questions

[Guest SDGS]

Something is happening in me. As I read your replies, I feel it. I don't know how to explain, but it is good.

I asked why Jesus forgave Peter but not Judas, and (I apologize for my bad memory so cannot give credit) someone said "Peter repented and Judas didn't". Wow! I have asked this question to 3 ministers and never got an answer. I never could understand why, and the answer is so simple!

That smoking thing, I think you are right. I need to stop thinking that I am not good enough, and give my trust to God.

I think that I have to stop trying to make the Bible make sense, be completely literal. If I look at it from the context of the time, as was suggested, it changes everything. The analogy about computers was good. I now see it through different eyes. I have no clue how a simple landline phone works. I punch some numbers and somebody is there, states away. Yet I take it for granted, on faith, that it will work. If I apply that to the Bible, it changes everything.

I don't know how to thank you all. I feel like a weight has been lifted off me. I am going to a church on Sunday and trust that God will reach me. If He is trying. I have so much need for control. I need to let go of my control issue and risk trusting God.

[Littlelambseativy]

Remember people are not perfect - they can be mean, snobbish, and look down their nose at you but God sees the beauty that lies within and that means all the world you us. It is not what man thinks - it is what God thinks and He loves us even though He knows we are flawed humans that make mistakes repeatedly . Some of us have a hard time learning but He is so patient with us because He loves us and all He wants in return is our love, and thanks and praise. Man will disappoint you but God will never. He does not care if you have a 5K diamond on your hand and a Rolex watch or if you are living in a shed. To Him you are more precious than all the world has to offer that is why He sent Jesus to die for us. That was a costly sum. I can not imagine leaving the incredible beauty of heaven, a sapphire throne and all the angels to do your bidding and to willingly come and be born and live as a humble carpenter in simple clothes and then die with all the sin that man will ever and has ever committed put on you and have your father a father that you were a part of turn his head away just as you were doing his will. Yet that is what God demanded of His Son, Jesus for you and for me. What an amazing love - all for the accepting - FREE just to say 'yes, I accept what You my Saviour, did on the cross for me, so that I will be able spend eternity with You. What JOY!! Praise You Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Holy, Holy, Holy, Amen.

[Littlelambseativy]

Oh Father, speak to SDGS, let Your love come into her heart and take from her the desire for cigarettes. Father use her for Your honour and Your glory and may she not look at those around but look up at You and please You and You alone. May she accept the free gift through Jesus and His sacrifice. Open her eyes and her heart to Your truth. In Jesus name, amen.

[nebula]

SDGS

[Guest HIS girl]

SDGS -

Beware of Churches as well as individual "Christians" who put up man made barriers and muddy the path that leads to Christ...

Think of the 3 crosses on the hill....

Jesus in the middle and the 2 criminals on either side of Him...both the criminals were to be executed....both would have been turned away from the temples of the day....both were getting their punishment due to them....maybe folks affected by their unsavoury deeds were at the hill too waiting to see them die....and then an amazing thing happened...one of the criminals simply asked Jesus to remember Him when He (Jesus) would come into His kingdom...and Jesus said to this criminal - "Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.".....(Luke 23 vv 39, 43)

The criminal had no time for a second chance to better his life, he was hanging on a cross.....he was basically a dead man walking, guaranteed.....yet from a true expression of his heart to Christ's, the criminal was granted eternal life....

The same offer is extended to all of us

[OldEnglishSheepdog]

Thank you for your responses. I need time to go through the verses and such. I seem to have the most trouble with "being perfect". I was told that because I am divorced, my presence causes the others to sin. But the way I see it, because my husband left and I had no idea he was going to do that, maybe God made it happen. Because my husband is an atheist. Had he not left, I would never have started searching for God. Maybe I am grasping at straws on that.

What I struggle with, to even attend a church, is that I smoke. I have had people move away from me. I read christian blogs, but I have no way to know who to believe. One man wrote this:

God will not dwell in an unclean temple.

Can you just visualize a so called christian person (he or she) that smokes & if the Holy-Ghost is in that person smoking, the Holy-Ghost is suffering the stink with, coughing - gagging - choking, grasping for a breath of clean air & saying I got to get out of this unclean person.

I stand in line at the bank & people with smoke stink in their hair, clothes etc & just about puts my lights out. Just think what it does to The Holy-Ghost !

---Lawrence on 2/25/10

It tore my heart to read that, added to my experiences. I have to be honest and admit that I just really don't want to stop, if I even could. And to hear that God won't like me because I am dirty, is it true?

