intervention) to go from poor to rich then I have a problem with that.
And Happy, all this to come to you: the reason why I broke my silence. "If I haven't marched in a picket line against an abortion clinic then I have no right to criticize the government God has put in power?" Really? The two are only related by a thread which is that abortion is legal. Didn't Thomas Jefferson say that dissent is the highest form of patriotism? The problem that I have with your generation of Christianity is that you were against way too many things and not for nearly enough things. The cause of abortion is pregnancy and the cause of that is sex. The beauty of chastity should always be emphasized FAR more than the sinfulness of premarital sex. I believe that the church in your day condemned sex so much that young pregnant women were too afraid to even approach the church in their time of need. Instead we pointed fingers and labeled these young women as wh*res and sinners and killers and we hated them. (I can't believe they won't let me say "wh*res!") We failed them. They should have been picketing churches, not the other way around. I bet you wouldn't have even looked at the box that that woman broke at Jesus' feet! Tell me, should a church accept a prostitute's or a drug-dealers tithe money? What if someone wrote you a check for six hundred and sixty six dollars? Would you accept it?
I've kept this quiet on my profile and in the forum but I did go on a mission. I went for three months down to Mexico to intern for a man and his wife who wanted to build a refuge there for abused women and children. It did change my life, it opened my eyes to a world of pain outside of my suburban comfort zone. I also went to Bible school and to a University and I currently teach the youth group at my church. No. I wasn't in a slump for lack of service. I was in a slump because I questioned the reason behind the service, because I questioned whether or not I could be instrumental in changing anything.
I respect your gut level honesty and relate to your views in many ways.
I was always a very sensitive ENFP child and have loathed being in this world at times throughout my lifetime. Did that make me suicidal, yes and no. I just wanted out but not in a way that would send me to hell and I realized over and over that my self centered thinking would get me depressed and that I must put of the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I am really a 3/4 glass full kind of girl but the evils and injustices of this world get to me a lot so I swim upstream a lot by counting my blessings as my mother taught me.
Always trying Eastern religions as a teen to find that nirvana left me more and more empty and I knew that the ONE who spoke to me from the clouds in childhood dreams was in the bible and spoke to Moses and others in this manner. Thus, my journey intensified and I found out the HE FOUND me. Still does~~ : )
Thirty plus years plugged into pentecostal churches has left me with riches and wood, hay and stubble. People are plastic and plugged into the matrix in most churches I have been involved in. They have arrogantly arrived at the conclusion that leadership means "lordship" and giving freely" means pay your 10% or be cursed~~not biblical at all~~ The talk is a new "Christianese" lingo that anyone should catch onto if they are really saved and a part of the "church"~~Hallelujah, praise the Lord, did you sow your seed? and don't speak that negative or it WILL manifest itself, sister!!!~~Matrix, cult paranoia all the way~~
I prefer a home group of non maniac believers that give grace for sheeples who struggle and slip and do not set themselves to be Holy Spirit juniors in your life but loving, followers of the "way" and not spoon feed you 50 scriptures to fix your problem instantly.
The gospel that Jesus preached is scarce at post modernism and word of faith hype b.s. infiltrated the buildings called churches while the church is asleep in the light as Keith Green once sang.
The true gospel is simple, focused on the Cross and resurrection and points out that this world is satans, the kingdom of God is within and invisible to the outside but manifests in acts of faith , hope and love~~which is the greatest. LOVE WINS!
I choose the third option that you mentioned and choose to let faith in HIM quiet the many fears surrounding us.
BTW~~ Happy~~I did not see Jesus or his disciples waste their time picketing any houses of ill repute~~I think times of solitude and prayer accomplish much more and draw the downtrodden to Him much better. It's His kindness that leads us to repentance, right?
Ezekiel 3:17 says if we don't tell others of sin, we are as guilty as them and Jesus said to fear Him who can send you to Hell. We are commanded to tell others the same.
Do you believe abortion is sin. I have listened to the woes of some who had an abortion 20 years ago and noone told them it would be so wrong.
Dave
Why are you still single? It goes against the command to be fruitful. How do you keep away from sexual sin? No wonder you are lonely.
The bible says that Christians are not supposed to judge the world. The only people Christians have any authority to judge are other Christians. We're supposed to witness of a different life that can be had when people accept God. If someone does not believe in Bible truths, then what effect will judging them by the bible have? None. They'll just avoid it altogether. We're suppose to teach, not condemn. God will convict them of their sin when He convicts them of the truth. I don't think Jesus would have been on a picket line.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner�not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore �put away from yourselves the evil person.�
I only see Jesus rebuking scribes and pharisees throughout the New Testament. He demonstrated and spoke the truth and the love of the kingdom to all others. If I was going to convince a girl Christian or sinner to stop her abortion, it would not be through picketing. I would speak to her as Jesus would speak to me with, gentleness, kindness, love and truth :
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)
Picketing is a legalistic, non loving way to approach a soul with heavy burdens. I was in an abortion clinic at one time in my life and it was the LOVE OF THE FATHER THAT STOPPED ME~~ nuff said.
On the arrogant questions you asked like why I'm not married yet, probably because it's not time and Father is protecting me from wolves in sheep's clothing like you sir~~~Fruitful? Are you serious~~never mind~~And By WHAT SPIRIT AND AUTHORITY DO YOU ASK ME HOW I STAY PURE? THIS ONE??? :devil:
Why are you still single? It goes against the command to be fruitful. How do you keep away from sexual sin? No wonder you are lonely.
mine here,
thats none of your business and a question you should not be ponderin on with any lady here. please do keep them kinds of thoughts and comments to yourself.. ladies here are not to be subjected to such talk or questions..
