leilockheart:

(via leilockheart)

justgenesiz:

Search me and know me!

Prayer Request.

Hey guys! So these past few months have been dragging be down and there’s just been a lot on my heart. And I know there are others sturggling as well. But I’d like to ask if you guys could spare a few seconds in your prayers and pray for some people?(:

1. I have a friend who’s dealing with a loved one diagnosed with cancer. And its been realty tough and him and he’s doubting God. He goes to visit everyday after practice and its really wearing him out.

2. I have a retreat coming up and I found out I can go!! (Praise the Lord!) A few people saw my post and asked me I’d they could come and I was so excited that I could invite them! But now one of them is unsure and she really wants to go and she knows in her heart she needs something like a retreat right now. A revival almost for her. I would really like her to go, and I know that if she does it would really up lift her spiritual life!

3. And last but not least my grandmother has been having issues recently. Ever since she was hospitalized and was told that she needed dialysis every other day for the rest of her life, things have changed. My family members are either Athiest or Buddhist. And I know for my grandmother times running out. I want her to accept Christ before she leaves. But most of all I want her to leave knowing she served her purpose and that she’s appreciated because she feels alone and taken for granted.

I hope you guys are on track with your walk with God. Christmas is coming!! Let us not forget the meaning of Christmas even though it is nice to get presents. Smile Jesus loves you! C:

-Jess

To the Anon

“The reason you can so strongly say that you follow Christianity is that you follow it already. Say, if you grew up following another religion, and you strongly believed in that, just as you do for Christianity, they would have every right to say the exact opposite of what you just said. I have a friend that believes strongly in Christianity,but he sometimes tries to convert others to his own religion. I believe that a person follows the religion that they were taught to believe from a young age”

I didn’t grow up in the church either. For the most part, my family is atheist and the rest are Buddhist also. I was introduced to Christ in middle school and even then, I did not accept him readily. It was not until I was in 9th grade or so that I truly started believing Him. 

So why not other religions? All I have to say is that truth correlates with reality. I think we can both agree with that statement, yes? From what I have read in my Bible and seen God do, I can surely and wholeheartedly say that Christ is the true way. He undoubtedly works everyday in our lives.

Keep the questions coming. We appreciate them! :)

-Karen

Hello there anonymous, I’d just like to say I beg to differ from what your opinion. It may seem that the majority of people that grow up in a certain religion tend to strongly believe in it. But it’s not always everyone. I didn’t grow up with Christianity and I remember when I was first introduced to it I didn’t immediately accept it. It took time for me to open up and look into what I was really walking into. I began to see a difference in my life and saw the goodness of God. My life hasn’t change drastically or gone from broken to perfect. In many ways God has healed parts of my life but I still face conflicts in my life. I’m the first Christian in my family and the rest of my family members are either Buddhist or strong Atheists. My family is completely against me being “religious”. But I’ve seen the light of God and I know its the truth. I hope this can give you another way of looking at this. 

-Jess

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

-C.S. Lewis

To be honest, I grew up in the church. However, it is not because of family or church culture that brought me to Christ. As it says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God has done all the work in my life. He has been so gracious to reveal to me the mystery of the gospel, which is the hope of Christ living in me. I don’t believe in Christianity; I believe in Christ. And as a believer and follower of Christ, I am a Christian who seeks to glorify God. I’ve already explained to you the gospel story; it is this exact story that I have come to believe, accept, and submit myself to. As a human, I can’t deny my sin and what that means for me. But as a human, how could I ever reject Christ? How could I read and understand the gospel message, and then reject it? There’s no way!

I don’t believe in other religions because other religions believe in the doing, but Christianity is a religion of done. No Christian can do anything to become worthy before Christ. We do not do any works to attain any sort of enlightenment or holy state. We have access to God because Christ has done it for us. He took upon Himself the wrath that I deserved, that I may be reconciled to God. And because of that, I readily admit my sins before God, accept Jesus as my Savior, and follow Him.

Yeah my answers are purely out of love, and man we are all trying to find the answers to life. I hope what I say is helping you. Everything I ever say though is straight up from the Bible. I’ve made none of it up.

In terms of your statement about methane, I’m not entirely sure how Noah dealt with poop. I mean, he could dump it out the windows, ventilate the place, or do something. Honestly, when it comes to a God of wonders and divine plans, I have no shadow of a doubt that God told Noah how to deal with the problem.

