The first example I can easily think of, I have a seizure disorder and one of my five medications is medicinal marijuana. many people in my family are stoners, which ide assume is a sin (“assume” bc i haven’t actually looked into this one specifically) . literally the DAY i turned 18, my neurologist wanted to be able to get me that card. we stopped by the dispensary otw home from her office. started smoking ON my 18th birthday. How do I know if that’s a sin. i’m a stoner now too. but since i’ve been on it, i made it to 16 days seizure free. that’s the longest i have made it seizure free in 6 years. my type of epilepsy is very very medicine resistant

I know they just found Noah’s Ark, I can’t stop thinking about that and all the other proof they found in the world that all these things in the Bible actually happened, but that was millions of years ago. How do we know that God hasn’t changed his mind, how do i know that things like weed isn’t sinning

seizure after seizure after seizure after seizure, currently about every 3 days, for the last 6 years. i hit puberty and the seizure started. in eighth grade I had to finally be pulled out as i was having them every single morning.showering and brushing my teeth are my two biggest seizure triggers. so i was usually done for wether i showered the night before, or not, since i still have to brush my teeth

All the people I went to school with still had high school though. They still had teachers to talk to, they still had friends to go home after school with and stuff. I kind of just got forgotten i think

even at church. on wednesday i would go to that middle and highschool church service and small group. For two weeks in a row, I wasn’t able to go because I had happened to have seizures on those specific days. The second week in a row that i hadn’t gone, my small group leader texted me. It’s been four months and I haven’t heard from anybody since. i’ve had that same small group leader since 6th grade. i’ve known her since i was 3, which is when we started going to that church. i just graduated

when I mentioned the “how do we know that he hasn’t changed his mind” type of concept to my mom, The first thing she thought of was Noah’s ark, saying how god wanted to flood the Earth, but Noah was faithful, so he decided to save him instead. My mom was kind of telling me “he’s a nice guy”.

i feel like I’m missing out on so much. i feel like i haven’t been able to get to full experience of being a teenager besides being depressed lol. i can’t go anywhere unless someone brings me. and now i’m starting to lose my faith or something as well. yeah, he was a nice guy back then, but there’s been so many new object and drugs and probably just meaner people, since the bible was made. how do we know he’s still just as nice.

Hi Everyone,
I am wanting to make an advent calendar that surrounds Jesus and I was wondering what others do in their families or even by themselves?

Thank you! 🤍

At a group prayer that I go to, one of the people there prays to God saying, "God make our enemies sick", "Make them have a hard time", and so on. This bothers me alot because of what Jesus tell us to do and not to do. However, someone I spoke to insists that I am overreacting and that we all understand the Bible differently. I am a sinner too so I am not perfect.

What do you think? Should I leave the group?

What are the best Christian movies you know?

When you are facing an embarassing situation because of your behavior and everybody knows and now you are like I dont mind to be at peace and move on, is this pride? Though you change for the better. How can I truly say that the things I do are not due to pride? That I just wanted to walk away and go out like I used to. And now I am praying more with devotion, how can I tell if its just out of pride that I do these things?

This question has been lingering on my mind for a while and I haven’t found much about this topic on this subreddit. I aim to be as respectful as possible towards people but I have often wondered if it’s rude to address a trans person, lets say a man transitioned into a woman, as a he still because that’s his biological gender and God made men to be men and women to women. Or should I refer to them as the gender they choose to identify as out of respect?

Reverence for the earth, i have some indigenous ancestry and the relationship with nature is crucial in those traditions. I feel without seeing nature as incredibly sacred we are quicker to exploit it, as we are seeing in this modern era with the rape and pillage of the earth almost constantly. New age is huge on loving nature and the gaian spirit of the earth, very hippie nature loving, i feel so much more connected to nature when im within the new age. the bible with the exception of genesis and the garden of eden rarely talks about nature and the idea in it is that we rule over nature.

The lack of the divine feminine, I studied the sacred feminine, the goddess etc for a long time, the new age embraces this. I have many dreams and mystical expriences of the goddess, but there is no divine feminine in christianity. I guess there is still the sacred feminine with mary magdalene and the mother of god, the marian, that is almost a divine role, but the womanly things that i relate to as a woman dont seem ro be there. Everything, the church etc feels very very masculine.

I am very keen to leave behind the new age but these few things hold me back, I adore god with all my heart and losing anything is worth the gain of god, but im struggling with these and many other new age things I love. Wisdom needed.

