Velocity

This passage tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. So this brings the question of what it means to be "in the faith." John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." We are saved when we put our faith in Christ to save us, but how is that lived out? If we read a few verses later, John 3:20-21 says "for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." You can see not just our actions but also the attitude of our heart. If we are coming into the light of God in a desire not to sin, instead of attempting to hide ourselves from God or simply ignoring him. In short, if we desire to please God and are ashamed before God of our sin, we know that we are in the faith.

You asked if you can love God 6 days and? What is love?

2 John 1:6 - This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

It does not say to walk according to His commandments sometimes or when we feel like it, but simply walk in His commands - that means all of the time. What did Christ do for us?

1 John 4:10 - In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Jesus came a died for us to save us from our sins. It does not say that we are saved from the consequences of sins we may endure on the earth, but saved from the eternal consequences of our sins. This means that we do not have to sin anymore, so why should we? Yes, to live for yourself even one day of the week is sin. It is hard to live for Christ every day, but that is what we are called to do.

Mark 8:34 - When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

First off know that you are not alone. The disciples asked the same question and we have Jesus' response recorded in Luke 11. Now there is so much to what Jesus said there that my fingers would fall of trying to type it all out, but let me give you a brief outline. There are thee major areas that Jesus instructed the disciples to pray about. Praise - honoring and giving the glory to God, Requests – asking of God what you need, and Thanks – giving thanks to God for what he has done. In addition to the Lord's prayer, Matthew 6 also has some more advice from Jesus about prayer which I would encourage you to read. But there is one more aspect of learning how to pray that is often left out, and that is praying with others. You see, the disciples did not just hear Jesus teach about praying, they saw and heard Him pray. If you read the Gospels, a common theme is Jesus praying. He did not just tell them about prayer, He demonstrated it. That is one of the best ways to teach someone, and that is how I learned a lot about how to pray. What I would encourage you to do is join a prayer group. Get together with other people who have a desire to pray and spend time in prayer. That changed my prayer life and it can do the same for you. As a final note, the absolute hardest thing about prayer is discipline, making the time to pray, and focusing your attention on God while praying. It is one of the hardest things you will ever do, but also one of the best things you can do.

The bible doesn't say that any specific "religion" will go to heaven. What the bible teaches us is that when Adam sinned in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:6), sin entered the world and, as a result, all of the earth was put under sin's curse. Because of this curse our fellowship with God was broken (Gen. 3:24), and all of humanity is now born with a sin sickness from birth (Psalm 58:3). Because we have this sickness God provided the cure by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, taking the penalty for the sins of the world and restoring our fellowship with God (John 3:16). The way that the bible teaches that we are saved is not because we are a part of any religion, but only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and the work of atonement He did on the cross for our sins (Ephesians 2:8). God provided only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus. In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. So whether or not a Catholic, or member of any other religion, would go to heaven is based wholly on their relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus told Nicodemus, a religious man, in John 3:3 that Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Make sure that all your friends and family have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and if they don't, tell them about the good news that God provided one way for us to get to heaven through His son, and the best part about it is that it's free (Romans 5:18)!

Ok in Matthew 22:37 Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul." So what that said, that is our purpose in life, and if we don't fulfill that purpose your life will be miserable and a huge mess. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
If you've made a decision to follow Christ, you have made a permanent surrender to Him. If you begin to walk away from that commitment, there will be consequences. Not because God hates you though, but because He loves you and wants to remind you that the best possible way to live is to fulfill His purpose for your life.

God is all-knowing, but He uses tests in our lives to see (and to show us and the world) where our hearts really are. To say you are a Christian while living a comfortable life, and to live a Christian life through disasters and persecution are two entirely different things. It was probably real easy for Job to say he believed in God when he was living the sweet life. But God allowed Satan to make Job's life hard, so that it was evident that even through hardships, Job was faithful to the one and only living God. Tests have another purpose as well: they make us stronger. In order for gold to be purified, it is stuck in a fire. The longer it's in the fire, the more pure it is. We are like that gold. The more hard times we go through, the more we have to rely on God for peace and joy, and the stronger our relationship with God becomes. Check out Romans 5:1-5. vs. 3-4 say 'And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations [hard times], knowing that tribulation produces perserverance; and perserverance, character; and character, hope.' That means that when we go through hard times (or tests of faith) we gain perserverance, and from perserverance we gain character, and from character we get hope. So just remember-the longer the cook time, the more pure the gold.

