This could be an interesting thread-what backs up ur beliefs and the story behind it?
 

Just wondering what backs up ur beliefs w/ religion or faith and the story behind you got that way. ;) Like for some, how'd ya finally become a Christian, a bad moment or grew up that way? :confused: I don't know, just feel like readin' some stories, lol, :P sry if this is just a big waste of time...:eek: :(

Will for starters mines A long Story It Could Almost Be Like A Movie I Didnt Grow Up N A Strict Up Bringing But A Very Overprotactive One I could Do Anything Iwanted Ijust Couldnt Live My Room It Was Always Just Me An Mom I Always Lived My life Looking Out A Window I Missed Out On Alot Of Growing Up School That Should Come As No Supprise Friends Promes You Get It I Got Saved When I was 16 To Fix A Broken Heart But At The Time I Never Found Out Gods Purpose For Me Cuz I Just Wanted What I Wanted My Guy Back My story Does Not End Here A Year Ago Oct Ithink He Found Me Therw A Song Sacrafice by CREED To Be Honest With You Never Listend To Creed Till Weatherd Came Out Because Iwas Not Allowed To Listen To Anything Thats Another Story Then Naturally I went Out Got MOP HClay Thats About All I Can Say Now ICAN TEll You this Wants You Find The God And belive N Him And Let him Have you You Will Find Out That Your Dreams Was His ALL A Long

And You Would Be Supprised Who He Can Make You Become

that's a good story there, Zion1010.

Not To Many People Wanted To Open up Did They

I grew up in a christian family and my Mom was kinda strict. She didn't allow us to listen to anything but christian music! We were at church everytime they had it:angel: Not as severe as Stapp's family though. When I turned 16 someone I knew from grade school was killed in a car accident and I blamed God and kinda turned against Him, not fully though. I still believed in Him but I kinda turned from Him then. Then I moved to Missouri and I got everything sttraightened out with God and my life has improved in my walk with Him:angel: I still have my imperfections but...Hey, we all do!

I grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic household and that religion was too much religion for me. I won't get into the gory details, but there are some not-so-nice things that happened to me and my family regarding Catholicism, so I abandoned it a long time ago and I have yet to find an organized religion that works for me. I definitely believe in God, I read the Bible once in a while (there are some good lessons to be learned in it), but I don't consider it the be-all end-all of how I should live my life. I try to live my life according to the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's a pretty simple credo and when I adhere to it, life is a lot less complicated. My goal is to be a decent human being and to improve my corner of the world as best as I can.

That's society for ya. ;)

Oh, catholic church--:mad: --how I relate to you in many ways. Nice story there too and thanks to everyone who has been opening up so far. ;)

Have you ever heard of the band Phillips, Craig, and Dean:P I'm listening to their newest album and I love them:dancing: They have awesome worship music:angel:

Through My Entire Walk Of life Tho Im Just 26 But Ive Seen A Lifetime Of Heartaches At One Time I Thought I Was Mistake And Inn The Eye Of Man Maybe I Still Am But I Do Know This What He Has Give Me Man Never Could Or Never Will Even The Ones That Love You Most Trusted Can Foresake You But He Never Will Even When You Make that Choice To Leave Him He Still Carries You He Has Placed Me on Rock Were I Can not Be moved Tho At Times I Still Feel Alone I Know My Future Belongs To Him Not The World Its Great To Serve A god That When Bad Stuff Happens To You That You Cant Do Nothing About He Shall Prevail Sometimes All You gotta Do Is Set Back N Whatch God Bless

that's how i feel

:thumbsup: I guess I can agree w/ that.

:dunno: I guess I'll have to check into that, what kind of music is it b/s Christian? Christian rock, classical Christian, blue grass Christian, etc? :offtopic:

I Agree Rock On

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!

Awesome, Bec! I'm glad you found your way back to your spiritual path. Good for you!

Yay, Bec! I'm also proud of you!!

Also, thanks everyone for your support and encouraging words regarding my spiritual debate with my mom. It's so great to hear everyone's personal experiences, but it touches my heart so deeply when you nice folks are right there to lift me up when I'm down! PEACE TO YOU ALL...

Thanks Teri, Dogstar and Kim! :D :D I didn't think I'd get that kind of support, but that's probably just me not giving myself any credit. ;) :P

Well, you should know us better than that, Bec ;). Seriously, finding that kind of spiritual peace is a good thing!

Good luck w/ the baptisim, I hope it goes well.

Sorry Dogstar. :embarass: :P Thanks, Torn Signs, it did go well. :D

Yes i have the photos... :naughty:

Oh yeah, the wet t-shirt contest photos.... :D

No, the massive purple bruise contest photos... :lol:

*don't hurt me* :(

:boxing: :slap: :headbang: :poke: :chair: :kick: :samurai: :cuss: :shoot: