mikerunk

First how can you comment about a book you have never read. You can't speak out about something you never read, that's just silly. Second in now way was the author trying to create a false Idol God. The main character went to the shack with a preconceived notion of what God looked like. However when he finally meets God he appears as a big black woman. God even explains to the character that it is man's arrogance that has lead to preconceived notions of what God looks like. God explains that he/she can appear in an form or sex he/she wishes. In fact later on he/she does take the form of a man. Now I don't agree with everything in the book however I still felt it was a good book and worth reading. It will make you sit back and think about your beliefs and how you view God and the Holy Trinity, and what salvation means. However it make you think about relationships and how you treat people around you. The book explores ideas that I think are very sound and very much in line with the teachings of the bible and is explained in way that is very clear. I think all christian should read this book. You don't have to agree with all of it but I believe there is something that every one can draw from it.

Here is a simple question for you HAZARD, if God can be every where at once then why can't he be in heaven and every where at the same time. I don't know but this does not seem to difficult to really understand. God is all knowing and is every were from beginning of time to end of time. Your right God did come out and repent the creation of man because of the wickedness in man and was going to wipe out mankind, but then instead he choose to show mercy as well, which mirror what he would do through Christ. What it shows is a the greatness of God but also his consistence if you ask me. which just validates the bible and makes it more the word of God because it's consistent with the nature of God, he doesn't change. Sorry I don't have scriptures down by heart, which is why I'm not using them.

Look I completely disagree with you, depression isn't always caused by demonic possession as you seem to claim. I'm not saying that it can't happen just saying that more times then not it is one of two things or more both then anything. If depression is a sign of demonic possession then I would say the vast majority of the population of the world suffer from demonic possession. This just silly when you get right down to it. People can be born with depression as they grow older, all it is, is a chemical imbalance in the brain that a person can not control. Now this on it's own can be corrected through medication. However what inflames the problem are negative thoughts. When we hold on to negative thoughts and dwell on them it only increasing the depression and makes it worst. People who suffer from the chemical imbalance naturally tend to dwell on negative thoughts and it becomes habit forming. They need to retrain how they think and they can over come the thoughts that occur in there mind. The chemical imbalance can be corrected through medication, however it can also be dealt with out medication. The first step is to realize when depression is about to set in, at that moment you must empty your thoughts and focus on the Lord and the Word of God. I suffer from this as well, except mine isn't due to chemical imbalance, it just from dwelling on negative thoughts for so many years that it became habit forming. I am now trying to retraining my mind and spirit and the best way to do this is by turning to the Lord and focusing on him. I recommend those suffering from depression to go to itunes and look up Joyce Meyer Radio Podcast. Then look for two part series called Your Brain and you. I found this series to be most enlightening. I think it is a podcast that some could really use. Actually think Joycer Meyer is one of my favorite ministers because she is informative, clear and direct, and yet not dry and boring. I wish more ministers were like her. I highly recommend any one to listen to her podcast, she so awesome and you can see how the Lord is working through her.

If you still feel guilt, if you still feel pain [with who is irrelevant].....you haven't forgave. Forgiveness is not about them accepting the responsiblity, making them feel what they did to you [that's between them and God]. Forgiveness is about you and being able to move on. Forgiveness is about letting go of such pain for your own spiritual healing and growth. YOU are the one who can't sleep at night. YOU are the one hurting. YOU are the one in tears. It's not about THEM. When you let go of all that suffering, what you're really allowing to happen is giving Gods grace to come into YOU and heal all that pain. When you keep holding onto "it"...you're keeping "it"!....... Let go - you are His child, not theirs First off I never said I couldn't sleep at night, only that it hurts know that I was accused of this horrible thing. Second it's easy to say just let that go, but it's really not. However I have done that finally. I told my Mom once and for all in email not but a few min ago, that I didn't do what they say I did. I know that, the people who know me know that, God himself knows that. I told her that I am done with the pain, I have held on to it for 19 years and will no longer hold on to it any more. I told her I was leaving my pain in that email and walking away from it once and for all. However at the same time I can not have a relationship with people who believe I did such a thing. I told them it is the very reason we can not repair our relationship. I leave there fate in Gods hands. I have a the Lord who loves me but I also have a family who loves me as well and at the end of the day that is all that matters.

