I am guilty, I am not working hard enough

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whatisthetruth

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Hi all,

As I review my Chistian life so far, I can honestly say based on my experience, I am not doing enough work for God’s kingdom to introduce the lost souls of the world to the love of Jesus or at least invite them to church.

Here is my personal experience I will try to be as brief as possible.

I was a catholic for the first 25 years of my life. In the last 5 years of being catholic I crossed paths with other people who claimed to be born again christians, a term I only heard from people outside my church.

Some of these people I thought were rude because, after finding out I was catholic, they would try and persuade me into believing something I obviously did not.

They would ask me questions like,

I know you say you believe in Jesus but do you really know Him?

or

Are you saved?

or

Do you know for sure of your eternal destiny?

They would even hand me cartoon booklets, which went in the trash.

Have any of you Roman Catholics experienced what I did?

I would tell them you believe what you do, I am happy right where I am.

They **seemed a little pushy **if you know what I mean.

Well that was then and this is know. My attitude and beliefs have changed over the years.

I believe Roman Catholics and non catholics love Jesus. It is obvious we have different opinions on the church He built based on His words spoken to his desciples.

I admire the faith you have in your religion and Jesus so much so you have openly invited me to come back to the Roman Catholic church and have kept me in your prayers, to which I am grateful 🙂

In an effort to reach to the lost souls of the world and introduce them to the love of Jesus or invite them to church, I have not done enough of what those christians did in my past, either invite people to church or talk about the love of Jesus I am experiencing.

Concerned if my experience is rare or common occurence,

My closing 2 questions

how often do you invite people to your church or openly discuss the love you have for Jesus with them

how often have you been invited by people to their church or had a someone openly discuss with you the love they have for Jesus Christ?

thank you

God bless you

truth
 
Your experiance is not unique. most of us feel like we aren’t doing enough. I;'ve been invited to churches and I’ve discussed jesus a lot with otehr Catholics and Christians. I do at times get frustraited when I hear the same, baseless charges against the Church. There is no excuse for being ignorant today. Being confused or not understadning is one thing. Going along with something that you were told by someone who was told without checking is something else.

Just keep working toward your salvation with fear and trembling as St Paul said. God knows what you are capable of, and as long as you do what you can to help spread the Word, you’ll be fine. Just don’t NOT talk about Jesus when you can.
 
What exactly is ‘enough’? As St Paul said, one can do everything for the faith, up to and including giving one’s body to be burnt, but if the right motivation (love - love of God and others) is lacking then the work is valueless.

Concentrate on the quality rather than the amount of what you do.
 
thank you both for you words of wisdom

God bles you.

truth
 
You can talk about Christ, but to really convert or lead others to the Catholic faith, you MUST know your history of it. For to be deep in history, is to cease to be Protestant.
You must have the answers when confronted with these ridiculous questions from non-Catholics, because with their few Scriptural lines, they think they have you when you don’t have the answers.
You must study and research your faith. It will bring you to an understanding with God in the long run.
 
**
Don’t feel guilty if you are not doing enough, ask God for graces to do what He wants you to do, not what you think you would do for Him.**

I once read someone at another non-Catholic forum; he says “what are those nuns doing all day long sitting in the pews?”. I forgot his exact words, but he meant that these nuns were waisting their time.

The nuns sitting inside a 4-wall room praying all day and night might do as much as a preacher walks on street and invites thousands of people to his church.

One will never do anything to be considered enough, but when he does with simplicity and purity, his work is pleasing to God.

One will never do well if he thinks he can do this do that.

Be careful, pride will get him.
 