So when you read the bible and analyze all the events that happen, what is the most amazing part is not that God is triumphant in all of them, but it’s obvious that God orchestrated everything to happen for a reason. And yes, I do believe and the bible discusses how Satan fell, but it was for God’s glory. I mean, think about the story of the gospel. Lucifer was fallen, and man fell because of sin. And thus, man had NO hope at all in reconciling with his Creator. Man is destined for hell, because the just punishment for sin is hell. If God did not send people to hell, He would not be God, because God is justice.

I’m no expert on Dan Brown or his boks, but I did read the Da Vinci Code. His plots are definitely fictional, though many of his topics are indeed historically real. However, much of his justifications and evidence is false or twisted. I really do see Satan uses those books to convince man to believe in many false truths about Jesus.

I think your diction of “bad” is very poor in this situation. This is because the term “bad” is so subjective. Homosexuality is a sin, yes. Sin is a completely objective term, and homosexuality is said to be a sin in the bible. This is because sin is defined to be anything that is not consistent of God’s character. God did not make man to like man, nor women to like women. We see this in the story of creation and explicitly told in the Bible. This is not to say, however, and yes I will say it again, that there is anything especially sinful about homosexuality. It is like any other sin. As said in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.” This includes ANY sin, including homosexuality. What’s crazier is that it’s not the sin that makes us a sinner. We all sin because we ARE sinners. The character defines the action, not vice versa.

Which leads beautifully into your last question. When we die and are judged by God, yes, God in a sense will weigh our “good” and “evil.” What He will doubtlessly find is that we are sinners, and thus we deserve hell. Again, we are all sinners, and the just punishment for sin is death and eternal damnation. And glory to God for that. However, God did not let this just happen. In love and mercy, He came down to earth in the form of man, namely Jesus, to live a perfect life and thus be the only worthy sacrifice to redeem our sin. He is the only way, because he was perfect in his humanity, and perfectly fulfilled every prophecy every lied out. So for us who believe in Jesus, we acknowledge our sin, believe in Jesus and what He has done, and claim Him as our Savior. Thus, we are purchased by His blood. When we are judged by God, God will not see us as sinners, but rather sinners redeemed by His grace. He will see us as pure and worthy sons and daughters, to spend eternity with Him.

justgenesiz:

Crazy about me!

I actually would disagree with the statement that it is love, and that you can’t help but be in love. I guess what helps for me is to equate homosexuality again to like any other sin. And why do we sin? It’s because we want to fulfill our own selfish, fleshly desires that are not of God’s character and do not glorify Him. And like sin’s effect, no matter how much we feed our desires, we are never truly satisfied, are we? There is always that gaping hole within our hearts that seeks something more. And that hole is the hole of not having a relationship with your creator, God Himself. Because of this, homosexuality is another sin in which people indulge in to fulfill that hole. I strongly believe that if a homosexual person were to experience God’s grace, he/she would realize that their homosexuality isn’t just against God, but they would in an instant realize they can’t live this kind of lifestyle because it is not how God intended men and women to relate. Read 1 Cor. 6:9-11 for textual references. God made man to marry and love women and vice versa, not men to love men and women to love women. Thus, it is something that actually is controllable, since this is a lifestyle sin that can be removed by the life-altering grace of God.

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Jesus tells us to forgive as many times as needed. And it’s not easy. This is how Jesus wants us to forgive. Every single time. This is what we are called to do.

Just a thought.

To anonymous who asked about homosexuality in the bible. I thought I’d dedicate a post to you since I struggled with what your thoughts are right now.

First thing I’d like to say is that God does not hate homosexuals or see them as anything different from us. He does state in Leviticus 18:22;20:13 Romans 1:26-27 that the lifestyle of homosexuality its sinful and unacceptable. I myself know God does not hate them. I have no doubt in my mind God loves them unconditionally just as He loves us all. There’s a huge difference between being homosexual and carrying out a homosexual lifestyle verses someone who is homosexual but lives a lifestyle God calls them to be. It doesn’t say in the bible that it is a crime to BE homosexual. But it does clearly state that commiting the actions of homosexuality and living out that lifestyle is a sin.

People say this is injustice that homosexuals are restrained from who they can love and who they cannot. But don’t we all have to deny ourselves certain “pleasures”? God created marriage to be sacred for man and woman. Even in Genesis He said man should not be alone and therefore He created a perfect companion for Adam whom was Eve. Once again this is what I have seen in the bible and if there is any other errors or other context from the bible that contridicts me, then correct me. Hope this answers your question anonymous!

