All Discussion PAGE 695

Hi Sammi,

Did you get your new glasses?

Hello Emily, I pray that this friend will choose to stay alive, in Jesus' name. Amen. Is this person doing better?

Beautiful comment Gerald. This is what I believe as well.

But you wrote "Those who are saved after the millennium reign of Christ are the gleanings". What makes you think that people are going to be saved after (or at the end) of the millenium?

Dear Juan, I will pray for you.

Dear Lord Jesus, we ask You today to help Juan in this matter. We ask that you cause him to be "ok" and well and whole. Amen.

Wonderful, cbaker! how good god is!

Donna, have you completed your traveling or are you still on the road?

Yeah, so good to hear! Hallelujah!

Dear Yoshiko, I will pray for you.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus and seek You for help in Yoshiko's situation. We ask that you will bring about a job and a move to North Carolina. Grant Yoshiko favor at this university and a job offer. Amen.

Dear Anna, I will pray for your dad.

Dear Heavenly Father, we ask in the name of Jesus that You will bring healing to Anna's dad and do so quickly. We ask that You urge him to see a doctor to be treated for whatever it is that is causing all of these symptoms. We ask that You bring him relief from depression and a soundness of mind that helps him rise above his depressing thoughts. Give him energy to "get up and get going" in his day-to-day life. Provide him with enjoyment in everyday matters. Cheer his heart and uplift his soul. Amen.

Dear Freda, I will pray for you today.

Dear Lord Jesus, We continue to ask that You bring healing to Freda from the surgeries she had recently. Heal all of the tissue, nerves, and bone structures that were involved in these surgeries. We ask that You will provide for Freda's financial needs, as she is unable to pay for all things on her own. Bless her with financial help in miraculous ways. To Your glory and for Freda's benefit. Amen.

The idea that anyone can fully explain the trinity of God is absurd .

So also is the idea that the unsaved can even grasp the truth of it .

Or indeed the carnal mind .

Your right I believe in that using an egg water etc as examples is not biblical .

But it is not I who said " He who made the ear can He not hear . Or He who made the eye can He not see?Is is hand short that He cannot save?

Or in another place " Man shall not live by bread alone but by everyWord that proceedeth from the mouth of God .

This subject of the Godhead is treading in that most Holy place .I'm not sure this platform is the place to be going there .

For the approach to the subject has to be as careful as entering into that a holy of Holies .

Someone might say we can now boldly go. Not many actually do I think . But rather stay outside as it were in the outer court and seek God there.

I do actually believe that the Holy Bible is a full and perfect revelation of God but is a closed book to just the curious or carnal mind .

WE have the body of truth and the Spirit of truth who knows "the mind of God and the deep things of God"

We need both .

But perhaps a consideration of the fact that the Father did not create anything without the Son "for whom are all things and by whom are all things" But if you cannot hear or understand a man's words without him giving his breath or life to his words ,nor then can any man hear or understand Gods Word unless the Holy Spirit enables him to do so .

For even as the same Holy Spirit was needed to inspire men to so write . So by the same measure the Holy Spirit is needed to understand what is written.

" My Word shall not return unto me void but shall accomplish that where unto I sent it ."

But that's enough

GB

Hello Gerald. I would put it as:

We need to read the Word of God so to know how to behave in every situation in our life. But often we can't do what God asks us to do. Here is where the Spirit of God comes in. He gives us the strength to do what we have learnt (and still learning) what to do by reading or hearing the Word of God. So we know, for example, that we must love pur enemies, but we cannot do that without receiving God's grace. GBU

Dear Sherrie, thank you for bringing these loved ones to us for prayer.

Dear heavenly Father, we come in the name of Jesus and ask you to bless Sandra, Lynnette, Rachel and Joye. We ask that You meet each of their needs today and every day. We ask that You will enlighten them with knowledge of Jesus through the gospel and that they will grow in faith that You provide to them. We pray to You to help the families and friends of these loved ones of Sherrie. You know everything there is to know about each one of these people, so we trust that You are working in their lives int eh best ways. Amen.

Dear Donna, I hope that God will straighten out this hacking in your favor. Must be frustrating and concerning for you.

Dear Heavenly Father, We ask that You will come to Donna's aid in this hacking of her computer. We ask in the name of Jesus that You will not let this infringement on her personal rights and data negatively affect Donna. We ask that You will causes the one who hacked her computer to lose any data taken. Father, destroy this data that this person took from Donna's computer. Give Donna peace of mind and also bring this matter to a good and lawful resolution with the hacker being identified and tried in court. Bring justice in this matter for Donna and anyone else that this person infringed upon illegally. Amen.

Yes, Giannis,

We often don't enhance our understanding of doctrines we learned when young. But when we do dig deeper as we age and our brain and faculties mature, the Holy Spirit uses these to help us have a more robust understanding of spiritual teachings.

And, yes, it is true that in this life we see oh so darkly. But in heaven we will know more fully! Can't wait!

Well said, brother Gerald.

Sorry, I meant brother Spencer.

