Portrait of an Apparent Loser

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Jul 14, 2022
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#21
Well, I'm thankful for your efforts to help. I am not afraid to say I am lost, and I am very tired. Perhaps even saints think that too. Never might we ever "feel" filled in this life.

I was wondering just now about how when I was a teenager and young adult, I felt so much more richness inside. I was more religious and contemplative. I even had my mystical experiences of God's love. And now I am in a dark night of the soul.

"By the mind is God utterly incomprehensible, yet by love He is all comprehensible."

"A bruised reed I will not break, and a smoldering wick I will not put out."

May God's love come like water to the parched hearts and tired souls of our world. Amen.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
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#23

The Dark Night of the Soul
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,714
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#24
Good morning ChristianMystic :)

I awoke today with "What a Beautiful Name" playing in my mind :)

I wanted to thank you and the good Lord for that :D
 
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pablocito

Guest
#25
Well, I'm thankful for your efforts to help. I am not afraid to say I am lost, and I am very tired. Perhaps even saints think that too. Never might we ever "feel" filled in this life.

I was wondering just now about how when I was a teenager and young adult, I felt so much more richness inside. I was more religious and contemplative. I even had my mystical experiences of God's love. And now I am in a dark night of the soul.

"By the mind is God utterly incomprehensible, yet by love He is all comprehensible."

"A bruised reed I will not break, and a smoldering wick I will not put out."

May God's love come like water to the parched hearts and tired souls of our world. Amen.


I cannot answer your questions definitively but can just shed light on the ways of God.

In these last days Peter says this:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

There are many verses like this throughout the bible and many do not understand the implications of them.

If you did not know this verse or you ignored it you would think that Christianity was all pie in the sky and just a never ending joy.

The bible uses phrases like "the hour is coming and is now" to show us that things do not stay the same. The sun does not stay stuck in the sky, at some point it goes down and darkness comes.

Similarly if you do not know what to expect based on the bible's teaching you could become disillusioned and give up.
Some Christians are going to experience what Job went through, hopefully you will will be spared that trial.

Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Here Jesus was telling some of his servants that because they kept his patience and the faith they will not have to endure the tribulation which is going to come upon the world.

I should advise you that most Christians that I have talked to, they cannot recognize that we are in a tribulation. I would warn you that you should take it seriously as most will become broken and turn back.
In fact if you are not prepared for it you probably cannot prepare for it while it is going on.
Job's wife told him to curse God and die. His entire body was ravaged. But Job's patience was of God.

Now another possibility is that some people are deeply entrenched in false doctrines and thus have false hopes and God is not on their side. (This is different from Christians who sin habitually and who God will castigate or chastise harshly)

Nebuchadnezzar a child of God was filled with pride and God put him in a field with wild beasts to live for 7 years to teach him not to be prideful. His pride must have been so entrenched because Daniel warned him for 1 year that his pride was in the way of serving God. He would not listen.

God's ways are infinite and I am only a man, and thus I will not dare speak things that God did not tell me to say. I can only encourage and give hope to those who are true children of God.

I can only tell you that after 4 years of studying the bible and serving God, He has given me everything that I could ever need or want. This is the truth, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that God has not done for me. He has preserved me in every way, even in spite of my many mess-ups which I continually strive to overcome.
My understanding of the word of God, is what made the difference as I have no allusions as to God's ways and to God's will. The flesh may be weak but the spirit is willing.
 
Jul 14, 2022
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#26
Good morning ChristianMystic :)

I awoke today with "What a Beautiful Name" playing in my mind :)

