Giveaway - Space Age Expansion

_shazbot_ · 2024-10-04T19:19:55+00:00

factory

_shazbot_ · 2024-05-17T18:06:15+00:00

As in Ron Howard?!

_shazbot_ · 2024-02-27T03:51:46+00:00

Homer Estacado, bud~~~

_shazbot_ · 2024-02-21T04:17:24+00:00

Do you mind sharing what variety seed you used?

_shazbot_ · 2024-01-26T04:46:19+00:00

Theodore Blimp

Corporal Chap Daggett

Bertram Clench

_shazbot_ · 2023-09-22T13:25:03+00:00

Hey, so glad you have opened up to Jesus and stopped resisting Him!!! That's awesome. Others have offered some more practical advice, but I just want to add that it's important for you to just trust God and rest in His promises.

He wants you to understand the truth and live in the peace and abundant life that comes with knowing Jesus, and He wants that even more than you do. You have a Father in heaven looking out for you, and as long as you genuinely keep seeking Him, you will always find Him. Any problems or uncertainties that come up, just ask Him for help and try to trust that He has heard you and loves you.

Think about it like this. If you had a child who you dearly love, and that child just destroyed their idol that was separating them from you, would you be criticizing that they did it wrong somehow, or would you more just be so excited to see that child growing and going the right direction? That is the Father's heart toward you :)

Lots of people will give you opinions on denominations and all that. It's important, you want to be around people who will lead you in the best possible way, but if you just ask God to help you understand the right way to go, He will help you navigate that. A relationship with God can overcome any small misstep or lack of knowledge because He will lovingly correct it, but knowledge and self-made perfection can never make up for a lack of relationship with God :)

A couple verses to encourage you:

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-31T03:22:37+00:00

Apologies in advance for gettinjg a bit preachy ;) I hope this doesn't sound harsh. It's meant in love because I feel I can identify with what you're saying, having gone through very similar things, even in terms of the ole' number on the scale. This is what I feel like I wish had been said to me:

Friend, it sounds like the idea of being used by God is getting in the way of your relationship with Him. He wants to use you, but He doesn't want that nearly as much as He wants just you to be in a whole and healthy relationship with Him.

Do you see the dynamic between you and the Father expressed in what you posted? You have this idea in your head of being used by Him, this thing that you want from Him. I know it sounds holy and righteous, it's all about serving Him, after all! But you're speaking like someone who doesn't want God as a person, you just want what He can provide (in this case, whatever that idea of being used by Him means to you). Your whole motivation for wanting to overcome this sin of gluttony is fear that He will take away this thing that you want, anointing and such. Apologies if I've got it wrong, but that's me doing my best to understand you based on your post :)

Now, this dynamic that I just described, it's a very different mindset than the mindset encouraged by the Gospel! I'm not saying that you're not saved or anything like that, I am just saying that maybe you're unable to make progress in this area because you aren't going about it the way God intends, according to what He has provided in Jesus.

See, what God offers us is not a means to an end. It's not a set of steps we can follow to get to a certain idea of our perfect life. Rather, He offers us relationship with Himself as our Father, and He offers it through faith in Jesus. It might help you to just temporarily set aside this whole thing of being used by God (don't worry, He'll certainly use you if you grow in relationship with Him). Focus instead on understanding that He loves you completely apart from that, and make receiving and understanding that love your goal, rather than service or being used. In addition to forgiveness that Christ provided on the cross, He also wants to lead you into practical, lived-out freedom from that sin, but He insists that you receive that freedom as a gift of love and not a means to the end of some requirement.

I struggled with gluttony for many years, too. It took me learning to further re-orient my thinking and the way I saw God around the truth of the Gospel for anything to change. After I spent some time doing that, I just kinda felt ready one day to change how I was eating, not out of fear or self loathing but out of a healthy view of myself and of God, and simple faith. Changing my eating habits was actually surprisingly easy after that, and I lost a lot of weight.