I grew up Catholic in a very Catholic family and went to Catholic schools. I have to admit Catholic teaching is not up to par. For instance up till Middle School I believed the Eucharist to be a mere SYMBOL YIKES!!!:eek: I went to college in the bible belt and found myself innundated with questions about my faith that I couldn’t answer. I did a lot of studying and found a deep love in my Catholic Heritage. I am now a Youth Minister for my Catholic Church and am always inviting others in to help teach them knowing how rare coming across people who really understand the faith is. Your story is not unusual and is probably the norm. Even though I truly believe my Church and no one will ever be able to sway me from it, I am also compelled to continue learning. I find that the more I learn, the closer I get to both my Catholic Church and God.

I believe protestants are in general good people searching for answers. Answers I believe I have found. So I never treat any protestant who asks if I’ve been “saved” or if I “know Jesus” as anything other than brothers and sisters in Christ. My answer to being saved is “every day” and I know Jesus to the best ability my human mind will allow me at this time (not for lack of trying). And I personally think I know him pretty darn well, not to brag or anything.

Anyway, my point is basically no, you’re not unique. And we are/were never meant to know if we’re doing enough. If we knew that, it would be too easy to just stop there or to only do the minimum requirements. If we knew we were going to hell, conversely, we’d all just give up our efforts. So us not knowing, is a blessing. We should always try to do our best, no matter where our beliefs lie.
 
Righteousone said:
You can talk about Christ, but to really convert or lead others to the Catholic faith, you MUST know your history of it. ** For to be deep in history, is to cease to be Protestant.**
You must have the answers when confronted with these ridiculous questions from non-Catholics, because with their few Scriptural lines, they think they have you when you don’t have the answers.
You must study and research your faith. It will bring you to an understanding with God in the long run.
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of course that was said by a man who (not a historian) converted to catholicism. there are many, many, many historians who are protestant, orthodox, and even (gasp!) not Christian at all. so nuemann said what his experience was, not everyone’s is the same. also, you might be able to write off other’s arguments for not being catholic as “ridiculous”, but they are not ridiculous to the person making the statement. they are something to be understood and helped through (with love).
 
whatisthetruth, how is it that you are “not doing enough?”

You have embraced a faith-only tradition.

Not only can you never “do enough” – you don’t need to do anything at all. Right?

It’s only us benighted Catholics that worry about “doing enough.”

C’mon: set fire to those stupid comic books (you have probably already done that) and come on home. You’re just one good confession away from the peace that only Christ can give.

Light’s on for ya. Door’s open!
 
bengal_fan said:
of course that was said by a man who (not a historian) converted to catholicism. there are many, many, many historians who are protestant, orthodox, and even (gasp!) not Christian at all. so nuemann said what his experience was, not everyone’s is the same. also, you might be able to write off other’s arguments for not being catholic as “ridiculous”, but they are not ridiculous to the person making the statement. they are something to be understood and helped through (with love).
Click to expand...
I beg to differ…there are many, many Protestants out there because they have confronted me, that are very cocky about their Bible. They seem to have this false sense that Catholics do not know their Bible, therefore resulting in “sarcasm of Scripture” as I like to call it.
Catholics are not only learned in Scripture, but Sacred Tradition as well.
 
And aside from saying you are not doing enough, because you believe in christ is good enough for Him.
 
whatisthetruth said:
Hi all,

In an effort to reach to the lost souls of the world and introduce them to the love of Jesus or invite them to church, I have not done enough of what those christians did in my past, either invite people to church or talk about the love of Jesus I am experiencing.

God bless you

truth
Click to expand...
You post was very interesting. However, I think that you may be selling yourself short. I am certain that you have been a wonderful example of what it means to be catholic in your every day life. Through your work in your workplace or through your work as a student you can bring santification into people’s lives. And in the end, there is no greater witness that you can give then to attempt to bring santification to others in work, school or in the home and to be an example of a saintlike life.
 
Righteousone said:
You can talk about Christ, but to really convert or lead others to the Catholic faith, you MUST know your history of it. For to be deep in history, is to cease to be Protestant.
You must have the answers when confronted with these ridiculous questions from non-Catholics, because with their few Scriptural lines, they think they have you when you don’t have the answers.
You must study and research your faith. It will bring you to an understanding with God in the long run.
Click to expand...
I think that Whatisthetruth has left the Catholic faith and is now on these forums to point out to Catholics why what we believe is actually false. At least on other threads this has been what I perceive to be the point of his participation.
 