I wanted to thank you and the good Lord for that :D
I was also encouraged by your video about Dark Night, Magenta. Makes me have hope that at the end of this tunnel there will be a new experience of God's love and light. Thank you too Pablocito. Your efforts to help cannot be better done than by quoting the scriptures themselves. Yet take it from someone experiencing the Dark Night. Even your faith in Scriptures and what "God has done for" you can be plunged into the dismay of Dark Night. But I know that whenever God leads us into such utter darkness, He will also lead us out. Or as I am still in Dark Night, I should say I hope. Amen.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
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#27
I was also encouraged by your video about Dark Night, Magenta. Makes me have hope that at the end of this tunnel there will be a new experience of God's love and light. Thank you too Pablocito. Your efforts to help cannot be better done than by quoting the scriptures themselves. Yet take it from someone experiencing the Dark Night. Even your faith in Scriptures and what "God has done for" you can be plunged into the dismay of Dark Night. But I know that whenever God leads us into such utter darkness, He will also lead us out. Or as I am still in Dark Night, I should say I hope. Amen.
You are welcome. I listened to some of it before posting it to you. I was interested in Christian mystics in my youth, but found much of the writings about them to be somewhat obscured, perhaps due to my own obtuseness LOL. I found that many books trying to explain the mystic's experience were like that for me... despite the fact that I was very much inclined that way myself, and had numerous paranormal experiences over the course of decades before becoming Christian, doing dream work over that span of time as well, work which yielded stunning results. I find many Biblical commentaries to have the same effect on me. I would much rather just read the Bible, which is not to say that I do not read what other people have to say regarding Scripture, because I most certainly do, as well as having listened to much of what others say. That would of course include my own church's sermons over the years, as well as many teachings from various radio programs which I listened to a lot in my early years as a Christian. However, just to read what the usual commentaries included in online Bible resources have to say does not normally feed my spirit at all, and I can say the same for those teachings form rather famous preachers of the past that some extol: they just don't do it for me. I think we are all different that way. Even so, I am able to glean nuggets of truth even from those I do not particularly care for, no doubt with the much needed help of the Holy Spirit of God.

My own dark night I would say lasted perhaps a year. I had sought and explored and practiced a diverse assortment of conventions for many years before being plunged into that night. None could relieve my distress but God Himself, and that required surrender on my part. Until then I had been quite stubbornly set against the Biblical God and organized religion. I pray you allow Him to lead you fully into the Light of His glorious everlasting love.
 
Jul 14, 2022
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#28
You are welcome. I listened to some of it before posting it to you. I was interested in Christian mystics in my youth but found much of the writings about them to be somewhat obscured, perhaps due to my own obtuseness LOL. I found that many books trying to explain the mystic's experience were like that for me... despite the fact that I was very much inclined that way myself and had numerous paranormal experiences over the course of decades before becoming Christian, doing dream work over that span of time as well, work which yielded stunning results.
Mysticism is of the soul, which is more primary and even hidden from our consciousness, because it is the very sum of consciousness itself--like how we cannot see ourselves, except by the mirror of others. Psychic experiences are of the spirit, which can be more easily perceivable by mind and even measurable. The effect of mysticism is more like inspiration, or poetry. This is why those who do not have experiences of the soul cannot easily understand mystical writings. It's like trying to get the news in the newspaper from poetry verse. But the bottom line is love. In love is God all comprehensible. https://librivox.org/the-cloud-of-unknowing-by-anonymous/
 

arthurfleminger

Well-known member
Aug 18, 2021
1,405
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#29
A boy was born in South America whose back yard was the rainforest. He had always been rather introverted and even introspective, and he had an “old man” personality, so much so that a good friend of the family nick named him “Priest Man.”



This boy was a bit of a storyteller and had about two or three friends in primary school who would follow him about and seemed to enjoy his imaginative personality. But the boy was also bullied by some, partly perhaps due to his softer nature, or partly because his family was considered well-to-do by local standards, and he was envied.



He was brought to the United States when he was nine and he took to school, since he loved learning and he was insatiably curious. He loved the sciences first and aspired to becoming a solar physicist, harnessing energy from the sun, until he discovered English literature in high school and Philosophy in college. So he eventually graduated with a Bachelors in the History of Modern Philosophy from Brooklyn College and a Masters in Liberal Studies from Fordham University. Seeking to “find himself” in the real world afterwards, having already long searched for himself in academia, he ended up in Florida, and he eventually embarked on a long period of traveling about the United States as a big rig truck driver. For he had also developed the notion of “finding” his fellow Americans. Out of this experience he self-published his book “The Socratic Trucker: An American Memoir,” but his not finding a traditional publisher was his first essential disappointment.



No, I tell a lie. His first disappointment was a spiritual one--



When he was a young adult in college he experienced stirrings of divine love, not knowing that this meant that he had mystical aspects to his personality and that his life would be deeply misunderstood and enigmatic. But he could not find a home in the monasteries which he then courted, so he had to return to an oblivious world and become lost again.