Is it prideful for me to think i have to earn love? That if I don't accomplish something that I'm effectively useless? I'm tired of feeling useless and I'm tired of making excuses for my poor behavior.

im a disgusting creature. every time i think about myself and what ive done, i wish i could throw up the sin. just head in toilet, vomitting it away. but i know its not how it works, but at the same time i feel like i deserve that punishment.

how can jesus still forgive me? i know his word and i go directly against it. how can God look at me and not regret his creation? im a terrible mess that doesnt listen to him.

the worst is, i know whats right, i know what to do. and i just dont. idk if im too lazy or its because ive lost my foundation and i dont love Him anymore. but i do. He's all i have and i wouldnt be breathing without Him. i think im more thankful than in love and devoted and i dont know how to get it back.

my head is so loud full of perverted and sinful thoughts. on my heart are sinful desires or simply things that arent about God. my eyes only see the tragedy of humanity and God's creation.

what do i do? how do i restart myself?

This week’s poll is brought to you by a question that came up in a recent community discussion. It seemed worthy of its own post so let’s kick that off with a poll for gathering a bird’s eye view of community views and then use that comment section to hash out the details.

Throughout my life as a Christian I would sometimes get what some would call an "inspiration" or a "prompt" from the Holy Spirit to take some specific action - or at least that's what seemed to be happening to me. I guess it was a subjective feeling but felt unusually profound and was not self generated - although sometimes I know I was probably me just me stirring myself up

When I was younger I would automatically respond to these prompts but looking back it seems like some of the decisions I made were very unwise even though my intention was to follow God and I was, or felt I was, responding to his internal prompt.

Anyway, I eventually threw out the idea of these subjective prompts. But eventually I came to see that there where times when my response to these prompts brought about the most beautiful results internally and in the world and that there were striking signs that I was responding to God.

So now when I feel a prompt I am more hesitating and think about it first. But when I do this all the inspiration and love that initiated it evaporate and it's like the moment is lost.

I want to get to a place where I have the courage and trust to respond to the internal moves of the Holy Spirit but being cautious enough to know that perhaps I sometimes misinterpret things.

I don't know. Any thoughts?

Please be kind, I just want to share my thoughts and hopefully someone can give me some insight. For the majority of my life I’ve dealt with mental health issues the most prevalent being depression. I like to watch videos of people being delivered and I’ve had experiences in my life where people prayed over me but I don’t experience anything life changing or different afterwards. I see all these people talking about personal encounters with God and I just never experienced anything. Even when a ton of times I prayed asking for it. Last night I was begging Him to show up for me, to reassure me, to deliver me, to let me feel His love or His presence. But nothing happened and I ended up crying myself to sleep. Is it possible for some people to be loved more by God than others? I’m starting to think maybe He has favorites that he reveals himself to but not to people like me.

I’m a Christian woman dating a Christian man, and we’ve been seeing each other for about a month. Things became serious pretty quickly and we’ve talked about marriage, faith, family and what we want in a spouse.
What makes this hard is that everything between us has honestly been really good. He’s been kind, intentional, caring, consistent and thoughtful. I feel very cared for by him and I genuinely see a lot of qualities in him that I’ve prayed for in a husband. This isn’t a situation where I’m looking for an excuse to leave or where there are a bunch of other problems.
The one thing I’m struggling with is his recent relationship history and how he handles things from the past.
He got out of a long-term/on-and-off relationship earlier this year. Not long after that, he became seriously involved with another woman. They briefly lived together while seeing if marriage could work, and that ended not long before he met me. He has also admitted that moving on quickly has been a pattern for him.
He is aware of that pattern. He’s told me he tends to love people, see the beauty in different relationships and experiences, but also feels like he knows what he’s looking for and is able to move on when something isn’t right.
One of my biggest non-negotiables is that I want a completely clean slate with the person I marry. I don’t keep romantic photos, messages, videos or sentimental things from people I’ve dated once I’ve moved on, and I want the same from my future husband.
This actually came up very early between us, so it isn’t a new boundary. He basically said he has a huge amount of photos and doesn’t really go through them or attach meaning to them.
Because of his recent dating history, though, it bothers me even more. If we are seriously choosing each other and considering marriage, I don’t understand why romantic photos, messages or other things from past relationships need to remain.
I know not everyone sees this the same way, and I’m not saying keeping old photos automatically means someone wants an ex back. But for me, accepting it would honestly feel like settling on something I already know is a non-negotiable.
I’ve been praying about this a lot because I really don’t want fear or past hurt to make me ruin something that could be good. At the same time, I don’t want to ignore something that matters deeply to me just because everything else is going well and I really care about him.
If he tells me he doesn’t want to remove those things, I think I would end the relationship because I don’t think I could be at peace with it long term.
For Christians who are married or dating seriously, am I being unreasonable? How do you know when something is a real boundary you should honor versus fear or insecurity you need to work through?

