Bible Questions & Discussion PAGE 752

Maria,

In Matthew 9:35-38, we have the teaching of the harvest. In Verses 37 and 38, Jesus says to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."

First of all we have the condition of the harvest. Jesus said to His disciples that the harvest truly is plenteous. Notice the condition of the harvest? It is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Now when it comes to the harvest, it is not just reaping the harvest. It is the entire process, the planting, the watering, and the reaping of the harvest. But there's not enough workers.

But notice verse 38. This is the command concerning the Harvest: (Pray), and that is a command in the Greek. We are commanded to pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.

Did you catch that? We are to pray that He sends them out! The best I could do in proper representation of Jesus Christ and His word is to say to someone that God's kingdom work is going on here on the earth, and is the Lord sending you? You see, we can't volunteer! The Lord has to send out the harvesters. It is not an appeal for volunteers. It is praying to the Lord that He sends people.

Witnessing Christ to others is such an awesome experience but the Lord does not put a guilt trip on anyone because they are not getting out there or meeting a quota. I can only speak for myself. I have witnessed Christ to others and it is such a blessing when the Lord presents those opportunities for me to do so. But if He's not leading me to witness, in other words, if His Spirit is not in it, my labor is in vain.

And yet Jesus says in John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the (Father) which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Why the difference here?

Luke 12:47

And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

All sins are not the same and do not merit the same punishment. Willful sins are more serious than sins of ignorance, as demonstrated in Luke 12:47. God does not judge sins of ignorance as seriously as willful sins, as shown in Acts 17:30.

Acts 17:30

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Marke you said: The bible refers to leaven as an agent of decay in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7

Matthew 13:33 Another PARABLE spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven (CHRIST IN YOU) is LIKE LEAVEN, which a woman (Christ wife) took, and HID in THREE measures of meal (creation), till the whole (creation) was LEAVENED (CHRIST IN YOU).

The leaven is Christ, not available until Pentecost. The first Israel were unleavened.

1 Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying (in self) is not good, Know ye not that a little leaving (CHRIST IN YOU) leaveneth the WHOLE LUMP (Christ in all men).

1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the OLD LEAVEN (laws in tablets of stone), that ye may be a new lump,as you are unleavened (not holding the LAW OF SPIRIT, CHRIST IN YOU), for even Christ our passover (death passed over; Christ is eternal life) is sacrificed for us.

God Bless You!

Jesus said if i be lifted up I will draw All men unto me...listen to what he is saying I WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME...He is the one who is gonna do the drawing unto Him..Not us..

....Thats y Isaiah is saying I WAS FOUND OF THEM THAT SOUGHT ME NOT I WAS MADE MANIFEST UNTO THEM THAT ASKED NOT AFTER ME Romans 10 : 20 kjv...This the result of that New Covenant...They shall no more teach their neighbors KNOW the Lord..They shall ALL KNOW ME FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST...This know them all is an intimacy, when the good seed is sown in our hearts resulting in Birth of Christ in us..Being bornagain of an incorruptible seed which is the seed of the bridegroom.

....Thats y Isaiah is saying KNOWLEDGE shall cover the earth as the waters COVER the seas...He is Gonna Know everybody thats y Jeremiah saw all men in travail and Child birth.. Jeremiah 30 : 6.. kjv..Thats y Isaiah saw the babes and the sucklings they are the result of the sower and his seed...the Children of the Kingdom ...Unless ya receive the Kingdom of God as a lil Child you will in no wise enter there in...Thats y he has to KNOW us.

....This new covenant is a Birthing Covenant...Thats y the woman is giving Birth, Plz note the KINGDOM DOES NOT COME TILL THE WOMAN GIVES BIRTH.... Rev. 12 : 10 ...After the woman gives birth, then it says now is come Salvation and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ ( her Child the manchild which is the H.G ) that is gonna rule all nations...he is that spirit of truth that Jesus said was GONA REPROVE the Whole World ...Not only does he have to KNOW US...THERE IS GONNA BE A MARRIAGE TO THE SON OF GOD..They don't call HIM the bridegroom for nothin...His precious seed is his word which is spirt and life...a baby Christ...That Child of PROMISE...The H.G...our new innerman...Because i have spoken these words ( his seed ) sorrows has filled your hearts...Then he said when a woman in in travail she has sorrows but after the Child comes her sorrows are turned into joy...gbu

In Rev 18:4 GOD says "come out of her". Does that mean Babylon or the Catholic church or both?

