Irenicus

Thank You all for your good advice and prayers. I really need to lean on the strength of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. I think sometimes I probably try and rely on my own strength (or lack thereof), rather than handing the burden over to Christ. Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" He is far more capable of dealing with these issues than I. I realise I need to cut my hand off, so to speak, and remove these things that cause me to sin from my life. I need to avoid putting myself in situations that I know are likely to tempt me to do evil. Usually I just charge in and worry about the consequences later. Do I believe once saved, always saved? Well, that's a tough one. I see both sides of the coin on that issue. I guess I would argue that you can't really lose your salvation. If you did lose it, did you really have it in the first place? God knows the beginning from the end, and the end from the beginning so surely He is aware of who will last the distance and fight the good fight. Anyway, I don't really want to get into a thing about it. Thank you all for imparting some godly wisdom to a worldly fool.

Hello all, just looking for a bit of advice or some words of wisdom I guess. This may be a bit long winded, but I need to get it off my chest and am earnestly seeking a way to break the cycle of my life. Basically, I have always known God. I was taught from a very young age that He is real and have never doubted, so for me there has been no "road to Damascus" conversion. I have never known life without Jesus as my Saviour. For the first 5 years of my life, I had an exceedingly close relationship with God. I had amazing dreams of Heaven, describing in vivid detail what it would be like to my family, describing it exactly as the bible says it will be and more. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that God was showing me these things, for what purpose I do not know. I used to minister to other children in our neighbourhood about the good news of Jesus when I was 3. Some in my family were convinced that I would be a prophet! This is obviously not to be, but it paints an apt picture of the incredible relationship I had with God. Then as I started going to school, I guess I became of the world and lost that childish innocence and the faith to move mountains that the Lord loves so dearly. I still believed, no doubt, but became much more worldly as we all do. For the last 10 years or so, as an adult I have had real problems staying committed to the path of the Lord. It seems that when everything in my life in going along well, I drift away and fall back into unrepentant sin. It builds and builds and so does the guilt and then BANG! Something terrible happens and I come crawling back. Then I rebuild my relationship with God and sure enough after a few months everything becomes comfortable and I fall back into the same patterns that I always do. Now, I know the scriptures well, and sometimes I feel this makes me worse than an unbeliever. I am not acting through ignorance. I know we all struggle with sin, but I almost embrace it. I feel incredibly weak and am simply not bearing fruit. I feel like I will end up as the withered fig tree, destined to never bear fruit. My seed has been cast among the thorns, and the pleasures and worries of this world choke me. What can I do to stop this cycle? I have recently returned to the flock, and do not want to fall away again as I always seem to. Part of the problem I guess is that I associate with too many ungodly people. I am easily led astray and give into my lusts. I should cut them off, but am afraid of being alone. I live away from my family, so don't really have anyone near me that is a believer that can help keep me strong. I have tried church a few times, but I am always disappointed at false teachings like prosperity and kingdom now kind of crap. It turns me off and I just walk away. I struggle not to give in to temptation for a while, and then let sin take over and I turn my back from God until the next disaster sends me crawling back, begging for mercy and forgiveness. I know what to do, and what not to do, but am too weak to resist. I try and rely on God to give me strength, but fail everytime. I am aware that it's my fault and not His, which invariably makes me feel even worse. I feel like God has given me much knowledge and many gifts and that I am squandering it all in a self-absorbed spiral of decadence. I have a real issue with lust. Most women seem to find me attractive, and are willing to sleep with me on the first night of meeting me and I usually give in. I then despise myself the next day for the weakness I display. I also have a problem saying no to drugs and alcohol. I still smoke Crystal Meth on occasion. Why won't the Lord give me the power to resist? Or is it that I am unwilling to let go of these earthly pleasures? Truly I know not. All I know is that I am weary of this cycle. Also, I have not been baptized. Do you think this could be part of the problem in holding back my regeneration? I can't seem to kill the old self and walk the path God wants me to. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading

I don't see anything wrong with them having beer. Did Jesus and the 12 not partake of wine often enough? Jesus even symbolised wine as His blood. As long as they are not getting plastered, what's the issue? Although, have you seen the size of German Steins? They are HUGE! You would only need a couple and you'd be rolling down the aisle!

