MailerD83

we have a pride problem in the Christian space well, in every space really

If you talk to any boy between the ages of 18-22, he’ll likely tell you that he’s frustrated with dating because it seems like every girl is on OnlyFans or sleeping around. Then he opens a social media app and the first thing he sees is some guy happy because he waited while his wife slept around but it’s okay because she found Jesus. So the average young boy is reading it frustrated because it sounds like this guy is a cuck and if he follows this path, he too will end up with a reformed hoe. Marriage needs a better marketing campaign. Many people have never seen a powerful marriage in real life. Everyone dreams of love and romance and feels like it’s no longer achievable in this age. Additionally, good girls also feel Prodigal son’d when they see posts like these because when a girl does bad things and “sees the light” she still keeps all the OF money and gets speaking engagements, fame, and a guy simping over her anyway. Not saying people can’t change, but these posts don’t inspire the ones who need inspiration. They just end up pissing off the guys and girls trying to date.

Yeah so my parents constantly used the Bible to manipulate and honestly emotionally abuse me my entire life. When I left the home age 17, I was depressed, suicidal, scared of God and scared of living without God. I didn't know who I was, I thought everyone hated me (including God). I was a mess. But yknow what? I didn't give up. I knew God was real. I had seen too much to doubt He was out there. I hated missionaries, having grown up on the mission field, but I enrolled in Youth with a Mission because I didn't know where else to go. God met me there. In the miraculous - my 8 years of chronic insomnia healed after my friend's lazy prayer, me praying over a witch's broken arm and her walking away completely healed, a man led by the Holy Spirit knowing everything I'd ever done. He met me in the quiet - in Bible studies where the Holy Spirit healed me of the pain of the past by showing me what the Bible actually said, not what my parents said it did; by dreams and memories that Jesus stepped into showing me He never left me even in the hardest times in my life; by calling my name in the still of an empty room. And since then, even more Christians have ruined my life and hurt me and almost broken me. My grandma, my best friends, my aunt, etc etc. But yknow what? I ran to God and He comforted me. They don't speak for Him. Only He speaks for Himself. And He says He loves me. That's all I need.

THE GREATEST TRANSITIONS OF ALL TIME

My wife was formerly promiscuous. I was a virgin. She was then radically born-again. Committed to church, evangelized constantly, Puritan books in her bedroom, prayer journals, grief over past sexual sin, etc. We got to know each other well for over a year, dated for four months, engaged for two and a half, and didn't sin sexually with one another. Our first kiss with each other was at the altar on our wedding day (reaction pic attached!). We've been married for over five years now, and she's been the most wonderful and godly wife, mother to our three children, and homemaker you could imagine. She's more pure than most virgins, as biblical purity has less to with past sins (though they certainly matter) and more to do with one's current posture of the heart and daily decisions to honor the Lord (Matt. 5:8). We're far too quick to forget the story of the woman labeled as a known "sinner" (likely a prostitute) in Luke 7:36-50 who was washing Jesus' feet with her tears while kissing them too. The Pharisees were shocked that Jesus let a public sinner do this. Jesus responded with a parable about debts being forgiven and ended with this powerful conclusion: "Her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little" (Luke 7:47). Everyone seems to highlight the benefits of virginity, and it certainly is a blessing. But we forget to highlight the benefits of being forgiven much as well. My wife knows the depths of Jesus' forgiveness more than most people, enabling her to more easily live out a life of passionate love for her Savior. A woman or man's past sexual sin matters. But what matters far more when it comes to deciding who to marry is if the person is truly born again, if their repentance is real, if they truly have a heart for Christ, if they truly follow Jesus and obey his commands. "God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world ​— ​what is viewed as nothing ​— ​to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us ​— ​our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, — in order that, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" (1 Cor. 1:27-31) "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17)