They are more contemperary christian:angel: They do a lot of the popular worship songs;) The Wonderful Cross, Your Love Makes Me Sing, Light Of The World, ect. But they are great:bounce: You should check them out if your into that type of music! Heres a link for you if ya want to check em out;) http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/art...rtists/pcd.html

I´m sorry, but for those who are seeking a perfect organized religion... there´s not such thing!

I´ll come tomorrow and work on this post.

I'm not looking for a perfect organized religion:confused:

Neither am I. What works for some doesn't always work for others. *Shakes her head and says to self, I should have stayed out of this thread :D*)

I don't often come into this forum at all, because I don't really enjoy "debating" my spirituality, but I came here tonight because I just had another heated discussion with my mom about my "leaving" the religion I was baptized into, Catholicism. I didn't know what I'd find when I came here, but this seems safe enough for me right now, as it is just asking how it came to be that you believe what you believe, etc. After this installment of the 5-year debate on my spirituality with mom, I am quite upset, emotionally drained, spent, and feel like a failure of sorts. As I said, I was raised Catholic, even got married and baptized my children Catholic, mostly to appease my mom. But for quite some time I'd felt so spiritually dead inside, and one day my friend said that maybe someday I would like to come to her church, a charismatic Christian church with very lively praise and worship music and teaching directly from the bible. I went one day, and my spirit felt alive like it never had before. I now feel closer to God than I ever had in my life! It is not a perfect church by any means; we are still all human beings after all, and we all still sin and fall short of the glory of God. I try to look past the human error and keep my eyes on Jesus; He is the reason I feel so alive! This church was just the means that helped me learn how to have a personal relationship with the Lord. But five years later, my mom is still so bitter because I abandoned the religion I was raised with; why can't she just be happy that I'm now closer to God than I ever was? I've been "saved" for five yrs., my husband and children are also saved now, and we have a church family now too, which I never felt that in Catholic church. Sorry to ramble, but I wonder how many others out there have been criticized by family about choosing another "faith" so to speak. I always believed in God, knew OF Him, had faith, etc., but never like this! But it's like my mom looks at me differently, almost with disappointment because of this choice I've made, and it really hurts. Thanks for letting me get this off my chest, and sorry for this being so long.:( :embarass:

Dear Kim v Every Man must Make Hes Own Salvations path If You Have Found A Closer Relationship with god by What your Doing Then Good For You and will Give God The Praise amen And As Far As Your Mothers Concerns Dont worry About It Inn Time She Will Get Over it What Works For Some Dont Always Work For Others Go On And Love And Worship Your God the Way You have found peace doing It And Dont Worry About what People Say The Way you Should Be Doing It We Our Put On This Earth To Please God Not Man God Bless You JESUS IS LORD Of All

One of the foundations of Catholicism is that they believe that they have the "mother "church, the only true church, because they believe that by bloodline, they have the only link to the true apostles power. This is why Catholics usually are not encouraged to go to a different denomination, even if it's still exalting Jesus Chrsit.

Of course it was not only the apostles that the Spirit was poured out on wasnt it?

Sadly, most Catholics don't actually know this stuff, but it looks like this has been embedded into them and your mother's set of values in some way.

Perhaps her issue is that it's simply important for her in terms of tradition that you stay in the Catholic church, or fear of other churches, as alot of the more conservative styles have a fear of certain things of the spirit and think they are evil. My mother thought I was in a cult until she came and had a look for herself!!!!!!!! Perhaps not her style of worship, but the people were real and down to earth & loving each other. I hope that through what God is doing in your continual relationship with Him, that she will see this when she is with you, and will come around.

Aww! Kim:( I'm sorry that you and your Mom had an argument! You just need to go where you feel more spiritual and where you get the most out of it though:) Sometimes you just need to do whats best for you no matter what anyone else thinks. You have to be happy in whatever church you chose to go to! If your not happy with the one you go to then you should find one where you will be happy with:P

OMG, Kim, I just about started crying when I read your post! I know EXACTLY how you feel. It's to the point now that my mom and I just don't discuss religion or God or anything related to it. She, too, has tried to *guilt* me back into the Catholic fold, but so far it hasn't worked. I think Sincirr might be onto something as well regarding the loss of tradition and all.