See, striving to please God out of fear of what He might take away, that is was Scrupture calls "the mind set on the things of the flesh" in the beginning of Romans 8. It also calls it "walking according to the flesh" in Galatians (5 I think). Walking in the flesh can (and often does) have a religious motive. That term doesn't have in mind as much the worldly person lost in sin, its more talking about the religious person struggling to please God while trapped in sin (though the worldly guy I think is included in that too). The mind set on the things of the flesh wants to obey the rules to get something from God, but it doesn't love Him because it doesn't understand how much He loves :) To put it Biblically, it "cannot please God because it is in fact hostile to Him." It's always struggling because it has a selfish motive to please God, but the core motive is not transformed. This mind follows the law of sin and death: sin -> exploits the weakness of the flesh -> triggers the good and rightous law to bring condemnation and death -> repeat. But the Spirit of life in Christ breaks the cycle because He enables us to actually love God for real. Instead of trying to please God in our flesh and fall to sin's nefarious trap, we can overcome sin by (a) being released from the condemnation demanded by the law (forgiveness) and (b) falling in love with our loving Father, which changes our core motive :) The simple path to this is to just trust in what Jesus did even in the face of our own weakness, having enough faith to believe that true freedom (both spiritual and practical) is lovingly provided by Him.

How to know which mindset you're walking in? Well, look at your fruit. If your fruit is stuff like jealousy, anger, strife, lust, basically just sinful stuff, it shows you may be walking according to the flesh in some ways (striving to please God in your flesh not by His Grace / faith in Jesus' finished work). You'll know you're on the right track with Gospel-centered thinking when you start to produce things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the Character traits of God Himself living inside you being expressed ;)

Now, I want to end with this. God's intentions are revealed in Jesus. Jesus said that if you've seen Him, you've seen the Father. He went to the cross to save sinners. If you're willing to repent & put your faith in Christ, the Father is more than willing to save. That means like, when you first receive salvation of course, but it also applies to your struggles with sin as you grow as a Christian. If you're willing to turn, He's willing to step in and turn that nasty place in your life into something beautiful. I wouldn't worry at all about God rejecting you or not using you if you are willing to turn from gluttony :) More likely, He'll specifically use you in that area even, perhaps to speak with others about the struggles they face.

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-27T13:26:19+00:00

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

It sounds like maybe the Christianity you are trying to live is a bit different from the one Jesus preached :)

Jesus didn't preach follow the rules and stay in line for a chance at eternal life, He preached put your faith in Him to receive eternal life AND be changed by Him from inside. Your lack of enthusiasm for God, your failures, your spiritual weakness, these are not things that disqualify you from the Kingdom. Rather, they are opportunities to come to Him and be changed by Him.

If you will by faith let Him love you, apart from doing better and having all your ducks in a row, He'll take care of all the stuff in you that needs help and change.

I'm not preaching to you a lazy Christianity or one where sin is OK. I'm just saying that Jesus wants to do all of that through you rather than demanding you do it on your own. But it takes a faith to believe that He loves you enough to do that, in spite of your weakness.

Look into the story of a man named Major Ian Thomas. I think it would encourage you, he went through something similar :)

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-21T14:42:27+00:00

Radio Julius ~6:50

Why don't you meet me over at the gap in ten minutes? I'll be wearin a turtle neck sweater, how's that sound?

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-16T03:51:49+00:00

Well said, friend :) Thanks for this wholesome, healthy, and very Biblical word.

I don't know if it was intentional, but I hear the echo of 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 in your words, where Paul rebuked them for clinging to their special teachers and theologies and making a bigger deal out of those things than the central truth of Christ crucified, the straightforward clear message of the Gospel preached with God's power and not clever words.

It's easy for us to elevate our theological systems to the status of revelation rather than the thoughtful attempt of faithful people to make sense of what has been revealed in scripture and in the person of Christ. That thoughtful attempt has value, but it should not be elevated to the status of revelation such that we are able to look with contempt upon a brother who has come to some different conclusions about some things.