During his years traveling the country he conceived of an American social movement of the People, one from the bottom-up, housed at www.newamericanspring.org. He earned a Masters Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from Park University in order to launch and lead this movement, but today he remains saddled with student loans from his rich education which his working poor family in the United States could never have afforded. What’s worse, his original choice to pursue such a liberal education was at the behest of a monk who, after having turned him away from his monastery, advised him that he had a mind for education and should pursue this development so that he might serve God’s calling for his life more appropriately.

Today, this boy now man (yet boy in idealism) is actively advocating for a “social movement” no American seems to be able to appreciate, and he is wondering if his life is indeed in vain. He took a government job of ridiculously low pay (less than one half what he was making as a common truck driver) in order to serve his country for 10 years and receive student loan forgiveness. And all this despite having pursued his education in the first place, to give to his world and country. This is his third great disappointment.



So here is the question: is he truly a loser? Gee I hope I’m not!

You have to look at the entirety of your life past, present, and future. God has a plan for your life. When you look at people who appeared to be losers, you'll find no better example than Jesus.

Indeed, He is remembered by eyewitnesses for being rejected by his own people, that He died naked, penniless, shamed, virtually alone, and in great agony. He appeared to be a spectacular failure.

Despite what happened, it turned out that Jesus wasn't a loser at all. So have patience, surrender yourself to Jesus and His plan for your life. Then ask Jesus to take care of everything.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
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#31
This is why those who do not have experiences of the soul cannot easily understand mystical writings.
Reading the experiences of a mystic trying to find my personal roadmap could be likened to trying to understand a colour through somebody else's description of it. It was something that needed to be experienced by my own self, but even in experiencing the longings of my soul, I could not pierce the veil. Very similar to how you could not find a home in the monasteries which you courted, so returned to an oblivious world. Certain poetry and writing did deeply move me. I escaped into literature a lot, starting at a young age. Those stirrings of divine love you felt in your youth, in my own life, left me ship wrecked in attempts to find my other, that mirror of which you spoke. I came to believe my sense of cosmic connectedness was driven by naiveté, for my idealism and openness left me vulnerable to those who abused me, and on the verge of suicide more than once. I had a very difficult time covering my unguardedness. My sensitivity to the feelings of others did not help, but hindered me in that regard also. I took to drinking and drugging to numb the pain. My life could be framed in so many different ways. I tried on a number of roles. None of them seemed to fit until I started studying with shamans, and then I veered off into a solo venture that seemed a calling in the truest sense of the word, until God even more clearly called me out of it and turned my whole world upside down.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
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#33
I did post a poem here in the poetry forum. "Love of God." It is based on my mystical experiences of God's Love.
I realized after I asked that question that you had mentioned your poetry.

Then I read the one about choosing to be a child...


I have some poetry in that forum also :)
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,714
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#34
I did post a poem here in the poetry forum. "Love of God." It is based on my mystical experiences of God's Love.
That looks to be written as a song :) Do you also play any musical instrument/s?
 
Jul 14, 2022
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#35
That looks to be written as a song :) Do you also play any musical instrument/s?
No song writing. The repeating section is meant to highlight the mystical vision of the Love of God. This was my strongest mystical experience to date. I wonder what the next might be, if God condescends.

I'm interested about your bio. Where did you grow up. How would you write your short bio to an interested new friend?
 
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persistent

Guest
#36

What A Beautiful Name
I see Hillsong and recall seeing them before. Australians maybe and associated with some church maybe? Asking only because I am still thinking to attend some physical assembly of 'Christians' some day,...possibly??!! Holier than thou arguments like this thread make me think seriously about just staying isolated like I have been doing. FYI and I don't know why but so far AoG congregation here in Chicago area is appealing to me. Also Planetshakers posted in music forum is excellent!!! Thnx for all your artwork it certainly brightens things up.
 
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persistent

Guest
#37
I was going to edit my holier than thou reply as I didn't go to the end of the thread and it looks as though common ground was finally realized. Not that I read it all but it did seem that the devil was in the details! But in the end God always prevails and maybe that happened here.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
55,247
25,714
113
#38
I see Hillsong and recall seeing them before. Australians maybe and associated with some church maybe? Asking only because I am still thinking to attend some physical assembly of 'Christians' some day,...possibly??!! Holier than thou arguments like this thread make me think seriously about just staying isolated like I have been doing. FYI and I don't know why but so far AoG congregation here in Chicago area is appealing to me. Also Planetshakers posted in music forum is excellent!!! Thnx for all your artwork it certainly brightens things up.
Thank you! Yes, there is a Hillsong church, around which there has been much controversy and scandal surrounding the downfall of its co-founder Brian Houston, ex-Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz, and Marty Sampson's (long-time worship music writer and singer) public denouncement of his faith on social media... none of which interferes with my ability to worship in Spirit and in truth when listening to their praise and worship music. I do hope you are able to find a church family :) Mine is absolutely wonderful!
 
