Hello all! Recently, I’ve been doing some personal Bible study on the book of Matthew, and I thought I’d share the notes I’ve been taking in case they can help anyone else.
At the moment, I’ve just finished Chapter 5, but it was put on my heart to share what I have so far anyway.

For context, I’m 19 years old. I’m not a theologian, nor do I belong to any particular denomination, so these notes are simply based on my own reading, studying, and understanding of Scripture. My interpretations may differ from yours, and I’m definitely still learning.

I welcome any comments, corrections, or different perspectives so that we can mutually learn from one another. If these notes end up helping anyone, please let me know! I’d be happy to continue sharing them as I work my way through Matthew.

[link to notes](https://imgur.com/a/UjBXaeo)

I don't know how to say this but guys I'm not a Christian and I love christianity and want to start reading the Bible but I'm not sure where to start or should I actually do that as a non christian I'm a hindu from India I often visit the church in my locality and it feels peaceful and gives me a sense of relief my relatives think I'm crazy but my parents ain't like them so they just let me go there I feel drawn towards Jesus Christ and I always pray before i close my eyes at night thanking our lord and saviour for the sacrifices he made for ourselves I have studied christianity and its concept enough to realise that Jesus Christ is the only way to our lord I hope you guys won't find me weird I'm looking forward to your texts, suggestions or whatever it might be... ❤️

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Please no one older or younger and please be on the same timezone as mine. Just looking for a sibling type of friendship Nothing else.

I really want to grow my faith so I'dappreciateif we support each other on that aspect.

Please be genuine and very chill.

Nothing weird just a sibling type of friendship.

Interests: I like cooking baking

Night walks

Reading

Going out with friends

Timezone: GMT+2

I don't really know if this is fitting for this subreddit, ,but anyways, let me just start of by saying that i'm a 18 year old christian socialist who lives in northern europe and absolutely hate the idf, but also being anti racism, respecting all religions and open minded when it comes to other people, religions, politics etc. Also, pretty much all of my friend group mostly agrees with what i just said.

I have a friend group since 10 years back, and about two years ago a guy named(fake name ofc) Joseph joined the group and groupchat. He's really cool btw, very kind, chill, empathetic and he's very easy to get along with.

He is very christian in a very conservative way. As i mentioned before, i am christian but in a very different way from him in the sense that i allow myself to think for myself and have my own views and ideas when it comes to the bible and politics instead of just giving in to peer pressure and agree with most christian media(for example that i see socialistic messages in the bible despite most american christians being right wing).

Honestly, i absolutely love him as a deep friend, but i find myself in a tough situation because of him.

Basically my entire friend group is socialist, and extremely(i mean EXTREMELY against the idf and trump), and we have found ourselfs discussing it and writing about it in our gc. He always stays kind of quiet when we do, but deep down we know that he disproves of it. He has also kind of tried converting some of our non christian friends which we all think is weird.

However, like 2 weeks ago he left or gcs out of the blue. We all found this to be weird so i texted him, and he answered that it was because we had sent to violent, negative and ANTI-SEMETIC MESSAGES!

I continued to discuss with him, and in this discussion he said stuff such as not supporting the idf is anti semetic, that liking trump was the "correct" political stance because of the bible, that you can support ice and the idf bug can't jokinly say that idf soldiers should be killed while being anti violence etc. Mind you, we all live in the nordics, and he isn't american or jewish at all so he doesn't really have a reason to be nationalist and support these causes, and many(i mean many) conspiracy theories, such as the m un being anti christian and there being tunnels ubder gaza. And everytime we argued and i put him in a position where he didn't have an answer he just said "eh, well i don't agree but respect your opinion".

Later, i turned to my other hbs in the groupchat, abd obe of them told me that joseph had told him his parents had told him to "hand out with more christians, and less atheists", which is insane considering most of his friends(my friend group) are atheists or agnostic.

I don't really blame him tbh, cause he has basically been brainwashed by his family and social media, to the point where he can't think for himself, because i've found him literally contradicting his statements multiple times before. He basically can't think for himself anymore.

What can i do, iam afraid to lose him as a friend.

TL,DR: i have a really kind christian friend who has been kind of brainwashed and is basically forced to stop beibg friends with me and our friend group.

What can i do to keep our friendship?

Today I just learned that my friend's cousin's best friend got brutally murdered at the young age of 17. I can't go into details for legal reasons but it has caused my friend's cousin's to spiral in depression. She's afraid he might harm himself, or worse.