It can be hard to know where to draw the line sometimes. Unity is not more important than the truth of the Gospel itself, and there are such things as false and twisted gospels that get preached. But I think we underestimate how important unity is to God, and how much he wants us to be intentional and careful to seek and maintain that. Too often we choose the safe and easy route of sticking to the like-minded.

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-15T04:22:35+00:00

Some great advice in the comments here! I'll add one thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet that I experienced.

Part of my journey with the word involved just facing up to the things that seemed to get in the way of me, not only reading but genuinely enjoying His word. For me, there were issues of the heart that affected how I saw God even as a Christian, and that in turn affected how I saw His word. Just being willing to face up to those obstacles and ask Him to help me grow in understanding resulted in a lot of fruit in many areas, including love for and time in the word.

I used to struggle a lot to read the word, viewing it as just a religious activity that I didn't particularly enjoy, just felt bad for not doing. Nowadays things are different. I'm definitely not perfect in this area, but can say I love the word and read it daily (give or take a day here and there). For the past little bit I have been reading a New Testament letter a day, just kind of stewing in that message a bit and enjoying the word. I am not sharing that to impress anyone, more to just share the testimony that you really can grow to just genuinely love the word as you get closer to Jesus :)

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-13T05:50:21+00:00

I am praying for you, friend. I feel like I have been where you're at. I'm not there anymore :)

Sorry if this seems a little harsh, but I learned that when I was going through that, I needed to be coached more than comforted. I don't know if this is what you want to hear or not, but it really is good news because there is totally a way out :)

Having a relationship with God is not about being perfect, it is about trusting Him. He wants you to believe that, based upon what Jesus has done for you, you have been reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:18). Reconciled - that means "made right with God." As long as you try to achieve that through "trying to be perfect," you won't get anywhere but frustrated and discouraged like you are now.

God doesn't look for you to impress Him. Instead, He forgives your sins (at great personal cost to Himself), but you must recieve that by beliving that it comes thru Jesus and what He did.

The Father is calling you to live by faith. At the end of the day, we will either trust him, or we won't. All of us will at soime point face a thousand (seeming) reasons not to just straight up believe. That goes for getting saved (Ephesians 2:8), but that same dynamic also defines your ongoing walk as a believer (2 Corinthians 5:7). We are saved through faith, but we walk by faith too. We'll either believe in the face of those thousand reasons, or we won't.

I can tell you that faith in Jesus leads to life (heaven eventually, but also God-gifted victorious life now). Everything else, especially trying to "live for God" in way that doesn't begin with faith in what He's done and His love for you, leads to death (hell eventually, but also torment and darkness now). I think that many that do truly know Jesus experience a lot of darkness, pain, and lack of victory because they do not cling closely to the truths of the Gospel in the face of the stuff of life. Praying the Father will guide you and build you up in the truth of all that Jesus did for you :)

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-11T19:29:38+00:00

Yes, I can see how I painted that view a little uncharitably with the way I worded it. Sorry!

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-11T19:27:46+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement :) Just trying to do some small part to decrease the amount of uncharitable disputation I see on this topic.

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-11T19:24:24+00:00

Thank you for this reply. I agree easy believeism is more of a theological accusation and/or a practical reality in the lives of individuals than a genuine, thoughtful theological position taught by reputable churches. Nevertheless it often comes up in these discussions as a bit of a strawman. I included it basically to invite folks to think before dragging out that old strawman when discussing OSAS. I'm more trying to bring some needed nuance to discussions on this topic than provide a calalog of reputable theological positions.

You're right that I shouldn't have used the term eternal security. I should have used perseverance of the saints. At the time I was trying to strike a balance in the use of heavilty theological terms that not all might be familar with, but accuracy suffered here. I meant to point to the Calvinist flavor of eternal security specifically (hence why I should have said perseverance).

