something I have noticed is that things that come easy to me, seem like things anyone and everyone should be able to do with ease, yet things that come naturally to other people in that way, are not easy things for me. Sure, I can paint....like I'm in elementary school. But I don't understand why everyone can't sing. Don't ask me to pick up a musical instrument for you will swear someone is murdering a poor cat. Yet my Pastor can pick up any instrument and lift up an entire congregation with ease.
Perhaps for someone that can speak in tongues, they find it "easy". I was not given that gift, but the Lord did bless me to be eloquent with the words I do have, and to express myself well. I swear when people start talking in tongues, it kind of makes my skin crawl, for I don't understand it, and it is truly foreign to me.. That is when I have to remember that this is not my gift, but theirs and it is not my place to question their gift. That is between them and God, and its not about me.
Bravo Gentlemen, I am glad to hear this from you for I just posted on ask the men pretty much the same concern, for often I see these seductive pictures of women, and men are all over welcoming them to the forums, when their cleavage leaves little to the imagination and the "pose" often matches the ideals expressed on view of sexuality etc. I really haven't noticed that sort of "Hey Baby!" flirty stuff with women that truly do present themselves for the Christians they profess and live by. So I asked the men to be candid about this, for obviously there are women that aren't getting message or maybe they are and I'm not.
Men, what I want to see is your SMILE and your personality. I am intrigued with integrity and a walk that shows what the Lord means to you. I don't really know you, I don't want to know what you really look like with out a shirt,nor do I want you to be able to picture what I look like with out mine. I want you to fall in love with my heart for the Lord, and my heart for others. Any photo on a bed should be considered inappropriate by the moderators I would think. After all, I have had to rephrase a line for saying the word "on" instead of "for" when I expressed divorce was hard "for' children. Yet we can have people asking on the forums if others are "prudes" and that is somehow okay. She went with the direction the wind took it, which was no real surprise.
Am I the only one tempted to say, "Put on a shirt and we'll talk" to some of these people? Or "Do you always entertain guests in your bedroom?" or do you "pose" like that for everybody?
If people will act like this for total strangers? How strange will they actually behave when they really start dating someone they ARE interested in? I mean really, you can say that you are saving it for marriage, but when your own body language calls you a liar, what do you expect someone interested in you will expect in return. That is what I want to say to them.
Really, if someone begs people to look, are they really going to protest when someone responds and wants to touch? If a person can give away their image so lightly, how hard is it to give away your body, and how close are you really to giving away your soul?
If Jesus called and said He would be over in five minutes, is that what you would wear to the door? and when you invite Him in, will you be entertaining Him in the bedroom?
People who do this make it difficult for those of us that strive to do what we know is right Biblically, and those that respond to it only encourage the behavior.
Maybe what is really appropriate would be to report abuse to the moderators for if our innocent words can be interpreted to mean something other than what they are, then a picture being would a thousand words is really saying so much more. Truthfully though, I think they will continue to act as they do as long as people just cannot wait to drool all over them because they are suggestive.
There. Now I hope others will have the courage to say how they really feel, one way or the other.
Men, I understand God made you visual, and of course, we ALL like to see who we are talking to. That being said, sometimes on the forums I notice people dressed in a somewhat seductive manner to say the least. Both men and women do it, but mostly women I think and mostly young people, but occasionally some are really not that young either. I know what I think when I see this, but obviously opinions on this must vary from what I can tell. I am not asking for what the Bible says on it, for those that are obedient in the Word know, and those that are not apparently don't care all that much. So here is the question, when you see a seductive woman's picture on this site, what are your thoughts on it? And do you want to talk to here or run from her? Is this working for you, or are you wishing someone would say something, but you really just don't want to be the one? Be honest, now, its only fair to defend what your honest feelings are here, so women will know one way or the other. Nobody is perfect, an not one among us is without our vices.
I think that is the most genuine thing I have heard you say, and it just makes everything come together for me now. I couldn't agree more about what you just said. It is what I call "Trial By Fire" Christianity for those who reach out for the Lord from a very dark place do seem to come away with an understanding that those who have not struggled do not understand. Maybe we just don't learn as quick as other people and are just so stubborn we need the remedial course or something. But there is something about walking out of a world of chaos and confusion into a world of peace and simplicity in Christ that word just can't quite adequately express.