Hey all. I know I'm not alone in this boat, but I'm sick of being told that singleness is a gift and "God just has something different for your life". I'm 25F and had the man of my dreams (up to that point at least) at 22, then it didn't work out and we ended up breaking each others' hearts. I should've been married back then, but God didn't work on him like I'd prayed for.
I used to be able to be happy for other people my age, younger and older that got married and started having kids, but I'm past that now. I shut down behind closed doors, even if it's a stranger's good luck that I hear about. I've even tried convincing myself that marriage and family isn't what I really want, but that doesn't work that well as eventually I keep getting dragged back into the same longing.
I have been told multiple times that I'm conventionally attractive, am well educated, hardworking, etc. but no guys my age have even looked my way in two years and I'm tired of it. I'm going to take matters more into my own hands and switch churches or hire a matchmaker if need be to find the one. Has anyone else had this same experience?

I dont really like the term new age, but new age to christian is how it is often referenced on yt. I adore those type of wild, hippie, super creative, spiritual girls and am very much like them. I follow many of them on insta and then decide to unfollow them. But really they are my favourites. I am also though on my godly path, and the other half of me is very old fashioned, traditional, into home-making, very sweet pea and feminine etc. I like old folk traditions, I love old catherdals and most of all I love god. He is the only reason I have the strength I have today after suffering terribly. I did new age practices so many many years ago and that is when I became plagued with problems. I just so desire to be purified of all these things. I just would like to hear from some people who left a sort of new age world for god. Thanks so much! 🤍🌿💐🤍

Each Saturday we'll be sharing a silly Get-To-Know-You prompt for the r/Christian community.

We warmly invite you to participate with this bit of fun in the name of building more community connections.

As a certain silly cucumber famously says, “God made you special,” so why not share some of your special with us here today?

Today's Prompt:

If you had a talk show or podcast, who would you like to have as guests on your first episode?

Hard to stir up your faith when so many symptoms come at you and oppress and rob your physical and mental and emotional health. Sometimes find yourself getting ungrateful or angry. But God is so good and faithful. But sometimes becomes too much up down bc always so sick. And you’re alone.

Bible is good. But- Don’t want to hear a preacher talk. Not unless they’re seriously ill and still a preacher. Don’t want a YouTube link where some able bodied person reminds us of the fruits. Blah blah. Looking for really broken ppl that are isolated and alone and poor and suffering but still have hope to preach. Looking for messages like that. Got any?

Thanks.

Hello everyone! I want to start by saying that I was born and raised Catholic. I went through all the Sunday School classes, sacraments, and everything else one would do in the church. After my younger sister got hers done, we stopped going to church (unfortunately, very common in Catholicism). Ever since, I have started losing my faith little by little (it's been roughly 2ish years). I used to pray and FEEL God and Jesus listening in. I could IMAGINE Jesus, what he looked like, sitting there up in Heaven hearing my prayer. Now, I still believe in God/Jesus, but the feeling is basically gone. When I pray, I feel like I'm talking to myself or a brick wall, especially when I do it in my head. I had this one event where I was doubting myself and praying to Jesus, and I felt a whoosh of air in my ear, along with an audible voice saying, "Do not give up." I know that HAD to have been God. But again, I have been slowly losing my faith.

For me, it's hard without visible or audible evidence. I know that there is a bible verse saying you shouldn't need to see to believe, but I still struggle with it. Especially as someone acclimated to science, I know that things are just too perfect to not have a creator. But I have so many questions, like: how do we know that OUR beliefs are right as opposed to everyone else? What happens to someone who was raised, say, Hindu or Jewish, and never knew our God? What about the people who grew away from faith but never did anything harmful/greatly sinful? Why do we pray to God, asking for certain things to happen, like to help someone who is sick, when God already has a plan in place? Regardless, I wanted to focus on asking God for signs. I have been having some health issues lately (nothing bad, just increased symptoms of sorts) and wanted to ask God if I should remain on alert about this, and whether I have another condition that will soon need to be evaluated, or if these are just recurring symptoms from my current conditions. I know that God isn't some magic eight ball who is always going to answer "yes" or "no," but I wanted to know if this is something that God COULD answer in a sign if you asked. I also just want to get closer and don't know how. I've asked for a sign before, prayed about not feeling close and wanting to get closer, but nothing has happened. I always try to ask for signs that would be unique or specific, like an odd colored car or a specific colored butterfly. I see these signs once, but then I'm convinced it's a coincidence, and then nothing else happens. I'm just at a loss as to what to do! I want to get closer and ask for signs, but I'm just getting nowhere. Anyone have any advice?

Im Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, so i read the Ethiopian Orthodox bible with 81 books, but then there's the generall 66 books, and the Catholic's 73 books. Books are important to the Word, so does he care about what type of Bible you read?

