Clock off.

[Stranger]

How do you know, and I never did? All I could do is believe, and believe some more.

Indeed, you never did. When one believes on Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour he then has the Spirit of Christ in him. He comes to a 'knowing' not of the rational mind, but of the Spirit. He then 'reasons' and 'knows'. The natural man cannot know in this realm. Which is why you never knew. Those who say they are 'Christian' and are not, cannot 'know'.

I believe, and I know.

Stranger

 

[brakelite]

So now we've all gotten to know you, allow me to present to you a fact that seems to have slipped you by. BTW I'm not being facetious or a smart*πs . That one very important fact that you don't seem to have quite grasped is this... God doesn't lie. Yes, the Bible is full of promises. But God doesn't liie. When He promises something, Her means every word. So when He promises (through the scripture) that if you confess your sins, turn away from them ( repent,) He will forgive you, on what basis do you now believe that is not so? I can assure you, that if you met the conditions, you are forgiven. And if you are forgiven, then He has accepted to as His adopted child. You therefore are a Christian. If you met the conditions. Because don't let anyone fool you, while God's love is unconditional, His salvation is not.
As for your healing, I have no answer to that. Good friends of mine have died from cancer.i don't pretend to have all the answers. That's where your relationship with Jesus comes in. The closer to get to him, the better to get to know him, the more you will understand stuff that pertains just to you.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Having peace and contentment doesn't make either of us right.

No. It doesn't. Do you need to be right to have peace and contentment?

 

[Project Panda]

No. It doesn't. Do you need to be right to have peace and contentment?

There's a little white chapel

And behind it a boy's been waiting

And behind it there are many twisted tricycles

Then the ground begin's to shake

Then out breaks that black snake

It tries hard to drag him under

It takes his right leg, and leave's the boy for dead

And what was left over, was left for the doctors

And what the doctor's fixed, they fixed demented

And the people in the chapel praised God

While they ate this boy's finger's and toes.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

There's a little white chapel

And behind it a boy's been waiting

And behind it there are many twisted tricycles

Then the ground begin's to shake

Then out breaks that black snake

It tries hard to drag him under

It takes his right leg, and leave's the boy for dead

And what was left over, was left for the doctors

And what the doctor's fixed, they fixed demented

And the people in the chapel praised God

While they ate this boy's finger's and toes.

Is this yours or something you have read that speaks to you?

 

[Project Panda]

Is this yours or something you have read that speaks to you?

I wrote that poem when I was a Christian.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

I wrote that poem when I was a Christian.

It is actually really good. Honest to how you feel. Raw. God sees what is in your heart anyway, no use burying it away and hiding it as if He can't. What do you want me to say? Do you want me to tell you there is no ugly? No twisted tricycles. No snakes. No consuming of others to feed an appetite. No hypocrisy? No Cruelty?

Yet still, this is your hour. He never promised us the physical. He never promised us wealth or success or gain or health. If fact he told us to die to self and in doing so, we would find life. HE promised us spiritual healing. He promised us spiritual wealth and spiritual success. The sickness in the pit of our stomach is in demanding something more. We expect more. The flesh groans for more. It requires faith to walk away from all our expectations for the future and desires, for something unseen.

You want to hang onto this world and stomp and complain and hate on God. There is your answer. You want what you want, more than you want Him. A flash in time, a vapor and then it is gone ...will you fault God in this blur of time, saying He is not good. When God offers us far more the ugly you speak of in your poem.

 

[pia]

I just never acquired victory in Jesus

Then perhaps seek the Living Christ, not just the dry old writings of other peoples experiences with Him....He is alive now, and well able to both hear and speak, as He always was.....If you are here just to stir trouble, I'm sure you won't get far..

 

[pia]

I just had to take it all on faith

A line from the Bible says........" Now faith is the substance of the things hoped ( fully expected) for, the evidence of things not yet seen".......Seems to me you tried to do it the opposite way, so no wonder you didn't get anywhere....You are a bit like, say if the Wright Brothers had said, "Oh yeah we will invent a flying machine, but we MUST see it able to work first"..... Only by and through faith can you come into the reality of God, but once you do, it cannot be taken from you...

 

[pia]

And, these days, the best way to do it is to start with a story. Give them goose bumps. Touch their hearts.

