FluffyJ

Maranatha!!! Even so, Come Lord Jesus.

Hi Joi, you are not alone. satan's aim is to stop God's people from praying and reading the Word, and unfortunately, we make it rather easy for him to succeed when we allow our circumstances and situations, our feelings and our priorities to get in the way. We often get so busy doing everything else, that when its time to pray or spend time with the Lord, we fall asleep, or we have no energy left, etc. And just as we will starve if we do not feed ourselves physically, we also will starve when we do not feed ourselves spiritually; and then we experience what seems like a distant relationship with the Lord. God wants us to be excited over Him. I have found that when I thirst for the Word and for time with God, and I diligently go after study of the Word, mostly in my private devotions and spend quality time loving and fellowshiping with the Lord, I have no problem of being in that place in Christ where I should be. I happily rest confidently in Him. But when I begin to get bogged down with the responsibilities of my job, and personal circumstances, commitments and other situations, then I use all my energy and become very tired especially when I should be in the Word - and it always seems so easy to sacrifice fellowship and quality time with God, and to say that God knows that we love Him, and God understands, etc.... So, yes, you are right, and we have probably all at various times experienced the struggles. But (back to first love) if we love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (everything that is within us) if we stay excited with and in Jesus, our love and excitement will propel us into His word and prayer and fellowship with Him. I suppose it is a discipline that each of us have to decide to cultivate / practice. And we know that practice makes permanent. Joi, .....again...from today, together with you, I am making a commitment to practice personal fellowship and communion with an excited spirit of expectation with my Lord. I am not going to let anything come between me and God. And I pledge to make sure that my relationship with God is alive and active. If you will make this pledge as well, then you will soon find yourself again, in the place where you need to be in Christ. God bless you and continue to keep all that you have committed unto Him. In Christ.

Yeah..... technically we may not forget. But I believe that when we genuinely seek to forgive as Jesus would have us to forgive, that hurt that we have forgiven can be placed so far back in the deep recesses of our mind, that somehow, we can forget to remember. You see, we can only think one thought at a time, and to remember a past hurt is a thought, and we have free will to choose the thought that we want to dwell on. Managing our thought life comes with practice and the help of God, and with sufficient ongoing practice and leaning upon the Lord for the grace that we need, we can choose not to think of past hurts, we can forget to remember, and replace hurt with love, kindness and acceptance... and friendship. Besides, as followers of Jesus Christ, we do not have the liberty to live with unforgiveness, not if we want to live a holy llife , and if we are reading the Word and praying and enjoying fellowship with Jesus as best we know, we will want to forget trespasses against us. Can two walk together except they be agreed? The Holy Spirit within us empowers us to live such a life of forgiveness. My views.... my experience.... through tough places where God has helped me to forgive and accept those I've forgiven. I have also received forgiveness, and have been re-accepted by some whom I have hurt. Thank God for His grace and mercy.

What is Bible experience, and how do you get Bible experience? This is my ponderment. I know that one underlying reason for Bible study is to have a closer walk with Jesus, and for His Word to dwell more richly in us. So that like James 1:22 says, we can become doers of the Word and not hearers only. But I am really stuck on the Bible experience bit.... can someone help me understand what is Bible experience? Various portions of the Bible have illuminated my heart, or come home to me from time to time as I study the Word, like a Rhema Word, a very personal, right now word from the Holy Spirit lifting my heart or being applied directly into my situation, and I have rejoiced in the light of such revelations and shared with others. Could this be the Bible experience Nebula refers to? Someone help.... shed some light for me please....

I'm in the 25%.... but ya think if I can get some of the copper from my hair I could sell it?

Forgiveness is mandatory. The word of God says if we do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will our Heavenly Father forgive ours. The Lord's prayer says 'forgive us our debts as we forgive others theirs'. I do not believe that any unforgiving spirit/person will make it into heaven. So I try often to earnestly search my heart to make sure that I do not have any form of unforgiveness towards anyone. And if I am having difficulty forgiving someone, I ask God to help me to be willing to forgive. Today I am so happy to testify that as far as I know, I have no unforgiveness in my heart towards anyone right now. But sometimes you can be hurt so badly, that it is a struggle to forgive. However, it is incumbent upon us as children of God to insist that we will forgive as we would love to be forgiven. All a work in progress as we live from day to day following hard after our Lord.