chicagoburbite

Done!

Worshipping Christ is (at least SHOULD be) more than JUST on Sundays!! Heaven help us if that's the only time we worship. It should be a daily routine, nay... daily honor. When my husband and I worship God (most mornings), we come as we are: he in his work clothes, me in my jammies (it is 3:45 am, mind you). What's the hang up on clothing? With that said, when worshipping with other people, I do not think we should make them stumble if it focuses on the curves of our bodies, or shows the top of our boxers/thongs BUT that goes for ANY time we leave the house! Not just when going to church.

Seriously? Everytime I shower. I sing praise songs, and then pray for the rest of the shower. It's a time when I'm alone, and can tune out the rest of the world. Worshipping doesn't have to be done only on Sunday.

If the organization wants to keep any integrity to the role of "Miss Teen USA", or "Miss USA", they need to oust the girls. This is ridiculous. Of course we can forgive, under normal circumstances, and punish a teen appropriately. But when they are to be role models and not just another pretty face, then there has to be severe consequences, or the future of the title means nothing more than money, sexy bodies, fake smiles, and........................... oh yeah

LOS ANGELES

I am partial to the Life Application Bible for a study bible. I happen to know one of the authors who wrote part of the "applications" portion. He is a very neat godly man, with some good insight. I have it in the NIV, for what it's worth. Maybe your church library has one you could check out for a few weeks and see if you like it. Just remember that any study bible is a good guide, not to take away anything from God's word.

YAY!!! I am so glad to hear this! Just remember this time when emotions try to creep in. God bless, bro!

Hi there footsteps. It seems as if you have a "God shaped" hole in your heart that you keep trying to fill with people. I did that too!! Just a few years ago, when I was still single, at the age of 37, I stepped away from the Lord, and looked for people to fill this void. I even obsessed over 2 individuals. But God saw this, and He shut... no ...SLAMMED the doors on both of these relationships. If left up to me, I still would have been in 1 of the 2 unhealthy relationships. But God knew I was incapable of ending the obsessions without His help, and so He ended them. It seems like that is what He has done with you. Slammed several doors. You are on the right track as far as ridding yourself of them, their pictures, emails, phone #'s, but then it just seems like instead of replacing the God-shaped-hole (that you attempted to fill with these women) with God himself, you try to run from the women by moving. They aren't the problem. They could live in the same town. The problem appears to be filling up the void in your life with God, your Father. I implore you to find a very active church. One that looks after it's people, and the community. I know some people in Florida, I could help you if you need. Run to the Lord, read the psalms, and listen to David's cries.

(((((((((((((((mathy)))))))))))))))))) I'm so sorry that you are going through this horrible let-down!! God bless your aching heart. Having gone through a divorce several years ago, I can tell you......divorce sucks!!!!!!!!!!! Going through it, the whole process, it's just horrible. Is he a Christ follower? Would there be any chances of his repentance and reconciliation if he is a Christian? Please make sure those questions are answered before you go on with it. Lawyers and courts will always be there, take your time, please, before you file. Let your anger calm down, find someone at your church you can counsel with. I had asked my former husband to reconcile before the divorce was finalized. I didn't know how we were going to do it, but I felt convicted that I should talk to him about it. He said he just needed the closure the final divorce degree provided... but that he wasn't opposed to remarrying each other after a time of "courting" again, etc. Needless to say, once the degree came (we both cried through the court hearing) it was too much to even think about dating him again. Since you did post this in the "Looking for advice" section, i'll offer you my best advice: don't do any permanent things too quickly!!! When it's all fresh, it's easy to take bold actions and start making phone calls to lawyers. Take some time to cool off. Spend that time drawing close to the Lord, and a good counselor or girlfriend. God will make it clear the actions you should take when He's completely sought after. God bless you sweetie... Again, I'm so so sorry you are going through this!!! Blessings, Jenni aka Burb

To doctors the case may have been a medical miracle, but to Bhagat, his condition had been a source of shame and misery. All his life, people in the village where he lived had mercilessly teased him and told him he looked pregnant. Ironically, they were right - in a way. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=...&id=4489009

Don't want to be disagreeable. Just being real. Can you go back and find many times where after a long debate, the person who carried a different view pt than your's ended up changing their view point to your's? I'm just saying, that it is very rare that the person or persons you are debating with end up "backing down" and saying "You know what, i've been wrong all this time, you're right!" Please don't get me wrong, I still think it's good to put your thoughts and opinions out there!

