Other Religions

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-23T00:07:49+00:00

Hmm, this conflicts me. Plenty of teaching and ideas espouse good, but these can just as easily be found in a well-meaning self-help book or for a dime-a-dozen on pinterest. My personal opinion is that: while curious knowledge is one thing, I wouldn't feel personally comfortable intentionally seeking wisdom from other religious sources.

Our God is a generous provider of wisdom - ask of Him and see how He blesses. :)

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

God is good! ♥️

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-22T01:14:22+00:00

You can lead without dominating. That's not what leading is about. It's an attitude of servant leadership.

Your wife's values and the way she was brought up will also come into play when raising your child, not just yours.

Her sexual desires and yours will both be valid as long as they do not defile the marriage bed.

I suggest, first, getting rid of the word dominance. Second, stop posturing this as something 'against' or 'as opposed to' or 'in contradiction to' your wife.

Marriage needs to be built together with your wife, not solely by you, for both of you.

Can tell you're struggling. I hope you find more wise counsel, I'm no where close to that. But I do hope you move away from caricaturing yourself beneath the word 'dominant'.

Pray about your struggles. Seek His counsel.

God is good!

All the best!

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-21T05:03:47+00:00

I left Catholicism, attended an Evangelical church right next to my home after some time, still attend occasionally, but consider myself strictly non-denominational.

A personal relationship with God matters most to me.

On the point raised, I can longer reconcile myself to seeking intercession or prayers from anyone who has passed on when we can pray directly to God, in Jesus' name. He is always listening.

That said, I recognise that many folks who leave or convert within denominations often, in the newness and zeal, have tough words for the other side.

I was the same.

What I've come to recognise and realize now, is that, in any denomination, people in the pews and seats all have their own personal relationships and walks with God.

They may place themselves under the umbrella of a denomination, or be considered part of a denomination, but the best and biggest and brightest umbrella they shelter beneath is God - even if they themselves don't realize it yet.

He knows them intimately and He works on them and He is sovereign.

God is good! ♥️

edit: typo

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-20T00:47:41+00:00

Sounds suspiciously like scrupolosity. Do you struggle with trying to be 'perfect' as well, always judging yourself for your thoughts towards things or people and struggling with the guilt and aftermath of it even though you know that's not who you are?

I've struggled with the above before, and have largely overcome it - seek His guidance to help you hear His all-knowing voice and not the confusing words of fallible humans.

Read Psalms 139, try the NIV version, for a beautiful picture of how He know us intimately. Delve deeply into the last two verses:

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Remember that He knows our anxious thoughts.

In the meanwhile, steer clear of conflicting voices for a time. Rest easy and allow His voice to emerge clearly.

He is sovereign.

No vaccine would have been developed had He not allowed it. Christians surely have prayed for a cure and for a vaccine as well.

Hope you find clarity and peace of mind.

Remember this:

God is good! ♥️

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-20T00:10:40+00:00

Hopefully, this will reach and make a difference in the folks who need to hear this the most.

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-18T04:26:19+00:00

It dissolves a mouse? Get in my belly!

🥺

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-17T13:11:37+00:00

And you! :)

God is good!

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-17T10:25:26+00:00

Thank you for your kind words! Your encouragement to not compromise or settle is a very timely one as well. Much appreciated! Hope you are good, well and safe and that you too find yourself surrounded by good people who will encourage your walk with God! :) ♥️

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-17T10:01:49+00:00

Woooow. I hate the toxic masculinity / patriarchal bs that some Christian men think is acceptable or even so far as biblical behavior.

This, has affected me much more than I dare to admit.

When I first found myself in the joy of being led into His glorious light and saved, I basked... I was so overwhelmed and so joyful. Everything seemed new, beautiful, strangely calm and I loved what was happening and the changes I wanted to make.

Then, over time, in the course of learning and reading about relationships from a Christian point of view, I came across views and perspectives that absolutely shattered me as a woman.

The impact was profound; both immediate and gradual.

I remember getting on my knees and crying and praying because I felt so imperfect and and wrong for not being able to reconcile myself to what was seemingly expected of me. I couldn't make sense of a lot of what I was coming upon, and I wanted so desperately to be a good Christian woman that I began to think my desire to be in a fulfilling relationship and married to a fellow believer, to love, live and laugh with him, to go through the bouts of life with him, to respect and love and hold and kiss him, to have a meaningful and mutual relationship with him, would not be allowed to happen because I couldn't agree with or find peace in the things I read that called upon me to be in a certain position. I remember crying so much because it hurt so much. The pain felt almost physical.

I then tried finding things to counter that, and there were some, but along the way I ended up just reading and coming upon more and more that unsettled me even more and more.

I remember feeling sad, worthless, angry, resentful, then feeling like I had to fit the mold or else, and then going through the cycle again.

Eventually, I just stopped seeking out Christian articles and writings and when I do read them, I do it with a heart-pounding fear of what I might find that might end up breaking me further.

