Willa

Earnest is so very right. It starts with your own relationship with God and spending time in fellowship with Him. Should you feel God leading you to be a pastor, are you already leading a small group Bible study? Should that be successful, it would be confirmitation of the call into the ministry. Often when God calls people to do a thing they can't help but do the same type of thing now. God's love compells them. You should not become a pastor because of the error of others. It should be because God's compassion for the lost, the sheep without a shepherd, will allow you to do nothing else. An easy way to begin a study would be to use a Navigators bible study or the 10 Basic Steps series by Campus Crusade. Or you might offer to help in a high school or middle school sunday school class. If God causes it to grow, you are on the right track. Are you serving at a local mission? Are you already witnessing to others what God has done in your own life to make you a new creature? Are people drawn to you for Godly counsel, prayer or advice? My own church watches people to see what they are presently doing to determine the ministry God has called them into. Are you already serving in what ever capacity you can in a local church? You can help to set up chairs or to clean up afterward. GOD CHOOSES PEOPLE WHO ARE SERVENTS.

The fact remains that God's dwelling is a house of living stones fit together. We are the body of Christ that He uses here on earth. We corporately are the temple of God. I have also been let down in the past when in serious need. After the birth of our second child my doctor ordered me to bed rest for 10 days. My mother had died one month earlier and post partum blues hit me like a ton of bricks. Of the dozen people who had OFFERED to come help, none came. They all said they had caught a cold. Hubby was not allowed time off either. Since I had a hyperactive 3 year old destroying the house, I could not stay in bed. ò God has taught me to not rely on people, even people in the church. I can rely on Him. He enabled me to be up without serious consequences. He gave me strength during a very dark time of grief and depression. I felt like Jesus going to the cross--betrayed and alone. Perhaps it was meant for me to share in these sufferings of Christ. But Jesus was even forsaken of God. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. That is one thing we will never have to suffer. For nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Forgiveness does begin with a decision. Then it is remembering that it is while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; I remember Him dying for the person who did so much harm, as well. Often I have had to fight through the outrage of more offences and forgive many times. But I know I have truly forgiven when I come to have a pitying love for the person, the way God does. I reason that without God's love in them they don't know any better. They are selfish and cruel. They are incapable of godliness. They even try to be nice by the world's standards but fall way short. There but for the grace of God, go I. Blessings, Willa

If the compassionate love of God doesn't dwell in us, something is seriously wrong. But how we respond to the needs we see differs according to our gifts. My hubby always sees physical needs and does all the things mentioned. He helps in any way he can, if it is only to sweep floors. But I am more apt to see a person's loneliness or spiritual need. I will try to encourage them, pray for them, and offer a bottle of cold water to a stranded motorist while hubby drives home, gets the jumper cables, helps start the car and get the people on their way. I don't even think of doing the things he sees and does.

Jesus took on a glorified or spiritual body after his resurrection. We will have a new body like His. But he still ate fish and broke bread with the disciples. I think of Him appearing as He does in Rev. 1. But it the beginning, prior to creation, He existed as the WORD. He spoke the worlds into existence. He called Himself I AM. As such He was Spirit but took on the appearance of an angel, such as the commander and chief of the Lord's armies or the Angel of the Lord; but since angel means messenger I am not sure about His appearance. Normally no wings are spoken of when pertaining to angels, but only with cherubim and seraphim; the other winged creatures that may have been female were evil.

The prophecy was for the son of a woman to be the Messiah. Jewish genealogy was matrilineal for that reason. But the coming King had to be in the linage of David. It is the only society where it is a patriarchy but matrilineal. Or so I was told in cultural anthropology classes.

SonS of God usually refer to angels. THE Son of God is Jesus.