I fear, if I take that step, accept Jesus, be baptized, but never stop smoking, then I have made God dirty.

I have gone back and forth like this for a year. Maybe I am looking for reasons not to do this, but then I feel like, if that is true, why am I not able to just let it go? Because I have tried to let it go, walk away, forget about it, and have never been able to do so. I feel even more drawn.

We've got ash trays at my church.

"Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Col. 2:20-22).

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

If you're not a Christian yet then smoking is of no consequence. If you become a Christian by repenting of your sins and accepting the free gift of salvation, you do something the Bible refers to as 'dying to yourself' wherein you stop living for yourself and start living for God.

That begins with accepting grace, by faith, at which point its not you who lives by Christ in you, and God starts to work through you as well as on you.

At that point you'll have the Holy Spirit working in your heart and smoking won't seem like what it does now (from one who knows - I quit years ago, and just the thought that it was something I could willingly give up in appreciation for what He'd done for me made it pretty easy).

Don't sweat what you have to do for God.

If you learn to have faith, it will be a pleasure to learn how you can serve Him and only faith in the Grace of God can save.

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6)

As for Ezekiel, it was a vision. He really saw it, but what he was expressing was a metaphor a vision.

Taking the Bible literally still means that it is written in the common rules of language, as in it is perceptual. We still say that the sun rises in the morning, so if the Bible says that it doesn't mean that the sun revolves around the earth.

As for Genesis, don't sweat the extent to which it is reality. Look for the message to start off with, like the others were saying.

Incidentally, I think you can accept the account as historical without sacrificing scientific investigation or logic, but I didn't believe that when I came to be a Christian - not for years. It's an interesting and full discussion that comes to fruition with deeper and deeper familiarity with scripture:

"Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2).

That last part is the key.

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20).

You don't need to have all the answers to be saved - none of us have them in our heads but God's got the written down for us, and that's a blessing.

The Bible tells us what it takes to be saved:

"what must I do to be saved? “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

Now, believe includes repentence which means acknowledging that you're a sinner and need God's grace to save you from His judgement (Mark 1:15), but anyone who tries to add things to this simple gosple (meaning literally good news) is changing the gospel of salvation, and that's strictly forbidden by God (Galatians Chapter 1).

It's a free gift and its just that simple.

Edited January 6, 2011 by OldEnglishSheepdog

[ayin jade]

Thank you for your responses. I need time to go through the verses and such. I seem to have the most trouble with "being perfect". I was told that because I am divorced, my presence causes the others to sin. But the way I see it, because my husband left and I had no idea he was going to do that, maybe God made it happen. Because my husband is an atheist. Had he not left, I would never have started searching for God. Maybe I am grasping at straws on that.

Your presence does not cause others to sin. They are "perfectly" capable of sinning all on their own without any help from anyone else. In fact, their judgmentalism of you in that regard is in itself ... a sin. They caused you to stumble just by their harshness and the error in their judgment.

God can bring forth good from evil. The evil in your husband leaving you can bring forth the good of you seeking to know God.

Romans 8

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

What I struggle with, to even attend a church, is that I smoke. I have had people move away from me. I read christian blogs, but I have no way to know who to believe. One man wrote this:

God will not dwell in an unclean temple.

Can you just visualize a so called christian person (he or she) that smokes & if the Holy-Ghost is in that person smoking, the Holy-Ghost is suffering the stink with, coughing - gagging - choking, grasping for a breath of clean air & saying I got to get out of this unclean person.

I stand in line at the bank & people with smoke stink in their hair, clothes etc & just about puts my lights out. Just think what it does to The Holy-Ghost !

---Lawrence on 2/25/10

Im not a smoker. I was not a smoker long before I got saved. I admit I do not like the smell of smoke and as a medical professional I dont like the physical harmful effects smoking has on people. I have never felt that any smoker who is a christian is unsaved or less of a christian than I am because of it. If anyone thinks that smokers are poor christians, they should look at the sin in their own lives first. I do believe that one can be a genuine saved Spirit filled believer and still struggle with smoking.

It tore my heart to read that, added to my experiences. I have to be honest and admit that I just really don't want to stop, if I even could. And to hear that God won't like me because I am dirty, is it true?

Nope not true. God wants you to believe in His Son. God loves you very much, enough to sacrifice of Himself to save you from sin.

John 6

28 Then they said to Him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?

29 Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.

John 3

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

I fear, if I take that step, accept Jesus, be baptized, but never stop smoking, then I have made God dirty.

It is impossible to stop sinning (assuming the smoking is a sin). When saved we no longer desire to sin freely as we once did while unsaved, but we are still human and still subject to that struggle with sin. Honestly smoking is no more of a sin than another person's struggle with porn. The bible tells us that it is belief in Jesus that saves us, not anything we can do on our own. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross makes us righteous, clean, in the eyes of God.

I have gone back and forth like this for a year. Maybe I am looking for reasons not to do this, but then I feel like, if that is true, why am I not able to just let it go? Because I have tried to let it go, walk away, forget about it, and have never been able to do so. I feel even more drawn.

It can be hard to let go of ourselves and take that leap of faith in God, in Jesus. Ive been a believer for 21 years now, after being unsaved for 30 years. Best thing that has ever happened to me. I have no regrets about turning to Jesus. Having Him in my life is priceless. For all of your doubts about your worth before Him, about living up to His standards, you too will never regret turning to the Lord. Living for Him is a life you will not regret.

[Guest SDGS]

We've got ash trays at my church.

That made me laugh

I am so thankful to you all. It is like, there is this wall I could not see around, and you guys broke down the wall. Something certainly happened. I just up and stopped seeing the Bible as nonsense, and now see it as sacred, and how fortunate that I am to have one. I know now, it is true. Yes, many of the stories are, umm, strange,,, but I believe them to be what God wanted to be told.

I am baffled as to why God would just start to want me. Me? Why? Why now? But I have not been able to just let this go, and I tried really hard to make it stop. And failed. I feel like I made a break through somehow. Certainly God led me here. I want what you have. I want that!

[Guest HIS girl]

'SDGS'

I am baffled as to why God would just start to want me. Me? Why? Why now?

HIS girl

I was also mystified that God would love me/want me....little old insignificant me....it boggles the brain and still does

The Psalmist also reflects on this notion asking what is man that You are mindful of him? (Psalm 8 v 4a)

But yet, He extends His Hand to us - He made man and loves us dearly and wants us for keeps.

I know of no other love that is unconditional like His love - His pure, unadulterated love that is unfathomable. Who can know the mind of God?

But yet Jesus says all we need is faith (trust) - as small as a mustard seed....that is all we need to be plugged into ADONAI -

[Guest]

I have had two ministers quit on me, and I have been banned from two christian sites for asking questions. I am not able to just think "on, okay, they say so, it must be true". I need answers and people seem to always feel that I am playing games. I am going to try one more time. If you think I am playing games, delete it and ban me, but I am being sincere and want answers.

In Ezekiel, there is a story about this guy who sees this thing come down from the heavens, a wheel within a wheel, with a bunch of arms and heads and eyeballs. am I to actually believe that literally?

They expect me to blindly accept that the planet is 6000 years old. That clearly isn't true. or that Adam and Eve were the first, only people. Yet they had two sons, God got mad and made one leave, and the son said "if I leave, others will kill me". what others. if they were the only people?

God said the Jews were his chosen people. Why didn't god like everybody else? Then even God got mad and tossed out the Jews and sent Jesus to save the others. That makes no sense to me.

God told Moses to ask pharaoh to let the Jews go.. Pharaoh said go, and God said "no, I am hardening his heart" and He did, and threw more bad stuff at them. why?

That story, was it Abraham? where god said to sacrifice his son. where was the mother? because I would have said no to a thing like that.

if I read it right, Satan tried to take over heaven, was thrown out, long before God created people. Why didn't god just lock Satan into hell before he made people? And then why make them and set them up to fail, with that forbidden tree, and letting Satan test them. I don't understand. If Jesus is coming back to get rid of Satan and the unsaved people and throw them into hell, why didn't God just do that in the first place before He made people?

And all that lambs and blood. God wanted to smell burning lambs and blood. That grosses me out. And communion, I can't do that.. I never have and never will. Drinking blood and body parts? to remember Him? I can't. But it seems to be a requirement.

Why was John the baptist out baptizing people, before Jesus came?

Why did Jesus save peter, who denied him, but not Judas?

These are just a few of the questions I have.

They told me to read the bible. Now they are mad that I did. and nobody to answer them. left to my own, all I can do is see it as, well, nonsense.

What can I say? My full sympathy.

I am also seeking and just started to read the Bible and I know exactly how you feel.

I am afraid we need to first make a leap of faith before we can make any sense of it. The problem I have is

that I do not know how to make this leap of faith if I do not see inspiration from the Bible.

A typical catch-22 I guess.

The problem is that the more I read (I started last week) the more difficult I find it to jump into believing.

Be Blessed Beloved

Love, Joe