I agree with most of what you write here, but surely there's a simpler way to explain it......If we would just do what Jesus told us to do.....Love them with the Love He has for us........That love by itself will speak volumes to the young who feel they have been swallowed up by corporations and governments and have no real freedom ( as most westerners were brought up to believe in) and so many believe that they have no future because of all the things being done in this world...Because I had a child very late in life, I got to speak to a lot of very young people ( compared to me lol) and I was shocked how many simply didn't believe there was any point to anything anymore, as most thought we'd all go up in smoke from a nuclear war....Very sad !

 

[pia]

I connect better with people now that I'm not concerned with sin nature.

If you understood Jesus' sacrifice, you would understand that this is exactly what He has done for us.....So we no longer have to consider the sin nature ( we are not supposed to).....Anyone more obsessed with sin than anything else has completely missed the whole point of Jesus' coming, all He did and what He is doing now....Still getting wrapped up in and about sin, is simply unbelief.....How could you ever hope to face Him, to look Him square in His eyes, if you thought you were a filthy sinner and someone who He is angry with ? It wouldn't happen, you would surely try to turn away, and that would be a travesty.....Run to Him, into His loving arms.....Don't try to run away from Him, as that is not even possible, but we can certainly turn away from Him, a little or a lot....

 

[Project Panda]

It is actually really good. Honest to how you feel. Raw. God sees what is in your heart anyway, no use burying it away and hiding it as if He can't. What do you want me to say? Do you want me to tell you there is no ugly? No twisted tricycles. No snakes. No consuming of others to feed an appetite. No hypocrisy? No Cruelty?

Yet still, this is your hour. He never promised us the physical. He never promised us wealth or success or gain or health. If fact he told us to die to self and in doing so, we would find life. HE promised us spiritual healing. He promised us spiritual wealth and spiritual success. The sickness in the pit of our stomach is in demanding something more. We expect more. The flesh groans for more. It requires faith to walk away from all our expectations for the future and desires, for something unseen.

You want to hang onto this world and stomp and complain and hate on God. There is your answer. You want what you want, more than you want Him. A flash in time, a vapor and then it is gone ...will you fault God in this blur of time, saying He is not good. When God offers us far more the ugly you speak of in your poem.

You say that God offers me more than the world, but in this thread others have said God doesn't promise anyone a good life. Then what exactly does he offer us (Salvation?)

 

[brakelite]

You say that God offers me more than the world, but in this thread others have said God doesn't promise anyone a good life. Then what exactly does he offer us (Salvation?)

He promises an abundant life. How good that may or may not depend on what you deem good I guess. But abundant takes away boredom...takes away loneliness...takes away your dependency on the things of this world to keep you busy and focused.

 

[Project Panda]

He promises an abundant life. How good that may or may not depend on what you deem good I guess. But abundant takes away boredom...takes away loneliness...takes away your dependency on the things of this world to keep you busy and focused.

Right now you're talking to me from a computer, or phone. Probably lounging back on a nice comfortable chair, while sipping a cool or hot drink. Which you made in lighting speed all the while the electrics are running to warm you up or cool you down. There's food on tap 24/7 and you don't have to lift a finger to do a thing, because there's always some delivery outlet open. If you get bored or lonely you can always text or call a friend, or log on to face book and get involved for your God.

If you hate the thing's of this world then I urge you to give all this up, if you think that nothing in it contributes to your mood or state of mind.

Jesus is all you need, right?

 

[Willie T]

Panda.
Despite what you or I may have, you seem to be living discontented. THAT is what Jesus offers us not to have to feel all the time. And, it works.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

You say that God offers me more than the world, but in this thread others have said God doesn't promise anyone a good life. Then what exactly does he offer us (Salvation?)

He offers us a door of escape. A way out. That door is Christ. He offers us what we really want; something unshakable and that something is Love. The real kind. Not the superficial kind. He offers us the opportunity to rule in His Kingdom. His word says God has no respect of persons but He does respect His own. Why? It is not what is on the exterior that makes us pleasing to God: It is what is in our heart that He respects: Love. As the Son demonstrated it. People who tell you God is collecting a peculiar people to rule with more of the same that is already demonstrated in this world, are wrong. God is not collecting a peculiar people to dominate and oppress; God is collecting a peculiar people that will rule with mercy and grace as was displayed in the Son. God offers us the opportunity to bear His name. Chosen is to be given the Spirit to demonstrate Christ. Demonstrate Him to who? to those that need mercy. This world is temporal and fading away so the offer is not more of this world but something far greater. You want a hero. God is it. You want love. God gives it generously. He is nothing like you explain. I see how it is confusing. Some get their promises. Others don't. But you have it backwards. God doesn't remove the twisted tricycles or the snakes or the hypocrisy...God's healing comes from all those things no longer having any power or dominion over the boy. "O death, where is your sting?" It is when the boy realizes all those things are temporary and are nothing to fear because the boy believes God when God says "I love you." This is when the healing comes. This is when the power comes. God doesn't love a person by giving them more bondage in the world. God sets free from bondage and I have found, God is perfect at working out this true freedom in a person. Think about it, God gives you a little slither of pie today but tomorrow your hunger is still there: No, God is not in the business of stringing you along with little temporary gifts to earn your love and affection. God wants you free. Truly free. The only way that happens is to be anchored in what can't be shaken: that is not found out there in the world but in the heart. His heart.