I see most of these statements as a matter of personal maturity. As we mature we grow into more bibical christianity and the character of the church changes to reflect a maturing congregation. That sometimes means changing to a different church or denomination as we change but most do not, or as the church body reverts to less bibical practices.. .1. A person must have a personal salvation before he can become a part of the body of Christ. But the gifts and ministries are directed to a body or group of Christians with only the gift of tongues being for an individual. Other gifts are to be judged by the body as a whole. The destiny of the individual is to always be with the Lord. The destiny of the body is to be His dwelling place, with individuals fitted into and working together with each other to function as a whole with Christ as the Head. 2. It is true that the prosperity gospel is a false gospel. It is American greed and covetousness that tempts people to this.. The Bible is all about giving--The Father gave His Son. So we give ourselves and resources back to Him; we give to bless and help each other whether by time, labor of love or money. 3.American culture is all about self and happiness. As we mature in our walk with Christ we become focused on glorifying God and as His love grows in us we also desire to serve others and bring others to Christ. 4. After finding stability, security, comfort and healing in Christ we are motivated to move out of comfort zones to share with others what we have found. We find personal peace dispite of our circumstances. 5. I have no idea what systemic redemption is. However faith should affect every area of our lives, including praying about how to vote. Salvation is entirely the work of the work of the Holy Spirt, whether it be the salvation of 1 or many. 6. Apologetics is based on scripture, not man's reason or experience. It is about the Holy Spirit shedding light on Scriture. It is when men use reason, philosophy or experience as a basis for doctrine that error creeps into the church. Now days we have men in universities creating cults and calling them christian, as if their degrees in theology qualify them to create a religion. 7. Many people choose a church with good sunday schools, youth programs and young adult programs. The latter 2 are the ages where most of our young people are lost. Without the fellowship of people their own age to encourage each other, many are lost during this time of growing independance. I grieve when the needs of people this age are not met by their churches. 8. I agree with this 100%. Churches with self help groups and hobby groups are not bringing people to the person of Jesus Christ. They may be good for Christian fellowship if they are christians to begin with. Focusing on self is error. Focus on God is the answer. 9. We have come to think of the building as the temple of the Holy Spirit where God dwells. Not So. I consider no physical building as sacred. WE are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in His name, He is in our midst. This can mean a coffee shop, a public park, a home, or a civic center. Our church has held services in all of those places, as well as a school and a shopping center. 10. Our services are not timed, but there are some limits due to the contraints of fitting 2 services into the morning. We often also leave young children in adjacent facilities being kept late. So it is difficult to not go beyond 30 minutes over an expected time. But we do expect the Holy Spirit to minister, and sometimes people are dismissed if they must leave and an alter call is given for personal prayer and ministry. Other times it occurs within the service. Often people are leading others beside them through sinners prayer while in the pews. We never know what to expect when God is in charge. 11. All genuine pastors are called by God. I many churches should they be invited to become a pastor of a church they may decline if they feel they are not called by God to that particular congregation. In other churches they were called to a region to plant a church and remain there untill God calls them elsewhere. Graduating from a seminary does not qualify any to be a pastor. 12. Most pastors are subject to a board of elders he has appointed. Others have church overseers in the denomination as well that they answer to in the case of herecy or impropriety. In other cases the congregation can vote him out. 13. Many train in a bible school and then are mentored or vice versa. When seminaries are taught by unbelievers it is likely the pastors that come from it will not be saved. It is even possible that some who went in as believers we come out doubting their faith in the very Christ who died for them.

There are many people claiming these things but very few are credible. Most want to sell books or gain noteriety, profiting from the Christian faith. The only things that we can believe for sure are written in the Bible. So the things that agree with Scripture are more believable. I am more apt to give some belief to the accounts of people who were brought back to life in hospitals but who have not profited from their experiences. I personly have known 2 of these. One was a 4 year old child. I met a third man whose claims were extremely scriptural and many things I had also experienced in other ways. I am inclined to believe his account as well, since as I listened the Holy Spirit kept bring to my rememberance scriptures that echoed his statements. The things I heard him say were not far fetched such as that there was no smell of decay. He was groping for words to discribe what he saw and heard. If nothing else it brought those coroberating scriptures alive to me. However, the Kat Kerr person and others who claim to have been having visions of heaven, hell and the tribulation seem to be using them and godliness as a means of gain.. They seem to be claiming to be prohets, and many of their details of heaven are not in scripture. We are told to beware of these people and even avoid them. Paul spoke of seeing unmentionable visions of heaven that were accompanied by an affliction to keep him humble. One of the badges of his preaching was that he did not ask for support and sometimes even refused to accept it..

