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I am new here. However, far from being "unsaved trash," I am trash that has been filled and redeemed by the Holy Spirit of God. I have been so for the last seven years of my life. I have been studying the Bible for this entire time, but academically for the past few months. I am currently going a step beyond the King James Bible, taking it upon myself to study and learn ancient Greek and Hebrew, so I can read the original scripts.
The vast majority of my life was spent not knowing Christ. Then, seven years ago, I was blessed enough to witness several people, who had previously made my life likenable to Hell, become transformed by the power of Christ. The change that took place in them caused me to, over time, realize there was something more going on than merely my eyes could see. I dug into the Word and found it to be (of course) true, and after receiving some help breaking through the last vestiges of doubt in my mind, I broke free and became a slave to Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior.
Since that day, my own life has been radically transformed. I came to know what true joy is. For the last seven years, God has not stopped using me to change the lives of others around me.
Recently I met a young lady who had just discovered, after living in sin for over five years, she had become pregnant. Yet, instead of condemning her, I showed her an example of the love that Christ showed me in dying for me, offered her advice to not abort her child, but instead to marry her "boyfriend." She is now a believer, and a happy mother and wife.
I have aided in efforts to feed the hungry in my local community, and have witnessed a radical multiplication of resources in this endeavor. Words cannot describe the look on a poor widow's face as one enters their door with a basket of food, as she describes how she's down to her last $20, and has baked a loaf of bread with the intent of making it last a full day.
And roughly a year ago, I witnessed a miraculous healing.
My own father suffered a severe stroke. Four clots, three in the brain stem, and one in the lacunar artery that feeds the parietal lobe. For one week he was on life support, because the part of his brain that controls automatic breathing was destroyed. The doctors said he most likely would never come off the machines.
But I prayed, more fervently, more assuredly, than anything I've ever prayed about before. My dad is not a Christian, and I know that it is God's will that none should perish, but that all would come to repentance, and I know that if I had more time to talk to my dad, this might come about with him. So I prayed, not merely hoping, but knowing that God would move, and he did.
After sending me, through a series and a course of random events, Isaiah 49:15 (which, consequentially, is now my favorite verse), and my former pastor preaching on that verse the very next day, the next time I visited my dad, he was able to greet me with a "hello," completely free of any machines.
I am grieved by social injustice, by idolatry, and by people faking at rituals to make it appear as if they love God. I do not hate the people that partake. I am grieved by their actions. And so, I act in love to change these situations.
Before I was a Christian, I was a mess. I junior high, I was at a point where I nearly wanted to end my own life. Coming out of that, it is my current mission to become a youth pastor and help as many kids out of the hole I found myself in all those years ago. I believe without a doubt that this is my calling, my purpose.
I realize this entire website is devoted to one massive effort for I am retarded, and I am not here to fight that. I realize the Church at large has had a great many failings in its history, and a great many of the points you make sarcastically are deserved. The only real thing I find I can hold against you is the pulling and attempted application of a specific verse at a time, without any regards to the scriptural, social, cultural, religious, or historical context. You cite Deuteronomy and Leviticus as if we are still under the Old Covenant, not knowing that a new, unbreakable covenant has been made. You pay no mind to any of the arguments the authors were making by what was being written, you merely peel-and-stick. This is not right. The Bible is communication, and just as me taking one sentence of any conversation we have and trying to make a point of it would be wrong, so too is it to do this with the Bible. It's bad hermeneutics. I know, even as I write this, that you will likely hate me for what I say, as holding you to any real standard of truth would ruin your fun utterly.
All that aside, I believe that Christ acted in love, and expects us to do the same. He even says that all commandments are hinged on loving God and loving others. This is my life's entire aspiration.
I wonder who it was that hurt you, that you would make a mockery of such a thing. On behalf of the God for whom I speak, I love you. God is Love, and I pray your eyes and your hearts become opened to it.
Salutations.
The vast majority of my life was spent not knowing Christ. Then, seven years ago, I was blessed enough to witness several people, who had previously made my life likenable to Hell, become transformed by the power of Christ. The change that took place in them caused me to, over time, realize there was something more going on than merely my eyes could see. I dug into the Word and found it to be (of course) true, and after receiving some help breaking through the last vestiges of doubt in my mind, I broke free and became a slave to Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior.
Since that day, my own life has been radically transformed. I came to know what true joy is. For the last seven years, God has not stopped using me to change the lives of others around me.
Recently I met a young lady who had just discovered, after living in sin for over five years, she had become pregnant. Yet, instead of condemning her, I showed her an example of the love that Christ showed me in dying for me, offered her advice to not abort her child, but instead to marry her "boyfriend." She is now a believer, and a happy mother and wife.
I have aided in efforts to feed the hungry in my local community, and have witnessed a radical multiplication of resources in this endeavor. Words cannot describe the look on a poor widow's face as one enters their door with a basket of food, as she describes how she's down to her last $20, and has baked a loaf of bread with the intent of making it last a full day.
And roughly a year ago, I witnessed a miraculous healing.
My own father suffered a severe stroke. Four clots, three in the brain stem, and one in the lacunar artery that feeds the parietal lobe. For one week he was on life support, because the part of his brain that controls automatic breathing was destroyed. The doctors said he most likely would never come off the machines.
But I prayed, more fervently, more assuredly, than anything I've ever prayed about before. My dad is not a Christian, and I know that it is God's will that none should perish, but that all would come to repentance, and I know that if I had more time to talk to my dad, this might come about with him. So I prayed, not merely hoping, but knowing that God would move, and he did.
After sending me, through a series and a course of random events, Isaiah 49:15 (which, consequentially, is now my favorite verse), and my former pastor preaching on that verse the very next day, the next time I visited my dad, he was able to greet me with a "hello," completely free of any machines.
I am grieved by social injustice, by idolatry, and by people faking at rituals to make it appear as if they love God. I do not hate the people that partake. I am grieved by their actions. And so, I act in love to change these situations.
Before I was a Christian, I was a mess. I junior high, I was at a point where I nearly wanted to end my own life. Coming out of that, it is my current mission to become a youth pastor and help as many kids out of the hole I found myself in all those years ago. I believe without a doubt that this is my calling, my purpose.
I realize this entire website is devoted to one massive effort for I am retarded, and I am not here to fight that. I realize the Church at large has had a great many failings in its history, and a great many of the points you make sarcastically are deserved. The only real thing I find I can hold against you is the pulling and attempted application of a specific verse at a time, without any regards to the scriptural, social, cultural, religious, or historical context. You cite Deuteronomy and Leviticus as if we are still under the Old Covenant, not knowing that a new, unbreakable covenant has been made. You pay no mind to any of the arguments the authors were making by what was being written, you merely peel-and-stick. This is not right. The Bible is communication, and just as me taking one sentence of any conversation we have and trying to make a point of it would be wrong, so too is it to do this with the Bible. It's bad hermeneutics. I know, even as I write this, that you will likely hate me for what I say, as holding you to any real standard of truth would ruin your fun utterly.
All that aside, I believe that Christ acted in love, and expects us to do the same. He even says that all commandments are hinged on loving God and loving others. This is my life's entire aspiration.
I wonder who it was that hurt you, that you would make a mockery of such a thing. On behalf of the God for whom I speak, I love you. God is Love, and I pray your eyes and your hearts become opened to it.
Salutations.
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