1 John 3:6 says; Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. -- This is a very interesting passage because it deals with living out our faith. Everyone sins, including Christians. So, based on this verse, are there no real Christians? The tricky part is the translation. The words used in this passage that talk about sinning mean to be living in a lifestyle of sin. So if someone is constantly sinning and making no sincere effort to stop, and at the same time calling themselves a Christian, then, according to this verse, they are lying. But a true believer is someone who is striving to follow God and not sin even though they mess up sometimes, like we all do. In either situation you should talk to them and see if you can help them. Weather it be helping them come to Christ, or helping them not to sin.

The simplest way to find out is to ask yourself what your priorities are in life. Is God the most important thing to you? If He is, how does that show through the way you live daily? You see, if God is the most important thing in your life, you will attempt to live a life free of sin. You will honor God in everything you do. Unfortunately, we often mess up, we often sin or fail to honor God. So what do you do? You need to daily surrender your life to God. Do your absolute best to live for him, and if you fail to do so, repent, turn towards Him and set your priorities straight.

When I'm going through hard times, James 4:8 really encourages me. It says 'Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded.' When things get tough, draw near to God, and remember that He is always there, whether you "feel" his prescence or not. How do you give it all up to Him? Through pray. Just trust him, and don't worry. Matthew 6:25 is Jesus saying, 'Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?' vs. 34 says, 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for today is its own troubles.'

Matthew 7 is the parable of the man who built his house upon the rock. Vs. 24 says 'Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.' What does Jesus say to do? Check out Matthew-study it when things get rough. 1 Peter is also really encouraging when you're going through trials. Check out 1 Peter 1:5-7 and vs. 13- rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When you are going through a rough time, it is probably because God is refining you and testing your faith. Draw near to him and put all your hope in him, and you will grow through the hard times.

First of all you gotta ask yourself if you truly repented (confess your sins, change of habits, and life style) and meant it. Ask yourself, "Do I have a desire to serve the Lord with everything I have?" Romans 10:9 is a perfect verse for this question it says "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has risen Him from the dead, you will be saved". The great thing about following Christ is His guarantee of salvation - He never gives up on a project He started. Philippians 1:6 reminds us that He finishes what He starts. If He's begun something in your heart, you can know for sure that He will complete it and perfect it! We'll see it when we get to heaven!

Many, many scriptures come to mind when I think about this question. Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord,'Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven." Also 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Also 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things become new." Think also about Paul how he used to persecute Christians. God eventually saved Paul and made him an amazing servant, and totally used him in many various ways. If God can save and use a guy like Paul with a terrible background and many regrets, WHO CAN'T HE USE?!

A Child of God is just another name for a Christian. One of the reasons that Christians are called Children of God is Matthew 12:50. So how do you know if you are a Christian? Read these verses. Galatians 5:22-24, Mark 16:16, John 3:16, Rom 6:23, and Acts 2:21. If you still have questions after reading these verses please talk to your parents or a pastor.

Everybody wants to have a purpose in life. That would explain why Rick Warren's book, A Purpose Driven Life, sold 20 mill+ copies! We like to know that people appreciate us and we're needed, in fact, many people commit suicide because they think their life is pointless or hopeless. Well, it's not. As I was driving home from Ski Apache after snowboarding on Monday, I was watching the cows on the side of the road. If anyone or anything has a pointless life, it's a cow. Think about it - they're born so that they can spend their whole life eating and getting fat so they can become someone's nice, juicy hamburger. Cows are born to become hamburgers - what a terrible life! Thankfully, God created us for much more than hamburgers (although, I'm dissin' a good hamburger!)! In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren gives 5 purposes that we have: to offer real worship, enjoy real fellowship, learn real discipleship, practice real ministry, and to live out real evangelism. So you may be saying, "I didn't ask Rick Warren." Well obviously, the best way to figure out what God's will is for your life is to turn to His Word. Check out Luke 12: 22-23. Jesus says that people worry about a lot of things, but there's no point in doing that. A few verses later, in Luke 12:25-26, Jesus says "And besides, what the use of worrying? What good does it do? Will it add a single day to your life? Of course not! And if worrying can't even do such little things as that, what's the use of worrying about bigger things?" Jesus says don't worry about what you'll wear or eat or do - focus on God first and He'll provide everything you need. Look a few verses later, Luke 12:31 says, "He will always give you all you need from day to day if you will make the Kingdom of God your primary concern." God's will (what God wants to happen) should be your primary concern in your life - make that your first priority and God will give you everything you need. Now some people have to see it in black and white - THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR YOUR LIFE? Well, there's only a few places in the Bible where it spells it out. Check it out: 1 Thessalonians 4:3 - "For THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;" 1 Thessalonians 5:18 - "in everything give thanks; for THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Peter 2:15 - "For THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men" Micah 6:8 - "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" The final answer is: God's will for your life is to live purely, to be thankful in everything, do good and justice before men, and to be merciful and humble. If you make these your first priority, God will provide all you need to do everything He wants you to do.

