They had prophets and judges. The Word that came to them was probably few and far between. That is why it is so wonderful when Jesus went to the cross and rent the veil where we could have full access to Him.
The Bible is full of pure and wonderful things. Again, you can focus on all the negatives or you can sing the Psalms, or gain wisdom from the Proverbs.
What other book do you know that has been written by 39 different pens and yet have no contradictions? It is because the Spirit of God moved upon these men to write His Words.
Tell me how you can go wrong in believing and trusting in the Bible? I know some have taken things out of context of the scriptures. But YOU need to read it with an open heart and ask God to give YOU the revelation of His Word. It can be your strength if you will only let it.
I bet you wouldn't be surprised that I see lots of contradictions, would you? I believe that the Bible is ABOUT God, but I don't necessarily believe that it was written BY God. I think it was stories and testimonies written by his followers. They may have been sincere, but they are not God. Men, prophets, saints, etc., they have all been known to miss the mark, and get it wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhoni
Mich,
Just want you to know that the devil uses everything he can as a resource to destroy you. The word of God is not what manipulates and controls...it is men who misuse it that do. Please separate the two because if you have a relationship with Jesus, you cannot separate him from his word. He is his word. You can trust Him.
I will pray for God to put things back into perspective on your journey. You may be dysfunctional but the word of God isn't and you don't have to be. Jesus came to break those chains of dysfunction that have us all bound.
Love & Prayers, Rhoni
Thank you Rhoni. I believed the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God, because I was taught it was such by those I trusted. Obviously that is no reason to accept something as absolute Truth. Once their testimony became meaningless, I have found it hard to see how I ever could have believed such. Maybe something will happen some day to change that, but I won't fall apart if it doesn't.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this mistake thing. Something that has really been on mind so I decided to put it down here.
June 28, 1914 Assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand
July 23 1914 Austria makes demands from Serbia, Serbia mobilizes its army
July 28 1914 Austria declares war on Serbia
July 31 1914 Russia declares war on Austria
August 1 1914 Germany declares war on Russia and France
November 11 1918 Armistice signed that effectively ended WW1
June 1919 Versailles Treaty signed.
Jan 30 1933 Hitler named Chancellor of Germany
June 30 1934 During the “Night of the Long Knives” Hitler consolidates power
May 1940 Hitler invades France and WW2 had begun
September 27 1940 the Tripartite Treaty was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan creating the Axis Powers
June 22 1941 Germany invades Russia.
April 30 1945 Hitler committed suicide
May 2 1945 Germany surrenders ending WW2
That time line gives some of the major highlights of the most tumultuous years in modern history. From the beginning of World War 1 to the end of World War 2, life in Europe was dangerous to say the least. Some 40 million people died in the first war and Sixty million died as a result of World War 2. However, that timeline doesn’t tell the story. The timeline is just a list of events over a period of time and it doesn’t provide any context to the real reasons why over 100 million people died in a period of 30 years. The context would tell you that World War One started because of a misguided understanding of economics in the middle ages called which led to a geo-political landscape that required each European nation to balance the power of all others by switching allegiances as necessary to keep one another in check. The end of WW1 ended with a treaty that plunged Germany and eventually the world into one of the worst depressions in history and that economic turmoil led to the rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler. Context changes perception.
Now how in the world does that relate to the mistakes Backsliders make? In Pentecost in general we often find ourselves moving from one experience with God to the next. Somehow, that has translated for many as a proxy for a real relationship with God. How many of us have some story about how our lives were changed once we really came into fellowship/relationship with God? We had the Holy Ghost, we shouted, we went to conferences and camp meetings but really down deep, those moments were the deal, we didn’t have a relationship.
An experience with God is little more than a notation on a time line. You don’t have a relationship with a time line. It exists separate from our real day to day lives. Each of us can tick off some list of days, Birth, First Kiss, Got baptized, Got Married, Birth of children, The day we were healed of some terrible sickness or injury. All of those things happened but they don’t define our real connection to God. A real connection only takes place when we have a one on one, personal relationship with the Jesus.
You can walk away from a timeline. In fact, that just becomes another entry on the line, “Tuesday Aug 18 1999, I walked away from church”. No emotion, no problem. Just changed direction again. But you don’t so easily walk away from a loved one. You don’t have a real deep daily committed relationship then one day cut it off for no good reason.
That is the source of two major mistakes that we make as Christians. In the first place, people backslide because the don’t really have a relationship, or somehow, over a period of time, they let the relationship slip. It turned into a series of events/experiences.
I remember some time ago a young lady came to church. She had been having some issues with her walk with God but that night it was so clear and so exciting! God really moved in her life! She was touched deeply. By the end of that week she was deeper in sin than she had been in her entire life. She was completely backslidden and to this day more than a decade later, she has not found a solid walk with God. That night was just an event that took place. Nothing more, nothing less.
