Jesus: A coping way

It is true that those who trust in the Lord will not be put to shame. When we are week in ourselves but place our trust in Him and what He accomplished on the cross, then we will be strong. The righteous are bold as a lion. I can do all things through Christ who strengths me. If He is for me, who can be against me.

No. I didn’t mean that Mitchell. We can find out now before we die. He will answer our questions about his existence right now while we are still very much alive. He addresses many of our questions just by showing up.

He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother and yet at the same time He is our brother who sticks closer than a so called friend.
We can know the Father and the Son now.

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And as harmless as sheep and as innocent as doves

Glory!!!
Bless you Lord Jesus. You are too cool. Beyond the scope of language to describe and to think you joined us here as a tiny, helpless new born baby. DEAR GOD

Apologies, I did indeed jump to a point I like to make and you did not say otherwise as might seem to be implied by my response. It was not easy to understand what you were saying. I mean I suppose some may ask God if He exists when they are uncertain that He does. But most might think you would answer that question before you would ask Him a question and many would suggest that by asking you show that you have already decided that He does exist. As for life after death, believing in God who is spirit is already halfway there, and certainly Jesus taught this according to the Biblical account.

What about gehenna?Or do they believ the cease to exist after dying?What about God?

Then i guess it comes down to perspective.Even though im very critical of my own religion i cant think the universe created itself alone.I cant really think about life creating itself without a creator.From my perspective its unreasonable to think that .

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I look at it like this.

I don’t want to spend my life alone and celibate. I also don’t want to spend my life with causal encounters with a string of strangers. So what I want is a relationship with a person I love and who loves me back. So I’m in a relationship and i entered that relationship to carry me towards those end goals. But I’m not marrying my fiancĂ©e just because I don’t want to be alone. I genuinely care about her a lot. I care about what she wants. Almost every choice I make that is significant, and sometimes not even significant, I communicate with her about it. She does the same. It would be untrue if someone said I was with Ziel just because I did not want to be celibate and alone for the rest of my life. There is often a lot more to the picture than to just a bare minimum desire or statement.

I also think everyone has some fear of death and the unknown. It’s a event that none of us can experience and then tell others about it. By being dead I mean dead snd never coming back. Not just being out for half an hour or so. So it’s something challenging for us. But with that said, many of us come to terms with it and we all know it’s going to happen. We don’t always live in this crazy fear of death that overrides out basic enjoyment of life.

I don’t have a specific problem concrete reason why I believe in God. I just simply do. I have always believed in a higher power and as I got older thst higher power narrowed down to Yahweh. I love God. It’s just there and it’s always been there. I can’t conceive it going away. I can see myself being evil snd still feeling grateful for God easier than I could see myself to stop feeling love for him. Because I love him I try to heed his wisdom and do his will as it’s lined out in scripture. So when someone makes me mad and what I want to do is shove my thumbs into their eyes the rage quickly dissipates and the first thing that comes over me is sorrow for sinning in my heart knowing it’s displeasing to god that I just failed him. Then my mind goes to how I use to be and how God changed me for the better. Then i fall upon the realization that the person before me does not need judgement or destruction, if possible, but instead they need two things.

  1. They need me to reflect Christ to them. That means I need to stay calm, don’t talk louder with meaner words and instead I need to reflect in my body and voice peace.

  2. They need to then understand I understand we all hurt. If I did wrong I need to apologize. I need them to see we are in this together and that we can look to Christ for a better path.

What does not go through my mind is that I better not stomp this guys head to avoid hell. Likewise, I don’t love God because I want to avoid death. I love God for many reasons, and one of those reasons is his promise of eternal life snd this peace that no matter what he’s there. This has been a very bad week for me. One of the worst weeks for me in many years. I do rely on peace from God to get through it. But he’s not just a crutch and I’m not just with him because of a fear of toppling over if that crutch was taken away.

If my faith in God vanished, sure there would be a sadness of no longer believing death is just a doorway but is indeed just a coffin. But my life would roughly remain the same. The fear of death would be tackled in another way. But it’s not correct to say God is just a crutch to help us get past a fear.

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Very well said.

