Church pressure!

Tharaa · 09-01-2005, 05:11 AM

Hi Christian Cysters,

I am feeling uneasy about something and need everyones opinion...I do believe in prayer,and that God can heal people completely.But how far do u push the point
on someone...

I have allot of food allergies,and the people at my church pray for my healing all the time,they tell me that the Lord has healed me and to start eating the foods I didnt before....

my problem is this,I do not feel its fair for them to try to make some public display of me...by telling me to start eating the foods im allergic too at a church social party.It makes me feel like im being put on the spot...not to mention the gastro- symptoms those offending foods cause,as well as infections...

In the bible there is a passage about how not every food is good for every person,and that we need to control our appetite for fancy food etc..... I DONT LIKE BEING PRESSURED....I know the lord heals people but I dont feel its right to tell someone to do something that can make them feel bad....

What do you all think??

Lfgd20 · 09-01-2005, 05:17 AM

HUGS!! I am sorry that this is happening! I know since I have IBS as well and I am allergic to foods that when people try to push them on me it just makes me feel worse. I can't offer any great words of wisdom, I am not sure what I would do in that situation. I can only say that if it makes you sick, DON'T eat it!! If you are allergic to it (even sensitive to a food) eating it can make your allergy worse.

I hope that someone can give some ideas, if you need to chat PM me

HUGS, Kristi

KatCarney · 09-01-2005, 10:07 AM

Just so we can understand the stuation in context...

Why do so many people in the church know about your allergy issues and their severity?

Tharaa · 09-01-2005, 01:14 PM

I had been ill allot,and whenever they have a dinner party,they ask me why im not eating many of the foods..and I have to tell them im allergic,so they started praying for me..But each time I go now,they all want to see me eat the food,and tell me im healed...

soonermomma03 · 09-01-2005, 03:22 PM

Hopefully this isn't offensive to anyone...

God has allowed allergies for a reason. You and I, and the people of our congregations may not understand that, but he does. So if you are allergic to something, it's most likely that it's not because you are an un-holy person and needing healing from your church members. I don't believe they can heal your allergies. If God wishes to do so, he will do that, and he may use them to do so.

Next time you are pressured to eat a food you are allergic to (which I think is just nuts), tell them you have a friend who is allergic to bees. Every time I get stung by a bee, my reaction is worse. I can guarentee that being stung more is not going to heal me, it is just going to require me to seek medical attention. Surely one of these people has some sort of an allergy, to a plant or animal or something. They wouldn't go rubbing their noses in a daisy if they were allergic to it, would they??

Jashobeam · 09-01-2005, 07:58 PM

I'm sorry you are going through such pressure. There are some groups who are spreading the idea that God heals EVERY time, and that's just not in the Bible. Paul asked three times for his "thorn in the fleash" to be removed and God just said no. When God doesn't choose to heal, we shouldn't allow others to MAKE us prove God's healing. You might have to be firm with members of your church, and let them know you appreciate their prayers, but how serious it would be for you to give in to their pressure.

KatCarney · 09-03-2005, 12:32 AM

I would tell people that you have a personal relationship with God, that you communion with HIM on a regular basis (if that's true), and that HE will tell you when you are healed.

MiWolverineMommie · 09-03-2005, 12:50 AM

Personally, I do not feel that these people's prayers can "heal" you especially of your food allergies. It is just a fact of life... people have allergies... no need to pray these away.. It is who you are. My DH has a ton of allergies and we just deal with it.

I would just continue to eat what you feel you can and say thank you to those who pray for you but pay them no further attention.

lovelyinkedlady · 09-03-2005, 01:07 AM

well for me i'm sorry, i don't agree with your church.

If you are allergic you are for life. No amount of prays and placing of hands on you will cure your allergies.

As for the people of your church i understand they are well intentioned but they don't live with you and they don't go to your dr appointments.

I think asking them politely to stop wouldn't be to out there in left field. You shouldn't be made to feel that you are on the stop.

vancouverNicole · 09-03-2005, 03:30 AM

i have issues with this aswell.. I strugle a lot with the being totally faithfull ending up being totally irrational and stuff. i have close friends that are the most faithfull people you'll ever meet, but they have nothing due to decisions they've made out of faith over the years and it's kinda sad/ disheartening.