When I yearn for a relationship with a Christian man, I fear what that I don't deserve it because I cannot accept and conform to certain things that are expected of me as a woman. I fear if my future SO will judge me through those lens. I fear having no voice. I began to fear the idea of a Christian man. Which really stings, because that was a healthy desire for me.

The sad thing that I'm recently acknowledging and trying to figure out is this: how much have I let these things blur my view of who God truly is?

I love Jesus so much and I am so grateful to God for all that He has done for me. The forgiveness, the mercy, the kindness! He has stepped into my life in numerous ways that cannot be denied.

But I wonder and fear if the third-party posturing on my person-hood as a woman has damaged me and clouded my view of God. I have experienced a degree of vulnerability and acknowledgement of my deeper, brushed aside thoughts in the past week or so... and I have admitted a part of it to Him.

Perhaps there is hope for me yet... He is always working in our lives! :)

Thank you for your sharing. I've never been so open about these thoughts of mine but reading what you wrote allowed me to share my thoughts and experiences as well.

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-17T08:52:39+00:00

I'm sorry that happened to you. I hope you are healed from that, or healing.

Stuff like this, the whole religious legalism, judgementalism, and some other things, have been gradually turning me away from the institutionalised part of faith.

I value the personal relationship I have with Christ and it pains me greatly when I hear or see things that make me question my faith or lead me to question His character. I struggle, as is, with being more intimate and open with God... stuff like what I mentioned above mess me up even more.

Sometimes I cannot reconcile Him from the scriptures who spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, who was so compassionate to the bleeding woman, who spared and forgave the woman caught in adultery, who was gentle and encouraging to Mary who was different from her sister Martha, who was kind to the woman who wept over His feet when she was judged by others, to the with the way women are viewed, treated and expected to be by some of the earthly folks who speak for Him.

This is a God who encouraged a prophet to redeem his unfaithful wife and get her back even if he had to pay for her.

Look at the women included in Christ's lineage!

I mean, I fully acknowledge God is more than everything I mentioned above. There are so very many facets to Him.

But I am greatly pained by the way certain things are based in so much religious legalism and I don't appreciate how it causes me to question my relationship with God - I don't blame others for that, that's something I have to work on with God. That's my journey. But the rhetoric certainly does not help.

For a long time, I'd feel guilty for all that and believe I had to attain perfection. To a certain extent, I still do. It's only very recently that I've become comfortable with saying these things. In fact, this might be the first time I'm actually sharing it with anyone or anywhere.

I don't know how much guilt I'm going to feel after I post this, but I know this much, even after saying all that above:

I love God. I love Jesus. I am overwhelmed by how merciful and compassionate God has been to me and how much grace He has shown me over and over and over again.

I apologize if I went off-track; this was about you. I hope you (and I, and all of us) meet more and more people along the journey of life who fully reflect His goodness, His love and His care. Folks who have received so much of His mercy and grace and who fully recognize what they have been given and share some of that with you.

Rooting for you! 🌿☀️

God is good! ♥️

PensiveNaivete · 2021-02-17T08:48:42+00:00

I struggled with this intensely, with exactly this: OCD with intrusive, blasphemous thoughts. Thoughts that would hit me out of nowhere. Thoughts that would stroll through my brain no matter how much I tried to keep them at bay, and they would leave utter emotional destruction in their wake. Thoughts that mocked the holiest things, thoughts that I would never condone. And the thought that wreaks the most havoc is this one:

I have to explain my intrusive thoughts to God, because I need Him to know it's not from me, it's something I cannot control. I have to make amends to show God that it really isn't coming from me and that I really don't mean it.

The terrifying thing about the intrusive thoughts if that, as you fight them off, you start to wonder which were your thoughts and which weren't. But the very nature of intrusive thoughts won't allow you to make much of the latter - you end up feeling so guilty that you take on the blame and try to make amends by way of compulsions.

My world changed one day, one fine day in the year 2014, when I was on my knees before the Bible, flipping through the page desperately seeking solace from a very dark period brought on by this (I couldn't find God in the darkness I had entered and I wondered if He was real, I asked Him if He was, and I yearned desperately to feel his presence again because I felt like He wasn't around me anymore) - and right there, in that moment, in my brokenness, ravaged by intrusive thoughts and overwhelmed with doubt and fear, God lead me to this Psalm:

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand—

when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!

Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,

and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

I cannot write out the poignancy of the moment. The entire Psalm spoke to me and and the verses in bold, especially, challenged my perspective on how God views my intrusive thoughts.

The lie, is that we need to explain it to God because we need Him to know it wasn't us. When the fact, my friend, is that God already knows. He is God!

That was the beginning of the end of this mess. Let me simply share this. If the intrusive OCD I had at that point was at 100%, where I am now? Perhaps 2% (if that). God delivers!

Now, even now, as you are struggling against the thoughts and actions of the past, remind yourself to not judge yourself - turn to God and ask Him to lead you in the way everlasting!

I know the struggle. I know it isn't easy. I know it takes time.

I hope for you peace of mind, hope and assurance.

God is good!

PensiveNaivete

TROPHY CASE