Sylvia, when I was young we were still taught about God somewhat it school. We sang our national hymns which spoke of God. Prayer was still allowed. And evolution was taught as a theory, not as fact. My biology teacher told us that he was required to teach it but we didn't have to believe it. I often jokingly say: if you think you decended from an ape, you may have been. If you think you were made in the likeness of God, you probably are. For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Prov 23:7 NKJV I think it is appropriate even if it is out of context. Blessings, Willa

Various denominations have different structures and means of support. Many are independant churches that have no support outside of its congregation. The latter is my own. While it bears the name and basic beliefs of the original church, it receives no support from them. The pastor maintained a full time job until the church grew to 300-400 members and he could not do both. The church supports fund raisers for their Christian school, the local pro life pregnancy center, and various missions that people from our church visit and help to support. These are over and above our weekly giving. The church solicits no funds for itself, its building and land purchases or its building projects; it must make payments on the buildings and on the camp that we purchased since they involve many millions of dollars. Our building seats about 1000 and doubles as a gymnasium for the school. There are no pledges and no formal membershiip. Our pastors depend on God to supply their needs and to make enough money available to pay their personal bills. They never tell others of their needs. Occasionally his wife had to find a job as a waitress so they could have money for Christmas gifts. They own an older pick up and a newer car that is safer for travel. The 4 pastors are not wealthy but live in pretty average homes. Our senior pastor has 5 acres and livestock. His rural older farm house is probably below the standards of a lot of people. It is true that pastors of main line denominations may not be saved. The pastor of the prior church we attended had led the president of his seminary to receive Christ; he was widely known and a respected theologian. A large portion of this church was engineers and their average income was about 30% above state average. They made sure that their pastor had a new house and an income commesurate to their own. People there had to vow to tithe to become members; but the church also tithed to missions. In addition they had special fund raisers to raise support for specific missions projects and often gave 70,000 out of their abundance.. In the church before that, the people were not wealthy and it also received no support from the denomination.. But the pastor's heart was not right about finances and he put people under obligation to tithing in such a way that it became bondage. Once they took 4 offerings for a visiting speaker because it was not enough to cover the expenses of their luxeory hotel suite and fees he required. Normally a member would have opened his home for visiting speakers to stay. Three different denominations. All were independant in finances...The latter two also paid dues of some kind to support the denominational government. Many churches are completely independant with no denomination at all, and many are small with less than 150 people attending, forcing the pastor to work full time at another job. Most have a family to support. Paul worked as a tent maker. Acts 18:3 When James, Peter and John gave Paul and Barnabus the commision to go to the gentiles, they requested that they remember the poor. This usually meant to support the church in Jeruselem since the members had given up their wealth and property in a communal lifestyle and had become poverty stricken with no resources during draught. Gal. 2:10 We cannot do otherwise but to give to the poor if the compassion of Christ dwells in us. 2 Cor. 8:3-5 Speaks of giving ourselves wholly to God, and then to the will of God, as being the foundation of cheerful giving. The Macedonians begged to give in spite of their deep poverty.

I completely agree with Qnts. We continue to present our bodies a liveing sacrifice and to renew our minds in the Word, to be conformed into the likeness of Christ. We continue to walk in the good works that God prepared for us to walk in. It is all the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Only Christ in us can live the Christian life, and without Him we can do nothing.. But we are set aside to God and sealed with the Holy Spirit at our salvation. That is how carnal babes like the Corinthians could be considered sanctified. Blessings, Willa

There is an indication that during the melinnium the sacrifices will continue in rememberance of Chrst's sacrifice. If someone can explain this better I would appreciate the help.

Our pastor says that nearly all the suicides he has dealt with have either been directly due to the antidepressive medications they were taking or to ceasing to take the medication without a doctors direction. The person must be slowly weened off most of these meds, decreasing the dose over many weeks. Such a medication induce suicide would be certainly not condemn a person to hell. But I agree that it is only the continous rejection of God's saving grace and work of the Holy Spirit that can send a person to hell. Such a person would not even care anymore. Any suicide is grevious to all concerned. Many drugs can warp a persons thinking and make them susceptable to believing demonic suggestion. This is especially true when they are taken illegally. But it always leaves the survivors and friends thinking that there must have been something they could have done to prevent it. It is simply tragic and very selfish.

