Dark Night of the Soul

[The Remonstrant]

[The Remonstrant]

The [B]ible tells us to expect such things. [F]or instance, 2 Thes[salonians] 2:2 [reads:] ¹² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³(NKJV)(NRSV).]

All the more reason to remain faithful.

The latter scriptural quotation is from 1 Timothy 4.1, not 2 Timothy 4.4.

[The Remonstrant]

Sound advice.

[Littlejoe]

If you have one close by, join a Kairos Prison Ministry group and go on a retreat. 3-1/2 days in a prison watching the miracle of God's love transform lives of hardened criminals will transform your life as well, and smooth out your Christian walk. I know there are a lot of ministries you get involved with but few will change your life as you minister like this one. I can tell you it really made and continues to make a huge difference in my walk with Christ. The group I'm involved with are well over an hour away from where I live and the prison I serve is over 3 hours away. But it's well worth it. If you will PM me I can check to see if there is a one in your state. and if so, who to contact.

https://youtu.be/-rQXOL2Gjns

This video is really a powerful testimony.

[element771]

Hi All,

Thank you for all of the advice. I am trying to take it one day at a time.

I am reading my Bible and listening to sermons as often as I can.

[Jedidiah]

Hi All,

Thank you for all of the advice. I am trying to take it one day at a time.

I am reading my Bible and listening to sermons as often as I can.

Make sure the sermons you listen too are strictly orthodox. There is a lot of dubious, or outright heretical stuff out there.

[Thoughtful Monk]

Hi All,

Thank you for all of the advice. I am trying to take it one day at a time.

I am reading my Bible and listening to sermons as often as I can.

Sounds good. I would take the advice of another poster and add music. I try to make sure the lyrics exalt God: say Be Thou My Vision, Give Me Jesus, Great is Our God, etc.

[element771]

Make sure the sermons you listen too are strictly orthodox. There is a lot of dubious, or outright heretical stuff out there.

I have been sticking with Timothy Keller, CS Lewis, and William Lane Craig.

[Sparko]

That sounds like a problem with me back in the 1970s. less than a decade after I had become a Christian. I was in a sound Bible teaching church, strong on teaching and getting involved. I was getting involved in a lot, and many people looked up to me as an example of a spiritual Christian because I was doing so much.

I was heavily into the Bible, but it was like a bad diet of good food. I was heavy into history and doctrine, but not reading it as God's love letter to me. It was just like reading a college textbook.
Eventually I realized that I was spiritually weak because of that. I fit well into the description Jesus gave to the Church of Ephesus,



Jesus's solution was "...remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first.'" (Rev 2:2-5)

In ten days from now it will be exactly fifty years ago that I received the Lord Jesus. I remember fighting it for months, then finally I gave in, sat down on this wire-framed chair with a table top that had a telephone, called a classmate and she led me to the Lord. (In fact, I found her address on the internet, clear across the other side of the country, and mailed her a thank you card.) But I remember years later, when I was under a heavy burden, there was that table in the attic at my parents' home. I sat down on it and poured my heart out to the Lord. It really worked.

I remember a sermon by John R. Rice, "Come Back to Betel." It described Jacob's first encounter with God at Bethel, and how he left a stone there as a memorial to his experience. It was many decades later, that God called him to return to that place where he first experienced God.

Maybe this works.

a table? almost literally a "lamp stand"

[Sparko]

The latter scriptural quotation is from 1 Timothy 4.1, not 2 Timothy 4.4.

oops. Thanks