tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124934858818965334.post3215460829935563944..comments2024-03-15T01:31:30.045-07:00Comments on Free in Truth: Losing My FaithAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02101781919036267706noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124934858818965334.post-92007751941781291162013-09-04T10:19:27.225-07:002013-09-04T10:19:27.225-07:00The whole Laestadian movement has been lifeless si...The whole Laestadian movement has been lifeless since the first Lap land Mary story was hatched by proud Finns. "I am Finn". It just proves that nobody reads the Bible.The fact is there is more truth in the so called worldly churches then there is in any of the Laestadian factions. You can be as snug as a bug in your Laestadian related church and end up in hell because you do not the will of God, that is to trust exclusively in the merits lf Christ, and not in your church,that puts most Finns at odds with God right from the start...MattAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124934858818965334.post-84050377794594701182013-07-10T21:51:08.210-07:002013-07-10T21:51:08.210-07:00So so many parallels. prioritizinghappiness.blogsp...So so many parallels. prioritizinghappiness.blogspot.com<br />BlueSkyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13676428860665567470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124934858818965334.post-37568324594578151982013-06-18T16:32:08.348-07:002013-06-18T16:32:08.348-07:00Thank you. You give voice to so much of what I fe...Thank you. You give voice to so much of what I felt. The whole idea that no truth exists outside the LLC, no salvation...those are hard things to escape. The teaching that sin is what takes one away from the fold...and that to doubt is sin..<br />To be 5 or 6 years old asking "why don't we say God's Peace to grandpa" and be told "He's not a Christian"<br />And that same applies to half of your relatives on dad's side and as many on mom's side. "They are heretics"<br />It didn't make sense then. It didn't make sense when I was 10. One year we could attend school plays, the next we couldn't, then we could again..or wait, maybe not. <br />Then sitting through endless "congregational meetings", watching one or two people "discern" half the congregation in "wrong spirits" in meeting after painful meeting as people were emotionally beaten down until in a burst of tears and release, they confessed and were forgiven, and then eventually, someone else standing up to the women seeing the wrong spirits, and saying "You two are too prideful in your gifts"...and suddenly they were in wrong spirits?!?!<br />Then a year or so later my father is browbeaten into saying he was in a wrong spirit because he happened to mention to someone that a conversation with his father (the heretic) in which his father asked him "what if we both are wrong" bothered him...and Inside I knew it was wrong. I remember watching my father struggle, because his conscience told him he had done no great sin, yet he was bound by the congregation. Bound? What the hell does that mean? I can't say God's Peace to my dad? Something in me broke..and I think that is when I stopped believing it all. I said Good night, and God's Peace to my father that night. A small rebellion.<br />But I no longer accepted that my Grandpa, or my relatives were really not Christians. But I pretended well. I learned to lie. i lied and hid the fact that I was sexually abused. I lied about the music I listened to. I lived a lie, because while I knew I didn't fit in, I didn't really belong....I didn't know how to fit in anywhere else either. I pretended through the rest of high school, and through college, staying away more and more. <br />No peace to be found...just knowledge that I was wrong. I was wrong because I didn't fit. I was adopted. i was abused by a female relative. I didn't believe what the Church said, but I wanted acceptance. I got along best with the rebellious kids. The others who listened to Rock music. But as many of them slipped into drinking and drugs, I didn't fit there either.<br />A Chameleon. I did my best to fit in where ever I was.<br />The problem is, you eventually forget who you were.<br />You never imagine that maybe, just maybe, those doubts you had..might not have been the devil at all. What if they were from a loving God, saying "My Child, there is so much more..."<br />I officially left when I got married,to a divorced Catholic no less, and those relatives who lowered themselves to come to my wedding wept as though they were at my funeral. <br />But I don't believe God wept...or if he did, it was due to the narrow minded absolutes that were tossed about in his name. I believe God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, for the sins of all. And God weeps and the Devil rejoices, when Christian (followers of Christ) look at other Christians, and judge then "unbelievers".<br />God be with you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124934858818965334.post-66618213507483817002013-02-12T23:04:39.962-08:002013-02-12T23:04:39.962-08:00WOW... All I can say. Inspirational, incredible, b...WOW... All I can say. Inspirational, incredible, beautiful, amen to that. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com