Ash

I'll be doing just that.

I'm at exactly the same place you're at on this one, Cats! I'm not going to elaborate, because I'll probably get carried away!!! :x:

Hi Hillson, I've never been to Oz; but if I did go, I think a visit to Hillsongs Church would definitely be on my agenda! I love their worship cds! Here's a website for you to check out... http://www.hillsong.com/church/bin/view.pl...ch&page=welcome

I couldn't pick from your choices, Andrew. I also pray repeatedly for certain things. For example, I pray for my unsaved brother and friends every time I think about them. The same goes for when I pray for my church family back in Africa, and for every day people I meet who need prayer - like people on this board who have problems, for instance. Colossians 4 12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured . However, I DO struggle with guilt over past sins, and have to remember that when I ask for forgiveness for a certain sin, I don't have to keep asking for it - God forgives it and forgets it! In that circumstance, I certainly believe you only have to ask once, then God remembers it no more! Hebrews 8 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

You guys have got me crying. Thanks so much. This thread, and your replys have been a blessing. And I was nervous about it, but even posting what I did seemed to lift a little burden off my shoulders. Obviously it's not something I talk about much, and just having moved here to the States, and leaving my friends behind makes it that much more difficult when I do want to talk about it! Thanks again for being the beautiful people you obviously are!

This is still very painful for me to write, so bear with me if it's a little disjointed... My mom has a condition called "Toxic thyroid heart disease." We were in Swaziland, Africa when this all started, and she had been in hospital for a week, but the doctors were waiting for their test results to come back from South Africa, so we didn't know what was wrong with her, just that it was serious. We were advised to call my brother from Canada and her family in South Africa to come and say goodbye. My dad quit his job to sit at her side for the time that she was in there. My dad and myself at that stage were both backslidden Christians. My mom was a "believer", but had never made a committment to Christ. I remember praying back then saying "God, I know I'm not exactly where You want me to be right now, but please fix my mom." I re-dedicated my life to Him about three months later after He did... A year later, I was on fire for God. Mom started displaying all the symptoms that she was headed downhill again. She had also developed a nasty habit of going to the casino every afternoon after work to try and win a major amount of money to pay back all her family and friends who had helped financially when she was in hospital. (We had not had ANY medical insurance then!) They had been awesome! They had opened a special bank account, and anybody in the community who had wanted to, had deposited money in there for her hospital bills.) The one night at a home group, we all joined hands and prayed for my mom's healing. A couple of days later, mom went missing. We couldn't find her anywhere. I drove the whole afternoon along her route to work about an hour away, fearing that she had passed out at the wheel and driven over a cliff. My dad had a "feeling" that he knew where she might be, and eventually found her later in a hotel room about two hours away writing goodbye letters, and with a new bottle of pills she had bought earlier to end her life. I remember driving to the church that day and sitting on the floor in a corner upstairs and sobbing. I remember shouting at God, asking Him "Why?! I asked You to heal her, not for this!! I remember a peace flooding me, and what felt like a hand gently pushing me over. I was curled up on the floor, and where my head would have been on the carpet, my Bible was there like a pillow. God told me to rest in Him. To rest in the fact that He knew what He was doing. He told me that He was healing her, but that all that poison in her had had to come out. It was like a boil, where all the stuff has to come out before it can mend. And that if I would just place my mom at the foot of the cross, and rest in Him, He would take care of it... Turned out she had borrowed money from her petty cash till at work to go to the casino one afternoon, had lost it, and had gotten into a nasty cycle of trying to borrow more and more to try and win it back before she got found out. One thing had led to another, and at this stage, she had lost about 80000.00 of the company's money. She was mortified with herself, and thought that the best way to save her beloved family from shame and humiliation was to end her life. When my dad found her, she got hysterical, and tried to beat him out of the room. It took her two days before she would agree to see me, and when my dad eventually called me, and told me just to come, she hid her face in her pillow and just sobbed. She hated herself. After sorting out their "debt" with her company, Dad moved them to England to start a new life. She wouldn't see anyone before she left - even her friends who were desperate to see her and tell her that it was okay. They knew she had an addiction, and they still loved her. Three years down the line, mom has made a committment to Christ. She is still on anti-depressants, and still cries and can't believe it when I tell her that I spoke to some of her friends, and they send their love. She still doesn't believe that anyone could even like her, never mind love her! But she is taking small steps every day. She has bought herself a Bible, and has something new to tell me every week about what God has done for her. Yes, it's been difficult. And sometimes after talking to her on the phone I still cry, and ask God when she's going to be the warm, loving, generous, confident mom I grew up with again; and not some alien I hardly know. He reminds me of where my family was, and where we are now... My dad and I were backslidden, and my mom was unsaved. Now, we are all committed Christians, and slowly, old wounds are being healed, and we are becoming more like Him every day. Not a day goes by where I do not see God's fingerprints all over this. He can take ANY situation, and turn it into good!

