/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>578853

No I haven't. I haven't been to a confession in 10 years, I mastrubate every day, I'm lazy to go to church and to pray and I'm generally apathetic. I sometimes just want to end this charade of even considering myself a Christian but I'm hanging by a thread I guess. Most of the time, I just wanna say screw it, God will me judge me, but I can't bring myself to care about faith.

It sounds like you are on the edge of Christianity, while it can only truly be experienced from the inside.

Soren Kierkegaard wrote about overrationalisation like this. Maybe you just think too much about arguments against the faith. Take a leap of faith. Once you truly start believing (instead of solely focusing on doubt) , you will find it much easier to avoid sinning.

Attend mass and follow it wholeheartedly. I was on the edge of Christianity for a long time and that was what won me over. I just took the jump and now I really know what hapiness is. You also learn to deal with secular arguments, the church has always combatted those, it's nothing new.

Hang on buddy. The greatest sinners often made the greatest saints

>>578853

> At this point I feel I just can't win against myself.

Because you can't, only God can. I used to be in a really bad situation with the faith, I was raised Catholic but for a very long time I believed only out of habit, not out of choice. I only cared about "happiness" and my own pleasure - I just wanted to watch porn, masturbate, eat tasty foods play video games and watch videos. This was my primary goal in life and with each year it got worse, I wasted more time on these things and the material got worse and worse. I was weak - physically and mentally, socially inept and not passionate about anything.

For a very long time I saw no reason to change anything because I was satisfied with this. But eventually, a time came when my sins got so bad that I started to question my choices. There wasn't some huge breakthrough where I suddenly turned into a saint, but I slowly started seeking other things. My excessive hedonism left me feeling burned out and pathethic. So I wanted to find true, actual happiness. I wanted to find love, which at that time to me meant finding a good girl to love. So essentially, I was still just looking for my own hapiness, but through more virtuous means.

However, this was the beginning of my journey to the faith. I figured that the best way to find this girl was to ask God for one, then serve Him and do what He wants so that He would give me one. I started trying to stop sinning, especially masturbating. For the next 5 years I've been struggling, rising and falling with ups and downs. Sometimes I would go months without sinning, yet sometimes I would fall into even worse things than before.

But during that period, after every time I failed and went back to my old lifestyle I eventually confessed my sins and repented. And each of these times taught me something, and the most important thing I noticed was this - even thought I kept failing and betraying Him, God showed me mercy every single time. No matter how bad it got, He always accepted me back and kept changing me for the better. With time I began to realize that it's actually in God that I can find the one, true fulfilling happiness. I started learining more about the faith and improving my spiritual life and everything has been getting better.

I still struggle with sin and other things, but it's incomparably better now and I know I'm on the right path and it gives me true happiness. So all you really need to do is stop depending on yourself, trust God and seek to understand Him and do His will. If you set God as your number one priority, everything else will fall in it's proper place.

As for denomination, the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ.

Don't be bogged down by your failiures, they are only temporary and can always be changed. Submit fully to God and they will be.

>>578860

Okay, you are lazy? Then put your laziness to the test. Don't eat anything for 48 hours. Surely this fast will give you some sort of spiritual benefit.

>>578853

How come everyone in this thread is Catholic?

Don't worry so much about logic and rationality. Try your best to parse the arguments but also pray and see which church is bearing the right type of fruit. A good fruit comes only from a good tree. And make sure to pray and to ask God.

>>578924

I'm that lazy to go to church that I don't even think going to confession would be beneficial because I would just skip the next Sunday mass and voila a mortal sin. My local church is very bright and I can't stand it, huge chandeliers everywhere, I just can't stand it. Last time I went to mass was either last Easter or Christmas a year ago, I don't even remember.

>>578853

Do you experience the presence of God?

The experience of God requires no belief to experience.

Your desires cannot be suppressed; your desire can only be led somewhere else. Direct your desire towards God through prayer and meditation, and desires shall fade.

>>578853

My advice is to rely primarily on Christ, for His testimony is the rock of our faith and isn't swayed by the waters of confusion.

>I haven't been able to properly choose a denomination,

You might be interest in purchasing a book called the Christian Confessions: A Historical Introduction, it provides a the creeds of all the major Christian sects. Once you (hopefully) find the right church you can ask the members to overcome your transgressions.

As for argumentation with non-believers, I can only say two nouns Evidentialism/Presuppositionalism these are the largest studies when dealing with secular opponents. Evidentialism is your classical argumentation with philoscientifical inquiry, like the kalam argument or the five ways. Here's to get you started http://textuploader.com/dlrfw

Presuppositionalism recognize that the human mind is corrupted and will make every excuse to prove that it's not. Part of that corruption is a denial of God Himself, so as His replacement people depend on other sources of fulfillment. Cornelius Van Til's works explores deeply on this subject.