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 Post subject: Church
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Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:45 pm +0000
Posts: 10
Location: Minnesota, USA
I think I might have made this clearer earlier, but my family is all Lutheran. You guys here also know I'm under 18, meaning I have to go to church with them every Sunday. Usually I read my Bible to pass the time and avoid all their rituals, but I just got a new phone, so I got both Snapchat, a Bible app, and a TUB app on it. This week I read TUB during church, no biggie. But near the end, when the pastor was about to give his sermon for today, my dad told me to pay attention. I didn't, and just hid my phone between my legs for the rest of the service. Now my mom and dad want to take my phone away (they think I was on Snapchat the whole time), but my brother thought I was reading my Bible during church instead of paying attention. Ridiculous double standard aside, what do I do? I'm going to get confirmed soon, and I have to write a testimony of my faith. Any pointers? I can post a transcript of the testimony I was planning on giving if you guys'd like.

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"He who comes to me shall not hunger, while he who believes me shall never thirst." [∴ 153:2.8]
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 Post subject: Re: Church
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Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:29 am +0000
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Adam, Greetings and best wishes!

An interesting topic and opening. I think your testimony is a very personal thing to share but am so happy you trust this community with yours...I certainly share my own here often enough! I was also raised in a church attending and devout family...Baptist. I know the drill.....And am now so glad for such an extensive grounding in the KJV....and related apocrypha...really helps me focus my Christian family and friends on the Jesusonian Gospel....well presented in the Bible!

Jesus used the Old Testament to express this new Gospel to his own generation and followers - including his brothers and sisters and his Apostles later! I loved my red-letter edition of the Bible!! (So did Thomas Jefferson - who published his own!)

You might wish to read the last Paper in the UB - The Faith of Jesus - for affirmation and inspiration! Also, Paper 100, Section 7 - The Acme of Religious Living, a testimony of Jesus' religious life.

I remember when I was your age, my testimony and my faith was strong and certain. It is a fine age of realization and transcendent power. Papers 126 and 127 were powerful reminders of that time in my life, especially my family, church, and personal religious life! Jesus was also your age once upon a time!

I would not advise you to disobey or disrespect your parents in any regard and am certain of their great love and hope for you. I am reminded of the great respect Jesus had for his parents and how he held his own dad in such high regard and example. I also recall his hunger for learning the scriptures and studying them all to learn the best of those and be able to recite and share and teach others by that inspired truth and wisdom. The scriptures are frequently quoted in the UB and there is a long and ancient history imbedded in many Old Testament books....from Egypt and even older! Did you know that? I can share some text and references for you. There's a biblical cross reference work I love called the Paramony.

The UB advises and teaches us to be respectful of the evolutionary religions and churches and traditions which help people find and express faith and hope and trust...no matter the facts or lack of facts underlaying such traditions. We are to socialize and worship together with other believers and to learn to make friends with those with whom we have disagreement or differing perspective.

The UB is not a religion. There is only one true religion...it is the one which is lived by each religionist and it is personally unique to each believer and faith child who comes to love God and seeks to know God within. Every Sunday, you sit among a congregation of religionists who seek God and are gathered to express their love of God as a community. Remember that. Respect that. Jesus did. And so did I. Soon enough it will be your turn to teach your own children about God and God's love for us all and to guide them lovingly into personal truth and faith.

Bless you....and blessings to your parents who love you enough to take you to God's house to share their own love of God and their own hopes and trust in God's goodness!!

What a blessing!!

Link to the Paramony: http://www.urantiabook.org/urantiabook/ ... index.html

Bradly 8)
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 Post subject: Re: Church
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Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:45 pm +0000
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Thanks Van for replying. I'm considering relating my relationship with my Father in heaven and how my Lutheran background inadvertently led me to Jesus. One phrase I'm considering keeping is this:

"Jesus taught a love that transcends any single person, church, country, or tradition. This love takes us on a heavenward journey to get us to the very face of God."

I'm writing a story/would-be novel about Jesus btw. It's a mix of the gospels, TUB, and apocryphal stories and attributed sayings/acts of Jesus.

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"He who comes to me shall not hunger, while he who believes me shall never thirst." [∴ 153:2.8]
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Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:13 pm +0000
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Adam's son wrote:
I think I might have made this clearer earlier, but my family is all Lutheran. You guys here also know I'm under 18, meaning I have to go to church with them every Sunday. Usually I read my Bible to pass the time and avoid all their rituals, but I just got a new phone, so I got both Snapchat, a Bible app, and a TUB app on it. This week I read TUB during church, no biggie. But near the end, when the pastor was about to give his sermon for today, my dad told me to pay attention. I didn't, and just hid my phone between my legs for the rest of the service. Now my mom and dad want to take my phone away (they think I was on Snapchat the whole time), but my brother thought I was reading my Bible during church instead of paying attention. Ridiculous double standard aside, what do I do? I'm going to get confirmed soon, and I have to write a testimony of my faith. Any pointers? I can post a transcript of the testimony I was planning on giving if you guys'd like.


When I was four years old my father suddenly became a Jehovah's Witness because one of them knocked on the door. My mother was raised Lutheran and even though she didn't really believe any of it there was no way she was going to become a Jehovah's Witness so they divorced. So, every other weekend when I was with my father I had to sit through two hours of the most boring service you could possibly imagine. It was absolute torture and it's a good thing I didn't know then what I know now because I would not have been able to sit and listen to all of their primitive ideas about God and the earth becoming their special place after armageddon.

What I would say is this, sit through it, just take it, don't resist, don't act out, don't get upset, don't get on your phone, don't do anything that would force them to react because they will choose their religion over you. Sit and think, day dream.

When you reach the age of 16 go and get a job. Ask to see the manager, look him in the eye with confidence while you shake his hand and give him your resume. Keep it short and make sure he knows you really want the job. Then save your money and find some good friends that you trust and the day you turn 18 you all can move out and get an apartment together.

You can't change your parents but you can be the person you want to be.
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