Looking for brothers and sisters in Jesus

Anthony Perez9 said:And homosexuality is "God-given" (innate).

The Catholic Church has tons of gay priests because of celibacy.

Why does male homosexuality bother you so much? I'm guessing you don't have an issue with women being gay?

Homosexuality has nothing to do with celibacy; it's just how people are born.

and pedophilia.

It's got nothing to do with pedophilia either. It’s cheap to lump them together like that.

By trying to suppress sexual energy—which is one of the most potent gifts God gave us—you end up causing deviations in behavior and personality.

Sure, it probably causes plenty of psychological issues, just not the ones you're aggressively mislabeling. 👎

Both men and women in the LGBT movement promote their rights in a way that's undignified, pushy, and provocative, demanding attention where they shouldn't. That's why they'll always hit resistance. Personally, I have no problem with anyone keeping things private and living their life behind closed doors without needing to parade it all over the streets.

Like I said, you don't need religious indoctrination to understand what sin is.
Thank God I haven't had to fight for my rights on the street, nor do I think the street is the right place to be demanding anything.

I'm not bothered by it. Let everyone live however they see fit.

Kevin Ruiz36 said:Both men and women in the LGBT movement promote their rights in a way that's undignified, pushy, and provocative, demanding attention where they shouldn't. That's why they'll always hit resistance. Personally, I have no problem with anyone keeping things private and living their life behind closed doors without needing to parade it all over the streets.

Like I said, you don't need religious indoctrination to understand what sin is.
Thank God I haven't had to fight for my rights on the street, nor do I think the street is the right place to be demanding anything.

I'm not bothered by it. Let everyone live however they see fit.

People fight for basic human rights. For centuries, they were slaughtered like animals, persecuted, mocked... pushed to suicide.

That’s why there will always be pushback.

So basically you're pro-skinhead and pro-stoning them... if that's your take.

I personally have nothing against anyone keeping it to themselves and practicing privately without needing to parade around the streets.

It's a political right to fight for human rights.

You don't need religious indoctrination to know what sin is.

True. But for religion to drive a good person to commit crimes, you definitely need faith.

Thank God I didn't have to fight for my rights on the street, nor do I think the street is a good place to demand any kind of rights.

We'll see how you feel when they cut your Social Security... or some other benefit. You'll be out there marching in the streets then.

Just leave me alone, everyone should just live however they want.

Hypocritical... because not everyone can just do whatever they want while stepping on others.

Keith Allen3 said:It's not just that I'm bored with praying; honestly, I'm starting to get really scared of it.
Before I started praying, things were manageable. Once I began praying deeply every single day, everything collapsed into unbearable pain and hopelessness. Now, good luck trying to pray again after all that.

In my experience, a truly human relationship—defined by respect, love, acceptance, and gratitude—is what prayer actually is.
The current state requires change. We always have the power to change our choices. Life should never be boring.
Prayer shouldn't be a chore. Especially when the response to prayer is always surprising, new, and different.
Fear is simply an indicator of one's spiritual state. That can be changed easily, provided there is the will to do so. Sometimes circumstances force a change because the burden becomes too heavy to carry, but most often, it remains a choice.
Choosing between two undesirable options is often the critical moment.
At that point, whether we want to or not, we select an option that does not align with our true self (our spiritual state). That is when we accept.
Acceptance is absolute in nature. Through acceptance, we celebrate our 🙂
Pain and hopelessness vanish in an instant.
We are profoundly unique and unrepeatable. Opportunities for acceptance exist at every step. One must be brave!

Fear is a state born from the illusion of a lack of love.
This illusion is quickly recognized once I decide to practice acceptance.
Accepting myself.
Accepting those who are different from me.
Accepting our 🙂

Pain disappears quickly.
I have a personal example. After a long break, I worked so hard that I injured my muscles and body. The next day, I couldn't walk or even cough without agony. The pain in my spine was intense. I had to crawl to the bathroom on all fours...
Regardless, I held joy in my heart. Prayer is what allows one to endure everything. The physical pain remains, but the joy of living—even while bedridden—is stronger than that pain. Difficult life situations merely show us what matters, what our foundation is...
We have the choice every single moment to choose our foundation. In every unique life situation, we do it again and again... It is a game. It is beautiful to be a child.

We can resist and be grouchy (and resistance only strengthens the grouchiness), or we can accept.
Accept with gratitude. And become childlike, naive, and joyful 🎉

These are profound changes that never go unanswered.

Keith Allen3 said:It's not just that I'm bored with praying; honestly, I'm starting to get really scared of it.
Before I started praying, things were manageable. Once I began praying deeply every single day, everything collapsed into unbearable pain and hopelessness. Now, good luck trying to pray again after all that.

As for me, I spend about an hour every day talking to God in my own words. I pray for the suffering in the world to ease up, and I pray that the people carrying all that violence in their heads can find a way to stop hurting themselves and everyone else. Most of my prayers are focused on healing, both for myself and for others. And through it all, I always make sure to say thank you for everything.

An inspiring testimony: George Washington

You can get all the gritty details in the book—it’s one of those accounts about supernatural stuff inspired by feeling Jesus' presence. It's titled "I Won't Let You Go"... which, by the way, was the whole reason a bunch of atheists actually turned things around. I'm talking about people who weren't even religious at all, some of them even hitting their 50s, just flipping the switch overnight after reading this once. Like, they had zero connection to faith in their entire lives until that moment.

Ethan Hill said:As for me, I spend about an hour every day talking to God in my own words. I pray for the suffering in the world to ease up, and I pray that the people carrying all that violence in their heads can find a way to stop hurting themselves and everyone else. Most of my prayers are focused on healing, both for myself and for others. And through it all, I always make sure to say thank you for everything.

That is just beautiful!
...always talk to God in your own way. Just tell Him exactly what's on your heart when you pray, and keep that faith in Him.

Amy Howard18 said:That is just beautiful!
...always talk to God in your own way. Just tell Him exactly what's on your heart when you pray, and keep that faith in Him.

Exactly. 🙂

It’s funny how "freedom" and "rights" always seem to come at someone else's expense.

It just goes to show that Jesus is the only way.

Especially when you realize it's logically impossible for everyone's rights and freedoms to be met at once. Only the incarnate God of Nazareth is the actual intersection point where everything meets—or falls apart.

Honestly, this whole thing doesn't really hold up if you actually bother to read the Bible...

But here's the best part about the Holy Scripture... the humanity. None of those other books they call "sacred" ever actually teach you how to be a human being.

At the end of the day, we all just want to be human—saved, free, you know? Even better if we can manage that by breakfast. Odds are slim, but since we only get one shot, I guess we take it. Hope! Jesus!

Isn't every single variation of longing for various visions of "Jesus" merely a projection of one's own desired symbols—Freedom, Goodness, Peace, Love, Enlightenment, and Truth—recast within the context of one's own subjective reality?

And yet, after several millennia, we have seen no significant progress whatsoever?

Could it be that this is all just a mental game?
Purely curiosity.

Alexander Kern58 said:It’s funny how "freedom" and "rights" always seem to come at someone else's expense.

It just goes to show that Jesus is the only way.

Especially when you realize it's logically impossible for everyone's rights and freedoms to be met at once. Only the incarnate God of Nazareth is the actual intersection point where everything meets—or falls apart.

Honestly, this whole thing doesn't really hold up if you actually bother to read the Bible...

But here's the best part about the Holy Scripture... the humanity. None of those other books they call "sacred" ever actually teach you how to be a human being.

At the end of the day, we all just want to be human—saved, free, you know? Even better if we can manage that by breakfast. Odds are slim, but since we only get one shot, I guess we take it. Hope! Jesus!

Freedom is absolute in nature. It is the tree of life at the center.
Rights are relative in nature. They are the tree of knowledge—distinguishing good from evil—or the tree of righteousness.

God stated we are free to tend, consume, and shape the garden. But when our foundation rests on rights, we resist. We judge. We decay. We vanish.
We can choose to listen in faith and embrace life, or we can believe that joy and Peace are found through righteousness alone.
The path requires both.
That is the Truth.
Truth is eternal life. 🙂

I honestly feel like God tests us when He tells us to consume, shape, and manipulate... If God loves all living creatures, why did He give humans the power to kill them just to eat? And don't even get me started on how much suffering animals go through all because of human "progress."
Sure, tend to your gardens—moderation is key—but don't go destroying everything in sight just so we can waste food, act like bullies, and fuel this massive cycle of industrial production, pollution, and the destruction of our ancient forests. It’s all connected.
I caught this really great program the other day that dives into all of this—ecopsychology.

Yes, that is the Truth.
We arrive very quickly at the question of so-called hunger...

How much is enough? What is profitable? What is optimal? What is appropriate? These questions are a direct reflection of our faith, just like everything else.