There are a handful of verses in the Hebrew Scriptures that hint at a shadowy existence after death (not heaven by any means) but Jews today don’t believe in an afterlife. Unlike Muslims and Christians.

Sorry for the delay. I thought if anyone responded to me it would show up where the initial “R” is. I didn’t see any indication that you replied. I am new and don’t know my way around.
My mother said that to me. “Because you believed you were transformed.” If I had had “faith” that God was listening, I would not have been prostrate before him begging him with every fiber of my being to help me. And it wasn’t, “God please help me. Thank you. Good night.” I mean to say I begged him over and over and over ad nauseum and I wouldn’t quit. There was nothing left for me. No reason to live but man I was terrified of dying and it felt like I was dying. I can remember thinking, “He’s not there. God doesn’t exist. No one can hear me.” But, it didn’t matter. I had to plead with him, over and over and over. I can’t describe how intense it was. I didn’t repeat my pleas for the heck of it. Each request was 100 percent heartfelt, urgent, do or die. If only He was there. What a relief that would have been.
Yes, if Christ is risen, that fact alone proves an after life is real.
I think it is a scientifically valid principle to study and to compile a record of all the data available in which people described their experiences coming to Jesus; what happened? what life was like B.C.? and how life changed for the better A.D.? “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony
” I think statisticians would find evidence that by doing certain things, and praying in the name of Jesus, the likelihood of having a profound spiritual experience is exponentially greater than any other known approach.
Holy cow, did I answer you question? :blush:

How do I cope with temptation? When tempted, I see it for what it is, sin knocking at my door. Now will I let it in or will I walk in the authority that the Father has given me in Christ. Jesus crushed the serpants head, I died to sin through union with Christ’s death and I am seated in heavenly places in Christ. Since Jesus is Lord and more precisely my Lord, I have power over sin by His Spirit living in me. Sin is no longer my lord. So I can over come sin by different avenues. I can acknowledge Jesus is my Lord and not sin, so therefore I know I dont have to sin. I remember the words of Jesus and speak them against the tempter as Jesus spoke the Father’s words when He was tempted. I can do something as simple as turning my eyes away from the temptation. I can remember to love my neighbor which keeps me from sinning against my neighbor. The Father provides us with many options to overcome sin but they are all through our trust in Him and love for Him. Our victory is certain because all authority in heaven and earth is Christ’s and we are His and united to Him if we have turned from love of self and sin and placed all our hope and confidence in Him. Jesus the person is our salvation. I cope with this present world, because the spirit of Jesus is in me. Its not because of my strength or goodness, it’s because Jesus is Lord.

Interesting. So what do they believe about death? Do the just believe they just sleep in the coffin or that they are just anihhilated altogether?

Everyone tries to cope with life. When Jesus takes over a life, we have to cope with a new set of challenges. Each day He asks us if we will take up our cross to follow him? Will I surrender my will for his? Will I seek to glorify him in everything I say and do? Will I take time to pray? Will I walk the second mile today if needed? Will I forgive 70 times 7? Will I give and give and give as an unselfish servant of the God of the universe? A servant is the highest pay grade in Christianity and serving everyone is the number 1 top paying job of all the top paying jobs. IOW, will I set the table, do the dishes, take out the trash, check the oil in her car? change it?
I find this life, the Christian way of life, to be excruciatingly painful at times and tremendously rewarding and satisfying much of the time. I constantly am having to learn that most of the time doing everything in the opposite way I learned in my world growing up, is probably pleasing to God. That can be the pits. But, when it begins to sink in, it becomes better than anything I could have cooked up on my own.

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SERVANT!
As children of God we are servants. Just like Jesus:)
That is living the life of a conqueror and a life of freedom.

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The dead person lives on through his/her good deeds.

Instead of “Rest in peace, rise in glory” they say “May his/her memory be a blessing”

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A servant and a slave to righteousness, what a highly exalted position we have been given in Christ.
LIFE, LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE.

So they believe in anihhilation?Meaning their soul dies with their body .Interesting .

Well, if you’re apikorsim, you’ve lost your place in the afterlife, I think; see this note.

Afterlife in Judaism (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)

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