Rest is a weapon

Blien I think it is awesome that your starting up this group. Relationship is the key your right on the money with that. But you don't want to start teaching on relationship(s), you need to do relationship. Nothing will happen without relationship, that is going to last or grow. You should be concentrating your efforts, especially in the beginning, on doing stuff together. Let the teaching come later or be a VERY small part of the groups experience in the beginning. Organize something to do together even as simple and non threatening as getting together for a potluck meal or a popcorn/movie night. As the group spends time together relationships will form and you can bring some teaching component into the group. But make it something fun. Sometimes members of the group may push to get more religious and that is fine but not if it is going to make searching non christians feel pushed beyond their comfort levels and then just not show up anymore. Let the ones that push for prayer ministry and deeper teaching form their own group. Be clear from the outset what you want this group to be. If it's welcoming seekers and building relationships or if it is to be a teaching growing in the Lord Christian group.

Morning, you seem to be a well educated and confident person. You have lots of skills and get stuff done at your job with ease. It looks to me like God has purposely put this man with you; possibly to take you to the next level in your personal growth. I look at your descriptions of this man and try to imagine what Jesus would do if he were you, in that office. I imagine, Jesus would look at his short comings and do what he's done with everyone else he's come in contact with; help them to be better. Is it possible that God has seen a win win situation in bringing the two of you together here? God has blessed you with the stuff to do your job well. Now, to take you to your next level God brings...this man... With the Jesus in you directing, this man could be helped to become better in all the ways you have been skilled with, that he has short comings in. As you begin to bless this man with all you have to help him I believe you will experience a shift in yourself that is, the move to that next level in Jesus. As this man experiences the helps of Jesus through you, in his life, he too will experience a shift in his own spirit as God works with him, through you. God created you and he created him. He would be very pleased to bless you both; so why not give it a try? It begins with a choice. You don't have to do anything at all and nothing will change. Or you can let God lead you through a process that could blow your mind as Jesus works through you to do what will bless the both of you. I hope you will find your way to praying Gods will and being obedient to what ever he communicates his will is. Don

Andy, I believe once you have left your parents and have joined your husband in a new family, that is your first priority. Meaning the health and well being of your husband, children and yourself are the family unit you are looking after. You and your husband most likely have a consensus as to your mothers boundary issues and manipulations. You and your husband must sit down with your mother very soon, even the next time she visits and you should lay down the parameters with which the relationship with 'your' family will be operating under. For example, if she has been visiting too often or just popping in unannounced; then a good boundary would be "mom you know we love you but I need you to call me to let me know if you are wanting to come for a visit." You can set up what you believe is the maximum frequency for her visits. And you should tell her straight up that Christmas is a stressful time for families and that you will be letting her know when you will visit. Christmas Day will be reserved for your family alone to establish your first family Christmas together. Visiting relatives that are not in your town might happen in the new year. But you will connect with everyone Christmas day by phone. If she were to protest at this you must stand your ground and allow her to sulk if she must. She is going to want to see her grand daughter so very much that she will eventually take what she can get in the way of visits. You have done the leave and cleave. Now you need to set healthy boundaries. You and your husband together should arrive at the decisions and I would suggest you be the one to speak with your mom. You have more relationship with her. Husband should be there as the support and to let her know you are both in agreement on this so she can't try and play one then the other if she doesn't like what she hears. Hope this helps. God bless this family that you have brought together and help them to be a strong unit in this challenge to the authority with in the larger extended family. I ask that you would inspire the words that are spoken to the other family members and that Holy Spirit be the peace that remains before, during and after the meetings to establish these relational rules. Thanks Jesus, your the best! amen

Thanks andy a great posting on the topic. I'm going to copy and paste it on word so I can read it more carefully. Don

I agree with all that has been spoken about.

Good answer Nebula!

I think some may be............*Gasp* uch! ufffptch!......aughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Deep Water Running. I found deep water running a real help and in the days following a good running session the back felt much better. If you live in a community with a pool they should know how to but if not you can pm me and I will explain in detail how it is done. Don

