Hi Shija and fellow Joynetters, Firstly a warm welcome to you to our community of love... Next a word of appreciation for being so forthcoming and open about your queries about the faith.. Now to answer your queries...pardon me if i sound rude .. Firstly about the Church of Christ being one is true.. "Tho we r many..we r one body...in christ" Also the prayer which jesus made is very clear.."That they may be one.." Now your query is not about "one " church..but actually about "which one" The "believers" r not a church...they are a fellowship.. A church is an organisation with a clearly defined support structure in place. You have a whole set of dedicated and committed people and resources available at any given moment at different levels for the spiritual growth of its members. The "catholic" church, the mainline protestant churches like the "Lutherans", methodists,anglicans etc. and the orthodox churches can be called churches... The "believers", "New Life" etc are fellowships since they have no hierarchical support structure.. That is they are single level communities..with just a pastor to guide them spiritually... They mostly do not have an escalation matrix(tough words na...) ok i will be a little simple.. U see if u have some sickness u first go to ur family doctor..if he cannot tackle it he refers it to the local hospital who in turn will refer to a specialist or a group of specialists...that is what is called an escalation matrix. Same way with our spiritual problems.. if ur local priest or pastor cannot help u should have an organised structure or escalation matrix to consult and help u. This is what is available in a church.. priest/pastor -> bishop/elder ->council of Bishops/elders thus we r more assured of help and support in a church than in a fellowship.. A fellowship is able to support small number of people.. and History bears witness that in the last 50 years or so...all these fellowships which have grown.. have all split into smaller groups and more smaller groups.So when they talk about unity and oneness it is a hollow claim. Ask the Pastor about the History of his Church.. how far back can he trace it in time.. He will mostly tell u that the "believers" were there right from the time peter preached the first sermon at pentecost.. Now that is what some "believers" have told me..But according to me that is a lie and a twisting of Gods word to achieve our own ends.. Yes when Peter preached people became believers in Jesus.. and Not "believers" as in the community we talk about today.. About you not finding worship in the catholic church as satisfying as the fellowships.. I will use the analogy of food here.. If you have eaten burgers,frenchfries,wafers etc.. very tasty..we feel nice when eating it.. But it is not filling,enriching, nutritious as home cooked food which will be boring and not much fun to eat..since we r having it every day.. I hope u r getting my point.. let your faith not be based on feelings but on facts... jesus says" the food i give u is real food and drink..my flesh for the life of the world..." This very special food and drink is available only in and through the Church in the "Holy eucharist.." It is not very good to look at,but very good and nourishing to eat.. You say that u experienced a rise in your spiritual life when u joined the "believers". good Do u know that there are 3 ways u can go higher either u cling to a balloon which is filled with hot air.. you know what happens when we bring even a small pin towards the balloon... or u climb up to that level( the hard way..) or you stand where u are and somebody keeps filling more and more rocks,stones etc. under you ,so u r raised up without any special effort on your side..you are made into a mountain of faith unshakeable,unbreakable and a support for others. That is what jesus does for us in the Church...slowly but steadily he builds us up with his body and blood and refreshes us with his spirit.Just like the seed growing silently in Jesus 's parable.. So u choose now.. do u want to rise and fall or u want to be raised up by the Lord who loves u.. As for praying thru Mary... I will not waste words with u... I will say what philip said to nathaneal.." Come and See". yes my friend ,i would like you to experience for yourself just like many of us in this community have already experienced the Love that Mary has for us..(even though many dont know and love her). Only an experience will serve to answer your query.. Only one point i would like to make is that..Just like u and i ask our friends to pray for us or support us when we are in need.Same way we ask Mary to help us since she and the angels and saints are also our "friends in the Higher places" and are also part of the Church which is the body of Christ. Love and Prayers Ravi mumbai Shija Daniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: hi there everybody! i;m a new member-and i really think what u all have going here is fantastic! basically i'm facing a real doubt in my christian life and i just thought one of u could help me out!
i've been going to a 'believers' church since the end of last year and its really helped me in my spiritual growth.but they believe that the church is one body and that it should not be divided-ie no catholics,marthomites etc etc. i agree with that but that makes all other churches totally nonsensical and i just cant understand that.i tried going to the catholic church that i used to go to previously ,but now i dont find myself very satisfied with that kind of service. and i also dont understand why we pray through Mary when we can do it directly through Jesus. could someone please help me out here?i'd be really greatful! awaiting ur replies shija _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************************************************************** Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