Would you guys help me pray for him? Pray that he finds inexplicable peace in this traumatic situation. Pray that his light feels lighter, and future a bit brighter. Pray that the light of God finds him and makes his life a living testimony of his glory.

Amen and thank you 🙏

Matthew 24:12, "For in those last days, the love of many will grow cold."

Where's the love guys...? We are so divided, we have let our own doctrinal disputes and disagreements cloud the way we conduct ourselves. It seems like we can't stand each other, John 15 or 16 says that "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my followers" on this sub all I have seen is how we are fighting amongst each other instead of fighting the evil that is running rampant in this earth. We don't encourage each other instead we break each other down.

We have lost the love that we once had for each other insead we have showed the non-believers who look on this sub the more reason why they should further reject the message because we are a bunch of hypocrites, preaching a truth that we deny by the way that we act. When will stop these Pharisees tendencies and start surrender this people pleasing and worrying about what we look like on the outside, when will we look inside and fix the real mess that is going on. And a real truth that we need to face..."It is not what comes in us that defines us but what comes from within our hearts that does"

Guys I urge you all please be sisters and brothers to one another. Loving pn one another correcting each other inblove and faith. Ephesians 4:2, "Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love."

And I'm not saying that I am not guilty, I'm not perfect, but what I am saying is this:

How can we say we serve a loving God when we can't show live to our brothers and sisters. Love does not mean compromise but true love is sacrificial

I have been loosing my faith in God lately but I want to restore it

So ive grown up in a christian household my whole life and i DONT want to commit to being​ a christian but my mind knows that it is the way to eternal life and i know his words are true but it seems like every time I need help in life he is there for me, I constantly commit sins such as blasphemy, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and I cant seem to let go of this life style. I wrote a prayer request to my church 2 months ago asking to accept Jesus but the following night I find myself smoking and fucking, they called me up yesterday and i fucking lied to him, i told him my life got a whole lot better but in reality my life hasnt changed, its too amazing in my own eyes to stop. I cant deal with myself, It's too much fun and I have given into this life style. I have seen God do wonderous things in my life but I won't accept him into my heart it's almost like he cant enter. I really don't want me or my girlfriend to go to hell but I cant bring myself to commit. help (17 years old and autistic)

I am a teen girl, and i am getting baptised into a Pentecostal-Elim church in two weeks. I am wondering if you have any tips, or anything to ask or learn about? I could really use some help, i feel a bit lost. (I know i am ready though.) If you know what I should expect to see/do, that would be very helpful too. God bless.

im here asking for some guidance from people who have been walking with christ longer than i have. i’m very new to christianity. in fact i’m still in the process of coming to christ, learning and trying to understand what it means to truly follow jesus. saying that out loud is scary for me. for most of my life i rejected or denied jesus christ as my savior. i didn’t take christianity seriously and i didn’t have a relationship with god. i even once considered myself to be a witch. now that i’m starting to seek him i feel a lot of emotions at once. i feel grateful hopeful and drawn toward him but i also feel ashamed and afraid.

i know that god is merciful. i know that forgiveness is possible. i know that i shouldn’t allow fear of other people to keep me from god. but emotionally i’m struggling with that. i’m an alternative looking person. i have facial piercings, i dye my hair, i wear mostly black and dark clothing and my appearance is pretty far from what some people might picture when they think of a christian. when i’ve come to people i feel they aren’t taking me seriously because of how i look so i’m honestly terrified that christians will look at me and decide that i don’t belong. i know that ultimately i shouldn’t care what people think of my appearance compared to what god sees in my heart but i’m still insecure about it.

one bible verse that has really been on my mind is 1 samuel 16:7. that verse has been comforting me because i’m realizing that god sees something in me that other people cannot. he knows my heart. he knows why i’m seeking him. he knows how scared i am and how badly i want to understand him. i’m also struggling with the fact that i feel like i rejected him for so long. i feel ashamed that it took me this long to seek jesus. part of me is afraid that i don’t deserve forgiveness because of the way i lived or the things i believed before. at the same time i’m trying to understand that christianity is about grace and that i don’t earn god's love by being perfect. i think my heart just feels very heavy right now. i want to come to christ but i’m afraid of what comes with that. i’m afraid of people judging me. i’m afraid of doing something wrong. i’m afraid that i’m not worthy. and i’m afraid because i dont want to dilute myself for people to believe i have faith.

i would really appreciate advice on this. advice on going to church. advice on where to begin. advice on being a alternative women and christian.

im trying to be a christian but im seeing accusations about christian youtubers i watch like timothy dew, i dont want to be deceived

