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Heleadethme

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Everything posted by Heleadethme

  1. 2Th 2:2-3 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
  2. It sounds like you would really benefit from getting to know the scriptures better. For starters I would suggest doing a word search on the word sluggard in the book of proverbs. As well as considering other scriptures that others have already been posted.
  3. "no workee, no eatee" is a tongue in cheek paraphrase of what someone already quoted on page 1 of this thread of what the apostle Paul wrote in one of his letters to the early church. And yes, stealing from someone else's pockets is certainly not encouraged in the word of God. I think we need to distinguish between the duty of governments as opposed to the duty of believers as individuals. Governments have a duty to the citizens who hire (elect) and pay them to administrate in the best interests of those citizens and their nation first and foremost. But of course as individuals and indeed as the body of the Messiah/Saviour we have a duty to help the poor in general. (But not those who are perfectly capable to work to feed themselves but are simply unwilling to make the effort. And personally I believe that group makes up a small minority of the poor.)
  4. Maybe you and Marilyn are both right about this. Something I keep on a back burner is how Israel has always been a kind of example or living parable in the natural realm of spiritual realities to come. There is a principle spoken of in the bible of "first the natural, then the spiritual." What if Israel after the flesh will be the top dog kingdom in the world before the return of the true Messiah to wrap up this age? Especially since we apparently are beginning to see the waning and implosion (judgment) of the current top dog kingdom (western society). But the Israel of God (Jew&Gentile church) must be careful never to forget that we are in the world but not of it. We are not to worship any messiah other than the One appointed and begotten of God. And keep in mind that Israel after the flesh is loved for the sake of the patriarchs but will always be an enemy for the gospel's sake.
  5. Different people do have different concepts about Him, that's for sure, and many are incorrect. But we are told in the bible not just to know about Him, but to know Him. ie, to know Him personally. The Lord is revealed to us through the Messiah (Jeshua), His Spirit, who reconciles us to the Father and brings us into the Father's presence. Man's relationship with the Father was broken/cut off through sin and going our own way. And the Messiah came from Israel...Israel had a great purpose in God in birthing the Messiah into the world so that souls out of all mankind, Jew and Gentile (those who are willing and chosen) might be restored to the Father. This is why there are so many references to Gentiles in the Jewish scriptures.
  6. Hi sister, I believe we are being told something of God's purposes in these scriptures, though there may be more: Rom 9:21-24 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? Eph 8-11 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
  7. People do all sorts of things "for God" and in the name of God, that are against His will. It is not a valid argument for anything. Along with privileges and opportunities and liberties afforded by the gospel there are also responsibilities and parameters. And of whom much is given, much is required. Liberty doesn't mean a free-for-all. You know why rebellious "bad boys" in many generations like to get tattoos....precisely for the reason that it is bad and rebellious. See, even the unbelieving rebellious world can discern tattoos for what they are while it seems many believers can't these days.
  8. It's hard to see you as being neutral about this with regards to "liberty" when you are ACTIVELY encouraging Christians to get tattooed. That appears to be the actual PURPOSE of your threads on this topic. WHY?
  9. 1Th 5:21-23 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  10. I'm seeing this like a coin with two sides, and that God being outside the bounds of time might be seeing time as a full circle that is already complete from His perspective. That might help to understand why or how He already knows the end from the beginning....and things that haven't happened yet in time have already happened from the perspective of heaven, they are a fait accomplis. If so, and we look at this as a complete circle, the past and present affects the future, but I believe to have glimpsed that the future also affects the past and present....which all has a bearing on election and being foreknown by God. (And that would also explain why we may have sometimes experienced echoes of our spiritual gifts even before we were saved, and why also the devil persecuted many of us before we were saved.) But these things are not easy to get our heads around and we only know in part. Not something I would argue about, but just putting it out there. If it isn't entirely out in left field it probably is only a partial understanding at best...it's just a glimpse and there might be more to it.