Hi Natt, I haven't posted for quite a while now. But your post caught my attention. Congratulations on the marriage. It is a blessing of the highest order. In a few days I will have been married 30 yrs to my wife of a mixed race (black and white). It has been so good we thank God daily for each other. Coincidentally we are also friends with an other couple who happen to be a Samoan (sp?) man and his wife a white Canadian. They have been very happy together. A side bar thought that comes to mind is the ease we experienced adopting our children. We discovered that my wife could not have children and attended an adoption information meeting, for parents wanting to adopt. The speaker painted a bleak picture saying there are no new born children to adopt and that couples wanting to avoid years of waiting should consider adopting older children and or disabled children. The meeting ended, and this speaker made a point of coming to us to say we were the luckiest persons in the room. Puzzled, we listened to her explain that our mixed race marriage moved us to the front of the line instantly, for consideration when a baby of mixed race came up for adoption. The reasoning being, the job of the social worker is to place the child in a home that best suits the child and not necessarily in the home of the next in line. So a baby of mixed race would be best served by placement in a mixed race family. As a result each time we applied for a child to adopt it took almost 9 months to the day when we received the call for each of the children we adopted. I mention this only for your information. Be blessed in your marriage. As far as the rest of this thread is concerned................ Don

I believe any good thing can have a bad side to it, usually when engaged in to excess. I saw first hand how alcohol contributed to my mothers death. I believe because of watching this I never took up drinking during my youth and middle age. I have in the past 2 years taken interest in good wine. But remain clear on where the line is for me. I believe Jesus drank and enjoyed wine as I do. There is all manor of enticements around us that can, with abuse, become a problem for us. Be it alcoholic beverages, food, or any good thing. But to throw the baby out with the bath water is a shame to me and I believe to God, who created it for our enjoyment. To set in place a standard that says it is wrong or sin across the board; is like the pharisees that created the fence laws to keep people away from sinful behavior. Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 has Solomon telling us to enjoy life while we have it. He includes in his description of that enjoyment drinking wine. There are many other examples of Solomon warning of wines other side. 10:17 "For strength and not for drunkenness!" To me this says if you know your limitations you can enjoy alcohol. It is unfortunate that excess ruins this enjoyment for so many. My son is one of them. I believe his limitation, because of his previous abuses, is to have none at all. None at all for me, is a yoke I don't need to be burdened with. I am of course sensitive to those whom I don't want to cause stumbling. So I would not consume alcohol in front of friends I know have problems with controlling their drinking.

How much are you wanting to spend on this gift?

amen EricH,

Sounds like I should have been there. Blast! I'll bet you threw out that stuff too. I could have had the ingredients to the ultimate Survivor Smoothie. Wait a minute..... I don't think I've defrosted my fridge in a while either. Thanks Fez.... I gotta go. GB Don

Brothaman I believe your motivation is honorable and the previous posts outlined the good examples of biblical justifications. My only caution for you is to remain on guard for pride. We were all brought up with the super hero stories and your talents give you great power and great power makes you a target for the enemy who has always used stroking of powerful figures to try and bring them down (Prov. Pride is the hand the strokes the cats back). I admire your combination of heart and talents and offer you this piece of advice as fellow soldier. Don

Father, you are so Kind. I feel when you hear these kinds of requests it rises up a pride inside of you like "that's my boy". So Lord would you please bless Sir Gareth with your passion for the lost. Set around him angelic protection so as to minimize the abilities of the enemy to distract his efforts as this passion takes hold and Gareth begins to walk in this new strength. I ask Father that you would connect him up in relationship with other like minded Christians so as to be an encouragement to one another. I pray for you to move through each of them. With each blessing the other them as your indwelling spirit inspires. Open doors to opportunities that only you can open, be close to his thoughts and help him to hold onto words he shouldn't share while sharing what you want him to. Help him to discover the many facets of "evangelism" that he may not have considered. Father bless his personal provision so as to relieve him of that worry and allow him to focus on the tasks you give him. Guard his heart to remain humble so that no successes be attributed to his efforts. And help him to learn warfare in the spirit to cancel any attempts by the enemy to distract him or bring him harm. Thanks Jesus for what you've done. Holy Spirit for what you are doing. And Father for over seeing it all. Your the best! amen

Hey Tigger, you've heard that expression "in Christ" right? Well when you became a Christian, Father God put you into the one place that made you perfect already. He put you into Christ. That is how God sees you (perfect). Now we continue to struggle through this life making mistakes asking God to forgive us and making them again. All the while Jesus is in us and us in him. It's an extraordinary miracle of relationship that, when Jesus first laid down his Godhood and became a man, we got to see. Various places in the bible Jesus speaks of his Father being in him and he in the Father. ie. John 8:29 And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left me alone,... The miracle is now we have that same position. Jesus is in us just as his Father had been in him. Your search for perfection is misguided because it has already been attained. I say misguided because who are you trying to be perfect before? It must be before men and women on earth. Because your perfection before God is established. Hope that isn't too confusing. God bless. Don

March 16th there was a new find on this topic. A Dinosaur with a bite 20 times more powerful than the present top predator of T-Rex. Check this out http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar...pliosaur-fossil