HISIRISHGEM · 09-03-2005, 07:06 PM

Ok, i'll throw my two cents in having gone to a charismatic church where they throw hands on people and expect that it will be healed (the church I went to...not every charismatic church is like this). Not saying it can't be done by the way, because Jesus did it.....But jesus' miracles happened, in order to prove to unbelivers "at that time" that HE was son of God.

John 21-31 Jesus Said to him, " Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have NOT seen and YET believed." And truly Jesus did many other signs in the prescence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.

If you go to Genesis in the early days the Jews were told not to eat of certain meats. Of those meats that were unclean were Pork etc. There are some churches today that do not eat Pork, there are some churches today that keep Saturdays instead of Sundays as Sabbath.

God strictly tells us in His word that we are not to make another brother or sister slide from their own convictions... Romans 14: 10-12 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ.
For it is written:
"As I live says the Lord,
Every knee shall bow to me,
Every tongue shall confess to God."
So then, each of ourselves shall give account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brothers way.

meaning if God tells them that they should keep Saturdays as Sabbath, then we are not allowed to lay our hands on them and cast out the deamons because we feel its wrong or not our ways. Romans 14 Says that we are making a stumbling block for our brothers and sisters...It is His job to weed out the judging, not our own. It Doesn't mean however, it gives EVERYONE of us the right to take our own meaning from His word and pervert the Truth either. We need to pray and seek the Gospel "Word for Word".

* In my opinion, this also has to do with medical issues and other issues that are under Gods control.

1 more thing....it basically speaks of gifts and speaking in tongues in the church, however, I believe this is something that is ABSOLUTE with God!! 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but in peace as in all the churches of the saints.

what that means is that God does not cause confusion. If you are left feeling confused and scared.....Its time for prayer and maybe to ask God if you should be planted somewhere safer!

I started out in a REAL SEVERE charismatic church (again, not all charismatic churches are bad) that started to do some things that didn't line up with Scripture. If what your getting out isn't lining up with scripture I would seek Gods Direction. A good way to see what a church stands for is that most solid biblical churches have handouts with what their core values & beliefs are....for example: my church is non-denominational (I just loathe titles don't you

??)
We accept the Scriptures as our authority in matters of faith and practice, and adopt the following Confession of Faith as our interpretation of Bible Doctrine:

* We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired of God and inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority.

* We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three in one, co-equal, which is the Trinity.

* We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary.

* We believe in the Holy Spirit, third Person in the Trinity, Who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He is the life of every believer, and He empowers the preaching and teaching of the Gospel.

* We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned, thereby incurring not only physical, but spiritual death (which is separation from God), and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature which is manifested in thought, word, and deed.

* We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.

* We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, His ascension into Heaven and His present life there as High Priest and Advocate for all believers.

* We believe in that blessed hope, the personal, premillenial, and imminent return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

* We believe that salvation is the gift of God, offered to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins. All who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour are born again of the Holy Spirit and become children of God and heirs of eternal life. This is a relationship in which they are eternally secure.

* We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust, the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost in hell, and the everlasting blessedness of the saved in heaven.

* We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin, and the cause of the fall; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man. Satan is still working in the world to destroy the souls of men, and he and all his angels and all who receive not Christ as their Saviour will eternally perish in the Lake of Fire.

* We believe in the Church, the Body of Christ, whose mission it is to preach the Gospel to all the world. We believe that all of its endeavors should be supported by the love-gifts of the members.

* We believe that the ordinances of the Church, given by our Lord are baptism (by immersion following conversion) and the Lord's Table (Communion).

My advice is to look for that in your exhisting church and start matching their beliefs and actions with Gods word. Pray on it, then talk to someone in your church, and if you decide, ask God to help you find a safer foundation. Trust me, He cares about your welfare...physically, emotionally and spiritually. Nobody should be putting your medical welfare on the line and putting Gods rubber stamp on it. Only God will do that!

Hope I've helped a bit!

Jashobeam · 09-03-2005, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HISIRISHGEM

* We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired of God and inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority.

* We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three in one, co-equal, which is the Trinity.

* We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary.

* We believe in the Holy Spirit, third Person in the Trinity, Who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He is the life of every believer, and He empowers the preaching and teaching of the Gospel.

