All Discussion PAGE 1157

Struggles and our ministry to others.

In my personal experience I went through a divorce due to my wife's affair with another man. In the process; however there were certain behavioral issues in common with a friend of mine who I counseled today with a woman he is considering marrying.

I won't get into specifics here. There were also anger issues which I dealt with during my divorce proceedings in 2015 with a deep dive into the Book of James and much prayer. This was useful to me for counselling others going through anger issues the next couple of years.

2 Timothy 3:16 makes it clear the value of all scripture for instruction in righteousness and teaching; etc. Jesus Himself; of course was the ultimate example for us in a sinful life; and the Book of Hebrews shows us how He suffered in like manner but without sin ( Heb. 4:15). The sufferings of Paul as well serve well along with the Prophets and other Apostles to guide us through our sufferings. 1 Corinthians 10:13 gives us assurance that God will give us the strength to escape any sins and temptations.

This will perhaps be one of the greatest joys in heaven; when we see all those Resurrected (and hopefully some raptured) saints; we can rejoice that their sufferings are past; and that we can truly bask in the glories of heaven without the struggles of this life. The victory; of course grants us eternal spritual rewards consisting of kings and priests ( Rev. 5:10) as well as corresponding crowns of various types; including for those who are martyred ( Rev. 2:10). Suffering builds character as well as spiritual fruit as God refines us for His purposes in our sufferings (provided of course it isn't because of our sin as 1 Peter 2:20 states).

Often suffering also drives us to prayer; hopefully it also softens our heart to have compassion on others and to get our mind off our own problems. Once we step in that direction we find the value in helping others; with practice it becomes easier.

Love God with all our being(heart, mind & soul) & our neighbor as(anyone in need) our self. Being the greatest commands. If we believe in Jesus Christ (& all that applies)& do these 2 most important commandments we will not want to hurt others or sin & go to heaven.! Like your axample w/the puzzle.!

Well spoken Gerald.

I again agree.

God bless you.

I am of Zerah and Pharez Radford and Buckmaster, Zerah and Pharez both had the Aleph Taw and never lost the Aleph Taw. Go and study the Word. I'll ask you 1??? What's in a Fruit ???. Shalom Wendell Radford, mom was a Buckmaster.

Glad you are here, then, Madhatter57. Looking forward to hearing from you more.

Amen Gerald!

"For when he saw the Lord he saw also himself and in the light of the Lord said " woe is me for I am undone .."

Many claim to see the Lord or have visions but are not changed for the better but rather only boast in their visions and revelations .Isiah felt unclean unholy and unfit " a man of unclean lips "

Great reply.

Zachary, I am so sorry for your mom. I will pray for her tonight.

Dear Heavenly Father, we lift up to You Zachary's mom. She is in desperate need of Your help and healing. Help her to be able to breathe on her own again and that whatever is making her ill be conquered. Bring healing to her tonight, LORD God. Thank You for hearing our prayers and caring for those for whom we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for that brother Jesse. I had missed Hebrews 2:3, as far as noting that the certainty of Paul being the writer was made weaker by this verse: "confirmed unto us by them that heard Him." Whoever the writer was, certainly was led of the Spirit to be able to pen such great Truths & give a clear defence of the faith, from all the Scripture given.

Smtombeni,

If that is your desire, I would first before reading the word, ask the Lord to open up your heart and mind, and ask Him to give you a hunger for His word in order that you might be fed Spiritually.

The Lord has to be involved in your study. If you, in prayer, involve Him every time you approach His word, eventually He will put a hunger in you for His word and you will want more and more every day. You won't be able to stay away from it. You might leave off for a day or two every now and then, but that hunger will not allow you to stay away for very long.

With our physical food, when we get hungry we have to eat to satisfy our hunger. It works the same way with God's word which is our spiritual nourishment. If we belong to Christ, He will give us that hunger for His word and it is only through His word that we can be spiritually nourished.

Please know that you can't do this on your own. God's Spirit has to be involved. Without His Spirit drawing us to His word, we will soon drift away and find every excuse in the world not to remain in the word.

