Christian Chat

Hi @heartathome , @DownMoreThanUp , @Appleblossom , @ENKELI , @tyme , @Shaz51 , @REDLINEZ750 , @MissGremlin ,

Romans 1

- From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, set apart for the gospel of God.

- Jesus Christ, shown to be the Son of God by the resurrection of the dead.

- Paul received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles.

- Grace and peace to all the saints in Rome.

- Your faith is being reported all over the world.

- Paul has longed to see the Romans.

- The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

- The righteous will live by faith.

- God is shown through His creation.

- People can suppress the truth by exchanging God the Creator for created images.

- God then gives people over to strife (things that lack God's grace and peace).

I read a book on Romans called The God Who Is For Us by Reg Piper. Piper says it is a letter to the Romans in preparation for Paul to visit them later. It outlines Paul's gospel message. In Piper's book the first section of Romans (Romans 1:1-17) is titled An apostle for Christ. The second section (Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20) is titled The Rebellion of Humankind. The subheadings are helpful: the pagan is guilty, the moralist is guilty, the Jew is guilty and all are guilty. The start of Romans is setting the stage for we all need Jesus.

Hi @DownMoreThanUp and @Appleblossom ,

I just have a question re the gnostic gospels. I have read the Apocrypha but not the gnostic gospels. I'm wondering what they teach and how it adds to the New Testament? Should I buy a copy?

@Realness Good question. Before you buy it you might want to read up about them, not suire if that is anythging for you, their are also some interesting videos on it. i did not find much that i 100 percent agree with but they were far more mystical in their understand about things. This is what our forefathers did not like.

For me the issue was the devil and his hordes as explained by Christianity had not made much sense. That we fight the devil in charge because of personal sin or God in charge because of personal believe, as i had been taught. This was not all that accurate according to my experiences, but believing that had caused a tremendous amount of guilt, shame, fear, insecurity and so much self effort, but had never brought me victory. (Such thinking did have me shape my alters in a very bad way!😞)

There is lots of interesting perspective in Gnostic thinking from the seven stages of spiritual enlightenment to their understanding of fallen angels or Archons, which is much in line with the books of Enoch.

Personally i had real trouble believing that i had been really sinful at 3-4, struggling with paranoia fears, and that this is why God surrender me into the hands of the wicked. Yet when i began realising what a crappy god such a god must be. To surrender little kids like that to the wicked because they lack faith, though innocent of evil wrong, caused me to have real troubles serving a god like that. And seriously had me rethink my faith along the lines a perfect loving God would NEVER do that.

So unless you are heavily into symbolism or have issues with certain Christian teachings i would only read it out of interest rather than worship or the correction of your views. i do not think any of their teaching i have taken into my worship of Jesus. But i do like their break away from personal sin and the wicked as aliens and non human. Parasite style just as i have got to know them as well when i was a kid.

That is my personal take on it.

Thanks @DownMoreThanUp ! I really appreciate your detailed response.

@heartathome @ENKELI @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Realness

Yesterday must have been one of my first days i felt in charge of my life again since my wife left. We court up together yesterday and i bought her a laptop for her birthday present. After that we had a cuppa together for it was raining and no weather for a hike. It was great catching up. She was also much more relaxed than i have seen her for weeks. Friday is her birth and she took the day off and cancelled everyone for she wants to go out with me. Which i very much appreciated her doing. We plan to go hiking and have Lunch together. So looking forward to Friday.

Also my therapist was very pleased with all the progress i made the last few weeks and how i had been learning to contain my triggers and offload stored pain. It are the voices we are now focussing on, which have us stuck with my earliest memories a child. A lot of trauma still hidden behind the things i see inside my vision.

My Therapist is still trying to understand how the voices are fed for i see and hear the voices speak to my from out of vision somehow. Which to me is clearly related back were the darkness attacked me a little kid, the times i freaked for years on end. Yet severe nausea and fainting spells had him determine i better get better understanding the methods of containment well. Learn to at contain even difficult severe triggers/trauma recall before i on.

However finally the anxiety that has plagued me for more than a week has lessened and last night i slept once more without dreams or nightmares which was great.

This where i'm up to now.

(i just finished wiping Windows 11 of my wife's laptop it and installed Garuda Linux on it. We both hate Microsoft spying on our private stuff, which we know for sure they do. Plus Microsoft Windows' internet security is shocking even with the best of protection the risk remains high. While Linux is very safe by default and then when adding security it becomes basically an impregnable fortress. i like the advertisement control i can install on it. For i hate adds interrupting their crap all the time. And finally and i like this best. Linux allows scripting, which means i can control the operating system to the finest details. Which is handy 10,000 times over for both productivity as well as security.

