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Ricardo · 10-22-2011, 07:48 AM

Welcome!

We may still make a God fearing Democrat out of you!

EmilyKing · 10-22-2011, 10:50 AM

Welcome!

bean · 10-22-2011, 11:44 AM

Welcome! Glad you found SFL. It's a cool place to hang out!!!

greg · 10-22-2011, 02:26 PM

"I sure miss having all the answers" <like Smile

Welcome, your story is fascinating, I really enjoyed it. I'm so glad you escaped with your faith, God bless you, look fwd to hearing more from you.

**Perry** · 10-23-2011, 08:06 AM

Welcome!

Jenn · 10-24-2011, 02:06 AM

Really interesting story. Thanks for sharing! They can really mess with your head can't they... Especially when they start warning you that God will judge you if you don't do what they say.

**exOBCstudent** · 10-24-2011, 08:08 AM

Glad to have you here! The military was the primary factor which led me eventually out of the IFB as well. I spent almost my ENTIRE life there though. Your husband wasn't about to attend Oklahoma Baptist College by any chance was he?

I'm very relieved to hear that you only spent 3 years in that mess...I too wish that was all I had invested in them. Dodgy

Accepted in Christ · 10-24-2011, 02:52 PM

Proud of you and your husband for your service in the Marines. Now that you are out of the mess of legalism, I hope you keep growing in the knowledge of how deeply Father loves you through His Son. It is so wonderful to have a relationship with Him based upon grace and not our performance under law or man's tradition.
NJ
USN Retired

Ricardo · 10-24-2011, 03:31 PM

"Father loves you through His son."

Huh?

I know this is a meet and greet thread, but puleeeze.

Such antropomorphism really makes my head spin. If God is at the same time Father AND Son, loving me by being narcissistic doesn't do anything for me.

Does this mean God didn't love us before Jesus?

Alaskagirl85 · 10-24-2011, 04:30 PM

(10-24-2011 08:08 AM)exOBCstudent Wrote: Glad to have you here! The military was the primary factor which led me eventually out of the IFB as well. I spent almost my ENTIRE life there though. Your husband wasn't about to attend Oklahoma Baptist College by any chance was he?

I'm very relieved to hear that you only spent 3 years in that mess...I too wish that was all I had invested in them.

Actually it was this school, Heartland- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_B...le_College I don't see it mentioned on here much, but it was popular at my former church, 3 or 4 teenagers went there after graduating highschool.

It's been an interesting journey since leaving IFB, and I'm not even sure if I'm a Christian anymore. It's been 3 years since I've been in an IFB church. For the first year after leaving we went church shopping, and attended a non-denom evangelical church for about 6 months, and then a couple different Pentecostal and Calvery Chapel churches. A lot of the problems I had with the IFB church were in all the churches to a lesser degree. And yes, I know the whole "if there is a perfect church, you better not go there because then it wouldn't be". The last two years we've been through Vedanta, Hinduism, Word-Faith, positive thinking, metaphysics, new age, paganism and nature worship. (I had done this World Religions thing before I became a Christian at age 16. In middle school I tried Buddhism for awhile. In 9th grade I almost converted to Islam, I attended prayer in a mosque for a whole year.)

Now we don't attend any organized religious services. My thinking now is that God is bigger than any one religion, even bigger than Jesus and Chrisitianity and the Bible. So I guess I no longer feel that there is only one way to God, but many ways. I think Jesus might still be the way for me, though. There is a lot in the Bible I can't justify or explain, and it's too hard for me to have faith that God ordered the Canaanite genocide or came up with much of the Law. I feel like I have to do a lot of mental gymnastics for the Bible make sense to me as a whole. And I read the minor prophets, or much of the OT, and it's hard for me to get any peace or understanding from all the promised destruction and death. But then if I pick and choose which parts I believe, I don't know how I have anything to stand on. Sometimes I think maybe God is in everyone and in everything, and thats pretty pantheistic and unChrisitian. I'm also thrown off by the fact that some things I was sure of, now I'm not sure... so it seems like I just pick my beliefs day to day... and then I go down that "what is Truth and how can we ever know" spiral. I still feel a lot of love for God, and for Jesus, but also for Ganesh and for nature. I don't know if I believe in Heaven and Hell or reincarnation, and deciding which one I believe, even after a lot of reading and prayer, feels sort of shallow, like I'm just picking me beliefs based on how I'm feeling this week. I know what God has done in my life, but I find peace and wisdom in so many spiritual traditions, that it feels like I have no peace and assurance because I'm not sure which path to dedicate myself to. I'm not sure how to label the Mystery.

I didn't think I'd get this personal (and RAMBLING) on here. But all the thoughtful people and the lack of bashing is encouraging. At what point are you no longer a Christian? I sort of hate labels, but also find them comforting. It feels shallow to just say "I'm spiritual." I'm also not sure exactly how to raise my daughter with a love for God outside of an organized religion. My jumbled thoughts and everchanging loyalties don't seem like a very comforting spiritual heritage to pass on. Can anyone relate to this? Any words of wisdom?