Hello Gerald'

You wrote "A true born child of God of the Word and the Spirit have righteous works that will be rewarded . " For He will not forget our labour of love" nor is God any man's debtor." How true this is! We often think (wrongly) that God owes to us for obeying Him, something like a wage for our obedience. And we forget that we are servants who ought to do what their master orders us to do. It is God's love and mercy (and justice) that gives us what we ask for. In my life I got things from God even when I had no faith at all. Is this possible, doesn't the Word say that without faith we will not get anything from God? Yes it does, but God doesn't have a list of requirements for giving and if we don't fulfil all of them, then we are not eligible for getting our requests. God loves us, His children, and often He ignores our weaknesses. So it is always God's Love...

And by the way, when we obey God it is useful for us, God has nothing to win from that. GBU

Dear Owen.

God has given us wisdom in how to deal with things. I will not say anything about friends and family but with clients it is a different thing. Clients come to us to buy goods and services or something else, they don't come to hear the gospel. I don't suggest you stop telling them about Jesus, but once you realize that one don't want to hear you should stop being persistive, this is wrong, it oftens drives people away from us. Some other time that it will be proper and you see that there is a good chance for that, then you can talk, but if you drive them away that other time will never come. Maybe it is the same with family and friends.

I don't intend to be offensive but this thing occurs to many believers, including me. GBU

Unclean meat was only in the Old Testament. The NEW Testament is Jesus. A New Covenant.

From what I learned, the books of the Bible had to coincide with the other books printed.



There are at least four 'different' men in the Bible named Enoch ( Genesis 4:17; 5:18; 25:4; 46:9). We should note that, in Genesis 25:4 and Genesis 46:9, the NIV gives the name "Hanok," while some other translations, such as the Darby translation, give the name "Enoch" instead. In both verses, the name "Hanok" is from the same Hebrew word translated "Enoch" in Genesis 4:17 and Genesis 5:18. Other translations say "Hanoch" or "Henoch." The only difference is one of English spelling.

Hebrews 11:5 gives a little more detail: "By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: 'He could not be found, because God had taken him away.' For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." This being "taken away" is what Enoch is most famous for. Only two people in the Bible are said to have been chosen by God to escape death, Enoch and Elijah. Enoch appears to have been given this privilege due to being a man who walked faithfully with God ( Genesis 5:24) and pleased God ( Hebrews 11:5).

For what purpose was Enoch taken away? The Bible does not specifically say. The most common assumption is so that he could serve as one of the two witnesses, alongside Elijah, in the end times. Jude 14.

Yes, you are right dear Gigi, well said about Jesus humbling Himself. The Almighty God who made the vast universe from nothing with just His Word became a poor man, was born between animals, was humiliated by people and at the end He died a horrible death. This is what perfect love is. We are born in christian countries so we become familiarized with these things since childhood and they don't impress us any more. But if you think about them...

About Jesus' conception in Mary I wouldn't try to explain it, there is much we don't understand, we have to wait until we go to Heaven, then we will aquire the perfect and complete knowledge of everything. GBU

Gerald, last post, I promise!

Paul said in Galatians 2:20, for I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live, I live by the faith "of" the Son of God.

All the translations, including the New King James changed it to "live by the faith in the Son of God."

Now is that true? Yes it is true. We live by faith in Christ. But the basis of my faith is His faith, not mine!

And you might ask what about back in the gospels, when Jesus said let it be unto you according to your faith? Or, He would say where is your faith?

Let me just point out that the Greek is so exact that there is no "wiggle room" in there as to what it's talking about.

For instance, when Jesus said where is your faith, just the pronoun "your" means where is the faith that you're supposed to possess.

If He was challenging them to produce the faith, it would not be a personal pronoun, it would be a reflexive pronoun, "Where is the faith of you? Why aren't you producing it?"

Jesus never used a reflexive pronoun because the gospels is a historical presentation to us of three years of Jesus taking the disciples, and putting them in situations that are designed for God's Spirit to do, not for human beings to do, putting them into those situations and letting them fail. They tried!

Jesus was not challenging them in each of those circumstances to perform, and then after three years say "When are you guys going to learn?" Jesus wasn't challenging them to come up with the faith. He was showing them that without Christ, they cannot do one thing. They can't do it!

But for me, the definition of faith is persuasion. And it is a word that describes the presence and the activity of God's Spirit in the life of the believer. So it's Christ in me that persuades me. I am under the influence of an unseen Spirit that persuades me and ministers to me. And for me, that is faith!

Again, thank you for what you've shared!

I'm with Jesus, He wasn't cremated. Jesus also rose in three days. I looked up a few verses about 'burial' and it talks alot of burials of people. I believe what the Bible says about our bodies being a home/shell for the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Please pray for Dennys tests to be negative. Pray for Tyler's mental, physical and spiritual health and for Justin to come back to the Lord. Pray for a hedge of protection around all my children and grandchildren

Gerald,

Here is my continuation:

I have given my understanding of the human kind of persuasion, or human faith. It is persuading ourselves to believe.

The God kind of persuasion, or biblical faith describes what God's Spirit does in the life of the believer.

