Now, lest some people take Paul’s words here out of context and apply them in ways in which he did not mean them, let me say upfront that we must interpret Paul’s words here in light of his testimony that he shared all throughout all of his writings. Therefore, since Paul taught against Christians adding on to their salvation the works of the flesh and the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, and dietary laws and restrictions, and the requirement for circumcision, he is not saying that he did that to save people’s lives.

And since Paul taught against Christians still making sin their practice, and he taught that we must obey our Lord’s commandments under the New Covenant, and he taught on holy living and us being separate (unlike, different) from the world, he also was not saying that he became like the world to win the world nor that he compromised truth and righteousness to win the world nor that he returned to sinful practices to win the world, etc. For he was not a hypocrite who lived the opposite of what he taught.

So, how can we interpret Paul’s words here in a way in which we can apply them to our lives, as followers of Jesus Christ? Well, I believe the Lord Jesus is leading me here to share some of the ways in which he has done and is doing that in and through my life. And the purpose here is never to brag, for I give all the glory to God for all that he does in and through my life for his purposes and for his glory, and which I am only able to do in his power, strength, and wisdom, as he directs me in the way he wants me to go.

And this all began about 20 years ago, first with me gaining possession of my grandmother’s journals – a grandmother who died when I was only 2 years old, so I don’t remember her at all. But when I began reading her journals I began to cry, for I found the person in my life who was like me in so many ways. She expressed herself in so many ways like I express myself, and she loved sharing the gospel, and she loved ministering to other people’s needs, and she loved the Lord Jesus and serving him.

But beginning with her journals the Lord began calling me to this present ministry. And that led to me reading the Bible in context from beginning to end, and then again, and again. And the Lord began opening my eyes to so much truth I never knew before. And then he called me to write down what he was teaching me through his word each day and to post these writings on the internet. Now, at first, he was teaching me much I had no understanding of previously and he was helping me unlearn some things, too.

But then the writings began to form into daily devotions and he expanded the area of opportunities for sharing these writings with the public over the span of these 20 years. But here is where it applies to what Paul was talking about, I believe. Well, first of all I was writing and posting on the internet what the Lord was teaching me each day. So this was something new in my life I had never done before, that I recall, and so I was now able to reach people with the gospel in nations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

While I served as a Bible teacher just in my local church congregation, that was the limit of my outreach. But now that I was on the internet, I could reach people all over the world. So I became an internet devotion writer so that I, by the grace of God, might save some. Then seven years into that the Lord gave me the gift of writing simple but biblical songs of faith to also share on the internet with the people of the world. Seven more years passed, and then he had me begin writing poems to share with the world.

That was in 2018, and that is when he led me to write my first (short) book (internet only), which is my testimony of my life experiences and what the Lord taught me through those experiences, and for the encouragement of others who have gone through or who are presently going through the same kinds of experiences in which I had, some of which I am still going through. And then in 2023 the Lord had me write a second book, this one much shorter, on the subject of some of my church experiences.

In March of 2020 the Lord had me record my first talk video which was during the time of the Covid crisis and the shutdowns and the year of elections in the USA. There was a lot of emotional upheaval during this time, and so the fifth talk video was on the subject of God being in control over all things, and so it was for the purpose of encouragement in those troubled times. And this was not preplanned out. The Lord just gave me a Scripture and then I talked on that Scripture just as the Lord taught me then.

And then, within the last year, I believe, the Lord had me begin writing Christian memes, which are very short devotionals captured in a form of a picture so that the whole thing can be read without having to scroll down through a longer document as is this one. And then more recently he has led me to record myself reading these memes and posting them on the internet, as well. And so what began as me writing my personal devotions each day and posting them on the internet, led to writing songs, poems, books, Christian memes, and then to recording devotions and memes in videos.

So, how does all this relate to what Paul said?

Well, I used to just teach the Scriptures to a small group of women and I sang in a choir and sometimes did special music, but I only reached a small group of people and a limited venue and means of communication. Since we live in a day and time where the world is on the internet and where many people like videos over reading, or they prefer poems over prose, or they like things short and not long, and where “memes” are popular, as well as videos, and where they like listening to music and not talking, these six different forms of communication the Lord has led me to do are reaching so many more people of different likes and locations. All glory to God!