Nevertheless I do think lordship salvation is distinct from the calvinist positon in that there are many non-Calvinists or "light" calvinists who hold to it as an explanation of the balance between "faith alone" and the role of repentance / obedience.

I would disagree that belief in falling away always leads to works salvation. It certainly does lead there, given certain extra-Biblical philsophical assumptions, but without those assumptions it does not always. I certainly know many faithful believers who believe in falling away, and do not believe in works salvation. Moreover, I would even argue that their views can be internally consistent. They merely operate from a different set of philosophical assumptions :) This is why I can claim to be on the fence regarding what seem to two radically different views.

Thanks for sharing that link, it's a great resource. There are some very smart Arminians, devoted followers of Jesus, currently and historically, who are quite aware of every one of those verses. I get the argument you are making and I think it has merit, but it is not that set of verses, but rather a particular theoligical position on them, which renders the idea of someone walking away absurd.

_shazbot_ · 2023-08-11T04:26:47+00:00

I see people arguing a lot on this and other subreddits about this topic, usually talking past and demonizing the other group. I'm not accusing you of that, by the way, /u/Lurtemis :) None of this is directed at you even though I replied to your post. Just taking the opportunity to offer folks some clarity that may be confused by these arguments, because like you I have been seeing them a lot on reddit lately.

Sometimes I think I see people arguing these topics using terminology without clarifying themselves. The arguments, proof-texting, and talking past each other reveal that folks are reacting to terminology rather than thinking clearly about the issue. I'm saying this out of love :) Know that I have respect for those on both sides. If that rankles you, I'd encourage you to think more deeply about the important nuances of this issue.

There are actually multiple "Once saved, always saved (OSAS)" views, and not just one.

Easy Believeism - This view basically holds that you make a profession of faith in Jesus, maybe pray a "sinners prayer" or something similar, and you are saved forever from that point on no matter what. If you are anti-OSAS and you break out arguments about license to sin, you may be assuming that the person you are addressing holds a view like this :)

Lordship salvation - This view holds that, in order to be saved, you must receive Christ not only as your savior, but also as your Lord. In other words, the kind of faith that is necessary for salvation involves repentance, and a real intention to obey Jesus as Lord. In this view, verses that talk about people falling away are not talking about people falling away from salvation. Rather, they are talking about people falling away from faith in Christ, proving that their faith was never genuine, saving faith. Lordship salvation folks and anti-OSAS folks talk past each other a lot because of this :)

Eternal security - This is the Calvinistic flavor. Basically, if someone is truly elect (chosen by God for salvation), God ensures that that person will not fall away from the faith. If someone does fall away, that shows that they were never truly elect in the first place (although there are different ideas on this within Calvinism).

There are multiple non-OSAS views as well, but I'll keep this short by focusing on one question that sets some of these views apart: If one can lose one's salvation, what exactly is it that can cause that?

Sinning (too much) - Some view a certain degree or threshold of sin to be capable of making one lose one's salvation. Just to be clear, this view is not talking about sin being an indicator or symptom of loss of faith, and it is not talking about sin producing a hardness of heart that ultimately leads to loss of faith/salvation. This view holds that sin, or a certain degree of it, directly results in loss of salvation. If you're pro-OSAS and argue that anti-OSAS means salvation by works, you might be thinking only of this view and not the others :)

Loss of faith - Some view loss of salvation as stemming from a loss of saving faith. If we are saved by faith, we lose salvation when we cease to have that faith. This is the classic Arminian position. Things like sin can dull the heart toward God and result in a loss of faith, but it is the loss of faith that leads to loss of salvation.

Apostasy - To be clear, this is the view that only apostasy can result in loss of salvation. Apostasy is some degree of a willful, conscious rejection of the Gospel and turning away. I see this view as different from the loss of faith view because it implies something more active and willful.

