heartprint

Ecclesiaties tells us to cast our bread upon the waters and it will come back to us. Jesus told us not to worry about what we eat or wear for our Father knows that we need these things. Would it not be better to give to the hungry, children starving to death by the thousands, the homeless on our doorsteps, today than to worry about hoarding away food for ourselves for a tomorrow that may never come for us?

Hi Deevums. May I suggest that your overwhelming guilt is the result of your not having forgiven yourself. I suffer with depression also. Not manic but severe. We've been working on getting my meds right too. It's a journey. I know from experience that feelings of guilt and worthlessness can be exacerbated by personal unforgiveness. There are times when I still don't like myself very much, but God has been teaching me that yesterday is past and tomorrow hasn't come and has enough worries unto itself. What I have is today and I must make my decision to love myself today. Because God loves me and died for me and He has done the same for you. God Bless

I am applying this to us. We need to think about good things. We need not to focus on Joel Osteen but on our own walks with God. We can listen to Mr. Osteen and test what he says against the Word, but I think we need to think on and focus on good things. That's all I was saying, there was a lot of negative stuff said. That's all

Hey Peace. an attack on my home came through my little girl. She was 4 at the time and her dad had taken her to watch Toy Story. When she came home she was acting out and feeling ill. I put it down to tiredness and excitement. But it didn't get better, the next day it was worse and I was afraid for her and had a very uneasy feeling in my spirit. I prayed and asked God that if this was a spiritual attack that my daughter would slap me in the face. I wanted to make sure of what I was dealing with. Not more than 5 minutes later, my little one, who had never hit me before, slapped me in the face. So I prayed Psalm 91 over her, over my home and my family. There have been other minor things that Satan has tried to use to kill my kids and harm myself and my loved ones, but God is faithful and he has always put the enemy under His feet.

?? Not sure who you are talking to in this one?

YOu know what? I've been a Christian a good many years and never even heard of a satanic hand signal. I think people need to be more concerned with themselves and less concerned with others. Again, what kind of fruit is this minister bearing? Is he/she preaching the Word and Christ crucified and risen? Salvation? Really? If you test the teaching and it is sound perhaps you should write the teacher a letter and let them know that you are concerned with the way they wave or greet people or gesture while preaching. Maybe they haven't heard of these "signals" either.

Argh. I don't know. Many times we have faced spiritual attacks in our home, and I have invited prayer warriors to come and pray with me. The Spirit of God was more than happy to show us anywhere that the enemy attacks were coming from. Now biblically Jesus asked the name of the Spirit in the man in the Gadarenes and was told it's name was Legion. Having said that we have to look at Acts 19 Acts 19:13-16Amplified Bible (AMP) 13 Then some of the traveling Jewish exorcists (men who adjure evil spirits) also undertook to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I solemnly implore and charge you by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches! 14 Seven sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But [one] evil spirit retorted, Jesus I know, and Paul I know [a]about, but who are you? 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped upon them, mastering [b]two of them, and was so violent against them that they dashed out of that house [in fear], stripped naked and wounded. Nowhere in the bible are "mediums and clairvoyants" used and personally I think these things are a form of witchcraft. Now had the pastor introduced this woman as having a gift of knowledge, or a discernment of spirits then I wouldn't feel so uneasy. I wonder if you should leave. I wonder if you should go to others in the church and make your concerns known and pray for the revelation of the Holy Spirit? And if necessary for the removal of this woman who may be a wolf dressed up in sheeps clothing?

