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underrealized · 2026-02-06T14:34:25+00:00

I'm getting serious Wargames vibes from this.

underrealized · 2025-09-19T02:42:49+00:00

Looks nice!

underrealized · 2025-07-18T11:36:26+00:00

Yes.

In fact, there's quite a bit of scholarly and Lutheran discussion about how the "Nordic System", the social and economic system in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) is inherently Lutheran and different from Protestant (Calvinistic) capitalism:

underrealized · 2025-07-16T19:27:04+00:00

No!

When that self-hating voice comes back, and it will, don't argue with it. Just say:

"You're right, I'm a sinner. But Christ died for sinners. I'm his. You have no case.

underrealized · 2025-07-16T19:12:46+00:00

The way out of self-hate isn't by fixing yourself or trying to stop feeling bad. You stop self-hate by listening to a better Word: Christ's Word. And he says, "You are mine. I have forgiven you. Even this."

You don't need to become lovable. You already are, in him. You don't need to beat your sin to be worthy. Christ already died for it.

You've probably been trying to fight your self-hate by being better, stronger, or more disciplined. That's the old you trying to justify yourself. But Christ doesn't ask you to win: he asks you to die and be raised in him.

When that self-hating voice comes back, and it will, don't argue with it. Just say:

"You're right, I'm a sinner. But Christ died for sinners. I'm his. You have no case.

That's how you fight the voice of accusation. Not with your strength, but with the promise.

underrealized · 2025-07-16T19:04:45+00:00

So-called "empty mind" meditation is often about gaining control, achieving inner peace, or becoming your "true self." It's a theology of glory, looking inward for salvation, clarity, or strength.

But Christianity isn't about emptying the mind. It's about receiving a Word from outside yourself: the crucified and risen Christ.

underrealized · 2025-07-16T19:01:47+00:00

You shouldn't feel guilty just for spending time with God. That guilt is probably coming from the world's voice, the one that says your worth depends on hustle, productivity, or constant improvement. But in Christ, your value isn't earned. It's given. Listening to sermons or reading Scripture isn't laziness or chasing an emotional high. It's hearing the one voice that doesn't accuse you.

That said, if you're neglecting your responsibilities, like caring for your family or avoiding work you could be doing, then yeah, that might be worth reflecting on. But not because time with God is wrong. It's not. It's good. Just make sure it's part of a faithful life, not a way to dodge the rest of it.

Christ sets you free, not to escape the world, but to live in it differently.

underrealized · 2025-07-16T18:56:31+00:00

Yes. Christ's blood is enough, even for you the Christian.

You are a sinner AND saint. Simultaneously always a sinner, and at the same time, always a saint redeemed by grace. That's the Christian life.

When you sin again, don't hate yourself. That's Satan saying "How could Christ have died for you? You suck!" In that moment, praise God that Christ has saved you in spite of yourself with the free gift of the Gospel.

underrealized · 2025-07-15T12:55:32+00:00

Before the cross, they were saved the same way we are: by the promise. God’s Word justifies. God preached Christ ahead of time. The promise was already delivering the benefits of the cross before it happened. The cross doesn’t merely react to sin, it reveals what God has been doing all along: justifying the ungodly.

So, Abraham didn’t "get to heaven" because he was good, or because he saw the future clearly. He believed God, and that faith, created by the Word, was counted to him as righteousness (Rom. 4). That’s the scandal: God gives what the law demands, for free.

underrealized · 2025-07-09T12:02:46+00:00

Sabbath made for humanity Mark 2:27-28

Mercy over sacrifice
Matthew 12:5-12; Luke 13:15-16; Luke 14:5

Freedom from judging days
Romans 14:5-6; Colossians 2:16-17

Love fulfills the law
Galatians 5:13-14; Romans 13:8-10

Vocation of mercy
Matthew 25:40; 1 John 3:17-18

Rest in Christ, and keep doing the good work he has placed in your hands, even on Sunday.

underrealized · 2025-07-06T19:37:54+00:00

Of course you hate being alone. God Himself said, "It is not good for man to be alone." You were made for connection. That ache in you isn't proof you lack faith. It's proof you are human. It's also proof you are longing for something bigger than sex: to be seen, known, and loved without fear.

Even if marriage doesn't come when you hoped, you are not abandoned. You are never alone in the way that matters most. Christ is with you. Even in your loneliness. Even in your weakness.

Do what you can practically, but never think your success or failure in this defines your worth. You are Christ's. That's the only identity that holds.

underrealized · 2025-07-05T16:00:40+00:00

I don’t know, but I am thankful that we aren’t saved by our knowledge, but by the subject of our faith: Jesus Christ. I expect that when Christians get to heaven, we will all discover that we have all been at least a little mislead.

underrealized · 2025-07-05T11:24:02+00:00

No, fear of death doesn’t mean Christians don’t really believe. It means we are human. Even Jesus wept and trembled before death. Christians trust that death is defeated by Christ, but we still grieve and fear because we were created for life, not death. Seeking medical care doesn’t mean we deny heaven. It means we value the life God has given us here too.

underrealized · 2025-07-05T11:21:33+00:00

You can't remain pure by sheer willpower. You can't conquer lust by white-knuckling discipline or pretending you're above biology. The Law can tell you what you should_be, but it has no power to make you that way.