Sometimes when people worship they cry, sometimes they raise their hands, sometimes they dance, and sometimes they don't do anything but stand or kneel or sit. How you respond when you worship depends on your heart. If your heart is set on truely worshipping God, then you will respond to it. Everyone is unique with their own ways of worshipping. If your heart is not set on worshipping God and you're more focused on what the people around you will see or think of you, then you're probably "putting on a show." God knows your heart and He will know if you're truely worshipping or not. He is the focus of worship so our full attention should be on Him. The bible tells us in John 4:23, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." If you cry when you worship, that's perfectly normal. If you cry because you want others to notice you, then you may want to check your heart and return to worship in spirit and truth.

That's a question I think a lot of people have, so first of all, let's look at what it means to repent. Repentance means feeling sorry for what you have done and then making a complete turn from that sin. So, make sure that when you ask for forgiveness, that you truly desire to change that sin in your life. If we are truly repentant of our sins, God will forgive us as many times as we repent. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." What you have to understand is that God doesn't expect us to be perfect; He knows that we are going to mess up. Psalm 103:12-16 says, " As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16For the wind passes over it, and it is gone," So regardless of the fact that God knows how imperfect we are, He is still faithful to forgive us of our sins. So if we truly repent of our sins no matter how many times we sin, God is more than willing to forgive us.

Prayer is wonderful-it is our way to communicate directly with the one living, sovereign God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. But in order to fully see and focus on God we must spend time in His Word as well as in prayer. One cannot go without the other-we must read the Bible and pray equally, because just reading the Word without seeing it is pointless. We must partake of the bread of the Word of God. We are told that man cannot live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:3, Matt. 4:4). Praying and reading and meditating on God's word is generally known as a quiet time or devotional, and in order to see, hear, and understand God you need to have one every day-time set apart to focus on Him, read His word, and talk to Him. That's a fundamental part of your growth in your walk with Jesus, and the more you walk in Him, the clearer His words become. James 4:8 says, 'Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.' Another thing to keep in mind when spending time with God is to spend time listening. We have a tendency to do all the talking. So take time each day to just be quiet in front of the Lord. Meditate on His Word. Listening comes in all forms-be observant. Spend time actually listening in church-you'll find yourself learning a lot. God speaks to us in all kinds of ways. It's not a matter of whether He's talking-it's a question of are you listening. Don't pray five minutes before you go to school and expect to hear God's voice. You need to invest the energy to draw close. That means lots of time. But it won't be wasted. God has promised us He will draw near to us if we draw near to Him, and His promises never go void.

As a human, it is ok to have doubts but don't let it consume you. Even Thomas in the Bible doubted. In John 20:24-29, but Jesus told him "Do not be unbelieving but believing." When you ask God to take that doubt away He'll replace that with Faith. James 1:5 " If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be give to him."

First off, I want to tell you that what you are going through and experiencing is not an unusual thing. It is a natural thing for us as humans to doubt the existence of God. Look, even one of Jesus' very own disciples named Thomas, doubted whether or not He was raised from the dead. Check out John 20:24-29:

"24Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." 26Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

You are not a bad person if you doubt. See, here in this passage of scripture, Jesus doesn't get mad at Thomas for doubting, but instead He takes away his doubt. You said, that you shouldn't pray to God to take away your doubt, well I think that you should pray for God to take your doubt. Ask God to give you faith. Heb 11:1 - "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Ask God to take away all doubt in your mind that He is real. I believe that He will be faithful to reveal Himself to you.



Secondly, you said that you were doubting such things as who created God? Well, nobody made God, God is above and beyond all time, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is from everlasting to everlasting. So you might be saying, "Great! That didn't help me one bit." Well the reason I said those things was to show that there are certain things about God and the Bible that we are never going to understand, until we get to heaven. I don't even begin to say I understand how God wasn't made, but was just, always there! But I can say that through prayer and trusting in God, and knowing that He understands how it all works, I can believe. And a lot of times when it is hard to believe, I just pray and ask God to help me believe by giving me more faith in Him. James 1:5 "5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him"



So to sum all of this up, Please don't walk away from your faith. Remember that you are experiencing something that every follower of Christ goes through. Don't lose hope, God is there! He Loves You! He wants to forgive you of all unrighteousness! If you ask Him to help you believe with more faith, He will give it to you! If you are having trouble understanding, ask of God and He will give you what you need to have faith and believe.



