No124get1952

My Dear Sister, Even the natural world is accountable. Take the Law of Gravity for instance. Those who choose to ignore it or disbelieve it are doomed to a life of pain....or a very short life at the end of a very long fall. If you drop a hammer in the vicinity of your feet, but do not believe in gravity, you will undoubtedly feel pain in a second when the hammer smashes your toe. If you take a step off a high cliff, whether you believe in gravity or not, gravity will cause consequences that are pretty much irreparable. Now whether you stepped off the cliff accidentally or because of one of your urges, gravity will hold you accountable for what happens next. As others have stated very eloquently, God is the same. Whether you believe in Him or not, He believes in you and He chose to hold Himself accountable for you in His Word, the Bible. He made an offer to you of His only Son, so that you could be free from accountability to sin and death. Those who believe in Jesus give up their accountability to death (separation from God for eternity) in order to exchange it for accountability to Jesus Christ (who is life for eternity). Yes, it means there are things you no longer do. But it also means that by confessing your sin and guilt, Jesus can wash it away and apply His righteousness so that you are no longer guilty. As Scripture says, He removes sins away from us as far as the East is from the West. Soooooo, if you really want to be free from sin and guilt, the eternal way to do it is to accept Jesus and choose to be accountable to Him.

Mattman, I am very impressed that you have identified your issue as a "sadness hat touches your heart on a deeper level". You are correct in asking if it is something that you may be missing. I agree with the answers others have given in this area. However, you may not have done anything wrong! This "sadness of heart" may be the Lord leading you into a deeper life of intercession for those who experience great sadness. God may be calling you into a prayer ministry of burden bearing. Let me explain. God chooses His burden bearers very carefully. Burden bearing is a special brand of praying where one person "takes on the burdens" of another person through prayer for the specific purpose of that person being able to hear from and receive Jesus. So person A, the burden bearer, prays for person B in such a way as to lift person B's burdens from them. This allows person B to focus soley upon Jesus. Person A, the burden bearer, then takes B's burdens to the cross and deposits them there. Often the burden bearer will feel person A's pain and suffering as a result. There is nothing wrong, the burden bearer is taking pain away from person B so they can concentrate on getting saved or hearing from God. This is very specialized intercession and it is very easy to mess up. As a burden bearer myself, sometimes I take on another persons burdens and then carry them too long or not long enough. This is where burden bearers learn by trial and error. The worst thing is for me to take on another's burdens and then get my own mixed up with them. If you are sure your relationship with Jesus is ok, then this deep sadness may be God calling you to intercede and burden bear for another person. Who do you know that is sad? Who do you know that is in deep trouble? Perhaps you are feeling some of their burden and God is calling you to help them through your deep intercession.

God, in His word, has laid out the standards for our behavior. In Deuteronomy 28, He laid out the blessings we would receive for obeying His Word. Then He laid out the curses if we did not obey His Word. A careful reading of Deut. 28 will give an individual a good idea of what to expect for obedience and disobedience. But we live after Christ died for us, so we are in the age of grace. However, sin is still sin, and God has NOT changed His stance on sin. So when one of His children disobeys, we activate the curses of the law. Since Jesus paid for those curses, we have grace made available to us, IF we repent of our sin. If we do not repent, then the curses of the law (laid out by God) are allowed to happen to us. While it is NOT God directly punishing us, it IS Him indirectly because we activated the disobedience clauses of the law. NOw, if we repent, Jesus' blood washes us and we are restored to righteousness (I John 1:9). But often sin has physical consequences. These consequences can be physical, mental, emotional, etc. Depending upon the sin, God allows the consequences of that sin to bring us pain. By this pain we learn obedience. God loves us, so He won't put trials on us that are too hard for us. Remember that discipline is not always as a result of mistakes. Paul talks about a runner training for a race. He disciplines himself in certain ways so that he may physically compete at a higher level. If we want to become more godly, our discipline may include hours of bible study and hours of prayer. As we become more knowledgeable of God, we become aware of the function of the Holy Spirit. When we connect with the Holy Spirit, there may be other disciplines we learn to become more like Christ. So, just as others have said, discipline depends upon the sin and sometimes upon the mission to which God has called us. When we are young in Christ, we learn more through the pain of our mistakes. As we learn and mature, God then disciplines us by teaching and training methods because we no longer need punishment type discipline. This discipline is highly individual. For you, He may have called you to a ministry that requires that you not drink alcohol in order to execute your calling. I might be called in a different area and be "disciplined" go give up television to achieve what God has for me.

