-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Daily rant:
I hate the lack of compassion people have on suicide victims. A famous singer commits suicide and without knowing and understanding mental illness, how it can cloud rational though, I see many hateful comments for so called "tolerate people". These type of people are just disgusting, the "just deal with it" attitude never helps anyone and makes you saying look like a complete unsympathetic jerk. We should help and be there for some people, God knows how much compassion has helped me.
I hate the lack of compassion people have on suicide victims. A famous singer commits suicide and without knowing and understanding mental illness, how it can cloud rational though, I see many hateful comments for so called "tolerate people". These type of people are just disgusting, the "just deal with it" attitude never helps anyone and makes you saying look like a complete unsympathetic jerk. We should help and be there for some people, God knows how much compassion has helped me.
"Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment. This shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love." 1 John 4:18
This is such a rich Word, today's manna. I'd love to share my notes.
I never wondered about it before but what kind of 'love' is this verse talking about? I knew of 'love' as the kind of love I have for my family. But when I was younger, although I 'loved' my parents, I was afraid to mess up. I used to think it's because I didn't want to hurt them, but heck, I was a kid. No such thought would have entered my mind. To be honest, I was afraid to be scolded.
The other kind of 'love', which covers a much greater ground, is the Lord's 'love' for me. I take it this is the kind of love, the verse is talking about. It goes without saying that if there are some areas of my life that I still show fear (and there still are), it could be because in some way, I'm still afraid that the Lord would punish me. He is a righteous and just, ruler, after all.
Maybe I'm afraid to take new risks in life because, in the back of my mind, I'm afraid to fail. Maybe I'm afraid to fail because I know that there's a high chance that <em>I</em> would. And that's because it never occured to me that, it doesn't only depend on <em>me</em>, that I'm not living this life alone. And it never did because, deep inside, I didn't think Jesus would be interested in my activities, much less my whole life. And that, He won't be, because I'm not really worth it after all. I mean, I have frenemies. There are people I hate and I can't stand. I don't love my neighbour like I should. And I never really said sorry to Jesus for those either. I slack off at work. Or that I talk behind someone else's back. Because people are mean. I did some very unchristian things. In fact, my daily life is not even remotely close to what the church portrays. And I hate the church. They're a bunch of hypocrites. And I hate myself for hating others. Ugh, I'm hopeless.
I could go on and on but you get the point. And honestly, my mind doesn't go that far most of the time. In the end, really, it's just because I don't deserve Jesus' favour. I take that as a punishment for things I have and haven't done.
"This shows that I have not fully experienced His perfect love."
Truth is, the Jesus' kind of love, removes my consciousness of punishment. At least, that's what 1 John 4:18 is saying. If I have that kind of love, if I knew or understood that kind of love, I wouldn't think that the Lord would give me my due, which is what the world calls bad karma ending up in death (the wages of my unfortunate being). If the Lord is dealing with me based on my performance, or the lack thereof, I wouldn't get as far as being born.
If I had known this, if I believed that Jesus still loves me, sin, imperfections, weaknesses and all, I won't be afraid of what tomorrow brings, knowing that He will be on my side. Because He said He would, not depending on what I do or don't do, but because of who He is. He's faithful even when I'm faithless. He died while I was still a sinner.
At the end of the day, "Jesus loves me, this I know" is still the greatest theology.
This is such a rich Word, today's manna. I'd love to share my notes.
I never wondered about it before but what kind of 'love' is this verse talking about? I knew of 'love' as the kind of love I have for my family. But when I was younger, although I 'loved' my parents, I was afraid to mess up. I used to think it's because I didn't want to hurt them, but heck, I was a kid. No such thought would have entered my mind. To be honest, I was afraid to be scolded.
The other kind of 'love', which covers a much greater ground, is the Lord's 'love' for me. I take it this is the kind of love, the verse is talking about. It goes without saying that if there are some areas of my life that I still show fear (and there still are), it could be because in some way, I'm still afraid that the Lord would punish me. He is a righteous and just, ruler, after all.
