Love to talk!
Submitted by F.O.D. on February 03 1999 at 12:52:53
In reply to Can spirituality help me? Submitted by Cham on February 03 1999 at 07:25:50
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Hi there Cham! I'm really glad you stopped by! I guess CBF probably is the best place for boylovers to be asking about the Christian faith. Incidentally, Ben has been visiting too, maybe you two could share notes :) I'd call myself an "evangelical" (the ones Heather doesn't know much of. Maybe she and I should talk more about this :) ). But that's just labels and details, like saying whether you're a "morning" person or an "evening" person. For me I find the Bible the strongest way of knowing about God, and therefore for trying to learn if there is a God or not. People are always asking "well prove to me that God exists, and I'll believe it". But the proof is there. The Bible is mostly a history of the way God has interacted with man over centuries. The most recent records (the New Testament) are almost 2000 years old, but history is history, it doesn't become a "fairy tale" just because it's old. So I would recommend you find a Bible to read, or at least a New Testament (most churches will be happy to give away Bibles or at least New Testaments). You don't want to read it cover by cover, it's a big book and not written to be read that way. Heather recommended reading the Gospels and I'll second that. Choose whichever one of the four you like! Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Mark is the shortest, though I prefer Luke, but I'm reading Matthew myself at the moment, and I just love John. John or Luke can probably make more sense to someone with a Western mindset. How do you start being "religious". I see it mainly as a journey through life, but one you're not taking alone, God is there alongside you, and the further you go, the better you get to know him and what he is like. That's how prayer works, it's talking with your God, your friend. Who is God? Where is God? Although I said not to read the Bible from cover to cover, I can also recommend the very first chapter, Genesis 1. There it says that there was God at the beginning, and then he made our universe. So yeah, it's not like God is out there in space or something. Rather I see him as being beyond the universe (he must be, if he made it), and keeping the universe going by his own will. Here's a leading question for you to think about. Where does love come from? We love boys. Why? Why do we love? What does that mean? Come back with any question you have. No question too fearful or too silly! Start reading the bible and we can read it together with you, bit by bit, and address anything that comes up, and we can make sure you're not reading anything dead boring like the old Israelite ritual laws! We don't have all the answers! If we did, we wouldn't be hiding behind silly nicknames! God bless you! F.O.D. |