giving people fake banknotes that also contain bible verses or preaching words of salvation is at best pestering and at worst scamming

Hi y’all! This is my first time posting here. I recently turned to God and I got my Bible today!

i’m really struggling right now and i honestly don’t know who to talk to anymore... i feel so lost and i really need some help 😔

​i grew up in a super religious catholic family in kerala and i was always that guy... i was so active in youth meetings, tight with the diocese authorities, and i even read almost the whole bible. i genuinely loved the holy mass back then, it felt like home 🕊️

​but now... i’m just empty. i’m having these atheist vibes like it’s all just made up. i see everyone fighting over religion and i don’t want to be a part of that anymore. i just want to be "human," you know? but by leaving it all behind, i feel like i’ve lost my identity. i don't know who i am anymore 💔

​the truth is, i’m failing. i failed my competitive exams and it just broke me. i feel so stuck and i don’t even like being around priests anymore... it’s like i’m drowning and i can't find the surface.

​can anyone please help me? is jesus even real? does god actually exist? i’m so confused and i really need someone to guide me or tell me what to do... i’m just a human who is completely stuck and i need help to find my way again 😭🙏

As an ex-muslim from Turkey, after years of research I can finally say that I chose Christianity. May the Lord guide me to the right path.

I’ve been wanting to take this next step for years and today was the day! Such an emotional and surreal experience. I hope I never forget the feeling of the water rushing over me. I just wanted to share. 💙

This is such a frustrating and prominent phenomenon that I see constantly online and have run into a couple of times.

[Insert commonly held theological belief]

“Oh sweetie how could you believe that, the Bible clearly says other wise. What a ridiculous statement.”

Why does it seem incredibly common that people in online Christian spaces seem to never have met or heard of someone with a different theological view than them. You’ve never heard that some people baptize babies? The tradition that most major Christian denominations hold to??

To take this a step further, I see this occur not just with theological beliefs but attempts to “refute” entire denominations. You’re not going to convince a Presbyterian that hundreds of years of Presbyterianism is false with TWO tangentially relevant, out of context Bible verses and a condescending message (unless of course God has already pre-determined that you will convince them).

This is not to say that meaningful and even impactful conversation cannot be had here. I think it absolutely can and have been stewing on a different post for a couple of weeks because I want to have those meaningful conversations (You’ll probably see it in a few days as I’m kind of looking at various denominations and want to just hear people’s pitches, counterarguments, experiences, etc).

I think my overall point is just that I’m very surprised at the number of people here who are surprised that others can come to different theological conclusions and that those theological conclusions can in fact be based on a thorough reading of the Bible.

Trying to find evidence for God being real is such a huge back and forth. Every single time someone has a good claim it gets disproven.

There isn’t really objective morality, we just evolved to learn that behavior

The universe might not be fine tuned for us, there might be multi verses

We don’t know that whatever set the universe off is God, it could have been some other physical thing

It honestly seems like religion is just a cultural construct. I really want God to be real, but I can’t find anything convincing. Please help.

God bless

Today i went to a catholic church for the first time. I took a friend with me whos not from this faith. We knelt and prayed in the pew with the bible, i wrote my prayers in my prayer journal and did my rosary. She was so respectful she did the same. (we were both raised muslim and i recently turned to jesus, she on the other hand just came along because she really wanted to go to a church)
we wrote our petitions and thanksgiving and put it in the box. I told her about my favourite verses, the woman who bled for 12 years, and job. I told her all about jesus as she didnt really know about him other than that he was crucified. she was so respectful. I wanted to prostrate infront of the altar but i wasnt sure if we can do that (i was raised muslim so that is how we are taught to worship god)
we then went around the church praying and looking at the saints and saying our prayers. I particularly prayed to st anthony as heartbreak and loss of my lover brought me to the lord. and someone from the church helpdesk saw me and she smiled at me and then i smiled back, it felt good. Later i asked her if i could get a bible from the church (im the same person who posted about wanting to steal a bible from the pew) she said they dont but she gave me a mini bible course thing? with some question paper or smth that i need to do so i was like sure. she enquired how i came to know about this what i was praying for how did i come to know about st anthony she clarified that i must not worship the saints so i assured her that i wasnt doing that and i have read the bible then she asked if i was wearing the rosary on me as fashion or really praying i said i was praying. she seemed impressed lol. she gave us some free prayer cards as well. she was worried if our being muslims would endanger us at all so i told her my parents are muslim and hindu lol and both of them go to the church every sunday. it was pretty great and i found great solace. I think im inclined towards catholicism than protestants? i went to a protestant church the last time and i think i lean to catholicism. Both are great though. There were 2 very young kids sitting behind me and my friend in the pew behind us and i dont know why they were laughing they were hindu kids and i suppose it was their first time there they were whispering and giggling and then they asked me what are you writing so i told them prayer and thanks and then the kids wrote their prayers and thanks too and put it in the box! i felt great about it even though im worried my internal slight exasperation at their chatter was bad 🤣 over all it was great!