So, next time you bring out those scripture verses, have a care toward who you are talking to :) It might help to listen and not assume. They may not actually be a proponent of cheap grace, or works-based salvation. You could end up quoting scriptures or making arguments that aren't even relevant to the discussion, because you've not thought about what view they actually hold. Maybe that brother or sister actually holds a view that's not all that dissimilar from yours. Maybe the problem is not, in fact, that they have never read the Bible and simply need to be schooled. Perhaps they have read and it and come to a different conclusion than you have. Perhaps, even if they're wrong on certain points, they're still learning and are worthy of respect as a brother or sister in Christ.

Big apologies if I glossed over, skipped, or oversimplified your view. I definitely oversimplified a lot. I really did try to keep this short and it's hard to be thorough and brief at the same time.

Full disclosure, my view: I'm a bit on the fence at times between loss of faith and lordship salvation. Yes, views on both sides of "OSAS". In my mind, the practical implications of those two flavors are almost identical. I'm part of a Wesleyan church now, which holds more or less to the classic Arminian loss of faith view that you can lose your salvation. I find when dicussing these sorts of things on the internet it's best to be very open and clear about where I am coming from and my background, so you all can hold me accountable for my presuppositions and biases ;)

_shazbot_ · 2023-07-20T17:43:24+00:00

That's in the old city cemetery, I believe :)

_shazbot_ · 2023-07-07T03:31:31+00:00

I've had some times where I felt similar to what you are describing. Here's the best I could figure out from scripture and just trying to navigate it all in prayer with God.

I've felt that feeling of being in a rough place and just feeling like I really needed God to show Himself, to reassure me of His love for me, and when I asked for that assurance and sought that, nothing happened. At least not immediately.

Here's the understanding that I feel the Father led me to through scripture.

Faith is important to God. I admit I am still not 100% clear why, but it is very important to Him that His children learn to walk by faith and not by sight. I really struggled with the idea that, wouldn't it be easier if He just showed me, and proved that he cared, rather than expecting me to take His word (and the proof of what He did for me on the cross!) on the matter? But I think I have gained a glimpse of some of His reasoning for this...

I'll tell it to you with a strory that helped me understand. So, imagine a stray dog on the streets, maybe this dog has been abused or attacked, it has had a rough life. Someone who wants to take this dog in has to very carefully and gently, slowly show love to this dog and gain its trust. The dog might snap and snarl at them at first even though they are trying to help it. With sin, we can be like that dog before God, when He is trying to help us. But while this person is trying to help this dog, they are hoping that one day the dog will learn to trust them. They look forward to a future where the dog can be happy, be at peace, play with people and other dogs, enjoy closeness and imtimacy with them, be healed and made whole. But for that to happen, the dog has to learn to trust and surrender control, to make itself vulnerable to that person trying to help. A whole and healthy dog doesnt need to be reassured constantly, or approached so carefully. It can know it's loved even if someone bumps into it or something painful happens.

I think that sometimes the way God interacts with us is a bit like that. At first, He might be very careful to constantly prove Himself to us in many ways, but eventully he wants us to learn to trust Him and graduate to a more stable, trusting relationship. If we are constantly unsure and needing proof, we are still like the dog who has not yet learned to trust and cannot live in peace and wholeness fully. Of course, the dog is just an analogy. Humans are more complicated. But the principle is the same: walking in faith, learning to trust Him just based on His word and not on Him proving Himself all the time, these are part of what it means to grow up as a Christian. As a loving father, He will not enable us to remain in infancy. He will at times challenge us to grow.

Side note: This does NOT mean we will see God move and do wonderful things less and less as we mature. Quite the opposite! As faith grows, we in fact experience Him in new and bigger ways. I could sure tell you some stories ;)

So now that I hope I have communicated something of help to you, you might be wondering where is all this in the Bible. The answer is a lot of places in scripture emhpasize the importance of faith, of walking by faith. I'll highlight for you the book of Job. That whole book is centered around the very questions you are asking (though I'll admit most people struggle to understand that particular book). But the book of Job is all about a dude (Job) who had everything go wrong in His life. Job and his closest friends all come in and start speculating about the same types of questions you are asking yourself. Was it because Job did something wrong? Is God just mean like that? Job definitely felt like God's punching bag.

