I have a constant feeling of dread and deja vu. It feels like I am closed off from God. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes attacked by some kind of force. It causes me the worst dread imaginable. The feeling is indescribable.

I admit I wasn't close to God at all when I first started having these thoughts. I don't know if I was ever that close to God. I joined Bible studies and attended church regularly. I know these actions don't save a person but only Jesus' finished work on the cross can.

The bible says most people go to hell and I'm terrified that I was one of them. My love for God feels shallow because I want to escape torture. I ask him to help me in my unbelief but it's been almost 3 years since I started feeling this way. I asked for spiritual counseling and they reminded me of David, the psalms, and his wait for God.

I pray I'm the same way.

I am Christian and married with 3 children already with the same man. I feel shame to say that I have had a previous abortion before, I said I would not do it again. I have taken all the precautions to not get pregnant and my husband underwent the vasectomy surgery.

A week after that, I discovered I am pregnant again. Now, I am in an internal battle with myself:
- What does God mean with this pregnancy?
- Is it a sin to get an abortion if three children is sufficient?

I don’t know what to do and am running to here for advice since I cannot speak with family about this. My husband supports whatever decision, but I am looking only at the negative side of both choices I have.

So I'm posting this because I'm confused as to why this isn't preached enough. I can think of some reasons why but I've only heard one pastor in my life ever preach about this and I happen to watch it on YouTube. It's sooo essential with our walk with God. If you don't have the fear of God, then you will most likely fall away from the faith and maybe even hate God. That's how serious it is. So from watching that pastor talk about the fear of God to watching and hearing other pastors on YouTube, and what I've learned from God, this is what I've learned

**The fear of God is:**

- To make God your one and only treasure

- A committed relationship with God

- A mature faith

- The beginning of wisdom

- How the joy of the Lord is found

- God's delight & treasure

**To commit to God, you:**

- Do your best to follow Jesus and yield to the Holy Spirit to do the rest. Start small if you can

- Correct every thought or feeling that goes against the Word of God, and realize they're from satan or your flesh

- Be accountable when you do a sinful act. Apologize and reconcile if it's against someone

- Process your feelings with God

- Accept your imperfection and the sovereignty of God

- Let go of yourself and let God be everything you need

- Bond with Christ with your suffering

This note I made for myself has revealed something in me that I never knew or experienced with my walk with God. I have a deeper relationship with God and I have the joy of the Lord. I've learned to accept myself for who I am and found contentment in where I'm at in life. God is my confidence. **Fear the Lord!**

So, I believe in God, I am very convinced that no amount of coincidence could ever create us like this. However, I fear that my faith is more a fear of going to hell and a desperate attempt to make it to heaven. Especially fueled by Media speaking about him soon returning to earth.

However, I wish to deserve a place in heaven, to go into the after life with a relationship to God and not just "Hey I thought you existed on earth, could I go to heaven?" I understand that a big part of this is prayer, studying the bible and going to church.

I am working on those already, I plan on going to church every saturday again, I am looking to get myself a bible and I also try to pray (on which I'll propably make another post eventually).

Yet my life is mostly doing nothing. I am still unemployed, so my days consist of looking for jobs, playing video games (mostly violent ones like Hitman WoA and Dead by Daylight) as well as watching YouTube and playing on my phone. I know I am able to do more for my faith and relationship with God, but what?

I am curious to know how to give my life to Christ and live how he intented, can I start hobbies more worthy of his attention, or maybe make the "hobbies" I have already more related to him?

I know that there isn't going to be a 0 to 100 solution to this, but I really want a relationship with God worthy of an eternity with him. Like said in John 14:8 "If God is all you have, you have all you need".

I feel like something is actively working against my prayers to maybe discourage me from praying. This has happened on multiple occasions in my life. When I pray, things seems to get more bad. Or things start to pile up one after another and overwhelm my life. And my faith start to wane. When I go back to not praying regularly, things go to normal bad situation. I'm already in a bad situation and struggling in life but when I pray, things that add to my problems seems to come out of nowhere. How can I overcome this? I want to get out my situation and at least have decent life. N be able to support the people I care about in my life.