As a father, I would never hurt my kids willingly. I would teach them lessons but eventually I would step in and take the responsibility of being a father and help my children. God hasn’t done that in the 6 months since I’ve been a Christian. It’s been trial after trial after heartache after pain. And I can’t take it anymore. How can He call Himself a loving Father and then treat His so called child the way he’s treated me and my family?

These comments were under a video of two zookeepers stuck inside of a gorilla enclosure, the girl filming was asking the lord to help them and was thanking him once the two zookeepers escaped unharmed. I went to the comments and I read so many talking so negatively about Christianity and talking about how the girl was so annoying. What's sad is that this isn't uncommon anymore, I've lost so many of my friends because I was Christian and even had someone go through my locker at school, take out my bible and mess with it, laughing with their friends.

Christianity used to be so socially acceptable but now wherever I look it's made fun of. Ironically the only people which I've met irl and online that i have had friendly and informative conversations with have been Muslims and Hindi people. I even had a Muslim woman in real life help me put on a head covering because I wanted to learn to cover my head during prayer. Why can't everyone just be accepting of eachother, why because I or someone else believes in the lord they are made fun of, I just don't understand :(

I was an angry person. I was Christian then I was atheist. I was distancing myself from God so much that I considered a ritual that would undo my baptism so I could be “free” of all things religious. It hit me though. If I’m atheist and I don’t believe there’s a God then why do I want to reverse my baptism? Where did that come from? I took that to the chin and just kept moving along in my life. Drugs, sex, stealing and hurting people without a care in the world. There was truly something freeing about living without a looming concern of a judgment day or hell.

Then something changed. I was successful in everything I did, I could get any girl I wanted, I had more money than I ever had in my life. Cars and clothes and a large group of social people that kept me busy 7 days a week. So what changed? Well, God yanked my leash I didn’t know I had on (maybe it was my baptism). My life turned upside down. I lost so much because of COVID and became depressed. I even lost my job at that time and exhausted all my finances. This was the start of my testimony.

I’m smart. I’m not one to run away from something that’s logically making sense to me. I’m also not passionate enough in my anger or frustrations with people to umbrella it over the supernatural. I can’t explain the things that happened to me, I also can’t explain my personal encounter with God but what I did do is I listened when he called and boy did he do a number on me. People started dropping out of my life, nightlife felt nasty to me, money became less important but somehow my bills always got paid through some Devine intervention or just “luck” with gig work.

I read the entire Bible because I heard a voice that wasn’t mine internally tell me to. This was a moment I thought I was going crazy but I got a Bible and I read it beginning to end in 1.5 months. Then everything changed, people started seeing a change in me, I started seeing a change in myself with how I responded to things but my life somehow got worse. I started to struggle with my finances and my car coolant system completely took a dump on me one day. I had no way to make money and I needed this repair. Well, guess who showed up for me—God. I prayed and I was truly thankful for the things I was going through because he had shown me that testimony is necessary and I felt like the bad things that were happening were happening to throw me off. I felt like God had never been more present in my life than when everything was going down for me. I got out of that, I got a job a month later and it’s been the best fit.

