My Calling.

Deregos.

I'm about to throw my life into the arms of the living God. The lord God Jesus is calling to me at every turn.

There'd been a void in my life for years which morphed into depression and anxiety. The only thing that truly fills that space and defeats all that negatively is God's love.

He's been attempting to engage with me for many years, but I choose to ignore him until recently. Hes now on my mind day and night. I secretly listen to the Gospels on my headphones. I have yet to find my voice and confidence in prayer, (sincere concentration is proving difficult for me being so distracted by random thoughts).

I haven't joined any church yet so I've got some important decisions to make without delay.

While we've had some vague conversations about God and religion around the dinner table, my household lacks any faith or awareness of God or his commandments. I'm about to agitate a seemingly, very happy home with this revelation.

I still need to quit alcohol as its definitely a hindrance to me. Of course this is not going to be easily accepted by my drinking buddies either. I've simply had enough of drinking along with all the problems it brings at this stage.

There's plenty of other changes I need to start implementing very soon, and plenty of people I need to forgive and ask for their forgiveness.

I realise it's not supposed to be easy to walk alongside and keep in step with an almighty God, but I must crack-on.

hfenton

Take your time, pray each day, don't rush into telling everyone how you feel, or permanently joining any particular Church. Take pleanty time and as long as you need to consider it all yourself first.

Deregos.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123054061#Comment_123054061

Just contemplating how perfect It would be if there was, but unfortunately there isn't just one true church anymore. Of the many options around, choosing a church is gonna be a case of trying to pick the Christian community I feel best aligns with my current views on faith.

I'm scratching my head a bit, because looking around, my honest view is that Christ would much prefer that there was just one, and no division or factions whatsoever, between all His different Christian church communities.

I'm drawn towards the idea of the 'Born Again' community as I like the idea of having a new physical baptism, but don't know enough about them in my area just yet.

I pray God will guide me in the right direction.

hfenton

My advice is if you feel that way, is don't be in any hurry to weld yourself to any particular Christian group or Church for at least the first few years. Concentrate on your own relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirt, Prayer, Scripture and Sacrament(s) (if you go down the sacrament route).

Attend several groups and Church's by all means until you find yourself settling, and remember, like anything else, all groups are going to have both problem human beings and human problems. Don't have any prejudices or pre-conceived ideas about what a particular Church, denomination or group is like, but also at the same time don't over expect any group of human beings to be perfect or to organise anything perfectly. There will be problem human beings and human problems in them all. There can be a very wide variation of people and practices even in the same denomination between different locations and groups. God bless.

redmeadow

I understand your calling, the same thing happened to me a few years back, I would say don’t delay, repent or turn away from alcohol or anything else holding you back from giving yourself fully to Christ, anything that is tying you to the world.
All my family and friends were either atheist/lapsed Catholics and some practicing catholics.
Jesus said unless a man be born again he will not see the kingdom of heaven, after reading the Bible I knew I couldn’t go back to the Catholic Church, I largely just listened to YouTube sermons for a time until i felt I really did need to be involved in a church.
I searched for a local bible based church and the first one I went to was excellent, with genuine born again believers and based solely on the Bible (and not the traditions of men).
God is calling you, don’t delay in answering him, you don’t know when your last breath will be or a loved one. It’s difficult to tell loved ones about your new found faith but it won’t get easier, you want them to know about salvation too and your life needs to be a testimony to them.
There is genuine believers everywhere if you look, start by attending your most local Bible based church and their bible study and pray for Gods guidance and wisdom to lead you, he will bring the people into your life that will help you grow in faith.
There is only one Church, the biblical Church is simply those who repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ as their saviour. Salvation is not in the correct denomination, it’s in the word of God, Jesus Christ.
God Bless and guide you Brother

Deregos.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135605#Comment_123135605

Thank you my friend for those words of encouragement. Everyone i know, be they family, friends or colleagues are lapsed Catholics. The only people who regularly attend Mass where I live are the lovely older folks yet, the Catholic mass does not appeal to me as its to ritual based and repetitive.

I've cut down but haven't completely given up drinking alcohol yet. Sometimes I seem to be stalling in the process of quitting and giving in to temptation a bit to easily.

I too am spending a lot of time finding comfort by watching YouTube videos of sermons by the likes of Charles Spurgeon, Dwight Moody, C.S Lewis and just recently Derek Prince. I'm not at all interested in listening to the superstar American preachers, but I’m in awe of the faith and bravery of street preachers the likes of Ray Comfort, or this English guy who's an ex drug dealer.