Now, this video talk below was the fifth talk video that I did in 2020, and it encouraged my heart listening to it again today, so if you like watching videos instead of reading, and if you like things simple, then I would encourage you to watch it, for our God is absolutely in control over all that he has made, and he is in control of all that he has called me and equipped me to do these past 20 years in all the different areas of ministry to which he has called me so that more people could be reached with the message of the gospel of our salvation.

God is in Control

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I'd like to gather recipes that are compliant with Orthodox fasting, I would hugely appreciate if anyone could contribute, or point me to any resources for this. I am having a hard time finding anything.

Many many thanks

Shot picking up his wife -Mike Gill

I got hold of Pastor Guerin's Documentary Report on the Aberrent Practices of the Kansas City Prophets. As part of the report, there were extensive quotes of the prophecies of Bob Jones, a disgraced Kansas City prophet (sexual misconduct exposed). I downloaded the PDF file, and set it up on my Voice Dream Reader Software. I listened to this section for around 2 hours around bedtime. I turned it off and went to sleep. Soon after I had a real nightmare where I felt trapped, and began yelling in my dream, "Wake me up! Wake me up!" After what seemed to me quite a while, I abruptly woke up. I felt so disturbed, I decided not to listen to any more of that document.

Because this was the most serious nightmare that I have had for a very long time, and it coming straight after listening (through my Reader software) written copies of these false prophecies, I came to the conclusion that I had suffered a very serious demonic attack. In order to be able to get back to sleep, I changed to my Voice Dream Reader rendering of The Christian In Complete Armour to immerse myself in material that was saturated in God's Word concerning defeating the wiles of the devil and being protected by the armour of God.

For this reason, I want to warn people not to heed false prophecies, and just listening or reading them can open one up to an attack by a divination spirit, as it did with me. The only way we can be protected is to have a deep knowledge of God's Word through extensive study of the Scriptures, so that as soon as we hear a false prophecy, we will know it right away and be able to reject it before a spirit of divination can get anywhere near us.

It is interesting that the recent "outing" of Mike Bickle being found guilty of "clergy abuse" involving sexual encounters with young women, and using manipulative prophecy to entice young women into these encounters, he is the third Kansas City prophet along with Bob Jones and Paul Cain to have their immorality exposed, thereby making their prophecies tainted and therefore false. Because these three are the most prominent prophets of the Kansas City Prophets, one must have to question the validity of the NAR movement as a whole.

Some are inclined to pick a religious leader, such as Pope Francis, and dig diligently for dirt with which to besmirch them. Some are inclined to mock principled decisions made by them. Some count them as their enemies and their work as wicked and so they want nothing more than to find a scandal and to expose them using it. A few mock them with words like "heretic" and "hypocrite". God has something to say about this approach to religion.

[Psa 1:1-6]


Albert Barnes says:
It is worth while taking some care about what seat you choose to sit in.

Divine justice for the eviction case was swift incoming. The company he is working for is folding up in October, and he will get an update in mid-February. He is currently looking for a job, as he doesn't want to retire and him retiring will likely drive my mom insane.

Please pray that he does find a job, but NOT where me and my brother are living. We do NOT need him living back here, as he has a long and sordid history of being an abusive jerk. We also probably don't have enough space for all of our stuff (parents' stuff plus our belongings) in this house at this point.

I am such a lukewarm "Christian" I don't evangelize, I hardly ever give to charity or do anything real Christians do. I'm a Christian on paper but I'm not a Christian in action. Just about all I do all day is play video games to wait for my wife to come home from work and watch TV with her when she gets home. That's it. That's my life. I don't take the time to evangelize in video games which is what I always wanted to do because video games are my main talent and I know how to talk to people.

I hardly if ever go to church even though I'm really good friends with our Elder and his wife and the deacons at our church. But, our elder doesn't mind because my wife has to spend many Sundays working and our church is an hour drive away. So he doesn't get on my case in fact, he keeps telling me that everything will be alright. I keep telling him that all I do is live in sin and he says "Join the club" and when I tell him about the video games though he says that I should be a Christian of action. Actively going out there and preaching the gospel. Donating what I can and being there for people.

So maybe my video game idea isn't that bad afterall. But, I never if hardly ever act on it. I'm just depressed and sick of being too disabled to work myself. If I worked at a job I could at least practice being kind to others and I could earn extra income to help make a difference in the world.

