Just saved a few minutes ago...

Ask God to come into your heart and take control.. it may take a while for it to take full effect, but don't be discouraged as he likes to move into things slowly thus it's easier for you to come to grips with it.. look for him to step in and shine himself into your life and dont' be afriad to make changes he asks when he does. God bless you and best wishes!

JackPK said:

Ok then...

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what my fellow Lutheran sister is saying is that there's much more to believing than what has been presented to you. You have a great start and your sister is a wonderful tool, but you have to continue to read and study, and understand why we even need a savior in the first place. The Gospel is a wonderful tool, but we have to understand that without it, the law condemns us, and if there was no law, then there'd be no need for a savior.

hopefully you have a good church nearby where you can talk to the pastor. often when we start our walk with God on our own we can mistake feelings for truth.

JackPK said:

If I could be half of who she is I would be very happy indeed.

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Firstly, it is nice to meet you and I love the pumpkin king theme, I think you're a great person to have here and I can see in your personality just how much Jesus loves you. So I see people here are helping you to understand and make sense of the Christian faith. That is good, and I won't interfere because we all play our own part in solving the problem of sin in the world.

So, Jesus has called you to consider becoming Christian. I don't think this means you have to change into who your sister is, but if there are things about her that you envy, you can be assured that Jesus will bless you with those gifts as you become more and more holy. Yes, it is holiness that you must pursue. So much more valuable than knowledge is holiness, because by living a life without sin you are contributing good to our world. Of course, Jesus can use sinners to achieve His overall plan of salvation, but you need to be concerned with holiness because you are called by Jesus into the Melchizedek priesthood which is translated as "king of righteousness". That is Jesus, He is the king of righteousness to every king who ever lived. That is why we call Him the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Now, besides getting familiar with the Bible, you need to know that Jesus wants to take your life completely into His hands and mold you and change you into the most holy and perfect disciple you can be, to unleash the epitome of Christianity upon your soul just like He did with Brian Head Welch, and you will be a soldier for Jesus Christ teaching people how to love God and think for themselves. So how does He train us? Read Psalm 23 and notice the parts I have emphasised:

Psalm 23 (New Living Translation)

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.

Notice this, that by giving your life to Jesus, He owns you. Nothing can happen to you unless He says it is ok. So you are taking a stand against anyone who goes up against Jesus, and Jesus is backing you up. This gives me great peace of mind whenever Satan tries to trick me into giving up my faith in Jesus.

One more thing I want to show you and then I'll see what your thoughts are:

Matthew 3:11 (New Living Translation)
11 “I baptize with[a] water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

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Just two things from this:

Jesus baptizes with The Holy Spirit.
What does this mean? You will become bonded to God just as Jesus was. God's Holy Spirit will always be with you and it will guide you as you experience life and your thoughts will always be adjudicated by God's presence.

Jesus baptizes with fire.
What does this mean? Fire is a purifier, so Jesus will purify you to remove all that is unholy leaving only that which shines the light of God's glory, because you are a light shining to the world declaring the truth about Jesus.

Malachi 3:3 (New Living Translation)
3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.

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So there is one thing you must do in order to enter Jesus' royal priesthood: You must be born again.

How? By being baptized in the name of Jesus to demonstrate your covenant with God, and to ask Jesus to take your life into His hands and pledge to honor Him forever. Then you will be the property of Jesus Christ and He will make you into all that you hope to be and so much more. You will tear me to shreds if we ever get at loggerheads, I can see that just from reading your few short posts on this thread! Congratulations for accepting the invitation, I just hope you do decide give your life to Him, oh what a disciple you would be - and in no time at all!

JackPK-

Remember the source of the righteousness that enables all of us to say that we are saved:

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)

The only righteousness that God accepts as true righteousness is that which is equal to his own. But since our righteousness could never 'measure up' to that standard, God himself formulated the plan whereby we can attain the righteousness we need by asking it of him rather than by earning it. This is why Jesus Christ was sent by the Father. The righteousness that we could never earn Christ earned for us:

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written:

"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 9:30-33,NIV)

And how do we repay God for what he has already done for us? We don't. There is no way that a debt of that magnitude can ever be repayed. All we can do is be grateful for what God has done, and accept even more gifts from God. But this gift is the Holy Spirit himself.