Maybe I'm afraid to take new risks in life because, in the back of my mind, I'm afraid to fail. Maybe I'm afraid to fail because I know that there's a high chance that <em>I</em> would. And that's because it never occured to me that, it doesn't only depend on <em>me</em>, that I'm not living this life alone. And it never did because, deep inside, I didn't think Jesus would be interested in my activities, much less my whole life. And that, He won't be, because I'm not really worth it after all. I mean, I have frenemies. There are people I hate and I can't stand. I don't love my neighbour like I should. And I never really said sorry to Jesus for those either. I slack off at work. Or that I talk behind someone else's back. Because people are mean. I did some very unchristian things. In fact, my daily life is not even remotely close to what the church portrays. And I hate the church. They're a bunch of hypocrites. And I hate myself for hating others. Ugh, I'm hopeless.
I could go on and on but you get the point. And honestly, my mind doesn't go that far most of the time. In the end, really, it's just because I don't deserve Jesus' favour. I take that as a punishment for things I have and haven't done.
"This shows that I have not fully experienced His perfect love."
Truth is, the Jesus' kind of love, removes my consciousness of punishment. At least, that's what 1 John 4:18 is saying. If I have that kind of love, if I knew or understood that kind of love, I wouldn't think that the Lord would give me my due, which is what the world calls bad karma ending up in death (the wages of my unfortunate being). If the Lord is dealing with me based on my performance, or the lack thereof, I wouldn't get as far as being born.
If I had known this, if I believed that Jesus still loves me, sin, imperfections, weaknesses and all, I won't be afraid of what tomorrow brings, knowing that He will be on my side. Because He said He would, not depending on what I do or don't do, but because of who He is. He's faithful even when I'm faithless. He died while I was still a sinner.
At the end of the day, "Jesus loves me, this I know" is still the greatest theology.
I'm sorry for spamming!!! But I finally got accepted to university and I'm jumping up and down. Also, I'm attending a youth service tonight, and I just learned from my friend that Ps Darlene Zschech is preaching and I just have so many reasons to not to take off the ridiculously huge grin plastered on my face.
Y
I am about to tear out my hair. I'm running my statistical analysis for the data for my research, and it's proving to be very difficult to understand the results. I've been spending time this afternoon looking at tutorials, video lectures, and even trying to hunt up online tutors to help me with this...garbage. Very frustrating.
Howdy y'all. Our church homecoming dinner was last night. ("Homecoming" is kinda like a family reunion, or a church anniversary. Our church has been around for 40 years now.)
So I have a strategy for homecoming dinners. I get two bites of everything that looks interesting. That way I don't explode, I don't throw good food away that I couldn't finish and I also don't drive home wondering what some dishes would have tasted like.
Last night my strategy failed me. I got two bites of everything that looked good and I still had a very full plate by the time I got to the end of the line. Last night was a very good night indeed. And very filling.
At least I didn't have a sugar coma. Sis. Carol brought two of her buttermilk pies, but I exercised restraint and only had half a slice (instead of following my instincts and eating half a pie.) I'm not sure how I did it, but it involved reminding myself repeatedly that diabetes runs in my family and I really don't want to become a diabetic myself.
Her buttermilk pies are the stuff of legend. She's a manager at my w*rkplace and she occasionally brings a couple pies to w*rk. Last time she brought some, I mentioned to the maintenance man that he really ought to try a slice of that buttermilk pie. "Well I might try it." I said, "No you really, really need to try that pie in there. Let's put it this way, the only reason I'm telling you about those pies is because I've already had a slice and diabetes runs in my family. If it weren't for that I wouldn't be telling you about those pies because there wouldn't be any pies left to tell you about."
So I have a strategy for homecoming dinners. I get two bites of everything that looks interesting. That way I don't explode, I don't throw good food away that I couldn't finish and I also don't drive home wondering what some dishes would have tasted like.
Last night my strategy failed me. I got two bites of everything that looked good and I still had a very full plate by the time I got to the end of the line. Last night was a very good night indeed. And very filling.