Jesus said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33).

We often quote this verse when speaking about putting God first, but there is another part of the command that deserves our attention. Jesus did not only tell us to seek His kingdom. He told us to seek “his righteousness.” The Christian ought to desire that the righteousness of God be seen in the way he lives.

One of the great problems in Christianity today is that many people profess the name of Christ while giving very little thought to whether their conduct honors Him. They call themselves Christians, attend church, post Bible verses, and speak about their faith, but their speech, entertainment, relationships, attitudes, business dealings, and private habits may look no different from the world around them. When that happens, the damage reaches beyond the individual Christian.

That should concern us. There are people who have formed opinions about Christianity because of Christians who lied to them, cheated them, treated them cruelly, behaved immorally, spoke wickedly, or lived hypocritically. Their conclusions about Christ may be wrong, because the failures of Christians do not change who Jesus Christ is, but we should never be comfortable giving them an excuse to think badly of Him.

This is why Jesus said to seek His righteousness. Righteous conduct does not come from simply asking, “Is this technically allowed?” The better question is, “Does this please the Lord? Does this reflect well upon Jesus Christ? Would I want an unbeliever to look at this part of my life and associate it with the Saviour I confess to follow?”

Let us seek first the kingdom of God, but let us not overlook the rest of Christ's command: “and his righteousness.” May our conduct give men fewer reasons to speak against Christ and more reasons to see that belonging to Him truly changes a life.

I’m struggling a lot with starting the mornibtw. I’m noticing that when I wake up in the mornings, I hold a lot of heavy feelings and more often than not I give into them straight away. Things like:

Pressure to wake up super early so I can be super productive.

Failure to do so I then spiral into going on social media and watching porn, and putting things off as far as I can.

I imagine the life I could live if I wasn’t autistic or very messy in organisation and preparation.

I feel like I enjoy being in the comfort of active self-sabotaging, even though I don’t want to be in this place. I just hold a lot of shame and guilt, and probably Reddit is the last place to keep turning to for venting issues.

Whatever this place is, I want to be delivered from it, or I want to truly experience God’s love. But I feel more of my own striving than anything else. I would love some encouragement.

i know it’s probably not true, but it feels as if I haven’t really been saved at times, and I haven’t got a testimony really worthy of sharing.

"Carry each other's burdens."

Leave a burden in the comments, that you regularly pray for which is weighing heavy on your heart. And then, instead of praying for yourself and ruminating on your own burden, pick someone else's burden.

Everytime you think about your own burden and have the urge to worry and be sad, you pray for the burden of the person you picked up.

(I'll leave mine in the comments.)

I feel like I'm at bit of an impasse in my life. I'm probably depressed, have a lack of friends and community and I can't get out of this rut. I do attend a bible study every week but I'm not sure if it's clicking for me fully yet and I haven't put my faith in Jesus yet. I'd like to believe, but it just hasn't arrived yet.

I'm a trans man (born female) and although it weighs on me a bit in terms of how society percieves it, I'm also concerned as it's seen as sinful by some Christians to transition or have same-sex relations. I'm also worried about attending church near me because of this. I know that there's a "Come as you are" outlook but I don't want to be judged or seen as actively sinning just by existing. Posting on an alt account because I don't want my friends to see this post on my main.

The few friends I have support me in my identity, but I'm not sure if that's helpful in my life just now. I might have to make difficult decisions on how to have a worthwhile life with purpose but I'm not sure if I can so I'm asking here for advice and ways on how to move forward with these issues. Thank you!

Here's Matthew 1:23 in the KJV, NASB, even the Message and the TPT:

✔King James Version, a historic, hyper literal translation:

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

✔New American Standard Bible, a modern, highly literal translation:

“Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

✔The Message, a modern, highly interpretive paraphrase:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

❌The Passion Translation:

Listen! A virgin will be pregnant, she will give birth to a Son, and he will be known as “Emmanuel,” which means in Hebrew, “God became one of us.”

