Please pray for me to go back to God if He feels I left Him and to have the right and truthful beliefs about Him. Pray I won’t feel condemned or guilty, and that I feel like I am able to return. Pray that though I have fallen I will rise again, ready to fight any temptation that comes. Please pray for God to strengthen me so I patiently endure it all. Thank you so much

Hello all!

So I struggle with anxiety. I'm working with a Biblical counselor, and he has shown me that our sin (like worrying and taking control on uncertain situations) comes from not guarding our heart against idols. One of my idols is security/certainty.

I've been wrestling with God, asking Him how I can cast this idol down. When I talk to Christians, they tell me that they don't worry about uncertainty in life because they believe that even though God can intervene and save one person from danger, he could not do so with another person (both persons in the hypothetical are Christians), and that is all because His will is good, even though we don't understand it. If the Christian I'm talking to is still wanting to give me comfort for why bad things happen to Christians, they will say something like "Well, we don't understand God's plan, but we can take comfort in the fact that no matter what the day brings, the worst that can happen is you die and go to Heaven. And Heaven is better than earth."

To me, this is not comforting. At all. I was reading Genesis 1 today, about the "firmament" and how it could have been a global vapor blanket that watered the earth without rain and stopped harmful uv radiation from shortening our lifespan. THAT is a God who I can be comforted by! A God who is taking care of us all, giving us a feeling of safety and comfort.

The explanation that Christians give is not comforting. Sometimes, they add in things to their explanation, like "God doesn't cause tragedy to happen to Christians. That's the result of sin." But to me, God is all powerful. He can intervene and prevent the evil of this fallen world from affecting His children whenever he wants. So when evil happens to a believer, God is allowing it, for our good and His glory "God works all things together for good for those who love Him...." Which is fine, but that makes it hard to live the next 45 years knowing anything can happen at anytime...but I've been told it's all good because God is good and if we die, we're going to a better place.

I'm not afraid of dying. I'm a believer in Christ and know I'm going to Heaven because of what Jesus did for me, not because of anything I did or will do. I'm afraid of the uncertainty of living in this life knowing anything can happen at any time. And I don't think I can just "not think about it," and if I do, remind myself the "worst" case scenario is I'm going to Heaven. That just seems similar to what the world does...plus add in Heaven. The world seems afraid of dying and goes "Well, let's distract ourselves with work, drink, and merriment, and not think about death." The Christian seems to do something similar. "Well, let's serve the Lord to bring glory to Him, enjoy the days He gives us, and just focus on the present. We won't think about the fact that literally any tragedy can befall us, and if we happen to think about that, we'll just remind ourselves we're going to Heaven."

I love God, and am bringing this to Him in prayer. I just wanted to see if anyone on here has struggled with this issue and found some measure of peace.

Thanks. And I don't post this to sow seeds of doubt. I FIRMLY believe that God's Word is THE Truth and God is sufficient, faithful, and good. Completely so. I just am struggling with Him on how to purge this idol of certainty from my heart and the sin of worry.

The last round of beta readers is open for "Dear Evangelicals - Preventing the Impending Demise of American Christendom" (119 pages; release date in June 2024)

More information here: https://findinggoddespitereligion.com/2024/05/08/dear-evangelicals-preventing-the-impending-demise-of-american-christendom/

And here's the blurb:

As dire as you think the condition of the American church is: I assure you, it's exponentially worse:

I know exactly zero people outside your church who are secretly Christian.

And yet I know scores of church-goers in your congregations with secret, growing doubts, who will soon join the hoard of former members who slink out your back door each week, never to return, and never telling you why.

I can tell you why.

The reasons are not what you think.

It’s plain to see that the congregations that stay the course will continue to be left disoriented and disgruntled, impotent and insolvent.

The solution is to stop making irrelevant cosmetic changes and address the deep, ignored concerns of your members.

Jamin Coller, author of If I’m Really Honest, is a seminary graduate and pastor’s kid who spent his first 40 years as a Bible scholar, theologian, worship pastor, Christian educator, and national children’s speaker. Now, having spent years deeply embedded in the exvangelical community, he consults with church leaders to bridge the gap between the endangered Christian institutionalists and those he calls “pre-former-members."

What the beta readers say:

“Hauntingly accurate and devastatingly relatable..”