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pablocito

Guest
#39
I see Hillsong and recall seeing them before. Australians maybe and associated with some church maybe? Asking only because I am still thinking to attend some physical assembly of 'Christians' some day,...possibly??!! Holier than thou arguments like this thread make me think seriously about just staying isolated like I have been doing. FYI and I don't know why but so far AoG congregation here in Chicago area is appealing to me. Also Planetshakers posted in music forum is excellent!!! Thnx for all your artwork it certainly brightens things up.

This verse although written thousands of years ago applies to us today.
Isa 5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Isa 5:9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

The noise (mankind's wisdom) associated with today's ministries is deafening and will block out the voice of God if you fall into temptation to them.

The following is what is happening on the earth today.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

And that was why Jesus told us as soon as he left the earth the following.
John 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Satan is using the trap of emptiness and loneliness to send people to hell.
Today people cannot stand being alone. Some have hundreds of contacts in their phones.
The TV is a crutch to keep them connected.

When the disciples deserted Jesus and was scattered unto themselves, Jesus said he was not alone because the Father was with him.
Also at the end of his journey, Paul also commented to Timothy, that all men had deserted him, yet Paul again said, God was with him.

Jesus's most important statement to his disciples was "Follow me". Meaning do everything that he did.
 
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persistent

Guest
#40
This verse although written thousands of years ago applies to us today.
Isa 5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Isa 5:9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

The noise (mankind's wisdom) associated with today's ministries is deafening and will block out the voice of God if you fall into temptation to them.

The following is what is happening on the earth today.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

And that was why Jesus told us as soon as he left the earth the following.
John 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Satan is using the trap of emptiness and loneliness to send people to hell.
Today people cannot stand being alone. Some have hundreds of contacts in their phones.
The TV is a crutch to keep them connected.

When the disciples deserted Jesus and was scattered unto themselves, Jesus said he was not alone because the Father was with him.
Also at the end of his journey, Paul also commented to Timothy, that all men had deserted him, yet Paul again said, God was with him.

Jesus's most important statement to his disciples was "Follow me". Meaning do everything that he did.
Hey Pablocito, you have probably been at studying scripture for more time than me and possibly lived more in line with the way we should be living and possibly have always been held in greater esteem than me. You refer to a couple of verses but Paul, I believe, states that all scripture is useful. Of course at that time he was probably talking OT and maybe they had some other books of which we are not aware today? I think you need to redo some of the things you write here. I have now done a pre written something which follows if you want read it.
I am old school and so as Rose Ann Rosanna Danna would say, 'It's always somethin'' It is nice to see in these comments that there is a true search for veracity. I had been solely relying on tv and internet preachers and reading commentaries via Bible Hub for approximately 4 years in trying to determine what God is telling us in His 'Word' and somehow I was directed to this chat site some time in August. Now I never know how to say things just right and so I see I am not alone in that regard when I read the posts on this chat site. Hallelujah!!!! However, some of the arguments here are as confusing as the Bible commentators. It's not building an ark exhausting doing this search for veracity. More like rocket science exhausting. I was looking in to the exchange between Jesus and the 'grammateus' concerning (the 'prote' commandment). Jesus used the word 'dianoias' for mind and the scribe in reply used the word 'syneseos' for understanding. Jesus says the scribe answered 'nounechos', discretely. Given here in English are the words of the KJV, Authorized Version, as some call it. Now it seems to me the exact words used in translation to any language from the available 'original' writings is not that significant. i.e. It is the message of the verses that is important. If you bother to read the entire exchange it seems the scribe was rather patronizing, “Well, Master, thou hast said the truth.” Jesus reply is gracious to even us antagonists. Definition of veracity

1 : conformity with truth or fact : accuracy. 2 : devotion to the truth : truthfulness. 3 : power of conveying or perceiving truth. 4 : something true makes lies sound like veracitie