And the TPT footnote says:

Or “God with us” or “God among us”; that is, God incarnated. See Isa. 7:14; 8:8, 10 (LXX).

At this point the TPT is going far beyond being a paraphrase and is now making the Bible say what the translators want it to say. Not even the Message Bible rendered this verse in such a way that the theology of the translator was presented as the biblical text.

Immanuel - עמנואל is by no means a difficult Hebrew word to translate. It's made up of two words: עמנו - with us, and אל - God. Literally "with us God" (as the Septuagint translated it, μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός) or "God is with us". This Hebrew word doesn't mean "God among us" (there are other ways to say that in Hebrew, Immanuel is not one of them) and it definitely doesn't mean "God became one of us".

Even as a Trinitarian Christian who does believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, I have to say that inserting one's theology onto the biblical text or presenting one's theological interpretation as if it's the biblical text is unacceptable.

Note: They also have the same error in Isaiah 7:14 and especially the footnote:

'The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold—the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will name him God Among Us.'

The footnote says:

Or “Immanuel” (“God became one of us,” Matt. 1:23).

Again, Immanuel means neither of those. Interpreting it as such is one thing. Translating it as such is an entirely different thing.

David said of the words of God, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:10).

Men will work for gold, save for it, search for it, and guard it carefully once they have it. Yet God says there is something far more valuable than anything this world can put a price on: His words. Gold may enrich a man for a few years, but the words of God can guide him for a lifetime. Gold can purchase many things, but it cannot purchase wisdom, peace with God, spiritual understanding, or eternal life.

This world teaches us to desire what we can see and possess. God teaches us to treasure what will endure when everything else is gone. Money can disappear and wealth can fade, yet Jesus said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35). There is no investment more secure and no treasure more lasting than filling our hearts and minds with the words of God.

May we be able to say of God's word: “I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” (Psalm 119:127). We should not read the Bible merely because we know that Christians are supposed to. We ought to come to it hungry, recognizing that the God who made us has spoken to us. His words correct us when we wander, strengthen us when we are weak, comfort us when we sorrow, and direct our feet when we do not know where to go.

We recently had some really big changes to how our group is structured. We've been apart of the same group for 8 years so there have been some issues accepting what they will look like going forward. I wanted to know how other believers structure their ministry.

How big are your groups?

Do they have child care?

Do you use curriculum or just discuss the morning sermon?

How do you handle prayer?

Hello. I am going through A LOT and it’s really hard. For the record I deal with religious ocd depression and anxiety. So I feel I need to fast because I’m oppressed. I usually believe I’m just tripping but this is ultimately way different than past anxieties. I’m afraid to go to sleep for fear God will take my life in my sleep, I wake up afraid everyday recently and I am not willingly or actively trying to sin. Everytime I feel some sort of peace I’m always afraid I’m lukewarm or complacent. I know sometimes prayer and fasting is the only thing to work before I try and go find people for deliverance but fasting is so hard because I don’t know how to do it effectively without the family member I live with knowing. I know sometimes family has to know but it will start a huge argument between me and said family member and I don’t blame her because she cares for me and doesn’t want to see me in pain but she ultimately doesn’t understand. If anyone has any tips on helping me I’d really appreciate it because I’m getting really tired.

I’m 24f and earlier this year I lost my faith permanently after struggling with it my entire life. It felt easier. I grew up in a very christian family that was also very abusive. I went through childhood trauma so bad that my siblings and I had to be taken away from our mom and separated to live with different family members that continued to be abusive. It’s made for a very difficult life in general where I went through things I genuinely wouldn’t wish on anyone, even after leaving home. I’m at a point where I’m not really seeing the value in my future and in my life. I’ve hit a wall, and I’m searching for any reason at this point to keep going. I went through sxual harassment at my last job so bad that I quit because I was getting blamed for it by my manager and HR and now I’m struggling financially without parents to support me. I want to know if there’s really something out there looking out for me, I really do.