So, pray that Lord gives you that hunger. He knows your heart. If it is truly your desire to study the Bible daily, He will give you that hunger and He will continually draw you to it!

Hi Zachary.

Welcome to the site.

I will be praying for your mom as well as others on the site.

God bless.

Prayer request for my Son Lloyd Jr. who is a resident of the Clinton Nursing Home due to Stroke that has change ourlife since 2017. My dear mother is now 105 yrs. please pray for her health and for her sight . Thanks, lets us continue in love and to be loved by Jesus .Please pray for our country the USA and its leaders.

Hello Tessie,

The author of Hebrews is unknown. There are several people who have been named as possible authors. Paul is the most common one but we have nothing to prove that it was Paul.

It would seem odd that it would be Paul because we know for sure that Paul wrote 13 letters (Romans through Philemon), because Paul put his inscription at the beginning of every one of those letters. It would seem odd that he would not do the same if he wrote Hebrews.

Here's something that causes me to think it was not Paul. Whoever wrote the letter to the Hebrews was a second generation Christian and did not hear from the Lord directly, which Paul did.

It says in Hebrews 2:3, "how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him."



So whoever wrote Hebrews did not hear the Lord directly, nor did he receive from the Lord directly (which Paul did), but received and was confirmed and established for us (the writer being one of them) by those that heard Him.



Paul is a possibility but doubtful. Others who have been named as possible writers are Barnabas, Luke, or Apollos.

So if someone wants to believe it was Paul, any of the other possibilities, we can neither confirm nor deny because we just don't know and we cannot prove one way or another.

Prayer for freedom from sin and healing in my body! And a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit

Sammie, wow!!!

The things you said are a perfect example of humbleness. And yes, submission is the key. And I agree with you that the Lord sometimes uses the material things of this world and people as a means of humbling us.

You mention that you don't have much but you seem very content with what the Lord has given you. That should be an example for all believers.

You have caused me to think about the things I have and how much I myself take for granted, how much I value those things, where my focus needs to be, and I do thank you for that. You have truly ministered to my heart.

And yes, I agree that we can do nothing to save ourselves or make ourselves acceptable to Him. The only way we can please Him is by surrendering our lives to Him, making Him the Lord over us, and submitting to the persuasion of His Spirit in which He has given to us. We have to step aside and give Him full control or else we have an illegitimate claim of calling Him our Lord!

The Lord is working great things in you. You have demonstrated a perfect attitude of what it's like to be humbled. Don't change anything, save for allowing Him to make changes in your life as He sees fit!

May the Lord continue to bless you abundantly!

Yes, I am new to this site! And I thank you for the explanation. Allen

Adam

We are really talking here about the Nature of Salvation.

Eph 2:8-10

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

So what is a "work" or a "good work"? A "good work" is obedience to any commandment of God that applies to us.

During the Church Age (which I believe has now ended and we are livling in the period that God calls The Great Tribulation, Matt 24 & 1 Peter 4:17) we were commanded to be baptzed in water if we identified with a local church. But water baptism was a cermonial sign, like the Lords Supper (Communion), and we no longer are to observe these ceremonial signs and that believers actually have been commanded to get out of the local churches. Just like when Jesus came physically the first time, God was finished with National Isreal as His corporate representation and we no longer observe the cermonial laws of the old testiment.

But even during the Church Age, water baptism was still a WORK which we were commanded to observe and did not contiribute to our salvation in any way. Just as the observance of the Old Testement ceremonial laws did not contirbute to the salvation of any Old Testement believer.

Mark 16:16 is talking about the baptism that SAVES, it is the baptism that God performs in washing away our sins. Not water baptism.

And if we are TRUSTING in any WORK that we do, including the WORK of water baptism as initiating, maintaining, assisting, supporting, etc. our salvation in any way, we are walikng on very dangereous ground (Read Galations, in particular Gal 2:16) and falling into the same snare as some of the early New Testement Jews. Note also in Gal 2:16 that the faith by which we are saved is Christ's faith, not our faith.

Please pray for my Mom Victoria. She is in the ICU with assisted breathing. Thank you.

Asking for strong protection and breakthrough for us and all in need and the Lord's help with family issues and the Live Nativity.