Bride of Christ, You are exactly right. I have a lady in our church who has the exact same view. Unfortunately, depending upon the size of your body of believers, often there is not enough surplus to reach outside the doors of the church. After all, we are supposed to look after those "in" the Body of Christ first....and oftentimes there is not even enough to go around for them either. You are correct that judgment is building against churches who are not doing all that you said. But step back a moment and let me provide some perspective based upon what happens in my church. My church is less than 500 members, so it is not a large church. We are new there so I do not know all of their outreaches. Yet they just had a sort of service day where they gave away about 500 backpacks with school supplies. At the same time the did oil changes, haircuts, makeup and as many other things as they could on this day. They also preached the gospel while the people were there. About 25 souls were saved, yet the unmet needs in our local community still exist. We have a Christian school and I know we provide housing for a few needy people. Then the resources run out and the needs to do not....and THAT is the crux of your question. What do we do? First, we pray. We see the need, we are responsible to ask God to meet the need. And when I say pray, I mean deep intercession where we learn what the need is, why it is there and begin to pray against the roots of society that created the need. For example, we have people nearby our church that live in tents in forested lots. We do not have resources for them, but there IS a spiritual and physical root to that problem. We need to ask God to provide jobs and low cost living options. After prayer, if the burden is still on our hearts, we need to begin collecting information on city, county, state and federal programs that may be available for assistance to the needs we see. We must extend ourselves IF God has placed that burden on us. If God has not placed that burden on us, we pray for God to send those with finances, a calling and energy enough to take on that burden. Finally, if we find no help available, God may be calling us to be that divine representative. We may have to develop an outreach, a ministry. We may have to fill out the papers for federal or state help. We may be hearing God's voice for US to be the action leader. If this is the case, take your burden to your pastor and ask him to help you determine if you really are hearing God's call. Then begin to ask your friends to pray for your burden, for your guidance and for your prosperity as you take on this ministry. DO NOT do like the lady in my church with the same burden. She goes from one person to another in the congregation and makes the needs known, THEN she complains that nobody in leadership is listening or even desiring to help meet the needs she sees. She brings accusations against leadership of the church and does not seem to have any respect for any meeting or any group, only her own agenda. This sows discord in the church and it does not meet the needs. So she comes off looking like a false prophet/teacher/advocate and everybody ignores her (which they should do), but the sad thing is....the needs she advocates for are real and need to find an advocate within the church. What do I do? I pray the lord of the harvest to send workers into the field, for the fields are white unto harvest. What does this actually mean? It means that if you take up a ministry in the name of Jesus and glorify Him, your ministry WILL NOT fail!!! Praise Jesus!!! So, ask God to give you discernment....you may be receiving your Divine Call to service Blessings

This is a very interesting question. If we look at the example of Jesus during his trials before He was crucified, we find Him responding with Truth to their questions. They were so filled with hate and rage, yet He faced them and did not back down. But He did NOT "go off" on them, when He had every right to do so. At His trial with Pontius Pilate, a foreign (Roman) governor, Jesus kept speaking back to Pilate, giving answers that were designed to move Pilate in the direction of faith. Pilate's wife told him to have nothing to do with Jesus, and yet Pilate was intrigued by the innocence, purity and strength of Jesus. Even suffering beatings and torture did not change Jesus' attitude or focus. Later, on the cross, suffering crucifixion, He even spoke kindly to one of the thieves, despite the cost to speak in His own pain. On the cross, Jesus asked the Father to forgive them. In these instances we see Jesus so focused on His mission, His purpose that nothing, not even torture and torment could stop Him. Hebrews says He looked forward to the cross with joy. Since we are supposed to be like Jesus. Our focus is on our mission, to spread the Good News about Jesus. Yes, it is going to get us tortured, tormented and even killed, but why should we expect any treatment better than our Savior? So, when we look at believers or non-believers, our focus should be on discerning what we can say or do to move them closer to Jesus. Some days we will see non-believers saved. Other days, we will only plant a seed for God's Holy Spirit to nurture. When we look at others, we look at them, as much as we can as Jesus would. So color, creed, race or even religion should not even enter our minds. But I am an American Christian and I do not even have a clue about those who suffer persecution, trial, torture and death in Islamic countries and never deny Jesus. Their faith is going to be rewarded by God Himself. All around the world, the end time persecution of believers has already begun. Here in America, we are still safe, yet we need to make a specific determination now that we are NOT going to deny Jesus if and when persecution comes. Agape love is the God kind of love. It is not natural to us. We need to focus so much on God that our praise and worship draw His limitless Agape love all over us, almost as if we were being baptized and then marinated in His love. When we have this kind of a presence with us, we become unstoppable for Jesus. Blessings