For a believer, need is merely an illusion of this world. As for the constant craving for more... one could say quite a lot about infidelity through that lens.
With just a tiny grain of faith, you realize I have everything I need, and specifically, exactly what I require. Take money, for example: whether I had ten dollars or I have thousands now—I can be equally happy, joyful, and at Peace. Conversely, I can also exist in misery and pain by comparing myself to others or even to my former self.
This is how faith acts as our central guiding thread.👍

Sometimes I catch myself being way too critical, even when I mean well, and I know that just ends up making me a target for certain groups. But honestly? I don't really care. I’m going to keep talking about protecting our environment as long as there's breath in my lungs. It’s pretty simple: humanity only makes it if we save nature. Instead, it feels like we're sprinting toward self-destruction. All this massive industry, mindless consumerism, tech obsession, and paving over every inch of green space—we're basically destroying the very things we need to actually survive.
And what can you even say to that? Calling this "wisdom and intelligence" is a joke.

At the end of the day, I just need some food and clothes. What I really need is clean air, but it feels like that's becoming a luxury.
In my ideal world, money wouldn't even exist, let alone cars...
https://i.postimg.cc/qvt2LdnG/Screen...418-110525.jpg

Ethan Hill said:Sometimes I catch myself being way too critical, even when I mean well, and I know that just ends up making me a target for certain groups. But honestly? I don't really care. I’m going to keep talking about protecting our environment as long as there's breath in my lungs. It’s pretty simple: humanity only makes it if we save nature. Instead, it feels like we're sprinting toward self-destruction. All this massive industry, mindless consumerism, tech obsession, and paving over every inch of green space—we're basically destroying the very things we need to actually survive.
And what can you even say to that? Calling this "wisdom and intelligence" is a joke.

At the end of the day, I just need some food and clothes. What I really need is clean air, but it feels like that's becoming a luxury.
In my ideal world, money wouldn't even exist, let alone cars...
https://i.postimg.cc/qvt2LdnG/Screen...418-110525.jpg

This feels like a pretty one-sided way to look at human progress. Everything is a trade-off—we gain something, but we lose something else too. I actually think technology could be a tool for protecting the environment. I wouldn't just throw away everything we've built through modernization and tech advances. Plus, if we consider ourselves part of nature, then our tools and technology are just an extension of us. So, maybe they're part of nature too.

The whole idea of ecopsychology basically boils down to this: our minds were built by nature, even if the modern world tries to tell us otherwise. Theodore Rozak was actually the first one to coin the term in his book "Voice of the Earth." His big takeaway was that when we reconnect with the natural world, it actually helps us get along better with each other and feel a lot better emotionally. Ecopsychology also digs into why we act in ways that wreck the environment—it turns out it’s really a question of what "normal" even means. Is being normal following social and tech trends, or is it staying in sync with the rhythms of nature?
Do you think it's even possible to balance those two things now that technology is running the show and nature is getting pushed to the sidelines?

@Nicholas Grant20, can you give me one example where technology actually helps save nature?
I mean, just making the stuff itself already destroys nature on so many levels...
Technology is just nature, processed. A tree is real nature. A living tree and a wooden chair aren't the same thing—there's a massive gap between the real deal and the processed version.
All this material progress is driving us straight into a wall. We haven't gained anything; we've lost everything. What kind of climate, air, or water are we leaving behind for the next generation when our oceans, soil, and atmosphere are already choked with microplastics and greenhouse gases?
Why shouldn't our work be in harmony with nature?

Once you step into the woods, everything begins to find its equilibrium, simply because there is no error to be found within nature.

Ethan Hill said:I honestly feel like God tests us when He tells us to consume, shape, and manipulate... If God loves all living creatures, why did He give humans the power to kill them just to eat? And don't even get me started on how much suffering animals go through all because of human "progress."
Sure, tend to your gardens—moderation is key—but don't go destroying everything in sight just so we can waste food, act like bullies, and fuel this massive cycle of industrial production, pollution, and the destruction of our ancient forests. It’s all connected.
I caught this really great program the other day that dives into all of this—ecopsychology.

But, I guess animals kill too... my cat loves playing with grasshoppers and moths—not even to eat them, just to mess with them, which is kind of brutal, I suppose...
As for that ecopsychology stuff, I watched it—well, more like listened to it—but it felt like they were just recycling old ideas and slapping a fancy new label on them.

Nicholas Barnes74 said:But, I guess animals kill too... my cat loves playing with grasshoppers and moths—not even to eat them, just to mess with them, which is kind of brutal, I suppose...
As for that ecopsychology stuff, I watched it—well, more like listened to it—but it felt like they were just recycling old ideas and slapping a fancy new label on them.

So, does that make cats sinners too? 😬

If you're looking for Jesus around here, you've definitely come to the wrong place...

When you’ve got sheep, you’ll never run short on wool. ☕