When I was 13 I was convicted of sin and repented as led by the Holy Spirit. But I thought that this meant that God was giving me a 2nd chance to be good enough to go to heaven. I had no teaching and when I read the New Testament the passage that stood out was the love passage of 1 Cor. 13. I thought it was beautiful poetry. In the Lutheran confirmation I learned that salvation was by faith alone. But it was through Campus Crusade in 1969 that I realized I was leading a "carnal life" without fellowship with God or a hunger for prayer and bible study. God then led me to a CC Action Group bible study. In the small group CC bible study I was convicted of my hatred for the unlovable hate filled people in my life, and I fell on my face knowing I was lost without God's intervention. "If someone says 'I love God' and hates his his neighbor he is a liar." 1 John 4:20 It was then that I prayed for Him to come into my life so as to live His life in me, to love the unlovable and to fill me with His Spirit. A couple of months later as I was learning to walk in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, I was filled with the comprehension of God's love and provision for His own. At this point I fully surrendered all my questioning and doubts to Him. A couple of years later He sent His holy bulldozer in to flatten me, rake me and dice me under. This was a chastening to remove the remainder of any self righteousness, or critical spirit, or pride. Over the 40 years since then He has occasionally reminded me of that chastening when those ugly attitudes try to raise their ugly heads, but a reminder is all I need to bring shame and to cry out to God---I never want to go through that kind of crucifixion again. Each of us is an indiviual and God deals with us that way. With some God uses physical affliction. Some begin easily with true repentance and learn to walk with God at an early age. Some of us are foolish. I was one of those. Having begun in the Spirit, I had been trying to lead the Christian life in the flesh and self effort. Galatians 3:3 NKJV " Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? " Even knowing that I had been saved by faith, I did not understand that only Christ in me can lead the Christian life through me.

If he did not want this kind of service, then he could cancel at the last minute [and not make it all a publicity stunt]. But the arrangements were left to the pastor. I would treat him kindly and compassionately but tell him that he had asked the pastor to make the arrangements and hold a church service, which is what he had done. He could continue with the burial service and exclude the church service should he not be able to make other arrangements. It would be his choice. In our state no pastor is require to perform a gay wedding. Since he would have known from the application for the marriage license and at least from the rehearsal that this was a gay wedding, he would have been able to cancel. But our church requires several months of pre marriage counseling prior to the wedding and none are performed without it.

It sounds like the perfect opportunity to preach a sermon on God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. It would have been a sin to marry them. But I would have made this an opportunity instead. He could even record it and play it for the congregation. He could include the portions in 1 Cor.5:9-11 and 6:9-11 and explain that God expects born again Christians to know right from wrong. But He doesnt condemn the world. He died so that the world could be forgiven. He wants those in the world to agree with Him in what He considers to be sin and to ask God to come into their lives to change their desires and make them a new person in Christ. Then have an alter call. I would not make this about the dead, but about the living, and would make no specific mention about the deceased except to say he was deeply loved and will be missed. They chose to have it in a church, so they should expect to have a Christian service. I have been to two such funerals that were salvation messages and one wedding. If they want a secular service they should go to a funeral parlor. I had never heard a eulogy at a church funeral until recent years. But I would warn the family, assuming they still came regularly, and gain their cooperation; and tell the boyfriend what kind of a service was planned, giving him the choice to opt out. It would be only fair since he had not informed the pastor of the circumstances.

God may be teaching you how to walk softly in obedience to Him. Knowing when to keep quiet can be important. Just be sensitive to the next time you start to feel uneasy about talking and stop. Taming the tongue can be very hard. Just try to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

The most difficult prayers I pray are for godly political leadership, and the more I pray the more ungodly the the person seems to be that gets ellected. So I pray for their salvation and they become more anti christian... It dose become discouraging. Then I pray come quickly, Lord Jesus, knowing these things must occur before He come.

