DaniJ87

amen.. I used to have a penpal that I hadn't told my parents about....(I have now...) you really get caught in stuff... and if you don't deal with it... it gets easier and easier to hide it... and you mind really is warped... it's irrational- "I don't want to get caught"... when sometimes there would have been no giant consequences in the first place... except you hide it... damaging.

this is insane..... ugh... some people have no common sense!

If you hold your mouse over the red square it says "go to last unread"... so I think that the red squares mean that you haven't read those topics yet, or that you haven't read the NEW posts on them.

YES, I believe that God can deliver anyone from a homosexual lifestyle. HOWEVER- they must truely repent from it, be WILLING to change, and to take the steps necessary to effect that change. If you discuss this with him, confront him. Ask him to pray about it, and REALLY come to terms with whether or not he is SERIOUS about change. Then, get him to see a pastor or counselor, etc. A great book about making life-changes, is "I Want to Change, So Help Me, God", by James MacDonald. I watched a lot of his DVDs... and it is incredible. It is serious too- you REALLY have to mean what you say, to Biblically change.

DOK... like others, I agree- find a different church. It doesn't matter if your parents still go to the old one. If it is this damaging to your faith, it is not worth it. Let your parents know why, but then, change churches. Try a few even, until you find the one where God wants you to be. Don't stay stuck, for any reason.

interesting... what do you mean by "pleading the blood of Jesus"? It sounds pentacostal.

Hi- Kittylover0991 asked me this question: There are several things to do. First of all, find out if there is one in your town. here are several websites I have found, that could help you to do this: http://www.pregnancycenters.org/ http://www.covenantnews.com/pregnant/ http://www.heartbeatinternational.org http://www.cpclink.com/ http://www.ramahinternational.org go to the bottom of this for the list of states to choose yours. these are just a few that I found online. There are more specific things; if you type in Google, and enter your state, and "pregnancy centers", you should find quite a lot. Many centers host fundraisers, such as the baby-bottle fundraiser- the center distributes boxes of baby bottles to churches that wish to contribute, and the people at the churches take the bottles home, and bring them back later, filled with spare change. (put it on top of your washing machine, and empty pockets into it... works really well...) There are also churches that support these centers as a ministry. Many times, clinic people will be very willing to come out to your church and present what they do. There are many other ways to support the centers: call them up and ask! Most centers give out maternity and baby items to single mothers, (and others who have need), and are in need of many items. You could have a "Pregnancy Center" baby shower, even! Some centers even have medical staff on site, and give ultrasounds, so that mothers can see their baby's faces, and be convinced that the baby growing inside them is already a tiny human being! Some of those ultrasounds are awfully cool. (you can view some at StandUpGirl.com They are almost always in need of volunteers! If you have the time, volunteering can be the most needed thing for them. Even if you are unable to help them physically, pray for these centers! Satan does not want them to succeed in saving children's lives, and he does his best to thwart their efforts! Prayer is powerful. Even if you are in college, you can get involved. Start/join the pro-life group on your campus! any more questions? contact me! ~Danette~ p.s.... if anyone wants an awesome green pro-life T-shirt, PM me, and I will give you the email of the person who is selling them to our pro-life group. (this is what she asked. "if you know someone else who would like these shirts, don't hesitate to give them my email and have them contact me!")

It sounds like you need to go to these people and confront them. Biblically. Tell them how discouraging this is for you, etc... try to build a better relationship with them... Perhaps they don't even realize that they come across the way that they do... it may be that you percieved something in a way far different from how it was meant. Even if things don't change, or you don't confront them, pray for them. You would be surprised how much praying for those who don't get along with you, can help! ~Danette

why do you think everybody hates you? Even if you did something that made people angry, you are still loved. I expect that you are having a bad day, and it only feels right now like nobody loves you... like the song "nobody loves me; everybody hates me; guess I'll go eat worms.." Read Song of Solomon if you think nobody loves you... or Romans. Or some other portion of scripture. Even though I am not there, I love you. You are my sister in Christ. If you feel like all the people in your church don't love you, just get closer to God. Then you will find out what His will is for your life... maybe you need a different church? I know how frustrating it can be to be at a church where people pretend you are invisible. I lived the invisible life for long enough. Now I am looking for a new church... where I don't have family, to give me a identity preview. I want people to know me as ME.. not "Joel's daughter", or "Dan's Granddaughter"... Things are going wonderfully right now. I will pray for you. Remember that God doesn't listen to majority opinion. He never changes. And He will always love you, His daughter.