I nearly bled to death in a loveless abusive relationship of my own making, isolated from everyone that cared about me before I found my way to cry out for the Lord, knowing that He was the only one that could fix me and my situation.
That was twenty years back, and not one day since have I not grown in Him, for every day He amazes me more as He shows me who I am in Him, and what I can do with Him in my life.
If I can grow this much in twenty years separate from the Lord by this world, can you imagine how much one can grow in an eternity with Him once satan is removed? I do not know that my mind is big enough to wrap around that for what it truly means.
Congrats Steve on nine years. You must let us know when you hit that ten year mark, cuz we will definitely have to shower you with a cyber party, for none of us needs to tell you how remarkable you are as a person, but I think we would certainly like to!:party:
(Your daughter is a lucky girl to have such an amazing Dad!)
If you Liked "The Truth Project", this is exciting, and you will love it....
Posted : 1 Dec, 2009 11:40 PM
Sunday I was watching Coral Ridge Ministries, and they are soon to be starting something you that you will thoroughly enjoy I am sure, and I too, cannot wait for it to come out in 2010.
Dr Del Tackett, who is the instructor from "The Truth Project" has signed on for active involvement with something new called "Cross Examine" which is meant to bring the Message of the Cross to a new generation. It will "Examine the world through the Light of the Cross" according to Dr Tackett.
If any of you ever get an opportunity to attend the seminar series called "The Truth Project", I HIGHLY recommend it. It takes on every aspect of science and social and economic standards of the world and examines the message we are being programmed and the message as Christians that we are taught in the Word, and how the Bible stands up when and where the ways of man fail.
Definitely a study well worth taking and I know you will LOVE it, which will make you just as excited and ready for "Cross Examine" which is coming out sometime after the first of the year.
Nothing dull about this fascinating series. Hope all of you will look for it, you will NOT be disappointed.
Marriages are so complicated, and even case by case, I have to agree with Godsjude on this one...Nope. And Archemedes too (wow, agreeing with Richard Nixon, now that makes me swallow my last fragment of pride just a little!)
People are so quick to slice and dice the "blame". Let me lean on Dr Phil for a second, "We teach people how to treat us" and having lived under domestic violence with an unfaithful husband, it would be nice to just blame him, but realistically, victims scare me.
Really, when my marriage broke, I was sick. You cannot live with someone that is sick and not get sick. Yeah, he was sick too. So which one of us was sicker? Which one of us was sicker first? Perhaps to some I looked like the prefect victim back then, but looking back, I am sure I was not all that easy to live with either as I was mighty unhappy too, which I am sure did not make him want to step up and be a better husband either.
If a man leads his house astray, shame on him, but often there is a vile and bitter tongue involved on both sides, and I've yet to see a divorce where either party knew a Godly way to behave in the midst of its breaking, even if it was a matter of vile thoughts only, but it usually also involves vile words and behaviors as well.
God might hold a man accountable for his house, but He will also hold a woman accountable for the treatment of her husband, and I think that accountability is likely to be in word, thought, and deed.
I don't see where if both are behaving according to the Word where there should be an issue, for the Lord tells men to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, and women are to submit to their husbands. If a man loves his wife as Christ loves the Church, then there would be no lying or cheating or hitting. If women submit to their husbands, then they would not be submitting to anyone that is not their husband. She would submit and not lie, or cheat or rise up against him.
If they love each other more than they love themselves, they could not do the things that lead to divorce, but each needs to do their part for the two to be as one, which takes what it says about love in Corinthians "Love is patient, Love is Kind.." well all know the rest of the verse, for it is said at every wedding practically, but apparently not practiced in nearly as many marriages, or there would not be so many divorces.
Reverend, Pastor, Preacher, Father, Doctor, Sister, Reverend Mother, Monsignor, Bishop, Pope, and probably a host of many more that I have missed.
All of them apply to those of the cloth. Many of them I really don't like much at all, like Doctor. When I think of doctor, I think of someone trained to diagnose or prescribe in matters of my health. While I know Jesus was the Great Healer and the Ultimate Physician, I really don't think about going to my clergy with a case of planters warts, nor would I think of going to my family physician with a crisis in my faith.
I don't want to tick of any Catholics. I was raised one. But I have a little problem with calling anyone "Father" that isn't my Dad or Heavenly Creator. It has just never felt right to me.