Rocky said:
I think that Whatisthetruth has left the Catholic faith and is now on these forums to point out to Catholics why what we believe is actually false. At least on other threads this has been what I perceive to be the point of his participation.
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He left because he doesn’t quite get it. Like I said, research your history, you’ll be back.
 
Righteousone said:
I beg to differ…there are many, many Protestants out there because they have confronted me, that are very cocky about their Bible. They seem to have this false sense that Catholics do not know their Bible, therefore resulting in “sarcasm of Scripture” as I like to call it.
Catholics are not only learned in Scripture, but Sacred Tradition as well.
Click to expand...
beg away! yes, there are many protestants “cocky” about their bible and there are also many who understand the process of how the bible came about (the good, the bad, and the ugly). there are many protestants who are deeply knowledgeable when it comes to history (especially church history) and still remain protestant. you can say you disagree with that, but you would be wrong. history (as a science) does not lead everyone to the catholic church. in fact, it can lead many away from faith at all when you truly understand where we get our scriptures from.
 
Righteousone said:
He left because he doesn’t quite get it. Like I said,** research your history, you’ll be back**.
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maybe if you keep saying it, it will be true. probably not though. i think a better response would be:

“keep seeking God. truly seeking God. and He promises to lead you into His truth, for all who seek will find.”

history does not lead all to the catholic church.
 
bengal_fan said:
beg away! yes, there are many protestants “cocky” about their bible and there are also many who understand the process of how the bible came about (the good, the bad, and the ugly). there are many protestants who are deeply knowledgeable when it comes to history (especially church history) and still remain protestant. you can say you disagree with that, but you would be wrong. history (as a science) does not lead everyone to the catholic church. in fact, it can lead many away from faith at all when you truly understand where we get our scriptures from.
Click to expand...
Umm…It was the Catholic church who gave you your Bible, you actually can thank the monks in those days for that…the Catholic monks. Where do you think you got your Bible from?? You think it just dropped down from heaven? And as far as history goes, you’d be CATHOLIC if you actually did your research. Protestants do not know their history b/c if they did know it before Luther formed you, you would be Catholic…
 
bengal_fan said:
maybe if you keep saying it, it will be true. probably not though. i think a better response would be:

“keep seeking God. truly seeking God. and He promises to lead you into His truth, for all who seek will find.”

history does not lead all to the catholic church.
Click to expand...
Oh yes it does my friend. When they find out the truth and the truth is the history of the Catholic church. Remember, the church came FIRST, before the Bible. Before the NT.
 
Righteousone said:
Umm…It was the Catholic church who gave you your Bible, you actually can thank the monks in those days for that…the Catholic monks. Where do you think you got your Bible from?? You think it just dropped down from heaven? And as far as history goes, you’d be CATHOLIC if you actually did your research. Protestants do not know their history b/c if they did know it before Luther formed you, you would be Catholic…
Click to expand...
lol, i love the assumptions.

i have an MA in history with a specific focus on early church history. i am working on another masters in history. i think i’ve done my research. if mine isn’t good enough, try looking at all of the protestant history scholars. there are many.

if you truly understood history, you would be able to see how there are many interpretations of events. you can say, “the catholic church gave us the bible” and i can say, “a few people chose the books that should be included (books, all of which have some sort of suspicion as to who the authors really were) and excluded books that many others considered scripture. so ‘the church’ didn’t give us the bible, men gave us the bible.” history will not lead you to the catholic church unless that is where you want it to lead you. if you want it to lead you to atheism, it can just as easily (actually more easily) lead you there. or to islam. or to mormonism.

God leads us to Him. if we seek Him, and His church is the catholic church, He (not history) will lead us there.
 
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