Selasphorus

great!

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nope, He is God. yep, to the nth degree.

cool...

man, i sure hope not. i'm having a hard enough time already dealing with all the free-roaming cats and such... i know what you mean i am not sure if its due to me having a cat but their has been a big posum hanging around and the noise this posum makes it freaks me out sits at my bedroom widow near the hedge the cat gets on the bed and its as if he wants to have a good go at him or stirring the posum up hehehe, i don't mind the ol' 'possums coming by here, but none have camped out yet. that might be kinda weird...

ROFL

it doesn't matter what his position is/was. God is no respector of persons. we're to treat everyone the same. as a pastor, he knows better than anyone what he has done, as well as the fallout from it. bottom line, he's just a human. regarding advice, in my experience if you're offering it unsolicited, you're not only wasting your breath you may be pushing him farther from resolving his relationship foremost with God, as well as with anyone else directly involved in the situation. if he's a true believer, i promise you God is dealing with him every second he's awake. whether or not he yields to the Lord is completely his decision. how do i know this? i turned my back on God for 24 years, as well as some people involved with a particular situation (perhaps not as serious as your friend's, but i'm a tenacious sort. once my mind's made up, that's it.) and for 24 yrs i had no peace, no joy, no contentment. i just wanted to be left alone. a lay preacher friend from my youth, with whom i spent many hours witnessing and soul-winning some years ago, asked me a little over a year ago how things were with me and the Lord. i told him i didn't want to go there, didn't want to talk about it. he responded with no problem; when you get ready to talk, i'm as close as the phone, and left it right there. and when the Spirit finally started having some success tearing down the wall i'd built around my heart, i called my friend one night and told him i wanted to talk. he said i'll be there in 10mins., and he was. the point is, that's all YOU can do. let your friend know you care, and you're there for him. then leave it alone. the Lord will deal with him; and He knows so much more about dealing with humans than we do. in the first place, He created us. and over countless millenia, He has seen and heard it all from us. all you can do is love your friend and pray for him. and when he gets ready to talk, be ready to listen. John 3:17 (KJV) 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. hi selasphorus all i am doing is just listening and being their when he needs me i have had to show him that i am their not to judge him but some times i wonder if by just being a friend has made it worse to were he avoids dealing with what he knows he needs to deal with if you can understand were i am coming from i have seen the pressure put on pastors and i have seen what they have to deal with i also understand were you are coming from as i have also been their my self walked away from god made it hard for the people who knew me in the church that i was a member off to track me down got rid off all that i had brought and burnt my christian cd and bibles i even moved to a town were their was not a church as the town i moved to was a another small farming community little did i know the people god had put in my path prayed for me and did not stop praying god answered their prayers i have been praying that god would put some stable christian men in his path as he knows some off the other pastors their are at least 12 churches and i know that he will be welcomed and not judged he took on a church that was good at dictating telling the previous pastors what they could preach from the pulpit and what they could not preach he came from a charasmatic up bringing the church he took on was a very traditional church i even asked him why did he apply he said he felt he could bring some change but he saw once he settled into the roll he had a hard task what hurts is the way he has been treated and the gossip that has been circulating he is very brave for staying in the community as he owns his own home and does not want to sell it i have not judged him or the youth pastor he got involved with when i am with him i just ask god to get rid of what i might be really wanting to say i even told the women he is with i will never judge you or ask why as i could pick up that she thought i was like the members in the church and she has seen that i am different with his first wife that had to go back to the philippines all i am doing is praying that she lets go of the anger and moves on what i am asking god is should i just continue being that friend with out judging him and is it helping by letting him be him self as he has a good heart their have been times were i just wanted to whack him but i had to give what i was feeling over to god brother, there is nothing you can do beyond loving and praying for him. as i said, if he is a true believer, God is dealing with him. as a pastor, he knows better than most of us what his situation is as well as what he needs to do. you have to keep in mind we humans are creatures of free will; we choose our course. and in choosing our course, we also choose the consequences of our action. anytime we choose sin, the ultimate consequence is always death, figuratively and literally. often times things don't happen overnight; i chose to resist God (and be miserable) for 24yrs. if your friend is a child of God, he'll live an empty existence until he heeds the Spirit. as i said before, there is nothing you can do other than love him and pray for him.

man, i sure hope not. i'm having a hard enough time already dealing with all the free-roaming cats and such...

