hey, the date went good.. click here to read about it..

Hey J! That's great!

It's so important to be able to be open with your partner and able to communicate. Just take it slow and continue to do fun stuff like bowling or skating or just places where you can laugh and be real and get to know each other better.

Sounds like you're on the right track, I'm glad ...

It's great to read the happiness in your posts again...

I would like to take the opportunity tho to ask you to not base your happiness on other people, or your joy on circumstances... they'll both take you on a roller-coaster ride the rest of your life. Find your happiness within yourself - you are a great guy with lots going for you. Find your joy in God - He knows you are able to accomplish greater things than even you can imagine, and is always there when us humans fail you...

Hey guys I have to throw this out...

This is not just for J, but I have noticed while viewing post on the website that when things are good God is God and we are posting in the "Praise Report."

But when an aspect of our lives is not what WE WANT, the answer is "**** God, I don't need Him anymore," or we go into depression or we see our friends fall back into their old lifestyles. Why?

Because, we are still looking at God living for us instead of us living for HIM!!

J, I know that whatever situation you were in must have really sucked!!! But, if the God that we praise one day can be that easily removed from our lives the next, then what does that say about the God we serve?

I have been looking in all the Prayer Request posts waiting for the day that we all begin to live in the freedom of knowing that NO MATTER WHAT... GOD LOVES US AND IS IN CHARGE. And nothing that the world can throw at us will make us faulter in that.

Find your happiness not in a job, or in a date, or at a coffee shop, or in a church, or on a website... Find it in the FREEDOM that come in Him and Him alone.

"I am with you always, I will always be holding your hand; I will guide you with MY counsel, and take you into MY glory... I am the strength of your heart and your portion forever.-- Psalm 73:23-26"

innerdawg

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is not just for J, but I have noticed while viewing post on the website that when things are good God is God and we are posting in the "Praise Report."

But when an aspect of our lives is not what WE WANT, the answer is "**** God, I don't need Him anymore," or we go into depression or we see our friends fall back into their old lifestyles. Why?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Au contraire, my friend (for me, anyway).

Don't know what the deal is with me. My life couldn't be better right now. Aside from being very busy, I'm happy where I am. I'm actually working on my body for the first time in a long time...eating right, excercising...I'm making more money than I've ever made, working for a job that I have never really had a "bad day" at...I love the work that I do, I'm fulfilled when I get off work, I go home to my own place, sit at my own computer, watch my own TV, run on my own treadmill, play with my kid, go to the park...I'm not constantly bickering with my mother...I'm getting to know my dad better than I ever did.

Nothing is going "wrong" in my life right now...and yet I feel more distant from God than ever. What's up with that?

Is it for one to see the fulfillment of life in their accomplishments or the reality of their faith in Him?

"It is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than a rich man (someone who has worldly things by their standards) to enter into the kingdom of heaven." Why?

innerdawg

I didn't praise God. Read my posts before you post your words of wisdom.

Cheers.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by whit-Dawg:

Find your happiness not in a job, or in a date, or at a coffee shop, or in a church, or on a website... Find it in the FREEDOM that come in Him and Him alone.

"I am with you always, I will always be holding your hand; I will guide you with MY counsel, and take you into MY glory... I am the strength of your heart and your portion forever.-- Psalm 73:23-26"

innerdawg</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think the dawg was making my same point in a better way... we look too much at our circumstances as proof that God loves us, or even exists. We base our faith on our feelings, which is not what faith is about at all. Faith is not something you can reach out and hold onto in a physical way... if you could grab it and carry it with you, there's no need for faith.

You must ground your faith in His word, so that when rough times come (someone leaving us through either walking out of our lives or dying are 2 examples), we know that God never leaves us, never changes, never turns His back on us...

J again my "word's of wisdom" as I stated previously was not just for you. I think it is something that we can all benefit from.

innerdawg

Hi fellas and fella-ettes

As simply as it can be put what Dawg and Allen are saying is that "God is still God in spite of my circumstance" For the best lesson in that look at Job. I even put a sermon together on this very same subject. I will put it over in Bible Study if anyone wants to read it. I preached it at my Grandfathers funeral. Look in Bible Study under the topic "The Lord Gave."

I think I am covering what has already been said but we must realize that just because "stuff" happens doesn't allow us or give us the right to stop worshipping God... "Just Because" The bible instructs us that we don't even need a reason at the moment, we are to praise Him! I could be bitter and hateful right now as I just had my wife pack and leave, I choose not to be that way! It is a choice that we have. I choose to love God even more and look for times and reasons to Praise His Name!

When you stop praising, you loose.... Our relationship with God is all about obediance, not emotion or as some have said feelings. God commands us to worship Him even the rocks and trees are to praise. If we start by simply being obedient in our down times when we would rather be whacking on someones head eventually you won't be able to stop and it will bring you Joy to praise Him in spite of the "crisis du jour".

God bless ya

Slightly off-topic, but Among Thorns has a new album coming out that has a song about not letting the rocks take our praise from us... bad description, but essentially what Steve is saying (and the song rocks).

Don't let your situation dictate your relation to God.