Willa

Where did God use wizards? The Magi were astrologers but were the early astronomers. Daniel was a Magi when he was held captive in Babylon and was made so because he could interpret dreams with God's help. But he also taught the magi about the star that would lead them to the Messiah as the Bible predicts His coming. The Magi were considered to be wise men. There were very few prophets during Christ's time. John the Baptist was one. But prophecy stopped between the time of Daniel and the time of Christ. After the Day of Pentecost prophecy returned to the Church, but after the apostles it did not have the same authority as it did before; none after the apostles could be included in the Bible. It became a means of encouraging the church and building it up or admonishing, applying established scripture to situations. Inspired preaching is an example of modern prophecy, such as those gifted evangelists.

1. Angels in dreams? I know someone who sees demons in dreams. They are fallen angels. 2. No I don't believe in faith healing. I do believe that God heals. 3. Yes, although some versions use the word spirit instead, e.g. the Holy Spirit. 4. It speaks of Thomas refusing to believe that Christ had arisen unless he saw the nail prints in His hands and spear mark in His side. 5. No the bible does not talk about the shroud of turin. While it was from the same era, it has nothing to do with Christ but of someone else who was crucified. I can't remember exactly why scientists came to that conclusion. 6. No I believe that any apparition appearances of Mary are demonic because they lead people away from Christ.

God gave me His love for my husband before he was saved. All the ugly things he did didn't matter. I knew God could use them to save him, and it was because of his sinful life that he needed a Savior. He gave me His loving forgiveness during our marriage. I saw him through the blood of Jesus and treasured the life of Christ in him. God held us together in that way. Yes, we can love that way. We choose to. But it is a work of God and not of ourselves. He must destroy any shred of self righteousness to enable us to love with His love.

The Ethiopian Church did not use a lot of discrimination in gathering early writings, many of which were were pseudoepigraphal and are rejected by Roman and Orthodox churches as well as Protestantism due to late dates and gnostic influences.. While I have an interest in Church history, is am really only beginning to learn more about it.

I liked the Nativity. It was fairly realistic. Instead of cute clean little shepherd boys like they normally portray, the shepherds were dirtier than a street person having been sleeping and living with their sheep. It was to these people who were despised and unfit to enter the Temple that first visited the Christ Infant. It was they who were visited by angels.

Thank you for a refreshingly encouraging post.

Neighbor, we seem to be living the same retirement dream. But I can't do any of the fixing. Remember to take care of your back----humm.

Wasn't it the Beetles who sang the song Yesterday? I always liked it. But then, I long for the values of the 50s!

The one sin that makes us or breaks us lies in what we do with Jesus. If we receive Him as the Word God Who humbled Himself and took on the form of a Servant, we are made able to become born again sons of God. If we reject Him and that He came from the Father, we remain in the possession of satan among the unredeemed. Joh 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Joh 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2Co 6:15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 2Co 6:16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2Co 6:17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 2Co 6:18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." You should be heading in opposite directions. God gives us His love for the lost, the unsaved. So new Christians can be mislead to think He wants us to be close friends with them. It is OK to be friends but not best friends. Most often those in sin will want nothing to do with us if we are truly sold out to Christ. They normally call us names like "more holy than thou". They ridicule us. But others are drawn to the love of Christ in us. With these we need to share the Gospel and pray for them. But what usually happens is that they draw us away from God because they think like the world and are drawn to do the things of the world. The areas of temptation are the world, the flesh and the devil. So they may like worldly and fleshly movies and you end up going with them to these. Gradually you are drawn away from your life focused on and revolving around God.

Worship is something we experience now that we will be doing in heaven.

God inhabits the praises of His people. Praising and worshipping God aloud, singing praises to His Name for the beauty of His holiness, often defeats the enemy. Worship Him for His attributes--Who He is-- and for the cross and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Thank Him for redeeming you by that blood. Then go back to worship.

I always suspect that the people in the sound booths have become deaf and can't tell that they are making everyone else as deaf as they are.

When the music gets too loud, I sit unashamed with my fingers plugging my ears and hope that someone in the sound booth takes notice. If there is one thing I hate it is music that drags. There is nothing more spiritual about slow music. In fact, my mind wanders when it is unduly slow. Worship is not a dirge. It is a joyous celebration.

I bought a calendar of a cow in yoga positions. It was humorous, and not nearly as offensive as if I tried to do them.

During the last part of the trib. when the bowls of God's wrath are poured out we are told that unbelievers only hardened their hearts.

