Sad but kinda funny too...

[MrJim]

Do you all ever kinda laugh at the antics of us Protestant folks running through scriptures, chasing proof texts, attempting to defend doctrines and teachings? Though I still find myself doing it on occasion it's becoming more like a fruitless endeavour-that Christianity is so much more than proof texts...

For the longest time I said that "we're doing it wrong" when it came to conversations with friends about the nature of the church, though I could never put my finger on it...I'm getting closer and closer to seeing the problem and solution.

I suppose it could be easy to be condescending toward us, but thank God I've never felt that way from TAW folks (sure get it from some Calvinists :doh: )

Now I'm cruising in forums and so many of the "hot" topics seem almost...laughable, but sad in that we are missing it...someOne said something about "straining at gnats and swallowing camels"...and He was talking to the very religious Pharisees...

God have mercy on us all...

[EricTheRed]

I laugh on occasion

[E.C.]

I laugh when I see threads with titles asking if Christ celebrated Hanukkah or something like that.

[Mary of Bethany]

It's sad, because their whole belief system is built upon making Scriptures say what they need them to. Only when you realize that there is more to Christianity than the Scriptures, are you freed from that need.

I read a story last year in the Dallas Morning News about a former evangegical teacher who completely lost his faith in Christ after he got into critical study of the Scriptures and realized that there were certain problems in translations, etc., and his whole view of Scripture came crashing down.

I remember thinking then . . . . there but by the Grace of God go I.

Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for leaving us Scriptures AND Your Church! :crosseo:

Mary

[Knowledge3]

laughter is good medicine for the soul

[nestoj]

If you ask for a personal view – personally, I find my self in more wander with every new post you make: “With this attitude towards God, faith and life, how come he is not Orthodox?”. Perhaps you are, you’re just still clinging to old habit.

nestoj
God helps

[MrJim]

If you ask for a personal view – personally, I find my self in more wander with every new post you make: “With this attitude towards God, faith and life, how come he is not Orthodox?”. Perhaps you are, you’re just still clinging to old habit.

nestoj
God helps

Yeah, I think I'm getting closer. I've been back and forth with Orthodoxy and Catholicism for a while. I thought I was going RC for a while, EO seemed so...foreign. But the inconsistencies kept it from clicking. One interesting thing I read was how the reformers were rebelling against the RC teachings that were created apart from beliefs held before the schism (hence, Orthodox teaching)- indulgences, purgatory, papal authority, and such.

So the journey continues...thinking my youngest would do pretty well standing for a DL since he can't sit still in a pew^_^

[kamikat]

You might be surprised at your children. While mine don't go to every service with me, they love it once I drag them to it. My little one, now close to 5, kisses every icon he sees at church. When I got my first icon of the Theotokos and set it up, he came running over to see it. He said "mommy, you have Jesus's momma and baby Jesus". He picked up the icon and gave it a huge, wet kiss. Every time he walks past my icon corner, he has to stop and say hello to each one of them. My older one has asked for an icon for his room and has his own prayer book. They are much more interested in church now than anywhere else we've gone. I think Orthodox spirituality really speaks to children in a way we adults don't always understand.

[BabyLutheran]

When I dragged my family to an Orthodox service, My d was just the opposite: this is so boring, I wanna go to Kids Church, etc.

Or was that my wife?....lol

[MrJim]

This morning in sunday school our discussion was in Philippians and I was talking of salvation as a process rather than a one-time event. I didn't get burned at the stake, and the conversation went pretty well I thought...especially since the earlier sermon had to do with the traditional Baptist view of salvation as the one time event in a person's life...