prayer warriors (following Jesus Christ, everyone welcome)

[BigBlueHen53]

Incidentally, Triplet, I am enjoying our dialog! I have been trying for some time to get some actual conversation going here about Bible topics. Thank you.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

I missed so much, I didn't quote everyone to save scrolling space, but I gave you all reactions and know that I am praying for you all.

I'm going to make a few responses in to things in the 15 pages I've missed before I head to bed. (Extra hour of sleep? Nah. Gotta get up an hour earlier to let the chickens out. )

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Rebecca Brown has written a few books about the occult and about demons dwelling in people. If that's something you got involved in, as far as praying with the neighbors, you need to be very well prepared as when we try to help people and the situation, the demons often come after us. Here's a link to one of Rebecca Brown's books: https://www.amazon.com/He-Came-Set-...&qid=1634824746&sprefix=Rebecca+brown+&sr=8-1

I pray that the Lord will keep you safe. This is very serious and scary stuff.

I've had a few experiences with what I assume now to be demons; definitely scary stuff. Never have had any experiences with the demon-possessed, though one of the experiences I had was of one attempting to possess me. I wasn't prepared at all, didn't know what I was dealing with. The only thing that worked was crying out to Jesus. Alone, I am powerless and nothing. Jesus is everything.

Looks like an interesting book.

This is from several pages back. I meant to respond to it at the time. Before we deal with or confront the demon-possessed, we do need to come to the Lord in prayer and contrition, making sure there is nothing between us and Him. If there is anything between us and another person, any unconfessed sin, we do need to take care of that as well and be reconciled as far as possible. Having done that however, we must know that we do not cast out demons in our own strength, but in the Name that is above all names, for:

1 John 4:4 KJV
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

It is Jesus that has power to cast out demons, not we ourselves. Satan is a defeated foe. He was defeated at the cross. In Christ we have nothing to fear. Glorify Jesus, not demons. Fear God, not Satan.

Prayer for sure!

Mark 9:28-29:
And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

I know Jesus has power over them, but when encountering one, it can still be a terrifying experience. Emotions and the fight or flight response can override the common sense of whom we should fear in these cases, haha.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Hello everyone, I just sow this old thread... I am from Bulgaria and I am a Christian and I am so glad there is such a thread. Tjere are less than 1% Christians in our country and I go to a very small church - 10-15 people.
Every now and then I see Bible quotes in people's signatures here and I always liked that. Congratulations for starting the thread and let's continue to help each other with prayers and encouragement...
Attaching a picture of my only Freezland hen couple I bought the eggs from Freezland and these are the only survivors.

Welcome!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Here is my reason. You tried and you planted a seed, if she shows no interest, there was really no need to force it into her. Its like trying to stuff food into a baby's mouth while it is still crying. After a few years/when the baby stops crying, then they may accept this, but not now. Non-believers looks toward us, Christians. I really hope they do not see disrespect. This is the main reason why my grandma would not believe in Jesus. She thinks that all Christians are is a steryotype and that they are all bad people who look good on the outside.

Anyhow, our job is to plant the seed, God does the rest. No person can truly believe without God.

So your grandma pretty much sees all Christians as the cup that Jesus described - clean on the outside, filthy on the inside? “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence." (Matthew 23:25) I think it's Romans that says we all fall short, so she isn't 100% wrong. It's everyone who is sinful. It's just that because we have Jesus, we are cleansed while non-believers don't have cleansing. Which is why we need Jesus.

This little interchange between @Crazy Cochin and @HawaiiCoyote brings a few thoughts to mind. I want to be as kind as I possibly can here. I know Cochin meant well. Our mission, as followers of Jesus Christ, is to preach the Good News, teach what He taught us, and make disciples of others, which means to help others do the same. We are to be His witnesses, telling others why we love Him: because He first loved us, and share what wonderful things He has done in our lives. We are to love one another as He loves us. And remember, He died for us while we were yet sinners! That's why we talk about His amazing grace!

These things soften people's hearts and draw them to love Him.

What we are NOT authorized to do is to judge people. It is not our job to tell people they are going to hell. These things drive people AWAY from religion, sometimes forever. We don't know what's in people's hearts, how they're hurting, how they're longing to know that someone, Someone, knows and loves and accepts them just as they are.

It's our job to point them to that Someone. We know Him, because He is our best Friend. He saved us when we were lost and lonely. It was that way for me anyway. That's why I love Him. And that's why I want to tell others all about Him.

And science? Science is the methodical study of God's handiwork in nature. It's not in conflict with religion, not at all. It draws me closer to God, as it reveals His wonders!

AMEN.

I never liked the "going to hell" approach, but I understand why some do it. "And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh." The "snatching them from hellfire" approach never resonated with me, I always want to show love.

That being said, I do like how Living Waters ministries does this. Ray Comfort has a way of showing people how they need Jesus to save them from hell without being harsh, because he shows the people love. It's a fine line, because if someone tells a person only that He died for us while we were yet sinners without talking about what sin is and where the unsaved go, will that person know what they are being saved from? It's easy for a person to say, "Oh I believe in Jesus" and it ends right there. But on the other hand, if someone tells a person they are going to hell but doesn't offer the hope of Jesus, and what all He did, that person can end up devastated or chased away from Jesus.

Perhaps the approach depends on the circumstances and the person?

Hope I'm making sense this late at night; this is something I've thought about a lot lately, as Christians are called to spread the Gospel. I want to do it the right way.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Either way, you'll find things that annoy the crap out of you but so many more that make you fall in love all over again

I've been told it'll take a special guy to put up with me... I guess it's the same scenario for the girls and guys.

Psst... And remember he'll be having the same experience regarding you!