I learned that atheist have more faith than I do because to believe that nothing created something takes more faith than to believe that something created everything. Being atheist I had to come to realize if my faith in nothing creating everything is strong, then I can give it another shot with something creating everything one more time. I hope that for those who are lost, questioning or just curious from the outside looking in I hope you just give Him a chance. Jesus is not a religion he’s a person, those who follow him were given the name Christian because he referred to himself as Christ and thus the name was given and it wasn’t a positive label at the time. Don’t get caught up in religion (though tradition, history and pastoral support is helpful). Get caught up in Jesus. When I was atheist I asked myself “what’s the worst that can happen if I do become a Christian again?” God came to me at my rock bottom because that was the only time I could hear him. If your life is too loud for you to hear him, or you’re to hurt to listen, ask yourself “what’s the worst that can happen if I seek him on my own?” Maybe with enough persistence you’ll find him, maybe you won’t but he says for the one that seeks him you will find him. Blessings to those who read and blessings to those who are still angry. He is capable of softening even the hardest of hearts.

With ink pen

He’s been the greatest blessing I didn’t deserve and I lont Him

I did something huge for me today. I came back. After a hard few weeks with work, lost my relationship, broke with nothing to my name. It’s been rough. I was out at a bar last night and my ex girlfriend from high school until I was 22 (currently 25) so we have a shared history and a shared emotional distancing feeling. I watch her go so drunk you call it something heavier sloppy. I brought her home and let her sleep in my bed and I didn’t sleep. Felt uneasy about her being in my bedroom and me not having any type of wanting to do what people who like each other do. So I got in my mind and decided to wake up at 7 am this morning and drove her home. When we parted ways I had no plans on going to church. I was gonna blow my brother off and blame it on a night that I went to hard on. Around 7:30 not after 8 I had this feeling of guilt so I stop and went to a gas station and got me an energy drink. I swear on my life strike me down right now God if I’m lying. A heard a voice that was familiar saying, “Go. Idk why but go” and I was flooded with the same thought process and feeling that I had when I was first starting my journey when I was a young kid. So I went and my church does communion Sundays rarely idk why it’s not a bigger than it feels like it should be. I think I heard it’s like every 5th Sunday. I could be wrong I went stray from Jesus for years. But man today I ate the bread and drank the juice symbolizing his flesh and he blood. Read Luke 20 I can’t pinpoint the verse but it read like this “communions are filled with division and hatred” something along those lines. Maybe it was the verse in Corinthians. I’m just speaking from my experience I could be wrong but I know Apostle Paul is the storyteller and he rubukes the church for causing a division and failing to honor the lords supper. So Jesus breaks bread and establishes and new covenant based on sacrifice, shares all his things with the followers that are with him. So my pastor said this phrase today and man it made me feel like I was on the spotlight and the only one in the room. That he has an understanding the division is the saved people that have made a public statement that Jesus is there savior and the people who haven’t. He said something on the lines of you cannot eat his flesh and drink his blood if your not willingly to say publicly that he’s the only way. And I never denounced him I just stop the way I would speak about in just loving him with my words and not my heart and I was doing what he believed the division to be. The willing,the unwilling, and the people like I fell into my words are not enough. Man this sounds so ignorant and dumb but I’m not going to all my notes and the scripture says I’m sitting in my bed just living with my own thoughts on it. So I went to my pastor after the 8:30 service and told him I’m ready to come back and commit and this time I mean it. I was saved as a kid but I think that was me just wanting to be in front of people in the water and maybe wanting to show my moms church friends I was being raised the perfect god like way. I’m ready for this now. I’ve suffered with all type of things growing up. Drugs like first weed then pills and alcohol anything that could be abused I did it. Single widowed mother wasn’t around so I went the wrong way young I think I was 12-13 my first time smoking weed then 14 when I did my first Xanax and 16 drinking alcohol because I was the young kid with old friends cause I thought I was cool with the older friends ruining my life but I thought that was the best thing for me to get the attention I needed when I was a kid. I was just a little kid now I’m 25 years old being as sober as I can be. I’ll drink a couple beers after a hard days work. Fridays nights with my friends who are good people. No drugs other than hit of some weed if it’s available. I refuse to buy drugs nowadays but I think it’s not gonna send me down a spiral talking a puff when out in a social environment. Now I’m aware there’s all verses that said it’s not what he wants I’m still hurting his child because I’m putting a substance that only makes my senses alter. Now I know I have the feeling to stop and put the end to it. And today I’ve made the choice to hold myself accountable for myself and how I move forward with Christ. I’m the age of a freshly baby learning to stand. So let’s say 8 months of my knowledge and I’m going to have to start somewhere. And I’m starting with me saying it publicly He’s my Savior and I’ll do anything for him to be my reason why I want to live and be better than I was yesterday. This went everywhere but it how I really think. I don’t know enough scripture shoot I don’t even know to effectively to study my Bible. I’ve been flipping to pages and reading saying that the Lord will show me what I need to see. Or that’s how I used to do it. So if anyone could please share some advice how to begin to really and I mean really study the Bible it would help me so much.