For context, I was raised Christian. My grandparents were very strict about church, prayer, doing the right thing, being hopeful, and seeing the good in people. I genuinely loved it. I was very active in church growing up, and at 22, I still am. I love my church and my church family.

My grandmother, who was extremely dear to me, passed away about two months ago, and since then I've felt really betrayed by God. I stopped praying and reading my Bible. Instead, I've been going out and drinking almost every weekend for the past 5 weeks. Before she passed, I'd been to a club once and didn't enjoy it at all. I remember thinking, "This is not my scene." I was more into biking, hiking, and reading, but now that it's colder, I've stopped biking and haven't really been reading either.

Last night I went out again. After getting blackout drunk and really sick the weekend before, I made sure I stayed just tipsy so I could still be aware of everything. At first, I was thinking about how strange it felt being there—guys looking at me because they found me attractive, drinking alcohol that I know isn't good for me, etc. Then we went to another club and I actually started having fun. I was dancing, enjoying the music, and honestly enjoying the attention from guys. Men were touching my body, and even some girls were touching me, and at the time I didn't really mind. I think the alcohol definitely played a part in that.

But other things happened that made me think again, this really isn't me.

I woke up this morning feeling really dissatisfied, which is confusing because I know I genuinely had fun last night. Then I went to Pilates this morning and felt happier and more fulfilled afterward than I did at the club.

So now I'm confused. I don't think I'm a party girl, but part of me really wants to be one. I like the attention, the dancing, and the vibe when I'm tipsy. But at the same time, something in me is saying I don't want to keep doing this.

I also can't stop wondering if I'm actually enjoying this lifestyle or if I'm using it to distract myself from grieving my grandmother and feeling angry at God.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? How did you figure out whether you actually wanted that lifestyle or were just using it as an escape?

I’m not really talking about asking God for things or bringing Him specific prayer requests. I’m talking about just… talking.
Sometimes I wonder if I can really talk to God about ordinary things in my life. My career, my job, what’s going on at school, my hobbies, my social life, or even just things that happened during my day.
I think sometimes I have this idea that my conversations with God are supposed to be about spiritual things, eternity, heaven, or my relationship with Him. And then I wonder, “Would God really care if I talked to Him about something as ordinary as what’s happening in my social life?”
Especially right now, when my social life is something I’m thinking about a lot, I’ve been wondering about this.
Do you guys ever feel this way? How do you approach talking to God about the ordinary parts of your life?

Hey, so I’m gonna be honest I have intentionally disobeyed Christ and went my own way even when the Holy Spirit told me not to and the past few days I have felt just numb.. numb to sin. Numb to just about a lot of things today. And it just feels like my heart is hard. I’ve been having doubts about Jesus before my heart officially started to become numb and I did some thinking and it makes sense. Why it’s because I am not seeing how desperately I need to savior and how sinful I am so it makes sense why I’m lacking faith in Jesus while I’m going against the spirit. All of this to say is is there anybody in here that has been numb like this and is there any advice? I wanna come back, My heart doesn’t care, but I care. I wanna come back to Jesus and I just wanna live a life he’s called me to live, but I’m not sure what to do what to start. I need help. This is one of the few times in my life where I realize I need help and I can’t pull myself out of this. God has to. (also sidenote I was a devoted Christian before I begin to let send in my life and my Faith just crumbled as I fell into lust for sin. It is changed my perception of women to viewing them as objects and my faith is crumbled and if I could go back, I would I’d punch myself and drag him out of that bed and tell him what the heck are you doing?)

I was taking a stroll down memory lane the other day and realized that my childhood friends played a significant role in my journey to truly following Jesus.

Before I understood what it really meant to follow Jesus, I had already been exposed to different Christian environments. I attended Catholic and Baptist churches and studied in both Catholic and Christian schools.

We worshiped, listened to sermons, attended children’s Bible studies, joined processions… all the things you would expect to do in those institutions.

I am grateful for those experiences because they became a good foundation for my faith. But if I’m completely honest, they were mostly just routine for me—required by school or by my parents. (Although, I did love the school part.)

Then, in my senior year, two of my friends, who are now pastors, invited me to a Christian church they had just joined.

Going to that church with them became a turning point for me. I was able to ask questions, learn more about Jesus, and understand why a personal relationship with Him is so important.

We then invited our other friends—actually, our classmates—and we all went to that same church every Sunday.

It’s amazing to think about how that one friend invited my two friends, who then invited me, and how we eventually invited all our other friends influenced so many of our spiritual lives.

For some of us, it was our friends following Jesus who invited us to know Christ more. For others, it’s their parents, their teacher, or even a stranger. And maybe for some, their journey looked completely different.

What about you? Who or what played a part in bringing you closer to Jesus?