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About a year ago, my husband and I had a miscarriage. This was after going through IVF to conceive, I was in a very dark place and started drinking heavily. One day we had some friends round for drinks including my husband's brother. My husband went to bed earlier and left me and our friends and his brother to it, he kept on asking me to come to bed but I wouldn't. I was very drunk but was aware of what was going on around me, his brother touched my thigh the odd time and when I would get up to get snacks he would follow me to the kitchen and touch my shoulder or whatever. I let it happen, my response should have been ew and gone to bed with my husband but instead I was excited by it. The next day his brother said he was so drunk he had no memory of the night before. He went home and I felt so guilty that I told my husband part of the truth that his brother had got a bit touchy feely. I however did not tell him that I had liked it and not stopped it from happening. I have no feelings for his brother at all, I feel sick when I think about it. Husband was angry but forgave me, he wanted to hit his brother up about it but I said there was no point as he did not remember. I feel that if he knew the whole story about me liking it at the time that he may not have forgiven me. I talked to my best friend about it and she just said that it was dumb and I should never do it again and I have learned from it. She doesn't think I need to feel guilty cause nothing really happened.. I quit my job recently and we did IVF again and this time I am pregnant by 6 weeks, now that all the emotions and stress of IVF are gone, feelings of guilt are resurfacing. I haven't thought about this incident in a year but now I want to throw up just thinking about it. I'm so scared he will leave me as he feels strongly about people cheating. I know that God has forgiven me but do I need to confess to my husband everything?

Can anyone out there relate? On April 25th I attempted to do something too strenuous for me and incurred an injury that just isn't healing. For nearly a month now I have been in much pain and disability from this stupid wrong decision. Perhaps I should call it a sin? (Because I gambled with my body and now I am paying the price.) I feel like God might be angry with me and is letting me suffer the consequences of bad judgement (because I should never have risked it.) I wish I could turn back the clock and undo pushing my body like that! Is God punishing me? I can't shake the guilt. What if I NEVER heal (or heal wrong??) I'm scared.

Hi Brothers and Sisters im 17 years old and it is my first post on this forum. I Have a great problem with myself and my relationship with God. Im going to start with my testimony. I was born again one month ago, it was wonderful feeling i never felt that way before. I was changed completely i no longer swear, smoke or drink etc. I was so spiritualy awake, my friends didnt recognise me. My Mother was so happy because she is also a believer and she had gone through it. Since this time im all about Jesus Christ. I wont go more into details because that is not the case. The case is that since this time i failed the lord everyday and im still failing him right now. I left all computer games wrong music etc. But i didnt share the gospel how i should. I feel so ashamed of the gospel when im about to share it. Ofcorse i told my closest friends about it, but it is not the main topic in our conversations. Every time i meet with them i feel so bad because im not talking about Jesus and when im about to talk about Him i feel this great fear and then when im back home im So ashamed i didnt share the gospel with them. I've felt into depression and im in it for 3 weeks (i was happy with Jesus for only one week :(). I really take the words of Jesus seriously that we have to deny ourselves, that many are called but few are chosen. I took it so seriously that i left my piano lessons because it interupted time i could spend with God. I thought to myself that surely it would make God happy. But still i feel like i have buried my talent (not musical but spiritual) and i know i did it :(((. I didnt share the gospel and now if i would share it, it would be only because of fear not of love. God's presence has left me. im So spiritualy dead now i have no Joy at all, im just afraid of God because im failing him every second. I dont love Him at all, but i know i should! it is main purpose in human life. I really cant find in myself any love for God and other people and that makes me so mad! I know that im wicked servant and if Jesus would come tommorrow he would cast me into outer darkness... At the beginning it was so wonderful i was being convinced by the Holy Spirit about things that i should do and shouldnt do. I was getting those small revelations when reading the Bible, and all of that has left me... Now it is only pain and fear. I dont know if it does any sense for you but if anyone could help me or give me advice then please... Maybe someone had similar experience. God bless

In a previous post I confessed to having a porn/masturbation addiction which I was overcoming. Now however I am curious as to whether or not I should tell my parents about it. I have always been that one kid that never spoke out in class and never got in trouble at school and got a reputation for being really good and faithful. This reputation makes it a lot harder to tell people and I have only ever told people on this web site anonymously. I understand telling them might help, although I have already started to overcome this addiction using several methods that have been pretty successful so far, and I'm not sure if I need the help. I did come up with a plan where they do find out although it's not as awkward. The plan is to write a note explaining everything and then hide it for them to find eventually. It might take a few weeks for them to find, it might take a few years although it seems like a good compromise. Also on the note I could have set goals and every time I go a certain number of days without porn I can write it down (for example 30 days without porn). So then if they find in a couple of years form now they'll see that I (hopefully) overcame the addiction and am happy now. Please tell me what you think of this idea and whether you think I should tell them or not.

(ATTITUDES OF THE SIN CONSCIOUSNESS) Which of the following "Attitudes Of The Sin Consciousness" are adversely affecting your spiritual growth and development: 1. When I stand before God sometimes I have a sense of inferiority, guilt, or condemnation. "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned." - John 5:24 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." - Romans 8:1 2. The only destiny God has for me is the life I am living now. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for Good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." - Ephesians 2:10 "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:6 "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:13,14 3. God is operating outside of me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." - John 15:5 "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13 "To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." -Colossians 1:27 4. Jesus lived on earth at a level above what I could ever hope to be. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." - Matthew 16:19 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. - John 14:12 5. My righteousness is to be obtained after I die and go to heaven. "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." - Romans 5:17 "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:21 6. Sometimes I do not feel like God has forgiven all my sins. "If we confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9 "For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." - Colossians 1:13,14 7. Some days I feel like I am saved and some days I feel unsaved. "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy." - Jude 24 "For we walk by faith and not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." - Romans 10:13 "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." - Acts 16:31 8. I can never be of real help to others because I keep sinning. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." - Romans 3:23,24 "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." - 2 Corinthians 5:18 9. I will please God if I work on not sinning. "And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." - Philippians 3:9 "And you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? - Galatians 3:3 "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." - Romans 11:6 INTO ACTION: 1. Make a list of the sin consciousness attitudes that may be causing you a problem in your spiritual development. 2. Affirm and meditate on the indicated scriptures several times daily until the renewing of your mind is made real to your spirit. ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

So since becoming a Christian, I have found one of my main struggles to be accepting the scandal of what Jesus did for us. I find guilt a very constant thing in my life. We don't deserve a clean slate but with the blood of Jesus, that is what we get. And that is the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around. What are ways you all have gotten a better grasp of the scandal of Jesus Christ?

1. What is a righteousness consciousness? Answer: Righteousness consciousness is the state of being aware of your right standing with God. Righteousness means the ability to stand in the presence of Father God without the sense of guilt, inferiority or condemnation. "But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies are going to die because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because you have been put right with God." - Romans 8:10 "And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. - 1 Peter 2:24 2. Why are we the righteousness of God? Answer: We are righteous because of God's love, because of who we are in Christ not because of our own conduct. our righteousness is not because we have done something to deserve it; but because God has chosen not to hold sin against us. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." - Ephesians 2:10 "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:21 3. How is it possible to believe that God loves you with the same love that he loves Jesus? Answer: Answer in the scriptures. "He was given over to die because of our sins, and was raised to life to put us right with God." - Romans 4:25 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." - John 3:16 "In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus." - Ephesians 2:6,7 4. Explain how you can develop a righteousness consciousness? Answer: Allow the Holy Spirit to paint a picture on the inside of you by meditationg on God's loving kindness. His grace, and His mercy towards you. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:33 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neaither can you unless you abide in Me." - John 15:4 5. What result or effect does right standing with God have on your relationship with him? Answer: It builds our confidence in God's willingness to use His power in our behalf. We become aware of His love for us and perfect love casts out fear. "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whetever you wish, and it will be done for you." - John 15:7 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:18 INTO ACTION: Affirm and meditate on the indicated scriptures several times daily until the renewing of your mind is made real to your spirit. AFFIRMATIONS: God imputes righteousness to me since I believe the He raised Jesus from the dead for my justification. (Romans 4:24.25) God loves me with the same love that He loves Jesus. (John 17:26) God, who is rich in mercy and love, has quickened me with Christ and has raise me up tobether with Christ and made me sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6) ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