Also, one of the biggest things that floored me as a kid was the nuns drilling into our heads the belief that the Catholic religion was the only true religion. When I questioned that belief, innocently enough during religion class in eighth grade, by citing Judaism and other religions that think theirs is the only one, I was humiliated by the teacher in front of the whole class and then sent to the principal's office for a scathing dressing down. I went home in tears, and to my mother's credit, she stuck up for me simply because I was just asking a question for a further explanation of something that didn't make sense to me as a 13-year-old. Those years are awkward enough without getting further embarassed. Right then, my foundation of faith in that religion was severely shaken. Other things happened that I won't go into that made me seek another spiritual path, and for me, it doesn't involve organized religion. But that's just me.

Kim, if what you have found makes you feel closer to God, that should be proof enough that it's right for you. I know from feeling spiritually dead with Catholicism. And besides, you are an adult with the right to make your own decisions. I can understand your mom being upset and all, but she should realize what you do have and be happy that God's in your life.

I don't write here very often...I'm a men without a religon....Or...Don't get me wrong...I'm not a man without hope...I just think that all this God stuff is...Aaahh...Almost Bullshit...No...It isn't...Believe with ever you want, I believe that life is like a flower...When a tree dies...It falls and after awhile it's becoming grass....Why can't we do the same thing? When we dies we'll make a new human with help from others...and that's it...When say like 10 dies they make a new...ect, ect...That and Creed is my religon!

Not to be mean but that didn't make one bit of sense:confused:

I know how you feel Kim V. and Dogstar, my own father is that way to me...I got yelled at for going to a very nice church w/ some of his friends when I was supposed to go to church w/ him. Catholic religion just doesn't exist to me, infact no religion exists to me. A church isn't a building, it's the people who go to it and religion is all based on tradition. Just believing is the power.

[quote]Originally posted by Sincirr
[b]One of the foundations of Catholicism is that they believe that they have the "mother "church, the only true church, because they believe that by bloodline, they have the only link to the true apostles power. This is why Catholics usually are not encouraged to go to a different denomination, even if it's still exalting Jesus Chrsit.

Of course it was not only the apostles that the Spirit was poured out on wasnt it?

Sadly, most Catholics don't actually know this stuff, but it looks like this has been embedded into them and your mother's set of values in some way.

My upbringing exactly. And kim V., I'm feeling what you're doing, I just haven't gotten the guts, YET!!

The story behind my beliefs.... well, I was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. My parents were Witnesses before I was born, so it is all I've ever known. For me, it was hard being brought up differently to the other kids at school (ie, no Christmas, Easter, birthdays, etc). When I was 14, I just wanted to fit in and be like my friends, so I didn't want to be a part of the religion any more. I stopped going to the congregation meetings (which are 3 times a week) and I snuck around behind my mum's back to do things I thought I wanted to do, to fit in like everyone else. But when I was 20, I realised that my life was going nowhere. I had always avoided thinking about my future because I had no hope, and I was scared about what lay ahead for me. So, I started studying the Bible again, with my grandma, and went back to the congregation meetings. I was making pretty good progress to begin with, but something disrupted it, and after that, I was at a kind of stand-still. Only recently did I decide to make an effort to get really spiritual again. Over the past few months, I have been getting more involved in the congregation meetings, and studying the Bible deeper and more regularly. I'm very proud to say that next Saturday, August 23, I will be getting baptised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. :D This is different to getting baptised or christened in other religions; our baptism is a symbol of the personal dedication each one makes to do God's will forever. We disown ourselves and give our lives to God, so whatever he asks of us, we do. The baptism is a symbol of the dedication, in that going under the water represents dying to our former way of life, and coming up from the water represents being made alive to put the doing of God's will first in our lives.

And I, for one, am so proud of you for your decision and for what you've accomplished! You are a really strong person (who never gives herself enough credit!!). You ROCK, Bec!