Exactly.

I went to the Ark Encounter for the first time this past summer. It was awesome but I didn't like how they say the dinosaurs were alive when humans were. Lots of research has proven that to not be true. God made the dinos just like he made everything else. So what if they came before us? Doesn't mean God didn't create them millions of years before Adam and Eve

According to the Bible, the earth is only around 6,000-10,000 years old.

I read a book a while back called "Dinosaurs and the Bible" by Brian Thomas, and it actually made this 6,000-year thing make sense. I can now see it both ways. It's very short and worth the read. If nothing else, the theories were fascinating.

Er, no. If you read Genesis 1 carefully it says, on each day if creation, that "the evening and the morning were the (first, second, third, etc.) day. Each day consisted of an evening (dark part) and a morning (light part). In other words, a 24-hour period. In fact, the first thing God created was this 24-hour cycle.

Genesis 1:4-5 KJV
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. [5] And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

It was God, not humans, who invented time. And it was He, not we, who created the 7-day week. It takes the earth approximately 365 days to circle the sun, a period we call a year. It takes the moon about 28 days to cycle around the earth, a period we call a month. But the only reason we have a 7-day weekly cycle is because of creation. God made the world and everything in it in six days, and He blessed the seventh day (Saturday, look at any calendar) to commemorate that act of creation. Sadly, humans have attempted to change that day to Sunday, the pagan day of the sun, about 325 years after Christ, and there is not a word in Scripture to support it.

But it doesn't say how long it took God to divide the day and night. Might have taken Him millions of our years, which God called a day. I am not going to argue on this thread about this. This is a prayer thread, not a thread to argue about time.

Not arguing with anyone - just asking what you think of this:

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. This is Genesis 1:3-4, day one.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
This is Genesis 1:14-18, day four. What was the light that God separated from the darkness on day one if the sun and moon and stars hadn't been created yet? I've wondered this for years. My only hypothesis is that God created light itself, but nothing was actually giving off light yet until day four...? I've always been fascinated by this.

It is actually proof of its authenticity that there is variation between, for example, the gospel accounts. If they were all identical, people would say they plagiarized each other or colluded. You can't get 4 eyewitnesses to give the exact same account of an event under normal circumstances unless they put their heads together and agreed on what to say, which would most likely be proof they were lying.

And the Holy Spirit inspired them so what needed to be in there got in there, even if there are small variations in each one's account.

I understand that. But keep in mind that Luke never actually met Jesus. He knew Mary, Jesus' mother but never knew Jesus personally. So, in his case, his accounts of what happened were not witnessed by him but told to him by others. Not saying he lied of course, just that that is a reason his accounts would be different

Say what? (This is me in shock. I'm not saying I don't believe you.) I thought all the apostles knew Jesus. Even Paul was struck on the road to Damascus and seemed to be able to talk to God as evidenced in the verse about Paul's thorn where he got a response from God. I'm fascinated.

 

[JesusisGod]

I've been told it'll take a special guy to put up with me... I guess it's the same scenario for the girls and guys.


Exactly.



I read a book a while back called "Dinosaurs and the Bible" by Brian Thomas, and it actually made this 6,000-year thing make sense. I can now see it both ways. It's very short and worth the read. If nothing else, the theories were fascinating.



Not arguing with anyone - just asking what you think of this:

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. This is Genesis 1:3-4, day one.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
This is Genesis 1:14-18, day four. What was the light that God separated from the darkness on day one if the sun and moon and stars hadn't been created yet? I've wondered this for years. My only hypothesis is that God created light itself, but nothing was actually giving off light yet until day four...? I've always been fascinated by this.

And the Holy Spirit inspired them so what needed to be in there got in there, even if there are small variations in each one's account.


Say what? (This is me in shock. I'm not saying I don't believe you.) I thought all the apostles knew Jesus. Even Paul was struck on the road to Damascus and seemed to be able to talk to God as evidenced in the verse about Paul's thorn where he got a response from God. I'm fascinated.

We live in a geocentric model not heliocentric.

God will be the light in new heaven earth.

Sun moon are governing lights.. moon has it's own light. Investigate what we was educated in school.lots of propaganda

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@BesideStillWaters Good morning! I can't get my phone to c&p the section I want out of your post above, about the fact that the sun and moon were not created until Day Four, although there was light on Day One. How is this possible? Well, as @JesusisGod pointed out, God Himself will be the light source in the new earth (Rev. 21:23 and 22:5)* and as Jesus Himself said in both John 8:12 and John 9:5, "I am the light of the world." Where God is, there us no darkness.

James 1:17 KJV
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

God is not dependent on our sun and moon for light. He is Light.

Does this answer your question?

*Edited, oops, corrected reference

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We live in a geocentric model not heliocentric.

God will be the light in new heaven earth.

Sun moon are governing lights.. moon has it's own light. Investigate what we was educated in school.lots of propaganda

When you say we live in a geocentric model, do you mean that Earth is at the center of the universe?

And when you say the moon has its own light, what is its light source? The moon has no heat, it only reflects the light of the sun. That's why it appears to change shape every night. The shadow of the Earth falls between it and the Sun.

 

[kikiruru]

Ack, I really don’t like that debate. Both sides are pretty condescending at times and they really don’t get anywhere. Honestly, I agree with neither, I believe that the Earth is billions of years old and that it was created by God in 7 days. We humans just cannot know God’s time in relation to ours.

Unfortunately, I have another prayer request. An elderly lady at my church has esophageal cancer, and tonight she fell and hit her knee pretty hard. Her brother is with her in the ER, and they gave her pain drugs and are waiting on CT/X-ray results. Her name is Yvonne.

Praying