Just do it ! It really is that simple .

Thanks Gerald, but God did not reveal the underlying reason that what made some animals clean and others unclean.

Hello Giannis, good post.

From what I know, one can marry a Catholic and not be required to become a Catholic. This happens all of the time. The matter is that of whether the marriage is considered am approved "Catholic" marriage or not, and this varies from priest to priest, or from bishop to bishop in this denomination.

Also on what you said concerning the commitment of Catholics to true faith, while this is often the case, this is also true of people in other denominations. There are devote and sincere believers in all denominations. And there are those in every denomination who are what is often termed "nominal" or in name only.

A person who is sincerely committed to Jesus should seek to marry someone who is also so. But thinking of the age at which most people marry, both people usually are somewhat immature in life and in faith. So, we marry whom we have chosen and mature in Christ and life together.

Hello Young md,

I just looked this word up and it seems that the meaning is somewhat obscure and is interpreted in different ways depending on what one thinks the base word it is derived from. Some of these bases words have meaning such as:

to praise

to lift up praise

to stop and listen

the Lord has spoken

to rest and consider

a musical instruction

So, from these we may think of Selah as to pause, either music or singing to left up praise to God or to stop and listen prayerfully, or to pause and reflect or think upon what is said int he music/song, or to take time momentarily to meditate or contemplate.

Thanks Cindy, I am working on the stretches given to me by the orthopedist. These include this stretch you mentioned. I have a boot splint that can be adjusted to create an angle of the flexation of the ankle to stretch both my plantar fascia and the achillies tendon. They do help, and was having good improvement, but for some reason, this week both of my feet are painful.AS they say a few steps forward, one step backwards is often the route of progress. I appreciate the prayers of others. I know that God will bring healing to both feet.

Thank you Donna, for your prayers. I am thrilled to hear of Daniel's progress! I will continue to pry for him.

So happy to hear of your good health and that your sister is being healed from cancer. All praise to our Lord and God!

Hi Lollyman.

I concur with Brother Chris.

The disciples were looking for the Messiah to set up the kingdom hereonearth. ( which is yet future)

As mentioned Isaiah 40:1-5 is one of the scriptures is why they expected this order of events.

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD SHALL BE REVEALED, AND ALL FLESH SHALL SEE IT TOGETHER: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

( This haven't happened yet. )

This concerns the restoration of Israel when Christ sits on David's Throne.

Matthew 17:11-12 "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. ( Still future. )

But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. ( John the baptist was the forerunner. He was to announce the King.) They rejected John and they rejected their King. ( John 19:15.)

During the tribulation they will be driven to seek their Messiah and he shall come. ( Matthew 23:37-39.)

God bless.

Amen Brother Chris.

In Matthew 17:11-12 Jesus pretty much says it all.

Vs 11. "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

( Meaning yet future)

Vs 12. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. ( Speaks of John the Baptist Earlier ministry)

God bless.

The apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. Hopefully this helps Tessie! God bless!

Selah can mean rests or silence between the end of songs or poems as is in Psalms, hopefully this helps Youngmd. God bless!

Donna Grace , you are such an excellent poster . Very inspiring . Thank you .

alex1939...Hi Lollyman 7...Good question But i don't think that Jesus was refering to any man being a 2 nd Elijah...Or another John the baptist...God cannot put any trust in man...John the baptist doubted in the end sending 2 of his disciples to ask Jesus if he were the Christ or look for we for another...John doubted...And i dont judge that great man of God...But this last Elijah has to be the H.G. As Jesus said in John 16:13 When he the spirit of truth is come ( the H.G. ) he will guide you into all truth...He cannot speak of himself simply b/c he has to be born in us...He is just a spritual infant and infants cannot speak for a while...Only God the HG. can lead us into all truth Thus this 2 nd Elijah has to be the Spirit of truth...As Jesus is saying in John 16:13 that is gona lead the whole world....Reprove the whole world of sin and Righteousness and judgement...No man cd fulfill that task it wd have to be God himself...Isaiah said he looked this way and that way but he found no man thus his own arm brought him salvation etc

.....Thats all i had to say thank you lollyman 7