Monday, August 18, 2008
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Jesus Wasn't Welcome on My Blog
I've been blogging for many years. It's actually one of the few hobbies I keep up with regularly. However, before Revelife I never blogged much about my relationship with Jesus Christ. I mentioned Him here and there but never devoted entire posts about Him or my faith. I wondered why this was, especially considering my blog is my own space. Why do I keep something so important, actually the most important thing in my life, to myself? I didn't hide my faith but I didn't exactly advertise it either.
Then I started to blog here on revelife and I realized that blogging about faith isn't as easy as posting a picture update of my weekend or complaining about the latest crazy thing that happened to me. I think the best example I can give of this is that I'm married. I definitely have a husband and I am deeply in love with him. However, I never blog about my husband in detail because my relationship with him is extremely personal.
My faith is like that too. I'm definitely a Christian and I love God so much but for me my faith is something so incredibly personal. It's hard to put into words all that He has done and continues to do in my life. I definitely want to share my faith with others but time and time again I fail to express in words, especially writing, how much my relationship with Jesus really means to me.
I really admire folks, including the other writers on the site, that can easily blog about their faith. In a day and age when we spend more time online than at church or with others, it's so encouraging to read about the ins and outs of their struggles and victories.
Do you blog regularly about your faith? Do you ever have trouble expressing your faith to others?
By the way, if you think you'd like to take a shot at blogging about your personal relationship with Jesus for the revelife main page, please go here for more info. Revelife is always looking for new writers and folks that want to help out.
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Comments (71)
I understand what you are saying but I think the analogy with your husband isn't correct because God wants us to share our faith with others.
I fully understand. My faith is far from a secret on my blog, but writing about it is so personal. I almost never write about the personal aspects of my faith. Christianity in general yes, apologetics sometimes, but my personal relationship with God? Never.
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But
when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your
Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you."
- Jesus
I write about my non-faith a bit. I like to present a non-stereotypical view of an atheist (at least, I hope I am not a stereotypical atheist). I used to write about religion a lot more, back when I had more time.
It's much easier to write about theology than to write about Jesus. For some reason.
i agree with Musterion99. Yes it can be hard to know what to share but God will give us the words at the right time. We shouldn't write bout our relationship with Him to others. For our testimonies are the ones that will lead others to Christ.
I used to write specifically about my relationship with God, and my struggles being a Christian. Now, I try to write in a more secular way and post snippets of my life the way I've been blessed to be able to see it. After all, there's more to "ordinary" than meets the eye. ;)
It is hard. I did it occasionally before I joined the Revelife crew, but not as regularly as I do now. Sometimes I wonder if I'm being too personal or whether something is right for others to read. But I can't keep silent about what God has done for me. I hope that God can use what I write. I enjoy writing for Revelife, and I'm grateful to have an audience.
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - Very, very true. I find that sometimes I'm scared to write about God for fear I will misrepresent Him in some way.
It is rough, for sure. For some reason, even as Christians, we can talk about God, the Bible and love all we want, but it can be difficult to drop the "J-Bomb."
Honestly, I sometimes neglect to mention I'm a Christian, because I'm afraid they may associate me with Fred Phelps or some other blight like that.
I do blog regularly about my faith. It's the main focus of my blog. Prior to blogging I knew if I started to blog, there was no doubt I would write about my faith.
As Christians we are not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. That said, we must consider the gifts, personality and experience God has given us as well as the audience for whom we are writing.
We should be asking questions about our blogging just as we should about all our activities: Does this glorify God? Am I hallowing His Name? Am I representing Him well? And so on...
I write about my faith and my relationship with Christ, but I do not share too much about my husband and my family, except in more general terms. I can tell _my_ story, but I don't believe I should be telling _their _ stories.
@agnophilo@xanga - Luke 19:37-41
When he came near the
place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of
disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the
miracles they had seen:
"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."
I've experienced miracles, and I don't intend to keep quiet about what God has done. My blog will continue to lift Him up.
i consider my relationship with God to be the most personal thing about me, so i never blog about it or speak of it in public unless asked. my faith is really no one's business but my own.... just as the faith of another is private. besides... talking about God 24/7 just makes you sound preachy and self-involved.
frankly, i am so many more things besides a Christian... a daughter, sister, friend, student, writer, lover, gamer, partier, and geek to name just a few. i want people to get to know me based on those things before they know where my faith lies. the label "Christian" carries a lot of weight with it nowadays, and i want someone to realize that i am not some of the things often associated with our religion (bigot, racist, homophobe, Creationist, prude, etc.). it's easier to do that if they get to know me as a person first.
i blog about my faith a lot! the ups, the downs, and the whole it being worth it thing! :)
@Pickwick12@xanga - What miracles?
@agnophilo@xanga - Do you mean what miracles had Jesus' disciples seen, or do you mean what miracles have I experienced?