At least I didn't have a sugar coma. Sis. Carol brought two of her buttermilk pies, but I exercised restraint and only had half a slice (instead of following my instincts and eating half a pie.) I'm not sure how I did it, but it involved reminding myself repeatedly that diabetes runs in my family and I really don't want to become a diabetic myself.
Her buttermilk pies are the stuff of legend. She's a manager at my w*rkplace and she occasionally brings a couple pies to w*rk. Last time she brought some, I mentioned to the maintenance man that he really ought to try a slice of that buttermilk pie. "Well I might try it." I said, "No you really, really need to try that pie in there. Let's put it this way, the only reason I'm telling you about those pies is because I've already had a slice and diabetes runs in my family. If it weren't for that I wouldn't be telling you about those pies because there wouldn't be any pies left to tell you about."
M
I had a family reunion this weekend. It was awesome! We went to Kerrville, Texas to see The Coming King Sculpture Prayer Garden. Then we headed to the beach in Rockport. It was fun, except the sun burn 
. On the way back I noticed some plants on fields. It's common in Texas to see fields of sunflowers or corn. But these looked different. I asked my aunt what they were and she said they were cotton plants! I had never seen them in person. I parked the car and got off. I probably looked silly touching these cotton plants...but whatever.
She told me a story about my grandma. Grandma raised her three daughters by herself. She also didn't have an education. So she would pick cotton (and sometimes fruit) in the fields. She was paid $1.75 for 100 pounds of cotton. She would work all day to pick those 100 pounds. When she weighed them, the clerk would question her, wondering if she really picked that much. She would also take my mom and aunts with her to pick the fields. I feel honored to come from such a hard working family. I also feel so blessed that I've never had to work in the fields. My grandma says it was hard work but that she is happy she found a way to provide for her family.
Grandma has been visiting us for three months (since Easter). Today she left back to Dallas with my aunts. I'm going to miss her.
. On the way back I noticed some plants on fields. It's common in Texas to see fields of sunflowers or corn. But these looked different. I asked my aunt what they were and she said they were cotton plants! I had never seen them in person. I parked the car and got off. I probably looked silly touching these cotton plants...but whatever.She told me a story about my grandma. Grandma raised her three daughters by herself. She also didn't have an education. So she would pick cotton (and sometimes fruit) in the fields. She was paid $1.75 for 100 pounds of cotton. She would work all day to pick those 100 pounds. When she weighed them, the clerk would question her, wondering if she really picked that much. She would also take my mom and aunts with her to pick the fields. I feel honored to come from such a hard working family. I also feel so blessed that I've never had to work in the fields. My grandma says it was hard work but that she is happy she found a way to provide for her family.
Grandma has been visiting us for three months (since Easter). Today she left back to Dallas with my aunts. I'm going to miss her.
Tonight I picked up the boy I always pick up on the church bus route, and two of his friends came with him. This boy is physically fourteen but he looks ten and mentally he's about six. His friends are a bit younger than six.
During church I was thinking how nice it would be if we stopped by a convenience store on the way home and got an ice cream bar of some sort. Yeah, I could go for a choco taco and they could pick out whatever they wanted. It would be a nice treat, and I would be certain to explain that this is a rare occasion and if they ask if we can stop for ice cream next Sunday on the way home the answer would be no.
What actually happened was the two boys were yelling at each other all the way home. NO WAY was I going to take them anywhere but home, as fast as ten-miles-over-the-speed-limit would allow. After I dropped them off I drove home enjoying the silence and saving a bit of money.
During church I was thinking how nice it would be if we stopped by a convenience store on the way home and got an ice cream bar of some sort. Yeah, I could go for a choco taco and they could pick out whatever they wanted. It would be a nice treat, and I would be certain to explain that this is a rare occasion and if they ask if we can stop for ice cream next Sunday on the way home the answer would be no.
What actually happened was the two boys were yelling at each other all the way home. NO WAY was I going to take them anywhere but home, as fast as ten-miles-over-the-speed-limit would allow. After I dropped them off I drove home enjoying the silence and saving a bit of money.