I believed at one time I had been saved. I just don't have peace or gradititude for Christ like i should.  I just don't feel the love or joy that use to be here.  Anyone got any suggestions.
124548
It is important to remember that love is not an emotion, but a commitment. Let's look at Jesus for a moment: When He died on the cross, His motivation was not based on His emotional connection to us. No, He made a commitment, which He intended to stick with until the bitter end, no matter how much it might cost Him. The emotions may have played a part, but it was not the driving force behind His decision. So, even though you may feel distant from Christ, the fact that you are still interested in Him is a good sign. Don't let this go! Make sure to read the Word everyday! This is very important, as without it, you will likely become bitter and resentful towards your friends, your family, and even God. The Word is food for your Spirit Man: without it, you will soon feel the consequences. Also: pray, pray, PRAY! Be completely honest with God. Tell Him how you are feeling. Tell Him that you feel distant. God loves it when we get personal with Him. If you do, I'm sure that your passion will begin to reignite, because it is a sign that you are drawing near to Him. You are making a conscious effort to get to know Him better, and He recognizes this. He will reward you for it. Also, I encourage you to get involved in church events. Communication with other Christians is crucial to your spiritual health, they will encourage and support you in your walk with Jesus (and if they do not, I suggest you find another church). You may wish to get an accountability partner. This person will phone or communicate with you on a regular basis to check on how you are doing in terms of your relationship with God. Pick someone within your church or (Christian!) group of friends that you know you can trust. I'm sure that every Christian has felt this way at some point in their walk with God, I know that I have. Know that you are not alone. Make sure not to base your relationship with God solely on the love you feel for Him. Make sure to serve Him no matter how you feel, and I can pretty much guarantee that you will feel that passion once again. If there is anything I can do to help, feel free to contact me! God bless, and remember, Jesus loves you no matter what!\n\nSomething that I am sure will reignite your passion is the movie called "The Passion of The Christ." It is very accurate in it's portrayal of Jesus and the suffering He went through; all for you!(you may wish to have a kleenex box close at hand, this movie is a real tear jerker).
475121
I feel your burden, this world has changed a lot in a short period of time. I am a believer in Christ, my faith is stronger as the world gets worse. You can feel the dark looming heaviness of things getting worse before getting better. I thank God for my faith. My husband is not a believer and I continue to pray for him. He is aware of the ads we see for upcoming movies, they are all so gory and evil. He is wondering as well as so many of us with what is going on in this world. I can only believe more people will receive salvation as time goes on. We live in such an obnoxious world that I don't think the rude people are laughing as hard as they used to. Just keep your eyes on Christ and everything will fall into place. God Bless to you and yours.
564420
I know what it is like to be in your situation. I was away from God for a while last year, but God brought me through it. Just study your bible. I have found that it contains much more revelation then the typical sermons. I dont know of any churches in that area, but look around. I think if you are truly studying your bible,you will get back on track.
504160
do u believe in Jesus? if not believe now and turn away from ur sin, i don't need nothing from u but, the only think is that u repent from  your ways can u? the kingdom of heaven is near, thank u and have a nice day, we love u. when u done help the poor people please
507832
for those that do believe that, by your definition, because i was forced to be saved in kindergarden (my teacher told us all that if we didnt believe we would go to hell and suffer for eternity being tortured and burned - being 5/6 that kinda scares ya right into believing).   but now i am agnostic and dont believe the bible. does that mean im still saved? lol
469933
I think your questions count as preaching, but I can tell you that I am not interested in a relationship with Jesus or the Christian God.  I do feel complete.  I do not feel vulnerable and alone - my beliefs empower me and surrounds me with the protections I need to enjoy my life.  Even with an army on your side, anyone can feel scared from time to time - but I am very safe in my understanding of the Universe.\n\nThe things is, that even in a Christian God model philosophy the point is not to life your live for god - the point is to understand your own divinity and to understand that you and god are a team.  If god is an ocean, we are each and everyone of us a glass of god, with tremendous power and divine right - no matter what we call this being.  To spend time steeped in any church dogma only brings you closer to understanding the church, not god.  \n\nI am glad that Christianity has helped you and I rejoice that you are happy on your chosen path.  I regret that you feel you need to school others or that you feel you have the only answer to the mysteries of life.  There is no way to truly know the Unknowable and there are many paths to enlightenment.  Worry about your own soul until someone asks you for help if you truly want to display the virtue of christianity.\n\nPeace!
470587
I've dealt with similar issues. I was raised Protestant and left the church for a while. I missed the fellowship, a lot. There's so much to be said for the comfort you can find within a good church. The problem was that I could never reconcile my beliefs about evolution, my scientific paradigm about the origins of the universe, homosexuality, and feminism with the Bible's opposing views. To me, I couldn't just choose to re-interpret the Bible for my convenience. It means what it says, not what I want it to mean. I was unable to return to the church because I was unable to believe in the god described by the Bible. \n\nAfter that, I looked at religion itself pretty seriously and from an academic standpoint, rather than a religious one. I found a few textbooks describing religion as objectively and sensitively as possible with humans doing the work and managed to get into a college course regarding religion.\n\nI suppose when it comes to deities, I'm best described as "spiritual". I believe it's possible that there is a god of some sort out there, but I don't believe that anything written by man can describe it, let alone explain what any god wants. Religions are man-made. Still, I needed religion. I found Zen Buddhism to be to my preference. It suits me. I don't believe in re-incarnation or immutable souls. I think we're always changing, always learning. It's the nature of living. It took a long time, years, for me to get where I am because I had a lot of residual fear of going to hell. Sunday School is effective indoctrination. In the end, that was the final nail in my Christian coffin. I could not respect a religion that promised love and held on with fear.\n\nI think it's different for you in ways, but it's also the same. The Church's ideas don't fit yours, but you're still drawn to the comfort of fellowship. Perhaps even the comfort of god. I don't know any books that would necessarily help you, because I don't think that's your issue. Do you miss the sense of belonging or do you miss god? If you miss god, then your problem lies in understanding that any beliefs that you have that are against what the church says are sin. If you miss the fellowship, but not god, then perhaps you can find another way with values you agree with to fellowship. There are Protestant churches that agree with you on abortion and homosexuality. If religion isn't to your taste, you can also find fellowship by finding groups that meet for secular reasons. I belonged to a reading club for a while. We'd gather in the library every Wednesday night and discuss the book we'd read that week. It felt wonderful. Then I moved.\n\nI'd suggest you talk to a priest, but it's their duty to return you to the fold so you won't get the help you actually need. I wouldn't suggest you talk to anyone else's minister/rabbi/whathaveyou for the same reason. It's usually their duty to convert you. You can speak to someone, such as a therapist, a mentor, a teacher, an advisor about it as well. \n\nMy crisis of faith was the hardest thing I've gone through, even harder than boot camp and childbirth. I'm feeling a lot more rewarded and confident about my choices once I'd gotten through it. I hope that you'll find peace with your choices as well.
459485
My core belief is that Jesus died for my sins.  Lots of other things race through my head depending on the day, time, weather, mood, finances etc.---but that remains my comfort and my deepest belief.
636662
He's probably in the last place you'll look.\n\nI remember finding Jesus not long ago. I was released from the hospital after surviving acute acid reflex. I remember questioning my existence and my purpose her on Earth. I got home only to find my wife panting and smoking a cigarette lying on our wedding bed in a scantily clad nightie. I suspected she had been cheating on me and demanded she tell me who. She insisted that it was no one I knew. I felt as if I had walked in on something and perhaps the bastard was still there hiding. At first I looked under the bed...nothing. Then behind the curtains and in the hall. Again nothing. Then I just knew he was hiding in the closet. I swung open the door and there before my eyes, I found Jesus. The bastard. \n\nStunned and in a fit of anger I began to pummel the son of our lord about the nose and throat. Jesus, now bloody and crying, ran screaming from my house. \n\nI have tried to "turn the other cheek" since Jesus convened my wife, however I feel my marriage has been tainted with Christ love. \n\nTo make things, worse, I can't help but compare myself to Him.  The image of her eating of his body  . . . . I just can't compete with His divine stamina.  I can only bring her to orgasm once, but I'm sure that she enjoyed a second coming of Christ.  I'm not surprised that, with her sexy legs and full figure she was able to make Christ 'rise,' if you catch my drift.  I guess this is just my cross to bear.  \n\nI feel kind of stupid that I didn't see this coming. The evidence was there for months. I remember several times my wife crying out his name during sex. "Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"\n\n-signed Cuckold by Christ
170211
Hi my name is marissa here is my testamony. I became christian when my boyfriend left me of 2 years. I was depressed and I didn't want to live anymore. I meet this guy a friend. He would always talk about God and I then was was so anxouis to go to chruch, When i went I cryed cause I fealt a relived a burden left from me. God is good amazing. I know now that God is the love I found my only....
