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Thursday, December 22, 2016

Why God had to kill God to pay for our sins?

When the Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted the suffering of Messiah he said, “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” (53:10). Why?

Why would God the Father be pleased to kill His only begotten Son? The verse goes on to answer that question, “

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering.”

 God was pleased with the obedience of Jesus and the price He willingly paid for the guilt of our sin.

God was pleased to display His love for us.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The required payment for sin is death. Jesus paid that price by dying on the cross and enduring God’s wrath against our sin.

God was pleased to raise His Son from the dead. On the cross Jesus cried, “It is finished.”

 The debt for sin was paid in full. Three days later, He rose from the dead to prove it. He now lives, and offers eternal life to those who will repent and trust Him.


“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Rom 10:9-10).

 Have you placed the eternal well-being of your soul into the hands of God by trusting in Jesus? If not, cry out to Him today. Jesus said, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

Monday, December 12, 2016

what is wrong with being friends with a christian of the opposite sex....................


The question is a powder-keg. Those who immediately answer “yes” can hurl as many barrels of anecdotal evidence as those who scream “no.”

 Few treat this as a legitimate issue — opinions are given in a tone that implies that the very question violates common sense. Different answers are given. Different passages are cited. Different hills are constructed and died on.
So, can Christian women and men be friends?
To start, multiple kinds of male-female friendships deserve unique attention.

A single woman and a married man.
A married woman and a single man.
A married woman and a married man.
A single woman and a single man.

What do these friendships look like? Should they exist? Does God prohibit them, or are they vital to the body of Christ? Are they obviously inappropriate, or undeniably essential in healthy church community? It seems to me, after considering the biblical evidence, that male-female friendships lean even more heavily on a process that exists in all friendships:


1.      Weighing the risks of the relationship
2.     Implementing necessary and loving boundaries into the relationship
3.     Reaping unique Christ-exalting benefits from the relationship


We usually undergo this process subconsciously with each new relationship: evaluating whether the relationship will be detrimental to ourselves or disobedient to God, and if it is not, identifying healthy parameters to make the relationship as fruitful as possible, and finally enjoying the ongoing benefits of the relationship.
As we ask the question, “Can women and men be friends?” we must realize that each new possibility of a friendship between a woman and a man may require a “no” or “yes” in various circumstances, or at various stages of life.

Unavoidable Risks
Since any godly male-female friendship will be friendship between two disciples of Christ, the first step in building that friendship is to “count the cost, whether [you have] enough to complete it” (Luke 14:28). Enough information. Enough self-control. Enough community. Enough wisdom.

1. Male-female friendships risk unreciprocated feelings.
One person has completely innocent or friendly intentions, and the other falls in love. Between a married person and anyone other than their spouse, the friendship should end immediately.
But even between single people, the dangers are significant. Male-female friendship always brings the possibility for awkwardness, for conflict, for heartache. Someone’s thinking, “Is this going somewhere?” and someone isn’t. This is called “the friend zone,” and it’s very easy for tectonic plates of desire to create exciting and heated friendship when that heat is, in fact, caused by motivations moving in opposite directions.
Whether we’re the desiring or the desired, let’s be honest with ourselves: do we both reallywant the same thing from this friendship? If we don’t ask ourselves this question, someone will eventually pay the serious consequences.

2. Male-female friendships risk sexual temptation.
If we blindly wander into male-female friendships with the naïve notion that they are no different than same-gender friendships, we are blindly and dangerously mistaken. They are different. Tragic and heartbreaking trends in the church suggest affairs very often begin subtly or even innocently, and end in horrible destruction. Patterns of one-on-one intimacy between members of the opposite sex naturally cultivate the kind of intimacy that leads to romance.

Solomon writes, “A wicked man . . . with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing” (Proverbs 6:12, 14–15).
This is the wrong attitude: “We aren’t fooling around. There’s nothing to worry about. It’s not like that.” The calamity of fornication almost always occurs suddenly. It always surprises us. It always shows up at our door with an innocent smile. Or perhaps it leads us to someone else’s door. Someone’s couch.
The spark of sexual immorality may be the difference of an inch, a glance. The question we must honestly and consistently ask ourselves is: “Does the structure of our relationship look like kindling primed for a forest fire?” If your attitude about your intimacy is relaxed, it is likely set to blaze.