Amplified Version really helped me with this issue. 1Pe 3:1 IN LIKE manner, you married women, be submissive to your own husbands [subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them], so that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives, 1Pe 3:2 When they observe the pure and modest way in which you conduct yourselves, together with your reverence [for your husband; you are to feel for him all that reverence includes: to respect, defer to, revere him—to honor, esteem, appreciate, prize, and, in the human sense, to adore him, that is, to admire, praise, be devoted to, deeply love, and enjoy your husband]. When I realized it was my job to adapt myself to my husband, to fill in where he lacked and in that way be a helpmeet to him, it really helped my attitude. And in the amplification of reverence, words like appreciate, admire, be deeply devoted to and enjoy helped me to really understand how a wife should express love for her husband. However, these things are not hard to do when he treated me the way the Bible teaches as well. It was much harder to do before he was saved, but God changed him into a godly husband. We also prayed together in conversational prayer each night, and interceded for friends and family, with him leading us.

Oh! You mean there are more of you? Friend, you are most definitely one of a kind and unique. Thank you for your kindness when I need it the most.

Sometimes it is a matter of pacing ourselves. We need to only do so much a day and stop and relax every so often. Sometimes stretching exercises help some people. My mid back goes out like that. Right now I need to carry in gallons of water from my car. So I take two at a time and make 2 trips. The rest can wait for another day. Perhaps it is a guy thing to want to do as much as you did when you were 20. I don't know many men who have a lot of common sense in this area. Thinking of late hubby and now our sons. Hubby had 2 congenital fusions in his lower back, spondyl0listhesis with subluxation.

Php 1:21 WEB For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Php 1:22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don’t know what I will choose. Php 1:23 But I am in a dilemma between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Php 1:24 Yet, to remain in the flesh is more needful for your sake. 2Co 5:6 NKJV So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 2Co 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2Co 5:8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Rev 6:9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" I believe our spirits/souls leave our body at death and go to be with Jesus immediately. We will be rejoined to a glorified body when Jesus comes back for them. Only the Holy Spirit is able to divide soul and spirit; the same Greek word is sometimes used for both. So Soul is self and what makes up our personality, and it contains our spirits which are able to communicate with God. Your grandma is basking in the glory of God right now. There is nothing better than that. Sleep is the christian word for death, meaning that our lifeless bodies will not remain that way but that when Jesus comes back for them our souls/spirits will be housed in a new immortal body.

Mat 7:18 WEB A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Mat 7:19 Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. Mat 7:20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Jhn 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Heb 12:14 Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, Heb 12:15 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it; There are people here who had been well respected. Then some subject was touched upon that revealed sin in there lives and bitterness grew from it. One blamed the problem on other peoples sin and would not repent of his own. They have grown in bitterness since then. It is important that we be quick to forgive. It is important that we not grieve the Holy Spirit in this way. Should it be allowed to continue it becomes the leaven that ruins the whole lump and corrupts every aspect of their lives. We need to love them anyhow. God is giving them every opportunity to repent. And we need to guard ourselves against bitterness toward anyone but forgive before the sun goes down. Mat 18:21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” Mat 18:22 Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven. Mat 18:33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ Mat 18:34 His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him. Mat 18:35 So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”

While I believe these things, during the suffering it is sometimes difficult to find suffering joyful. I can delight in the Lord during suffering and rest in His joy. I can rejoice in God during suffering. It is hard to find joy in the fact that I am suffering. I can know in my head that it is for good or that God will bring good out of it, but intense pain is what it is.

The Proverbs were mostly written by Solomon or by Agur and Lemuel his teachers. They are inspired of the Holy Spirit but not written as the voice of God. So you are reading this incorrectly.

Satan can also turn himself into an angel of light. When your beliefs contradict the Bible, or your experiences, you are in error and false doctrine. You are believing what you want to believe, not what the Bible states. When we contend with God's word, we lose. It is rebellion. Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. You are posing what ifs and all the people in Korea are humble honest etc, but God says all we like sheep have gone his own way, and none is righteous, no not one. If you want our permission to rebel against God, you won't find it here. If you want to attend a church that doesn't use the Bible as its guide to true or false doctrine, you won't find us giving you permission to do that either. If you want to use the "burning in the bosom" to tell you that what you are doing is good and right, like the Mormons do, or your emotions, we can't talk you out of it because you have already made up your mind and aren't listening to the scriptures. I give up on people who don't want to hear the truth from God's word. May God have mercy on your soul.

If you have Bible Study Fellowship in your area it is great for people who really want to get acquainted with the Bible and grounded. They may take a whole year to study a book but it is so worth while. They meet weekly but you do have daily homework. Then you discuss the material in small groups. Finally you meet as a large group where it is taught. In addition there is written commentary. It is interdenominational in nature.