569535
Sometimes we are so focused on waiting for our ship to come in, that we ignore the bus and the taxi that were sent for us.\n\nLook around you, see all the trees in the forest, start walking down the entire path, enjoy all of it.\n\nThis question is in the religion section, so I am going to tell you to first get saved.  If you believe you have, then get to church and rededicate your live to Christ, live for him and not yourself, lay your human burdons at his feet, and when you get up, do NOT take those burdons back with you.  If you find that you did take some of them back with you, go right back and put them back at  his feet.\n\nYou will be doing this the rest of your life, but everytime we leave a bit more of our worries at his feet, we can walk closer to GOD with more and more of the weight lifted off from us.
111274
I am a Christian already... I just feel Christ presence and I have faith in Him. I read the Bible and pray to God constantly and helps me strengthen my faith in Him. I also listen to Him.. listen to God and contemplating in His words really helps alot... Christ did something so wonderful to me... He saved me from ALL my unrighteousness... but not just ME but to you also...to all of us... and the good news is Christ is coming again to take us to heaven and would give us a new earth and a new life where there will be no more tears and no more failures and heartaches.. that's how wonderful to have Jesus in your life...
136273
For me it was odd. I use to be a simple Christian man. I went to church and I loved the Lord.  I knew the bible somewhat.\nOne day i was at a christian meeting and I was called by God. At first I thought I was hearing things or going crazy. But when I got called I started to get a deep yearning to preach and I was answering complex biblical questions for others around me. \nI went home and the feelings I had at the meeting never went away. Next thing I know I am studying to be a Reverend.\n\nSome people think they are called but they don't really do the job well. They don't really get the bible and they use it for profit. They can't counsel people very well and they never have the answers.  Most likely these people got tricked by the devil into preaching.
46970
Yes, felt that way b/4, but this is what helped me out. I have to get very close to God. Remembering what the scripture says in the book of Job 22:21 “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;Thereby good will come to you" I remembered also remembered and read Numbers 23:19 which says “God is not a man, that He should lie,Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" Having this at the back of my mind, I then strongly believed that God loves me by believing the scripture John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ..." After then u can not imagine how well and healed I was, my worries disappeared. God is Great - give Him a trial today.
629772
uh oh, after reading these answers I am concerend becuase I am Christian, I am saved, I accept the Lord as my Savior....and I beleive in reincarnation. I know my soul is old becuase I have memories of past lives WAY too accurate on details and I have NEVER had history on them.  I beleive we are sent back to settle things, finish things and to learn.
644220
You are Blessed to know god. Some are not Gods own for some reason they choose to go through life in limbo. But remember God loved you first, and we cannot  change any one, but our self ,but God can. He changed me. So keep praying for the salvation of many souls.
66518
Ah Gabby, I have a similar experience.  I asked Jesus to come into my heart and to wash me of my sins, and to help me to believe in what is true, whatever that is.  And for 2 hours, I felt very warm and in the presence of Jesus - my old friend from when I was a child and believed in him before I began to study a lot.\n\nBut that was only 2 hours.  And then I didn't really believe anymore.  I believe that Jesus was a great man, a great servant of God with a great vision.  But I just can't continue to believe that he was God, or that he even believed himself to be God, or anything like that.  I have asked God and Jesus to help me see that he is the divine son of God, if that is what he is.  \n\nAs he has not shown me that, I have to assume that there is my answer.  \n\nIt's just frustrating because you have all these people who are sincere believers and think that if you are not a sincere believer like they are, that you are somehow doing something evil.  But I know I have done nothing evil.  I know that I have been sincere in my quest, and I know what answers I have received and not received.  Other Christians can't get inside my heart, mind, and soul to see my sincerity and genuineness.  \n\nBut I think they are threatened by the mere thought that someone might actually be able to genuinely ask Jesus to come into their hearts and fill them with the Holy Spirit and NOT have that happen.  Because perhaps it would make them doubt the source of their own experiences.  \n\nSearch your heart very thoroughly to find out what your deep driving desire is.  Are there desires you have which are in the way of you succeeding in your spiritual life?  Be willing to look head-on at your real motives.  Do you want to be a Christian because there is some prestige in that among friends?  Or because you truly believe?  Or because you love Jesus?  Or because you fear going to hell?  Or something else?  Whatever the motives are, try to purify your motives so that there is no selfishness in you at all with regard to this matter.\nWhen you are pure of heart and your motives are altruistic and not selfish, you will have peace, I believe.\n\nI hope I have not further discouraged you.  I wish you peace and spiritual strength!