OneLight

After many years, I'm still scratching my head on this same question. God is all knowing, true, but we are not puppets and have a free will. I'll be reading this thread very carefully and allow the Holy Spirit to show me the truth of everyones words. In case you are intrested to what others have said in the past, check out these threads. Free Will and Predestination, Study Predestination vs Free will, another debate Predestination, Election My Changing View on Predestination Predestination, what do you think about it., Your views please Nice Question! Your Brother In Christ, OneLight

By the way, HisMindinme, here is the original post you snipped to make it sound like Vickilynn was the author. You should be careful how you are wording things.

Honestly -- I could care less what "We believe". What I am deeply concerned and interested to know is what God thinks: His mind, not mine, not yours, not a man -- HIM! I don't need more opinions, thoughts and mental noise from the trash-heap of the human mind! What I need is the Mind of Christ dwelling in me, forming in me, working in me, His thoughts by His Spirit and then the emotions, words and actions flowing from Him formed in me working out in my life! You need the same. So do we all. Try setting aside what "We believe" and start working towards prayerfully asking the Lord Jesus Christ, by His Spirit to form His Mind IN you, setting aside ALL of your thoughts and taking up His. This is my aim and my target, this is my focus and hunger. I am deeply, deeply, deeply sinful and wicked and in great need of His mind. I am not worthy, I am unworthy, I am a sinner to the core of my being and sold to sin, my mind enslaved to the lusts of the flesh and the sin in it. As Paul said, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God ... Jesus Christ, His work, His death, His resurrection and Him alive, His Spirit in me and His Spirit forming His mind in me. Yet, you feel very free to tell us what you believe? Is this hypocrisy? James 3:16-18 (New King James Version) For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. OneLight

HisMindinme and bigblue, I disagree with you whole heartedly in certain cases that I know are true and from the Spirit. I will agree that there are those who are false, but you should be very careful on how you dis the Holy Spirit. Take heed! Matthew 12:33-37 "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

I want to welcome you to Worthy first. There are those on this site that are in your shoes. It would be best if you sought them out, because if I tried to answer, I'd be only guessing as to how the best way would be for you to proceed, except for the fact that Jesus will never give you more then you and Him can handle together. Do not give up on your prayer time. I know this is not much advice, but read my signature. Your Brother In Christ, OneLight

rule 34 Welcome to Worthy! Care to explain?

What OneLight, your not going to cloud the issue with facts now are you! Who ... ME?

Yes, I know how you believe. Yet, I see Revelation as something still to come. This is not a place to discuss this issue, and to be truthful, I don't want to bang heads over your belief system. I'll stick with what the Holy Spirit wants to teach me. OneLight

I could of left that out and have the OP start at the part where Jesus tells us about the signs of the end times, but I wanted the OP to read the whole thing. I sure hope this thread doesn't get hijacked ... I know how you see Preterism. OneLight

If anyone wants to check this site out, it does have a lot of information. It appears that you can drill down pretty far. Wikipedia

You know whats funny. Though those 10 people may tell you different answers you will still have a complete picture from each individual answer. The point is this one person does not hold the full picture. It takes the WHOLE BODY, to see Christ in a full way. It's sad that we are not as pliable as we should be. I agree! We are too set in our ways. Is it pride? I dont know brother, I often think we are just use to it. How sad if this is true. I would rather know my sin then have moss growing under my beliefs! You said it right when you mentioned that we need to be flexible. I mention pride because of all the pointing of fingers about what one believes compared to another. "I'm right and you're wrong!"

You know whats funny. Though those 10 people may tell you different answers you will still have a complete picture from each individual answer. The point is this one person does not hold the full picture. It takes the WHOLE BODY, to see Christ in a full way. It's sad that we are not as pliable as we should be. Whats sad is that we've taken an Absolute Truth like the Bible and twisted it and turned it and perverted it and pimped it out to millions and made it what we want it to be. Which is why there are so many different views and doctrine and beliefs all about the same gospel. If we are any more pliable we might just end up drowning in our own dissention. We need to move toward a unification of the Body of Christ. That is what the "One World Religion" is trying to do. It has a name, but I can't remember what it is ... It would be nice to have all the teaching of Christ to read. It would also be nice to have a true history of the early church. Then we would all be studying and not arguing ... there would be no time to discuss anything!