Praise God! amen!

it doesn't matter what his position is/was. God is no respector of persons. we're to treat everyone the same. as a pastor, he knows better than anyone what he has done, as well as the fallout from it. bottom line, he's just a human. regarding advice, in my experience if you're offering it unsolicited, you're not only wasting your breath you may be pushing him farther from resolving his relationship foremost with God, as well as with anyone else directly involved in the situation. if he's a true believer, i promise you God is dealing with him every second he's awake. whether or not he yields to the Lord is completely his decision. how do i know this? i turned my back on God for 24 years, as well as some people involved with a particular situation (perhaps not as serious as your friend's, but i'm a tenacious sort. once my mind's made up, that's it.) and for 24 yrs i had no peace, no joy, no contentment. i just wanted to be left alone. a lay preacher friend from my youth, with whom i spent many hours witnessing and soul-winning some years ago, asked me a little over a year ago how things were with me and the Lord. i told him i didn't want to go there, didn't want to talk about it. he responded with no problem; when you get ready to talk, i'm as close as the phone, and left it right there. and when the Spirit finally started having some success tearing down the wall i'd built around my heart, i called my friend one night and told him i wanted to talk. he said i'll be there in 10mins., and he was. the point is, that's all YOU can do. let your friend know you care, and you're there for him. then leave it alone. the Lord will deal with him; and He knows so much more about dealing with humans than we do. in the first place, He created us. and over countless millenia, He has seen and heard it all from us. all you can do is love your friend and pray for him. and when he gets ready to talk, be ready to listen. John 3:17 (KJV) 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

great story of an excellent example

i agree with Fez, your words and actions speak volumes. 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV) 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

praying

and to think, some folks say pennies aren't good for anything nowadays...

me too. it's a reminder to me not only of His unfathomable love and sacrifice for us, but also that the greatest achievement of this life would be to be used for His purpose.

unfortunately, stupidity is beyond the law. hehehe, pat i saw your post as soon as i sent mine...

http://youtu.be/gTDajMfEP5M

amen

another thing i see is the lack of concern for our fellow man, among non-believers and Christians alike. we're all wrapped up in ourselves. i once turned my back on God and spent 24yrs doing a prodigal thing. in 24yrs, 3 people (!) asked about my relationship with God, and one of those was a church pastor i knew who told me i was going to hell because of a t-shirt i was wearing...

The Word is being literal. It's not talking about a bunch of animals. It's talking about one. We are told to compare line upon line, here a little there a little with (Like) things. We can't take a chapter, or verse and get the full understanding. We need to compare. Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. First there is no animal, no beast, no creeping thing that came into this world through some type of birth that man does not have dominion over. There is nothing we can't kill, nothing we can't control, nothing we can't remove. The creature that God is talking about did not come from this World. He is the King of the children of Pride, He won't make a covenant with you, his heart is hard, cold. Men don't stand a chance against him. So right there, it possibly could not be any naturally born creature, because that would indicate there is something hanging out that God lied about when he gave man dominion over every single creature on the planet. We know God don't lie, so that can't be true. Leviathan in Hebrew is literally the symbol of Babylon. Look it up. It also means serpent, dragon, both which Satan is called. Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Isa 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. When the day comes, the Lord will deal with Leviathan, that serpent. The one that came from the sea. Rev_13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. Psa 74:13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Psa 74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Job 41:26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. Job 41:27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. Job 41:28 The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Man can't make war with him, we can't put a dent in him. God described many things to Job, the last one was Jobs Captor. Jesus Is Lord. amen from the back pew! well done, Brother Mike.

very cool!

I'll start. Television. Hmmmm. Those things do have alot of static electricity. I'm forever dusting ours off because it is near the wood stove. Nope. I would have to state the watering down of the Bible and theological liberalism and the social gospel being preached from pulpits Unless of course you mean the pseudo religious programming that passes for the gospel on channels like TBN and others Wonder how much changed the day God was evicted from schools, prayer from classrooms and Christian beliefs just basically relegated to a place buried under that well proven 'theory' of Mr Darwins............. yep, that's some good ones. even Darwin was wigged out by the reaction to his book and claims he was aetheistic (he was a Christian and had just finished his first step on the path to becoming a member of the clergy when he signed on with FitzRoy and HMS Beagle.) in a letter to Asa Gray he wrote: "I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton.— Let each man hope & believe what he can.— " Charles Darwin May 22, 1860 you can read the whole letter here: < http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-2814 > i often use part of that quote as an email signature line...