Me too

Marke,

That is a perfect response, Amen!

Terri,

Matthew 7:21 to 23 gives us the correct understanding of salvation. And please take note of these three things concerning salvation: Number one, it is not what we say. Number 2, it is not what we do. And number 3, it is who He knows!

So first of all, in Matthew 7:21, Jesus says that it is "Not what we say." Jesus says, "Not everyone that says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven." So there will be many that will call on Him but are void of His Spirit. They will not enter in.

Secondly in Matthew 7:22, it is "Not what we do." Jesus says many will say to me, (and this is what they did): we prophesied in your name, we cast out demons, and did works of miracles. That is what they did, and they were right in proclaiming that. However, they did these things on their own, apart from God working in their lives.

Notice what Jesus tells them in the next verse ( Matthew 7:23). It's who He knows. Jesus says, "Then I will profess to them, I never knew you." You see, it is who He knows. A person is saved not because they know the Lord. A person is saved because the Lord knows them.

Over the last several years, I have been coming to know the Lord that already knew me. He already knows me! He calls me by name and I am one of His sheep. I respond to His voice.

Paul said the same thing in Galatians 4:9. He says, "But now after you have known God, but rather, you are known by God, how do you turn again to the beggarly elements?" You see, Paul corrected himself in Galatians 4:9. Now that you have come to know God, or rather, that God has come to know you, how can you go back out into the world?

I belong to Him. I claim Him as my Lord and Savior, but I am one of His sheep. He knows me. I'm not sure if He's proud of that, but He knows me. So it is not based on me knowing Him. It doesn't matter how much I think I know Him. If He doesn't know me, it means nothing!

Hope this helps!

Hello again Giannis,

A gift is not a gift unless it is received. In order to receive the gift of salvation, a person must repent. I agree that if a person does not repent (make the decision to change the direction of their life), and they do not surrender their life to Christ, they can never obtain salvation. I believe that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for all my sin (Past/Present/Future). I believe His blood covered it all.

Now, I know right away what some who are reading this are going to think, and you allude to this when you said "So a Christian shouldn't think that no matter what he does, no matter how he walks everything is OK. It's not OK."

It seems as that those who believe in eternal security are being accused of believing that they have a license to sin all they want because they are always going to be saved no matter what they do. I can tell you straight up, I do not believe that at all. You see, I belong to Christ. If I take on the attitude of what you describe, "that no matter what I do, no matter how I walk, everything is OK," and I have Christ in me, guess what's going to happen? He's going to deal with me and sometimes the chastisement can be very harsh.

In fact, that would be a good test (not recommended), but if a person wants to know if they truly belong to Christ, go out and start sinning all you want. If God does not deal with you, then it's time to start taking inventory and asking, "Am I really saved?" Did I have to do something? Yes! I had to repent. I had to surrender my life to Jesus Christ in order to receive the gift.



As for Matthew 6:15, am I to forgive others? Yes! But how do I have the ability to forgive unless God's Spirit gives me that ability? Without Christ in me, my flesh would be out for revenge. I forgive others because God's Spirit working in me gives me the ability to forgive. His Spirit never stops working.

And please know that you have not offended me at all.

I am curious, did the ladies in the room get filled with the Holy Spirit?

Terry.

Jude 1:24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

Like your reply

Thank-you so much, Dorothy and also for explaining why the beatitudes are so important. That was a neat realization that they are presented to show us the way to salvation. Ultimately Jesus is our only means to salvation, but we need the beatitudes to show us the steps we must make with His power.

Trust God with your heart. Pray , study, learn,share ,teach from the Bible.Let God guide your heart.He loves His children.I love God. Can't go wrong there.

