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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/2/2009 2:54:05 AM
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IamLibertarian
Posts: 380
Joined: 3/5/2009
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quote:
I'd love to see Christian pubs spring up here and there, where we could eat together and discuss books and laugh and argue loudly about theology.
That would be awesome...maybe this is what heaven will be like? (haha, just a thought).
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/2/2009 2:56:41 AM
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IamLibertarian
Posts: 380
Joined: 3/5/2009
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PaPaRobert and 19ramman85, thanks for the honest replies. I read those just when I needed to, thanks.
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/2/2009 7:34:26 AM
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LoveSavesLives
Posts: 22
Joined: 7/2/2009
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tuckonline
Does anybody ever feel like their past experiences (before coming to Christ) have hindered the way they relate to other Christians now, especially those who have grown up in the church?
I feel like I have to hide my past from them or else ill be condemned and/or get chased around by people trying to shower me with Holy Water.
Everyday discussion are difficult to have as well since our experiences have been so much different.
"hanging out" with other Christians is hard also...I may be a Christian now, but that doesnt mean I want to go bowling every other night and watch movies the other nights (with girls on one side of the room, and boys on the other).
I have no problem with good, clean, sober fun...but sometimes I find Christians waaaay too conservative in their thinking. That may be fine for them, but like the topic of this thread is, I am having a hard time fitting in with this type of group (which dominates the churches I have been to).
sorry if I offended any people who have grown up in the church and who I may have just described. I am not trying to belittle you or anything, I am just having a hard time relating to this type of person, and I know I will for a long time, if not always.
No Christian should be condemning you. Everyone is convicted about certain things and others may not be convicted the way others are. Everyone is at a different place in their walk with God. Just because someone thinks one way doesn't mean you do. I came back to God in a way that would shock a lot of people. It doesn't matter how you came though, its the fact that you came at all.
< Message edited by LoveSavesLives -- 7/2/2009 8:06:40 AM >
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/2/2009 7:40:15 AM
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LoveSavesLives
Posts: 22
Joined: 7/2/2009
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Oh, and to answer the question you actually asked. Yes, sometimes I feel like I don't relate as well to people in my church as I would like. I feel like a horrible person because the person I am in church is not at all how I am at home. I feel like God is constantly disappointed in me for not reading my bible enough or for slipping up and cursing or being disrespectful. I guess everyone at churches can put up a facade as much as unbelievers. No one is perfect, everyone has their story and trust me, at least half if not more are rocky. For most, it takes a bad experience or a rocky period in life for them to turn to God. I know that's how I got there. I'm not saying people in church are fake because a lot of people, for the most part, are really trying to live the Christian life the best way they know how, but do they go home and slip? Of course. There's no way we could be sinless.
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/4/2009 12:26:35 AM
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yankeedoodled
Posts: 194
Joined: 5/29/2006
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19ramman85:
I have changed my - "evil ways", and do my best to walk in His light - yet, I fall and stumble (sound familiar?). Yet, according to some people, then I really haven't given God complete control over my life. Then I'll tell them, that I have gave my life to Christ,prayed and such for God to change - "this or that", behavior/sin, and yet he hasn't. Then they'll go off on another tangent.
yankeedoodled:
When you get your heart right with God you will want to please him and dispise that which doesn't. The 'sin' will lose it's luster unless you love your sin more than God which would be your love of self is greater. God isn't into personally changing your personality, you have work to do in this life and self improvement is part of it.
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/4/2009 9:42:48 AM
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19ramman85
Posts: 372
Joined: 4/10/2008
From: Sandusky, MI
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yankeedoodled:
God isn't into personally changing your personality, you have work to do in this life and self improvement is part of it.
Agree 100%!