Well I sent her an email back and though I forgive her and my step dad for things they did to me, after all if I can't forgive them then how can God forgive me for things I have done. I told her that I have enough guilt on my shoulders, enough demons that I don't need more. I told her that as much as I forgive them that there is to much pain for use to ever be a family again. I have family now that loves me and cares about me. That to me is good enough. I am very grateful to the lord for at least given me the chance to say my peace. To ask there forgiveness, which she never directly did I might add now that I think about it. It really hurts me what she said. I mean reading that email and her say the DA was going to prosecute me as an adult, really hurt me. I know none of it was true, I know I never molested my sister. However it hurts me because I been carrying that with me all these years I feel like I have been branded for something I didn't do and all I want it is for to admit I didn't do it. Every time I think about this I break down in tears because it hurts me so badly. I just wanted to be vendicated, to be free of this. Now I just want God to take this pain way. any way like said I told her that I think there just so main that has been created that there was no way to repair the damage completely. I told her that I forgive them and wished them the best of luck.

I need some advice on how to handle a delicate matter, but first I need to give you some background so you have enough info to work with. This might be a little long so please bare with me. When a teenager (probably about 14 years of age) I had a lot of behavior problems and there was also some abuse going on at home (at least from my perspective, one that other people who I have share this with in greater details agree with me on). I had all ready been in a group home a few years before. Now things had gotten so out of control that I went to my school councilor and told them everything that went on. This lead to the state getting involved and me eventually going back in to a group home for boys (there is some stuff that happen in between but it's not important to the problem I am faced). Now a few months after getting to the group home (which was on a ranch not that it matters for the subject at hand) the lady who ran the program had told me that my Mom and Step Dad had accused me of sexually abusing my little sister (who was 5 at the time I think. I also had a brother to who was 11). I told her that I didn't and she left it at that. Later one of the staff basically forced me in to admitting to sexually abusing my little sister. He did this by grilling me for hours till I was so tired that I was willing to admit it just to get to go to bed, to this day I wish I never admitted to it. Well life sucked after that but eventually I pulled my self together to certain degree. I stopped trusting adults but I got over that to. Now shortly after getting to the ranch my Mom and Step Dad refused to have anything to do with me. In fact all my family refused to have anything to do with me. My real Dad and his side of the family really didn't have a choice, he had no idea what was going on. This is no fault of his own, he was not allowed to have contact with me...long story not important here. Any way when I was leaving the ranch I was talking to Rose Marry (the lady who ran the program) and my case worker and said to them "You know I never sexually abused my little sister, right" and they both looked at me and said we know. I think this had to do with the fact that I had been a Den Chief and I never did anything like that nor have I done anything that fits the pattern of some one who does those sorts of things. Now we warp head to today, I now have a great family. God has been so good to me and blessed me by not only putting me back in to contact with my Dad but I also have a Mom (his current wife) who loves me, plus two sisters, a brother in law, and what not. Any way just recently I found my Mom on face book. I sent her an email and heard nothing back it was a short email and that was it and she didn't respond. I decided that there were things I wanted to say to her and had for years, the big one was the me molesting my little sister. Any way she responded back. In the response back she tells me that the state had enough proof that they wanted to prosecute me as an adult but she refuse to press charges. I of course know this is a complete untrue because DA would have gone head and filed the charges if they had enough to proof to get a conviction no matter what she wanted. Not to mention that I flat out never did it. Now the problem is I don't know how I should respond back. I know I didn't do it and God knows I didn't do it. However I don't know if I should respond back to this or if I should even respond at all. It really hurts me to think that my own mother believes I did this, even worse is if she knows I didn't and accused me of this. I don't know how I should handle this, do any of you have any advice on this. What would Christ want me to do. You want to know what the worst part of all this is, I feel guilty about something I didn't even do. Any way any advice you could give would be most helpful.

Ok here is thing for years I have struggled with sexual sin. However I am trying to do what is right and turn away from this sin, I am trying to turn my life over to God not only in faith but in how I think and act. However today I keep having sexual thoughts pop in to my head. I'm not dwelling on there quick little thoughts and images and I'm trying not to have sexual thoughts cause that just leads to a dark road I don't want to go. I just quickly remind myself that that these thoughts are wrong and that if I give in to them I would be disobeying the lord, so I quickly put it out of my mind. This has been going on here and there for last few days but today I'm being hammered or at least it feels that way. I kind of think that Satan is trying to pull me away from God which actually tells me I must be on the right track. It's funny because as hard as this is I find it rather comforting because it must mean I am on the right track with the lord, don't get me wrong I'm a work in progress but if Satan is tempting me with sexual sin it must mean I am doing something right...or I should say that the Lord is working in my life, actually I would say both, if that makes any sense. Any way I just wanted to say that out loud, one more for my self then anything else.