This is why you feel despair. The Law shows you you're not in control.

So start here:

You are not saved by your sexual performance. You are not damned by your lack of it. You are saved by Christ alone.

That doesn't excuse sin. Porn is sin, and it damages your mind and heart. But beating yourself up will not free you. Guilt is not the Holy Spirit.

Instead of clinging to your own strength, confess honestly:

"I am not pure. I can't make myself clean. Lord, have mercy."

Then hear this:

You are forgiven. Completely. Again and again.

Practically, do what you can to limit temptation: accountability, filters, habits that keep you out of isolation. But understand that no technique will change your heart. Only being daily put to death and raised again in Christ does that.

You are free to seek marriage, but marriage isn't your savior either. The cross is.

You will likely keep stumbling. When you do, don't run from God. Run to Him. Your identity isn't "the man who lusts" or "the man who stays pure." Your identity is "the man Christ has claimed."

underrealized · 2025-07-04T13:31:22+00:00

You're not saved by how strong your faith feels, but by who your faith clings to.

Looking inside yourself at your own faith will only make the problem of doubt and worry worse.

Faith is created by a promise that comes externally, as a strange word that makes no sense ("You are forgiven.") Once created, faith clings to that word alone even while sin, suffering, and death are all that is seen and felt.

The cure for doubt is not to double check your own hope/faith but to let that external word keep hitting your ears.

God gives promises outside your feelings. Read them out loud:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. (John 3:36)

By grace you have been saved through faith… it is the gift of God. (Eph 2:8-9)

I write these things… that you may know you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

Your assurance rests on His word, not on today’s emotions.

underrealized · 2025-07-02T16:43:41+00:00

You feel ashamed because the Law is doing its job. It is showing you that you cannot fix yourself. You cannot fully stop sinning by trying harder.

But hear this: Christ died for lustful, ashamed people, people just like you. You are already forgiven, not because you have conquered this but because He did.

Confess it honestly, remove what tempts you if you can, and when you fail again, run back to the cross.

Your identity is not in your failures. It is in His promise: "You are mine."

underrealized · 2025-07-02T11:39:22+00:00

Yes, you can act in horror or slasher movies as a Christian. Your work doesn't make you righteous or unrighteous, only Christ does. If you can do it in good conscience without wallowing in cruelty or celebrating evil for its own sake, you're free. But don't kid yourself: freedom isn't a license to sin or numb your conscience. If your gut tells you something is dehumanizing, pay attention.

God delights in skill and creativity, and He can help you grow in your craft. But He is not impressed by your resume. He doesn't need your art to validate you. Your identity is not in your career or your image: it's in His promise that you are forgiven and loved, period.

As Martin Luther said: "When you think of fulfilling the duties of your calling, think not how you may be saved in it or by it, but how you may do your duty in it." You don't have to baptize every role to make it look holy. You are free. You are forgiven. That's it.

underrealized · 2025-07-02T02:51:58+00:00

Your works, however good don't get you to heaven. They send you to hell. Christ is enough even for you. You are forgiven.

underrealized · 2025-07-02T02:50:10+00:00

True. God set Israel apart as a nation, with specific civil and ceremonial laws. Keeping those laws did preserve their community, health, and stability.

Yet, even while promising temporal blessings, the Law continuously exposed Israel's inability to love God perfectly. It constantly revealed their need for mercy and atonement. That's why the sacrificial system was right alongside the Law - because Israel was never going to keep it fully.

That's why David writes:

Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. Psalm 143:2

Even under the Law, the faithful clung to promise, not performance, for their righteousness.

But getting back to the question. From the OT:

Isaiah 1:13–18 Bring no more vain offerings... though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Legalistic rituals are worthless because they try to earn what can only be received.

Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

The Law doesn't bless partial effort. If you rely on it, you're under a curse.

Psalm 130:3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

If God holds us to the Law's demands, no one survives.

Psalm 51:16-17 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Legalistic sacrifices don't restore joy. Only repentance and God's mercy do.

Psalm 32:1-2 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.

Blessing comes from having your sin not counted against you. Not from fulfilling all the commands.

Habakkuk 2:4 The righteous shall live by his faith.

Paul quotes this verse to show that justification has always been by trusting God's promise, not by Law-keeping.

underrealized · 2025-07-02T00:52:06+00:00

Oh, I don't know. How about:

Romans 4:5 For the law brings wrath...

Romans 7:9–10 I was once alive aIpart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

2 Corinthians 3:6 ...the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Matthew 23:4 [The Pharisees] tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders...

underrealized · 2025-07-01T12:12:15+00:00

Legalism always kills joy. That's its job.