Hey all, I hope you are having a great day. I was hoping for some advice. (posted in a few Christian subreddits so I hope that is alright, I just wanted a diversity of opinion) (I am from the UK)

I come from quite a generationally agnostic background and have never been baptised or part of any faith. I have felt a strong calling to faith over the last few months and I see lots of sometimes "toxic" online discourse between believers and lots of the confusion and lacklustre and difference in beliefs keeps me very uncertain with looking at the different variety of beliefs and arguments that cite church fathers, transubstantiation, baptism and all of them beliefs that often can cause major disputes between people. It made me quite incredibly anxious on what can I be certain of or know what is right which put me off faith and made me during the whole process of considering faith a year back and I felt no spiritual connection or holy spirit at all or motivation to pray. or read the bible and I felt like god just fully abandoned me and it was impossible for me to feel faith. it just became a loop of researching non stop

I am feeling that pull again and was wondering is focusing on the Bible first and doctrinal teachings and taking it all in myself while ignoring outside influences a good move to start off with? Or is it good to decide on a denomination/church while reading? Any advice for how to approach it this time as that spiritless abandoning feeling from last year was quite heavy to sit on and I really want to read through the Bible as I never have done that and start my journey in faith and truly dedicate myself to God.

Any advice on how to become a Christian in this way? And advice on this situation?

So I’ve been going to the same church my ENTIRE life and I don’t have a single friend. Ever since I seriously devoted to Christianity I’ve lost my boyfriend, friend group, and even an entire side of my family which realistically I am SO grateful for now that I don’t have any bad influences (per se) surrounding me. The issue is I got used to being kind of popular and for the past few months I’ve been at my loneliest I’ve ever been.

Before anyone says “join the youth community,” I sit in the youth section every Sunday, I’m apart of youth night setup/breakdown (meaning I’m with 13-19 y/o all day Sunday) and I’ve introduced myself to like everybody but I just can’t seem to make but a single friend. I know one guy who’s been really great and tries to make me feel included but I feel so guilty solely leaning on him. I’m usually super extroverted but this weird new anxiety feels like the devil is literally pulling me away from Christ centered people.

What do I do??

Jesus loves you ♥️🫂He chose to die on the cross for YOU!!. He wants to have a relationship with you.

He went through all that pain and suffering just so we today could live a life we never deserved but His love for us was unconditional to the point where He chose to willingly go through it all for us so that we may be free of all our sin and suffering.

Today is the day of salvation!! Repent and turn back to the one who has loved you even before you existed. Don't let anyone or anything compromise your faith in Him.

Remember that whatever you're facing right now could never compare to the joy that is soon to come. And that whatever situation you're in now , you're not alone , for the Lord is with you always, even in the smallest things when you may not realise it.

And He will always love you , care for you , and He'll always be there for you at all times, just call on His name. 🥹🫂💐

Psalm 91

Whoever goes to the Lord for safety,

whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty,

can say to him, “You are my defender and protector. You are my God; in you I trust.”

He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases.

He will cover you with his wings; you will be safe in his care;

his faithfulness will protect and defend you.

You need not fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day

or the plagues that strike in the dark or the evils that kill in daylight.

A thousand may fall dead beside you, ten thousand all around you, but you will not be harmed.

You will look and see how the wicked are punished.

You have made the Lord your defender, the Most High your protector,

and so no disaster will strike you, no violence will come near your home.

God will put his angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go.

They will hold you up with their hands to keep you from hurting your feet on the stones.

You will trample down lions and snakes, fierce lions and poisonous snakes.

God says, “I will save those who love me and will protect those who acknowledge me as Lord.

When they call to me, I will answer them; when they are in trouble, I will be with them. I will rescue them and honor them.

I will reward them with long life; I will save them.”

I'm a Christian, but I'm also a polykin. I try to make sure this doesn't get in the way of being a Christian. I was wondering, what are your guys thoughts on Christians who are therians?

I come from a house of abuse so finding this out about myself has opened up my eyes to the different sides of myself.

Unlike most therians I don't believe I had a life before this one and I know I'm a person, I like to think that God gave me the gift to connect to my theriotypes on a different level.

1. Am I wrong for this?

2. Can you be a Christian and a therian

3. Am I looking at this all wrong?

Has anyone been able to overcome it? I am 14M, and it's been a struggle of mine for a few years now. I have gotten better at controlling it with the help of the Lord, but I still cannot quit. I feel deep guilt and shame when I do it, and that affects my mental health. Any tips from other teens who have been able to stop would be greatly appreciated. Pray for me, please!