Results 301 - 320 of 495
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Results from: Notes Author: Aixen7z4 Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
301 | Why was there fear here? | Acts 5:11 | Aixen7z4 | 132674 | ||
One question for us to ponder is whether the verbs and pronouns in Ephesians 6:10-18 are in the singular number, or plural. I slipped your note into my Bible so I could sneak a peek at it as I visited with the five (5) churches on our schedule for the Lord’s day. As it was, I could read about it and look up and see the things you spoke of. By the end of the day, I thought I had an answer. The first church (Dou you want to hear about them?) it is one I know quite well, a source of many clients. I listened to people talking in Sunday School, people whose lives I knew, and I was almost overwhelmed. I wondered if they thought it possible I would speak up and ask some personal questions. In the end I decided it was because they had confidence in the confidentiality we promise. Of course, our ministry depends on it, and I could not violate. But they knew that I knew that they know. I thought there must be some way to address this in general without putting any individual at risk. The second church had been bolted shut. The neighbor across the street said there had been a fight and they had decided to close the church for two weeks until things were settled. The fact is the pastor had invited me to preach and to “do whatever else you do, as the Lord would lead”, and he had not called to cancel. I felt there was a need here to help people who were to weak to even call for help. I will call them. Care to guess what the response will be? The third one was like a dream. Together, they openly acknowledged a need, accepted what we had to offer, and immediately asked us to come back next Lord’s day to minister. Church number four accepted our ministry and asked us to pray for them. But there were needs the pastor did not see. He believes that preaching solves everything and in fact he gave us only half the meeting, reserving the second half to continue with his series. It was the assistant pastor who had invited us and he wants to meet with us again to discuss the needs. I think we are walking a tight rope here, but we are addressing only the need for evangelism and I hope we can arrive at something that all can approve. The last church was a shocker and a tear jerker. It is in a large building that we had seen virtually full. Now there were a few people sprinkled over the auditorium, and they were to be in court with some who had left one day this week. The amazing thing was the façade that was still being shown in the meeting. I wondered what was really going on in the mind of the pastor as his eyes met mine. He knew that I knew that he knew he had failed to show up for his last appointment and had not even called to say why. I guess I had been persuaded that these brethren need help. I sat with that pastor and looked at him for thirty (30) seconds and then asked, “Why don’t you let us help you?”. He said he had been asking himself the same question and could not come up with an answer. He had often thought of calling, but something would stop him. And I was thinking, “Not something. Someone”. Let me just say, mommapbs, that I agree with what you have said. We have an enemy who is actively involved in opposing what we stand for. Why does he win? I will tell you what I think: It is because he is able to divide us. We think of the battle as an individual tussle with him, and most of us fight it so. But we are not lone fighters. We are the Lord’s army, and we need to fight together. It is so sad to see believers not only fighting the enemy in solitary battles, but also fighting each other. This is a sure formula for failure, and we do fail. But then, because we know we are supposed to win the fight, we talk as though we’re winning. So there’s my theory. The hypothesis is that we will get victory if, God before us, we fight together. I will get to test it this week. The pastor of church number five promised to get his leadership team together and take them to see us. It’s so we can fight together. Do you think they will follow through and keep that promise? I told him Satan would influence him again to not call. He said Satan won’t succeed this time. They’ll be there. What do you think? |
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302 | Why was there fear here? | Acts 5:11 | Aixen7z4 | 132687 | ||
Please pray that God will give us one heart and one way, as in Jeremiah 32:39, and a different kind of fear (v. 40). | ||||||
303 | Why was there fear here? | Acts 5:11 | Aixen7z4 | 133129 | ||
Greeting, my sister: I appreciate the thoughts. God’s grace is truly amazing. My point is that human behavior is in its own way amazing; I might even say “unbelievable”. But it is the situation in which God shows the nature and extent of his grace. We are indeed sinners. We have rebelled against God and shown so much ungratefulness. It is unbelievable. But God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has brought us to life with Christ, and hath raised us up, and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ. And it is all because of his grace. I do not know how clearly we see it now. But in the ages to come he will show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. His grace is greater than all our sin. Even now that we are believers, some aspects of our behavior are unbelievable. Look at the way we behave toward each other. How can it be? Look at our interest and efforts in bringing the Gospel to those who are without God and without hope. Please note how all of this is expressed in terms of ourselves as the recipients of God’s grace, in the plural. One important word that I left out in the reference to Ephesians 2:4,5 is the word “together”. It may be another aspect of all this that we fail to appreciate as we should, that we who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are in this together. Our attitude toward this fact continues to reflect our attitude toward God whose chief command to us is to love one another. But in spite of this, his grace abounds. We should not take advantage of it to continue to behave badly. We should not only stand amazed at his grace. We should worship him because of it, and other aspects of his nature, and recommit ourselves to obey him. I appreciate your point of view on 1 Timothy 1:15, that the emphasis is on one being the foremost or chief of sinners. Surely Paul was amazed at the grace bestowed on him. But the point is also there that the whole idea, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, is worthy of acceptation. As much as it is true that he came to save the chief, it is also true that he came to save the others. As much as it is amazing, it is also true, and it should be accepted. If I could, I would change the question to read as you suggested. As it is, I hope that someone who reads it will say, “I can. I will. I do believe”. |
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304 | Speak from the midst of the fire to you? | Acts 9:4 | Aixen7z4 | 142229 | ||
I would like to interject, if I may, to make a point that I hope will be conciliatory. Personal experiences are so precious to us, and they should be respected. But in the scheme of things they are but anecdotal evidence, and subjective evidence simply cannot prove a point in God’s economy. They must be coupled with something else. This I say, my sister, not to discourage you entirely, but to discourage you from depending on personal experience entirely in any situation. I hope in the end to encourage you to hold your personal experiences tightly coupled always with the word of God. The problem is that there are always personal experiences to the contrary. One young lady once told me that God had told her he wanted her to be my wife. She was so sure, she wrote in all bold letters. She was wrong. She is not. She also said that God had given her the gift of speaking in unknown language. She later acknowledged she did not know what had come over her. It never happened again. My father once ran home not knowing why, to find his house on fire. He was there on time to save it. He ran home another time with a nurse for my mother. He was not on time, and she died. A patient thought she heard God saying everything would be fine. From that moment, everything went wrong. It was not the voice of God she had heard. If we took all of the stories, we would find that many seem to have been God talking and just as many were illusions or delusions. What is the solution? I hope it is this simple: Combine your personal impressions with the word of God. How do you do that? When you think you hear God saying, “I say you should do such and such”, ask him, “Where Lord?” I do believe that the Lord guides us by his Spirit. He also guides us by his word. What I am suggesting here is that he always uses both, together. I chose the last word over its cousin Simultaneously, because I believe he starts with one and brings in the other, for explanation, or for confirmation. When I think of doing something, I look to see where God said so, in the Bible. Sometimes I remember, or may I say the Spirit brings it to my remembrance. I may have to look it up, or ask someone. But, sorry for the bad picture this conjures, the body and the eagles must come together. Dreams are not God’s communication with us. They are essentially no different from our other thoughts and with some guidance you can easily explain them. And our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. Even when our thoughts are godly thoughts we’ll find that he will lift them higher. Let us take our thoughts to God and let him tell us yes or no, by his written word. He did it for Paul (See Acts 16:7, 2 Corinthians 12:8,9). He did it for our Lord Jesus Christ (See Luke 22:42). Long ago God did speak to people in isolated situations in those manners, but he has taught us not to depend on them. There are reasons: the fact we now have the word of God in writing, the fact that Satan mimics God, etc. Please consider that God has two lines: personal impressions from his Spirit, and his written word. Where the two lines meet, there is safety. Without the Spirit, we do not know what the word means. Without the word, we cannot give rein to our thoughts. I think I’ve said enough on that. God does not want to take this sense of personal communication from us, but he also wants it coupled with word. Always. Please consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in this thing. One quick word on the other side, our communication to God, in prayer. I was impressed again recently with the fact that we should keep praying and not give up. Suddenly, it seemed the respectful thing to do, and I could do it without being fretful. If I felt he was taking long, I could tell God so, but I would respect his position as God and keep on asking. So, when I fell sick a few days ago, I prayed a million times that God would heal me. And it happened while I was praying. This day I was able to keep my speaking engagement, because the Lord answered my prayer. And if you would, I’d like to pray for you. I’d also like to encourage others who might have read this to keep on praying concerning your physical problem. Let us let our voices rise like a fountain night and day for you. We need not multiply words. We can say the same words, as Jesus did. If we would bombard his throne with our requests, he’ll notice. And we should not stop until he tells us no. And we will only know he’s saying no when he directs us to some passage such as 2 Corinthians 12. Otherwise we’ll let the ones like Luke 18:1 and 3 John v. 2 encourage us. Somehow there comes to mind the thing about the rod and the staff in Psalm 23. We can’t get into that now, but we also have two things to be very thankful for: the Spirit and the word. |
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305 | Speak from the midst of the fire to you? | Acts 9:4 | Aixen7z4 | 142243 | ||
Sometimes, a simple schema helps to make a point, and in this case I will simply say, let us remember where X marks the spot. If we wanted to go beyond our own personal sense of comfort, we can think of the cross, where the Lord brings all of us together. Mercy and Truth, Righteousness and Peace do meet. If we follow them to the point, I think we will find we have settled this matter. I take the questions you have asked to be rhetorical. God is sovereign and he can do what ever he pleases. But it has pleased him to give us his Spirit and his word as guides so we can know what to expect from him. That’s how he leads us in paths of righteousness, and there is much comfort in having them both, together. Once again: Dear friend, we are praying for you, and trusting that all will be well with you, and that your body will be as healthy as I know your soul is. |
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306 | Are you Saved? | Acts 16:30 | Aixen7z4 | 103852 | ||
This question deserves to be resurrected, and answered. I say, "Yes!" What do you say? | ||||||
307 | The Gospel the sole means of salvation? | Rom 1:16 | Aixen7z4 | 123811 | ||
Or maybe you are asking if human instrumentality is the only means God uses to communicate the Gospel. | ||||||
308 | What is the exceeding sinfulness of sin? | Rom 7:13 | Aixen7z4 | 125191 | ||
Please be careful. My brother who is an employee of the Lockman Foundation thinks you are attacking them and accusing them of hosting a Forum in order to attract people who will buy the Bibles which they are selling for a profit. | ||||||
309 | What is the exceeding sinfulness of sin? | Rom 7:13 | Aixen7z4 | 125200 | ||
My brother says he is aware of all these things and is not worried, that Lockman’s reputation is secure. Still we find it interesting that someone thinks a person who works as a Christian professional should offer his services for free. Do pastors do that? Do booksellers? How then do they pay their bills?? (But now we seem to be asking the question Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 9). We wonder how the issue ever came up. Perhaps we can drop it now, and return to the topic of this thread. | ||||||
310 | What is the exceeding sinfulness of sin? | Rom 7:13 | Aixen7z4 | 125223 | ||
This brother wants us to discuss the nature of sin, as expressed by Paul in Romans 7:13. He says it is his hope that we can expose the malignity and wickedness of sin. Perhaps it will help a unsaved to better understand his need of salvation. Perhaps it will help a believer to stay farther away from sin. But I am not sure about that. He has a web site that is confusing and user-unfriendly. He links it to good sites but that is not good. We have already told him it may be unethical and illegal, but he does it anyway. I believe he does this for various reasons. One to add an air of credence to his offerings. Two to have points of view both good and bad to share with clients and three to build a knowledge base. Of course, I am not sure, but I wonder. I know that where some body accuses another of an action, when it in fact what they accuse the other of is the very thing they use as a basis to justify their own actions. But I wonder. Why don’t we just forget about this man and his website. We do not have to visit his web site, and we are not responsible for his weaknesses and his sins. But no. I think we should ban him from this web site. Don’t let him even ask questions, especially about sin. But, speaking about sin, why don’t we discuss the nature of sin. Sure he may benefit from our knowledge. He may even share our ideas with his clients. And remember, he may be building a knowledge base. But it is possible our discussion will make him aware of the sinfulness of his sin. Maybe it will cause him to repent. Maybe he will fix his web site, if he can, and delete those links, and stop charging people for his services. Maybe he will close his practice down. It is probably no good anyway. Based on his own behavior, he is not a good example. Maybe he even teaches people how to sin. Let us expose the malignity and wickedness of sin. |
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311 | Conformed to scripture or Christ? | Rom 8:29 | Aixen7z4 | 153814 | ||
There is a box towards the top of the right side of the screen, under the headings of "Quick Search" and "Words or ID#". Enter the number (without the # sign) and click on the button marked "Search" below it. |
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312 | Conformed to scripture or Christ? | Rom 8:29 | Aixen7z4 | 153830 | ||
When a person is suggesting that you look at another post, he may give the number of that post, as I did some five (5) lines up. If you entered the number I mentioned (153548) and clicked on "Search", it would have taken you directly to the post I had in mind. But actually, I should have said “153260” which would have taken you to the first item in that thread. But please do not feel foolish. This is simply a computer program, and the writer could have done it any of many ways. That is the way it is set up in this program, and there is no choice but to learn it. After a while it will be easy. In a way, the Christian life is like that too. God has his particular program, and we just have to learn it. Practice. After a while it seems quite natural, and there is no other way. That is the lesson someone is learning at “47377“ too. Try it. |
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313 | Can someone help me get to God? | Rom 10:9 | Aixen7z4 | 122621 | ||
Hello. I wonder if you are still interested, and if you still want to "get to God". If you are, then please write again. You may find that he is closer to you than you thought, and that he wants you to get to him. He loves you, and he will let you get to him, right where you are. Please continue to seek the Lord. And tell us where you are now in your search. You may not realize it, but there are actually two Bibles on the Forum. You can look things up by typing in words or references in the area called "Get Bible Text" in the right margin. Try typing the words "seek" and "find" under "Search word(s) or "Jer 29:13" and then "Acts 17:27"under "Book Chapter:verse". There are people here who want to pray for you and help you in your search. Please let us know if you are still interested. |
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314 | Word of Christ? | Rom 10:17 | Aixen7z4 | 151458 | ||
Christ is the Word of God (John 1, Revelation 19:13, etc.). That, like everything else that you have said, is true. It is fully documented with scripture. What then is the word of Christ? Shall we say that the word of Christ is the word of the Word of God? I fear that we are making an obfuscation out of a simple statement, though profound. The word of Christ is the word of God. He did not speak by himself; but the Father which sent him, he gave him a commandment, what he should say, and what he should speak (John 12:49). He gave them the words which the Father had given him (John 17:8). Any way you look at it, the word of Christ is the word of God. There are a thousand things we can say about the word of Christ, what it is like and what it does. But there is no difficulty in understanding what it is. The word of Christ is the word of God. |
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315 | How do I (you, we) come across? | Rom 12:3 | Aixen7z4 | 97716 | ||
Please be kind to the psychologists. I am one of them, and we are trying to help the people. You are willing to accept the possibility that there are Christians with low self-esteem? Please consider that we are telling the truth when we say that many people come to us with actual self-loathing. True, we may sometimes label them, but here I am quoting them. And we are trying to help them. You believe that there are "self-centered snobs who are overly endowed with egotism"? These people are like that in spite of the fact "the message of the Bible is to lead a life centered not on self but on Christ". We would like to help them as well. You are doubtless correct in noting that Jesus "gave few discourses ... designed to enhance self-esteem". The implication is that people have a natural capacity for, and inclination to, self-love. Again, that may be true. We think that neglect and abuse, emotional and physical, may be mitigating against that natural tendency and leaving people feeling badly about themselves. We try to help them to overcome these effects. But we are concerned about the "self-centered snobs" as well. Perhaps it is to them that Paul is saying, "Don't think too highly of yourself", but they're not listening. We would like to help them. By the way, there are some of us who practice as Christian psychologists because we believe that we need to help each other to obey the Lord's commands. Not simply to remind them, but to help them. If they say they are thinking too lowly, then we can give them a hand up. If they admit that they think too highly then we can help them to think soberly. But if a person says "I'm perfect", then we cannot help them. When you say there are people with low sel-esteem and people who are snobs, you must be either despising them or wishing they would get help. Please do not discourage us from trying to help. When you say that the most worldly psychologist would endorse the idea of leading a life centered on Christ, I am mystified. Do you really believe that? Perhaps we can think of the question "How high is your self-esteem?" as being analogous to one asking "How high is your blood pressure?". There is an optimum level or range, and in both cases we can be too high or too low. It might be good to check it. |
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316 | How high? How low? How? | Rom 12:3 | Aixen7z4 | 97717 | ||
You did a good job there. Your diagnosis and your prescription were right on. You observation is also keen, that "it is not that simple always". | ||||||
317 | How do I (you, we) come across? | Rom 12:3 | Aixen7z4 | 97744 | ||
It would not be easy to reveal how we would help someone with self-esteem problems in a forum such as this. For one thing, we would be exposing ourselves to criticism from people who had one course in psychology fifty years ago and do not understand what we are saying. That would not be profitable. It might just be useful here to say that God has made us, body and soul and spirit. If we care about our bodies, enough to have a blood pressure taken on a regular basis, we might do well to consider having our psyches checked from time to time for self-esteem. But I can understand that you feel fine and do not see the need to visit that kind of doctor. If you ever feel the need for psychological help, may I suggest that you choose your doctor very carefully. I would not expect a worldly psychologist to be recommending that you live a life centered on Christ. After all, he is not doing it himself. But there are some consecrated practitioners in this field who would do just that. You would want to choose someone who has a philosophy of life, and a faith, that is compatible with yours. For a person such as you, Hank, it would not be difficult to adjust the self-esteem if it ever got out of whack. From this distance it seems to be fine. But if you were concerned, before he did anything about it, the psychologist would measure it. I doubt very much that you are as nutty as you say, though I do detect slight indications of a healthy sense of humor. It is my professional opinion that you are fine, and that your heart is strong for the Lord. Stay well. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy body prospereth. |
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318 | How high is your self-esteem? | Rom 12:3 | Aixen7z4 | 97837 | ||
Hello. I have heard of that book, but I have not read it. I have read reviews of it. See, for example, http://www.behindthebadge.net/articles/a60.html I am glad that you got help from it. From the review above (which includes quotations) it seems to have its strengths, and also some weaknesses. That is the problem with most books, no doubt, and it is one of the reasons I have not written more. I know this does not sound right (some have told me so) but I depend primarily on the Bible for my practice. I was trained in psychology and I believe some of the things I learned are true. But that is only because they are also found in the Bible. I use some of their tools and techniques, but only in so far as they are in line with Scripture. I wish the churches were using the Bible as they ought to; they could help the people a lot. It is really unfortunate that they don't. They tell people what to do but they do not show them how it's done and they do not help them to do it. That statement is too general to be always true and it is not meant as a criticism. It is meant to get their attention. I have written a proposal to encourage them to teach people how to put the word into practice. You can read it at http://hishows.bizland.com/PROPOSAL.htm I could write a book to describe my own methods, but I keep refining them as I learn more from the word of God. I can give only a brief description as appears at http://hishows.bizland.com/therapraxis.html So, I do not recommend any book in therapy except the Bible. Even so, I am careful to point out specific passages with their contexts. I emphasize that the word of God calls for action (See Matthew 7:24;John 13:17). The idea is that God wants us to do certain things. Even a child is known by his doings. I model it, have the client to copy it, and encourage them to practice and practice and practice it. Isn't it interesting that the practice of assigning books to be read by a client is called bibliotherapy. Now we have to look for another word to describe an assignment to read the Bible. We use the term therapraxis to emphasize that the solution to life's situations comes from not only reading but practicing the word of God. I would advise that you take from that book only those things that correspond to the word of God and do them. The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Then you will have good success. |
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319 | How high is your self-esteem? | Rom 12:3 | Aixen7z4 | 97838 | ||
Was that self-esteem or ambition? I thought you would have called it ambition. But I agree; it is the way the world operates. Happily, we know that we are not to be conformed to their ways. I think he says those who want to be great should change their minds and become servants instead. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his master. And the master, he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. |
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320 | How high is your self-esteem? | Rom 12:3 | Aixen7z4 | 97840 | ||
Amen. | ||||||
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