I don't get how some churches are encouraging the 'prosperity theology' that seems to be gaining a lot of traction of late. I'm sure it goes against what Our Lord warned us about having love for only one master and hating the other.

There doesn't appear to be any actual Born Again churches meeting in my locality, but there is a Baptist Church that puts up its weekly sermons on the web which is very much a biblical based Church. I'm hoping to attend it next Sunday morning if all goes well.

Thanks again for your message. There's not a lot of believers on Boards to converse with about ones new found faith.

redmeadow

that’s fantastic, I can relate to much of your story, my recently passed Mam and uncle’s and Aunts still have a strong Catholic faith but outside of that they are Luke warm/ lapsed Catholic or just plane indifferent to it all or a few with very new age beliefs which I entertained myself for a while.
Yes the guys you mentioned are good to listen to, I would add to that list David Pawson who I found so lovely to listen to and Martin Lloyd Jones who I recently am enjoying and Paul Washer is also very good.

when I was younger I often heard of born again Christians, I thought it was a denomination but being born again is an experience, it happens when you realise your sin, not just a few lies or drunkenness here and there but a whole life of sin, seeking your own way and not Gods way, you realise that you are lost in sin and no matter how hard you try you could never drag yourself out of your sinful lost state, you realise you need a saviour. Then the death and resurrection of Jesus is no longer some obscure event, you realise he died for you.
you are willing to die to your old life of seeking your own way and be born again in total submission to God, with the Holy Spirit living in you, guiding you, convicting you of when you fall short, sanctifying you or making you Holy or set apart for God.
You have now started your journey but it’s not an easy road, that’s why you need fellow pilgrims to guide you and Support and encourage you on that journey, to correct you if you go astray, we all need support in our walk, The Holy Spirit is guiding us and the true Church can give us strength also.
No church will be perfect, no church will be likely filled with truly born again believers, but some churches are definitely much more likely and as the saying goes even if you find the perfect church and join it, it will be no longer perfect because we are not perfect.
a Baptist church should be sticking to the bible alone and not church traditions ( to my knowledge, I’m not an expert and there could be many differences within Baptist churches) so that could be a good start.
I searched for Bible based churches and found the one I attend.
yes I also looked at their YouTube channel to watch a few sermons before hand, you can also attend their bible study and see what that’s like.
they should be Christians so they should be delighted to meet a new believer who wants to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
when I first attended I also got a strange guilt just before attending wondering was I betraying my Catholic faith and ancestors but that quickly passed as I met so many others who left both the Catholic Church and the church of Ireland.
I for one am delighted I looked up boards last night and to hear your calling and I will keep you in my prayers that God brings fellow brothers and sisters in Christ into your life that can encourage you in your walk and growth.
God bless

redmeadow

check out calverymission.net website, they are looking to establish evangelical (Bible believing) churches across Ireland, they may have some other people in your area who have a house church or something in the pipeline.
God bless

Deregos.

I don't know who this preacher is. I like and endorse his message.

https://youtu.be/cmpRBETOuRI?si=XDtN6Br0-T_qdZES

Deregos.

I went to the local Baptist Church this morning. It was a lovely experience, much more relaxed and inclusive than any RC services I've attended. I'll definitely be going back again next week.

Deregos.

Now here's an coincidence. When I'd been looking around my locality for alternative Christian churches, one that came up was a local community church, but as I said above in my last post, I opted to attend the Baptist Church last Sunday which I really liked.

Today my son wanted me to buy him an electric guitar online, so he showed me the ad and I bought it. It turns out that the person selling the guitar is only the pastor from the local community Church that I'd contemplated joining. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit is guiding me towards this Church rather than the Baptist one.

redmeadow

that’s brilliant, I found that also with the church I attend. I think they call it low church.
High church is when they have a lot of ceremony and it’s much more formal which is what you get in Roman Catholicism and many Anglican or Church of Ireland traditions

redmeadow

that is an interesting story, it is worth a visit to see and learn more and to continue to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you

redmeadow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123165806#Comment_123165806

great message indeed, sounds a little like Paul Washer who is another of my favourites to listen to

Deregos.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123188123#Comment_123188123

I just checked the video info and it says the speaker is Jentezen Franklin, and yes, when you here him, he does sound similar to the very passionate Paul Washer, whose now seen regularly on my youtube algorithm.

I've attended a local Christian church for the past couple of weeks and it feels very fitting to be there. Still, none of my friends would be aware of my walk towards being born again and desiring a close relationship with God.

I have many many hurdles to overcome before I can truly claim to be born again.

https://youtu.be/njlj46sINFM?si=P2c-f_Dv1xTzNqcY