I hope that I have answered you question, but please do not hesitate to write again if you still have any concerns, or things you need more clarification on. I will leave you with this scripture:

Phil. 4:4-7 - "4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Your best witness will be how you live. Ephesians 4 and 5 talk a lot about how you should live-specifically Ephesians 4:17, 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.' and 5:8, 'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.' Everyone is watching you the second you claim Christ for your own and the way you act will speak louder for the Lord than anything you can tell your friends. We are told to tell people about Jesus, but if they already know about Him, it's not your place to tell them about who He was and is. That doesn't mean cut God out of your conversations. Talk about God when relavent, but don't push the plan of salvation-if they know about it, it's now up to the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. Your job now is to live as a child of the light. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest.

Satan is a sly, cunning, and deceiving person. He will make you think that you are not good enough for God and he will always try to pull you away from God. He will deceive you into thinking that you cannot overcome difficult circumstances, but God can bring us out of ANYTHING! 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." God will never allow anything we cannot bear and He will always give us a way out. After asking for God's strength to pull us through, it is our responsibility to turn away from the temptation. Prayer is very vital. Jesus says in Matthew 26:41, "'Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'" Our flesh is weak so being in prayer and being watchful will help us to resist temptation. Along with prayer, being in God's word (the bible) will help us know God better and make us free. John 8:31-32 says, "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'" It's important to remember that Satan is much weaker than God and no matter how tight we feel the leash is, God is greater. 1 John 4:4 says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

The first thing and most important is that you have Jesus in your heart and are fully seeking after Him. Just because you are feeling convicted in this area tells me that you are going in the correct direction. Praise God! First thing to be sure of is that you are not bound for hell. Hell is reserved for those who have no love for God and don't have Him as there savior. If you are saved and have a personal relationship with Him, He will keep you until the day you die. Now this doesn't take away our responsibility to be doing the things that please God. Check this out. We are told in Rom 12:2 "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (The Message) So here it is, plain as day. What a wonderful verse. So at school you should be different. Different from all the things around you that don't please God. As the verse says, we need to fix our attention on God. That's the key. So in closing, fix your eyes on God daily and be in prayer. Ask God to give you the strength to be different in a messy world. Check out Philippians 2:15 for further study. Peace.

Girls should not be the priority right now. If you are in middle school or high school, you are in no position to think about marriage, thus you don't have to worry about chosing a girl. Being a Christian as a midschooler is not about having the cutest Christian girlfriend. It's about desiring God and following after him. When I thought I was in love, God really directed me to this verse:

'Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon the earth that I desire but You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.' Psalm 73:25-26. Can you truly say that you desire none upon the earth but Jesus if you're caught up in thinking about girls? God should be your only desire right now. Check out Psalm 37:3-4. 'Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.' If you really want a girl, God will give you one called a wife-but marriage, like I said is a long way off, and what you should be thinking about now is delighting yourself in the Lord.

Well first of all, accepting Jesus is not an emotional thing - it is a spiritual thing. When you accept the Lord, you don't have to have warm fuzzies, and be happy and singing all the time, that is not the way it works. Sometimes it is ok to feel alone, but we have to know that we aren't - God is always there. In Joshua 1:5 God says, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses so I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you." Now when you accept Jesus into your life that doesn't mean that everything will be ok, and that all of your problems will go away, but it does mean that God is gonna help you and guide you through anything. In the book of James 1:2-4, James says, " My brothers count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." So as christians we are going to face hardship and have problems, but God doesn't leave us alone - He is willing to take our problems and our trials, He says, in Matt. 11:28-30 "Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and I will give you rest for your souls. Because my burden is easy and my yoke is light." So when you feel all alone and you are fighting a big battle and you don't know what to do, remember that Jesus is always there for you and He will never leave your side. He always wants to take your problems, so you just have to give them to Him. He wants to give you rest and joy and peace, and love, but you have to be willing to give Him your problems. You said that you want to walk with God, AWESOME! By accepting Him, you are already right there walking next to Him. Now there are some very important things that you should do in order to keep your walk with Christ strong. First, read your BIBLE as much as possible because it is the word of God, and He has so many cool things to teach you and show you. Second, PRAY, this is simply talking to God and telling Him how you feel and telling Him your problems, concerns, your Joy, and everything else. He wants you to talk to Him. Third, go to CHURCH and hang out with other people that follow Jesus, they will encourage you and help you in your walk with Christ. And remember that even if you dont feel like you are close to God and that you aren't walking with Him, that He is ALWAYS closely walking next to you. You are in my prayers and God Bless you.