Okay. I don't really understand all the things that you guys are kind of arguing about but I would like to share how God revealed this Scripture to me. As a young Christian I would pray every evening for my pastor. As I began to pray for him one evening, I started to say my pastors name and it came out of my belly as a groan, repeatedly. I was a little shocked but I was praying so I continued. The groaning of my pastors name soon turned simply to weeping and groaning. When my prayer time was over I was exhausted and somewhat confused. I prayed and asked what had just happened and the Lord led me directly to Romans 8:26. That's my experience with this scripture and I figure if God wants me to groan in prayer who am I to say no?. Blessings

Reading Genesis Chapter 3 verse 21 we see the recording of the first death that resulted from sin. God killed animals and took their skins to make cloaks to cover the man and woman. The wages of sin is death. When man sins something must die, blood must be shed because the life is in the blood. He later caused animal sacrifice to be used and an animal to carry the burden of sin away from men with the letting of it's blood. Jesus blood poured out, he became both the high priest that offered the sacrifice and the sacrifice itself taking all the sin of the world from that time to His return into Himself. Romans 6:23New International Version (NIV) 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord. .

Okay, we will measure what is taught against the word of God. Now Philippians 4:8New International Version (NIV) 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Talk about these things, thank God for these things.

Louis, I would reply to this statement with a reply from Matthew Chapter 7 verses 7&8, Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find' keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened. The Amplified bible You cannot sit and wait for God to drop on your head. Look for Him and you will find Him. Maybe not in the way you want, but He will reveal Himself to you.

Okay, I looked for this original post and couldn't find it. Isaiah 3:12 is pulled right out of context to be used in this argument. According to the whole chapter these women were in power over the men before God's judgement against them and I haven't met ANY Christian woman acting the way these women are described. So that whole scripture reference is a moot point

This is really interesting and it just caught my attention. 1 Corinthians 14:34 states "...just as the Law also states". Has Paul then put women under the Law? I was led to believe that in the spirit there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, male nor female. If a church, being the body of Christ, and the offices and leadership of that church are not being rendered in the spirit then it must be run by the ? state of birth of the believer being either male or female in the flesh? I understand perfectly in my home and the running of the that home, and the "law" that Paul speaks of which is not the ten commandments, that my husband takes the ownership and the lead role. And I do love and honour him beyond measure. However, in the church, in things of the spirit, my husband will often ask me for clarification and bless me to minister. I wonder what women in ministry and/or leadership in the church have to say about this? Have you asked your lead pastor who is, as you have stated, a woman? Or have you spoken with the other pastors of the church who are obviously under her authority? If you are part of an organized religion such as Baptist, Pentecostal etc, then your pastors are under a headship that is under a headship that is probably under another headship that is under Christ who is the head of the church.

God cannot overlook or turn a blind eye to sin. That's why He sent Jesus and why Jesus bled and died on the cross. When God looks at a new believer or a young believer or indeed any believer, He sees the blood of Christ, not the sin of the person. The reason Jesus then sent the Holy Spirit into the world after He left was to convict us of sin and to help us repent and turn away from it. Now, being saved, if we know something to be sinful, having been convicted by the Holy Spirit, and yet we persist in participating in that sin, then there is no hope for us and we have made the sacrifice of Christ into a mockery. We will most definitely grieve the Holy Spirit. Having said that, the Holy Spirit is gentle and does not wham us over the head with each thing that needs to be changed all at once, yet the bible tells us that if we see a brother or sister participating in a sin we should, in love, that is gently and kindly with prayer and leading of the Holy Spirit, show them the truth according to the Word. Unfortunately too often men rush in where angels fear to tread

When you are quoting Isaiah 62 what translation are you using?

I also believe that if you study the Corinthian church at the time that PAUL wrote this you will find that in Corinth the religion preceeding Christianity had women in positions of power and authority. Many of these "priestesses" also were trying to incorporate their previous religion into Christianity which was resulting in false doctrines and error. I believe Paul wrote this to the Corinthians so that these women of authority would be brought under control and no longer be able to preach false doctrines. Actually as the female was the "goddess" they were making Mary out to be a deity. anyway, it requires a lot of in depth study but in my opinion God NEVER intended that women should be considered lower or of lesser value or unable to lead His people. One word from even the Old Testament. Deborah. Yours in Christ.