* We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned, thereby incurring not only physical, but spiritual death (which is separation from God), and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature which is manifested in thought, word, and deed.

* We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.

* We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, His ascension into Heaven and His present life there as High Priest and Advocate for all believers.

* We believe in that blessed hope, the personal, premillenial, and imminent return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

* We believe that salvation is the gift of God, offered to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins. All who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour are born again of the Holy Spirit and become children of God and heirs of eternal life. This is a relationship in which they are eternally secure.

* We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust, the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost in hell, and the everlasting blessedness of the saved in heaven.

* We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin, and the cause of the fall; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man. Satan is still working in the world to destroy the souls of men, and he and all his angels and all who receive not Christ as their Saviour will eternally perish in the Lake of Fire.

* We believe in the Church, the Body of Christ, whose mission it is to preach the Gospel to all the world. We believe that all of its endeavors should be supported by the love-gifts of the members.

* We believe that the ordinances of the Church, given by our Lord are baptism (by immersion following conversion) and the Lord's Table (Communion).

Wow, that's just like our church's list of beliefs

(We belong to an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church) There is a nondenominational church near us (non-denominational in name only if that makes since, LOL) with that same list of beliefs. It is run by and attended by Southern Baptists, but it's not a Baptist church.

HISIRISHGEM · 09-03-2005, 11:49 PM

Yeah, we wanted something with Charismatic worship but with the foundations that baptists usually have. I grew up Irish Catholic my husband attended a charismatic church in his younger years and then his parents moved to a smaller town in Upstate NY and His mother is baptist and wanted to find a baptist church. But after I accepted Christ in College and after we got married, we moved to his parents hometown and (I know there's several types of baptist churches) the baptist church was way too rigid and legalistic. Worse than my Irish catholic upbringing at times.lol When we moved to Ohio we prayed for a happy medium. We don't like to go
"shopping" for churches per sey....so it was totally God when we were at a Christian Cafe with our foster daughters at the time and a young woman invited us. It was an answer to prayer!! Wonderful worship, Excellent services, even better TEACHING for Adult Bible fellowships during morning, mid-afternoon, and afternoon services and the same for grade school children as well as several womens studys, a mens fraternity....(bible study) several missions Internationally, domestically within our own communities and nationally. The churches roots are growing so much that the pastors are not sure what to do!! They already re-built a few years ago.....we're growing so much that now there's nowhere else to build, parking is becoming crazy, and to spite that the church is trying to send people to other churches in the area, we are still growing. So now the church has taken on an idea from another church...which is using several VENUES around the area with different types of worship. Some with cafe's, others with acoustic music, etc. smaller settings....but they'll all be set to hear the same thing at the same time. All temporary until they find a spot to build.

God is definately working. It's amazing to see ....even the children!

Yes, our church backgrounds do seem the same.....they don't like the titles because it can become superficial and lose meaning, the church is centered around Gods word, not politics of the congregation or gov't as I'm sure we all know. As Ecc. 3 says...To everything there is a season, a time for everything

~Lisa~ · 09-04-2005, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soonermomma03

Hopefully this isn't offensive to anyone...

God has allowed allergies for a reason. You and I, and the people of our congregations may not understand that, but he does. So if you are allergic to something, it's most likely that it's not because you are an un-holy person and needing healing from your church members. I don't believe they can heal your allergies. If God wishes to do so, he will do that, and he may use them to do so.

Next time you are pressured to eat a food you are allergic to (which I think is just nuts), tell them you have a friend who is allergic to bees. Every time I get stung by a bee, my reaction is worse. I can guarentee that being stung more is not going to heal me, it is just going to require me to seek medical attention. Surely one of these people has some sort of an allergy, to a plant or animal or something. They wouldn't go rubbing their noses in a daisy if they were allergic to it, would they??

I like the way you put that! That's exactly how I feel about this situation

Bethann · 09-04-2005, 01:45 AM

Granted, I have strong opinions about this because my mother has a potentially fatal allergy to eggs, but it's not only ridiculous to tell you that you can now eat these foods, but I would worry about people trying to slip stuff into your food at church events, I know in the past my mother has had similar problems with people who didn't believe she really had an allergy--thought she just didn't like the food.