Well I know it is not easy to hear when you are going through a difficult time but James 1:2 tells us “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,” and it tells us to do so because God uses difficult times to make us stronger in our walk. A good example of that is Job, he lost everything: his health, his kids, and all of his possessions, but in the end he said, "Before, I had heard about God, but now I have seen Him. So no, just because God is not answering your prayer the way you want does not mean He is ignoring you. He could be telling you no because He has a better plan for dealing with the situation. But no matter what happens take the advice of James and rejoice because it is an opportunity to know God better.

It is true that God is omniscient, or all-knowing. But He is not a universe dominator. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God wants everyone to be saved. But He has given us two choices - to follow Him and obey Him, or to do what we want. There is proof of this all throughout the Old Testament - Isreal turned away from God again and again, and He let them. There was punishment, but they had the choice. He doesn't force us into following Him. One of the things to keep in mind when thinking about this is that God is too big for us to comprehend fully. Sometimes we just have to believe what the Bible says. David does say in Psalm 139:16 - 'Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.' So God sees the future and the present and the past - all the days of your life as though they were one. But He still gives everyone the choice to follow or forsake Him. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.' You have a choice to make one way or the other - make sure it's the right one.

You always have to look at the context of the Scripture (look at all the verses around the one you're looking at). When the Bible tells us that God is the light of world, it means that God is the only hope the world has. However, Galatians 2:20 tells us that Jesus lives in Christians, so when it says that we are the lights of the world, it means that other people should see God in our life - it is not us (the sinners) but God (the perfect God) in us that is the light.

God is a God of love and his desire is for us to love him back. (Deuteronomy 5:10, 6:5,7:9) And true love has to be of our own choosing. If God did not give us free will we would not restrain from sin because we want to please God but because we have to. An example of this is if your parents asked you to help them clean the house and you help them because you have no choice in the matter. However what if a friend asked you to help them clean their room you would do it simply because they were your friend and love them. The same way God does not want us to follow Him because we have to, but instead, because we want to. And a second reason is that our sin shows us that there is no way that we can get into heaven on our own ( Romans 3:23). And when we realize that we can not get to heaven on our own we must then place our trust in Jesus Christ to get into heaven (Jeremiah 17:5-8). So even though God does not approve of sin, He uses it to his own glory.

We first need to understand that there are times in our walk where we stray away from God and need redirection in our lives. Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The most important steps to take after walking away from God are to realize we have fallen and repent, or turn away from our sins. Jesus tells us in Revelation 2:5a, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works." After we repent, we know that God forgets our sin and makes us new again. Psalm 103:12 tells us, As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. We have to make a constant effort to turn completely from the sin that made us walk away from God. Praying and reading our Bible keeps us in communication with God and prevents us from leaving Him. The enemy attacks us with the intention to get us away from God. Arm yourself with the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) and be ready when the enemy tries to attack you!

Matthew 22:37 says, 'Jesus said to them, "You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."' As Christians, this should be our aim in all that we do, to love God. We must also put our faith into action. Ephesians 4:1 says, 'I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.' Ephesians 5:8 goes on to say, 'For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light.' This is our goal-to walk as children of the light. If anything is hindering us from walking in the light, we must throw it away, just like Jesus says in Matthew 5:30, 'If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.' Jesus was saying if something makes you sin, cast it away from yourself. This applies to everything, music included. If listening to some songs turns your heart away from loving the Lord God with your heart, soul, and mind, it's sin to listen to them. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 says, 'Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.' Be discerning to what you listen to-not by labeling music "Christian" or "non-Christian", but by asking yourself if what you are listening to is hindering your walk with Christ. If it is, turn it off.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ and the work of the cross, from that point on we are sealed with a guarantee of eternity in heaven. Ephesians 1:13-14 says, In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. There is no reason to get saved more than once. Once you are saved, you are saved. The work that was done on the cross was for forgiveness of sins, past, present and future. We're sealed. God promises that we will spend eternity with Him. Guaranteed! So does that mean that we can do whatever we want because we are guaranteed to go to heaven? Of course not. John 14:15 says, If you love Me, keep my commandments. If you really love the Lord you aren't going to want to do the things that displease God. You will want to make Him happy by doing the things that He wants you to do. But what if we backslide and fall into sin? It is our responsibility to repent from our sins, and return to the Lord. The word ?repent' means to turn, or to return. It also means to have a change of mind, or to be sorry. These are all true of what we are to do when we sin. We turn from that sin, we return to God and what He wants us to do. We change our mind to focus on God rather than the sin we are faced with, and we express to God that we are truly sorry for our sin. The only way to lose your salvation would be to turn completely away from God and disregard everything that you know, rejecting Jesus Christ. But if you have done that, than the bible says that you were probably never really saved in the first place. 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. So if you have truly accepted Christ into your life, you may sin, because no one is perfect, but God enables you to live for Him so it's not likely that you would leave the Lord and reject Christ. So the answer to the question is, If you have given your life to Christ and have truly been saved, then you can't lose your salvation, even if you sin. We will never be perfect until we are in heaven, but when we sin, we must ask for forgiveness and return to a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