For example our computers automatically disconnect from the internet when we do not use it and automatically reconnects when we use an App that needs it. This makes security many times safer than being full-time online when the computer is on.😁)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfut1pKTNGY&list=RDxfut1pKTNGY&start_radio=1

My verse for today

Proverbs 3:5–6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him,
and He will make your paths straight.”
(NIV)

Meaning
The heart of this passage is about trust and surrender.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart” – Put your deepest confidence in God, not just partly but fully.

“Lean not on your own understanding” – Our perspective is limited; we don’t see the whole picture.

“In all your ways submit/acknowledge Him” – Invite God into every part of life: decisions, relationships, struggles, hopes.

“He will make your paths straight” – Not that life becomes easy, but God guides and directs the journey, clearing the way toward what is right.

This verse reminds many people that when life feels confusing or uncertain, trust can come before understanding. Guidance often appears as we keep walking with God rather than waiting until everything makes sense. 💚

@Realness @ENKELI @REDLINEZ750 @DownMoreThanUp @Appleblossom @tyme

Hi @DownMoreThanUp ,

It's so good to hear things are improving with your beautiful wife. It's the most refreshing news.

@Shaz51 Yes. If we put aside our own responsibility to do our best in life, and pass the buck to God, we may lose groundedness, skills, opportunities, ways of modelling for children, and all the practical stuff. The best I can do is my due diligence, whatever that is, at whatever stage of my life, regardless of what others may judge as work or not.

@Realness I have looked at a range of translations, and am cautious about upholding one version above other versions. I valued the gnostic gospiels as presenting broader perspectives, that resonated with me about being realistic and grounded. Coming from a family where both parents were seen to have religious mania, I try to be careful and keep my feet on the ground. Just my style, since childhood. I have heard and seen God brought down on both sides of an argument.

@heartathome love you sister ... keep sharing just the way you do.

@DownMoreThanUp I appreciate your poem on Truth. I think its important not to be too dogmatic about Truth. For me,

@ENKELI I still appreciate that one uncle mentioned my father's attachment to the HMAS Sydney, as he lost mates from the sinking. Dad didn't get to say it to me himself, as I was too young. My father had a lot of CPTSD and A lot of grief. My mother mostly dismissed father as not being in the so called "real" theatre of war. Anzac Day is coming up. {Yes, I always had respect for her and her family's experience ... but ... there have been many premature Australian deaths in my family.} I am very quiet but respectful about it, but note that mother would not let father take me, in the year before he died. I wore my beautiful poppy and Shrine t shirt, and felt "seen" that people noticed and made genuine comment.

Thanks for your encouragement @Appleblossom ! Love you too! 💚

@heartathome Such an important text in my life sister. For i was religiously taught to believe we knew the scriptures better than others because for years they had us study their doctrines and confessions. However when the Sh.t hit the fan the stuff they had taught me pushed me deeper down my hole, not the other way around.

Not until i dumped all my theology and humbly admitted to The Lord i had no idea what He had been saying and to please be true to His word and teach me Himself.

@Appleblossom Yes i'm more and more veering that way as well. Either scripture is always true, for example Romans 5:18, 1 Timothy 4:9-10, Revelation 7:9, or it is not worth believing at all.

@Realness @Shaz51 @ENKELI @tyme

So much better to only ever conclude by revelation and never again through teachings of others, or my own speculative mind, for neither served me any good.

The Living Word, He is the One who taught me understand the Word of God in The Spirit of Love for God, myself and my neighbour, never looked back from the time i understood His Voice within always speaking out of the truths of Scripture guiding me to the place of safety.

The Saving Power Of The Living Word.

My Lord Jesus 1 met on the bottom of my pit,
not in His light but where the darkness fed,
The fire of guilt and shame would not quit
And so good life inside was long time dead.

My mind was torn the past my soul in pain,
like darkness clawed and would not let me go.
I could not break depression's grip or chain,
nor enjoy my life stuck down there below

Then through my night a Voice broke in
not loud, but carrying weight with fire;
He spoke against the dark forces within,
cut them off having my as their desire.

Like a farmer tearing out my weeds,
He ripped up roots I could not see,
turning over all those buried seeds
all stones the lies hid inside of me.

After that His new began to grow,
not from me but through His Word;
Bringing a life I never used to know,
His love far too real to be inferred.

Now in this place He makes me stand,
no longer ruled by what I feared;
His life alive Lord's love command
and the wicked scorched and seared.

So if you’re also buried in that place,
where nothing good seems left in you
there is a Voice that breaks that space,
Jesus The Living Word makes you anew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyr-xzM-Q1w&list=RDDyr-xzM-Q1w&start_radio=1