Hi Louis. Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is the assurance (confirmation, title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Faith is knowing without actually seeing. Many atheists have faith in the big bang theory. I see creation all around me, in the renewal of every life form and how it all starts out as a seed and so it is easy for me to have faith that life came through the creator God. Atheists, who have no proof whatsoever that any destruction ever brought forth life, have faith in an explosion causing some kind of amoeba that grew up into dinosaurs, men, trees, plants, every kind of life form, springing from this one massive explosion. I find that really much harder to believe. So I guess faith is what you believe although you have no actual sighting or proof of that which you believe in. My faith isn't even my own, it's a gift from God Himself proving His real person to my spirit. If that makes any sense at all. I know that He is because I have felt His presence, I have seen His works, I have gloried in His love. I have been saved by His grace. P.S. Read Hebrews 11 in the amplified bible if you can. It helps us to understand our faith.

Hello Roy. I am addicted to nicotine also. I couldn't imagine life without cigarettes. I struggled with my faith and cigarettes for many years after receiving Christ as my saviour. I would pray and pray for it to just go away. People who haven't suffered with this addiction cannot understand how hard and painful it is. and then you get to see other Christians walking by you on the street or wherever, judging you for smoking. I would go to meetings and hear how God had delivered this person and that person and I thought I wasn't good enough to be delivered and somehow God loved them more than me. I tried just about every quit smoking technique available. The gum, the patch, the life signs beeper. All of it. Nothing worked. I prayed and agonized, pleading with God to make it go away, to take it away. I struggled. I quit more times than I can count to only find myself lighting up within days if not hours after flushing a pack down the toilet. I got to the point where I would buy a pack of cigarettes a day and smoke one. Then I would take the rest and break them one by one, into little unsmokable pieces. Now we didn't really have enough money for me to be smoking at all so I could in no way replace that pack until the next day. And the cycle continued, and I continued to pray. One day a friend lent me a book called "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" by Allen Carr. At the beginning of the book it tells you if you haven't quit yet then don't, but if you use this tool, my suggestion is do. Now the book is quite short, an easy one day read. So I threw away my cigarettes and read the book. Still praying in my spirit while I was reading. That night I went to bed and while I was asleep i was permitted to watch the spirit world. My spirit man sat there and watched this nasty spirit of addiction rise up in me, then an angel came with a huge sword and cut him in half. He continued to rise all night and that angel cut him in half all night. When I woke up the next day I was free but a mighty battle had taken place that night. I knew inside myself I would never smoke again. That isn't to say that I never desire, or wish for a cigarette, I occassionally dream about smoking. My best advice to you is to keep seeking God, keep reading the word. Ask His Spirit to guide you to scriptures that will help to set you free. Don't allow the judgement of others drag you down. Keep praising God. I don't believe that addicts lose their salvation because of their addictions. I believe that God wants the best for you and that is to be cigarette free, keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking, keep praising. He is God. Trust Him.

Hi Alex. I have pondered the question of original sin. What I came to realize through reading the bible and prayer is that if man had not sinned, then we would never, ever know the grace and goodness of God. It would still be exactly the same grace and goodness, but we wouldn't have a real, true need. Man's heart was opened to know the difference between good and evil. Right and wrong. Sin and forgiveness. Your question makes me think, that you think, that just because Adam and Eve sinned they should have been cast away, but everyone who followed should be living a life of worry free bliss. Problem with that is that even if we hadn't been born into sin because of their fall and expulsion from the presence of God, sooner or later we would turn from God in some way causing us to sin and therefore need to be expelled from His presence also. The neat thing is that right from the beginning God gave us the freedom to choose. Then He turned around, died for us so we needn't be damned for our sins and gave us the freedom to choose. I have been given a choice and I choose Eternal life, not because of who I am or how I act or what I've done, but because of Who Jesus is, How he chose to act, and what He chose to do.

I'm sorry. I don't understand what you are saying? What does it mean to follow the world?