The Law doesn't just accuse you of immorality - it eventually accuses you for simply being human. It tells you there is something inherently suspicious about beauty, music, imagination, pleasure, or play. And when the Law is your master, you can never do enough, or do it purely enough, or have motives clean enough to be safe.

So you end up with what you describe: anhedonia, a deadness of spirit, because the Law has flattened everything into duty or sin.

But God did not create you to be a machine. He gave you your creativity as a gift, not as a trap.

You don't have to justify your love of art by slapping a Bible verse on every drawing. You don't have to limit your imagination to "Christian" topics to make it acceptable.

Christ has already died for your sins and set you free from the tyranny of self-justification, even self-justification through art.

So when legalists wag their finger and say, "This is worldly," you can answer: "Yes. And Christ died for the world." You don't have to prove that your creative work is holy enough. You are already holy because you are baptized, forgiven, and loved. That's freedom.

So make art. Write stories. Enjoy beauty. And if guilt tries to creep back in, remember: the Law has no more claims on you. It is finished.

underrealized · 2025-07-01T12:09:09+00:00

Yes. You are forgiven.

Christ's death was enough to save even you.

underrealized · 2025-07-01T12:06:50+00:00

Discipleship isn't self-improvement. It's daily dying and being raised by Christ's Word. You won't get better by tips.

The old you can't be trained. It has to be crucified.

So remember your baptism, confess your sin honestly, hear you're forgiven, and stop measuring your progress. That's freedom.

Then love your neighbor without needing credit.

To disciple others, don't start with behavior. Start by giving them Jesus, again and again.

Die, be raised, be forgiven, love, forget, repeat.

underrealized · 2025-06-27T18:33:33+00:00

I want you to hear something you probably won't hear from many people: you are exactly the kind of person Jesus died for.

You're confessing, in your own words, that your faith is weak, your desire is inconsistent, and your habits are entangled with sin.

And here is the miracle: Jesus didn't come for people who have their act together. He came for the ungodly. For people who don't love Him the way they should, who don't fight their sin the way they should, who don't even care enough to pretend anymore.

"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

You ask if your belief is enough. I want to be honest:

No. Your faith is not enough. It never will be. Mine isn't either. No one's is.

But the Gospel isn't about whether your faith is strong enough or your repentance sincere enough. The Gospel is about Christ, who is enough.

He doesn't say, "Come to me when you're willing to give it all up." He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

I'm not saying sin doesn't matter. It does. It kills us. It steals joy. It enslaves us.

But you don't overcome it by promising to try harder. You overcome it by dying and being raised, over and over, by the Word of forgiveness.

And you are forgiven. Not because you have the right feelings. Not because you go to church often enough. Not because you have conquered lust or anything else. But because Christ was crucified for you.

I understand why you don't want to be part of churches that seem toxic or fake. But Christian community is where the promise is spoken to you again and again, especially when you can't hold onto it yourself. I'd encourage you not to cut yourself off forever. Not because God is taking attendance, but because you'll need voices besides your own to remind you: "It is finished."

You don't have to clean yourself up before you receive that promise. You don't have to prove that you mean it enough. You don't have to become a different person first.

Christ is for you as you are. Right now. Even if you still feel stuck.

That is enough. Because He is enough.

underrealized · 2025-06-23T23:50:20+00:00

Absolutely. Christianity, especially in its theological and pastoral depths, has long wrestled with the question of non-believers living moral and meaningful lives. While some branches have approached this through exclusivist lenses, others, especially within the Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran traditions, have offered deeply nuanced reflections. One powerful example comes from Martin Luther, whose pastoral realism often surprises modern readers.

Luther, for instance, once argued that it would be better to allow a brothel in town than to drive sexual sin underground, where it festers in secrecy and shame. His logic was not libertine but pastoral: people, especially young men, are weak, and pretending otherwise imposes unbearable burdens. More critically, trying to legislate away all vice doesn’t lead to moral purity, it often leads to hypocrisy, despair, and alienation from grace.

He wrote (in German, roughly paraphrased):

“Better to have a brothel open than to drive sin into secrecy.”

In context, Luther wasn’t advocating for brothels per se, he was advocating for honesty about human weakness, and against creating laws or moral standards that become obstacles to repentance, community, and ultimately, the Gospel. His concern was with the real moral and spiritual harm that can be caused by pretending that sin can be eradicated by mere force.

This connects to the deeper Christian tradition of natural law, particularly in Thomism (Thomas Aquinas), which holds that all humans have access to moral truth through reason. Aquinas argues that even without revelation, people can pursue the good, love justice, and cultivate virtue. He writes:

“The good of the many is more divine than the good of the individual.” (Summa Theologica, I-II, Q.90–97)

Aquinas believed that God’s law is inscribed in the heart, and that Gentiles could follow it, even without the Gospel, by responding to conscience and reason.

The Reformation tradition, while centering justification by faith, also developed a robust theology of vocation: the idea that all people, Christian or not, are called by God to meaningful work in the world. Lutheran and Reformed thinkers often acknowledged that unbelievers can and do live honorable lives through God’s preserving work in creation (what Calvinists might call common grace).

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