ROFL (((((( angel ))))))))

ROFL we are out posting- unposting each other !!!

My entire post above was meant "tongue in cheek". I didn't think each element of what I said would be picked apart In seriousness, do you honestly think after all your blood, sweat and tears put into a debate, that the one you are debating with will change their mind? In the end, you DO get to express yourself with a lot of "high fives" and "Thumbs up" from those who agree with you. But are any minds changed? Highly unlikely. But.. does that matter? Probably not, it feels good to be able to write our thoughts and convictions out whether anyone agrees with us or not

Bingo! You've just supported my post to Tah!

OOpps, double posted! See response below

I wish I had a dollar for everytime someone has wanted to leave due to the overheated debates. I'd be able to retire! I used to think the "unfair" debates were good enough reason to leave. But that's just what some of them want Don't take the debates so seriously. (I know I once did) What people eventually come to understand, is that the debate portions of worthy are meant for entertainment. I would safely bet that a very very small percentage of people change their minds about an issue after a good Worthy-chew-fest. People like to hear them selves talk....er.....type, and aren't really looking to have their mind changed. That's what debating is all about. Meanwhile, there are many other sections of the forums that are a blessing, and minister to many here, including me!

The Worthy award for POST HIJACKER goes tooooooooo:

Ah yes... "take care of #1" Last I checked in God's word He is #1. So you have fully supported all the threads in that 1 statement Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Hi there. thank you for sharing your story! I too am in a position of debt. My exhusband filed for divorce and I didn't have access to any of "our" money! We were very well off, but I couldnt get a dime until we went to court. I was so depressed I didn't "fight" for all I actually had coming to me (found out from my lawyer after the fact). I used credit cards to live. But that ended up being a huge mistake. I should have done a lot more investigating of what other non-debt ways I could get help! Now i know them, but at the time I was just desperate and too depressed to figure things out or ask for help. So now, I'm remarried, and still have this debt. My new husband and I are poor, but have been convinced that we still need to tithe off the top, and in doing so: 1. our needs are being met through supernatural means sometimes, and 2.our faith has increased SO much 3.I am no longer depressed and 4. my worry over finances has greatly been reduced.

Actually it means that one is living above one's means if they can't make the rest of their bills after giving back to God what is God's Read Keith's reply on my other post if you don't like my responses