3. Male-female friendships risk undermining marriage.
It’s common for single people to be demonized as the “temptresses” or the “bait,” while the married folk are just the victims of preying mistresses (or misters). Yet, it seems that temptation often comes the other way, from the married person to the single: for example, Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:11–18), or at least ambiguous, in the case of the church member and his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5:1).
The point isn’t to condemn or idolize any one marital status as more protected than the other. The point is to recognize the common human element that makes possible the subversion of the marriage covenant if one (or both) persons are married. A few diagnostic questions are:
·         Are we spending time alone together?
·         Are our meetings (especially locations) increasingly private?
·         Are we complaining about our marriages (or love life) to each other?
·         Are we texting each other privately?
·         Do I find myself thinking about them, or fantasizing about a life with them?
·         Do I find myself excusing intimacy that would be otherwise inappropriate?

Potential Rewards
Once the risks of a male-female friendship have been considered and weighed, we can ask the question, “Can these risks be mitigated?” Can humility and honesty, community and accountability, protect us from the looming consequences, and allow us to enjoy the good that can come from these friendships?

1. Godly boundaries.
Every relationship — all intimacy — flourishes with the right kind of boundaries. And the sort of relationship dictates what boundaries it needs to flourish. “The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath” (Proverbs 15:24). So what is the appropriate path for female-male friendships?
The answer is, of course, different for each kind of relationship. But the point is boundaries should exist. Some examples would be:
·         No private text messages (always include a spouse, or another godly friend).
·         No private or secret meetings (the right person or people always know).
·         No detailed discussion of marriages or love lives.
Wisdom requires some no’s in order to maintain the safety and integrity that leads to life, and not the carelessness or liberty that leads to sin.

2. Good, clear, communication.
Put the opposite way, sin thrives in the laziness of ambiguity. Let’s be honest about our own intentions: why are we really compelled to build and invest in this friendship? Is it because we like the attention we get from the other person that we can’t get from a spouse or from prospective spouses? Is it because we are subtly aroused by flirting with the boundaries of something that feels off-limits?
God rewards a thoughtful answer that honestly reflects the state of our hearts. And we need to be careful, in the context of rigorous community, that we’re not fooling ourselves about our own intentions.
Once we have been honest about our own intentions, we must articulate them clearly. Are we friends for the sake of the church, for the sake of a project, for the sake of enjoying a mutual hobby, for the sake of serving the church? Let’s have an answer, and let interactions that veer away from that agreed upon purpose remain off-limits.

3. strong community.
It’s easy for the church to split itself into men’s ministries, women’s ministries, and couples’ ministries. The singles become the wild card, often throwing what might have been an easy system of purity out of sync. But friendships between men and women in the church are one holy expression of the hard-fought intimacy God has earned for us in Christ (Galatians 3:28), especially as we draw others into those friendships as safeguards.
All the effort we put into boundaries and clarity both honors and enacts this gift — a gift that shouldn’t be prohibited in principle among God’s people. But they should only be allowed when there are appropriate lines of sight with people informed and involved enough to protect both parties.


"All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful” (1 Corinthians 10:23). 

What is good for some is not profitable for all — and may be harmful. What may be a beautiful and holy male-female friendship in one instance may not be translatable to every male and female, and certainly cannot be absolutized to every male and female. To do so would simply be unwise and unsafe.

But when the risks have been weighed and the rewarding structures have been established, we can, with a clear conscience, come before God and ask him to bless our friendships with the opposite sex. This confidence is earned through a mature and godly track record: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). But it is available. And it is beautiful. And like all beautiful things, it requires patient investment, open-handed humility, ruthless selflessness and self-awareness, and self-control.
Paul encourages us, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality” (Romans 13:13). It’s interesting that Paul contrasts “sexual immorality” with “walk properly as in the daytime.” When our texts aren’t private, our meetings aren’t sneaky, our intimacy not shrouded and smirking, we can participate in the kind of pure intimacy in male-female friendships that is public and commendable, filled with grace and truth.



“Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18). No pharisaical command about male-female relationships should inhibit this command. Neither should a libertarian free-for-all subtly subvert it. God delights in male-female friendships, but only when they say something true and good about him to the world (John 13:35). Men and women, let’s be diligent in wisdom, relentlessly above reproach, and let’s be friends

Friday, December 9, 2016

What is wrong with same sex marriage..................