I am glad you have a church that isn't dead, Kittylover. What I meant about things being doctrinally based, was not that I don't want things based in doctrine... but sometimes, there is no Biblical doctrine to support something, and someone will just pretend there is. Like claim that you are a sinner if you don't do "this"... because they have decided that that is the doctrine... but what doctrine is there in the Bible that explains the church not supporting, (or even allowing them to present their ministry) an organization that wants to save lives, and souls? I will never go to a church again, that won't support a pregnancy help center. this is mainly a question about my church... I am not saying that yours does this. Do you know all the people in your church? Sometimes I think that huge churches get a little bit too big... like maybe everyone comes from far and wide to go there... and instead, they should chop them into bits, and have churches that cooperate, but that have people from different areas... (like all the people from "far" having a church, and the people from "wide" having another....) My aunt has a lot of medical problems, and they went to a huge church. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to pay attention to her... It seemed that everyone thought that someone else would bring her family a meal, or send a card, or go to see her, etc... but nobody did.

I had a lot of information about hypnotism last semester... Apparently, in the studies that have been done, you can get people who are NOT "hypnotized" to do the same things as those who ARE. It was really all a matter of someone allowing someone else to control them. If someone decided before hand, "she can't hypnotize me"... it didn't happen. Also, if someone had been "hypnotized", and a remark was made about how gullible they are, they came out of it right away. I think whoever is trying to help with smoking cigarrettes with hypnotism, is just trying to get your money. It has been shown in many studies that hypnotism does not offer any benefits for ending addictions, such as smoking, or drinking. However, you could easily be hypnotized, and come to associate a bad flavor or texture with a certain food... and then you wouldn't eat it very much, because whenever you ate it, the bad flavor/texture would come to mind. hypnotism, though, 1. has nothing to do with the person performing it- it has to do with the openness to suggestion of the person being hypnotized. 2. Being an authoritative person is more influential on someone you are trying to hypnotize, than any other quality affects them. 3. Someone who is hypnotized cannot be made to do anything against their core beliefs.

I agree that if a doctrine is worth believing, it is important.... but growing up Baptist, (still a member of a Baptist church...) I think that as "independent fundamental baptists" we seem to see every line as a doctrinal one... my old church had a split from another Baptist church, because it wanted to support Billy Graham... (this was way back when he was pretty new...) not much doctrine there... on either side. Sometimes we seem in our denomination, to miss the point made by Paul about Christian liberty, and we try to call everything a doctrine. I believe that believer's baptism is important, for instance... but why do we have such deep divisions between other like-believing churches? Why does my old church refuse to support any ministry not started and run by "Baptists", even if they are not much different? For example, my mom worked at a pregnancy help center. Our church wouldn't support the center, because being Baptist was not a requirement for working at the center. I call that going too far. Whether or not they were Baptist, to be a worker, you had to agree with a statement of faith, that clearly was Christian, and covered all the points that matter in that setting... (Salvation, getting people involved in a church, etc...) I don't even think I care to be Baptist any more, because I think that our denomination has a bad reputation... Also, I just believe that denominational names can be harmful sometimes. People should be forced to really look at what a church believes- not just look at the name. I am attending a non-denominational church, which believes essentially the same thing that Baptists do... except that they have not decided to make it a "doctrinal" requirement for pastors to have gone to seminary, etc... Instead, their pastors come from the membership of their church. Baptists also seem fairly stagnant. How many new Christians join YOUR Baptist church? At mine, very few. We have people come who were members of other churches... but not very many people just got saved. I do think it it really annoying when Baptist missionaries come, and tell you "there are no churches in that city", when what they mean, is yeah, there may be a methodist church, and a nondenominational church, and a lutheran church, etc... just not a "baptist" church. It took me forever to realize that we were not the only Christians. those are my opinions on Baptist churches. It's fine if you disagree with me... this is just what I percieve after being IN a Baptist church for 18 years. ~Danette

