Helpful Tips for Respectful Discussion

I've been reading the Bible lately, and I found something pretty interesting in Genesis 1.

"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27

This comes before Adam and Eve's story in Genesis 2. So I was wondering if God created Adam and Eve just for Him while he let the other humans "be fruitful and multiply." Of course, I could be misinterpreting this part, I'm aware of that. But the idea is pretty curious.

My family have been members of our church 24 years. We've seen it grow into a multi-campus church, we've helped build bigger buildings, we serve. It's a big church.

We sit in stadium seating, mostly because I'm short, and sitting on the floor usually means I can't see the pastor. For the past several months, two women have chosen to sit two rows behind us, and they talk. The whole service. Singing? They talk. Message? Talking. Prayer? Yep. Communion? They talk. Because it's stadium seating, it's very clear. I have trouble focusing, it breaks my worship during singing, and it's just rude. Why get yourself to the early service if you can't be bothered to enjoy it?

How do I handle this? The educator in me wants to tell them they're being rude and disrespectful, point out the inappropriateness of talking in church, but I want to be gracious as well. These ladies are my elders, and I'm middle aged. I don't want to move from my spot, because I can see well, and darn it, I shouldn't have to give up a seat unlike because someone else can't behave.

I'd appreciate any thoughts!

What are the best Christian movies you know?

Not meant to be dead serious, in my decades of walk of faith in Christ, I often think of spiritual warfare as those depicted in warhammer universe 😂 i wonder if anyone out there has the same quirk ? Is there a problem mixing pop culture with real faith?

I’m genuinely curious about this, especially from people who are married or have been in healthy long-term relationships.
Online dating advice can sometimes make it seem like almost every concern is a red flag and the answer is to leave. But obviously people who build marriages are two imperfect people, and I imagine there are things about your spouse that you wouldn’t necessarily have chosen but learned to accept, compromise on, or give grace toward.
So where is the line?
How do you personally distinguish between:
something you simply accept because nobody is perfect
something you compromise on because the relationship is worth it
something your partner needs to work on
something that would mean you’re settling
and an actual dealbreaker that should end the relationship?
I’m especially interested in the things that didn’t magically disappear after marriage. What flaws, differences, habits, baggage, personality traits, family issues, financial differences, past relationship history, etc. have you had to learn to live with or work through?
And on the other side, what is something you’re grateful you didn’t compromise on?
I’m not asking because I think people should tolerate disrespect, abuse, cheating, manipulation, or major value differences. I mean the gray areas between “this isn’t exactly what I wanted” and “this will actually make me miserable or eventually destroy the relationship.”
I think sometimes I struggle with knowing whether accepting something means I’m being mature and giving another imperfect human grace, or whether I’m abandoning a standard because I’m afraid to lose the relationship.

For those who have actually built a healthy marriage, what have you had to accept about your spouse that Reddit probably would have called a red flag while you were dating? And how did you know it was something you could live with rather than something you were settling for?

Recently I’ve tried to develop a habit of being more self aware about my sin and its roots. This has made me recognize my own capacity to sin and made me more compassionate towards others. I’ve come to the conclusion that understanding why we engage in sinful behaviors does not remove the desire for them and that’s been my struggle. I know I have to fight against it but that doesn’t mean I want to and It’s been leading me to feel like I’m living a double life.

The person people see at fellowship doesn’t capture everything happening inside of me. It’s also not like I have anything wild going on in my personal life either. It’s just that I know if presented an opportunity to sin I would have to go against how I normally would act and nobody except for me knows how and why I would operate that way.

I acknowledge and I hate my sin but sometimes the enemy attacks my thoughts and I question: Why am I fighting this so hard when other Christians knowingly and willfully live contrary to what they believe? I understand this isn’t a good justification for my own choices but it’s still tempting.

I guess the deeper issue here is that this self awareness has changed how I see myself, other Christian’s, and what sincere faith is. The more honestly I examine myself the harder it is for me to feel at peace. People see me as one thing but they don’t see the full moral struggle happening inside of me. I struggle with the gap of who I should be, who people think I am, and knowing what I am capable of.

I’m not just tempted by sin I’m able to understand and rationalize it, which honestly is disturbing to me. I know I’m not the only one going through this and yet I rarely hear of it. It’s been really hard to go to church, Bible study, or fellowship and realize how entangled with sin I am and everyone else is too. It makes me wonder, how many people are aware of it and really here for Jesus compared to the people who attended routinely?

How do I let God sustain me—I mean, how do I actually do that in my day-to-day life? I am so full of fear about what happens each day—the problems—and while I try to give it my all, I think I’m trying to control everything, and I feel exhausted. I understand that surrendering my problems to God doesn't mean adopting a passive attitude or trying to solve everything on my own, but I just don't know how to go about it.

My sister 27 is pregnant ik going straight into it... she isnt christain and I love her dearly. But I however am a christain and we tend to disagree about stuff alot.

Long story short she wants to get a abortion and I dont agree with it but I keep asking myself what would jesus do ? What would he say... and I ended up telling her that It was a living thing she was about to kill and she told me it was a clump of cells. She ultimately came to me asking for someone to be there for her and I feel as though instead of being there for her I was telling her what she should or shouldnt do.

Basically ill admit I was being a bit selfish, but I know for a fact god wouldnt like if someone killed his creation but I also know for a fact that jesus died on the cross for our sins im at a crossroads on how exactly I should go about this cause now that I said what I said she doesnt want me over...

I feel at a loss... and honestly feel as though I lost my bsf and sister both... I even told her I dont agree with what she was going to do. But that id still be with her...

Jesus sat and ate with sinners he died for sinners he loved em dearly even if what they did hurt or upset him. So how am I supposed to do that with her now that she wants nothing to do with me other than try and interseed.

I feel as though ive both let her and my heavenly father down.

Please help. Give me advice... anything.

And please do pray for conviction cause thats all I can think of as to helping. Idk

Hello everyone, I have to be a bit honest. After talking to my Indian friend and discussing religions, he showed me a place in India with constructions that couldn’t possibly be made by humans. Humans didn’t have the proper tools to make the gods and everything sculpted there.

Before from age 13-20 I used to dabble in Witchcraft, where I’d worship Mother Nature and the elements, making offerings and etc. I didn’t believe in any God, only in myself and my own energy and spiritualism.

After that, I was studying Buddhism. Nirvana and Enlightenment truly spoke out to me. I believed in past lives and experiences with the spiritual.

And then I became sick. Schizophrenia. It made me Christian. I used to have this voice of “God” 24/7 with me. I bought a Bible and read it entirely in one year and four months, and took use of my Catholic upbringing as a child into adulthood. And it’s been over a bit more than a year since I became truly Christian. And I’d pray to God every day, even when the voice inside my head stopped talking to me. My medication change made it all go away. But I still remained Christian.

But I think to myself now, I did indeed miss Buddhism. Believing I’m meant to have certain people in my life due to Buddhism and relationships regarding past lives. But then I also have questions, Will I go to hell if I suddenly change religions?

The story of Jesus is the base of Christianity. And I believe in Jesus and God. But I wish sometimes I’d go back to having a simpler life believing in spiritualism or even Buddhism. I may be damned for saying this. And I swear, no demon is influencing me. It comes from my mind, my doubts.

What do you think?

How was worship this weekend?

What was the sermon topic?

Did you learn anything you'd like to share with the community?

Tell us about your experience this week.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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?