But since I'm schizophrenic/bipolar and manic sometimes for months at a time that just isn't going to realistically happen. I know ultimately God is in control and I'm living the best life that I possibly can but I just feel apart from God. Its like I don't even care anymore. Don't get me wrong I love God and I love the Biblical Jesus. I know he died for my every sin past present and future now and forever. I know he is guiding me every step of the way but I feel so distanced from God and I feel so alone. There's gotta be other lukewarm Christians out there that can relate...

#1 And I say also unto thee , that thou art Peter // Petros in the Nominative Case . as the subject , in the SINGULAR and only to Peter .

# 2 THIS // OUTOS , is a DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN , in the Dative Case , also in the SINGULAR .

# 3 ROCK // PETRA

# 4 CHURCH // EKKLESIA and EKKLESIA does not mean CHURCH , but means ASSEMBLY !!

#5 I WILL BUILD // OIKODOMEO is in the Greek , FUTURE TENSE , ACTIVE VOICE and in the INDICATIVE MOOD which means it is a FACT .

Christ is that ROCK and there are many verses that say that , like , Matt 7:26 , Matt 12:10 , Matt 21:42 , Luke 20:7 and Mark 12:10 and 1 Peter 2:7

It seem to me that many EKKLESIA / ASSEMBLIES are building what Christ will build in the MILLENNIAL KINGDOM and that is a lot of WORK for Nothing .

dan p

Hi,

I am new and need some advice. I suffer from sexual sin. It has been this way since I was in my early-mid teens, and I am now in my 20s. I prayed for many years for it to go away, and was stuck in the continuous cycle of sinning, repenting and then sinning again, always the same lustful sin, and feeling bad in the process. It was at the point where I was lusting like this on a daily basis. I prayed and for awhile nothing happened, but then at some point, when I was sinning I felt like I had God urging me not to. It is hard to describe, but it sort of felt like God was trying to pull me away from sinning. I ended up losing to the flesh anyways. I had another experience like the one above, but I don't remember it as well. Over time I noticed that I wasn't getting the same feelings from doing it anymore, it felt more hollow and empty. It went from daily, to every few days, to a week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months. Now, a little over a day shy of 4 months, I ended up sinning again. Instead of pushing those thoughts away, I entertained them, which was a mistake I seem to make a lot.

Now the thing that worries me, is I kept getting thoughts like "God is going to forgive you anyways, so I might as well sin." Those are evil thoughts, taking advantage of God's kindness, and I don't want to think that way. Even with those terrible thoughts, I ended up putting my selfishness first and sinning anyways. Part of me is happy because this is the longest I went without falling, and it is hard to do that. But those thoughts worry me. I really, really don't want to think that way, I don't want to take advantage of God's mercy. Now I am worried that God is not going to forgive me because I had those thoughts and sinned anyways, but at the same time, I'm not super worried, because I realize those thoughts are evil and I really don't want to think like that, and I want to continue abstaining from sexual sin, and sin in general.

I should mention I suffer from OCD like thoughts as well, but the above I don't think was OCD, I'm pretty sure that was my actual mind.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

The only time physical preparation for NT baptism is recorded in Scripture… is of Saul of Tarsus in the house of Judas. The physical preparation for his baptism is recorded in two separate passages of Scripture: Luke writes that Ananais told Paul to “stand up and be baptized” (Acts 22:16), and he “stood up and was baptized” (Acts 9:18). The whole record of the ceremony of Paul’s baptism on his part was just "stand up." All other recorded baptismal ceremonies in the NT are recorded in far simpler fashion.

In both passages of Luke’s writing, the simple command to Paul was to “Stand up and be baptized” is not “Stand up, go elsewhere, and to be dunked.” Modern day immersion-only advocates interpret Luke’s narritive from “stand up and be baptized” to mean “Stand up, go elsewhere and be dunked.” And a "Should'a, Would'a, Could'a" interpretative principle is articulated.

—————————————

• To render baptism by immersion difficult, if not impracticable in many cases.
• Obstacles have to be overcome in order to be baptized by immersion. Finding a suitable water supply, an extra change of clothes, a towel, a place to change, and proper thermal and weather conditions.
• For example, immersion may be nearly or entirely impossible for desert nomads or Eskimos. If immersion were the only mode of baptism, many people in the icy regions of the North and deserts like the Sahara where sufficient water could not be secured could not be baptized and Jesus would have commanded an impossibility.
• Some individuals have a natural dread of being submerged (aquaphobia), hence never be baptized.
• What about inmates in prison thorough the centuries?
• Historical female modesty around large crowds of men. Great cultural differences have to be over come for immersion baptism. Immersion baptism has massive societal implications, which in some cases immersion baptism would be abhorrent. We are not talking a one off circumstance…we are talking about entire societies.
• Even today practical difficulties can render immersion nearly or entirely impossible for some individuals: for example, people with certain medical conditions—the bedridden; quadriplegics; individuals with tracheotomies (an opening into the airway in the throat) or in negative pressure ventilators (iron lungs).
• People might have to travel for many miles together for a human body to be immersed in any natural stream or pool of water.
• Again, those who have recently undergone certain procedures (such as open-heart surgery) cannot be immersed.
• Or consider those in a hostile setting, such as a Muslim regime, where baptisms must be done in secret, without adequate water for immersion.
• Modern day immersionists enforce their own cultural standards of clean, warm, portable water of sufficient quantity on the history of the world and expect immersion baptisms as practiced in contemporary America to be the norm. A good college class in Anthropology would hopefully cure them of this American interpretation of the mode of baptism.

_____________________
Did John the Baptist, baptize by immersion? John the Baptist was dressed in a camel hair tunic. And estimates is he baptized between six and thirty months before he beheaded by Herod. Did John baptize by immersion thousands dripping wet for months on end regardless of air temperature?
______________________
Tension must be resolved between the cumbersonness and difficulty of immersion baptism and the simplicity of all the baptismal accounts in the NT.

And why don’t the early church fathers comment on these immersion difficulties and offer pastoral advice on how to solve them?

It is strange that those who make so much of the method of Baptism should make so little of its content.

Hey, they just announced this- the Darkstar is real! This is a super secret US Government mach 6 spyplane, they just went public with this! However I would bet anything they already have something even more advanced than this, the reason why they went public was that they already have something better! They have pictures of this thing on the internet.

Here Are The First Images Of Lockheed Darkstar On Display At Edwards AFB

I am old enough to remember the 1984 reelection bid by Ronald Reagan and how at the ripe old age of 73, most Democrats were complaining he was too old to serve a second term.

When Reagan left office after his second term he was 77 years, 349 days old. When Joe Biden took office for his first term he was 78 years, 61 days old. If reelected, he will be 86 when he leaves office. If Trump is reelected he will be 78 years, 220 days old on inauguration, becoming the oldest president ever sworn in.

Unlike our journalistic colleagues, I will leave this question of why we might be forced to pick between two aging candidates without an editorial comment. The presidency is a grave and trying job that aged many younger presidents. Why do we so blithely ignore this now at a time when we are faced with so many challenges?

Why put that lovely mixture of hamburger,onions and spices in bell peppers that end up ugly, wrinkled, discolored and bitter? I like raw bell peppers. Who did this terrible thing to pretty bells?
What's your least favorite food?

The subject matter here is that of our enemies (as interpreted in our present day context), of those who oppose us and who come against us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives, because truly they are opposed to God and to his word, at least in some respects, to the point to where they also reject his servants and messengers who are bringing to them the truth of the gospel and who are serving the Lord Jesus Christ with their lives.


Now the word “dog” was a term used in the Scriptures to describe the spiritually unclean but also false prophets and teachers and evangelists. Today they would be all who are deliberately promoting what they know is a false gospel, and for the whole purpose to deceive the masses into rejecting the truth and into embracing the lies. And they have been very successful in doing just that, at least here in America they have.

Now something the Lord impressed upon my heart this morning is the matter of what constitutes the true message of “the gospel.” For on social media (like Facebook) we get all sorts of ads and “suggested for you” posts that are not from our Facebook friends. And in some of these posts we are being invited either to pray for the missionaries or to support them financially in the spreading of the gospel message to people in other nations. But my question when I read these posts is always, “But what gospel?”

For, you see, the term “gospel” means so many different things to many different people, and so you may support missionaries in their endeavors to preach the gospel to people of other nations, but it may not be the gospel that Jesus and his NT apostles taught (in full context). It may, instead, be a very diluted and altered “gospel” message intended to tickle itching ears and to pacify the flesh of humans and their sinful cravings. For just because it is called “the gospel,” it doesn’t mean necessarily that it is the truth.