The Spirit can do what we cannot, namely, change the very core of our being. We have what we call a 'sinful nature' that endeavors to control what we say and do. The Spirit's job is to 'rein in' that sinful nature, and also to implant in us a new nature that is more appropriate to Christians. We are to cooperate with the Spirit's work, but we are also to recognize that it is the Spirit himself who is doing the work, including engaging our sinful nature in battle. Our job is to stay behind him so that he can lead us in the direction he wants us to go:

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:16-26,NIV)

Take note of how many of 'the acts of the sinful nature' and 'the fruit of the Spirit' are emotions rather than deeds. That's why we need for the Spirit himself to do the work rather than doing it ourselves. It involves the very core of our being, and therefore needs an outside force to subdue it.

Even the tasks that we undertake as Christians are to have Jesus Christ rather than ourselves as the source of their origination. He is the vine; we are the branches. In order for our deeds to accomplsih anything, they must emanate from him, not us:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (The Gospel of St. John 15:1-4,NIV)

And did Jesus give us a direction in which to look in order to perform the tasks that he wants us to do? Yes, he did. But instead of quoting that one I'll let you look it up. You can find it in Matthew 25:31-46.

God bless-

JackPK said:

Well my sister Angel_Wings is now in hospital with pneumonia

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Im praying for her, trust God through this difficult time as he might bring something out of this for a purpose you cannot yet understand. Pehaps to strenghten your faith in him even more.

JackPK said:

Well my sister Angel_Wings is now in hospital with pneumonia

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Now that's interesting. Firstly, I must offer my deepest apologies for what would seem to be a difficult phase of life. Can you tell us how serious it is, is it life threatening? Also, can you share with us the types of thoughts you have had about this? I expect you will have some thoughts related to the way Jesus treats His workers and why He would allow them to become sick, I'm sure that would be an excellent opportunity to discuss more about how Jesus uses each one of us to train others. I think it is important to realize that in everything we experience, there is the possibility to learn from it in a way that increases our faith. So if I was you, I'd be looking at the favors of my heart. How does this event impact the love and respect you have for Jesus? There is a lot to be learned by thinking and sharing your thoughts with other thinkers, I hope you will show us what sort of thoughts you are believing about this.

JackPK said:

Well my sister Angel_Wings is now in hospital with pneumonia

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Hi Jack, I didn't mean to sound so cold hearted in my last post, it's just that I tend to leave worry at the door when I know someone is in Jesus' hands. You may not know how to have that sort of peace yet, so I think maybe you will benefit from listening to this guy's sermon:

www.livingwaters.com

There's one called "Hells best kept secret", and though his sense of humour is a bit rough, he really says some wonderful stuff. One particular thing he says that is relelvant to you goes something like "80% of converts leave the faith again because they were expecting it to make their life better". So you have to examine your motive for why you want to be Christian. Do you want to save yourself from hell, do you want to get to heaven, do you want to join a club, do you envy a Christian's blessings, do you feel outraged that they killed Jesus and you have tomake a stand for the truth? Any reason you choose will have a direct impact on your faith. Anyhow, have a listen to what this guy says, I think this sermon is one that almost every Christian should listen to if they are in the business of fishing for souls.

JackPK said:

Now I feel I've let my sister down. She did alot more than you think. I'm sorry but she DID explain ALOT to me and I can't get EVERY detail in writing because it is months of questions and conversations worth. Please don't belittle her any more. If I could be half of who she is I would be very happy indeed.

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No one is belittling her. We're just telling you to seek out more. Your sister probably did a fine job of teaching you, but you need more. That's all we're saying.

PreachersWife2004 said:

No one is belittling her. We're just telling you to seek out more. Your sister probably did a fine job of teaching you, but you need more. That's all we're saying.

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Just a point to note here, that comes from a recent PM conversation I had with razeontherock regarding my interest in studying at a Bible college. This is what he said:

Anyway, please realize that education is never any better than the individual teacher, and re: the things of G-d no one can really teach you any more than His Spirit.

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So that's the thing, when you are born again and receive The Holy Spirit in your life, He will teach you all things and remind you of what Jesus said. This is how Jesus said it:

John 14:26 (New International Version, ©2011)

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

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Let's examine how this works.

"will teach you all things" - this means that He will take your life into His control. He will lead you, allow you to rest, allow your faith to be tested in order to grow. Basically, because your life is in God's hands, then everyone and everything you come into contact with is going to teach you something. It is the presence of The Holy Spirit that will ensure you are taught according to Jesus' will, if ever you begin thinking sinfully, you will know that you need to repent. However, as long as your thoughts are good and clean, then He will just teach you by helping you to think positively. This is why Christianity is all about free thought, and this is why you see such joy in Christians that you can't explain. It is because their minds are guided to green pastures by The Holy Spirit and His rod and staff are comfort against the forces of darkness.