I am sure you have read of Legion? the man with the many demons who sets in a cave, naked, cutting himself, and crying?
Mark 5:15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. I am convinced sanctification is not in cleaning up what is on the outside by putting on a suit and doing the appropriate steps. Sanctification is when God changes a heart. To be no longer naked but instead clothed, means to put on the Son. "And above all these things put on charity(love), which is the bond of perfectness." (Colossians 3:14).

What does God offers us? "and in his right mind" is to be given the mind of the Son. (peace, love, joy, patience, mercy, forgiveness.). No bitterness. No poison. You want love above all else? God can and will give you love in ways you never imagined but that is the thing, you are thinking with the mind of a broken man. A broken man can't "think" and "blame" his way out of bondage or else he gets more of the same...he has to ask for God to clothe him and feed him and to give him the mind of Christ (God). Then a new perspective comes: ways higher than man can comprehend on his own.

 

[JesusIsFaithful]

I just said that I had questions, why do you think that the answers would lead me back to God. That in a nut shell is my argument, like that guy who assumed that he alone had the answers.

Just said you had questions? Not in the post I had replied to.

Why do I think the answers would lead you back to God? It will not if you are purposefully striving against those answers just for the sake of argument.

The Bridegroom will be coming soon. Do you really want to be procrastinating for the sake of argument, brother?

If christians turn you off from believing in Him, that is not a valid excuse in light of eternity because I am sure you can find non-christians equally capable of turning you off from unbelief if you really want to avoid the double standard.

If there are things in the Bible that turns you off, then ask your questions. I may not know the answer but He will provide the answer if you are seeking them, brother. * And I call you brother because even though you do not believe in Him any more, He still resides in you as per 2 Timothy 2:13 but regardless of how former believers were turned away from the faith in Jesus Christ, God is still calling you to repent before the Bridegroom comes. 2 Timothy 2:18-21

So ask Him at that throne of grace for help to find the answers that over threw your faith in Him, and you may find that He will provide answers to some of your questions ahead of time too.... if you are really seeking them. James 1:5-6 FYI you can click on scriptural reference in the post and the site will pop up a window for you to look at those verses if you are seeking the truth to repent of whatever the cause was that turned you away from Him.

 

[brakelite]

Right now you're talking to me from a computer, or phone. Probably lounging back on a nice comfortable chair, while sipping a cool or hot drink. Which you made in lighting speed all the while the electrics are running to warm you up or cool you down. There's food on tap 24/7 and you don't have to lift a finger to do a thing, because there's always some delivery outlet open. If you get bored or lonely you can always text or call a friend, or log on to face book and get involved for your God.

If you hate the thing's of this world then I urge you to give all this up, if you think that nothing in it contributes to your mood or state of mind.

Jesus is all you need, right?

!8 months ago I had no debts, no money in the bank, no work, no income, my wife and I technically homeless, our only asset a ten year old car, and I was happier than I had been for years. In all circumstances I have learned to be content.

 

[bbyrd009]

I do believe you meant offense after all. Kind of hard to take you seriously from now on.

fwiw i'm sure you speak for many here, and the Bible is even replete with prophets who wanted to die, etc. Maybe we could approach it that way. They were obviously in no position to be teaching though, as we might see

 

[lforrest]

fwiw i'm sure you speak for many here, and the Bible is even replete with prophets who wanted to die, etc. Maybe we could approach it that way. They were obviously in no position to be teaching though, as we might see

Might we? When they were in that state it was God who did the teaching. And quite the lesson he taught to the 7000 survivors in Israel after Elijah was driven into the wilderness for fear of his life.