I've read the bible multiple times this year.
That's great! Do you study it, too? Do you dig into it and pore over its contents, forming a clear conception of its primary themes, linking them together through the Bible, then getting up-close-and-personal to Scripture, looking at word etymology, common usage, literary style, cultural context, etc, to get as much from each verse and passage as possible? Simply reading the Bible is the very lightest treatment of God's word you can give it. Reading is a start, but there's much more to be done with Scripture! Are you memorizing it? (
Psalms 119:11; Proverbs 3:1-3) Are you meditating on it? (
Psalms 1; Philippians 4:8) Are you living it out in your life? (
James 1:22-25)
People hate me so much that they will disagree with me or reject what I'm telling them just to spite me has been a problem.
Jesus didn't get a great reception from everybody. In fact, some hated his message so much they got him beaten within an inch of his life then nailed to a cross to die. He had his eye on us, though, on our great need of saving, and on the joy of doing the will of the Father (
Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 10:7-9; John 5:30), even though he suffered terribly to redeem us. If he'd been focused on his suffering, on how poorly he was being treated, how unfair it was, he'd never have gone through with his atonement for our sin.
Sometimes, though, if we lose sight of loving the ones with whom we are sharing the God's truth, we can get in our own way, and put off people, not because of
what we say, but because of
how we say it.
(See:
2 Timothy 2:24-26)
Walking up to people and witnessing, or preaching, kinda requires physical walking, leaving the house. I'm a cripple.
I've got my own physical issues. It's partly why I write on CF. The 'net, though, opens up a universe of people and places to whom and in which you can be a bright light for Christ without having to leave your home.
I then feel responsible because I just caused someone to reject Christ.
Friend, most of the time God is working in spite of us to save people. We're chipped, cracked, worn vessels that He uses anyway, because He's greater than all our failings. The crucial thing isn't that we are perfect, powerfully persuasive, and wonderfully winsome but that
He is. He asks us to be pure and willing to be used, well-informed about our faith so we are ready to give an answer for it to any who ask, loving Him deeply and humbly submitted to Him, but the rest, the actual saving of folk, is entirely His domain. (
2 Timothy 2:25; John 6:44)
I've even tried witnessing in online games, being that's an avenue I can actually talk to people and they can't judge me by my physical appearance so maybe they wouldn't instantly hate me and hate anything I said even if it's good news.
Nope.. that hate follows me.
I've been called "Christcuck" more times than I want to remember.
I feel like it's not helping the Kingdom at all.
Live and learn. Give God control of you all throughout every day. Let Him shape in you the character of Christ. Understand the World will not, for the most part, want to hear the light and truth of the Gospel. But there are always some who, hearing the truth of salvation - perhaps through you - will be drawn to it and rescued from hell, brought into God's family and fellowship with their Maker. Your job isn't to please those who hate God and His truth, to make them like you, but to be a faithful ambassador for Christ, suffering for His sake, bringing the Light and Life of Jesus to the lost.
It's through scripture, I ask, I get pointed to scripture, or a word from scripture. Such as just the name Mephibosheth
or
"I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope."
which is Psalm 130:5
Okay. Fair enough. How do you know it's the Spirit bringing Scripture to mind in answer to your prayer, and not just your own mind at work finding an answer for you?
Well, it was repeating the same question I had asked before and gotten those 2 answers before, silently, without moving my mouth.
Can demons read your mind?
God can, Psalm 139
so.. right then.. when I asked my question... no the mask did not fall off, it was the tube that connects to the mask and it was pulled out.
I'm still not seeing why you should link the CPAP tube coming out of the mask to an answer to prayer. A whole bunch of things were happening at the exact time you prayed and your CPAP tube fell out: Your mask remained on; the CPAP continued to function; your heart kept beating; gravity continued to work; the earth proceeded in its orbit the sun; cars moved along road ways; toilets flushed, birds flew, and so on. How do you know the tube falling out was the one thing out of all of the things that happened in that moment that was a communication from God? It's just an
assumption you're making that the tube was a sign, a message from God - a message, by the way, the content of which
you end up having to form
for yourself. Friend, this is NOT how God communicates with us. Is there any such instance in all of Scripture? Not that I know of. Instead, when God communicated to people in the record of the Bible it was crystal clear
He was speaking and the content of His communication was likewise totally plain, no guessing about it whatever. He used burning bushes, a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, the ground opening and swallowing up the wicked, a disembodied hand writing with its finger on a wall, angelic visits, a talking donkey, consuming fire from heaven, and so on, not coincidence.
anyway we're getting off track.
I think gaming is a Christian liberty issue that requires discernment as to what can lead you to sin, or subjects yourself to content that is unhealthy spiritually.
others say don't game at all.
Well, as I already said, playing a video game
occasionally is perfectly alright - except if it is demonic, occultic, hyper-sexual and/or violent.
God has given us richly all things to enjoy (
1 Timothy 6:17). But, as the apostle Paul wrote, we should never be brought under the power of anything we enjoy, except God (
1 Corinthians 6:12). Anything we would not instantly and permanently forsake in our pursuit of God is an idol, a competitor with Him in our lives, that will bring us to harm if we don't give it up.