For the popular “gospel” message being taught today in America is that we can “believe” (rarely biblically defined) in Jesus Christ, have all our sins forgiven (past, present, and future), then be on our way to heaven, which they say can’t be taken away from us, but regardless of how we live in practice. But “regardless of how we live” is just not biblical. And so we have multiples of people professing Jesus as Lord while they are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, without true repentance.

So, just because they have the title of “preacher,” or “pastor,” or “missionary,” and they claim that they are preaching the gospel of Christ, that is not an assurance that what they are teaching is the truth that Jesus and his NT apostles taught (in full context). For many of them are pulling Scriptures out of their context, and they are placing them in some kind of Scripturally disjointed formula for people to follow, many of which are not biblically accurate because they are not taught in their appropriate context.


In the context of what I have been sharing so far, I see these words in the context of believers in Jesus Christ, who are teaching the truth of the gospel, being opposed and even attacked by those who are promoting a “different gospel” other than the one that Jesus and his NT apostles taught, and that the Scriptures warn us against. So, when we come up against such opposition as this, we should call upon the Lord for the strength and wisdom to know how to proceed and in how to respond, and in what to say.

But then we must continue in speaking the truth of the Scriptures and in refuting the lies of our enemies, in the power of God’s Spirit living within us guiding and directing us in what to say and in how to respond. And we don’t always have to give a response, for some people’s attacks against us are traps being laid for us with the intention to try to trip us up with our words or to get us into some type of endless and fruitless discussion that we know is going to go nowhere that is good. So we need much wisdom.

So what we need to be singing is the truth of the gospel that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught. For Jesus said that if we want to come after him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience, we have eternal life. For not everyone who professes Jesus as Lord will enter heaven, but the one DOING God’s will (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And Paul taught that by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness. For sin is to no longer be what we obey, for if we obey sin, it leads to death, not to life eternal. But if obedience to our Lord is what we obey, in practice, it leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (Romans 6:1-23).

And so the true gospel is going to insist that we die with Christ to sin, that we no longer make sin our practice, and that we now walk in obedience to our Lord in holy living, and in faithfulness, godliness, honesty, moral purity, and love for God and for our fellow humans. And it is going to warn us, and does warn us, that if sin is what we practice, and not obedience, and not righteous living, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith we profess with our lips. So we need to take this to heart.

Therefore, just because someone says that he/she is spreading the message of the gospel to people all over the place, it doesn’t mean that what they are teaching is the true gospel message. So, before you decide to give them your support, ask them which gospel they are teaching. Have them explain to you exactly what they are teaching. For we are not saved by lip service to God. We must follow him in walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living and not in sin for us to have genuine salvation and eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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I was asked the question on another forum, "What will happen to all those Christians who don't worship on the Sabbath?" I gave the following answer... there are some verses that give a clear answer. Here is what best applies....
Acts 17:24-30
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

When we unknowingly make a honest mistake, Gods grace is sufficient and He winks at our ignorance. But when we in all fullness of understanding knowingly do it.......

"You cannot know (in the sense fathom) who God is , you can only know who He is not. "

I concluded this from Isaiah 55:9-
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Is it true that Satan must ask God's permission for every single little thing and temptation he desires to foist upon God's children and creation writ large? Or does God give him a certain latitude that he may creatively unleash hell on us, but only to a certain point, like a dog with a shock collar going to far off the property and getting zapped because he went to far? We see in Job that Satan asked permission but does this story apply to everyone else today?

Some Christian sects practice shunning in some degree..
Do you agree with this practice?

What is the scriptural justification (or refutation) for this?
Are they getting it wrong, and why?

Not only is there is no federal law that comes even close to regulating the private intrastate sale of firearms, but, when Congress has considered the idea in recent years, it has explicitly rejected it (see: Manchin-Toomey).

First it was the border laws. Before this Joe thumbed his nose at the Supreme Court decision on student loans.

Pray that US vs Iran military attacks on each other do Not go out-of-control :

Grandparents can be a big influence in the lives of their grandchildren, for good or for ill.
Think seriously about Your Grandchild and Your TV.