Jesus tell us in Revelation 1:3 that we will be blessed if we read and keep the words of this Book (prophecy)so we need not fear. The terror that will go down in The Tribulation will be after we have gone to be with the Lord (1Thessalonians 4 and 1Corinthians 15:52)because we will be raptured. God says that those who believe in Him will not go through the events that take place in the Tribulation. We are told to comfort people with this truth, so that their not afraid but excited to be with the Lord. So be excited that Jesus died on the cross and saved us from all of this crazy scary stuff.

Anything can be bad if we deem it more important than God. Exodus 20:3 says, You shall have no other gods before Me. This doesn't always mean a god like Allah, or Buddah. Sometimes we become so obsessed with people or things that they become like a god to us. For some people an X box may be their god. For others, it may be a musician or an actor. Some people become so obsessed with a boy or a girl that they become more important to that person than God is, therefore the boy or the girl becomes like a god to them. This is when it becomes a problem. Liking a boy or a girl, or X box, or a band, is not a bad thing, but it is when we desire them more than we desire God. Proverbs 18:22 says, He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. To find a spouse is a good thing, but to count anything of more importance than God is a bad thing. Just remember that you always have to listen to your parents as to when they say it's ok for you to date a boy or a girl. Even if you think it's not affecting your relationship with God, if you are dating someone, when your parents said it's not ok, then it is affecting your relationship with God because it is causing you to sin by disobeying your parents. The answer to the question is, if God is first in your life, and He is influencing the decisions you make, then it's not bad to like someone. Just be sure that you don't pursue a relationship until it's ok with both parents involved.

I know what you mean, rumors can be very hurtful, but unfortunately there is not much you can do about the actions of others. But there are two great things that you can do to help deal with the situation. The first is pray, bring your pain and your concern about the rumors before God. And if you feel that they are damaging your witness you can pray also that the rumors would not be heard or taken seriously to those you are trying to minister to. The second thing you can do is take the advice given in 2 Peter 3:14 “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless”. What you can do is make sure to live your life in such a way, with the highest standards of purity that anyone who knows you realizes that the rumors are false and ignores them.

Let me ask you, what is a Christian? A Christian literally means a follower of Christ. Now before you ask me how are we supped to follow some guy who we have never seen, think about the game follow the leader. Now in this game, the point is not so much to go where the leader goes but to do what that person does. Similarly, we Christians should do what Christ did when he was here on earth. James 1:22 tells us --- "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." --- So we are supposed to do what the word (the bible) tells us and not just listen to what is says. Sadly this is how may people live their lives - hearing but not doing. They go to church and listen to what the bible tells them and they agree and say that it should be done, but they never do it. Now keep in mind that all people, even Christians, are sinners and mess up, but are those people doing what the bible says or are they just listening and deceiving themselves?

There's always a time when we don't want to do anything, including spending time with God. But we forget that it is an honor to spend time with Him. Take time and think about how God has been good to you. Spend time with Him daily, in prayer and in reading the Bible. He will show you the power of prayer. In Psalm 119:129-131, it says Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keep them. The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth and panted For I longed for Your commandment."

: There may be times when we don't feel like worshipping, but when we take time to focus on how truly amazing and worthy God is, hopefully our perspective will change. The more we spend time in God's presence by reading His Word, praying, and worshipping, the more we will begin to see Him in our lives and get excited and on fire for him.

Unfortunately I do not remember the phrase separation & saturating will lead to a situation, so I do not know the context of what he was talking about. As for contact without contamination, the point that he was trying to make is although we live in this world, we are not supposed to act as this world does. We should model our lives after the principles of Jesus Christ and live in a holy manner, not in the sinful way the world does. Also, at the same time we are not to remove ourselves from people that are not Christians, but we should have contact with them so that we can show them the love of Christ and share the Gospel with them.