“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created
 him; male and female He created them.”
    —Genesis 1:27 (NKJV)

    “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.

God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took
one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
    —Genesis 2:18-25 (NKJV)

The image of God is both male and female and is reflected in a godly union between male and female where the creative power of God, His life-giving, His self-giving and His moral nature are perfectly
expressed. This is only possible in a heterosexual union.

When God created a partner for Adam He created Eve—not another Adam.
This means that perfect partnership requires some level of difference as well as a level of similarity so great that Adam could cry out loudly,

”This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. Sexual intimacy between a man and a woman is the normal method of male/female bonding (emotionally and physically) because it corresponds to the design of our bodies and because it is the normal means by which offspring are created.

If God had intended the human race to be fulfilled through both heterosexual and homosexual marriage, He would have designed our bodies  to allow reproduction through both means and made both means of sexual intercourse healthy and natural. Homosexual anal intercourse carries a
high risk of disease, this is recognized in Scripture where gay men are said to receive in their bodies the due penalty for their error (Romans1:27).



“Women who have sex with women are at significantly increased risk of bacterial vaginosis, breast cancer and ovarian cancer than are heterosexual women.”) / L.A. Valleroy, D.A. MacKellar, J.M. Daron, et al, “HIV prevalence and associated risks in young men who have sex with
men,” JAMA, 284 (2000), pp. 198-204. (Discusses the prevalence of HIV infection and high-risk behaviors in study group of 3,492 young men who have sex with men.) / D. Binson, W.J. Woods, L. Pollack, J. Paul, R.
Stall, J.A. Catania, “Differential HIV risk in bathhouses and public
cruising areas,” American Journal of Public Health, 91 (2001), pp.
1482-1486. (demonstrates that high risk behaviors are still quite common
 among homosexual men).]

What Jesus taught

    “And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’“
    —Matthew 19:4 (NKJV)

    “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’”
    —Mark 10:6 (NKJV)

When Jesus was asked questions about marriage he went straight back to the defining passages in Genesis that say that marriage is between male and female and is meant to be life long.
He saw the Creation accounts in Genesis as authoritative in His day. And what is authoritative for
Jesus is authoritative for Christians also. While Jesus did not specifically teach on homosexuality, His establishment of the Genesis passages as the fundamental passages on marriage (even more fundamental than the Law) leaves no doubt as to the outcome.

What else does the Bible say?

    “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”
    —Romans 1:26-27 (NKJV)

    “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
    —1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NKJV)

    “Knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers,
 for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,”
    —1 Timothy 1:9-10 (NKJV)

These three references indicate that homosexual passions and acts are unnatural, shameful, contrary to sound doctrine . This being so they cannot be the basis of a Christian marriage sanctioned by God’s Church. The Church exists to save people, not to bless the means of their damnation. No marriage can be sanctioned by the Church if the very basis of the marriage involves acts that put the couple outside of eternal salvation. No matter what our society may legislate, the law of God is clear—that a marriage is not a godly marriage if it is a same sex union.

Are emotions a sufficient basis for marriage?

Hollywood has propagated the myth that when it comes to marriage “all you need is love.” This is simply not true. Marriage is not based on emotion any more than any other partnership in life is. Marriage, like many human activities, involves emotion but it is not constituted by the presence of any particular set of emotions. I do not deny that many homosexuals feel deeply for their partners; however I do assert that no matter how deep the feelings, what they have is not a marriage in God’s
sight.
 It is a beautiful deception.

Just because an emotion is deep or powerful does not justify acting upon it. Like drugs, like adultery, like the abuse of alcohol or the love of money, or the power rush of human ego trips, there are emotions which are powerful and addictive and ultimately terribly destructive. Same sex marriages must satisfy criteria other than emotion. A marriage is more than a sexual pleasure center. A marriage is a social unit that is interwoven with dozens of other lives.

Same sex marriages do not last. Less than 5% of gays have ever had a relationship that lasted 3 years or more. Sex is not enough. Passion cannot sustain an inherently unstable social unit.


God’s plan for sexuality and marriage

WHAT WOULD HEAVEN LOOK LIKE?