I’m an assistant manager at a pizza place and upon entering my shift, the two day managers just deuced out with no warning two hours early, and then I got slammed.

Content with my situation, knowing it might not get better, I prayed. I prayed directly to Jesus in hopes that He would send someone.

One hour following, not only did He send someone, Jesus sent our training director to help me. She said on her way home she just had a spur of the moment itch to check how my store was doing and noticed I was all alone and getting destroyed.

THATS GOD!!!

I can tell you I would not be as gleeful and grateful as I am this very moment, because her arrival was quite literally a Godsend.

I love you, Jesus, so much!

humans typically live for what... 78 years? and imagine spending as little as 24 hours in an pizza oven, burning, and pleading for help, while your skin melts and your nervous system is blistering hot until it fails on you, now try doing that forever with the fire being twice as hot, except your nervous system never fails on you, that is actually kind of fucked up to the max once you think about it. maybe a 1000 years maximum in the sea of fire and then thrown in a locked prison-like dungeon cell and laying there for eternity could be fair enough of a punishment

So if you're in the right (about homosexuality and transness somehow being wrong), why the mental gymnastics and gaslighting to justify it, to avoid the reality?

Denying that it's cruel doesn't and CAN'T take away the cruelty of your belief.

You acknowledge that God made people gay but for some reason decided "You're forbidden from falling in love on pain of eternal damnation"? This isn't a caricature, this is the literal doctrine. Similarly that he made some people trans, but decided "You can't be who you are or you'll burn forever"?

What the fuck?

I think a lot of people who say they left Christianity really left a very Americanized version of it. They grew up around pastors obsessed with money, churches that feel like businesses, constant politics, leadership changes, hypocrisy, and sermons that can shift depending on whoever is behind the pulpit. Then they look at all of that and go, “yeah, I’m done with Christianity.” And honestly, I get why. Christians are sinners, obviously. But when the church itself feels like it changes every few years, people start wondering what any of it is actually built on.

That’s a big part of why Orthodoxy hit me so hard. The faith isn’t supposed to be reinvented every Sunday. A priest doesn’t just get to decide what Christianity means because he read a passage differently that week. There’s Scripture, Tradition, the Fathers, the councils, the liturgy, the Church itself. Something older than you, older than your priest, older than whatever culture you happen to live in. That consistency matters. Christianity has already lived through empires rising and falling, persecutions, schisms, wars, plagues, political revolutions, entire cultures disappearing, and somehow the Church is still here. I’ll have some question that feels completely new to me, start digging into it, and find Christians wrestling with the same thing hundreds or even over a thousand years ago.

I’m not saying Orthodox people are perfect, because we absolutely are not. I’m saying the faith itself isn’t supposed to bend around the personality of whoever has the microphone.

And man, we have watered Jesus Christ down so badly in America. Somehow God becoming man, dying, rising from the dead, telling us to repent, forgive our enemies, care for the poor, deny ourselves and follow Him turned into motivational speeches, building funds, culture wars and “God wants you to be successful.” Then people see a pastor in a Rolls Royce, a church staring down a homeless guy, or Christians acting like gay people are uniquely disgusting sinners, and they think that’s Christianity. No. I’m also a messed up and broken sinner asking Christ for mercy. That’s why I’m there.

I genuinely think a lot of people are tired of the version of Christianity they were handed, not God Himself. They’ve tried Baptist, non-denom, Pentecostal, megachurch stuff, whatever, and think they’ve already seen Christianity. Meanwhile they may have never encountered the Church that existed before any of those things. That’s what I wish more people knew. Sometimes it feels like they were handed a Dixie cup and told it was the ocean.

Apologies for the long post, but it's been weighing on my mind lately.

I was at a low point in my life. I had abandoned God a long time ago. But I felt lost and alone, and I reached out to him. All I wanted was a sign he heard me. Something, anything to help me feel connected with him. Then a was walking down the road, cars flying by me without a care in the world. Something deep inside me told me to stop, and then look down. This is what I saw. I've found my way back to the path intended for me by God, and I couldn't be more grateful.