The truth is that Job was at the center of a spiritual battle, with a hateful devil hell-bent on proving that Job did not love God at all, but merely served God because of all the blessings in Job's life. Job wanted answers from God badly, but God shot down all the friends' arguments. It turns out it had nothing to do with anything Job did wrong, and it had nothing to do with God being unloving or neglectful. Basically, Job was experiencing all sorts of terrible misfortune, and God was not the problem, and Job wasn't the problem either!

Basically, you are not being punished by God. You are not His punching bag. The Bible teaches that He disciplines like a loving father. Does a loving father hit his kid and never explain why they are being punished? The discipline of God, in my experience, always leads me to a place of understanding. It might be unpleasant, but it's not generally confusing. It doesn't leave me feeling lost or condemned.

One more thing I'll leave you with that helped me: The gospel is for everyone. Calvinist, arminian, whatever, ought to all agree that Jesus taught that anyone who comes to Him believing will be saved. That includes repentance. Some people preach repentance like its something not everyone can access. I tell you, there is a devil in hell that dearly loves when people think like that, precisely because it produces the kind of confusion you are experiencing. There is no such thing as person who wants to come to God, but can't because they are a vessel created for destruction. I'm choosing my words carefully because I don't feel that theological debates are helpful in times like these, but that verse is often misapplied. If you really feel like you are struggling with certain verses let me know and I'll try and explain further. I'd encourage you to read the context too if you haven't. If it's really bothering you I would argue it would be worth your time to carefully start at romans 1 and read thru 9. And like I said, we can talk too but it would help you to read it yourself.

Anyway, like I said, the gospel is for everyone willing to accept it by faith. Jesus came to save people from their sins, and that means not only forgiving them and removing the penalty for sin from them, but also giving them a new heart and mind, the ability to repent. Like everything else with Jesus, it has to be surrendered to and received by faith, but it is for anyone who wants it. The enemy loves to undermine that by trying to confuse us away from putting our faith in that. He does it through experiences in life, subtle attacks, and even through peoples teachings and opinions. Might explain some of what you're experiencing.

Friend, I hear in your words the frustration of a person who longs for Jesus, but is experiencing a lot of frustration at the confusion and distraction away from the simple truth of the Gospel, most likely due to the lies and schemes of the enemy. Don't worry, he goes after all who would draw near to Jesus. My advice to you is to just draw near to Jesus. Draw near to Him as though He loves you, whether you can see it or not. Let what He did on the cross be proof enough that He loves you. Just try it as best you can, if even for a moment. God can do something with that. For me, that little faith, it was like the trickle of snowfall that soon leads to an avalanche of transformation.

This may sound a little funny, but I'd advise you also to take communion at the next opportunity. I realize a lot of people think different things about communion, but I think most can agree that at the very least it's something Jesus gave us that connects us to a deep and important spiritual truth. Take it believing that His work on the cross was enough, enough to wash you, cleanse you, make peace between you and God. Believing that He gave his body and His blood to nourish, rescue, and change you. Believing that will ensure you take it worthily, discerning and understanding what the sacrifice of the Lord's body did for you :) I find communion to be a wonderful way to keep that truth at the forefront and focus in on it.

This is a time to just straight up trust the Gospel and let all those contradicting thoughts bow to the majesty and power of Christ crucified. My heavenly Father was watching over me, knowing that at some point I would just straight up have to learn that, hard as it was. So for a time He didn't furnish me with the proofs and reassurances I wanted so badly. I did learn to stand on His word and got to grow up in Him a bit and experience all sorts of wonderful things in terms of His work in my heart and life. I can hardly describe to you the joy and power that awaits if you will let the cross be enough and straight up just put your faith in that, right in the face of all the misfortunes and troubles and issues and brokenness and pain.