People can be really inquisitive sometimes you know, and would want to know every detail about everything they want to venture into. Sometimes people ask questions for different reasons, from not being sure about the truth or ignorance of the truth…It is possible you have not heard about the subject topic before, let alone know what point of view is true about the subject matter

Another reason might be that, we don’t want to lose out of the bargain like managers or businessmen or women would not to end up at the dull side of the bargain without knowing the details of the deal, first, you must be up to date.

Think of your toddler who wants to know about everything

What most people know to be true, sometimes, regrettably discouraging, would turn out to be false. 

Times without number research has shown that just because of sheer respect for the ‘’reliable source’' of information or more or less bad back feedback from the regrettably unreliable distribution of information can cause one to receive a wrong signal from the speaker, which can really be happening right now as you are reading this article.

 


What people call ‘’heaven’’ is not the sky, but in its real sense is actually an eternal city that the bible paints as the ‘’New Jerusalem’’ in the book of revelation. 


Some other School of thought think that heaven is a place that would be like the physical world we live in right now.

Just as we have a kind of body right now we would have another kind of body which would not be the same kind as we have right now on this earth. It would be different from what we have now in all spheres coming from the weaknesses we see here on earth. The Lord would give us another kind of body that would not have the kind of feelings this weak body we have currently in the physical.

A dashingly, smashing body that would be able to do just what we can't with our senses think of, with limitless and angelic bodies that would be powerful to its fullest and definitely a spiritual body that would be described as a glorious body.

The world we know of today has varying elements of weaknesses because of the very nature of the world itself, corrupt, weak, BEGGARLY...and I am not talking this way, because I don't know what good things we have in this world, but, as we can see that in the very nature of men, and the reasoning ability of men,only one invention leads to the worsening effects on another element or the same invention. 

It is not anyway close to what we have in the world right now with the present day government or rule or even in its most refined beauty.

As we have some people say that ’’when this world is destroyed and there is a new world that would take the form of the physical world we live in only that there would be prosperity and peace for those who are qualified to partake of it’’

Heaven is a spiritual world that can only be described as the best place to be, its a place of eternal bliss and all encompassing rest, beyond the shores of Rhode island,  beyond this earth that can not give the kind of long lasting rest and peace we want to have by all means and standards.


The word ''streets of gold'' could best describe to its best, the value of the place called heaven, because there is no spiritual gold but this only means the least thing there could not even be equated with the most valuable thing we fight for which is the value of money..................
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My guilt and God's Judgement


Hi, I thought I was on my way to being a Christian. I feel as though I have grown more in my faith with Jesus since this time last year. I’m wanting to go to Church each week to be challenged and to learn more about Jesus. 


Montgomery County Attorney Pleads Guilty to Client Theft | Swartz ...


I (well up until early this morning) believed that in God’s grace and mercy Jesus had forgiven my sins and I was so thankful to Him for that. I think about Him each day and try to read the Bible daily. I want to live how he wants me to and I try to do that as best I can.

However, early this morning I was woken with a terrible, terrible feeling that perhaps I am not right with God and have questioned whether or not I will be saved. About 15 years ago, I did something wrong. I’ve never admitted it to anyone (until just now with my husband) and also Jesus.

Now I’m wondering whether I should still own up to what I have done. I am not the same person I was 15 years ago but the guilt I feel now is eating me up inside and panicked that maybe I’m not saved after all. I feel awful. Don't feel awful God loves you

Do I need to make amends for what I did back then and suffer the consequences for my actions? I was young, irresponsible and not walking with God back then. These are not excuses at all. I would never dream of doing what I did then now. You don't need to restitute because it is not mean't for you, because it still does not change anything

A lot of people feel guilty for a lot of reasons. Not far-fetched, I would say, what we know of today as logical reasons for guilt differ for different people, because, lots of people have different things that make them guilty for different times and sometimes, circumstances. 


Have you ever felt guilty before………you know the feeling…….
Your heart begins to pound heavily and you must be certainly sure you have done something wrong. 

People feel guilty world-wide, all over the different races, environment and sometimes you wonder why you react to the stimulus for different occasions, bet you know what I am talking about. Probably because of changing times and increased anxiety and pressure from all fronts of our lives, guilt have added to the pressure of we feel, and sometimes you may consider God to be the origin of your guilt.
DO YOU THINK OF GOD AS THE SOURCE OF YOUR GUILT

no he's not

God's love is greater than your conscience gripping you,he has forgiven you, no matter the weight of sin.




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