"will remind you of everything I have said to you" - there is a lot more to the story than what is recorded in The Bible. When you give your life to Jesus and accept The Holy Spirit in your life, then you will begin understanding the story better. How Adam and Eve fell, why Jesus was crucified. These are all things that you can't understand unless you can think of it in the right way, and without having The Holy Spirit, people get so frustrated that they can't understand it based upon the very little knowledge that is revealed through the Bible. But the bible is just the seed, when the seed grows in fertile soil then you will be able to call upon The Holy Spirit for anything and He will answer. Maybe not always the answer you like, but He will answer you in the way according to Jesus' plan for you.

Lastly, I just want to show you that it's not a matter of making a decision and leaving the rest up to God. While it is true to say that it is, you must be prepared to stick with Him through thick and thin, because if you walk away from God there is no-one left who will help you. It's a serious decision, I don't think you can become Christian for any selfish reason. Take a read of this, it is what Jesus says about the Christian faith:

Mark 4 (New Living Translation)
13 Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? 14 The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. 15 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. 16 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 18 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19 but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. 20 And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

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This says that The Bible is just the seed. When sown in good soil (that is, a heart that is ready to love The Lord), then it will grow to be part of the vine of Christ:

John 15 (New Living Translation)

John 15

Jesus, the True Vine

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

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So what I'm telling you here is that Jesus will train you, you don't need to rely on anyone except Him. Your fellow servants to Jesus will be able to help you understand some of the lessons He gives you, but no one of us can claim to be the official teacher of truth, because that is Jesus' title. He said "I am the way, the truth and the life". So just put your trust in Him and everything The Bible says, and as you go through the day you will learn by The Holy Spirit from everyone and everything around you, simply by thinking in the ways of holiness. And when you read The Bible, don't go expecting to understand everything that is written, because you will get stuck on the first verse you read. Instead, just skim over the words until a verse suddenly makes you think about something in a way you never thought before. That is one way that God can speak to us through The Bible.

Also, please don't underestimate the power of your prayers. You need to pray for your sister's recovery so she can bear testimony to God's love, mercy and power.

JackPK said:

Thankyou everyone for your advice.

I have a sister. You might know her. Her name is Angel_Wings.

I have seen her change and tried to work out what it was that had changed her so much.

I was a Buddist but she never told me off about it. She just said that she wasn't interested in Buddah's teachings, even if they were honorable.

She was at church no matter what. Even if she was down about whatever.

I don't think she ever tried to talk about God to me unless I asked her something. Her answers were seemingly honest and had a backup from the bible.

She told me about this site and I joined not too long after her. It was more to hang out and muck around in the entertainment section but I learnt more about how kind christians can be.

Since then I have met more and more christians in the flesh and was sad to find some weren't as accepting as others.

It put me off for ages but Angel_Wings told me that everyone is still learning and only Jesus matters in the end.

After a while I got curious and asked alot more questions and liked what I was told. Most of it was about how Jesus died and why the heck would He do that?

It took me a long time to understand. I just wasn't into it.

After a few years I didn't think I was getting anywhere. I went over what I had learned about christianity and really considered it as a lifepath for me.

Yesterday I decided to return to the forums and ask more questions but I didn't get that far.

I won't go into detail but I guess I went into the wrong area and misunderstood what someone said. It hurt.

Between my sis and another person on the forums I was comforted and reassured that I wasn't a complete loser and that no one was judging me.

I wanted to be like them.

So I asked my sister how to become a christian and we prayed together.

So that's my story.

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thats a beautiful testimony and your sister is a wonderful christian girl.

.

.

Phaedron, what is this "soul-winning" you speak of? The only one capable of saving is Jesus Christ. We are nothing but instruments of God.

oi_antz said:

Now that's interesting. Firstly, I must offer my deepest apologies for what would seem to be a difficult phase of life. Can you tell us how serious it is, is it life threatening? Also, can you share with us the types of thoughts you have had about this? I expect you will have some thoughts related to the way Jesus treats His workers and why He would allow them to become sick, I'm sure that would be an excellent opportunity to discuss more about how Jesus uses each one of us to train others. I think it is important to realize that in everything we experience, there is the possibility to learn from it in a way that increases our faith. So if I was you, I'd be looking at the favors of my heart. How does this event impact the love and respect you have for Jesus? There is a lot to be learned by thinking and sharing your thoughts with other thinkers, I hope you will show us what sort of thoughts you are believing about this.

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Jack, I feel so bad for having said this while not realizing the seriousness of your sister's illness. I will be praying and fasting about this, please keep us informed of her progress.