But I do think titles are necessary and good, and I don't have trouble with Reverend necessarily for I think it is good to hold some with revere and high regard when they have gone through extensive seminary training. Whether we call them Reverend or Pastor or even just Preacher, I think such titles should definitely be reserved for those that have gone through and completed seminary training for it does speak to a level of knowledge and training that separates us.
I definitely hold your training Ole Cattle in high regard for you use it well and clarify many thing that come up here on the forums within the Word. That is training most of us do not have.
It is one thing to take what I say and have a high regard for it, but if someone like Ole Cattle says, "Hey wait a minute Tarasye, the Bible says its not that way", I would be the first to say, his training in the Word is far more extensive than my own, and I would likely be the first to say that his understanding if far more accurate.
I know some self taught people in the Word think they should be given the same regard. I don't expect the same regard, nor do I think anyone else should unless they have completed seminary.
Even then we as Christians need to be careful, for many are not actually teaching what they learned in seminary, but have decided to go off on their own direction that is not always Biblical.
Even though a title speaks to the level of training, and should also speak to the ability to give guidance in the Word, I think we all have opinions and knowledge in the Word that is good to share, but I think those who have completed a higher standard are somewhat like moderators, they are expected to use good judgment in the guiding of others.
At that Ole Cattle, I hold you in high regard for the wonderful guidance you give so many of us on this forum. I sincerely respect you, and admire you, and am grateful for that level of training and experience you bring to the forum and share with us all.
I think that seems to be something we all agree on and I think it is dangerous to preach of only one side of God, for the God we serve is more than a loving God. He is also a Jealous God and a God of Wrath, and an Almighty God that can do anything whether it is make it rain for forty days and forty nights or take someone's ability to swallow while the meat is in their mouth.
I fear because of the preachings of those like Joel Osteen, there are many out there that do not believe there is a Hell. I think it is dangerous to believe you can live like Hell, and want nothing to do with the Word or Obedience there in, and that some how you are not rejecting Heaven and what Jesus has gone to prepare for us, for we serve a God that never changes.
I find him to be much more of a motivational speaker than a gifted preacher in the Word. Hearing the same sermon every week with a new joke, and new examples doesn't really feed a person in the Word. I think that is why I became bored with him in a short time. While others that are all about the Word, and can apply it so very well to the days we live in now, they are the Pastors I continue to know and love and listen to, some for more than twenty years now.
I still like to think that God uses even those like Joel Osteen to bring people in, and hopefully make them hungry enough to pursue a Greater Truth through Him. But I also fear that such preachers will have much to answer to someday, for when the day comes that our tongues confess and our knees bow, we stand alone before the throne to give our account, and we don't have a congregation or a popularity poll behind us, and I think that misleading another believer to believe something is okay, when it is clearly not okay in the Word, or clearly not so from what it Written, then we have caused one of His to stumble, and that is something we have to answer for.
I just wanted to say that it is written that until you become like a child in your faith, you will not truly understand. Perhaps this is why you are still waiting to see miracles, while we feel His love. The Pharisees were great at quoting the law and what was written, line by line, verse by verse, but they lacked the purity of heart.
Discredit not those that walk in a path of love toward God, for throughout the ages many have walked that path being completely illiterate and only able to quote what they heard or remembered.
I do not see a lot of things being said here that contradict the Bible. Yes, it is important to read scripture, but many relate better to how scripture applies in their lives than they do to words on a page that they might not be able to grasp all that well. That is why we have Pastors to help people connect scripture to their lives.
I try not to discount the feelings of my Christian Brothers and Sisters for the Lord does speak to our hearts if we are willing to listen for direction through the Holy Spirit.
So please stop bashing those that have child like faith that are not as scholastic in the Word as you might be, for they are no less precious to the Lord, and their love for Him and feelings about Him are no less valuable than someone that might have a photographic memory for the Word. If someone states something that is in direct contradiction to the Word, by all means defend the Word, absolutely, for no one should believe anything the Word states in direct opposition. Obedience in the Word is important.
But the Greatest Feeling we have inside us, Given by God, is Love, and with it we are to Love one another more, not as much, but more the Bible states, than ourselves. It is in His love that He speaks to us and Guides us. It is in being fed in the Word that we come to know our Masters voice in our hearts, which is why we hunger for the word.
So be kind to your brothers and sisters in Christ Tom, for their child like love and simplicity is precious in His Sight.
