Losing my Religion? Keeping the faith with Lyme Disease

UnsightlyCignet☄️ said...
Thank you BabsBunny. I appreciate your end note. It can be a bit much to take at time, this illness. I've been really wrestling with it recently. The new testament, is very confusing, and I have issues with Paul's Epistles, parts of them anyway, not all of them. Discernment is necessary of course. I personally believe the bible contains the Word of God, not that ALL of it is.

I apologise if I was at all offensive, I got a bit angry. I'm having a horrible time of it recently, fighting off seizures and the fact that I only sleep about 4 to 5 hours a night of broken sleep.

This is why we need these discussions in a Lyme context! We all know the Lyme rage and insomnia! We have to support one another through our struggles!

I also realize that I was really unclear about the distinction I was making between types of "evil". Evil people - people doing harm and wickedness - are not from God! He allows them to work, but He is not in them, they are darkness!

What I was referring to is 'natural' evils, or things we think of as evil, maybe are only 'darkness' to us - meaning that God's creation and life cycle cannot be darkness because they are His, but if we have the wrong focus - on anger and blame and hatred - we don't see His light in them.

For example, ticks and their diseases. What inherent evil is in them? The tick is God's creation. It is just surviving, feeding, eat, doing what we were all created to do. The spirochete is just surviving. It's an organism (and quite a brilliant one at that!) created by God. Our bodies are marvelous works of creation, doing what they do, fighting off the pathogens with inflammation and symptoms. While it seems a great evil punishment to us to be afflicted with these, God can turn this into a huge blessing - in fact, ironically, his biggest blessing is to refine a person - which is painful, like the melting, burning, and pounding of refining iron - bring man to his knees and utter weakness so that he will learn to be dependent and safe in God, and glorify Him. "Streams in the Desert" is full of these examples of God's greatest blessings being brought through suffering. Christ being the ultimate example.

There are most certainly evil forces in this world and opposition to God. I don't believe we should accept them. Nope nope nope.

I know for a fact that Christianity is amongst one of the most abused "spiritual practices" in the history of man kind. That's why I reflect on what makes sense and do not adhere to any dogma or doctrine. Otherwise one ends up torturing ones self for no good reason. I do not call myself a christian. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus' teachings I think the new testament is corrupt as hell. I believe in a benevolent creator and that evil comes from man and his decision to ignore the divine within.
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Why do you think the New Testament is corrupt? It seems to agree with the Old Testament pretty well. Some of it is really hard to understand at first, though.

I agree that God only wants good for us. It says in the book of James that there is absolutely no evil in God, and that he does not tempt people, nor can he be tempted.

It says that "All things work together for good to them who love God and are called according to his purpose." This is the way I think about it: God definitely didn't want bad things to happen to me, and he didn't want me to make all the dumb mistakes I've made, but if I trust him and accept his plan for me, he is going to make EVERYTHING work for good in the end. I really have had trouble wrapping my head around the everything part. I had to accept that I couldn't save myself, and that I had to accept for Jesus did for me, before the "working for good" started, I guess.

What really helped me was joining a church where the people really are following God, and the Bible—they are really supportive towards me and everyone else in the church. God is just so amazing—the things he has done in my life, and the lives of my friends and family are incredible. When I got sick, I pretty much lost all my friends, but God has given me new ones, and I've been able to re-connect with some old ones.

Not all churches are supportive though. At the church I used to go to, one of my relatives asked for help from the leaders when I was really sick—they did not do or say anything at all, which was discouraging.