Our Hope is In Heaven, but...

  • 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.
S

SeatBelt

Guest
#21
#21
I've almost always liked tangents.
And since yours is, to me, a tangent from a tangent, it's fitting.

Not getting us back on topic, I say:
Happiness is not something that we are promised or have a "God given right to" in this world... but Contentment is in my unscholarly eyes, a truly Biblical principal that we are promised that we can and should attain.

It makes my skin crawl when I hear people say, "Oh, I'm doing such and such because God wants me to be happy."
to borrow a phrase, SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN!


And yes, at one point this was approximately the wording that the mother of my children gave to justify her leaving us.
But
She has cited many different reasons for that over the past 14 or so months, possibly not saying the same thing twice.
 
maxwel

maxwel

Senior Member
#22
Apr 18, 2013
9,481
2,548
113
#22
There's nothing that irks me like a bunch of floaty happy people bumbling around all joyful and optimistic.
Bah.
Bah and humbug.
 
S

SeatBelt

Guest
#23
#23
maxwel said:
There's nothing that irks me like a bunch of floaty happy people bumbling around all joyful and optimistic.
Bah.
Bah and humbug.
Click to expand...
No kidding, you'd think they were all walking around with, idunno, the Love of Christ, or the Joy of the Lord, or the Hope of Heaven, or even the Relief of Grace, or something...

Once upon a time I was really bitter about having to deal with this one Christian who was just all like talking to a Hallmark card. Perfect picture of turn the other cheek and all about praising Him in all things. Then one day she caught me by myself and gave me her testimony. She'd not only been through the fire, she'd been born into it. Crazy horrible stuff they wouldn't even make a Lifetime Movie about. Put it all into perspective for me. She had every reason to be a bitter viper seeking to destroy anything that came near her. But God changed her and her life so very completely that she was genuinely more effervescent than a pallet of Alka-seltzer.
Since that time, I've come to know many Real Christians with a real past. Sometimes they may come across as something other than genuine, but these are the folks I want to be in the same boat as when the chips are down.
 
P

Powemm

Guest
#24
#24
Sometimes I think about that too Rachel. "What about the ones dying, starving, getting beaten, mudered and neglected"
I can't help but wonder if their hope was so perfect they became sin.. Just like Jesus did..
starved, beaten , neglected, tortured then murdered ... Jesus visibly "became" the worlds sin .. All of those things crucify the flesh .. Jesus was taken out if it , and so are they being taken out if it .. Just a thought
 
Last edited by a moderator:
P

Powemm

Guest
#25
#25
I believe all the suffering , beatings , cruelty, murdering and starvation .. Is the evidence of a lack of God "in man" in the world"

The essence of the gospel is not to get man into heaven but to get god into man ..
 
C

Chrissy77

Guest
#26
#26
rachelsedge said:
This is going off on a tangent a bit here, but...

God provides what He knows we need. Not necessarily what we think we need. Yes, He provides physical things. But just look at Christians who are persecuted around the world, and even in Biblical times, such as Paul. I'm sure they ask God to provide relief for them; for food, for shelter, for them to not get beaten. But maybe what they need is prayer, or encouragement, or just to learn something new about God.

I just had always wondered "If God provides all our needs, what about the starving, dying Christians around the world? He's not providing for them." But what we think of provision may be different than His definition of it. Hopefully that makes some sort of sense.
Click to expand...
Very true, Rachel, and well said. Thank you for the reminder that what we think we need isn't always what God says we need.
 
R

Relena7

Guest
#27
#27
maxwel said:
There's nothing that irks me like a bunch of floaty happy people bumbling around all joyful and optimistic.
Bah.
Bah and humbug.
Click to expand...
The world needs more joyful and optimistic people.
 
I

iTOREtheSKY

Guest
#28
#28
SeatBelt said:
I've almost always liked tangents.
And since yours is, to me, a tangent from a tangent, it's fitting.

Not getting us back on topic, I say:
Happiness is not something that we are promised or have a "God given right to" in this world... but Contentment is in my unscholarly eyes, a truly Biblical principal that we are promised that we can and should attain.

It makes my skin crawl when I hear people say, "Oh, I'm doing such and such because God wants me to be happy."
to borrow a phrase, SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN!


And yes, at one point this was approximately the wording that the mother of my children gave to justify her leaving us.
But
She has cited many different reasons for that over the past 14 or so months, possibly not saying the same thing twice.
Click to expand...
SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN I've been plagiarized! LOL :rolleyes:
 
R

Robbinette

Guest
#29
#29
I'm afraid I am one of those day dreamers, I do it all the time about different things. Like the other night me and my mom talked about our plans if one of use became a millionaire. From paying off all of the bills, to everyone getting new cars, to each of us owning our own businesses. Always good to have a back up plan just in case right? :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.