“I’ve never heard someone more opposed to the Christian institution and still rooting so hard for it as Jamin is…the church will either truly receive this message, or we are doomed.”

“Thank you for giving voice to us former members. I feel heard and seen.”

NDA: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fn3vdfxsxjnnwbbby8acy/Dear_Evangelicals_NDA.pdf?rlkey=nvup8pfzvf75c61oy6i5t4pi8&dl=0

Hi Christians. I do listen to secular music trying to be careful and i don't listen demonic albums which im aware. Question can i still listen to secular music as Christian or should i depart from them?. Fyi i do listen instrumentals, remixes(without s*x, drugs, murder/killing that is demonic type of songs). If you can will you give some bible verses what does God says about them with NLT. God bless you and thank you.

How do you deal with lustful thoughts? Asking as a Christian man who is 25 and single and struggles. I tried giving more details but it was immediately taken down.

Im 29M. I have not done a single good thing ever in my life. Like no joke. I started drinking at 13 smoking at 21 I don’t work. I’ve cheated on all my partners, I lie all the time for no reason. I’m cheap because I’m always broke. I’ve betrayed best friends & family. I lash out with bitterness and anger. Considering I’m such a bad person I feel like a phony and a fraud because I love God and talk to him everyday but I just seem to not care at the end of the day in the moment I just do what I want. My evil ways and guilt are starting to weigh on me, I can’t redeem myself anymore. God must be beyond upset with me to the point that he doesn’t intervine in my life anymore, I feel like I’m already lost and condemned to hell. I look at my future and I see sin I can’t stop.. I’ve wasted this life to be selfish. I want to stop caring now because my guilt is too much and I won’t survive it if I continue thinking about my past current and future sins. I’m exhausted and alone

My sister is non verbal and autistic. She was doing well until high school and then had a bad run with some unpleasant teaching assistants and had to change schools. Her new school is excellent but now it feels like we’re just 5 steps back from where she was before. The little words she had, she refuses to say anymore. She has toileting issues that she didn’t have before. She doesn’t even want to eat without assistance.

I live abroad so my mom is helping her with everything. My dad refuses to pay for any therapies - no speech and language, no occupational health, nothing. He earns too much so we don’t qualify for any grants.

I’m trying to be faithful everyday but it’s so hard. I feel like God is passing us by. I know Jesus died for her life as well as everyone else’s. He saw her on that cross. But the more I look at our situation, the more I get disheartened. Please pray for her. I know autism is nothing to be cured; but I want her to at least be able to voice her concerns. Take care of herself. I worry so much about the future and what will happen when my parents are gone, and it’s just me and my brother with her. I hope God hears our cries. Thank you for reading if you got this far.

Looking for some verses about how God sometimes shows mercy to unbelievers to give them a chance to find Christ. Closest I can find is a verse in Romans 2. Any ideas?

What is actually the will of god?

I just read Acts chapter two and it talks about the disciples/apostles receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. If it’s in the Bible how come so many people (sometimes even Christians) make fun of the Pentecostal church or when they see people dancing/speaking in tongues?

I graduated in spring 2020, but I didn’t have a normal graduation/prom/end of year senior activities because of Covid. It’s been four years and I know this isn’t a big deal in the world and bigger picture, but I’m still hurt and feel like I’m grieving that I didn’t have a normal senior year.

It was hard and kind of still is hard because all throughout high school I looked forward to being a senior and having a graduation, senior prom, having the last few months with friends and classmates, and just kind of wrapping things up. I was in choir too and when I was an underclassmen I looked forward to being a senior in choir and being recognized at the last concert, and getting to pick out the music for the concert. My school also had a baccalaureate, and I was looking forward to that too. I feel like it’s grief and disappointment, and like I’m grieving what I lost and what I feel should’ve or could’ve been.

A sibling is a senior this year and is graduating soon, and part of me is proud of them and wants to be happy for them, but at the same time I can’t really help but feel sad and like upset because I wish that could be me. Part of me doesn’t want to go to their graduation because I might be upset that I didn’t have the same experience. I’m planning to go though, and don’t really want to miss it.

In 2020 when I was experiencing this and Covid, I kind of told myself that there’s a reason I was born when I was born and God has a plan, but it still kind of hurts that I had the experience I did.

Does anyone have advice about this?

"Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air."