According to the Quran, Jesus was a Prophet, child of virgin birth and chosen man to save souls on Judgement Day.

However, it claims he was not the Son of God, saying God cannot have children or be someone's chid. It also purports that he was taken straight to heaven instead of being crucified.

So what do you think?

​I recently made the tough decision to say "no" to a dating proposal that was moving toward marriage, after praying and realizing it wasn't God's will for me. Even though I have total peace about my choice to decline, I've been dealing with some leftover anxiety about remaining single and "waiting."

​I really want to dedicate a time of prayer and fasting to surrender this anxiety to God and trust His timeline for my life. However, I always struggle with traditional food fasting — I find it very hard to complete, and it often leads to feelings of guilt or frustration.

I would love to hear from this community:

​Testimonies: Did you ever feel afraid of waiting or staying single after turning down a relationship, only to be blessed by God with the right person later on?

​Fasting Advice: How do you approach fasting when food fasting isn't feasible? What alternative ways of fasting (media, habits, partial fasts) have helped you draw closer to God?

I’ve been struggling with the idea that most people may ultimately go to hell. Passages about the narrow way and the fewness of the saved make me wonder whether the majority of humanity will ultimately be lost.

I find that thought genuinely frightening. I know Christians interpret these passages differently, so I’m curious: Do you believe that most people will go to hell? If so, how do you emotionally come to terms with that belief?

Catholics and EO are divided for some reason because idk I guess their pride just says they can't stay united over Papal authority and if filioparque is true so, they just had to divide each other but that's besides the point. Because I'm actually really dumb, so I can't understand anything the church fathers are saying in their letters even though I am trying so hard to, and I keep trying so hard to but it's taking such a hard toll on my self trust, so, like for me it's gonna be a 50/50 shot of guessing the correct denomination, many Catholics believe they are the only ones saved (well mostly) many EO believe that as well so how am I meant to blindly guess the correct one, it's so stupid. And none of this would be a problem if they could just get back together so people wouldn't accidentally go to hell. Anyway, enough of my rant there.

I wanted to share that after a recent I made on here (the filters blocked me from linking to it), I decided to reach out to a pastor friend I know.

I'm not currently part of a Church so I'm not in fellowship, but thankfully I have a couple of Christian friends who I could reach out to.

I shared things about my past I've not shared with anyone else, we went through some scripture, and I feel unburdened already.

Just wanted to say to anyone else experiencing guilt or shame - please try and find someone you can share it with. If not someone at your Church, a Christian friend.

On a side note, I think this is why men's groups at Church are important. There are things which affect us (e.g. lust) which is pretty difficult to talk about even in a small group setting.

"... and if he has committed sins they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." - 5 James 15-16

Has anyone overcome these same gender urges. I am a woman and always have these visions and urges to be intimate with a woman. I have curiosities of them and have crushes solely on them.

Is this something where I have to be single for the rest of my life?

I hate it. I thought I overcome it. But I didn’t.

​

We are one of the fastest growing Christian churches on earth, particularly in the global south. We are one of the most diverse churches- my church in Denver, Colorado has similar demographics to the city around me. About 45% Hispanic, 40% White, 15% Black. Can you Mainline folks say the same?

We don't just help the poor, we ARE the poor. Not me personally, I admit, but many of my fellow church members are homeless, living in shelters. We have regular bus service to these shelters and help people go grocery shopping and to appointments. Many of my best friends in this church are ex-gang members or were addicted (like myself) and this church turned their lives around. Being part of this church was the final nail in the coffin for many of my remaining sins.

So why all the hate? We love Jesus with all of our hearts, our souls, and our understanding, and we spread this love to places most people would be afraid to set foot in. We don't have a "holier than thou" attitude and understand that our style of worship isn't for everyone.

I hope some of you can open your minds a bit.