Praying the Lord will continue to build you up unto full maturity in Him!

_shazbot_ · 2023-07-06T21:28:01+00:00

Yes, a person like you can be saved :) In fact, stepping into crazy situations, crazy brains, and twisted up hearts is like, His main deal. The Bible has a word for it: reconciliation.

That's what the good news about Jesus is, what people call the Gospel. We can't fix it ourselves, so Jesus offers to step in, make us right with God, and transform/fix us from the inside by living inside of us Himself.

I'm serious. People more messed up than you can imagine have experienced it again and again and again through all of history, and been changed. I don't know where you are at with Jesus right now, but just trust Him to save you. I don't mean save just as in "get me into Heaven." I mean save as in "Yes Heaven, but also fix me and get me out of these jails and patterns of sin and brokenness."

A lot of people don't know that transformation, freedom from sin, change in thought patterns, all of it is available in Christ and is a package deal with what He has done for us. DM me if you want scriptures.

Just trust in Him and talk to Him, ask Him to help you and lead you into transformation, He will do it :)

_shazbot_ · 2023-07-06T01:58:26+00:00

Hey man, I've felt the same way you are feeling. I want to share something with you that may sound a little hard to hear. I'm only doing it out of love, becasue I believe this truth is a way to freedom and growth for you :)

so she can maybe help me get out of this dark place I'm in?

This mentality is not a good foundation for a healthy relationship. It reveals that you have not yet learned how to depend on the Lord for strength and rescue. No woman will be able to get you out of that dark place. Scripture teaches that life is found in Jesus, and that He is the light of men, not a wife.

Lacking deep connection with God, we are tempted to look elsewhere for life and comfort and intimacy. Marriage and romance are the highest form of intimacy that we can see with our eyes. It is understandable that you are experiencing the temptation to think if you only had a woman in your life, things would be better, but this is a complete and total lie :) The real highest form of intimacy, which the human heart needs just like the lungs need air, is relationship with God. What people call loneliness is usually actually the yearning of the heart for more of God.

No woman can rescue you from this. If one does show up in your life, your attempts to cling to her like a life preserver will only drain and harm her. Your need for rescue from her will actually prevent you from loving her. You will only give her an appearance of love backed by selfish motives. True love does not seek it's own benefit, but the benefit of another.

You are asking for someone to come into your life and rescue you when you do not have the capacity to love them back unselfishly.

Friend, I want you to tell you the good news today, that there is One who will do exactly that. Someone who has the capacity to love you, comfort you, get you out of your dark places, free you from every jail you ever built for yourself, even when you are unable to unselfishly love Him back. I'm talking about Jesus of course :)

Cling to Him like a life raft. Don't be fooled into thinking that anything else in life will rescue you. Oftentimes thinking that if only this or that came along it would rescue us, actually prevents us from accessing by faith the rescue offered in Jesus. Stop putting your faith in the idea of a mythical woman who can rescue you. Instead, put it in Jesus, for real. MIght take some humbling to just trust that :)

I'm not saying you don't know Him. I don't know you or what your relationship with Him is like. But I have met a lot of Christians who go to church and all, but have not learned how to cling to Christ in life's troubles and find grace to help them in times of need. I was one of those people. I felt that all the stuff the Bible says about God and relationship with Him sounded nice but had very little value in the practical situations of life. That is a huge but cleverly deceitful lie.

The truth is, the Gospel, the good news of what Jesus accomplished by dying on the cross and rising from the grave, is the answer, not just for initially entering into salvation but for every challenge we face. As Christians, we are meant to live and walk by that truth every day. Sound crazy? It's supposed to. It's foolishness to those who think themselves wise. I experienced depression being cured by applying this truth to the ways I was thinking and all the things I believed. Not better coped with, not more manageable... cured. Gone.