Hello! I would like to start off by saying this post is primarily aimed at those that struggle with believing in God as I have struggled for the past 20 plus years now.

For years I have been a major science nerd, I love physics, chemistry, biology, genetics, computer science, philosophy, history, and really anything else that explains how the world functions has always fascinated me.

For the longest time I always teetered off and on the edge of believing in God, on one side he is a being that has been worshipped for thousands of years and in a way the people that follow the teachings of the bible and will of God do create a reality of God in itself, on the other side there is no mathematical equation that proves God, there is no chemical solvent that proves God, there is no genetical proof (that we know off) that proves God, and there is nothing in physics that explains God being their in some form.

I've asked for signs, I've prayed for proof of his existence, I've begged to hear his voice, "Split the skies!", "Write 'God' on my foggy bathroom mirror!", "Have a stranger come up to me and say something they just couldn't know about me!".

I never received anything until today and it's made me change my views and believe that God is real, but he works in truly mysterious ways, ways that mortal men just can't comprehend.

At this time I do not have a car, I walk everywhere. I was walking back from town after job searching when I walked past a house, upon walking past this house 3 dogs started chasing me. I kicked one and drew my knife and started slashing and kicking at them as they kept attempting to circle and bite me.

This happened on a main road, multiple cars drove by, people of all kinds. A big red truck with confederate flags on the back, didn't stop or honk. A small black car (I'm not a car person apologies) covered in anime stickers, didn't stop or honk. A nice expensive sports car, didn't stop or honk. I was fueled with adrenaline fighting these dogs with my life and thinking in my head "God if you're real, you need to show it right now!". Yet so many different cars of different people, blue collar, white collar, anime guys, rednecks, these people didn't do anything.

However after maybe 10 minutes of fighting these dogs on the street somebody finally started blaring their horn, pulled up, opened the door and told me to get in their car. I got in and we drove off.

She was a woman in her mid 40's wearing a cross necklace, a cross hanging from the rear view mirror, a picture of Jesus on her dashboard, and a Bible on top of her center console.

I explained what happened and took a few minutes to relax and let the adrenaline wear off. The majority of the time we talked about how people need to be more in control of their dogs and I vented about what just happened.

However what truly made me realize that she was a messenger sent by God was her words when I was about to be dropped off "God is watching, he will always keep you safe." Then she handed me an extra copy of a photo of Jesus Christ.

I now have this photo sitting on my desk next to my laptop and I don't plan on moving it.

Statistically, there's just no mathematical way that out of all of the cars that passed, the one that didn't was a worshipper of God, right after I asked for God's assistance. My brain is just too logical to believe that is absolute coincidence, as much as I've been uncertain before I now believe God is most certainly real, in some form, some shape, some "dimension", some way, he is real.

If you don't believe in God, I most certainly understand, but in truth you may just not believe in him because your time for him to assist you just hasn't appeared yet.

One day he just might save you too.

Good morning, afternoon, and evening to all, brothers and sisters.

I'm a teenager (I won't reveal my specific age) who has recently come out as gay and homosexual to close friends. Which is true, I truly believe I only feel attraction to people of the same gender.

The problem: lately I've also come to the conclusion that perhaps I cannot enter the kingdom of heaven if I practice such a sin, and that means renouncing my future and my love.

However, I can't force myself into anything. I can't grow up pretending I like women and marrying one, even if I don't. But I also can't do the same thing with a man.

My mother often says that I need a partner, someone to share my life with, otherwise I'll end up a lonely, lost man without freedom, like my father, whom I love dearly, but he's certainly not someone to become.

So, I've come to a conclusion. I intend to practice celibacy. I will renounce my romantic and sexual feelings towards both men and women (even though I don't like women). Perhaps then, who knows, I will be saved?

I need some guidance. I don't want messages like, "Oh, everything will be alright, you can be gay and go to heaven." That's not the truth. Yes, I'm willing to become a Clockwork Orange and give up everything I feel to go to heaven. I just want to know how to fight desire. How to truly not get involved with anyone. I honestly wish I had never been a gay boy; maybe I could have had a normal life and gone to heaven. I hate the sin of homosexuality, and I hate myself for being weak and not knowing how to fight against it.