One thing we must first recognize is that God never created Hell for human beings. He created Hell for the devil and all the rebellious angels. Jesus referred to hell indirectly as "outer darkness". Deuteronomy 32:22 indicates that there are levels of hell and that it is a place of fire. Psalm 9 says that the wicked will be sent there along with nations that forget God. Psalm 18 speaks of the sorrows of hell. Psalm 116 speaks of the pains of hell. Revelation speaks of a bottomless pit where there is lots of smoke and normal sun and light are blotted out. So if we take an overall look, we come away with a place where God is not. It is a dark and smoky place where there is pain and sorrow.

Though this question has been answered to death, I have one perspective not yet covered: When Jesus arose from the dead and ascended to heaven, according to Acts 2, the Holy Spirit fell in miraculous signs and wonders. Today, when we visit the tomb of Jesus, it is an empty one. No one has ever found Jesus' body....which is appropriate since He physically resurrected. When Muslims make their annual pilgrimage to Mecca, they visit the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed; that tomb is NOT empty. How can Modammed be dead and yet serve as the Comforter to all believers? I suspect the book that was read WAS compelling, but it was not truth, nor was it based upon the Bible, the Word of God. While it is okay for a Christian to study topics like this, one must remember that each believer is first responsible to be secure in their own relationship to Jesus BEFORE looking at other doctrines and religious mumbo-jumbo. Blessings.

For all of its bravado and promises, technology has yet to devise a means to transfer the soul from one place to another, let alone from a human body to a robot. I agree that an eternity in a robot body would be like hell, because I would be separated from that which makes me...well me. My spirit and my soul would not transfer and thus be doomed to roam the universe in search of a body (oh, no...zombie apocalypse....LOL). Seriously, we are supposed to "be careful for nothing". All of this science fiction and science fact and science promises is good to think about and even debate. But at the end of the day, Jesus is still Lord AND He is still coming again. For me, He can't come to soon...if only to take me out of all of this madness.

On the salvation issues, I agree with Cobalt1959 and OneLight. However, Marilyn C was speaking of our dealings with atheists and other non-believers. Romans 12:18 says, " If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. " Since "all men" most likely includes atheists, non-believers and other assorted miscreants, I believe "agree to disagree" would be appropriate. Our agreement extends only to the topic we disagree about and in no way obligates us to any worldly doctrine or heresy. At least by being agreeable, we sow the seed for future discussions at which time we plant another seed for Jesus. While man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, we have been given dominion over words, so we should be able to use them however we see fit to give glory to God and promote the Kingdom.

I think the term "hardwired" represents some semantics. According to Romans, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". All means all. That means new-born babies have sinned. As it says elsewhere, we are born into sin. While there is grace for those too young to understand their sin, nevertheless all have sinned. That means that none of us get a pass. As we grow older, we become aware that our choices can be obedience or disobedience. Disobedience leads us into sin. Obedience leads us away from sin and toward Jesus. However, we can become so practiced at sin that it becomes a stream of iniquity that we no longer have to "choose" to do...we have developed a propensity to sin. Further sin in this area leads to the development of a curse, most likely a generational one where we pass our sin nature in specific areas down to our children (Deut.5:9,10). If I find someone that appears "hardwired" for sin, I assume I am dealing with a generational curse that the individual may not even be aware of.

In my experience, New Testament prophecies and prophets are given for the edification and encouragement of the body. At times, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, this may include predictive statements. But, in general, a New Testament prophet is one who encourages and builds up.