We are told by Daniel that the answer to his prayer was held up by a spiritual battle between angels. And it is true that the enemy tempts us to doubt God's word. He is the deceiver of the brethern and the father of lies. God does allow our faith to be tried, refined and strengthened. We do stand on God's promises and cling to Him in us to overcome. Greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world. It is important to keep reading God's word. But if you need encouragement, I recommend a devotional, Streams in the Desert. It was written by a survivor of a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Hang in there. Willa

Perhaps if there were not such an anti science bias among the religions, and such an anti religious bias among the sciences, the two might come closer in understanding. However, everything in the Bible that I have previously doubted has been proven to me to be true. So I tend to believe that a 7-24hr day creation might someday also be validated. One thing is sure. It will all be made clear when we someday ask Him in heaven. Meanwhile, I do respect your knowledge of these things. But I also highly suspect the basis of dating done by paleontologists.

The "burning thing" comes from Luke 24:32 NKJV Did not our heart burn within us while He talked to us on the road? v.27 Jesus had been explaining the Old Testament to the men on the road to Emmaus. (V.13) So Joseph Smith said that an angel told him that he would know if what was written in the Bible was true [or any of the so called translating and recording of the plates was true] only if they had a burning in their bosoms when reading it. Doctrine & Covenants 9:8 Of course they are accursed for bringing another gospel. Their religion is based on Scottish Rite Masons. They stole the ritual and legends and melded it with the religion he created. Masons will allow Jews to join but not mormons due to this--they are black balled. If there was an angel speaking to Joseph Smith it was a fallen one. They make their religion sound the same and will say they believe like we do, but the truth is that few have any idea what we truly believe and they have used the same christianese words to mean something entirely different. You really have to define words when speaking to them. Occasionally when I have spoken to mormon missionaries and the Holy Spirit had given me light on a subject, I would tell them that I had a burning in my bosom concerning an opposit interpretation from theirs. It always puzzeled them and stopped their arguements. But I was trying to put it into their language. A lot of mormons must suffer from heartburn and indigestion. We should offer them some Pepsid or an antactid.

Our present church does not have a formal membership. You either attend or your don't. You start ministering to others as God leads you. It is less stuctured than most. So there is not formal excommunication. If someone brings a complaint to the pastor he askes if they had gone to the person and talked to them first. Then had they taken someone else with them to reason with them. Our last church was structured. A member who was known to be practicing sin as a lifestyle was spoken to by a friend or relative and asked compassionately to repent. If they continued, a couple of people went with them to plea with the person. Then a pastor and elders went to the person. If they continued to live in sin they were reported to the congregation and their name was removed from membership. This occurred in the case of an adulterous relationship. It also occurred in the case of a person stealing from church funds. A third person had crooked business practices and had ripped off several different church members. It was good to know that these things were not tollerated. The church before that allowed everything to go on. Several adulterous relationships were happening and elders were ripping off church members in business. Complaints to the pastor were not believed but unsubstantiated gossip was believed by him. Factions supporting doctrinal error were tollerated as well. One man was odaining people as pastors for tax perposes. Our pastor said he did not want to rip out the wheat with the tares so he did nothing.. I thought all churches must be like that. Thankfully they are not.

considering that there are many words in Greek and Hebrew that can not be directly translated word for word, could it be that a paraphrase might actually be closer to the original writers thoughts? I think it would be an accident if that were the case, unless they were fluent in greek and hebrew and read the original language, then put it in their own words, it might get closer. When I paraphrase something I put someone else's translation in my own words and add my own interpretation. I could read John 7:38 to say "He who believes in Jesus will have powerful life giving words gush out from deep within him.."That is my take on a literal translation. Or rivulets of life giving water will be pumped through his heart. Or after a person believes in Christ he will vomit water out of his belly. I chose this passage because it is the one Wycliffe translators had difficulty translation for an island people who lived off rain and dew, and had no other source of fresh water. Jesus is likening the Holy Spirit to the life giving artesian well of fresh water. But putting our interpretation on someone else's translation, and putting that in our own words, can get us far off track.

Some people think he will be one of the prophets sent back to witness to the Jewish people in the end times, since he never died. Jesus said that John the Baptist was an elijah, but that Elijah was yet to come.