Read Romans 14:22-23: 22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Do you have doubts about whether they honor God? If you are of the mind that they are not pleasing to God, by all means, get rid of them. I think the idea of trading them is all right. Wait a little bit, and you can get "The End of the Spear" on dvd. It's really sobering, and motivates you to live for Christ, to see what the Saints and the Elliots went through to follow Christ. Don't trade them if you feel that God's will for you is to destroy them- for example, do you feel that you just shouldn't be watching so many DVDs at all? Umm.. this is not exactly Godly... The verses already posted clearly state that if things aren't pure, and promote good values, they are not things we should be watching. Not that everything has to talk specifically about God... but if they don't promote good values, that means that they promote bad ones... which is not a very good thing to be doing. Whether to burn them, trade them, or give them away, really depends on what God is working on with you. if it's materialistic struggles, trading one for another will still leave you with the same number... if you struggle with the influences of the less moral videos, trading them for something that is more Biblically sound might be a good idea, too. You could always trade them in for children's videos, and give them to someone for a birthday... just a thought.... do whatever God is leading you to do.

I disagree about clones having no souls. I believe that there are only two possiblities: 1. It won't work, even if they try cloning people; they will have some sort of problems, and won't be able to get them to turn out right; or 2. They will be people, with souls, but will have been conceived in a way that caused the killing of another human being. Really, cloning is taking the DNA from one cell, (killing it to do so), and putting it into another cell, and having it reproduce. I may have explained it wrong... but, it is NOT creating life...only destroying and twisting it... and since human LIFE is what has been endowed with a soul, wouldn't any human being have one, regardless of how they were conceived?

What does "Secular" mean? If I understand it, secular is something that wasn't created with the purpose of glorifying God. Now, a whole lot of beautiful classical music falls into this category. Does that mean that it's no better to listen to classical music, than it is listen to the Stones? 1. Personally, I don't think there is much of a separation. God is everywhere- not just at church, and so we can't really section off a bit of music and call it "secular". It's either God-honoring, or not God-honoring. 2. Avoiding the appearance of evil... hmm... An example I would think of, would be that you are not supposed to do things that will damage your Christian reputation. If you are trying to minister to someone who is unsaved, you are not going to want to swear and curse when you are talking to them, (or not with them, for that matter... IMO swearing is for people without enough brain power to express themselves) or for them to find out you did something or went to an event that could generally be viewed as something that Christians don't do. Even unbelievers understand we are supposed to be separate. 3. The standard for measuring whether something brings Glory to God.... hmm... The Bible,... "Whatever is pure, lovely,...." etc. I think that that gives us a pretty good definition for what is God Honoring.... Also, a definite NO is anything that is putting something in a favorable light, which God commands us not to do... like, songs that do nothing but promote sexual promiscuity, and immorality... (I rode in a car with my roommate and her friend, and the songs she had playing on her CD player were just horrid. I had never had to put up with such distasteful and immoral language in my life...) 4. I think it depends you you recieve the things used that way. I watched "The End Of The Spear" yesterday... and I also heard that the man who played nate saint in the movie is homosexual. But I believe that the movie can be used for God's glory, anyway. (Another subject, but, I equate all sexual sins as being just as bad... and to not see the movie because of this one actor, is inconsistent, if I watch other movies, and have no idea what sexual immorality they are party to.. I do not try to find these movies to watch.. but I watch a movie for its message, not for who is in it. And the End Of The Spear had an excellent message.) 5. I am not quite sure why this is the case... It isn't consistent. Either we should start judging everybody by their life, or else judge everyone by what they accomplish... not some of each... for example- would you refuse to let a firefighter come and rescue you out of a burning building, because he was an adulterer? an atheist? Probably not. You would most likely just be glad to be rescued. The service they provided you with was appreciated. that is what I have to say for now... Danette

good point.

