Results 361 - 380 of 1003
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: Rowdy Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
361 | Can you explain this phenomenon? | Prov 1:29 | Rowdy | 120878 | ||
I can only guess that almost everyone has heard the analogy about the glass filled with a portion of water. Some looking at the glass say it's half empty while others say it's half full. Basically, it boils down to a matter of perspective. Do we plan to consume or deplete that balance of water or do we anticipate filling the vacant portion of the glass with our potential? Two men in prison, one looks out the window, sees the mud, the dirty conditions of the ground below and wonders just how long is he going to be kept there. The other looks up into the sky and dreams of plans he hopes to pursue upon getting out. So many times throughout our lives the altitude of that life is dependent on our attitude. Do we let our difficulties get us down like that of poor Judas and give up or do we take a quick self-inspection like Peter, dust ourselves off and become one of the greatest leaders of men of all time? The freedom of choice is given to all of us by God AND He promises He'll help us IF we'll knock, He'll open; if we'll ask, He'll answer; if we'll seek, He'll help us find. Hope this is helpful and God bless. I really appreciate your starting and wrapping up a good thread of discussion. --Rowdy |
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362 | Simple analogy to understand the Trinity | 2 Cor 13:14 | Rowdy | 120877 | ||
I'm not a scientifically inclined person by any stretch but I do appreciate knowing this additional information about water. I thought I would also remind everyone of the obvious and that is that water covers up about 78 percent of this planet's surface AND it's one of the only natural elements that upon freezing is lighter than it natural liquid state. Isn't it wonderful that our Lord created our world with all these characteristics of water AND chose this same substance to be symbolic to the burial of His Son for us as christians in baptism? Kinda neat, huh? I think so. Science is a wonderful thing and God bless. --Rowdy |
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363 | Saved without faith? | Eph 2:8 | Rowdy | 120876 | ||
Sorry to butt in but it seems that WTB and Angel are much closer to presenting a well balanced view than your statement above. You seem to overlook the clear guidance from 1 John. Yes, indeed, we should be thankful for God's Grace to cover us when we sin IF we maintain that fellowship of light in God's Will and His Word. This means we must see ourselves as we really are to our God and that means we're weak and sinful, we're inclined to sin for at the very least we can't hope to fill our lives with all the good we should be doing. It's so easy to be tempted to be lazy and rest on our accomplishments in the past and think we can retire; we've earned it. No, "may it never be," but instead we must prove over and over again that we truly are part of the Lord's vineyard by producing fruit of His Grace and our faith in our lives. I agree with you in that there's nothing we can do to be more saved but we can most certainly lose our salvation as clearly depicted in the 7 letters in the first few chapters of Revelation. We must see ourselves in constant need of repentance. The only really big difference between christians and unbelievers on Judgment Day is our relationship with Christ as our advocate. But this relationship is fragile as it has to be maintained like the wineskin in Matt 9. I hope this clarifies the matter and God bless. --Rowdy |
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364 | How did fresh and salt fish live? | Genesis | Rowdy | 120874 | ||
Since the Bible doesn't address the subject, we have to conclude the Lord God Almighty took care of them the same way He took care of the carnivorous animals, (lion, tigers and bears, oh my) by not having them destroy their hosts. Who knows Noah may have even brought on board a pair of every fresh water creature. Without guidance from God, we're all left to conjecture which is questionable at this point, especially since it doesn't impact us in today's world at all. God bless. --Rowdy |
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365 | what is worship,what is praise | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 120859 | ||
In my way of thinking Christianity is like a precious jewel, especially when you have your own special soul-saving relationship with Christ. The greatest similarity in this comparison is the many different and wonderul facets of both. Each of us has our very own distinctive jewel with our own distinctive set of talents and responsibilities. There are so many different facets (aspects) demanding our attention. For example there's the obvious two as has been pointed out: worship of our God and serving the church. In addition there's the fruits of the spirit, the armor of God, knowledge of His Word. Then there's our prayer life, the fellowship with other brethren, our influence upon other people, like unbelievers. I'm sure I'm leaving out several of those facets, but that doesn't mean they're not there. God expects us to inspect our soul's condition and work on our weaknesses and share our strengths. We're supposed to grow and mature in our spiritual journey to our Father's Home in Heaven. We must see ourselves drawing closer and closer to our God as He will draw closer and closer to us. I do agree with you in one respect; we can't and shouldn't confuse these different aspects with each other. They're distinctive from one another yet most of them are very much co-dependent on one another. We should feel free to share our weaknesses and strengths with our closest brother or sister in Christ. This kind of bonding would enhance the growth of the church. It also enhances our chances of not sinning and actually making our goal of Heaven with God. Hope this helps to clarify and God bless. --Rowdy |