Thank-you so very much!

Dear Xavier , there is no substitute for actually reading the whole Bible . All of it , regularly . The thought of flipping through pages , either paper ones or computer ones , in order to just pick out certain verses and possibly completely removing them from their original context , is a tragedy as far as I'm concerned . Please read it all , in context . You will find everything so much clearer if you do .

Paula,

I would also like to share with you some things about the Beatitudes in Matthew Chapter 5. There are 9 of them and in the original language they are presented in progressive form meaning the second beatitude is based on the first, and the third is based on the second, and the fourth is based on the third, and so on.

The first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" is the foundation for all the others, and all the others are built upon that. All 9 beatitudes begin with the Greek word MAKARIOS and it is the word that is translated blessed in our English bibles. In Greek, MAKARIOS means to experience the fullness of something.

Many Bible translations and commentaries will tell you that the word blessed means "Oh how happy," and that the Lord is presenting how to have a happy life. But technically from the original language, (Greek), and its presentation, what the Lord is saying here is how the disciples of the kingdom of God will experience all the fullness of who God is by these principles.

So principle number 1 in Verse 3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The word "poor" in Greek, PTOKOS, was first used by Plato to describe the beggars, not poor people, but worse than poor people, beggars! Anybody in a position that has to beg to survive is a PTOKOS. In Luke Chapter 16, Lazarus was a beggar.

So when we are talking about a beggar and we are talking about poor "in spirit," the Lord is saying that the number one principle, because the first thing Jesus says is "blessed are the poor in spirit," is that those who that realize their poverty, they are the ones who are going to come to Christ.

Remember, these are progressive. A person can't go any further than this if they don't realize the depravity of their spiritual condition. Mourning in Matthew 5:4 is attached to the realization of the poverty of one's spiritual condition, and mourning over that spiritual condition.

Thank-you soo much for helping me better understand this verse!

Job Ch 2 V 10 , Job says ; What ? Shall we receive good at the hand of God , and shall we not receive evil ? In all this did not Job sin with his lips . There are many more references like this , especially in the Old Testament , for some reason , it seems to me that people think that because the old covenant has been done away with by what Christ did for us , that means the whole of the Old Testament can be ignored . It boggles my mind that any one could think that . Even things that are plainly written such as that Job reference , some people will try to manipulate or just completely ignore in order to justify their own beliefs .

Thanks Again and yes I got some clarity.

Thank-you so very much! That's very helpful. I had never really thought about the real meaning before, so thank-you!

keep your heart your truth and it will set you free...love the Lord God with all your heart...

Dear Jesse

OK lets go back to the verse" the wage of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life .."

What does that mean? That eternal life is unconditional? I don't think so. There is a condition for Jesus's blood to be available to you. That is to repent. As long as you are in an unrepentant condition Jesus's. Blood is not abailable to you. So a Christian shouldn't think that no matter what he does, no matter how he walks everything is OK. It's not OK. I don't mean that when you do a sin God is immediately ready to send you to hell, but the way you walk is risky. I think you understand what I am saying

OK lets go to Matthew 6:15 "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." What do you make of that. If God doesn't forgive your sins , no problem at all? I think that thinking like you do one is in danger to consider that eternal life is ensured/secured no matter what he does, and that is risky.

Finally lets go to 1 Corinthians 9:25-27. Apostle Paul talks about himself as well. Pay attention to verse 27 " But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway". That word castaway doesn't ring any bell?

O.K it is well understood that there is a difference in opinions here, I do respect yours but not accept it. Sorry brother, no offense meant.

GBU

My thoughts are this is a follow up to the question asking where black people came from. If you study Biblical archaeology, it's fairly clear. In the garden, which could have well been physically located close to what is now modern Baghdad or in part of would become later Mesopotamia. The colors come from the different mixing of blood from the generations of the seed of Adam and Eve. By the time of the tower of Babel, all races wanted a unified world which demonstrated a pride of man without God. God did disperse all the races to different parts of the world (now countries/continents) and they spoke in different tongues (languages). That's why all colors were not in one concentrated part of the world. About black people in the Bible...some important ones which we only know about in story are the 2nd wife of Moses (she was Ethiopian and all Ethiopians back then were black). In Acts the first Gentile recorded to get saved during the apostolic church was a black man (the eunich was also Ethiopian).

