New Here: a Reluctant Agnostic

[LookingForGod]

Thank you to the makers of this forum for providing a place for non-Christians to post. Very nice of you.

As someone who is neither an atheist or a believer, but who wants to be a believer (probably a Christian), I find it hard to fit in anywhere. Maybe here? Is anybody in this same rather unstable boat?

Besides people who are like me, I'd like to talk to some Christians who can take me as I am and not give long sermons, but just let me see how you are. It doesn't do any good to say, "Just believe." If I could do that, I'd be in the top part of the forum--and I'd be very happy. But if you can tell me exactly how to "just believe" with steps I can follow, I will thank you all my life. (I already read the Bible daily, and pray several times a day. Maybe you can help me with the Christian fellowship that's also recommended as a way to get to faith in God.)

I just honestly don't know what's out there, and I hope that if it's God, He will accept me as being honest, and honestly wanting to know Him. I hold a space for Him in my heart/mind/soul, clean and unoccupied for now, and if I ever do know Him I will love Him.

I call my religion Respectful Agnosticism.

 

[Brakelite]

Hi. I grew up in a religion/faith that never encouraged a personal relationship with Jesus, and now actively discourages such a thing. Yet I 'believed' in the existence of God, who I believed to be the creator. Then a Christian friend asked me, "do you think God approves of your current lifestyle?" After a few hours of coming to grips with the very real idea of God actually being concerned about such a thing, I decided to pray genuinely for the first time, and basically admitted, to myself and God, assuming He was listening, that nah, He wouldn't approve. And could He make my life one He could approve of. Please.
I cannot adequately describe what happened next, in any terms anyone else could understand. But I met God for the first time. And I woke up the next morning a different person. I found out months later that such an experience is called being born again. You may have heard of it.
However, our experience with discovering God is different. We are different. We have different upbringings, we live in different cultures, and we have all lived different experiences. So God adapts the way he approaches us according to our different situations, emotional and mental state, etc etc.
So no-one should require of you that you should follow a certain formula. But one thing is certain. One thing you can be sure of. And that is that God loves you. He wants you to be confident in that love. And He wants you to know Him. Personally. That is even promised in scripture.
KJV Matthew 7:7-11
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

KJV Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

KJV Ezekiel 34:10-12
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

As the shepherd loves his sheep, and cannot rest if even one be missing, so, in an infinitely higher degree, does God love every outcast soul. Men may deny the claim of His love, they may wander from Him, they may choose another master; yet they are God's, and He longs to recover His own. He says, "As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Ezekiel 34:12.

 

[quietthinker]

Hello LFG
You have courage to post as you have.
A handful of us from various corners of the world get together weekly via zoom to pow wow.....to ask questions and seek solutions with meaning. If you are curious and would like to participate I am happy to get details to you.

 

[BarneyFife]

Thank you to the makers of this forum for providing a place for non-Christians to post. Very nice of you.

As someone who is neither an atheist or a believer, but who wants to be a believer (probably a Christian), I find it hard to fit in anywhere. Maybe here? Is anybody in this same rather unstable boat?

Besides people who are like me, I'd like to talk to some Christians who can take me as I am and not give long sermons, but just let me see how you are. It doesn't do any good to say, "Just believe." If I could do that, I'd be in the top part of the forum--and I'd be very happy. But if you can tell me exactly how to "just believe" with steps I can follow, I will thank you all my life. (I already read the Bible daily, and pray several times a day. Maybe you can help me with the Christian fellowship that's also recommended as a way to get to faith in God.)

I just honestly don't know what's out there, and I hope that if it's God, He will accept me as being honest, and honestly wanting to know Him. I hold a space for Him in my heart/mind/soul, clean and unoccupied for now, and if I ever do know Him I will love Him.

I call my religion Respectful Agnosticism.

I think we've all been in that unstable boat in some sense or other, but I'm looking forward to hearing more about your unique experience.
I have to go to bed now but I'll stop by in the morning to pester everybody.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Thank you to the makers of this forum for providing a place for non-Christians to post. Very nice of you.

As someone who is neither an atheist or a believer, but who wants to be a believer (probably a Christian), I find it hard to fit in anywhere. Maybe here? Is anybody in this same rather unstable boat?

Besides people who are like me, I'd like to talk to some Christians who can take me as I am and not give long sermons, but just let me see how you are. It doesn't do any good to say, "Just believe." If I could do that, I'd be in the top part of the forum--and I'd be very happy. But if you can tell me exactly how to "just believe" with steps I can follow, I will thank you all my life. (I already read the Bible daily, and pray several times a day. Maybe you can help me with the Christian fellowship that's also recommended as a way to get to faith in God.)

I just honestly don't know what's out there, and I hope that if it's God, He will accept me as being honest, and honestly wanting to know Him. I hold a space for Him in my heart/mind/soul, clean and unoccupied for now, and if I ever do know Him I will love Him.

I call my religion Respectful Agnosticism.

God bless, and welcome to Christianity Board.

If there were no place for those who are simply honest with Him, I would have been sunk a long time ago, Lol.

About the fitting in, please keep something in mind: This forum really isn't representative of a church. We are simply a group of individuals who all share an interest in spiritual matters. But that may be about where the comparison ends. There is something of a family here among more long-standing members, and speaking for them I'm sure we would certainly be glad if you became a regular here. But ultimately only Jesus would always be there for you. This is not preaching at you, it is simply helping you to understand where our real hope lies as Christians, not in each other but in Him. Despite our best intentions we still fail one another, and it is our love for Him (or maybe rather His love for us) that keeps us going no matter what happens in life. So he is the One I would advise you to worry most about "fitting in" with, though I'm sure there are many here who would be there for you if you asked them.

God bless, and welcome again to the forum.
Hidden In Him

 

[Hidden In Him]

I think we've all been in that unstable boat in some sense or other

I'm sure we have, Lol.

 

[Angelina]

Hi @LookingForGod



Looking forward to your posts