While it is true that God created Lucifer, it does NOT follow that God created sin. Lucifer appropriated for himself, that which belonged to God and it was his pride that led to his downfall. At that time, apparently, angels had some form of choice or free will because 1/3 of the entire universe of angels chose to follow Satan. God cast them out of heaven and prepared the Lake of Fire for them to reside during eternity. Now, I am not theologian enough to argue the fine points of God creating sin, but I agree with those who indicate that there is NO sin in God. Man, having been given free will, does have the authority to either agree with God's plan or disagree with it and disobey it. It is wrong to assume that God already knows what we will do, so we don't really have any choices. We can continually choose wrong and God's grace has still provided a way back through Christ....until the fullness of time when He closes the door on the Age of grace, then the Blood of Christ will have had its full effectiveness. At that time, there will only be judgment left to those who have not believed. Since God has given man free will, to me that means each day I have a choice to obey God or disobey God. My choices are based upon what God is doing in my heart. If I am growing in faith, then my choices will agree with His Word and His Will and I reap the benefits of obedience. If not, I reap the consequences of disobedience. God's grace and foreknowledge allow me the freedom to make those choices (or not) so that from my perspective, each day is a new experience. If I become to dogmatic about predestination, then I become the opposite of joyous because I have begun to believe that no matter what I do, God has it under control and that is lazy thinking. It presumes upon God to keep me straight and it also presumes to give Him my free will decisions and become nothing more than an automaton....who has no choice. That is not the position of dominion that God decreed when He created man in His image. If I come into the presence of God with sin, I will either bow my knee and repent or I will be judged and expelled. But the choice of condition is mine alone. Thank God for Jesus, who redeemed me.

Yes, I know a few prophets

Mishael, While I am mostly in agreement with the other posters to this question, I would ask you what differences it makes in your personal relationship with Jesus? The concept of a dual personality does NOT immediately scream split personalities, but then again, I look at it from a geometry point of view. I can have a triangle with 3 distinct sides, yet have only one triangle. So it is not a problem for me to recognize that Jesus had both a divine and a human nature that operated together. I am willing to discuss how your beliefs affect your faith. Blessings

Your question hinges on the word "need". I will share from my own life. God never really asked me to give up everything. As I began to grow in faith, I found that "other" things such as alcohol, smoking, work, etc. became hindrances to the development of my spiritual life. Now since I couldn't "give up" my job and survive, I had to learn that putting the job in proper priority with respect to God was "giving up" my job. In other words, my relationship with Jesus became more important than my job. That manifested in me being a better employee because Jesus did not want me to be habitually late. In addition, I adjusted my attitude towards management because they represented God's authority over that part of my life. I have been a Christian for nearly 50 years and I can say that I pretty much have "given up everything" to follow Christ. But the "giving up" was more a process of learning what pleased Jesus and then removing things that did not please Him. Since he is gracious and forgiving, we can take our time and get rid of things as we are ready to do so. But the process of "giving up" things is not as terrible as one might think. Because Jesus is a God of exchanges. Even though it might not be crystal clear from Scripture, there is not one thing you give up for God that He does not give you something better in return. For example, giving up my bad attitudes toward people, allowed God to give me joy and peace which caused my own mind to come into order and caused me to change my thought patterns from negative to positive. So while the concept of "giving up" everything is radical, the actual process may or may not be so. It's up to Jesus and each individual. My question is this: do you want 10% of Jesus; 50% of Jesus; or 100%. You can have which ever one you want. But with increasing percentages, you will find greater sacrifice is required...but there are greater rewards as well. Blessings