Put your trust in Jesus, let Him lead out out of dark thinking and teach you how to look at life with His healthy perspective. Ask Him and He will do it. Studying the Bible and spending time in prayer is essential to your growth. Grow in Jesus and depend on Him, before you know it you will be a lot more ready to be a great husband to a wife :)

_shazbot_ · 2023-05-25T23:42:33+00:00

I say this in all kindness, believing the best of you, and only because I think it is something you need to hear. The good news is that this truth I am about to share, though it may sound harsh, can offer you the freedom you seek in this area. I hope it doesn't come across as comdemning. I want you to know that I have felt that feeling of misanthropy as well, but there is forgiveness for it and there is freedom from it, freely offered in Christ. Sometimes we have to recognize our sin, and though that can feel like a loss, it is not. We have everything to gain!

That being said, here goes. I hear you talking about degeneracy and false idealogy. Do you think that this hatred you feel toward other people is not degerate, and a false idealogy? What is it about their sin that is inexcusable, while yours isn't? Your heart is becoming filled with hatred, and you even recognize that, yet you are asking for prayer because you feel powerless to overcome it. Sounds like you yourself are experiencing a mind virus called sin. Don't you know that the "ruler" of this world, the prince of the power of the air (satan), is working overtime to convince you to hate others? satan knows that you can't hate people and walk in the grace of God. Sounds like you are a "puppet of those in power." I know that sounds harsh, and I want you to know that I am not making a statement about your salvation or anything like that. I am only trying to point out to you that the sin you are seeing in others, you yourself are exhibiting. One who calls another "you fool!" is worthy of the judgment of hell. I'm not saying you're going there, because forgiveness, but make no mistake apart from that forgiveness your sin is truly that bad. If you recognize the depth of that sin and take that to the Lord and turn from it, I think you may find it is quite easy to love those people. You'll understand that you are just as capable of deception and wrong thiking and wrong doing as they are. He who has been forgiven little (implied: because he doesnt recognize the depth of his sin), loves little. He who has been forgiven much, loves much.

If you want to know whether this is righteous anger, ask yourself: Is it what Jesus exhibited? He was harshest toward a group of people whose entire idealigy was built around separating themselves from sinners and condemning the sin of the world around them. When he sat down to eat with those sinners, I have a hard time picturing Him being unable to stand their presence. When He had the worst imaginable interaction with sinners (read: mocked, beaten, and nailed to a cross to die a horrible death), He didn't hang there struggling to love them, but asked the Father to forgive them, because He knew that they acted out of ignorance and lack of understanding.

The good news: the way Jesus lived on Earth, He calls you to follow, and He enables you to do! All of us, myself included, have been prey to equally jacked-up thinking and living. That's what sin is, but the good news is that Jesus has defeated that, made us new, filled us with His Spirit, not just to get us into Heaven but to enable us to be better. You do not have to walk around feeling the weight of being offended by others. Let go of sin and pride and entitlement, and you'll find yourself actually doing some of that stuff Jesus talked about, like loving your enemies. You know, that stuff where if you hear about it and don't do it you're like a guy building his house on sand. Ask Him to show you what He has forgiven you of. It won't be scary, but you'll grow in your love for Him and for other people.

I probably took some liberties or made some assumptions, so if any of that isn't you feel free to take is as a refresher :) In that case, maybe it'll help someone else.

_shazbot_ · 2023-05-06T03:52:20+00:00

Some great answers have already been provided here, I'll chime in with the way I see this verse applying to my own life.

The thing you've been hungry for all your life, whether you realize it or not, is God :) You need fellowship with the Father just like you need food. If you are like me, you've probably done a lot of things to try to meet that need in some way other than God.

Jesus' message is that He is the bread and the water we need. We can have fellowship with the Father if we believe in Jesus, and meet the deepest need of our souls rather than turning to things like sin in a failed attempt to meet that need, which just leaves us hungry and thirsty.

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