All Discussion PAGE 1662

I have heard sermons on Zacchaeus. The thing that first comes to mind is his stature, but the real lesson in the account is the size of his heart. Many teaching in the bible (mainly old testament) center around giving a tenth of your increase or income). Zacchaeus gave 1/2 of his goods (I take that to mean net worth). That is a vast difference in giving, but the most remarkable teaching in the account is that Jesus never asked him to give anything. It came to his mind on his own and he voluntarily gave 1/2 of his net worth. "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver"

Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

It is sad till this day Churches still teach Eve ate an apple. Many don't even know that apple is not even mentioned in the whole book of Genesis. It is a long answer that covers the whole Bible but will try a short version. 1st break down the Hebrew words and their meanings.

(fruit) Hebrew = Noun masculine=seed; fruit of the womb is the impregnation of the seed

(touch) = Hebrew verb: (touch) = ; is a primitive root meaning to lie with a woman

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

1st Prophecy of the Bible. Serpent more subtle than all GODs creation, which HE made the full package of beauty, might and cunningness;

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

They didn't sew fig leaves to cover their mouth but to cover their private parts. CHRIST commanded us to learn the parable of the fig tree that began here in the Garden of Eden. The key of David is knowing who and where the Kenites came from. CHRIST only approved of 2 churches of the end time and they both knew the key of David.

Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Beguiled= (Heb. Nasha) means to wholly seduce. Before this seduction they were both naked and not ashamed ( Gen. 2:25) but after they were. Serpent wholly seduced Eve and the woman convinced Adam to take part in the act.

Please pray for Kristie and me and our families

Amen and Amen Bro. Earl.....ELB

Amen and Amen Bro. Earl.....ELB

Amen kay gbu so true.

Amen Bro. Earl....Well said...GBU

Amen brother - the Lord be praised. Even as we await His glorious return, with the promise in Acts 1:11: "Which (angels) also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven". I feel certain that instead of silence in Heaven as when the Lamb of God was once slain, there will be shouting & trumpet blasts when the Lamb returns to Earth, crowned as Victor, to collect His very own. How we should be living our lives before Him & living expectantly, looking upward & not at the world, that none of us would "be ashamed before him at his coming".

We do praise our merciful Lord for what He has done in your life; coming out of darkness into light - from death into His Life - that can only come from the Spirit of God working mightily in you & since then, through you. May your light continue to shine brightly & illumine many hearts still living in darkness, hopelessness & despair.

Hello

Have a question

My name is Maria

Can people around me be bothered I I'm going thru spiritual warfare ?

Contest between two who were they.

ALCOHOL WAS DESTROYING MY LIFE

In April 1990 after 16 years of marriage and four children. My life was ruined because of alcoholism. After an argument, I left home to sort my self out. Although I had tried in the past, I just couldn't change.

Why is my life a mess?

In desperation I called out to God-"The sun rises and sets every day for thousands of years but I am only here for a short life. Why am I here, why did you make me, why is my life such a mess? God if you are there please help me! I went home and found a leaflet in my letterbox asking, "Who is God? The one who answers of course!"

Immediate and remarkable change

I went to a meeting and heard the full Gospel message. I believed in God, but I never seen or heard evidence of his power in any other church. When it was shown to me from the Bible what I must do to be saved, I decided to be baptized by full immersion according to the scriptures ( Acts 2:38).

I awoke at 3am the next morning to feel an amazing peace and joy come over me and I spoke in tongues. From that moment my life change. My marriage healed, aggression and alcoholism healed. God proved himself to me - why not you.

Healing

In February 2013. I was diagnosed with a tumor. "The surgeon told me" The tumor is very close to your right eye, after your operation you may lose your sight in the right eye. I went in to hospital for keyhole surgery and they could not find any tumor it disappeared, thank you Lord. I thank God for he is a God who hears and answers prayer.

Having a personal relationship with God is the promise of the bible. The New Testament of the bible describes a church that changed the world. It talks about salvation as a foundational experience from an answering God.

In Jude 1:3 (KJV)

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

I can't tell you enough how this blesses me.

Thank you for bringing this wonderful good news. Only a little Time and we'll be with Him.