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366 | what is worship,what is praise | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 120815 | ||
I guess what I'm saying and endorsed by James is that they ARE so closely related, they're linked completely for us to be pleasing to God. It's a whole package deal; if we're not willing to do one, we might as well not do the other for it will do us no good. Also we must be in fellowship with our fellow christians in accordance with 1 John to be pleasing to our God. Hope this clarifies the matter and God bless. --Rowdy |
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367 | Do our works keep us saved? | 1 Cor 12:13 | Rowdy | 120788 | ||
Hank, my dear friend and fellow Bible student, I must respectfully disagree with you. We don't have very many but the following is a clear case of a christian with the wrong priorities who was specifically told to repent. Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, "Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." 20 But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 "You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 "Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 "For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." 24 But Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me." Here Simon wanted these miraculous powers for his own gain instead the Lord's. We must learn from his example and put our own talents to work and be fruitful for the Lord as described in James. This teaching on repentance and the teaching in 1 John of staying in the fellowship of light from God teaches very clearly that even christians must repent and do it often. There's no significant difference between christians and the world of sinners in this regard. We all sin daily but we've got the Grace of God and the blood of His Son to cover us, enabling us to go to Heaven. But continued and unrepented sins in our lives can quite possibly keep us out of Heaven as depicted in 2 Pet 2:22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." Hope this helps and God bless. --Rowdy |
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368 | Do our works keep us saved? | 1 Cor 12:13 | Rowdy | 120787 | ||
Amen, dear friend. Keep studying and praying. Our way of life may just change sometime in the near future. I pray it will improve toward God's Will but I'm very much afraid things will get worse before they much better. It's almost like our world of Christianity, at least here in America is an alcoholic and needs to hit bottom before we'll give up this addiction to a convenient and comfortable lifestyle. I gotta hush now and climb off this soapbox. God bless. --Rowdy |
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369 | Might it be fear? | Prov 1:29 | Rowdy | 120786 | ||
Just to give this thread some balance, I would offer the following verses: Col 1:10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 1 Tim 1:6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, Titus 3:14 Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. Heb 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So, we must conclude our God and Father does expect us to restrain ourselves from judging one another as we can't know what goes on in a person's heart and mind, but we are expected "to be our brother's keeper." From the verses above, we can conclude we should love one another to take notice when a fellow christian is NOT producing fruit and talk to him, trying to find out if we can assist him in this area. We should remember Ja 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Hope this helps and God bless. --Rowdy |
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370 | Is Jesus "least" in kingdom of heaven? | Matt 11:11 | Rowdy | 120766 | ||
I'm not certain who Christ is referring to in the latter half of the verse above but it does seem very clear that He's referring to Himself in verse 19, and it appears he's in the same topic. In contrast to this thought I can only quote from Luke 11:29 As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. 30 "For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 "The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Here, we can clearly that Christ didn't consider Himself to be the least but I'll let draw from the comparison what you will. God bless. --Rowdy |
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371 | what is worship,what is praise | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 120764 | ||
When you insert the word worship into the search function, you get a multitude of verses so take your pick. I'd like to emphasize the following: Rom 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Here we see much more is meant by Paul and generally the other Apostles as well, than the traditional thought of a worship service on Sunday. As we grow and mature in our spiritual relationship with God our Creator, we grow to realize how important it is to see our whole lives, all 7 days per week and 365 days per year. God is looking for us to convert ourselves into a total christian lifestyle. That's the ultimate sacrifice, our worship. Praise on the other hand is a slightly smaller subset of activities under the broader umbrella concept of worship. Hopefully, in the same vein as worshipping God all week and all year, we can see ourselves singing praises to God during our performance of our jobs, doing chores around the house, etc. Of course, we're commanded to sing in Col 3:16 but we're also directed to make melody in our hearts. So in other words, we should look like and act like we're headed to Heaven to be with our God and be happy about it. Then, God truly gets the glory He deserves. These are my thoughts on the subject. How about yours? God bless. --Rowdy |