Freebird, My dear, you have a real challenge. While the alcoholism is a terrible burden to bear, you cannot help but be angry at the womanizing because that tears at the very basis of your marriage. And feeling numb is not a desirable outcome either because if you become numb to your husband, you will have a tendency to become numb to God as well....and that is NOT good. According to I Corinthians 7:14, " 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." That means that, as a believing wife, you are now sanctifying your husband, which is a high and holy calling. Just because you sanctify him though, does not make you responsible for his sins (alcoholism and womanizing), nor does it relieve him of his guilt. When you sanctify someone, you dedicate them as holy to God....which means that God is now responsible for them. He gets the job of fixing them...which is His job anyway. Now, because of the nature of your husband's sins, he is transmitting a LOT of sickness to you in the form of stress and potentially in the form of physical or emotional abuse. When you are trying to be holy and pure, that sort of thing really discourages you. My response is that you first find a church with people willing to just pray for you and love on you. That will feed your spirit and soul and provide a source of divine love "with skin on". That love is supposed to come from your husband, but he is not giving it to you...so the church should. If you are experiencing financial or physical trauma as a result of anything he is doing, please seek counsel from a pastor, lawyer or even a Christian psychologist. You DO NOT want to stay in an unsafe relationship. Assuming you are "working through", you need to spend time every day in the Bible. These are the words of God Himself and they will provide food for your soul and food for your heart. Besides, God blesses those who read and study His word. That will build your knowledge of godly ways the quickest. If there is a bible study or women's bible study available once a week, put that on your schedule. That will do 2 things: first, it will provide you with fellowship and prayer support and second, it will provide you with knowledge and learning. Last, find a way to be thankful. Start with the little things, and build up. God appreciates it when we are thankful. I am sure there are some blessings you have or even things you are working on. Gratitude often leads to joy, which is spiritual strength, which is what you need to deal with your husband. As I am sure you have found out, nagging him about his "issues" isn't really working. So here is what you do. First, hold him accountable for things that he is responsible for. Tell him once and only once (unless it is life threatening). After that, take the issue directly to God and speak your mind. God can handle it. Remind God of His promise to fix your husband. Let out all the anger you have for your husband on God. When you have all the emotion out, wait in silence and let the Holy Spirit fill you with the sweetness of His presence. Once you are fully sweet, you can deal with anybody. Stay focused on God even if NOT doing something might cause the rent to be late or something similar. When things fall apart, you will have a clear indicator of what he is or is not going to do. At THAT point, you protect yourself and do what you must. REMEMBER: the goal of the exercize is to win your husband to Christ. If that is not possible, your husband will make his own decision. Be blessed. We are all in prayer here.

"Being" gay is a basic assumption about life and who created you that happens to be blasphemous. To "realize" you are gay is to suddenly "realize" that God's creation was "not good". This flies directly in the face of Genesis 1 when God pronounced creation "Good". As a matter of fact, the first thing that God said was "not good" was that a helpmeet was not found for Adam. So, according to Genesis 1, God put Adam to sleep and created woman out of man. So "being" gay is also to tell God that His creation is flawed. In doing that, a person then becomes responsible for their own salvation. So yes, "being gay" is essentially sinful. Thank God for Jesus, who died even for "gay" people to redeem them. I think the Bishops need to return to the King James Version Bible (actually to ANY version of the Bible) and rethink their pronouncements....unless of course they are renouncing the Bible as well.....heavy sigh

Dearest Kelly, I truly understand much of your pain and frustration. In addition to diabetes, and coronary artery disease, this year I have succumbed to kidney disease and congestive heart failure. Being chronically ill itself is enough to be discouraged by, much less when we add spouses and other relatives into the mix. However, let me provide some hope. First, I am assuming you are a Christian, because if you are not, then there really is no hope. So the first point is that there is no hope outside Jesus. Second, if you ARE a Christian, then you need to find a good church so that the family of God can pray for you and love on you. From your description, it sounds like your husband and family are not there for you to love and support you. A church family will provide the love and support you need to keep encouraged. Third, find a Bible that you can read and begin reading. The Bible is God's Word and it is life to you. Start in the New Testament and read it straight through. You will learn about Jesus and how much He loves you. And you will learn that trials are useful to build character and faith. From the sound of it, you have had plenty of trials. Fourth, find a reason to be thankful each day, on purpose and out loud. As BK1110 has said, find reasons to be thankful. As you concentrate on being thankful to God, you will sense His approval and even His presence. This is important for you to know that you are not alone. Fifth, begin to offload your burdens to God. This is a bit more difficult, but it is something you need to do. You are not responsible for your husband's misdeeds, even though you are married to him. At best, you can pray for him and ask God to deal with him. This often seems like it's not very effective, but it really is the ONLY way to get him to change permanently. Sometimes we must completely let our spouses "go" in order for God to get hold of them. As for your step daughter and your brother, these relationships need to be prayed for as well. Jesus said He would take on your heavy yokes and burdens. We need to practice giving them to Him until we sense that He has taken them. I prayed for my mother for 40 years to get saved; at her death last year I do not know whether she ever accepted Him or not. But whenever something was wrong she called me and asked me to pray. These are steps you should take to ease your own suffering, because, if you are like me, you take things upon yourself and you suffer for the others in your life. It is affecting your health and your attitude. Your family does need you. They need your faith and joy to sanctify them. God send His Son to redeem you. He loves you much more than you realize now. The good news is that you posted here and we are all praying for you. Blessings and keep in touch