I was saved on Yom Kippur, and when I think of the Lord at that time reaching down through the muck to pull me up and set my feet on the Rock. I deserved death and received Life. I didn't know who the Holy Spirit was. I just knew someone was helping me get free.

You're so blessed. Your heart, tender towards those who walk in darkness. If lift up the nations that you minister to. GBU

What fruit Adam and Eve ate, is that some kind of real i.e. apple etc. Or ?

Ah. I see. "wisdom" is the she

Who is the "she"these paragraphs referring to?

Steve,

Do you have a desire to be close to Christ? What gives you that desire? You are making a false accusation against me. I did not tell everyone I am right. I am simply sharing my belief, as you are yours. As far as my salvation goes, I am very secure in Christ Jesus. I believe in the eternal security of every believer, including you if you belong to Christ. If you believe that one day you can deny Christ and remove yourself from His hand, then you must also agree with me if I were to tell you that tomorrow you might deny Him. I mean, it is possible, right?

I can share many scriptures that persuade me to believe in the eternal security of the believer, but I've been in these conversations before, and no amount of scripture that I share with someone who is insecure in their salvation would change their mind. When it comes to my salvation, I place my trust completely in Christ. I cannot trust in myself to keep myself saved. As long as His Spirit is in me, I will always be saved, and He has promised to never leave.

You say that we can remove ourselves from the hand of God, except that the Bible says that God spread the universe with the span of His hand. That is a pretty big hand! In Ephesians Chapter 6, it says to be empowered in the Lord and in the grip of His strength."

Are you able to remove yourself from such a powerful grip?

Trying to understand it

Doug,

I agree with you that a believer has an obligation to remain faithful to the Lord. In fact, that's what the Lord expects from us, faithfulness. He is faithful to us and He expects the same in return. But what is it that causes a believer to remain faithful? Is it our flesh, our human effort? Or is it the Spirit of Christ dwelling in a believer that causes them to remain faithful?

Just curious to know if you are faithful to Christ, and if so, what causes you to be faithful?

I agree Mishael, that the Word is silent on what took place in that short time after Jesus' Ascension & then return to Earth. The matter in 1 Peter 3:18-20 is often taken as an event during that time, though I see the emphasis in this passage on the Spirit, i.e. Jesus was made alive from the dead by the Spirit and it was by this self-same Spirit that Jesus went to preach to the imprisoned spirits of evil men from Noah's day. Of course, when this took place can be debated.

Assuming then that Jesus went into His Father's Presence after His Resurrection ( John 20:17), the question arises, 'for what purpose?' Again, there's room for speculation & debate, though without clear Scripture, my sense was that the whole period of His Crucifixion, agony in death, burial & resurrection, was a time of great silence in Heaven & waiting anticipation for all that would transpire. The Father Himself chose silence & I can see that the whole host of Heaven were in 'bated breath' awaiting that glorious instance of life from the dead of the Son of God. Then if that be the case, Jesus' Ascension demanded a victory celebration as He entered Heaven's portals as the Victor. A victory over death, over sin's deathly grip, over the limitations of the Old Covenant of Law & assurance of the Covenant of Grace through His Blood, over all satanic endeavours as Jesus takes up His Position (after Acts 1:9) at the Father's right Hand, ever living to make intercession of His blood-bought (through His High Priestly role).

Even as the high priests of old placed themselves between God & the people (during their short life span), offering sacrifices that would withhold God's Anger, so Jesus, in the order of Melchisedek & not Aaron, 'continues forever, having an unchangeable priesthood' ( Hebrews 7:23,24), displaying the marks of His Own Sacrifice on His Body, qualifying Him to be our High Priest forever interceding for us before the Father. Blessings brother in your pursuits.

Jesse, you said we are "kept by the power of God, period!". I don't see anyone disputing that in this chat. The only thing is that it is by our faith and that is a continued present tense in the bible.

God is unchanging. His "dispensation" on how he communed with and saves people has changed, such as from the time of Adam and Eve to Noah, and from the Jews to Christians today. However, he is always consistent from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 that obedience is a must for salvation and not negotiable. And one thing that is clear from reading the Bible many times over the years is that God knows all, but, always gives us the choice and free will to do what is right.

As Christians, we stay in the love of Christ because we desire to be close to him and are led by the holy spirit. But we are not forced to stay in the love of Christ. Just as we got into the hands of God when we believed, we can also deny Christ and get right back out.

