Results 1 - 6 of 6
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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: JulieOwl1 Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Are faith and works an integral unit? | Romans | JulieOwl1 | 197177 | ||
Here are my thoughts. Jesus says that faith starts as the tiniest seed of all. There is no fruit yet, and there is not even a tree. 'If you don't have works, it is because you don't have faith.' That is like saying if you don't have fruit, you don't have a tree, and if you don't have a tree, you don't have a seed. But I believe there can be a seed without a tree and without fruit; afterall, that's how it all starts. I believe that works start within our own mind. If we capture our thoughts and bring them to the altar of the Holy Spirit to see if they are true and ask ouselves if they are our real thoughts,and if they are not, let them go, we will receive release from them and grow in understanding and faith in God. A Psalm of David: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Test me, and know my harmful/anxious thoughts. Allowing God to search our thoughts of fear and guilt and unworthiness, laying them on the table so to speak, and heal them, is a true form of worshipping God. This is how our mind is transformed, and how ultimately, (I think) we gain enough faith in the truth so we can be guided by the Holy Spirit. So I believe that works start in the mind, as a seed, and then spread out and up from our minds into our lives, naturally. But first it starts in the mind, which is where the Kingdom of Heaven, the pearl of great price, resides. God is within. We must let him heal our minds first. The fruits of the spirit will come, but I believe in God's time, not mine. I cannot force the tree to grow, nor the branches to bear fruit. All I can do is water and feed the truth in my heart now. Faith, in time, will grow. Everything else follows. Is 61:11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise To spring up before all the nations. In Deut 6:25, the acts of righteousness which God told them to do had started out small. In the beginning, the Israelites needed to ask Moses if he had really even spoken to God. Gradually, they believed him. If you follow the story, you will see, their faith was not instantaneous, but it was growing. Even though they backslid a whole lot, God would do something else to renew their faith in Him, and their faith always grew. But they tested God. In steps, God asked them to do certain things. In the beginning, they did not even have a sabbath day yet. God institutes rules to help us along the way in our individual path of growth of fwith in Him. He never expects us to just have loads of faith and loads of works. He knows it takes a long time. The whole process of growth in faith before they reached Canaan took hundreds of years. They wandered around. One day, God visited them from the mountain. They weren't asked to give him their firstfruits of children and goats until a long while passed. They did not make an altar until way after that. But God was eventually getting them to Canaan. Mark 4:26 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows--how, he himself does not know. Mark 4:30 And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? "It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE." |
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2 | Holy wars? | Bible general Archive 4 | JulieOwl1 | 197161 | ||
all wars are error. Whoever fights against another, attacking them, is sinning. Christians are not immune to sin, never were. All wars, religious, national, indigenous, or between husband and wife, are fought because of the belief "We are in the right, and they are in the wrong." No one likes to admit that they are wrong. The Israelites of moses' time were not immune to sin. Peter was not immune! There is no one righteous, not one. Well, except for Christ. So never take sides in a war. All wars, fighting are suicide. Just think of the suicide bombers. They actually believe they are right. No war is fought believing you are wrong. (Well, not consciously wrong.) People have been fighting, killing, and doing unloving or unjust acts in the name of their God for eons. Think of the Salem witch trials and deaths. Think of Jesus' condemnation- he was found guilty of sinning against God by the Jewish people, a sort of mini- Holy- war. Think of Hitler- some of the german community was prejudiced against the Jews there- they thought, (this is my understanding, but I may be wrong, I'm not good with history) 'The Jews are responsible for killing Jesus, they condemned him, therefore, they deserve to be shunned'; then Hitler said, 'They will support me in putting them in camps'. Because, when it comes to religion and who is holy and who is not holy, the ones who are presumed not holy are put to death, be crucified, be tortured, be shot-. This is going on all the time. I don't know who the Morovians were, but - Rom 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. How are we, exactly (without a doubt) in our sinful minds, able to judge someone else? That is only information that God is 'privy' to, and only He could know. |
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3 | Would Jesus follow this scripture? | Bible general Archive 4 | JulieOwl1 | 197160 | ||
