Willa

Some 50 years ago a godly lady told me " If God can speak through a donkey He can speak through you. lol.

When under attack one of the best defenses is to praise and worship God. When we see how great our God is we know that the enemy doesn't stand a chance. They praised God when they went out in battle many times in the Old Testament. 2 Chron. 20 2Ch 20:21 And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, "Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever." 2Ch 20:22 And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. When fighting spiritual battles we must remember to love the person and have pity on them if they are a pawn of the enemy. That may mean to be firm with them. We are not doormats. We stand in God's strength and rest in His power. Eph 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Eph 6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

It is ceasing from our efforts to be pleasing to God that are done in the flesh. It is resting in the realization that Christ made us pleasing to Him by covering our sinful nature with His own blood, thereby making us able to come into the Father's presence. We are already pleasing to the Father when we trust in the shed blood of Christ. That is our Sabbath rest that we enter by faith.

God wants us to stay in that place of recognizing that we can't do it. We need His grace and His help. We can never be good enough, have enough faith, love, patience etc. We are unable to live the Christian life. Only Jesus can do that, and we need to crucify self to allow Him to live in us. We even need God's help to do that. The answer is to be sensitive to God's Spirit to lead us, one step at a time, and to walk in the Spirit. It takes us from Romans 6, O wretched man that I am, to Romans 7, Thanks be to God there is now now condemnation to those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. WALK. One step at a time.

For 4 years I had lost sleep praying for my husband's salvation. Finally he had started attending church for a few months. Then one day he told me that God had never done anything for him so he was going to go out some night and not tell me what he was doing or where he was going. I asked him " What do you mean God has never done anything for you! Have you ever asked God to forgive you?" No, he said. Then you haven't got to first base! Nevertheless he went out that night not telling me a word. I lay in bed weeping before the Lord, confessing that He could use whatever hubby was doing to bring about his salvation. Much later he came into the room muttering "Well, I did it," You did what? I asked. " I asked Him to help me. We'll see if it's real!" That was exactly my response. Going to church doesn't make it real. Repeating a prayer doesn't make it real if it is just going through the motions. Only God knew if it was real. It was.

Welcome, Prc. If your motive is compassion for others then of course you should share the Gospel with them. God may also be giving you a wake up call. The time is short.

without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Jesus took our sin upon Himself on the cross. God purposed that His only Son be killed for our sin. God believes in capital punishment. He commanded that some people be killed for their sin. We sin when we don't do that in our state prisons, but we are Christians are not under the OT law. We are forgiven under the finished work of the cross. However, unbelievers are still under the law. The law is the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ.

One of my favorite verses: Mark 9:24. Lord I believe, help my unbelief. Tell her she should tell God, if there is a God, that she wants to believe but can't, and then ask for God's help to believe and trust that the Bible is true and that Jesus is God the Son Only God can draw her closer. Pray for her salvation constantly, that God would open her ears and eyes, and soften her heart to believe. God will tell you intuitively when the time is right. He will open the door after she realizes she needs forgiveness. (the blood of the Lamb). Until then keep doing as you have been doing--tell her about answers to prayer and how much certain verses mean to you or comfort you and give you hope.(the word of your testimony) Keep it at little bits because anything will seem like you are preaching even when you are not. Also pray that God will send others to her from whom she can hear His message. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.Rev 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Our senior pastor chooses the elders, which consist of ministerial staff and others that he consults when he makes decisions. The deacons are chosen from those who are godly who naturally stay after church to clean and work to maintain the church property. They also may give others a ride to services or do other practical chores. I have been in churches where they were voted on and it ended in being a popularity contest instead of using the gifts God had given them. Having children is not a requirement. I do know two men who could not control their respective unsaved teen age girls and therefore they resigned their positions. Some people are called to be pastor/elders at fairly young ages, as was my pastor who was called while in his 20s and found himself doing counseling. He said he could always tell people what the Bible said about their problems. He planted our church 30 years ago and had been a youth pastor before that. Being younger he also brought in a lot of college age people, which was really wonderful.

When I told my husband he was stubborn he would deny it and claim to be pig headed. When he called me stubborn I would deny it and claim to be determined.

Well, the idea is good for a laugh.

This is exactly what I was trying to say, yet some got defensive and thought I was accusing you! Why? Do I express myself that badly? If so, I apologize.

There may be some truth in the first chapter of Enoch but it is considered a heretical book because if if any part of it is false the whole message was to be cast out and the false prophet was to be cast out of the country. That is the reason the apocryphal books were rejected and discarded from cannon. The reformers said it may be edifying to read the apocrypha but it may not be taught as holy truth. That is why it was kept beside the Scriptures. Our statement of faith states that we embrace only the 66 books of the Bible which are complete. To teach from other books as though they are equal to Scripture is heresy. "We believe that the 66 books of the Canon, from Genesis to Revelation are the exhaustive, inerrant and inspired word of God" https://www.blueletterbible.org/assets/images/copyChkboxOff.gif Eze 13:8. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD.https://www.blueletterbible.org/assets/images/copyChkboxOff.gif Eze 13:9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Many people become angry at God while they go through the grief process. However to deny His existance because you piped and He did not dance (He didn't follow your instructions or wishes) means He might never have really been your Lord to begin with. You have perhaps expected Him to act like a Santa Claus or to jump through your hoops. We must eventually acknowledge that He is God and we need to come to Job's conclusion: The Lord gives, the Lord takes away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord. We need to accept that it is all His grand plan and He will work everything out for our good when we wait on Him and trust Him. Had you really known God you would also have known that He is a good and merciful God but there are many times that we don't understand why He allows the things that transpire. I am very sorry that you are hurting. Been there a few times as well. I am even sorrier that you have made a really rotten decision because even you can see the disillusionment it produces. It is a simple choice to believe and you are only hurting yourself by choosing to not believe..

There are few things that hurt more than being hurt by a family member, or a church family member, or a parent, spouse or a pastor or best friend. Most of us have survived all of these at one time or another. The bottom line is all of us are human and make huge mistakes. That includes ourselves. In becoming more like Jesus we must learn to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable. We so easily see the faults of others and are so blind to our own. Yet God somehow loves us in spite of all this and wants us to grow more like Him. Church is about fitting living stones together and training us to live close together and in harmony. He wants us to work together as a unit and in appreciation of each other. We need to see Jesus in each other even when self and selfishness is nearly all we see. Perhaps that is what God is trying to show us that other people are seeing in use--some of the faults we can't see in ourselves. It's not that we haven't grown more godly; its that we all still have a long way to go. We still need to serve each other more unselfishly, encourage each other, give to each other, admonish, teach, pastor and evangelize. and most of all we need to serve and worship God more. We can't function as a church without Christ as the Head directing our service. 1 Peter is what God is trying to do among us. This is what being a church is all about. It is becoming and functionioning as one in Christ! 1Pe 2:4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 1Pe 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1Pe 2:6 For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 1Pe 2:7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," 1Pe 2:8 and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1Pe 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1Pe 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 1Pe 2:12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1Pe 2:13 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 1Pe 2:14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 1Pe 2:15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 1Pe 2:16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 1Pe 2:17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. 1Pe 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 1Pe 2:19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 1Pe 2:20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 1Pe 2:21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 1Pe 2:22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 1Pe 2:23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 1Pe 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1Pe 2:25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

I have patiently leaned over backward to turn the other cheek with verbally abusive neighbors till after a year the Holy Spirit welled up in me, went next door, and announce that being a good neighbor is a two way street. God had told me it was not a good witness to be a doormat. On the other hand I had put up with the verbal abuse of a relative and turned the other cheek, while praying for him for several years day and night. God would give me promises to encourage me and I continued to pray till God answered our prayers. So do what the word says till God tells you otherwise. Mat 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you;

I used to read a verse that sort of jumped out at me. Sometimes I heard the same verse several times that week, just in case I missed it the first time. Then God would give me an opportunity to apply that verse in my life. Like: Mat 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, So I would remember the verse and with some difficulty with my attitude, I would do what the verse said. From then on that verse was a part of me. I remembered it vividly, and somehow God would work things out or else bless me for trying to apply it. We internalize God's word when we apply it to ourselves and become doers of the word and not hearers only. Now, if you believe something in God's word, like you believe that Jesus died for your sins, you have it. But then you start saying you don't believe anything Paul said, and you don't believe the words of Jesus "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me." You keep finding verses and books that you don't believe so you keep rejecting them till you find that you don't even believe that Jesus died for you anymore. You have hardened your heart to God's word and what you did have has been taken from you.