The second mistake, and the one that impacts the returning backslider, is they return by experience and don’t learn relationship! How would they even know how to have a relationship with God when what they remember is simply the experience of being “in church”? The backsliders mistake all too often is coming back to God and having a great experience in an alter, but never learning what it means to have a real relationship with God.
What ever the dates may be, what ever God may have done in your life; healings, miracles, signs and wonders, those things do not keep you. Knowing Christ is the only thing that keeps a person. Knowing Him changes you.
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
...What other book do you know that has been written by 39 different pens and yet have no contradictions?...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michlow
...I bet you wouldn't be surprised that I see lots of contradictions...
Like what???
__________________
Psa 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
1Pe 5:6-7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Tit 3:2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Just want you to know that the devil uses everything he can as a resource to destroy you. The word of God is not what manipulates and controls...it is men who misuse it that do. Please separate the two because if you have a relationship with Jesus, you cannot separate him from his word. He is his word. You can trust Him.
I will pray for God to put things back into perspective on your journey. You may be dysfunctional but the word of God isn't and you don't have to be. Jesus came to break those chains of dysfunction that have us all bound.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this mistake thing. Something that has really been on mind so I decided to put it down here.
June 28, 1914 Assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand
July 23 1914 Austria makes demands from Serbia, Serbia mobilizes its army
July 28 1914 Austria declares war on Serbia
July 31 1914 Russia declares war on Austria
August 1 1914 Germany declares war on Russia and France
November 11 1918 Armistice signed that effectively ended WW1
June 1919 Versailles Treaty signed.
Jan 30 1933 Hitler named Chancellor of Germany
June 30 1934 During the “Night of the Long Knives” Hitler consolidates power
May 1940 Hitler invades France and WW2 had begun
September 27 1940 the Tripartite Treaty was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan creating the Axis Powers
June 22 1941 Germany invades Russia.
April 30 1945 Hitler committed suicide
May 2 1945 Germany surrenders ending WW2
That time line gives some of the major highlights of the most tumultuous years in modern history. From the beginning of World War 1 to the end of World War 2, life in Europe was dangerous to say the least. Some 40 million people died in the first war and Sixty million died as a result of World War 2. However, that timeline doesn’t tell the story. The timeline is just a list of events over a period of time and it doesn’t provide any context to the real reasons why over 100 million people died in a period of 30 years. The context would tell you that World War One started because of a misguided understanding of economics in the middle ages called which led to a geo-political landscape that required each European nation to balance the power of all others by switching allegiances as necessary to keep one another in check. The end of WW1 ended with a treaty that plunged Germany and eventually the world into one of the worst depressions in history and that economic turmoil led to the rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler. Context changes perception.
Now how in the world does that relate to the mistakes Backsliders make? In Pentecost in general we often find ourselves moving from one experience with God to the next. Somehow, that has translated for many as a proxy for a real relationship with God. How many of us have some story about how our lives were changed once we really came into fellowship/relationship with God? We had the Holy Ghost, we shouted, we went to conferences and camp meetings but really down deep, those moments were the deal, we didn’t have a relationship.
An experience with God is little more than a notation on a time line. You don’t have a relationship with a time line. It exists separate from our real day to day lives. Each of us can tick off some list of days, Birth, First Kiss, Got baptized, Got Married, Birth of children, The day we were healed of some terrible sickness or injury. All of those things happened but they don’t define our real connection to God. A real connection only takes place when we have a one on one, personal relationship with the Jesus.
You can walk away from a timeline. In fact, that just becomes another entry on the line, “Tuesday Aug 18 1999, I walked away from church”. No emotion, no problem. Just changed direction again. But you don’t so easily walk away from a loved one. You don’t have a real deep daily committed relationship then one day cut it off for no good reason.
That is the source of two major mistakes that we make as Christians. In the first place, people backslide because the don’t really have a relationship, or somehow, over a period of time, they let the relationship slip. It turned into a series of events/experiences.
I remember some time ago a young lady came to church. She had been having some issues with her walk with God but that night it was so clear and so exciting! God really moved in her life! She was touched deeply. By the end of that week she was deeper in sin than she had been in her entire life. She was completely backslidden and to this day more than a decade later, she has not found a solid walk with God. That night was just an event that took place. Nothing more, nothing less.
The second mistake, and the one that impacts the returning backslider, is they return by experience and don’t learn relationship! How would they even know how to have a relationship with God when what they remember is simply the experience of being “in church”? The backsliders mistake all too often is coming back to God and having a great experience in an alter, but never learning what it means to have a real relationship with God.
What ever the dates may be, what ever God may have done in your life; healings, miracles, signs and wonders, those things do not keep you. Knowing Christ is the only thing that keeps a person. Knowing Him changes you.