I agree... If you can only learn real history from one place, why? Why is the RCC more trustworthy than another place for history? You should really look at everything recorded about a time period, by everyone who has recorded things about it... just saying "you have to learn it from us, or it's inaccurate", is as bad as people saying in some of the Baptist circles, "If you didn't get saved in a Baptist church, you're going to hell", or "If you don't study the Bible in KJV only, you are studying lies".. It has NO logic behind it. It is ridiculous that the RCC kept the Bible in latin for so long... Jerome translated it at a time when the common language was latin... but when everyone spoke English, why did they not change the language of the Bible? I know someone who went to a catholic church school, and who was told "Don't read the bible. The best way for you to understand it is to read the interpretations of it, or to listen to the priests." What is biblical about that? God has made Himself accessible to the common man. He is understood just as easily by an unlearned person, as by a professor in something, etc. "Whoseover will, may come"...

I agree with Nebula... talk with your husband and figure some of these things out. Do you work EVERY night? Perhaps on a day/night you don't work, you could go together to a Bible-study, or something. Just remember that you do need to have some sort of fellowship with other believers on a regular basis. danette...

wow... there is a lot in this post... and it is funny that nobody started arguing with it, until the last few pages.... I am wondering what that means... did all the people who started arguing just not come to this board when it was begun? I emphatically agree that we really need to be careful about defining "sins" for others. I am not going to use the word legalism, merely because I don't think the dictionary definition does it justice. I have things that I do and do not do, because of my personal feelings.. there is nothing wrong with that. However, I would be sinning, if I told another person that those same things are horrible sins, and you will go to hell/are not a good Christian/are backslidden, if you do this... For example, I do not celebrate halloween, because of what it is. However, I have gone to a "costume" party at my friend's house, which we did not call halloween, (I dressed as a tree..) and had a lot of fun... it was a "fall party". This does not mean that I will condemn anyone who does celebrate halloween... My mother celebrated halloween when she was a little girl... I like Romans 14, because it is so clear. If it does not seem clear to you in what it is saying, pray, read it again, and perhaps read it in several bible translations. I don't study with the Message version, but I think I want to get one, just so I can compare things every once in awhile. It can be refreshing to read things in a different version, because it's different than what you're used to. One thing that does bother me, is that we are all so inconsistent... when is it ok to do something that could possibly offend another Christian? If I like listening to contemporary Christian music, do I have to cease from listening to it, if I was spending a lot of time with people who thought it was bad? The thing that bothers me, is that these people that I try not to offend, don't get it... You are not supposed to be offended by other people's freedom choices... Why is it that the rigid rule makers rule things? I don't mind the things they like... so why do they have to be so stubborn, so that I cannot enjoy the things I like, around them? I don't know if that came out right... but it seems like the "do not cause your brother to be offended", gets applied wrong, and in only one direction. We need to remember that not only are we supposed to go out of our way not to offend others, that we ALSO need to go out of our way NOT to be offended. When someone said, "well then, Jesus was a legalist..." they didn't take into account Jesus' way of ministering to people. He went to dinner, (invited!) with sinners... Now... do you think they would have invited Him if He had been known to constantly lambaste sinners? He didn't. He showed them love, at the same time as showing them that they were wrong. He didn't always have to tell them... sometimes they already knew they had failed... this happens to me sometimes... I make a mistake, know I have made it, and feel terrible about it... now, in this circumstance, I really DON"T need my daddy to tell me what a horrible mistake I made, or point it out. I am already ashamed of it, and am sorry for it. What I would need from him more, would be a hug, forgiveness, and love. you know... I just had another thought... could it be that many of these people who add to God's words and His law, are afraid for their salvation? Do they not understand the concept of God's grace, and that once you are saved, He never, ever lets you go? You do not have to follow a set of rules in order to be saved. Instead, you will likely follow a way of living because you are saved, and because you love God. Doing things out of love, is different than following rules. Rules are not necessary, once you have God's love to rule you. You will have a desire to do what is right... and when you don't, you will know it deep within your heart.