In the 50s I was neither grounded well in the word nor had been taught any doctrine, so it was very easy for me to trust in my own works. I became the foolish Galatian. Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Somehow I thought that Jesus had given me a fresh start to try to be good enough to go to heaven. I had begun in the Spirit since the Father had revealed Himself to me and the Spirit had convicted me of sin. I had repented and read through the New Testament. Yet when I trust in my works I automatically stop trusting in God's grace to perfect me. That resulted in self righteousness. BIG MISTAKE! You might say that I was not really saved, but I really wanted to obey God. I just had not learned to let go and let God. In fact, I didn't know it was possible to do so. My only doctrine came from "Santa Clause is Coming to Town." He's making a list, checking it twice, looking to see who's naughty or nice, Santa Clause is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake. When I finally learned that salvation is by faith which was freeing, my mom told me "but you still have to be good", which sunk me back into the oppression of trying to be good enough to go to heaven. Eventually I was taught foundation doctrines like the trinity, salvation by faith, as well as taught about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I learned again to walk in the Spirit, but this time I recognized how He was working to guide me.

Your assumption may be wrong. Women are sinners for many reasons that are not sexual in nature. My 6th grade girls Sunday school class said, "why do we have to repent? We have never done anything wrong!" So I asked them if they had ever been disrespectful to their parents, or stolen anything, or lied, or desperately wanted something that didn't belong to them. The room got very quiet. Someone once said: when the Bible speaks, we speak. Where the Bible is silent, we are silent.

Many of John the Baptist's disciples still had not received Christ and knew nothing of what He had been doing and teaching. So they had not heard of His resurrection. The disciples kept running into these and preaching the Gospel to them. That is why they were being baptized again. It had nothing to do with being baptized in the Name of the Father Son & Holy Spirit, or in Jesus Name. It had to do with the death of Christ for our sins and His resurrection and appearing to hundreds of people. If we don't believe in His resurrection and if we haven't received Him as our Lord God, we probably are not genuine Christians. A large percent of the people here have received the power of the Holy Spirit to witness and to do God's will. It is a joy to be on this site and have fellowship with so many from all over the world who love YHWH and His Redeemer YHWH. Isa 44:6 Thus said Jehovah, king of Israel, And his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: 'I am the first, and I the last, And besides Me there is no God. wh

I used to be Lutheran but had several Lutheran pastors ask me what was different about me. After all, I had tears of joy while singing the Gloria and had to anchor my arms to keep them from floating up, while others repeated the words droning on without meaning. My face was lifted to the heavens while theirs were buried reading the ritual by rote. It is hard to watch a church die and turn into a lodge or a country club. Luther called his church evangelical, but perhaps most are that no longer. Now I go to evangelical fundamentalist churches.

Many mainline hold the doctrine that a baby is born again at their infant baptism. That is when you ask: If you've got it all, where is it all?

Pray the promises. God doesn't lie.

Fact: God is outside of time--it is His creation as is light, and time is relative to the speed of light. Fact: Jesus came as a man for a length of time, but when He died he received a spiritual eternal body that is no longer bound by time. 1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Fact: God called Himself "I AM" in Genesis 3, (as did Jesus in John 8:58, claiming to be God the Son).. That means He just IS. He was and is and is to come, the first and the last. Rev. 1:11 & 4:8. That is how He can be present in the past, the present and the future all at the same time. He is outside of our universe looking in and at the same time He is with us and in us. Perhaps we need to be God to really understand this. However, since God was in the present before creation, and He is present now, and is also in the present tense in the future, He knows the end from the beginning. So He knew before creation who would love Him and who would reject Him because He sees it all in the present tense. Isaiah 46:10 All who are in Christ are saved. This is in Ephesians 1 and it explains God's perspective. However, from our perspective we have free will to repent and receive Him when the Holy Spirit reveals our sin to us and reveals God to us as an all knowing personal God; He loves us and forgives us due to Christ dying in our place, purchasing us and reconciling us to God.. We also have free will to resist the call and revelation of the Holy Spirit and remain in our sin, estranged from God. But it is our own fault should we reject the light God has given us and reject His written word. We harden our own hearts when we resist Him. Since this is the world we live in, bound by time, it is hard for us to understand a spiritual world outside of time. For all I know, it might be another dimension. So I believe that both predestination and free will are correct. Predestination is from God's perspective, but free will is from our perspective. By the way, I am neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian.

The photo illustrations in this are powerful. If the words don't make me think, the pictures do.