All of His ministry to me, everything that God's Spirit does in me, and everything that God's Spirit does when I get together with other believers for bible study, and I'm not saying that 100% of it is the Lord, but every time the Holy Spirit ministers to me, it all comes under the category of persuasion because He is someone I cannot see, and cannot audibly hear.

There is something persuading us about the truth, or persuading us about the things of Christ.

I have a personal definition of faith. Faith is the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life.

That's God's faith. That's the faith that's in the bible. In Galatians 5:22, it says but the fruit of the Spirit, (speaking of the Holy Spirit), is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith.

Faith is a fruit of God's Spirit. Faith is a persuasion which God's Spirit produces, not man.

In Hebrews 12:2, we are told to run the race, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

However, the word "our" as in our faith, it's not in the Greek text. It's the word "the." He is the author and the finisher of the faith.

If you have a copy of the old King James Bible, there are numerous phrases that talk about the faith of Christ.

The newer translations will take the phrase "the faith of Christ," and change it to faith "in" Christ, because the translators said it makes it sound like it's the Lord's faith. Well, duh! But they said it must be "in Christ." No, it's the faith of Christ!

I am going to need one more post. My apologies for being long winded!

Part 2.

Now one may think, "if I devote myself to a mission then I don't have to work, the church should provide for me and my family". Is this right? What does the Bible says about that?

It is true that God gives to people who are missioners for Him the right not to work but live with what the church provides for them, so that they are not distracted from their mission, it is not possible to go travelling and work at the same time, it is very hard to work and supervise a church at the same time. There is hardly enough time for both. Paul deals with that extensively in 1 Corinthians 9:1-14.

But through ages a major problem has been created in Christianity. A right that was given by God to His people to help them to work for Him, has been taken advantage of by many to make it a profession and live from it. There are a lot of people who choose it as a profession. There are also many that they make millions from that. They often claim that God provides them with plenty of money for their mission to become easier. And they don't stop asking from believers persistently even by using/twisting God's Word, the tiths, which tiths are not valid now in New Testament.

The same problem seems to have occured in Paul's time. So what Paul decided to do was to deny that right and work with His own hands for him and his accompanions, 1 Cor 9:15-18. He also suggests that to the elders in Ephessus, Acts 20:32-35. But it also seems that many times he accepted help from churches, since it wasn't always easy to find a job in those places he travelled to. And many times he was left hungry and thirsty... 1 Cor 4:11-12.

GBU

Gerald,

First, let me say thank you for taking the time to share your understanding of the word faith. You have shared some things that I fully agree with.

It looks to me from reading through your 3-part post, that you believe there are two types of faith. I also believe there are two types of faith, human faith which everyone has, both believer and non-believer alike. And then there's the faith that the Bible speaks of. Every one has human faith. But not everyone has biblical faith.

I believe I have a strong understanding of biblical faith, as you also believe you do. I will keep this as short as I can, but will try and further share why I believe the way I do.

But please know that I am only sharing my understanding the same way you shared yours. I am not looking for an argument on the word faith, just sharing what I firmly believe.

First of all, the word faith in Greek is PISTIS. It is from the word PEITHO which means to persuade. If you're into the study of Greek culture or Greek mythology, you know that Peithos was the goddess of persuasion.

But Peitho is the root word for the word faith. The verb form of Pistis is the word that means to believe.

In Greek, not so much English, but in Greek, how a Hellenist or Greek speaking person would understand faith, he or she would understand it as persuasion.

People hear the word faith and they go in all different directions as to what faith is. But faith is Pistis. And it means persuasion.

There are two kinds of faith because there are two sources of faith. And remember that every time we say faith, we are making reference to persuasion. But there are two kinds of faith, and two sources of faith. One is human, and one is from God as a source.

The human kind of faith is when the human being persuades himself or herself to believe. That's not biblical faith.

I am going to need a little more space so please bear with me!

It does exist in Christ in a nondualistic way, that means that the masculine and feminine qualities is united in a sacred marriage within Him. Without division in two separate outer forms . That is the reason why we do not marry in heaven as is often seen on earth.

Dear Owen,

Many of us see what is going on around us and it grieves us so-and it should. But we can always pray about it. God knows, He hears and He is always accomplishing His good an perfect will in this world. He is always sovereign and nothing is a surprise to Him. Knowing these things comforts us when we are overwhelmed by the extremeness of evil around us.

I will pray for you today, Owen.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus and ask that You will help us to cope with the wicked world we live in. It gets us down and grieves us to see and hear about others being mistreated very badly and evil goings-on increasing in frequency and magnitude. Please take our heavy hearts upon You and bring us comfort and faith in Who You are and knowing that You are in control. Cause us to have compassion on those who we come in contact with and follow the lead of Your Spirit in how we can best serve them. Prompt us to speak You Word in love to those the Spirit shows us need to hear a truly Good Word. Help Owen as he works each day with others. Shield him from some of the disturbing matters and highlight for him some of the really great things that You and Your children are doing in this world. We have our hope firmly grounded in You and are trusting You to not give us more than we can bear. Amen.