I have a very active spiritual life. And sometimes I DON'T read Scripture first thing in the morning...like the time I left early am to pick up a basket of food for a needy person. I confess, though, I do have a habit of being in prayer with a group of men at 7am on the phone. We have been doing this every day for 7 years for a food ministry. But the very citing of this habit engenders pride, not encouragement, so please forgive me. If my message sounds disjointed, it is because it is. Why? Because I decided to answer to another person's viewpoint of true spirituality. When I am "in Christ", His life flows from me; I don't have to follow rituals or dictates in order to ensure I am spiritual....that kind of thing led to the development of the Pharisees. No,I let the Holy Spirit direct me. While I need to be aware of anything coming in between God and me in the form of an idol, I don't see idols everywhere I look. I am willing to trust God to manage all the other Christians. So if they drink coffee first, last or any other place before reading the word, I am glad they got to read the word. It is interesting to note that we must be watchful lest our good habits become idols themselves.

Remember a couple of instances in Jesus' ministry. First, the woman with the issue of blood had faith that if she could touch the hem of his garment, she would be healed. She pressed forward in a crowd of people around Jesus and touched the hem of his garment....AND WAS HEALED!!! More than that, Jesus stopped immediately and asked who touched Him. He felt the virtue leave His body!!! He was amazed at her faith. Second, the Syro-Phoenician woman who told Jesus even the dogs ate crumbs from the Master's plate. Jesus had told her He was only sent to heal the Jews. She had faith enough to believe for a crumb of healing. Jesus healed her son as a result. Again, Jesus marveled that He had not found such faith in Israel. So when Jesus wondered if He would find faith at His return, it is much more than a rhetorical question, it is a real question. As others have stated, in some places there is not much faith left in "the church". Certainly there are some denominations that have "allowed", "voted on", " been complicit" with gay marriage and other blasphemies, but even in the staunchly fundamental sects, there has been a blurring of the clear cut directives in the Word of God. This is not meant to be a specific rebuke, but those who study the Word and try to comply with it daily know what I am speaking of. Blessings.

MLT3117, Praise God!!! Prayers are working. I am praying and I am sure this entire community will continue to do so. I do have a suggestion of something you can do together that may provide something you both can "do" that will help your marriage. I have written a book, available at Amazon.com, called "The Marriage Triangle, God's Geometry for a Healthy Marriage". It would be good for you both to get a copy and begin reading it together. It's not a cure-all, but it will provide a very solid foundation for your relationship. Now to the issue at hand. Forgiveness is something that is absolutely required. Matthew 6:14,15 says, " 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. " This is a BIG deal. Your husband needs to forgive you of your past sins simply because you have already put them under the blood of Jesus at the Cross (you have, haven't you?). Forgiveness is a process. It takes an "on purpose" choice to forgive over and over again until our spirits actually are healed. As a man, I can understand his brokeness, but it can only be healed by Jesus and only when he makes a choice to forgive. Since he has time on his mail routes, he CAN choose to forgive you over and over until his heart is mended. This is why Jesus said to forgive 70 x 7, because forgiveness is a process and needs to be repeated until our own wounded hearts are healed by the love of Jesus. You need to choose to forgive as well. I know your heart hurts at those who have wounded you, but forgiveness will allow your heart to heal. That is what forgiveness is for!!! It has nothing to do with those who hurt us....God has a plan for them and if they don't live up to it, He is going to judge them. By our choosing to forgive, we are telling God that we believe He is big enough to punish sin where necessary and that we trust Him to fix the other people. Once we get that far, THEN can focus on God fixing us, because sister, I need fixin'. I suspect there are things you need to have Jesus fix too. So let's get on with it: let's allow Jesus to minister peace to our hearts and joy to our spirits. Blessings P.S. I also do marriage counselling so feel free to answer back, I have more for you for victory in your marriage.

