Nevin

Firstly if i am on a wrong path i would stop the car make a u turn and ask for directions at the nearest garage or a local. You are asking for directions now but have you stopped the car. What i mean is that your current situation is the car. I noticed that in your passage even though you said you had a dream about going to hell you never once mentioned that you did not deserve to go there. For me that means that maybe some of your behaviour warrants you going there. All is not lost though. Dreams are sometimes given by God to enable us to make direction changes - so it is a warning that you recieved!. Maybe your life is heading down the wrong road. Your map book is now the bible and the locals are your brothers in church / worthy / christian friends / pastors etc. IT IS NEVER LATE

We were known by God before birth yes Jermiah 1:5 ""Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" but the choice is till with us. We are free moral agents. This is logical because if we had no choice then the whole world would have been saved as would have been Gods desire. Coming to your boyfriend - the way i see it is that some people change immediately while others change bit by bit - your boyfriend will never be the finished product and that will happen only when we are with the Lord Jesus then we become perfected in Him but while on the earth we will remain imperfect. As a new Creation your boyfriend will have to learn to "spiritually crawl and then walk and then run but this takes time of think of a new born baby - the baby is born into a foreign world but as to learn to adapt to its new surroundings the same with your boyfriend - he has to learn to addapt to his new lifestyle because Christianity is not a religon but a lifestyle and to be a true disciple one has to be disciplined. I pray that he makes this walk and completes it and finds that some of his behaviour needs to be altered to adapt to his new found status.

i though we were not allowed to use profantiy on worthy

The mind is the ground in which the battle between Good and evil wages . I say this because a good thought / image/ words can be ingested and digested and then the fruits of this good thought grows in our words/actions/behaviour. The same is true for a bad thought/image or word - we have to make a concious choice to not ingest/digest this because the fruits of this thought will also echo through our mind or our behaviour As you think so you are - Matthew 12:33 "Either make the tree sound (healthy and good), and its fruit sound (healthy and good) or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad), and its fruit rotten , for the tree is known and rcognized and judged by its fruit" what i am trying to say is that thoughts bear fruits. You think good thoughts and the fruit of your life will be good. Remember Proverbs 23.7 for as a man thinks within himself so is he. So what do we do now because we live in a world that is full of these images, TV programmes, adverts, books, internet, bad friends and our working enviroment. Even if you make a choice not to speak or think bad thoughts those around you will use profanity, the news on TV will lead to vulgar adverts and so on - so what do we do. Make your mind ready. The bible tells us to have a ready mind. Acts 17:11 " These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all the readiness of the mind, and searched the scriptures daily..". A ready mind is a vigilant mind, a mind that has a focus in the scriptures will be a dismissive mine. I say dissmissive because bad thoughts come to everyone, bad adverts/bad programmes/rude friends etc are always around but it is up to the ready mind to eject these thoughts when they come and they will come. Our minds and hearts must be operational through Jesus...Philippians 4:7 " And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus' The mind is the devils playground and he loves to bring confusion to us but remember James 1:7,8 where he says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways and never recieves what he wants from God. Also Anxiety and Worry are both attacks the devil uses but we again are to eject this and find our peace in Him Psalm 37:8"....fret not thyself in any wise..." worry and anxiety brings with it sickness and if we ingest and digest this worry we will reap the fruits. Remember Good seeds (thoughts) bring forth good fruits.Its absolutely impossible to worry and live in peace at the same time. Thus the choice needs to be made now!The following scriptures warn us about worry Psalm 37:8, Matthew 6:25 , Philippians 4:6, 1 Peter 5:7 We need to remember one thing and that is we have the holy spirit within us to counter the devils lies and this is the Spirit of truth ...John 16:12,13 " But when He , the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you unto all the truth..." We need to only remember that worry causes us to loose focus on our goal and once the devil establishes you have lost focus he is able to mess around with God's plans for you. God Bless You

That makes sense brother

So ET are you really as sweet as Spielberg portrays you? well?

Well it never specifically says that, thats just what her name means! Is it true that back in the day (2000 years ago) that people were given names sometimes reflecting the area they came from?

I did know of bathsheba but not that she was of African Descent.

Well now that is interesting.I did not know that about Bathsheba yes and she gave birth to Solomon so well now he was definitely a great man born of an interracial marriage

And i pray that God keep your marriage blessed!!

I had the same experience of my mother telling me to stick with my race, and religon - look i am married to a beautiful woman that is of the same race and religon - so you could say i abided to my moms instructions but i do agree that you find that the children born from this marriage can be segregated - because of this very same view that our "mothers / fathers" teach us.

Guys i am currently on the fence on this issue , so i am asking for advice here. I used to think that the races should marry within their own race. Please do not get me wrong i am no racist and for that matter most of my friends are non white, and i myself am of Indian Descent. So please understand i am not racist but this issue is prevelant in Modern society. I know there are scriptures in the bible that speak of forbidden marriages, of not allowing sons to marry woman from a certain clan, of fathers sending delegates to other areas so their sons could find a bride of similiar ilk/clan - but in general the bible is silent on this matter. I have seen in South Africa even in Modern society where children born out of interracial marrriages being segregated because they do not fit in with the whites and they do not fit in with the blacks. I have also seen interracial marriages break up because of a lack of understanding of the partners culture / background. On the flip side i have seen interracial marriages succeed . Look i am not saying that conventional marriages are all beautiful and rosey no on the contrary but lets have your oppinions here I would love to hear your oppinions and please lets try to stick to the subject.

i agree 100% this will give you a clear indication

Hello from South Africa - it is blessed to see other Africans on this site. The bible is our ultimate source of knowledge Hose 4:6 "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" we should never stop yearning for knowledge but in our quest and passion we should also pray for discernment because their are different sources of knowledge. Knowledge can be both destructive and constructive we should look at buliding ourselves when we learn - once we start questioning the biblical foundations then we should question the source of the knowledge. I love they way you say you thirst for knowledge - this is truely a great thing. Pray for direction in your thirsting though then it will be even better and well founded

If you're talking about getting these programs off the air, that'll never happen. If you don't like the content...do what I do...don't watch. Thats fine do not watch this content but what about the others that are watching do we not have a duty to stop this?

Good piece

I had some toxic friends most were actually Christian - i had to break away from them a couple of years ago as there were behaviourial changes in me that did not accomodate their past behaviour and mine. SOme of us still chat and i am glad some of them have changed but if i stayed with them i would have woke up with fleas

Hello Nevin here from Sunny South Africa

Matt5:42 -44 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Now the true mark of a Christian is that we have to love these individuals. LIFE IS HARD

Joyce Meyer ha wrote a book the Battle Ground of the mind - brilliant book - fear is a spirit that comes from the devil - the way to win this over is spiritually and in themind - we need to reject this spirit.Well done. It is never to late. You are an inspiration.

Never watched the movie but it is amazing how christians view it differently - this would mean that the level of discernment is more evident in some than others i am amazed when some say that there was suptle hints of homosexuality, and Christ bashing and yet others say they loved it - and it was the best movie in years. Does this mean some are tolerant or are others able to discern whats of God and whats not?

I agree totally.

Wow some of the personal encounters here just fills me with utmost love it is so beautiful when this happens - maybe you will never see the physical manifestation of God but you will see His effects, His glory in other people, and His radiance. Our Lord is amazing

The influences of these books are sometimes suptle and should not be undermined - they effect growing children and children are impressionable . I have never read these books but i am just making a general observation that the wolve will come in sheeps clothing