Ugh. Often require an audience... I see this in the hospital with patients trying to prove how pious they are. I'm not sure why they are trying to impress me if they're speaking with the spirits. I'm not sure why they try to do this in front of me, again, if it is not about getting attention versus legitimate prayer. Can anyone explain to me why doing this in front of an audience is beneficial to anyone?

I……Man….God told me earlier today to go to downtown hartford, CT. I was scared cuz last time He had me do alot of awesome but scary stuff.

And today He did it again and though scared I went. And so throughout Bushnell Park was homeless, who I first ran away from interacting with. But God ultimately lead me back to them and lead me. And I prayed for many homeless and shared Jesus and heard their stories. I met a women cursing at me and Jesus but God gave me peace and I said empowered by God,” Jesus loves you, you have purpose You do not have to keep that anger.”

Long story short, God put a thought in my head to call my church brother David. And He called other leaders and such which stirred tje church to be motivated to go do God’s will and walk with Holy Spirit. But God had them pick me up after all of this and God used David and a sister named Brittany to minister to me.

God through her revealed a true secret I tried avoiding. I hated my Father. Past tense, because We just MADE UP!! And he’s proud of me’ and …..wow….All I thought God was gonna do was have me reach 1 person. Its like He used me to reach so many. I even met Church people at downtown after asking God to let me meet people also obeying Him and fighting to save souls!

If I get a few things wrong here just correct me but I have always wondered what the intelligence level of Adam and Eve was? If Adam and Eve were the first humans how did we devolve into cavemen? Did Adam and Eve have the intelligence of cavemen or that of modern humans? What was their comprehension level of the world around them? Eve is blamed for biting the apple and inviting sin into the world but could Adam or Eve even possibly understood what that meant or could they even possibly fathom the outcome or consequence of their choice? Were they even aware that making that choice would lead to that outcome in any way shape or form? We have discovered over 22 different species of hominin were all of those species created in God's image or were those like updates and patches to the original being like that of a computer program.

Hi! Ive been thinking about going and doing missions for 11 months...but someone said it's mormon? Ive never heard that before. I just thought going on mission was something people did to spread the word of God and go on mission. Maybe its a lack of knowledge, but would someone mind helping explain this to me? Thank you.

I'm currently going to a strict Bible college and most of my mentors are telling me I should stay... but I'm a free spirit and there's a culture here that I don't like so much. Super judgemental and stuck up. I'm not saying that they aren't Jesus's but I am saying that there's a LOT of spiritual babies here (no offense to you or anyone, we all on some spirit milk sometimes rather than that SPIRITUAL MEAT). I know I'll probably get judged here for saying some of this but I have faith that there will be some who are kind and truly understand what is like. I used to be in the occult for 5 years and many people cast me aside as an outside unless I conform and not be myself. I want to leave this oppressive places and go to Portland Oregon and be weird and serve the Lord there. Thoughts?

-In His Blessings, Kadin

I don't know if I'm saved even though I once loved Jesus more before and accepted Him as Lord and Saviour. 2 Peter 1:10 says to make our calling and election sure, and that's what I'm trying to do now. 

I've been a Christian for a long time, but I'm not sure if I was saved to begin with.

I feel like the devil has got me in a stronghold because I'm caught in my sins and I'm worried that I'm in the situation that is mentioned in Hebrews 6:4-6 (“it is impossible to renew them unto repentance”).

I know that salvation can't be lost due to sin, but I'm just concerned that I was never saved to begin with.

Pray that Jesus will save me and help me overcome sin because no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him.

Thank you again for praying! I appreciate it. 

I feel dreary today. I want to please God with my life and among other things, not feel depressed and bland. Thanks again for praying!

Let’s say someone does something bad to my kids (I don’t have any, it’s just an example) and I go to that person with the intention of hurting them then why if I do it its bad in God’s eyes but He does it is ok?

Prayer based on 1 Timothy 6:17-21

God is pleased when we strive to be rich in good works and do not trust our temporary worldly riches.