Restoration (Read Isaiah 58 & John 16) Matthew 9:17 - “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to work within us do we have the power to live a victorious Christian life. And it is He, the Holy Spirit, who does the work of restoring, the fragmented shattered pieces of our lives to something that is far greater than the former state. When the Holy Spirit begins the process, a process of restoration, He has placed us in a: 1. new season; 2. new revelation; 3. new life; 4. new wine. In order to contain the new wine of restoration we need a new wine skin. The Greek word for “new” in this passage “KAINOS” meaning something that has been renewed or made over or something restored. In the restorative process, God take what was there and bring it to a new place so He can pour within it that which He longs to release to us – a new wine. To make a wine skin new, He soaks the old wine skin in water and rubs it with oil. Rubbing with oil is the part of the process that makes us flexible. The oil contains a new anointing. As we alow the Holy Spirit to take us through the process of rubbing, we not only become more flexible to handle all God’s desires to pour into us, but we become able to pour out in a greater measure.) Galatians 1:6-7 6I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Galatians 3:1 1You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? (Specifically, there are three things God must remove from our lives in order to renew our wineskins: 1. He removes legalism. In Galatians legalism is equated with witchcraft. Paul reminds the Galatians that they were doing great. They were having a good time, growing in the Lord and walking in faith. Then he asks who bewitched them? In other words, who narrowed their minds down to such a degree that they were no longer able to receive the grace of God? Who brought legalism into their midst? Eg.: Is there a situation in your life, family or church that seems completely unchangeable? Are behavioral patterns so entrenched that nothing can shake them loose? If the answer is yes then you are dealing with a legalistic mind-set. We say that nothing is impossible with God but do we believe that nothing is impossible with God? In every area where we do not have this heartfelt assurance, we have a legalistic bewitching structure that narrows God.) John 8:43-44 43“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (2. He removes condemnation. Satan is a liar and a thief. He lies to us about our postion with God in order to steal the restoration God has for us. We say things such as, “God can’t restore me because I….am divorced, had an abortion, lied about a friend, had a messed up childhood, took what was not mine, etc.. Getting right with God and forgiving ourselves will break the schemes the devil intended to use to keep us draped in a shroud of guilt, no matter what we have done.) Isaiah 58:6,8-12 6 “Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?8“Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,10And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday. 11“And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.12 “Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (3. He removes judgementalism. The law of sowing and reaping applies to condemning other through judgements i.e. if we sow condemnation to others we will be condemned – we too become suseptable to falling into the same sin we accuse others of. Isaiah 58 says that if you will pray and fast and let God determine the fast for you, you will, “put away the pointing of that finger and speaking wickedly”, He will begin to breakforth your light and healing will spring up.” .) ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

“I ought to pray more”. “I ought to do more exercise”. “I ought to eat healthier”. Is your inner monologue anything like this? If it is, there’s a good chance that you might be… a normal human being! I think we are all plagued with feelings of guilt and inadequacy, especially when it comes to our spiritual lives and exercise routines. However, Christ came to set us free. Free from guilt and regrets; he wants us to be joyful and light like little children, who can laugh and rejoice and feel thankful. How can we achieve this? I am no expert on the topic, but I wanted to share some reflections that have come to mind: Sing more! Even if you’re really bad at it, singing is good for your soul. We let go of tensions, we forget ourselves and our deep worries and we let the music take us. When we praise God with all our heart, mind and lungs, we focus on Him and His greatness, rather than on our own feelings of guilt and failure. Improve your body language Studies have shown that the position of our bodies has a massive impact on our mind and mood. There’s no need to feel uncomfortable or shy about standing up with your arms outstretched when praising God; it will lift your spirits to Him! If you don’t believe me, search for Amy Cuddy’s TED talk about this topic, it’s very impressive. Simplify your life Of course, this is easier said than done, but there is no other way. Finding more time to pray or exercise is not a matter of seeing how you can “fit it in” to your already busy schedule, you will only end up feeling frustrated and exhausted. Technology and entertainment can take up a massive amount of our time, and are often a waste of it. You may have to take some extreme measures, like trading in your smart phone for a Neolithic one or cancelling your subscription to Netflix, but whatever you feel led to do, be sure that the result will be FREEDOM; more free time without distractions, to be able to reconnect with God in prayer and with His Word. Don’t let the devil trap you with a false sense of guilt The devil wants to trap you in these feelings of inadequacy and guilt; he will sap you of all joy and lead you into self-doubt and recrimination. I was once told: “if you feel a general sense of un-ease and guilt, this is from the devil, whereas God will usually pin-point a specific sin you have committed, so that you can repent and be freed from it”. Of course it’s impossible to say if this is the case without lifting up all these feelings to God in prayer, but if you do find that after praying deeply and repenting you’re still weighed down with the same burden of shame and heaviness, it is not because God hasn’t forgiven you or that you don’t deserve His love. Many dedicated and faithful Christians suffer from anxiety and depression, this is not a sign of a lack of faith or sinfulness, it’s part of being a broken human being in a frail, mortal body. As Christians we shouldn’t shun modern medicine or psychology; admitting that we can’t control how we feel is a brave and important step and a sign of a humble attitude, and we know that: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)