  11. I'm not determined to be offended by you. Wouldn't even have bothered with this unedifying topic if you hadn't called me over here more than once. And no of course that is not what Romans 14 is saying, though you were just speaking sarcastically. This thread is not just discussion, it is actively encouraging young people to do what is contrary to the word of God and holiness.....and that is evil! God doesn't need or want our worldly, fleshly, dubious gimmicks to try and win souls. Our weapons are not carnal but spiritual. Why don't you use your efforts to encourage people in things like that, things that are profitable and edifying to help people grow and mature in Christ? I don't see anything in the word where it teaches followers of Jesus to be led by our feelings and what seemeth right to us. It teaches otherwise.
  12. What a sad state the church is in today. No discernment at all. Regardless of our liberty, Jesus is not the minister of sin and He doesn't want us to defile His temple....HIS temple, not ours, as we have been bought with a price. I wish you would spend your time preaching the word, instead of spreading the gospel of tattoos, and going out of your way so far as to keep asking people specifically to come to your thread to post. It's evil what you are doing, encouraging young believers to get tattooed or become tattoo artists, not just here but on at least one other forum that I've seen, instead of encouraging holiness. One really has to wonder why this is such an important issue for you. I would encourage you at the very least to take to heart the whole chapter of Romans 14 and not just the parts you happen to like. Lord, help us.
  13. Kind of horrifying and depressing to me that the finer points of how to be tattooed and pierced is being discussed on a Christian forum. Doesn't seem appropriate at all.
  14. Hmmm...interesting that is the same rite of passage as pagans. If you don't like the term "good or bad", how about the term "God's will"? Isn't that what we should seek and do according to? I wonder how many would testify truthfully they were led by the Spirit to go get a tattoo.
  15. Amen....we need to balance out where it says God hardens who He will, against where it says He is willing that none should perish. God's ways are not man's ways. Where He speaks of election and being chosen is not necessarily quite the same way that man thinks of it. We are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God". Same way it says in Acts that those who were "ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48).....based on God's foreknowledge, not that He is excluding truly willing souls from being saved. But I believe it's in His overall sovereignty that "He hardens" those who are already hardened permanently against Him. (Kind of like when bad things happen such as natural disasters, we know it is the devil working havoc, but we who believe acknowledge the Lord, that it is He in His sovereignty who is chastising or judging or whatever His purposes are in allowing it.) It seems from what I can glean from scripture, that everything that will happen in the future in terms of earth time, is already like a done deal from God's eternal perspective not bound by the realm of time. Maybe I'm missing something, but that seems to solve the conundrum with this topic as far as I can tell so far.
  16. I'm not looking for anyone other than the Word made flesh, who existed "in the form of God" (Phl. 2:6) and then stepped into our earthly realm of time and space so to speak, when He was born in Bethlehem. Heaven, the realm of the spirit, exists outside the realm of time and space. I think there are many implications of this but not easy to grasp, and we only know in part.....who can fathom the Lord, He is so great! But this is why the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, and why believers are foreknown by God....and I believe it's why Paul could write in the past tense truthfully when he wrote this: Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
  17. My drive-by opinion is that this is one of those things that I believe we shouldn't be too dogmatic about, remembering that we at best only know in part this side of heaven. Who can fathom the Lord? To begin with He exists outside of time and that is a hard thing for anyone to get our heads around.....the bible says we're elect according to His foreknowledge and that He knew us from the foundation of the world. He has mercy on who He wants to have mercy and He hardens who He will.....we'll probably never know why He decided to have mercy on us individually in this life. For one thing His purposes have a lot to do with making His power known, and manifold wisdom known, to the powers and principalities, so it's not even all about us. Good to keep in mind He has chosen the weak things to shame the strong. Maybe one factor is that we were just so hapless and helpless like deer caught in the headlights that He felt sorry for us, and might be the terms "chosen" and "elect" are really a manner of speaking in a way, since the Lord often likes to elevate the lowly and lower the elevated, so to speak.
