Oh I love reading this!! :) It’s so great to see just how good our Father is to us despite our sinful nature. Hopefully this group can be a good source of spiritual growth.

I don't really use discord, or post on this site very much, but I'm a Christian too, so nice to see you being able to get more friends be them Christian or not.

On the poll, if you never played Heart Gold/Soul Silver do it asap. Final Fantasy IX is a better game but you may not enjoy PS1 games as much.

Gen 2 forever.

I want to share a short story too.

At the last day of my catechesis, I think I was 15 years old, the catechist took us to celebrate the last reunion at a country house. We ate some snacks, played at the fields, and then he took us to a place outdoors, where he wanted to talk to us. It was afternoon, if I'm not mistaken.

He thanked us for everything at that year and said that every single one of us were special for him. Then, at that moment, a strong gust of wind blowed through us. Then he said: "Just like this wind, which blessed us for a moment".

I will never forget that.

I typically dont talk about my faith online or to others because I know religion often leads to disputes/debates which I dont really have any interest in getting it with anyone but I'm happy to tell you my journey of my faith.

I'm a Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Christian - one of the oriental orthodox churches that has presence mostly in the middle east and south Asia (with a growing presence in North America).

Its kinda like the Catholic Church in terms of honoring saints like St Mary and such but different leadership and different headquarters (in Damascus, Syria) with its own style and traditions that differentiate from Catholicism Christianity but I would say its more strict like any other Orthodox Church (i.e. Russian, Greek, Ethiopian, etc). 

I am named after the saint Yeldho Mar Baselios (both my first name Eldhose and my nickname Basil came from the saint). Yeldo/Eldhose which means Birth of Christ/Christmas in Aramaic and Basil/Baselios which means King or Emperor in Greek.

My entire family has been Syrian Jacobite Orthodox Christian with numerous generations of ancestors buried at my church - Mar Thoma Cheriyapally (which was established over 600 years ago in India) in my hometown of Kothamangalam in the state of Kerala in India.

My hometown Kothamangalam was formely known as Malakhachira (which means Place of the Angel) - local traditions say that St Thomas , one of the apostles of Christ came to this town back when it was small village led by an angel - hence why its called "Place of the Angel". 

Several hundreds of years later, the saint Yeldho (who was originally from present day Iraq) came to my hometown to help the faithful from the Portuguese who under the Catholic church's order were invading and prosecuting the St Thomas Christians (the title given to Indian Christians). There he was established as the saint of the church.

I was baptized there after I was born and so was my daughter earlier this year.

When I was younger, I would just read mostly Psalms during prayer with my parents, they werent as religious or strict in the teachings as me or my wife but we still held our faith despite the bad times we went through in my early years. I'd say the last five years I matured a lot and I can thank my growth in faith for Christianity to play a pivotal role to that cause I know I did a lot of bad stuff in the past that I dont do anymore (sloth/gluttony irl or a troll online lol).

I've always been faithful but never got into the crux of Biblical teachings until a few years ago - I would read random verses or chapters each time we had prayer but it wasnt until 2021 that I decided to read a chapter per day (at least from the days I can read it) - happy to say I've read the entire old testament of the bible in its entirety and about to finish the New Testament as well for the first time in its entirety.

My faith has gotten stronger after reading the Bible from beginning to where I am though I've always believed because of certain events that happened throughout my life.

From the day I was born and suffered through epilepsy for 8 years (and being fully cured from it which in itself was a miracle) , to almost surviving an assassination attempt of my life and my family's life almost 25 years ago by people who thought was family, to growing up with little to no support or knowledge - helping a father and mother who knew as much as I did (they were both dropouts due to being poor and not able to afford an education in India) after being thrown into a foreign country (The US) learning their ways - its been a miracle that I've come this far and I thank the Almighty for that. 

Though I know the Bible I have is somewhat limited to the eastern churches cause I have a western/evangelical Bible which has some books missing like the Book of Enoch 1 and Book of Tobit for an example - I have actually purchased a oriental Bible recently though its more of a study Bible that has those books. 

At my home I made the study room a prayer room, though I consider it a room for God personally to honor God. Throughout my house there's imagery/wall art of icons of the saints and bible verses picked by me and my wife. We pray every time before we leave our house (like before work or before we go out in the weekend) and we pray in the evening right before bed or dinner.

Sorry if my post seemed like I rambled on and on. 

Not sure if I can be active enough on a Bible study group or anything like that cause I'm pretty busy with family, work and other stuff. 

But I wouldnt mind joining a Christian discord group or even talking about faith in general, would be interesting cause I mainly talk about faith only to my family - none of my friends , coworkers or extended family ever hear from me about my faith aside from saying I'm a Christian. 

Edit: Out of the games on that list, I feel like playing Super Mario Odyssey but thats probably because I'm heavy into Final Fantasy Tactics Ivalice Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal right now lol

I'm Catholic, but I respect all religions that brings good things for the people, like the Orthodox. I did a research into it some time ago. We're quite similar.

The Christian religion has quite a lot of different paths, but I think all of them leads into a single destination.

@BasilZero I'm surprised you are not picking the game on the list that have chocobos, lol.

wow, this is the last place I was expecting to read this! ^ ^

VGC is classically a hellhole when it comes to faith, most people here enjoy blaming the society and past generations for their struggles.
At least this is the idea I get with threads like 'let's talk about the bad things Christianity has done', making it sound like Jesus is all about the few bad people in the church... so wrong.

Modern atheists present their views as superior to other people's opinions and refer to science like it proves atheism, which is not the case of course.
I don't talk about my faith either - unless triggered by arrogance where I try to do it in the kindest way possible.
I guess I like giving little discrete hints some times, if there is a reason I see myself as mentally healthy, it is Jesus Christ, so it's mostly about sharing what has helped me.

I grew up as an Orthodox Christian, then became an atheist for most of my early 20s, at some point I realized how lost I was and how toxic and pointless everything felt, I also realized that the most inspiring people I ever met were Christians, so then I knew I was in the wrong place.
I believe in a unified Christian church - Apostles did not have a denomination after all, just the original faith.

I may have grew up as Orthodox, but I relate with Catholic and Protestant spirituality and church services just as much, to me it's all just Christian, the basic teachings are the same.
Open to a group on Discord or here - I used to read and analyse the bible a lot, also how it relates to modern science and psychology. : )

Only commenting because I was curious about the term BDAG.
I think I figured out what it is.

I had a minister as a kid who was well versed in Greek Christian scripture.
Would have been a useful resource to have when I was younger and more curious about such things.

I wanted to be, I liked the ideas and concepts... but I'm too cynical to actually believe it.

So I've read the Bible, but it's on my fiction shelf now...

I know I know (and ironically that game is my second most favorite in the series lol) - but like I said I'm deep into FF Tactics now and want to play a platformer since I've been playing two RPGs back and forth for the past few weeks now lol

Speaking of Chocobos , I have two in my party in battles :3