But try telling that to some people! To hear them tell it - once you accept Christ unconditionally He will - "ZAP", one right into being the - "Perfect", Christian
-charles
_____________________________
[IMG]http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e152/mirangermanll/usisfl.jpg[/IMG]
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/4/2009 11:56:38 AM
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Wonder_Woman
Posts: 58
Status: offline
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I don't fit in with a lot of other Christians either. I'm not sure I would say they are too conservative, but more that they put themselves into a mold and are unwilling to even look outside it. If you don't fit their idea of the proper mold, you are an outcast. I have a hard time understanding those who put themselves into a mold, so perhaps I am just as guilty as they are.
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/4/2009 2:32:07 PM
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jn1010lf
Posts: 519
Joined: 4/20/2005
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Hello tuckonline
I've got to comment on one particular part of your post. "Boys on one side of the room and girls on the other?" I don't mean this as being critical or to criticize any one's faith but what kid of conservative group have you found?
Maybe you need to get out more. I've never seen a church where boys and girls are separated. The only instance I know of is the Southern Baptists that have separate church camps for boys and girls up to the teen years. But they do that to teach what they consider to be God's plans for masculinity and femininity.
However, the more tragic part of your post is guilt from your past. I've seen the Lord clean people up from satanic life styles, even from Satan worship: made them clean, a new creation. Since they are a new creation their sins have been taken away as far as the east is from the west.
May I suggest that you study the Bible and meditate on it's words, especially Matthew through John. Then see if the group you belong to matches up with what you read there.
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/4/2009 3:03:14 PM
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Liveloved
Posts: 1763
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tuckonline
quote:
I'd love to see Christian pubs spring up here and there, where we could eat together and discuss books and laugh and argue loudly about theology.
That would be awesome...maybe this is what heaven will be like? (haha, just a thought).
What you are describing is the church. . . as it was meant to be.
Acts 2:42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.
Those of us who ARE the church need to make it happen. Turn your home into the pub, invite believers in, gather around the table or on the patio and study, share, eat, pray, confess, you know, be the church. 
_____________________________
Liveloved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
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RE: I dont fit in with other Christians! - 7/4/2009 10:09:04 PM
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mamajennleigh
Posts: 886
Joined: 12/6/2007
From: Fuquay-Varina, NC
Status: offline
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quote:
I don't fit in with a lot of other Christians either. I'm not sure I would say they are too conservative, but more that they put themselves into a mold and are unwilling to even look outside it. If you don't fit their idea of the proper mold, you are an outcast. I have a hard time understanding those who put themselves into a mold, so perhaps I am just as guilty as they are.
What a timely post! I did grow up in the church (my dad was a pastor) and when I was 18, my mother had an affair with a married minister who happened to be my dad's best friend, they both left the church and became drug addicts (which they are to this day). I became sick with Bipolar I disorder along with a cutting disorder not too long after, and I spent the next 15 years out in the world, living out every awful sin I could think of. I have several tattoos, although only one would be visible with a dress or skirt on, which I never wear.
I was healed of my sicknesses three years ago, and I have had a terribly hard time figuring out where I fit in. My Sunday School class is full of ladies who fit the traditional Southern Baptist Belle, and even when I was growing up in the church, I would never have fit that mold at all lol. I wear jeans to church because that's all I own, and I sometimes feel self-conscious about that. I don't wear skirts because I feel it would be disrespectful and possibly distracting for my leg tattoo to show. In fact, this has been a major reason that I have not been to church in the last year.
I am going back to church tomorrow morning. Not because I think I will fit in any better, but because I need to hear the Word and because I have a testimony to share. God has impressed upon me over and over again throughout this past year that I was healed, that I have a responsibility to share my story with others. I have had many instances where I didn't realize that I was telling my story to someone who needed to hear it until sometimes many months later. When I first went back to church, I was afraid to tell it because I didn't want to be any more of an outcast than I already felt I was, you know? God has really been dealing with me on this issue a lot lately.
Tuckonline, I know you are young, but never discount the experiences that brought you to where you are today with the Lord. You may be the one who makes another "misfit" feel comfortable and loved. Trust me when I tell you, there are more people out there like us than there are people who have no "past". You may be sitting next to them and never know it.
_____________________________
We may not have arrived, but Praise the Lord we've set sail!
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