my peeves... when you go to church, and everyone acts like you're invisible... when the only way to get people to talk to you is to start every conversation yourself... (especially when I am visiting a church... come on... if you want visitors to come back, welcome them!) people who take my pens... when my siblings try to play with my computer without asking first. (I would say YES most of the time anyway... but it's still irritating that they don't ask...) -that the cafeteria here at college doesn't open until 10:30 on weekends... I mean- why do they think everyone WANTS to have "brunch" instead of breakfast and lunch? well... that's enough... Dani

If you want something to put on your salad, 1. try low-fat dressings. They have significantly less calories. (my favorite italian dressing has less than 35 per 2 tbsp) 2. make your own dressings. Get the "Good seasons" powder from the store and mix your dressing with lower calorie equivalents to the required ingredients. 3. Get Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix. The calorie count certainly must go down, if you use light or fat free mayonnaise, rather than the regular stuff. Skim milk helps, too.... 4..... Don't worry about the salad dressing! If all you are worrying about is salad dressing, just change your focus- if the rest of what you eat is healthy, as long as you exercise, the salad dressing won't matter much... It also might help to add water to your salad dressing- more liquid will help it spread farther, but it probably won't compromise the taste much. 1tbsp might have 40 calories... but change that to 2 tablespoons, and each now has 20..... :-) hope this could possibly help... Danette

Keirus- the name of the first book is "Left Behind", same as the series. I think the books are pretty good.... if you like peretti.... have you tried anything by Ted Dekker? His "circle" trilogy is excellent. The books' names are "Black", "Red", and "White".

where does that come from? my family is definitely not wealthy- but we don't feel that this is true about conservatives. I think this sounds a lot like what the liberals WANT us to believe. I don't like liberal beliefs at all. I live in wisconsin, and frankly, when the election comes around, I will vote for ANYONE other than Gov. Doyle. He is horrible and has been standing in the way of giant victories for the cause of sanctity of human life. vowing to veto the cloning ban, shooting down the "Fetal pain awareness act", (mandating that abortion clinics MUST inform women of the intense pain that an unborn child feels while being killed) and an act for the prohibition of the transport of minors to other states for abortion, in order to evade the state's parental notification laws. Basically, I feel that liberals do not believe in morals, personal responsibility, and absolutes. In addition, they do not understand the problems in the world around them- they don't seem to understand that more money does not fix everything. Giving people free welfare money, for instance, does not fix the problem that is underlying them being poor- we need to find them good jobs, and teach them to manage money wisely. This would best be done by the church, rather than by the government, and would give us, as Christians, a better reputation if we were contributing to society in such a way. they believe in absolute freedom for women, and abortion on demand, and yet they see nothing wrong with hiding the true side effects and risks of abortion, and even hiding the details of the procedure itself. Conservatives can be wrong, too- but at least they are pro-life! Pro-life is the first thing I look for in any candidate- all other things are secondary, to whether or not a man or woman views life as precious.

OSAS? what is that? If by eternal security, you mean that one cannot lose one's salvation, that is what my church believes- we are 'independent fundamental Baptist". there sure are a lot of divisions in baptists as a denomination- like this joke... A man was walking across a bridge one day, and saw another man standing on the edge, about to jump off. The first man immediately ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. The man said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" "Like what?" "Well ... are you religious or atheist?" "Religious." "Me, too! Are you Christian or Jewish?" "Christian." "Me, too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant." "Me, too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist." "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God." "Me, too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God." "Me, too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" To which the man said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off the bridge.

That they are people just like us... it's just that their heritage groups are more defined--- I mean, if I look at my heritage back far enough, I'm gypsy, norwegian, english, welsh, swedish... etc... Being bi-racial would just make it so that you actually have an advantage when you fill out those scholarship forms...