When you suspect a scammer, please do click the "report scammer" link.
I kept emailing the first one who got her hooks into me for a couple weeks. But pieces of her story weren't adding up. Her social media showed a name change ... when she asked for money I completed my investigation and closed it down.
I seriously suspect that some of the female scammers make a good side income from guys they scam out of their money. And male scammers ... I don't know.
But I think getting the scammers banned (to need to come back under a different profile with different pictures and different reasons they need money wired to them) is more useful than listing them.
How do you know the Christian God is the right God?
Posted : 8 Apr, 2015 01:11 PM
Steph,
The guys who commented before me gave a lot of good answers, so I won't try to restate or modify what they said quite well.
But I'd like you to consider a couple other points.
First, we are called to Christ, not to the body of practice that we observe as Christianity. As practiced, it gets some things right and some things not. We are not even called to follow other Christians. Some who call themselves Christians are not. And all of us are flawed people who still get out of line from time to time. We are, sometimes, very poor ambassadors for our Lord.
So get to know Christ. Immerse yourself in the gospels -- Matthew - John. As you come to understand Him better, many of the other things in the Bible make more sense. But He is the focus.
Second, your main question about being sure the God of the Bible is the true God. You've had some good answers, but when I asked those questions some years ago, I had to look at it from a different perspective. I think what I will propose is a perspective that Paul and David pointed us to in Romans 1 and Psalm 19.
Consider creation. Notice the order. I don't know what your interests are all that well. But if you consider the correctness of a planet's orbit in order for it to be hospitable to life ... the kind of sun it must have ... the kind of atmosphere it must have ... the abundance of water. Earth appears to be designed with living things in mind. And then consider a living cell. Within each, the complexity of the mechanisms, the error-checking within the procedures that copy the DNA. Consider the interdependencies between species. Consider the beauty of certain species ... the butterfly's wings, the graceful lines of the horse, the bedazzling color or the flowers of the field.
Someone designed all this. Someone awesomely intelligent. Someone artistic.
Not a committee of feuding gods. Committees design things that work together only so well.
One Creator.
Neither the Greek Pantheon nor the Hindu plethora of deities suits. We're seeking one wise Creator who loves order and beauty.
Allah? His Koran is incomprehensible even to most who believe it. It's not just that it contains a few difficult passages. It contains very few passages that actually make sense and Islamic philosophers have gone to lengths to explain how contradictory "truths" can both be true.
A god who cannot make his book given to 1 prophet make sense is not the Creator.
And that brings us back to Jehovah Who for a time set aside His rightful glory and became our Immanuel, God with us.
The Myth of Easter and Yeshua rising 36 hours after the Crucifixion~
Posted : 7 Apr, 2015 08:20 AM
The traditions that most Christians inherited from the Roman Catholic Church have some things messed up. Like the Friday crucifixion.
I consider that celebrating Jesus' resurrection is an important testimony. Doing so with images of the cross and empty tomb is good ... and staying away from the bunny / chick nonsense.
I've known people who wouldn't celebrate the resurrection anywhere close to where Easter fell on the calendar b/c the details of the common celebration were off. That's cutting of the nose to spite the face.
I agree on the full profile. If a profile says "just ask", I won't. If it says, "I don't know what to say", then neither do I.
And ... at least 1 pic. I do look longer at those that have more. And ... not turned sideways, please? I know there are very nice ladies who just haven't gotten photo editing figured out. But ... if I can see you without craning my neck, it helps.
I'm looking for someone who appears to be a good match in terms of the lifestyle she wants to lead. So I need enough to get some idea of the kind of woman I'm considering talking to. Career woman? Frugal homeschooling mom? Movie sponge? Worship team leader? Who is she?
Also, geography matters. If I have to travel more than a day to meet you ... I probably can't do that.
Rape, the female side, the male side, the real side
Posted : 6 Apr, 2015 12:22 PM
Rape has deep effects on female victims -- probably on male victims as well. But sexuality is closely linked to our emotions and our sense of identity. Whatever is emotionally linked to sex stays with us.
And, women being more emotional than men (generally), I think that deep emotional link of sexuality to victimhood is very hard to overcome.
Couple that with the feelings of guilt over it that many have ... and a woman who has been raped has a very difficult time. A girl victimized by a male relative, for example, often carries the feelings of guilt and memory of victimhood into her marriage. Though sex is no longer a matter of shame or victimhood, the emotional link is strong there.
Since I touched on the feelings of guilt, it's worth another comment or two. Men tend to say more easily, "You didn't do it. You were a victim just as if you'd been mugged. It's not your fault." That's true and rational and reasonable -- but that's not what many female victims' emotions are telling them. To hear, "well, it was my fault because I had too much to drink" or, "but I was wrong too because after the first few times I started enjoying it" is not uncommon.
I do think you're onto something on the spiritual link. An older preacher I paid attention to said repeatedly that child molestation usually involved demonic influence.
2 or 3 ladies I've gotten to know here have said about the same thing as the OP. And I've gotten to know these ladies well enough to be pretty sure that they're not making any attempt to attract the wrong sort. I know for a fact there are some committed Christian men here. But there are many reports of the other sort.
The times I have most believed God spoke to me it was a matter of bringing Scripture to mind or having it suddenly better understood. There have been a couple other times when I was praying about something that I suddenly received insight into the situation. I believe that was God speaking to me.
I think most people who experience a divorce deal with a time of distrust of the entire other half of humanity.
My deep distrust lasted a couple months. I knew I had to overcome it because I'm raising 3 daughters.
There were some solid Christian women I knew -- some a generation older, some married women in the church. So that helped me know that trustworthy women were to be found. Then as I started meeting some who had also been betrayed ... I re-discovered friendship potential with women.