First let me say hello my friends, I hope every one is having a good day. Now down to business and the reason I am here. I have a simple question about prayer. The question I have is can I write down my prayers, do you think God would accept that as a prayer...or even if I wrote them down and then read them back would God accept that as a legitimate prayer? The reason I ask this is that my thoughts always come out all jumbled up so I was thinking if I wrote them down it might help keep my prayers neat if you know what I mean. Plus I find writing helps me unclog thoughts, feelings, and memory's so not only can I make sense out of those things for myself but then I can also turn them over to God. However I wanted to get every one opinion on this matter. I myself don't think God would have a problem with it as long as it comes from the heart and it's not just vain words, but tell me what you guys think.

So I download a whole lot of music by Loreena Mckennitt, who is just an awesome singer if you have never heard of her you should check her out, any how I came across this song called Dickens' Dublin and just fell in love with it.

All right let me explain a few things about myself, the first of which is that I don't learn the same way most people do, never have probably never will. I don't learn through books, that's not to say I can't just saying it's very difficult for me. I learn through what I see, and what I hear. So picking up the bible and reading it is a very difficult task for me because there many things that are said in the bible that I don't understand and I sort of have to depend on others to help me figure out what it saying. While other things in the bible are straight forward and easy to understand. An example of what I am talking about would be the parables Christ used, most of them I have come to understand through talking to people who could explain them to me. However there a lot of things Christ said that I don't understand, and thus I'm not understanding what he is telling me. It sort of like some one come up to you and giving you instructions on how to save your life in a language you barely know, you get a few words here and there but in the long run your not getting all the info you need. Now in the case in "Who is Jesus" (and yes that is what I should named the topic it was a typo that I didn't realize till later) this is difficult concept to figure out. Understand who is Jesus is the source of my problems or was (will come back to the resolution in a minute) because this is my soul that is at stake here, I can't afford to get it wrong. I don't want to get caught up believing in something that maybe false, and now days it is very easy to believe something that isn't true. Case in point is who exactly is Jesus, I mean is he the Son of God or was he God made flesh. The both can't be true, only one can be true. So I begin this quest to resolve this matter, search the bible. Listen to others was not enough because there are different opinions on the subject, so it comes down to who do I listen to. I choose to Listen to Christ and not human beings. As I read John I found a passage were Christ return the sight of a blind man and yet Christ never told him who he was. This blind man later stood before the religious leaders and defended Christ even though he had no idea who or what did this to him. He only know that who ever healed him must have been given the ability from God. Christ later told the blind man who he was. The man later went back and told the religious leaders who had healed him. Now Christ also states that he and the Father are one, many times. He says that no one knows the Father like the son and that no one knows the son like the father. He states that he came to do his father work. Which in essence means that Christ and God are one. So here is the temp solution I have found, I don't need to know if Christ is God or the Son of God. I just need to know that he and God are one, that if I follow him and obey him and trust in him that I am also obeying and following God and putting my trust in him. The blind man had no idea who healed him or what manor of man healed him, only that if he could do such a thing that he must have been given authority to do such a thing by God and he said as much to the religious leaders. So I don't need to know if Chris is God or the Son of God to know that through him all things are possible. I also know from Christ own Words that he and the Father are one and that by obey and following Christ and putting my faith in him I also put my faith in God. So the solution is that I will just put my faith and trust in Christ because he is one with God and that by Obeying him and believing in him I also believe and trust God. That for now is all I need to know, as I grow in my relationship with the Lord and he changes me and teaches me I will eventually learn the truth one way or another, not when I want to but when Christ is willing to tell me. I love Christ he has been with me my entire life even when I hated him, even when I spat in his face. He showed me mercy and love even if I didn't see it. He didn't get angry and smite me like he could have, he didn't seek revenge, Christ showed me mercy, patience and worked in my life even when I didn't see it, till I finally came to a point in my life were I have accepted him and desire to learn about him and want to have a relationship with him. I love him for that kindness and mercy but most importantly for his patience and his willingness to forgive me of my sins. That is all I can say on this subject at this time, I still have a lot to learn but more importantly a lot of changing and growing to do in the lord.

