Jesus Christians.com

My guess is that Stockholm was talking about something that comments to the article showed, and that is that there is fairly strong opposition to virtually any decision to follow God, even within big respectable religious organisations.

Traditionally relatives haggle, by saying, "Just do this one thing for me." It starts with, "Just give me a chance to talk to you," then "Just have a talk with our local priest/pastor/cult buster," then "just finish school and then you can do what you like," or "Go ahead and do the same things but do them with a different organisation." It's not because they want you with the other organisation, but just that the feel the first step is to prise you away from the people who inspired you to follow God in the first place. Then they can work on the next step, which is to get you away from the group they offered as the replacement.

What that it, Stockholm?

no, i actually commented directly on ulrikes "ppl would have prefered if i had become a nun".

i didn't meet anyone who said something along that line. people were concerned because no one knew the JCs and it was a big step, but they were not against it but rather in awe (not sure thats the right word?). of course i heard this only from our closer Christian friends and can not speak for a representative selection of her surroundings, e.g. her family). the people i talk about were not very into nuns, so i dont think anyone would have prefered if ulrike had gone that way.

It sounds like you knew Ulrike at the time that she joined us. Is that right?

we lived together in a christian living community for several years.

i had moved out of town already when she met you guys, and didn't hear anything first hand. actually i never even talked to her since then.

Well, what a small world! That's very interesting. And so, after all these years, how did you happen to make contact with us/Ulrike again? Oh, and has Ulrike known all along that you were that person? Either way, it's great to have someone from the past appeal on this forum. I will try to make a different thread for these posts, as I know that they are getting away from the subject of this thread. But it would be especially interesting to hear more about how you (an "outsider") viewed what Ulrike was going through when she became a Jesus Christian.

i think she knows. :-)

we have been in touch over the years, mostly by sporadic emails. i read your monthly newsletter and scanned for "Ulrike" :-)

Unfortunately i missed Ulrike's decision making process entirely and only got to know about this after the fact. I like to think that we would have met at that time, otherwise.

The Catholic Church is a big boogey man and has the resources to crush anyone who would dare to attack it. I think that is one reason why the media tends to tread carefully when dealing with the Catholic Church. When it comes to us, they don't care what they say, as they suspect we are too small to do anything about the lies they print. It's why they have been able to get away with accusing us of kidnapping people, but then never having to retract their accusations.

I think it's good that this guy has decided to give up his passion for God, even if he is doing it through the Catholic Church. If he is sincere, God will eventually lead him out of there and into a deeper relationship with him.

With so many physical needs in the world it is difficult for the public to understand the great need for dedicated people to do God's work. It is much harder to find people to responsibly handle God's wealth than it is to get people to donate to particular needs. I hope someone is able to convince this guy that he is doing a good thing by giving his life for God's service,and not just his money.

Stockholm wrote:
no, I actually commented directly on Ulrikes "ppl would have prefered if I had become a nun".

It is great that Stockholm visits this Forum. He is one of the few people who want to know more about the JC's from my past life. A lot of people from the same church Stockhom and I went to don't contact me anymore, even when I tried to write to them.

Stockholm said that they didn't know the Jesus Christians, but they (unlike him) didn't make any effort to find out about us.

If the JC's were a recognised organisation, I believe people I knew would have stayed in contact with me.

But, just backing up to the guy who became a Catholic priest....It is interesting to think that he went from one recognised organisation to another. And it is great that he chose the service for God like Cherry pointed out.

I think Desme made a very wise choice by choosing God's call, and rejecting his desires for Baseball. I also thing it's a good example for people who feel that they are being called by God, but are not ready to give up their desires in order to follow Him.