I think we all need to understand that men and women both have their strengths and weaknesses. We need to balance each other out "the two shall become one" There are two lessons in the Bible that come to mind which have taught me a little about women. First, it was Eve who was weak and ate the fruit first. Though Adam wasn't much better, I think Satan knew he would have more success tempting the woman. I think this shows that women can be a bit more susceptible to deceit. However, it was also women that the resurrected Christ first appeared to, not men. In actual fact, it was a man who refused to believe it. This also shows me that women can often be more open and willing to listen. Strengths and weaknesses for both sexes. On another note, I am only 26 and I have noticed that many (not all) women of my generation are starting to shy away from feminism. They want to be feminine, but not feminist. They seem to realise that it has gone too far and that men really resent it. Just my 2 cents. I am going back to hide behind my barricade now.

I wish there was an emoticon for opening a can of worms.... I think there are positive aspects of feminism. It has done alot for women in the form of political and social freedoms that were denied to them for a very long time. However, there are certainly negative ones too. Much of it has to do with pride. By all means, men and women are equal, but one thing many hard-core feminists don't grasp is that they are equal but DIFFERENT.

It never ceases to amaze me how willing people are to believe deceptions. The blind leading the blind. As much as it would please me to see a revival, it is just not supported by scripture. Luke 18:8 "...However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

It's basically the result of our overwhelming consumer driven society. The me me me generation. But in reality, what are the world banks going to do? Call it in and crash the U.S. economy? The rest of the world will soon follow. Every time there is a jitter on Wall st, stocks go down world wide. Every ecomony in the world is plugged into Wall st. I think your debt will just balloon and balloon until the second coming

Yep, got to go with option B. Our love pales in comparison to His. He has done more for us than we can ever do for Him, and if it wasn't for God's love for us we wouldn't love Him at all.

Do you know why they changed it from Global Warming to Climate Change? Statistics show the earth hasn't heated up in since 1998, which is the hottest year on record, so now they can pin ANY weather abnormality on "Climate Change" Pretty hard to convince people that blizzards are caused by Global Warming, but man-made Climate Change on the other hand.... very sneaky.

Hi all, just curious as to what people's beliefs are about the so called Bible Code. For those of you who are unaware, it is supposedly a code hidden within the (Hebrew) bible found by skipping letters to look for hidden phrases and prophesies. Basically, they skip x amount of letters (it could be every 30 letters or every 3000 or any other number). They do this across certain books of the OT and see what comes up. Now they even claim that there are picture patterns in this. Do you believe it is spiritual and deliberate, or just a co-incidence? Personally, I am not convinced it is anything, but open to the possibility that it might be. This has not been able to be reproduced in any other books written by man, at least not to the extent that it is found in the bible. Google "bible code" for more info. Anyway, just wanted peoples thoughts.

Hello and welcome. I have two things to say on this. Firstly, would Jesus turn away children, regardless of whether they fully understood it? I doubt it. I think if they wish to partake, there is no problem. Remember that we are told to come to Him as little children, with that blind faith, even if we do not fully understand. Second thing is I wouldn't get too carried away with what kind of bread to use. Jesus was extremely critical of the pharisees because they were too fucused on the "rules", rather than the spirit of it. Use white bread, rye, wholemeal, leavened, unleavened. It does not matter to God I don't think. As long as your spirit and heart are in the right place He will be pleased. Hope this helps.

Hi and welcome! I can identify to a certain extent to your post, as I have been there. Although I have always been a Christian, I have often struggled with anger issues. Remember that you are still a very young man. The biggest changes in my life came between the ages of 18-21 I think. It is during this time that your attitude and perspective changes enormously as you struggle to adapt to the world of adults. Most people had anger problems as teenagers, as well as irrational insecurities. Don't be too impatient. You will change as you grow. Experience and maturity come with age (usually, though there are some exceptions ) Just be patient with God as He is patient with you. One of the problems I have had in my life is I always seem to expect God to answer my prayers instantly. He rarely does this. Just put your faith and trust in Him. He always has your best interests at heart.