He is not talking about a physical act of killing a body. He is referring to our tendency to think angry thoughts about our neighbor, brother, parents, etc. If we let our angry thoughts develop in our minds unchecked, we will feel this world which we live in is out to get US. That is the way in which our mind works. We will see others out to attack us; it will seem that the world is unsafe. Its all because of our unchecked attack thoughts in our minds. We will seem to be 'killed'; we will see our enemies in our parents, in the people on the street, in innocent, harmless people - we will find enemies. Our mind has produced this- our fearful, angry, harmful thoughts bounce right back at us. We 'kill' ourselves. We kill our own peace of mind. We become mad/crazy and insane in that we no longer know what is real; now we can no longer see our brother for who he is. I have made man in my own likeness. We have the power of God to create anything. We make what we experience by the thoughts we think. We can chose a different experience by chosing different thoughts. Whatever thoughts we have, we then believe is true, and it is then made manifest in our lives. We have the power to create; this is given us by God. So if I attack someone and judge them in my mind, as somehow unworthy of my love, this is comes directly back to me- not from that person- but from #myself#, because no thoughts leave the mind. They stay there. I will receive what I have given. I have created my experience. The power to create and the power to chose is in my hands. The 'measure' which I give to others is the (exact)'measure' that I will receive. If I give 'murderous' thoughts- it doesn't matter that they are silent; if I let any murderous thoughts roam around in my mind, then my experience will be of being murdered, attacked by others- by loved ones, by the government, by strangers in the check out line, etc. It does not matter how innocent the other actually is- we believe our own murderous thoughts. So you see, it is crazy thinking. But we do it to ouselves. Jesus is warning us against this. For the Kingdom of God is to be cultivated within you. What Jesus tells us is, it is not the act that is the sin, but rather the indulging in the thought that is the sin. Sin is committed in the heart (which is the mind). That is where we have the power, the control; that is where the sin is, and that is where we have the choice to stop the murder thoughts. Ps 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; Sin starts in your mind. Jesus wants us to stop it where it starts. If we heal our thoughts, we will find peace and joy. He is not saying "If you shoot someone you will be literally shot" or, even that God thinks you should be shot for shooting. No. God loves us. He is saying that, in your mind, if you are mean to others, you are going to believe others are mean to you. Jesus is trying to warn us of how our mind works. We cannot escape it, it is a law. And Jesus knows this about the mind. You must let your mind be transformed by the Holy Spirit in order to find peace. In order to find the Kingdom of Heaven, we must first bring our hurtful or fearful thoughts right to the Holy Truth and transformed by Him, so that we can experience an uplifting of our hearts and soul. This is true worship. Matt 5:27 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY'; 18 Matt 5:28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. |
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4 | where is "HOLY GHOST/SPIRIT in old test | Gen 1:2 | JulieOwl1 | 197159 | ||
NASB Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. AMPLIFIED Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters. Psalm 51:11 [David] Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. The "Spirit" IS the Holy Spirit! There is no difference. David, in his Psalm, spoke of the Holy Spirit. And in Genesis, we are shown that it was the Spirit who created the Earth and Life. Mary was not the first to hear the Holy Spirit. When any 'angel' comes into a story in the bible, this is really just a beautiful way to say they heard the Holy Spirit speak to them, for an angel is 'a messenger'- one who sends messages from God. Who do you think 'sends messages from God' if it is NOT the HOLY SPIRIT, Himself? And what is a message of God but the truth? He is also referred to in Isaiah, you can look that up if you want. Mary must have felt the Holy Spirit in her life before that moment, in order to be able to recognize Him as from God. The Holy Spirit had to have been talked about and felt by the Jewish community from at least sometime before Genesis was written. The Bible was written by the Holy Spirit- through the writers, through the people who were feeling the Holy Spirit. Whenever someone hears God speak, this is definately the Holy Spirit. Many times the Holy Spirit speaks to us, in our hearts, but we don't recognize Him. |
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5 | Should a Christian be a police officer? | Matthew | JulieOwl1 | 197156 | ||
31 Matt 25:15 "To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. 32 Matt 25:16 "Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. 33 Matt 25:17 "In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. 34 Matt 25:20 "The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' 35 Matt 25:22 "Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.' 36 Matt 25:28 'Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.' The line I am looking for is skipped here. But one man hid his talent, and only had the same talent when Jesus asked for his talents back. As you see, he then took the talent away, because it wasn't used, in the faith that it could be developed. he had no faith with his talent. Whatever you choose to do with your life, if it is done for God's purpose, using your talents and skills for God, AND you are sure no to harm others out of malice or out of revenge, but rather to love and protect them, it would not be against God's law to do- because it is NOT using your skills and talents for God's purpose that God clearly is warning us against here. |
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6 | Death penalty Biblical? | Romans | JulieOwl1 | 197154 | ||
5 Rom 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. Never take it into your own hands, because clearly we are to leave it up to God. |
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