Christ_empowered
Member
- Oct 23, 2010
- 14,308
- 10,794
I'm so torn on this one. I took my first steps towards Christ at Teen Challenge. You betcha there was Fire-and-Brimstone preaching!
Now, when I have problems, I come here. More often, I talk to my older, wiser Pentecostal friend in The Bible Belt. She talks a lot about God's deep, abiding love for us, and how "He knows right where you're at."
Me? I'm torn. Jesus healed the wretched and the despised (yes!), but He did talk an awful lot about Hell and places where "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Acts seems focused on the sheer power of the Holy Spirit in the early church, but...there's Ananias and Saphira (sp?) to contend with.
I asked somebody once about it, or maybe I read somewhere...God isn't human, so His attributes are not contradictory, nor do they exclude each other. Wrathful? Yes. AND Merciful, without a doubt.
When I was just reading about Christ, that was sufficient. Head knowledge...in a weird way, its more comfortable than heart knowledge, saving knowledge.
Now, I'm wondering...what is appropriate for my life, right now? Will God let me know?
Why is it that now, now that I'm what I'd consider a "real Christian"--I even cried when I got saved--everything is so mind-bogglingly confusing at times?
Now, when I have problems, I come here. More often, I talk to my older, wiser Pentecostal friend in The Bible Belt. She talks a lot about God's deep, abiding love for us, and how "He knows right where you're at."
Me? I'm torn. Jesus healed the wretched and the despised (yes!), but He did talk an awful lot about Hell and places where "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Acts seems focused on the sheer power of the Holy Spirit in the early church, but...there's Ananias and Saphira (sp?) to contend with.
I asked somebody once about it, or maybe I read somewhere...God isn't human, so His attributes are not contradictory, nor do they exclude each other. Wrathful? Yes. AND Merciful, without a doubt.
When I was just reading about Christ, that was sufficient. Head knowledge...in a weird way, its more comfortable than heart knowledge, saving knowledge.
Now, I'm wondering...what is appropriate for my life, right now? Will God let me know?
Why is it that now, now that I'm what I'd consider a "real Christian"--I even cried when I got saved--everything is so mind-bogglingly confusing at times?