Hi Anon,

First of all, I appreciate your kinder approach to our blog. I hope my responses help, and if you have any questions or arguments, please send them our way! I’m going to try answering all of them, so HOPEFULLY they are adequate and my responses are concise.

First of all, God did know Satan. Not only that, but God created Satan. Satan decisively chose to rebel against God, along with several other fallen angels. I’d like to let you know that God, foreseeing this, was far from ignorant of evil. Rather, God permitted evil to occur. Why? Well, the simple answer is that it was for His glory. Consider the entire story of the Bible. The purpose of the Bible to highlight the apex of humanity’s existence, which occurred when Jesus came to earth to die for fallen sinners. God permitted sin so that Jesus could come. Why would we need Christ if there were no evil? God thus permitted sin to occur, so that man might experience His amazing grace and love, which is shown at its highest peak on the cross and resurrection. There are several instances where the Bible has events that were initially meant for “evil”, but God is sovereignly always there to fulfill His true will. Take the story of Joseph for example. He was cast into a pit by his brothers, then taken as a slave to Egypt, and after was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife for lust. Yet, God had greater plans. If you read the account of Joseph, Joseph recognizes that though his brothers meant evil, God meant all things for good. It was His divine plan for all those things to happen, that Joseph might provide for his family at the end. It is God’s eternal plan for evil to happen, because by evil, man can see God’s goodness.

Noah then again also spent decades building that ark. I have no doubt that Noah and the boat had the capability to hold two of every animal in the ark. Your argument doesn’t really provide any concrete evidence that refutes the ark’s story. It’s only speculative. The ark’s exact sizes are laid out in Genesis 6, if you are interested.

In terms of homosexuality, I think it is a sad truth that many Christians are expressly hateful when it comes to the topic. As a Christian, I am called to love everyone yes. But that does not mean that I approve of everyone’s lifestyles or life decisions. In terms of homosexuality, homosexuality is the same as any other sin. It is no exceptional sin. Every sin, big or small, is considered the same in God’s eyes. Homosexuality is no exception. As for those Christians who say “God hates homosexuals”, I am seriously ashamed to be considered in the same crowd as them. They do not understand the gospel clearly, for they are called to love everyone, yet point out the sin that homosexuals, like all humans, dwell in.

Dan Brown? Really?

In terms of coincidence, I think it’s a matter of perspective. I seriously see everything and every occasion as a gracious act of God. The fact I am alive is a testimony of God’s grace, for if He ceased to give me life, then I would no longer exist. You can’t say it is “easily coincidence”. What is your justification for that? That also is speculation. But Scripture says repeatedly of God’s sovereign will for all our lives. He does know what’s best, because His plan is better than our plans. 

Jesus was human, but also God. I’m not sure what to get at about the whole research thing.

And also, you give a lot of credit of science. But who do you think created science? Where do we get the concepts of science? Or even logic? Justice? All these things are just a indicator of God’s imprint of Himself in man. Can you really believe that over billions of years, these ideas just happen to develop? How can you really accept that?

I definitely can see you have a lot of issues with God’s sovereign will, all-perfect lovingness, and His tolerance of evil. God does not “know best” what’s for us. Rather, God has a sovereign plan for all of us, and yes, as humans, we have our own desires and longings, but God has a different (and always better) plan for His children. As a Christian, I have no doubts that when I pray for something from God, I do it with a very careful “if He wills.” God’s will always triumphs my will, because as a Christian I want His will to be done on earth, which is for humans to come and realize how truly loving, glorious, and merciful He is.

I know this is really rough answered, but here’s what’s logical:

God created the the universe, with man and Himself in perfect unity. But man rebelled against God, and thus God, by definition must be just. Since God is the definition of justice, what is just is that if man rebels against Him, man thus must die.

Logical right?

What isn’t logical is God, taking the form of a human, living a perfect life, and taking upon Himself the sins of man, that man might be reconciled to Him. The story of the gospel is that God came to save humans, because man cannot save himself. The calling of God is clear: we must believe in Jesus in order to be saved to Himself. God is so so so SO loving, because apart from HIm, what are we? We are humans, who live for a little while, and than will be damned to hell because of sin. But God gave us another option: salvation! Through His son.

ahm0r:

thank you, God.

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