You know whats funny. Though those 10 people may tell you different answers you will still have a complete picture from each individual answer. The point is this one person does not hold the full picture. It takes the WHOLE BODY, to see Christ in a full way. It's sad that we are not as pliable as we should be. I agree! We are too set in our ways. Is it pride?

I too have had people in my past like those who have hurt you. Just about every day, as I stood waiting for the school bus, this one boy would come up and punch me beside the head. He was a lot littler then me, but I was brought up in a family with all girls and was told to never hit back. My Dad worked nights and was never around to teach me how to defend myself. This went on until I was in high school. I took up martial arts and after the first time I protected myself, nobody ever bothered me again. Still, all those years took its tole on me. To this day, whenever I see this man, I remember what he had done to me. It has been over 40 years since those days and God has healed me. Some wounds take time to heal. Don't ever stop looking for Gods hand working in your life. I know why it took so long for me to heal. After the service, I started hanging with bikers and saw a lot of cruelty toward innocent people. When I took part in this activity, God brought me back to my childhood. God Bless, OneLight

Something to consider ... Matthew 24 Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them,

I have worked with mental illness in the past and can testify that these people show more love then a lot of "normal" people. To say that they are this way because of sin is judging them to the most. I believe they hold a special place in our Lords heart. OneLight

God chooses the simplest that is His to confound the brightest and best of the world. Look at your own story. Your heart is greater then those who consider themselves better then you. You were not wrong. Do you somehow see yourself in that little boy that walks by every day?

While doing a study on words and how we use them, I came across a poem from an Unknown Author that I thought I'd share. Hope you all like it. The Power of Words A careless word may kindle strife; A cruel word may wreck a life. A bitter word may hate instill; A brutal word may smite and kill. A gracious word may smooth the way; A joyous word may light the day. A timely word may lessen stress; A loving word may heal and bless. Author Unknown

If you take a picture and show it to 10 people, one at a time, and have them tell you what they saw, you would get 10 different answers. So is the Christian life. We are all different. Because of this, God works differently in each of our lives. He can use the same piece of scripture and apply it to each of our lives in different ways, all being true to what He is telling us. Yet, because He used a piece of scripture to show me something different then what He is showing you, we may have a different understanding. Instead of accepting what God has done is others lives, we stand firm on what He had done in our own life; therefore, how I understand this scripture is true, so you must be wrong. Sad, I know ... If it was from God, it all is true. We need to accept that God sees us as individuals and deals with us in such a way. A very simplistic view, but this is how I understand the problem. OneLight

Allow me to ask these two questions. If I had faith in Jesus to save me, but do not love Him, am I saved? If I have love for Jesus, but have very little faith, am I saved? It's only fair that I give my view. If I don't love Jesus enough to ask Him to save me, even though I have faith that He could, I would not have salvation. Yet, if I love Him with all my heart, but have very little faith, just enough to ask for salvation, I am saved. For me, Love is above Faith. OneLight

But it doesn't mean it was, either. There's not enough information to say either way. Sometimes it is best to reserve judgment (meaning 'to declare definitively') until all the facts are in. My two cents. Not everything is meant for everybody. I know when the Holy Spirit works in my life, no matter what anyone else says, for or against. On certain matters, I am also like Thomas, doubting. In other things, I accept through faith. If it is important to me, God will make sure I understand. OneLight

By the sounds of it Rufus, Patricia is absolutely positive of what she witnessed. I understand how you may have doubts, because you were not there. That doesn't mean it wasn't of the Holy Spirit. OneLight

Yes, if we break up the scripture to look at just those two indicators, "to visit orphans and widows in their trouble", then it would be hard, but James put more into these two verses. He included "does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one

On the far left are those with the same thought as the group in Brattleboro, VT, and on the far right are those who support Bush 100%. The truth will be found somewhere in the middle. The article did not mention "war crimes", it did say this: The measure asks: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities?