Christian Chat

@DownMoreThanUp

You are more than welcome to join us here, I may not post in here much but I like getting advice in other threads from the Christians I've come across on the forums, mainly through this thread.

@DownMoreThanUp welcome my dear friend! And thanks for more of your words, I wish like you and @avant-garde I could still write. Medication took that away from me, I think it's the biggest thing I miss about being depressed/bipolar 2.

I've loved the music you have shared and hope you continue to share on this thread. The two of you, @tyme and @Shaz51 have been a huge help to me at times when I've doubted my faith.

I want to also acknowledge the passing of Charlie Kirk last week which I refrained from doing elsewhere given the contentious nature surrounding politics these days.

Politics aside, his messages on faith sustained me many times when I felt lacking.

This song by CAIN is one of my favourites -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APATH3ea-D0

Thanks @ENKELI @DownMoreThanUp ,

When weak in faith, we need each other to pull us up. That's why we are here.

@tyme , @ENKELI , @avant-garde , @DownMoreThanUp , @Dimity

One day at a time my friends 🧡

Keep on keeping on xxxx

well said my sweet @tyme 🙏

Hey @ENKELI @avant-garde @DownMoreThanUp @Shaz51 ,

Both my parents are not Christian. A friend invited me to a Christian youth gathering when I was 8 years old. Then from there, I never stopped going.

As a teenager, I began to recognise God's calling for me. But I refused Him because I wasn't ready to make sacrifices and give up my own life that I was living. I wanted to stop going to Church as I feel the call each time. But one thing about my mother is that she said if I stop going, then let the church know. But if I wanted to keep going, I'd have to go all the time.

My mother was a very disciplined person. She hated people being wishy washy about things. It was all or nothing.

At that point, I didn't have the heart to tell the church I didn't want to go anymore, so I ended up continuing.

Then eventually, when I was about 17, I accepted God's call, and surrendered my life to him. From there, I drank in the scriptures. I was at the church all the time.

Unfortunately, is wasn't long after my salvation, that I believe the enemy wanted me back. This was when my mental health took a turn, and I struggled for the next 15 years or so.

But I believe God was with me the whole time and purifying me to be what He wanted me to be.

So yeah... that's a tiny snapshot of how things came to be!

@ENKELI @Shaz51 @tyme @avant-garde @Dimity

It is great to be among family!

i hope we can share the things Jesus is teaching is, and has taught us, so that we can all walk His High Way singing and praising our Heavenly Father.

Down In The Pit?

Beloved when the voice of depression rules as king
Keep your eyes peeled on The Truth of God's Love
Lies' despairing misery making those wicked cling,
yet faith in Christ's loving truth rescues from above.

Awaiting Jesus in your darkest hour so sore and low.
Fighting of those ugly feelings and thoughts pounding
In The pit God's loving truth in faith will now surely grow
God's Kingdom Come - no misery Good Life hounding.

This is the song to remember when satan tries to rob you of your identity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fSVWVYkh2A&list=RD5fSVWVYkh2A&start_radio=1

@tyme Great hearing that Jesus was faithful in your life as well.

i was brought up a Christian, but hypocritical, as well as legalistic parents and a vicious sexual assault at 11, turned me away from God. Out of unholy hatred for anything God stood for, i got myself into occultism, which fueled utter misery into my life for 5 years, before Jesus called me back.

It was religion that kept me in line behavioral wise, but kept me from Jesus salvation wise. So it wasn't till much later on in life, already totally overcome by bad life, deep down in my pit, that i had Jesus revealed to me as my Saviour. He taught me to heed Him and not my depressive mindset/feelings any longer. It took Him years but thanks to God He made me stronger than my depression can bring to bear, and i do not have to walllow in the mud down there ever again. For i have learned to hold onto my identity in Him no matter how deep down i must be.

A lot more to say, but hopefully over time all these things i will be able to share, even as you share your life in Christ.

i wrote this poem the day i understood why my good life had died, and where i could be reunited with it, i have never looked back!

Armageddon.

In my inner world life died everywhere,
famine taking what sword had left behind.
Brim and hailstones flatten what stood up,
no escape from the carnage I could find.

Awed I saw Jesus the wicked inside me fight,
turning my world of being into a battleground.
I saw billows of smoke rising up ever so high,
rolling thunder throughout my world rebound.

I watched scorpions parading through my soul,
stinging within me what was godless in its lust.
Massive grasshoppers devouring all my good,
fierce horses trample heeding wrong to dust.

I saw much of my inner greenery burn-up,
whole fleets of cargo ships sadly perish.
My daily trade coming to an abrupt hold,
for ungodly rulers wrong in me did cherish.

I saw the Dragon reigning all his subjects,
watched the numbered in me die like flies.
I heard the false prophet's constant lying,
demons smearing God's love with lies.

It was the blood drinking prostitute in me,
which flabbergasted me the very most.
Unfaithful love killing all God's chosen,
yet with fiery death she was deposed.

I saw my world's kingdom going down,
mind ruling Babylon in a hour fall away
Yet with two thirds of my world wiped out,
I watched God's kingdom come to stay.

So seeing God's own safely at home,
I finally let my tears of sorrow run dry.
Seeing Jesus ruling from the clouds,
I also joined Heaven's Hallelujah cry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fhv4arL3yk&list=RD4Fhv4arL3yk&start_radio=1

@DownMoreThanUp I don't know how she can sing without crying! I'm in tears listening to her. She's got Lauren Daigle vibes, definitely a great voice.

I have so many songs that lift me up when I forget who I am, and this is another one to add to the list xo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSIVjjY8Ou8

@tyme @ENKELI

It is only by God's grace and mercy that I became Christian...

I'm not sure how to say this mildly...

I was born into a family that claimed to be Christian, they said they were Christian, my church said it was Christian but it was far from Christianity.

The church where my dad was a deacon was more into the indigenous beliefs along with witchcraft and sorcery if you know what I'm saying. We had an untrained minister that got led astray and ended up with a mix of the two and using Bible verses to justify it.

We merged with a different church when I was 10 and I don't remember much from the 2 years under that minister, but his replacement quickly proved to be an equally as destructive pastor in which I was taught the "methods" in which women and females were saved by inappropriate actions from men holding offices in the church.

I had heard a song that struck me and asked to get baptised but my baptism was far from Christian, but their actions to sanctify me for baptism had no correlation to the faith that my heart professed.

I didn't get my first Bible until a few months after my baptism and that first read through... I was like Tyme and drank it in.

The steadfast spirit and resolve in me stood up to the leaders of my church and I called them out for their unbiblical and evil behaviour, I'd read my Bible cover to cover and learned that what they taught was far away from what the Bible taught.

Still for 7 more years I was "strongly encouraged" to see things their way, but my faith held strong and my Bible that a dear old lady found in an op shop those many years ago is what changed my life.