  18. You know that modern life is expecting far too much from people these days when so many need stimulants to be up to the task of just living. We're not allowed to just be human and real any more...society demands people to be super-human and unreal. The devil is a slave-driver, no doubt about it. May the Lord have mercy.
  19. Seems to me the devil is becoming more 'active' these days in general. It's possible your brand of coffee beans are having pagan prayers and rituals being made over them in the country of origin. I've heard of believers just visiting a country where witchcraft and idol worship is commonly practiced, and they arrive back home with various mysterious health issues. If that's what the Lord said to you, then I'm sure you have stopped drinking that brand. Might be ok to try a different brand, but of course you need to follow the Lord's leading and obey Him.
  20. Here we see Israelite false prophets cutting themselves for Baal as well: 1Ki 18:27-29 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. The Lord told the Israelites not to do after the manner of the heathen in the land. Pagans and witch doctors all over the globe tattoo themselves. We should exercise discernment too. But brother, who is condemning anyone? We all bear 'marks' of our past. We all have things in our past that we regret. I have a son born to me out of wedlock (there is no 'erasing' of that either, and I wouldn't want to! He is 43 and is finally as of just this past year, serving the Lord now....God can redeem the marks of our past! \o/ ) He lives on the other side of the country and already has tattoos, and when he came to faith recently, unbeknownst to me he almost immediately went out and got the letters Yahweh or Jeshua (forget which) tattooed on his fingers. I just said to him in that moment of our phone conversation, that God doesn't need us to do that for Him. We had more important things to talk about at the time, and it takes time to learn the word and ways of the Lord... we aren't born again knowing everything of God's will. But surely there are times when it's appropriate and kind to try to dissuade others from doing something they will regret down the road if we have the opportunity beforehand.
  21. I think you might be assuming that people are judging/condemning those who have tattoos. Me, I just ignore tattoos and focus on the person. We may sometimes discern, but generally only God knows a person's motives and can judge their situation. All I know is that God told the Israelites not to follow the ways of the pagans, not to imitate them and do as they do.....for the church I believe that translates into not following the ways of the world. The bible is pretty specific in addressing the marking and cutting of the body. Why do so many Christians want to follow the lead of a fallen world? For two thousand years Christians the world over weren't getting tattoos, because of what the word of God says about it, and now suddenly tattoos have become mainstream in our society amongst unbelievers and sinners (and seems to me it began especially amongst troubled souls), and Christians want to imitate them in order to be "current". We always will face temptations from the world in this life and we need to resist the world, rather than follow it. Does that mean God will cast off and condemn every believer who gets tattooed for whatever reason? I don't think so, but I believe any kind of departure from His ways is opening a door to trouble and we don't want to give the devil a foothold...the Lord may choose to be longsuffering in some cases, but it also can invite unwanted consequences. The false prophets of Baal were cutting themselves to try and get a response from their false god. But our God, the true God, evidently doesn't want to be worshiped with tattoos, so why is it so hard to just give it a pass? Jesus said His yoke is easy. It takes more trouble and bother and expense to go out and get tattooed than it does to just not do it.
  22. Amen! We sure did need Jesus to die for us so that our sins could be remitted and forgiven....the wages of sin is death and that is why without the shedding of blood (death) there is no remission of sins. And also for sure it is by His spirit that we have been given a new heart and are a new creation in the inner man, by His spirit dwelling within us....Jesus had to die in order to become a "quickening spirit" that quickened us when we were spiritually dead in sins.
  23. People can be well-meaning I'm sure, but my hunch in general is that the desire to be tattooed is not from the Lord.
  24. Well since you ask, regarding tattoos, really I believe we should honour God the way He wants to be worshiped or honoured. If we're already marked and sealed with His spirit, that is far superior than ink IMO! Addiction to things like drugs or bad habits is a state of bondage and defeat. Strongholds need God's intervention to break them. "Addiction" to the things of the Lord is actually freeing, because that is in God's jurisdiction of all that is right and good, and it's for that we were created.
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