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372 | Do our works keep us saved? | 1 Cor 12:13 | Rowdy | 120762 | ||
Very nicely done, dear friend. I think I have to agree with everything you've said here. Appreciate your fresh and honest perspective. Amen and God bless. --Rowdy | ||||||
373 | Is water baptism necessary for salvation | 1 Cor 12:13 | Rowdy | 120739 | ||
You bring up a perfectly valid point: Why is there so much disunity in the christianity we see in our world when there was perfect unity and harmony in the christianity we see in the NT? Copied from your post for reference: "If that were true, why are the denominations so divided over it? Some believe in sprinkling an infant for its eternal salvation, others believe baptism is necessary for salvation, still others that baptism is not necessary but certainly advisable after a statement of faith. God is not a God of confusion and yet the very people who profess faith in Him seem to have so much confusion." I'm slightly biased toward water baptism, I guess I've already shown that BUT I'll attempt to be truly objective and look at this matter with an open mind. First of all, to be truly objective, we have to admit even in the first century, the christians there didn't have absolute 100 percent unity as shown in Acts 11 with the controversy about "to circumcise or not" in order to be a christian. We see Peter get a special revelation and thus christianity is forced out of the Jews' hands and given out throughout the whole world and Peter has to be reminded of this fact afterwards as recorded by Paul in Gal 2. But now to deal with the controversy at hand, your question. First of all, let's look at the history of sin and this art of deception as perpetrated by Satan. We all know he is the master at deceiving human beings as we see in the Garden of Eden. He took the statement from God Himself "Eat of the fruit from the tree and you'll die," and inserted one single word NOT. He sold this crock of lies to Eve and then to Adam through Eve, and thus got mankind kicked out of the Garden for all time. So he is the perfect opposite of our Lord and Savior, the perfect teacher, taking a simple command from God to abstain and perverting it to something so horribe. So here's my point, the devil tempts mankind to accept God's Salvation on man's terms. We want to worship on a day of our choice. We don't want to submit ourselves to God's Plan in every detail so we just modernize it. Then we modernize the elements of worship with all kinds of innovations and we walk away feeling great about our worship assembly because we have praised and glorified God. BUT have we? Does a son honor his earthly father's wishes when he looks for loopholes in his father's last will and testament? Does he the son really fulfill the actual intent of the father when the son skillfully dodges the intended milestones and standards of measuring that fulfillment? I would humbly submit to you that is not my idea of true love and devotion to that father. Why would we think differently of our Heavenly Father? He offers the gift of salvation but as I understand His Word, our Bible, we should comply to the best of our ability with His terms and conditions. Now, true enough many people sincerely study God's Word and conclude their own particular interpretation of that guidance. And then they follow that guidance to the best of their ability. For that I would commend them except they must continue to study God's Word. We must see ourselves as the Ethopian enuch, study with an open mind and pray for guidance. We should read God's Word with the idea that It does speak plainly to our hearts as much as possible, especially about elementary subjects like those as salvation and elements in worship. To do anything less can be compared to idol worship, fashioning the church we read about in the Bible to our liking in this modern age. Please understand, I write this post for the vast majority of those participating on the Forum so that's why I bring in so many tie-ins. It all boils down to whether or not we're going to submit ourselves to the authority of God's Word or dare we to think we can alter just a little bit, to modernize it. We must see Perfection can't be improved upon; we can only strive to match it. As human beings, we can never hope to match what we see in our Bibles, happening in the first century. But God expects us to strive for that and "draw closer to Him so He can draw closer to us." I sincerely do hope this helps in your study and understanding. I'd be interested in your response. God bless. --Rowdy |
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374 | Do our works keep us saved? | 1 Cor 12:13 | Rowdy | 120719 | ||
I've discussed this topic at length quite a bit with several scriptural references. I really would like to get your response to all the points I made there in, Posts 120368 and 120278. Feel free to take your time and respond to a couple points at a time. I guess I have to admit I got a little "long winded" on the one with 7 points. Anyway, looking forward to your perspective on the matter. I'm in a better mood today, as with all Sundays. Sometimes the ole grind just gets me down and I just got to suck up my pride and give it over to the Lord. God bless. --Rowdy |
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375 | who can explain to me? | John 1:1 | Rowdy | 120718 | ||
I'm not exactly sure of your main point here. I've already acknowledged there are some things about the Godhead relationship we're not privy to. That is we're not going to know ALL the details until we reach Heaven. But the sum total of ALL scripture does make it pretty clear that God does have a slightly higher rank than His Son but I still think the 3 Beings of the Godhead are all equal in power and majesty. Was there something more to your post that I'm overlooking? Is there some question left unanswered or at least not discussed? As I mentioned there's several questions without answers at present. God bless. --Rowdy |