((((((((((Cats)))))))))) I'm praying for you too. :il: Deuteronomy 31 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Great post Calamity.

In love... I would use the word "concern" here, in place of "pride" Teri. The more we learn ourselves, the more we can help counsel others who are unsaved. Pride??? I think not! Man, my own brother is unsaved, and many of my friends too - you think I get my kicks about thinking that one day they're going to burning in hell? Sheesh, no way man! This is not wasting time on a selfcentered endeavor at all! "I am the way and the truth and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through me" - Jesus. (John 14:6) (I didn't say it - HE did!)

One Accord, this got me thinking. I had always just thought that Jesus descended into hell to gain victory over death. Which really doesn't hold water, 'cos He ALREADY had that - look how many people He had raised from the dead! I also had an idea that He "spoke" to others while there, but I wasn't sure about Him "preaching". So I did a little research on the net, and I found this. Really good, I think; although I'm not too sure if I agree with the theologians about the "Abraham's bosom" part at the end!? I'm open to correction, btw.... Anyway, hope this helps... Where did Jesus go after He died on the cross? The Bible does not specifically state what happened to Jesus immediately after He died on the cross. Because of this, there is debate surrounding the answer to the question of where He went and what He did. So, I will present differing views so you might know the scope of the answer and decide for yourself which position is preferable. Perhaps the best known scripture that appears to deal with this issue is found in 1 Pet. 3:18-20, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." When Jesus was made alive in the spirit, it is not saying that His spirit died and then it became alive again. "Made alive in the spirit" is contrasted with "put to death in the flesh." He first lived as mortal men but "...He began to live a spiritual 'resurrection' life, whereby He has the power to bring us to God."1 Furthermore, some Bibles (NIV, KJV, and NKJV) render the verse as "made alive by the Spirit," referring to the Holy Spirit's work with Christ.

Snow, did he have any Scripture to back up what he was saying?

Sure have!

Hi everyone! I just emigrated to the States from Swaziland, Africa in October. I'm living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and I'm looking for an on-fire church! I've visited a few charismatic churches in the area, and while some of them have been "nice"; I'm just not looking for a "nice" church right now! Basically, (although no church can be put in a box, and I know there's no such thing as a perfect church) I'm looking for a "Morningstar Ministries" or a "Folly's End" (like the one in London). A church where the people are just hungry for more of God, and will do anything to get more of Him! God chasers!!! I am tired of tradition!!! I hope that doesn't sound as dumb as it does while I'm typing it! Anyway...any suggestions?! They would be well appreciated! God bless you guys!

Yeh - that vote is confusing...! I was an abused child myself, so I'm always on the lookout for ministries for abused kids; and while I have noticed an increase in "worldly" outreaches to this problem, I still feel that the church could do a lot more in this area. I've only been in the States for three months though, so I'll probably (hopefully) amend this opinion later...?