This is a very hard subject to figure out as a new believer. Maybe to those well versed in the bible and much broader knowledge Christ lays it out straight, that he is either the Son of God or is God made flesh. However to a new believer it is a nerve wreaking trying to figure it out. Last week when I posted I broke down in tears because I was so confused, so mixed up that I was ready to give up on Christ and in God because I could not figure it out, and people confused me more then anything. Now week has gone by and here is what I have come up with. First is that I still don't have an answer one way or another. However in the end I think at this moment this concept might be beyond my grasp to understand and wrap my head around. What I do know is this Christ was that he was no mere human, and that who or whatever he is had a relationship with God in such a way that they were equal to one another. That what is important for me to know at this moment is that Christ is my Lord and Savior. Christ did not come here to Judge mankind but to save it from it sins. What is important for me to understand is how to follow him and to obey him and to believe in him, beyond that everything else can be learned in time, and I will put my faith and trust that when Christ wants me to understand the truth of whether he is the Son of God or God himself he will revel it to me. I believe in Christ and my faith grows each day and I understand more and more of who Christ is every time I read the bible. One thing I want to say, John is my favorite of the new testament. I felt so much Love from Christ just reading the one book that my faith incressed more from reading that one book then all the others. However I still have a lot to learn.

First off at one time she was a devoit christian and yet she was still plagued with these ability,s. Also its one thing for a cild o have sins like a temper or sexual issues, its a whole another matter for god to allow demonic forces to grant children or babies who really have no say at that age let alone understanding of good or evil these tpys of abilitys. The bible warns use from those people who are mediums and what not who practice mystism. She doesn't practice these things and yet she has these abilitys. Any way the point is I don't know what to tell her at this point but I will relay what you guys have told me.

All right I need some help. I have a friend who has demonstrated paranormal ability's. She seems to have the ability to read thoughts at least to some degree, its not all the time but its enough to know that its not dumb luck. She also says that she can read people's personality, like there Aura. I also believe she has the ability to see spirits. She has had these gifts ever sense she was very very little, it was her grandmother who first brought these ability's attention. She claims that both her grandmother and her mom are practicing witch's. She has had many experience with the supernatural growing up. Now everything I have pieced together these are ability's sense she was at least four years old, maybe even younger with out realizing it. Now here the thing, the bible warns against physic's, mediums and clairvoyants. Now I believe in a few things, first that the bible is talking about those with these ability's gained through Witchcraft, Vodoo, or other Mystical practice. However I believe that any one born with these ability's are given these ability's by the devil or by demons. I think children are protected from demonic possession and other demonic activity's because children and baby's especially can not make the choice between good or evil. So the question is can God give people these type of gifts at birth? Look the main things is I want to be able to give her answers to these questions, but I don't know the biblical answers to this question. So if you guys could help I would be most grateful.

All right first I in truth have no idea how knowing whether Christ is God in the flesh or the Son of God would effect our salvation. However to me it stands to reason that knowing who Christ is would be a big step towards finding salvation. While I will flat out admit that Christ was no mere man that he goes way beyond that, whether or not he is in fact God made flesh or if he was The Son of God I know he is one or the other. However I do believe it is important to know which is true because they both can't be true. However but how does one come to finding out which is true and which is not. Only one of these can be true and the other is a false teaching, if one is a false teaching then it means people are falling a false teaching. I want to make sure I'm not following something that is a false teaching. In short one is correct and the other is incorrect and that is the part I'm hung up on and can not figure out which is true and which is not. Understand this is not an attack but me trying to find answers or to get people on both sides of table who believe one or the other to post there belief and back them up with scripture in the hope that I might find that truth.

Conclusion Both articles were very well written and are backed up by scripture, and thus leaves one wondering just who was Jesus. At the end of the day I believe that Pastor Martian Eldon Blodsoe article because it makes more sense. One biggest holes in Blindseeker article is that when Christ say says his Father (God) but if Christ is God then that would make him the Father, no matter how you spin it. We see examples were Christ is praying to the father again that would be praying to him self, and though Blindseeker does a very good job of explain this I think its more less splitting hairs. However this is a very much debated subject even among Christians. The very back bone the Christian faith rest squarely on who Christ is. We know that Christ was no mere man that much can be certain. We also know that Christ died on the cross for our sins. However understanding exactly what Christ one is a very complicated matter, as both of these articles show. Both have there merits and were backed up by scripture. If two people of faith have conflicting opinions on who Christ was then how do we find the truth. If the truth is only granted to use by God then how do we explain two people of faith believe so differently on who Christ was. Further more how do those of use who are trying to find these answers find the correct one. I do not question the existence of God, nor do I doubt that Christ died on the cross for our sins. However understanding who Christ is a key element to developing ones faith in Christ and in God. One could even say my very soul is at stake on this subject, because it leaves me asking which answer is right. As I said I do believe in God (I have seen first hand just how wonderful he is, and his hand at work in my life) and I believe Christ is our lord and savior, beyond that I am still in search of answer and not just any old answer will do. I want the right answers.