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376 | Why would we be undone? | 1 Cor 11:30 | Rowdy | 120686 | ||
Can you tell me which specific scriptures support this concept of Soteriology I've cited mine in an earlier post, referred to as the "5 steps of Salvation." I must admit. You guys had me fooled. All this time, so many of you have been so harsh with your criticism of my posts without scriptures and yet you, Hank and others are doing the very same thing AND you keep on bringing in discussions based on some man's concepts and doctrines. Well, I do hope this will be the end of such harsh treatments of my posts. I do look forwawrd to seeing the scriptures about this Soteriology. God bless. --Rowdy |
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377 | Can anyone explain? | 1 Cor 12:13 | Rowdy | 120644 | ||
I would have to disagree with you, dear friend. It is not clear that ALL believers (of whom I consider myself) have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. I will agree that I have the Holy Spirit living within me and have received His gift of salvation. Yes, a hearty AMEN. So, I must repeat myself but I'll be a little more clear this time. So, in addition to all the scriptures about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we also see a multitude of scriptures about the watery baptism and this in direct contrast to the guidance in Eph 4:5. Thus, we conclude we have either 1) an obvious contradiction in the Bible, which we know can't happen OR 2) there's another correct interpretation. Again, I can only present what I've been taught all my christian life. So, the Bible very clearly does teach there were two baptisms but yet we should only practice one according to Eph 4:5. I would suggest for your objective evaluation as well as ALL those on the Forum, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was quite a bit different from the watery immersion as described in Acts 8 and Rom 6. The watery baptism is something that is fairly clear and easy to understand, straight forward from the many verses in God's Word describing it. However, in stark contrast the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not quite so clear and not described by quite so many verses. To me and to a great many christians across the world, it seems the only logical conclusion that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was something that was enjoyed by a select few and I would say it had to have been the Apostles in Acts 2 and Cornelius and his household in Acts 10. On these 2 occasions the Holy Spirit empowered these folks with miraculous powers, the like of which has never been repeated. The Apostles clearly throughout Acts were called upon to "lay their hands on a few" and impart this gift of miraculous powers for the purpose of endorsing the message of the Gospel as coming from God. But as alluded to in 1 Cor 13, this age of miracles directly from men died out when that final person died. It is my firm belief that this is what was meant by "baptism of the Holy Spirit." On the other hand, the watery baptism as described throughout the book of Acts is simple and easily accomplished throughout the world, in any century. Through faith, we come into contact with Jesus' blood as alluded to in 1 Jn 5:8. In my opinion and many, many others, this is the only way to reconcile the two clear pictures of baptism in the Bible with the ONE baptism in Eph 4:5. Would you have any response to the above argument? I pray you'll consider the matter with an open mind and an open heart. God bless. --Rowdy |
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378 | Why would we be undone? | 1 Cor 11:30 | Rowdy | 120634 | ||
Kalos, this statement seems to be saying you believe in predestination. Do you actually believe we don't have a very real and genuine opportunity to direct our lives and the ultimate place for our eternal souls? I must admit I believe very strongly against such a concept. If we were predestined from the very begining, there wouldn't be any real point to our being created. In my mind, there wouldn't be anything very glorious about God creating a bunch of beings who have already been "pigeon holed" into their ultimate destination for eternity. Why would God want to send His Son to save us from our sins when he clearly knows that the majority won't accept this gift of salvation? Yes, I know He predicts the "broad and wide gate" to Hell but I don't think He's already eliminated our option to go there if we choose to. I do hope to hear that this is an erroneous conclusion on my part and that you don't really believe in predestination. If you do believe in predestination, I do hope you are basing your belief in more scriptures than what you've offered here. Almost everything depicted in Revelation is so difficult to interpret correctly since so much of it is figurative and/or symbolic for something else. God bless. --Rowdy |
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379 | Why would we be undone? | 1 Cor 11:30 | Rowdy | 120633 | ||
Thanks for the recommendation. I might check it out. In the meantime, can you recommend a website to me with a brief summary statement about this subject? No rush. Thanks again for your thoughts. God bless. --Rowdy |
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380 | Holy Bible makes reference to America | Bible general Archive 2 | Rowdy | 120606 | ||
You get the prize. I've never heard of those. How about you, Hank? Does EdB get the spruce goose award? God bless. --Rowdy | ||||||
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