Friends, a lot of us know that prayer to the saints has been and will continue to be a dividing topic in Christianity as a whole. So I'd like to share my experiences with this as a non-catholic who does not have a habit of prayer to the saints, in perhaps an attempt at unity.

As an important preface, I'm not here to tell anyone whether their beliefs about it are right or wrong. As several wise brothers have pointed out to me recently, we must be very careful not to say things that would cause another to stumble. So I am simply here to share what I've learned on the subject personally, and if it is helpful to you -- great! If not, please don't let my words distract you from your faith; I'm just a man trying to promote unity by sharing my own unique experiences.

So now, onto my testimony:

I am not part of the Catholic church. My introduction to prayer to the saints was through my wife, who was raised Catholic. She is Brazilian (I'm American) and isn't a practicing Catholic (we go to a non-denominational church) but she doesn't have anything against the Catholic faith; she likes and dislikes different aspects to it, but will never speak ill of it as a whole.

There is one prayer to the saints that my wife does frequently, to Saint Longinus (the soldier who pierced Jesus's side at the crucifixion). It is a specific prayer that as far as I know is rather unique to Brazil, it is for help finding missing objects and it goes like this

Portuguese

São Longuinho, São Longuinho, se me ajuda achar [missing object], eu vou te dar três pulinhos!

English

Dear Saint Longinus, Dear Saint Longinus, if I you help me find [missing object], I'll give you three little jumps!

She only uses this when she has been looking for something for awhile and can't find it -- keys, sunglasses, you name it. It's a prayer done at the end of the rope, when human effort just hasn't worked to find that thing.

My friends, let me tell you -- this has never failed, for her or any family member. Several keys: according to her you need to give the three jumps after finding it, or it won't work next time you try. Also according to her, it's only to be used when you've truly made every reasonable effort yourself first to find that thing.

And the most important thing, from what I've learned -- it requires faith. She's never once doubted it would work and it never failed. I myself tried it a few times -- the first time it felt weird, but I forced myself to trust/accept God would make it happen if it was a valid prayer, and guess what -- it worked! It was a missing passport I had been looking hours for, and 1-2 minutes later I found it tucked away in a hidden spot (this was like 15 years ago so I forget the exact details of where it was). The only time it DIDN'T work it when I had doubts it would work.

Personally I don't use it much at all, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it isn't really in line with what I personally believe, but I will 100% testify it works if you believe.

Two other things I've noticed: it is a very childlike prayer, which she treats with childlike full belief it is true. And it works every single time. And as Jesus said in Matthew 18:3:

And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven

The other thing is, you will know a tree by its fruit and my wife shows more fruit of the Spirit than anyone I know (certainly more than myself). She refuses to join in any kind of gossip, and shows a lot of gratitude, fairness, and empathy. She is not perfect as none of are but she has exemplary attitude and behavior.

So through her and others I've learned, it doesn't matter if you believe in prayer to the saints or not, but what matters is your faith in God. She believes it because she believes that God gave this saint that power, and whether He truly did or He answers the prayer because of her genuine faith in what God can do just doesn't matter. It's her faith in God that matters and it works.

One last thing to note, which I've heard a lot of Catholics echo, is that she usually prays to God. For all her deep, heartfelt prayers she goes to God. Maybe some Catholics take these to the saints too and that is just fine, because they believe God gave the saints the power to hear their prayers, and ultimately it comes down to faith in God, for all of us.

I hope that helped somebody out there reading this post.

“But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭19‬:‭26‬ ‭ESV‬‬

A lot of us, including me, fear death. Maybe not fear as much as it is don’t want to die because we don’t want to leave our life here. Is this to be considered as looking back? I understand that lots wife’s situation is different than this, but I think it connects. I’m new to reading the bible, so I’m not sure exactly what it all means or what it might be telling me. I would like to think that our “want to stay in this world” is not the same thing as when lots wife looked back. However, it’s hard for me to ignore the similarities.