By all means speak your innermost thoughts to God in prayer, and out loud. While the devil can hear you, he can't stop God from hearing, nor can he stop God from answering. It is a safety to ask God to hide your prayers from Him. Generally, because of the Holy Spirit, we have covering from the enemy's notice anyway. My personal belief is that our prayer communication is covered and not able to be interpreted by Satan or his minions. About all they know is that we ARE praying and will do everything in their power to prevent us from doing so. However, AFTER we have developed a habit of prayer, the attacks slow down. This habit of prayer is very powerful because it puts us into God's presence regularly and we regularly have opportunity to hear from God. This is important because prayer is supposed to be a 2-way conversation. God has a lot to say to us as well. If I had only taken time to habitually listen for God's voice, I would not have suffered all the trials I have. It DOES take practice to hear God, but what else more important do we have to do? That's right, nothing. There are only two times when I KNOW I am not wrong: 1) When I am in prayer; and 2) When I am in praise and worship.....here's to joining the two together so that I can have double the blessing!!!!

Having just approached God, you should "enter into" His relationship with excitement and joy.But you should also allow life to come to you. By that I mean that when you have a question, take time to learn about the answer. To automatically get rid of friends or activities is probably not the best thing to do. Unless those activities are sinful. If you are doing drugs or other illegal things, yes, by all means quit. But if you like bowling or dancing or other social activities, take your time to learn about God and what He thinks about those activities. God wants us to enjoy life, but He also wants us to enjoy Him. His Holy Spirit will guide you into your best way to do both and glorify God at the same time. If you are worried about "religion addiction", then your heart is in the right place and I wouldn't worry about it. Pursue Jesus and enjoy Jesus. At the point where everything is a problem and there is no joy anywhere, THEN we will re-visit the question. Blessings

The entire question is based upon a very dangerous premise, that God is flawed. For if one can prove that God's love is flawed, then one can disprove everything God has done, whether it be from mercy, grace or retribution. If one assumes God is flawed, then one has responsibility for their own soul. The real problem is that whether or not we believe in God, he believes in us and our disbelief in no way invalidates His status as Creator and Supreme Judge. So, since we have free will (granted to us by God), we can take responsibility for our own souls. Unfortunately, nobody has successfully negotiated life and entered into eternity all by themselves. Those that have tried historically have lived pretty much tragic and pointless lives. While those of us (weaklings), who trusted in Christ have suffered and died for a Savior that died sacrificially for us. The difference being, by and large, that our lives gave some measure of glory to God and, by being in line with God's promises, we have all had a hope and a purpose for eternity. If you do not believe in God, you have no purpose for your life. Accusing God of partiality is perhaps an astute observation, but it is not an observation to gamble your eternal destiny upon.

Everyone has already given such good counsel. No, the enemy cannot read my mind. However, there are a couple of points I would like to make. First, as everyone has said, Satan can hear our words. As a Navy veteran of the Vietnam war, we were drilled on signal security (or giving sensitive information away). Most often, we are careless with our words and agree with things we have no business agreeing to. For example, we say something like "oh, man my back is killing me". While our back may be sore, we have just opened the door for Satan to come in and do us harm and even try to kill us by using the pain in our back against us. The "truth" is that because of Jesus' stripes we are already healed and just not yet walking in the manifestation of that healing. Secondly, Satan sees our actions. What we actually do means something. So when we actually go to church, Satan sees that; as he does when we read the Word or speak to a friend about Jesus. These are all good things. But where we get into trouble is when we don't do what we should. Like gossiping about a friend; like having sex outside marriage; like getting drunk. Satan sees these activities and runs right to God to tell on us (just like he tried to do with Job). Fortunately, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous (that even sounds like a scripture). Third, Satan knows our tendencies because he is big on accusation, so he keeps a list of our flaws (kind of like a bad mother in law). So he can surmise when our thoughts are turning bad by our body language and our attitude. He uses us against ourselves and knows how to discourage us. He seems to know what we think because he has watched us so closely and he uses our own words against us (because we are not careful). It SEEMS like he can read our minds. Fortunately for us, we have the matchless name of Jesus to use in our defence, so we can rebuke him in the name of Jesus and II Corinthians 10 says, "for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, taking every thought captive..." This is a powerful victory verse because it means that we have the weapons to defeat Satan EVERY SINGLE TIME. If we would get this deep into our mind, we would live much more victorious and joyful lives. Blessings