I think, after following my own life over 26yrs with God in my life, that destiny or specific plans as you have called it, is something that changes as time goes by. I think that I have experienced my destiny a few times now. And with each season a new one has emerged behind it. As far as it being predetermined; I`m not as sure that is the case. I think that God gives us choice and wants us to choose and he will honor that choice. If you wanted to work in some trade building homes or start a small business God would help you in either avenue. The other posts are wise, praying for God to open some doors because your confuse about what to do is good. But God made you with some great strengths and some weaknesses too. The strengths make certain types of work a lot easier and even fun. And our weaknesses make us dependent on others in whom God made strengths where we`re weak. That makes us interdependent and dependent on relationship. So I would dial down the worrying about what to do. Examine where your strengths are and shop around for where those strengths might have a good fit. Father I pray you bring some inspiration into this mind and possibly bring others that recognize the strengths and have some of your wisdom to point out some of the choices open to take on. Bless White Dove with your peace and bring some relationships that could share in opening up some of your revelations to White. Thanks Jesus, your the best. Tell Dad I love him. Amen

I would say that kissing is not wrong in the least before marriage. But I was at a wonderful wedding ceremony where the Pastor, marrying these two, paused just before the vows leading up to the "you can now kiss the bride". And he said that he found out during premarital counseling they had agreed to not kiss during their whole courtship. And that this was about to be their first kiss. The weight of that knowledge and the sense of electricity for all witnessing this first kiss, being a part of their wedding, made me wish I had done that same. I almost felt I'd missed out on something amazingly beautiful.

Hi Tig, I agree with Charitow completely. Satan never tries to encourage or lead you to God. Always discourages and condemns. I believe you were hearing Gods voice in the two incidents you spoke of. Don

Bihiz you are such a breathe of fresh air! I love your honesty. Your quite on top of all the reasons your feeling how you are feeling. My sense for you is that Father has something marvelous up his sleeve for you at this new church. He's tipped his hand a bit with this church having a White pastor. I'm not completely out of touch with your feelings here either. In my family of 5 I'm the only White one. Luckily I'm the head of the house (I think). I told my wife to get under my covering the other day and she burst out laughing My advice is to ask God to help you change your mind and heart where it needs to in order for you to fit better into his will for you. Best advice I've ever had was to 'prefer the other'. When we prefer the other as in choosing what we know is our partners desire in a situation, a blessing comes and we find ourselves happier even though we ended up not getting what had been our desire. Father thank you for bringing Bihiz into our company. Dad could you please bring a confirming peace into her for this huge decision that has been made to go to this new church. Bring her quickly into some good relationships with the ones you've already chosen to be friends with her. I pray also that the family as a whole would be all connected in and with that component of relationships in place bring a special blessing into this couples union that completes this church as home in it's fullest sense. Holy Spirit please spread your wing of protection over this household during this time

I think your friend wants help but doesn't know how to ask for it and probably doesn't know himself what exactly is going on inside him. His short fuse is likely a smoke screen for a deeper hurt. My advice, if you would like some, is to remain the steadfast friend. Don't judge his behaviors because they are probably misguided attempts to test the depths of your friendship. Or his own attempts to sabotage the one friend he holds dear as self punishment for the underlying issues. Father I pray you would give deep your wisdom on how to respond to his friends behaviors. I ask that Holy Spirit would operate through Deepblue as he makes himself available to be your eyes, ears, hands, feet and voice. Let the coming days produce fruit as you massage this mans heart and push the toxins to the top. Provide your guidance Lord and bring this friendship to a new level and your healing ultimately provided for them both. Thank you for this Father and let the glory be yours, in Jesus name. Amen

Lots of information to take in Huh? I really liked a book Victory over the Darkness by Neil Anderson. Really opens this subject up well but in a nice balance. Basically the bible tells us the battlefield is the mind and so logically if there is a battlefield there is a battle. And as much as the Devil and his demonic are defeated, they are not walking off saying "oh well we're defeated lets just go home". They still want to steel, kill and destroy any that they can influence. Their only weapon is lies and they use that weapon on the battlefield of the mind. Recognizing the lies is the beginning of good warfare. I could go on but I won't. That book is a good introduction to who we are, the battle etc. God Bless. Don

Sounds like you've been quite impacted by this impression your feeling Hopeful. With regard to parts of the world where going to there could be hostile or dangerous as a Christian, I would exercise caution in making a decision to go there. The posts to pray are good advice. If God is seriously wanting you to go, lots of confirmation will follow and it will probably be months or years coming. God bless you as you listen and obey.