And I have not seen any bible verses directly from you to actually support "once saved always saved". I have seen a few others in this chat provide many scriptures and backed those verses with more verses, providing detailed explanations. You have just shared parts of verses out of context and told everyone you are right without backing it up with more verses.

Honestly Erich a great job presenting scripture and backing it up with a lot more scripture, going real in depth for conditional security. You just seem to be stuck on the same couple verses that are only part of a bigger picture that you are not mentioning because it will expose the fact the salvation really is conditional.

Thank you and God bless you Sister. Please continue to remember Kristie and me in your prayers.

Thank you and God bless you, please remember us in your prays , as your family are in mine

Jesus's call to Zacchaeus was his call to all of us. Christ bearing His longing to fellowship with us. For He longs to take us into the deep intimate place,, so that our eternal encouragement can be realized and His will be can be completed and secured. Then we can grow in the knowing of how utterly we are in Him.

My prayer is that we will always continue in His blessings for us.

Love and Peace, little children!!!

I already had the surgery I'm sorry I had it on April 28 . My next step is to go to rehab for a week and I'm going this Thursday.

Yes please clarify when you feel up to it. As I said before Sister, God put you on my heart this last week and a half. So I wanted to reach out and let you know that I'm thinking about you and praying for you. To God be the glory for the things He has done,sending peace, love, and prayers your way.

That question involves a sense of one and the same when the accuser torments us and puts us in bondage. Obviously; as Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21 and other verses indicate we all were enemies of God and remain so until we are Born Again.

It seems with Satan's role as the "accuser of the brethren" ( Revelation 12:10) that he focuses more on those who are saved than the rest of the world-for several reasons. For one thing; being the god of this world" (Corinthians) that men being already under his spell are better to not fear reality. Undoubtably; the enemy has learned that when the fear of God comes on someone as to their spiritual state they are more likely to turn to God. If the enemy of our souls affects us it starts in our minds; and when a weakness is exploited that leads to sin the carrot as it were switches to the accusations and oppression. It is because of our sin that he has legal authority to accuse us. He may also buffet us as occurred with Paul; or use people to go after us. This is; of course no battle to seek alone-we must trust God that Christ is sufficient-it is He who remains faithful even when we are not ( 2 Tim. 2:13). If we are rendered useless to produce fruit spiritually; that is enough to kill off our witness.

We need to understand that all our good works apart from Christ is "filthy rags" ( Isaiah 64:6). If we do have a healthy appreciation of that; we also need to see us as having a new nature (if truly we have examined ourselves in Christ to see if we are in the faith). The way to do this is to recognize His voice; and I pray that you can do that today. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. We; however fall at His feet realizing our unworthiness and undeservedness of His mercies. We still are capable of sin; but in Christ that is not truly who we are as our identity; but we are dying daily to self.

He chastises all He loves; that is different than destruction of His enemies.

Babylon is whole world now , not America.

The Great Whore is global governance and City is City of London.

Thank you God bless you and your family

Thank you. God bless you and your family

Brother James, God's will is that all men come to LIFE and TRUTH.

I have a question?

What do you do when you depart this body of flesh? When only the spirit remains.

Hebrews 12:23 ....and to the spirits of just men made perfect....

Some of these men (apostles) were made perfect 2000 years ago; what have they been doing for 2000 years?

John 13:36 ....Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now (while you are in the flesh); but thou shall follow me afterwards (when only the spirit remains).

Christ is IN CREATION, (as the Holy Ghost), giving creation LIFE and bringing creation to TRUTH:

Ephesians 4:4 There is ONE BODY and ONE SPIRIT ...

Ephesians 4:6 There is ONE GOD, and FATHER OF ALL...

God is LIFE and TRUTH.

When you leave this flesh and only spirit remains, you are ONE with GOD, ONE SPIRIT, ONE LIFE, ONE TRUTH.

Revelation 10:11 .....thou (John, also you as a ministering spirit) must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

John told the disciples to go unto ALL THE NATIONS preaching the kingdom of God; this is only possible after you become a spirit of a just man MADE PERFECT.

The IMAGE OF GOD.

GOD is SPIRIT.

God Bless YOU!