The study above that Mishael posted could very be well how God did it. We won't know in this lifetime but consider all the minerals, amino acids and vitamins that are required in our blood to live. There are certain natural chemical elements in our bodies which sometimes make us wonder...why is that there? I imagine this was part of God's brilliant creation of mankind.

I agree with you I think you did the right thing. God bless you I am praying for you and may Jesus be with. Also it's not you fault.

Amen brother. There are certain things which I believe according to the Revelation have been fulfilled. However, I do believe miracles and healing never ceased. In fact, we know that it's true -- everyone knows of one instance in their life in which someone they know turned to Christ in time of need and was healed. When Captain Sulley (whether he was Christian or not) landed that plane in the Hudson; that only could have been done if God allowed it. I've been in aviation for years and ditch landings (landing on water); 99% lead to catastrophic breakup of an aircraft. When people call it a miracle, that's true. But they don't often give God that credit. What I do sometimes criticize is that many modern churches focus more on miracles and healing ; rather than traditional worship, alter calls and Biblical teaching. The focus on signs is to keep people reliant on the physical church, place their faith (and money) in a man and most never get saved. Now, if you go to fundamental congregation and pray for healing; I guarantee they're going to pray for your healing. The only difference is -- they won't ask you for your bankroll as it's a work of God and God's not a vending machine. I think the fear of God has departed from many. If they feared God, they would not do such things in vanity.

But I think we're in accord brother and I like your preaching! Keep it up because many here in this page need that.

THE WORKS OF GOD

2 Samuel 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he (the LORD) moved (caused) David against them to say, Go, number Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:2 And SATAN stood up against Israel, and provoked (caused) David to number Israel.

Same event in the history of Israel; yet one says Satan caused, and one says the LORD caused.

Isaiah 54:16 Behold, I (the Father) have created the smith (Christ) that bloweth the coals in the FIRE (our God is a consuming FIRE), and that bringeth forth an instrument (Satan) for his (Christ) WORK; and I (the Lord) have CREATED the waster (SATAN) to destroy (destruction of the flesh).

1 Corinthians 5:5 To deliver such a one to SATAN for the DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

God does EVERYTHING through the hands of men, God brings his judgements on earth through the hands of men.

Isaiah 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of MINE (God's) anger, and the staff in their (Assyria) hand is MINE (God's) indignation.

Isaiah 10:6 I (God) will send him (Assyria) against a hypocritical nation (Israel), and against the people of my wrath will I (God) give him (Assyria) a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the street.

Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S HAND .......

Satan is an INSTRUMENT IN GOD'S HAND.

God Bless You

What if you have but still don't understand.

Yes you are right. We need to pray for what we need. Not what we want. And we also need to pray for everyone as God says to. And also love one another when things are not going right we need to trust in Jesus and be an example, and do as we are told. It is really hard sometimes, I go through perscution at school. I don't like the school that I am going to. Everyone that I know is mean, and some are really selfish. They don't care about others or don't care about how others feel when they are getting bullied. They also make conclusions that are not even true. Perscution and evil people are everywhere. Christians are the number one people that get it. I'd rather be home schooled to be honest. They judge you and they don't even know you, very well and others are bullied for no reason. I know that we are not perfect no not one is perfect, and that everyone is not going to be a good friend. But if others were in other peoples shoes and seen how they felt or what they were going through. Then they would defeintly change their ways. And just because someone is just not like you. It doesn't give others a right to bully or to judge them. Before others go judging they should take a look at themselves and think about what they were saying. Every single person is guilty and has either bullied someone or even disobeyed their parents. It doesn't change the way we feel but have we ever thought what Jesus thought or what he thinks about bullying or disobeying we need to think of others and care and pray for them. This world need prayer and also Jesus. I am not playing around or joking but I am being honest.