"Look out for #1????" What sort of advice is that? Everything is God's. We don't "deserve" anything. Everything is a gift from God. So our first fruits isn't giving a gift to God... it's giving back to God what is His!!! Look at these scenarios... see which one you might fit into: Profiles of Christians who Rob God by Randy Alcorn The Situation: Bill and Donna are in their mid-thirties. Bill has steady work as a salesman, but there always seems to be too much month left at the end of their money. Bill and Donna sincerely intend to put in the offering box whatever's left at the end of the month. But, between house payments and bills and occasionally socking a little something into savings, there's just never anything left. They feel bad, but what can you do when you're out of money? The Problem: Bill and Donna don't understand "first fruits." They should give to the Lord off the top, not out of "what's left" or not left. They don't realize that the tithe belongs to God, and that there's a word for taking money that doesn't belong to you--stealing. The Situation: Joan is a twenty-two year old, just finishing college. her thirty a hour week job pays just over minimum wage. She earns about $500 a month. Joan's parents still provide room and board, but she has to take care of her tuition, books and other expenses. "I can't afford to give," says Joan. "I'm barely making it now. If I gave up a tithe that would be $50 a month, and I'd probably have to drop out of school. I'd like to give, but I just can't." The Problem: Joan is not only robbing God, but she is robbing herself of the opportunity to grow in faith. Right now she doesn't believe God's promise in Malachi 3 (also confirmed in Matthew 6:33) that he will take care of her if she puts God first by giving him what is his. If God is capable of helping her get by on $500 a month, isn't he capable of helping her get by on $450 a month? Joan's God doesn't appear to be very big. The Situation: Bob is in his early fifties. His wife Elaine says, "for years we frittered away our income on all kinds of luxuries. Now we're twelve years from retirement and we don't have anything saved. On top of that, we've still got two kids in college that need our help." "We'd like to give to the church," Bob explains. "But Scripture says we've got to provide for our family first. After we get our kids through school and maybe get a nest egg started, then we'll start giving. The Problem: Bob and Elaine are keeping what belongs to God in order to compensate for their poor planning and lack of discipline in the past. Their first debt is not to their children's college education. Their first debt is to God. If it wasn't tuition costs, it would be something else. Since they have no true conviction about giving and no standard of giving to start with, they'll always find a reason not to give. The Situation: Phil and Pam enjoy giving. With their little blue Santa's helper (VISA) they just gave each other a video recorder and a large screen television for Christmas. The kids got a nice computer to keep them busy while their parents enjoy the city's finer restaurants. Their three year old Chevy was getting a bit tacky, so they just bought a new model. "Next year I've got a big promotion coming," says Phil. "Then we'll start giving--right now the budget's pretty tight. It's not that we don't ever give to God's work, you understand," Phil adds. "Why, when we were in Hawaii last month we attended a neat church service on the beach and I dropped a $20 bill in the offering." The Problem: Phil and Pam are blind. They say there's no money left to give--and they do their best to make sure of it! No matter what they say to the contrary, their lifestyle proves unarguably that toys, trips and cars are more important to them than God, his work and the needs of others. They say they'll give when they earn more, but they won't. If Phil and Pam have been unfaithful with a little (more than a little), they will be unfaithful with a lot. Their expenditures will always rise to meet their income. Making more money will only make them guilty of robbing God more. Like so many of their fellow church members, Phil and Pam simply don't understand that the tithe belongs to God, not them, and that they are to return to him the "first fruits," not "last fruits" or "no fruits." The Situation: "There's a lot more to stewardship than money," says Gina. "We can't all give--but some of us can teach Sunday School, clean the building and open our homes to guests. I consider that to be my giving." The Problem: Gina rightly believes stewardship involves more than money--but she wrongly believes that stewardship ever fails to include money. Her argument is just as faulty as saying, "I can't give the church any of my time or my gifts and talents, so I'll just give my money instead." God expects all of these, not just some of them. Gina is attempting to justify robbing God by "making up for it" in other areas that she should be doing anyway. The Situation: "I'm so far in debt I can't give a dime to the church," says Tony. "What am I supposed to do, stop my car payments? What kind of testimony would that be? And it would be bad stewardship to sell my car--I'd have to take a $2,000 loss. God doesn't want me to be stupid, does he?" The Problem: Tony has already been stupid. In buying his new car, he put himself in a position to disobey God's command to give. He violated Scripture by spending money he didn't have. His greedy and foolish misuse of credit has put him in this fix. Tony apparently believes that God and his church and needy people should pay for his own foolish choices. Why not take a $2,000 loss in order to get into a position to obey God? Is there "any stewardship more "terrible" than robbing your Creator and Savior? Here's another person who thinks the tithe is his, not God's. Nowhere in Scripture does it say "first fruits" are to be given to those to whom they will be the best testimony, but to God. If Tony ends up having a bad testimony here it's because of his foolish choice, which is not helped but only complicated by further disobedience to God. He needs to ask forgiveness and learn from the situation so that he doesn't do it again. But does it make sense to rob God in order to have a "better testimony" to men? The Situation: Joe is an outspoken Christian who's known as a man of faith. He stands up at church business meetings and speaks out in private conversations saying he wants to see the church build more buildings, raise the pastors' salaries, and expand into all kinds of new ministries. Joe challenges the church to rise to the occasion, and reads passages of Scripture about walking by faith and not sight. He inspires everyone. Everyone, that is, except God and the financial secretary, who are the only ones who know the truth: if everyone gave like Joe, the pastors would have to be laid off, the missionaries would have to leave the field, the church would have to sell all of its property, and the congregation would be walking neither by faith nor sight--it would be buried three feet under. The Problem: Joe appears to have great faith and vision, when it comes to the obedience of others. It's his own obedience that he has trouble with. He fails to ask himself a crucial question: "If everyone gave like I do, where would this church be?" He is quick to commit other peoples' money, but clings to his own. Joe is a hypocrite. He says one thing and does another, and in doing so heaps up judgment for himself. He will be held accountable to God not only for his lack of giving, but for his hollow words of exhortation that he fails himself to follow.