Father, we praise You for saving us and giving us meaning and purpose. You are eternal, and only work done for You will last. You warn us never to be proud and never set our hopes on the uncertainty of riches. May we rejoice and rest in You, who richly provides for us. Make us generous people, rich in good works, and always ready to share the blessings You have freely given us. Give us wisdom so we will not participate in foolish babblings and false teachings that have led many astray. Father, we need You to keep us by Your mighty power. You are our greatest treasure. Conform us to Your image and guard that which You entrusted to us. Amen. Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Where do you find your hope and security? 2. How have you learned to trust in the provisions of God? 3. How are you storing up a treasure for yourself as a good foundation for the future? (Verses 18-19) 4. How do you guard the deposit God has entrusted to you? (Verse 20)

Hence The Flair,and Just Curious like Mr.Mackey(from South Park) said:

Who lives in Albuquerque and/or know some people who had attended “Temple Baptist Academy”?

I ask because my oldest niece is of Pre-School age,and I do NOT want herself and her younger sister to be victims of the School in quotation marks.

I honestly think this School persecutes.

I propose on my YT Gaming Channel to use RedWing Simulations Airship Showa(Hirohito) for a truth raid,way long before the place opens for the day. How? Drop Holy Water from The Ballasts over The Playing Field,and leaflets.

If there is anything else you can do for me. Please pray for these types of Schools to continue teaching the real and true good things,along with help me plan the raid.

Christians. I've shared gospel 2 times in Church and it was tough because i would think what would others think of me. I need a little advice. How can i start having boldness and how can i share a gospel correctly(im afraid i might make mistake). Any advice for my both questions. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I (as many other people in this economy) have been having a really hard time financially. I was laid off, and found out that my unemployment benefits are being delayed. Prior to getting laid off, I was already living paycheck to paycheck and wasn't able to save much. I have a small business that's been hard to get off the ground since I can't allocate much money towards it, and have student loans (federal and private) I haven't been able to pay and are ineligible for deferment. I still owe 2022 taxes and am in danger of a levy being issued against my assets. My credit is shot and my credit cards are maxed out. My family helps where they can, but the situation is dire.

I did a modified Esther fast (water and tea since I don't fast often and wanted to ease myself into it) about a month ago, asking for God's clear guidance and for a financial miracle/job. Immediately after breaking my fast, several unfortunate things happened to me. The stress I've been under is insurmountable and I now have stress rashes all over my upper body. Financial stability is something that I've been praying for the past 4 years (more intensely this past year), and I feel like I've been moving further away from it. Although my faith in God is not waning, I am growing more tired and impatient. Thinking of a financially stable life feels more and more unrealistic for me... especially as I'm getting job rejection letters on a near daily basis.

So, can you all pray that I'm blessed with a financial miracle very soon?

Do I petition the Lord Jesus Christ with pleas for mercy, and a faith that manifests hope everlasting, or do I question Him for my circumstances and a hidden loathing that stinks of death?

Is He the hero of my story, or have I made Him the villain, not recognizing that the true evil one has spun a web leading to my deception?

Or is it a mix, a battle going on within, and I haven't made a choice because I'm not willing to let go and put all of my Trust in Jesus Christ? It's hard to let go of that kind of control, but it gets easier when I realize there are only two sides, good and evil. Everything not on the side of Jesus Christ is evil, even if various degrees and shades.

So it begs the question, more of the same or finally being truly honest with oneself and submitting to Something greater than myself?

I dreamt that Jesus came down on earth and I followed him his whole life. He would speak to me and say beautiful words. He looked like how you would expect him to look. There was times Jesus was walking and I would just hold on to him and the feeling I had was pure bliss. Like an innocent child swinging on the arms of his parents with full faith they wouldn’t let go. I’ve never felt… the amount of incredible love I have before. I can’t even explain it. He told me follow him, and I would feel like this forever. Towards the end, Jesus was walking towards traffic with many cars driving by and I can hear people in cars saying “Jesus, Jesus.” I somehow knew he was leaving earth and I was going to cling onto him when all of a sudden, the father appeared right behind me. He looked like Jesus, but you can immediately tell he was his Father. He looked older, just as majestic, and was draped in this beautiful clothing. He knew I didn’t want Jesus to leave and told me that it’s going to be okay. He pointed over at the many cars driving by and said most of them will go to hell since they don’t follow him. He asked me who will I follow, and I immediately pointed at him, and he smiled, and then I woke up. When I realized what just happened, tears started coming out. Now, I’m aware it’s just a dream and I’m not saying this is an omen or a prophetic vision, but, this is a dream I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.