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As a lifelong evangelical, I note that we evangelicals typically ignore the ensuing set of questions that should precede discussion of Catholic doctrinal distinctives: I. QUESTIONS PRELIMARY TO A DISCUSSION OF CATHOLIC CONFESSION OF TO PRIESTS: (1) Why do evangelicals spend so little time...

Best prayer posture? A farmer once testified in church, "I did my best praying, head-down at the bottom of a well!" :)

Why do so many Christians ignore an oft repeated biblical command for worship--lifting up our hands? Many Christians get angry when pastors ask then to lift their hands and praise the Lord, arguing that doing so feels showy and unnatural to them and they don't like being manipulated. Paul...

The Greek "euchomai" and its cognate "proseuchomai" are standard NT words for "prayer." Note how Luke uses "euchomai" to refer to the prayer to Paul of a visionary man who is not physically present with Paul. The visionary Macedonian man "prayed ("euchomai") to him [Paul, not God!], saying...

DPMartin: "all i know is God makes the choice, simple as that, how i feel has no bearing on that. this subject isn't about me is it? its supposed to be about the Lord God." No, read the OP: This subject is about the grounds of doubt and that places the focus and burden squarely on you. DP...

Doubt is a mark of intelligence, including spiritual intelligence. We need to ask ourselves whether we have enough faith to have an effective prayer life. But that very question prompts us to look within and the uncertainties of such introspection inevitably create doubt. As Saint Teresa of...

Why do posters continue to give biblical answers to the OP's PSYCHOLOGICAL question? Thus, most of the answers are unhelpful to believers plagued by unwanted faith-crippling doubts.

I'm told that roughly half the people in our local jail are mentally ill and drug-addicted. The 2 often seem to go together here. Particularly sad are the mentally ill young women who are victimized by drugs-for-sex male predators. To these women their hard drugs become their new meds, and...

David was a diabetic with a severe case of schizophrenia. Attending church just triggered his paranoia. So I befriended him and visited with him during his dialysis treatments in town. He loved the Psalms, but unfortunately believed that he himself was King David, his namesake. I eventually...

Christians doubt because they believe and claim God's promises to heal, and then consistently see no answer to their desperate petitions. In fact, most Christians have never witnessed a healing miracle. Faith dies with no track record of success. So pastors rationalize this pattern of failed...

As an evangelical charismatic who has served as a theology professor at a Catholic university, I have found the truth to be precisely the opposite. I totally get why several evangelicals have fled their local evangelical churches to find God real in our local Catholic church. Many evangelicals...

(1) a premonition that my friend Dallas would be accidentally killed if he joined his friends on a hunting adventure the next day: In vain I pled with him not to go, but he wouldn't listen and was killed just as God revealed to me. (2) a premonition that my friend Ted would imminently be...

(2) PETER'S FOCUS ON THE AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF "TASTING" CHRIST'S GOODNESS Through John the seer, the Risen Lord describes His personal relationship with true believers as being spiritually "hot" and stuns the reader by adding that He'd rather we be spiritually "cold" than "lukewarm,"...

When I hear evangelicals speak of God talking to them, I typically dismiss this as wishful thinking that equates God with the voice in the back of their head. But here are 3 exceptions: (1) Christians who have learned how to "pray in the Spirit" (Spirit- directed prayer in English or other...

(1) JOHN THE SEER'S FOCUS ON THE NEED FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF FEASTING WITH THE RISEN LORD In Rev. 3:20 feasting on Jesus is an image of a "hot" spirituality in contrast with "lukewarm" faith-based spirituality whose adherents the Lord will "spit" or "vomit" (The Greek "emeo" can mean both) out...

In the NT normative Christian experience is limited neither to mere confession of sins and repentance nor to a lived faith based on salvation by grace through faith, but primarily consists of a living intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In a recent study 3 of 4 Christian young...

If you read my OP, you would realize that I believe in "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and indeed experience it. Reread the OP and you will see that the issue raised is that the Bible never uses the expression and indeed the texts commonly cited to defend this experience don't...

Nope! There is a specialized narrow use of the Hebrew for sexual relations between spouses, but no general meaning of this sort when applied to other relations such as the divine-human relationship.

Recent research has demonstrated that 3 out of every 4 Christian young people lose their faith by the time the graduate from college. I have been struck by the number of PKs who lose their faith, especially my 3 cousins whose parents pioneered a Christian work on a Caribbean island. When these...