I don't want to argue, but I will answer the question if you really want to know. I know that your perspective is usually very negative, and I know we will not convince one another. I am sure you will want to deny any answer I give. However, if you honestly want an answer I will provide one to the best of my ability.
I blog about my faith now and then. Basically I blog about what I believe, what I think... and my faith is a part of that. I agree it's hard to put into words sometimes, but I'm a thinker, so sometimes I'll sit in front of the xanga page for a good 15 minutes before I figure out what I'm going to write. It just takes inspiration to blog about my faith, for me.
@Pickwick12@xanga - You said you've seen miracles, I'd like to know what they were.
So far as denying them, I'd love to see something genuinely miraculous. I just doubt you can provide it. I've heard a lot of peoples' "miracles" and they're usually not very impressive.
I can really understand the connection you make in regard to your relationships with your husband and the Lord and not wanting to divulge the nitty gritty details of those relationships with others. Speaking about either relationship in general can feel more secure and less invasive whether your griping that your husband forgot to take the trash out or a recent activity at your church, because others will relate very well. Whereas writing about the more personal and sometimes private conversations or experiences you share can feel like your allowing someone to invade the most inner parts of your being. Think about it, you don't have a girls night (or day) and tell all your friends about the conversation you and your hubby had about intimacy just like you don't necessarily share what has been in your prayers.
Some aspects of every relationship should be kept close to the heart and private from all others. Those things that no one else knows are what make the bond you share with the other being so strong and life changing.
@Pickwick12@xanga - great verse.
I am who I am, I am who you see.
I blog about Jesus, life, love, the universe.
If I think it, I blog it.
Even on Xanga.
x
I certainly blog about how irked I am about my classmates who try to convince me that God does not exist. In fact,I have a whole entry with reasons of why God DOES exist.
But it's quite difficult to talk about Jesus. My love for Him simply cannot be put into unworthy words.@agnophilo@xanga - Well, I've seen people get out of wheel chairs and walk normally when they previously could not walk at all. I was healed of an eye problem and OCD. I was in a church service in which we were supposed to have a certain famous speaker that we had scheduled far in advance. His son came instead because the original guest was at home dying of cancer with no medical hope whatsoever. During the service, we took time out to pray for the man. We later found out that at the exact time we were praying for him, he got up and ate something and felt completely well. He went to the doctor right away and found out he was totally healed and had no more cancer. This has been proved medically. He's fine now, and his condition was hopeless before.
I did not personally see this, but a missionary that my family knows who is in Russia was forced by government officials to pray for a man who had been in the morgue for four days, and he came back to life. Many people witnessed this, and the man is alive and speaks about it today.
If you want to hear more, I'm working on remembering all the things I've seen.
When I say miracles, I also mean things that happen in the heart. I can speak about many of those, but I won't because I assume that you don't want to hear about them. Sometimes internal changes are just as impressive as outward changes because they are just as impossible until God works.
@agnophilo@xanga - As a young man, my grandfather had rheumatic fever four times. His heart was so weak that doctors told him he could never work again or he would drop dead, and the rheumatic fever made him sterile. He was instantly healed, and he went to the doctor and his heart was re-checked. It was 100% healthy. He went on to have two children and to be a pastor and counselor for many years. At the same time, my grandmother was instantly healed of chronic migraines. As a baby, my mother was healed of a serious illness at an Oral Roberts crusade.
My uncle on the other side of my family also had rheumatic fever as a child. His father went to church to preach one night not knowing if my uncle would still be alive when he came home. The church prayed, and my uncle was instantly healed.
@Pickwick12@xanga - Where did you see these "people in wheelchairs" walking? Who clinically diagnosed you with OCD?
What eye problem?
The rest you have no evidence for, and I've seen a number of fakes who use stories like that to "uplift" people and pick their pockets.
@Pickwick12@xanga - I think "instantly healed" is an exaggeration. Your grandmother had migranes, they went away. Same thing happened to my mom, she had migranes so bad that for about a year she couldn't leave her room when she got them. Then one day, gone. She's agnostic btw. No prayer.
Why didn't she drop down on her knees and thank god for getting rid of her migranes? Well, an angel didn't appear and say "migranes gone courtesy of god". She could just as logically blame god for giving her the migranes in the first place, she has as much evidence that that is true. In fact if there's a god that controlls everything, then god did give her the migranes. He planned the suffering of billions of people, thought it was a good idea. Why don't you give him credit for that?
Let me ask you - have you ever known anyone or known of anyone who had an illness, prayed for it and didn't get better?
Anyone who died?
Because you should know very well that it happens every single day.
Is that proof of the non-existence of god or that god doesn't answer prayers?
So far as people "magically" being cured or shaking off bad diseases, there are fluke genetic variations that have already been identified that make their posessors virtually immune to HIV, immune to heart attacks, have bones so dense they're virtually unbreakable etc. Modern medical science is a wonder. You may say "well then god put these genetic mutations there". But the question then is, why didn't he give them to all of us? Instead of a handful of families.