Another awesome post!
Thanks for posting that Ferd, very insightful, and Thought provoking, as well as being true.
Not to mention, it is a challenge to every Christian to deepen and pursue their relationship with God, and really discover what that really means.
Just wanted to let you know I read this and am thinking on it. Don't have any comments right now though.
Thanks for posting.
Heather
Quote:
Originally Posted by BoredOutOfMyMind
Your questioning is somewhat askewed. This denies Faith in that even though it may not look right, you know in your heart it is correct. You know if you place your hand over the open flame of a candle, it hurts. You don't see directly written "Thou shalt not place thy hand in a flame." This is not to say we don't proof what is correct. Cultural History said the only true church was the Roman Catholic Church at one time. Original language? ummmm ok, well KJV works fairly well for me translated to English. The JW use the Original Language argument to base their New World Translation and dualism.
__________________
You become free from who you have become, by becoming who you were meant to be. ~Mark from another forum I post on
God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. ~Romans 3:24 from The Message
Okay, folks... I'm doing something I don't guess I've ever done before. I'm generally VERY meticulate about my messages whether they be preaching or teaching. I've been moved in my spirit several times in the past and now intend to teach on my Sunday Morning Services for a while on this subject: "Mistakes Backsliders Make"
I've never done it before but I'm going to put it out here and let some of you help me preach for the next few weeks. Here's the general layout:
I do believe it's possible to backslide and be lost.
I've seen people backslide from the beginning of my walk with God.
I've noticed that some come back in and do fine but many - perhaps even the majority - never quite make it after coming back to God.
I'm not interested in making this a standards debate (yes, I preach spiritual disciplines to my people) and I'm not interested in debating the essentials of the New Birth (I believe in repentance, water baptism in Jesus Name and receiving the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues). What I'm looking for are the observations that YOU have made as to why some backsliders never quite 'make it back' spiritually.
Okay... here's the list of what I'm looking at just to give you a pattern to follow:
MISTAKES BACKSLIDERS MAKE...
1. You can't 'ease' back into the Church. (Most backsliders know too much to do it halfheartedly)
2. You can't expect to feel like you did the first time. (Just as a 'first kiss' doesn't always feel like a 'first kiss' you can be assured that once you know God intimately some things won't exactly feel like they used to... you operate on knowledge and relationship instead of infatuation and response.)
3. Trying to maintain 'carnal' loyalties generally doens't work. (Living for God means sometimes separating from certain carnal influences that drag you back down.)
4. It's a mistake to just 'seek to be saved' instead of striving to find fulfillment in God. (Spiritual 'fire escapes' never quite have the foundation that a solid relationship with God produces.)
YOUR TURN... some of you who have backslidden and came back sucessfully should have some great answers!
Since this was a series over many weeks, do you have another volume?!?
__________________
I am not a member here -Do not PM me please?
Okay, folks... I'm doing something I don't guess I've ever done before. I'm generally VERY meticulate about my messages whether they be preaching or teaching. I've been moved in my spirit several times in the past and now intend to teach on my Sunday Morning Services for a while on this subject: "Mistakes Backsliders Make"
I've never done it before but I'm going to put it out here and let some of you help me preach for the next few weeks. Here's the general layout:
I do believe it's possible to backslide and be lost.
I've seen people backslide from the beginning of my walk with God.
I've noticed that some come back in and do fine but many - perhaps even the majority - never quite make it after coming back to God.
I'm not interested in making this a standards debate (yes, I preach spiritual disciplines to my people) and I'm not interested in debating the essentials of the New Birth (I believe in repentance, water baptism in Jesus Name and receiving the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues). What I'm looking for are the observations that YOU have made as to why some backsliders never quite 'make it back' spiritually.
Okay... here's the list of what I'm looking at just to give you a pattern to follow:
MISTAKES BACKSLIDERS MAKE...
1. You can't 'ease' back into the Church. (Most backsliders know too much to do it halfheartedly)
2. You can't expect to feel like you did the first time. (Just as a 'first kiss' doesn't always feel like a 'first kiss' you can be assured that once you know God intimately some things won't exactly feel like they used to... you operate on knowledge and relationship instead of infatuation and response.)
3. Trying to maintain 'carnal' loyalties generally doens't work. (Living for God means sometimes separating from certain carnal influences that drag you back down.)
4. It's a mistake to just 'seek to be saved' instead of striving to find fulfillment in God. (Spiritual 'fire escapes' never quite have the foundation that a solid relationship with God produces.)
YOUR TURN... some of you who have backslidden and came back sucessfully should have some great answers!
Why Steadfast, I'm shocked! We all know that there is no such thing as a backslider! Once you've completed the three steps of salvation you're saved, I thought you knew that already. If you don't believe me, just ask some of the three-steppers around here. LOL!
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