Well according to Kevins teaching, "animated" means full of life, excitement, lively. So our Christian lives should be full of life and excitement for the Lord. I believe this to be true even so much so that God commands us to have lives that are full of excitement and fervor for Him. Check out Matt. 22:37-38. Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." So God wants our lives to full of zeal for Him! So what happens if that isn't the way we live our lives? In the book of Revelation Jesus has John write seven letters to seven different Churchs in order to tell them how well, or how animated, they were. Well let's look at a few churches that didn't live animated lives. First let's look at the Church in Sardis. Jesus says to this church in Revelation 3:1-6, "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'" Jesus says to this church that they are dead and not living for God at all and He commands them to repent, or else He will be forced to judge them. And He says that if they overcome thier deadness, and live strong for the Lord once again that He will bless them! Ok, so hopefully your Christian life isn't completely dead, or non-animated. But what if you aren't being completely full of zeal like the Lord commands? Well let's look at the Church in Laodicea. In Revelation 3:14-22, Jesus addresses this church that wasn't living their lives as they should. They weren't not following God, but they were not following God with their whole heart! Check out these verses in Rev. 3:14-22, "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'" Ok, so according to this passage someone whose life isn't animated but is half-hearted, God will spit them out of his mouth. He will have no part with them because they are half-hearted, and God commands whole heartedness. So according to this passage, God will punish those who are only half animated, but He tells them to repent, and to zealous for the Lord. So my encouragment to you would be to live a life fully seeking God, because when looking at these passages, the people who follow after God, and live an animated Christian life, God blesses greatly! So if you arent living an animated Christian life, STOP living half-heartedly, and be zealous for God, or else God will as it says, "those whom I love, I reprove, and discipline" God loves you and wants you to live fully for Him, and if you arent He may have to get your attention by using discipline. So I Pray that we all live lives worthy of the calling that was set before us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!!!

I think there is a difference between living two lives, and just being kind of quiet about your faith. Let me explain. An example of living two lives would be to go to church and carry your bible, and tell everyone you see, "Praise the Lord", but when you go to school, you cuss, you lie, you steal, and you don't acknowledge God at all in your life. If asked, you may even tell people that you aren't a Christian. That would be living two lives and is totally different from believing in Christ but just being quiet about it. I'll address both. First, living 2 lives is definitely wrong. Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. By living two lives you are trying to serve two masters. You are trying to serve and please God and trying to please the world, and that is impossible. James 4:4 says, ...Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You can't live two lives and please God, because if you are a friend of the world, that makes you an enemy of God. Secondly, if you love the Lord, but you are quiet about it, that's not good either. God wants us to tell people about Him. In the gospel of Mark you can read about how Jesus healed many people and told them not to tell anyone, but they couldn't keep it quiet. They were screaming from the rooftops about what Jesus had done in their lives. Jesus has told us the opposite. He tells us in Mark 16:15, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. If Jesus told the people he healed to keep it quiet and they told people about Him, how much more should we tell people about Him being that He has told us to! God wants us to be on fire for Him. If you found a hundred bucks on the street, I bet you would tell everyone you know. God saved you from hell and has given you heaven. That's worthy of telling everyone about! The answer is, if you are living 2 lives, you need to stop trying to serve two masters and begin to serve God, the only true master. And if you are being quiet about how much you love the Lord, don't be. Tell people about how excited you are that God has saved you from your sins!

Taking communion is something believers do to remember Jesus' death on the cross. It helps us to remember that Jesus died a terrible death so we could be free from our sins if our lives are given to Him. It is okay to take communion by yourself at home. God will not be mad at you. 1 Corinthians 11:24-26 says,24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. This passage is speaking about the communion supper. Jesus doesn't limit us to only take communion at church. As long as you understand what communion is (remembering Jesus' death and the washing of your sins by His blood) you are free to do it whenever and wherever you are.

I like to think of baptism like I think about a wedding ring. Anyone can wear a wedding ring, but that does not make them married. A wedding ring shows that there's a commitment to someone behind that ring. Same with baptism. Anyone can be baptized - even a baby, but that does not mean anything is different with their life. Baptize is a sign of a commitment to Jesus Christ. Here's a good way to remember it: baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. Mark 1:4 says "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." If you've made a commitment to live for Christ, baptism is a great way to show others and remind yourself of that commitment. It's a celebration of new life - leaving your old sinful life in the water and raising again to new life. If you were baptized as a baby or at some point in your life when it was just a ritual or you didn't understand what you were doing, being baptized again might be a great thing for you to do. Now that you can make a decision for yourself, you can decide whether or not you want to be baptized.

Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it will be opened to you." If you truly seek forgiveness, out of a pure heart (Matthew 5:8), God will answer you. Matthew 21:22 says, "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will recieve." When you are praying on auto-pilot, you are not really seeking God. Mean what you say to God, and He will answer you. When you keep doing the wrong thing repeatedly, look at Romans 6:7, "For he who has died has been freed from sin...14:For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slave to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" So what is this passage telling us? It's saying we are not condemned for our sins because Jesus took the punishment for all our sins when He died on the cross. We are saved by grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9). That means we get to start over afresh. So when you truly ask for forgiveness for sin, you are forgiven every time. But that does not mean you can take God's grace for granted and keep purposefully sinning. That would mean you are a slave to sin, when you are supposed to be worshipping the God whose grace saved and keeps saving you. So if you keep sinning, ask God truly from your heart for help to stop, but know that His strength is sufficient for you (2 Corinthians 12:9 "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'") when you fall.

Jesus warns us of this in John 15:20 "Remember the word that I said to you, ?A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also." ---- He tells us that because when we are Christians people will not like us. It's not because they don't like us, it's because they do not like Jesus. They don't know and understand him and they don't want to be accountable for their sins. Just remember (although it is difficult) to show the love of Christ to everyone - even those who look down upon you.

Let me ask you a question: do you love your parents? Do you fear your parents? Love and fear are not opposites in some situations. It depends upon what definition of fear is applied. If we are to be afraid of God and want to run away from Him, then how can we love Him? There is another definition of fear - "to have reverence and respect for, to be in obedience to." Now if you look at when it talks about fearing God which definition of fear do you think you should apply?

Genesis 22:12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you FEAR God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

Do you think this means that Abraham wanted to run away from God or that he loved and respected God? There are many more examples, but I think that you get the point. We are supposed to both love and fear God, but we are not to be afraid of God (unless we are not saved). God is worthy of the most fear (awe and respect) and love that we could ever give Him.

To start this off, I want to first make it clear on how we are saved. Romans 4:4,5 says --- "Now to him who works [for salvation], the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted to him a righteousness."--- You see we are not saved by going to church or by doing good things or praying to God. But instead we are saved by simply trusting that God will do what He says He will do. That is what gets us to heaven because Christ paid the price for our sins. This is called faith. If your faith is in God then it does not matter if it feels like you are saved because you are choosing to believe that you are. This is a hard thing to do, just as is concentrating on the Lord. So often we feel like we are just talking to an empty room or that we are talking to ourselves and feel embarrassed. We need to make ourselves do it - the same way that a track runner makes themselves go running every day even when they don't feel like it. It is hard work, but it will pay off because you will grow closer to God.

Matthew 7:21 - "Not everyone who says to Me, ?Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." Jesus told us that it is not enough to just call Him Lord. What He means is that it is not just about using your mouth to say that Jesus is Lord on Sunday at church. You should also live a life that shows that you love and serve Jesus. I do not know what is going on in the hearts of these people, so I can not judge them. The truth is, they may truly desires to live for Christ, but not know how. However, they could simply want to please those around them rather then Christ. If so, when they are at church, they put on an act of being good; but if they're at school, they try to please that crowd. What is really going on is not for you or me to say, but is between them and God. But, this is what we do know - Mark 8:38 - "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." It is a sin for us to be ashamed of Christ and a very serious one at that! Talk to your friends about the way they are acting, but remember, they may not want to listen. Most of all, pray for them, that God would change their hearts, and make sure you don't act how they are!

In Proverbs 19:9 it says "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will perish." A true person that has a true relationship with God does not fake it. A true believer bears fruit in their lives, suffers persecution and lives for Jesus not for themselves. If a person is faking their relationship with God then they don't have a true relationship with Him. The best thing we could do for a person that is not walking right with God is to pray for them and show them God's love.

"Fake" is defined as "to alter, manipulate, or treat so as to give a false appearance to; to deceive". Someone who has a false relationship with God and is trying to deceive others into thinking that they have a true relationship with God is not good at all! The bible says in Proverbs 19:9, "A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies shall perish." YIKES! I don't believe that people who have a true relationship with God would try to fake it. In John 15:5 we read these words from Jesus, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." So a person with a true relationship with God bears fruit in their lives. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Another reason I believe a person with a true relationship with God would not fake it is because being a follower of Christ brings persecution. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, "4But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings;". Do you think if you were not a true believer you would want to go through things like this just for the heck of it?! I don't think so. Lastly, a person with a true relationship with God does not want to fake it or do anything evil. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, "14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again". These verses say that we who believe do not live for ourselves but we live for Jesus. Someone living for Jesus does not want to fake it.

The answer to the question is a person who has a true relationship with God does not fake it. A true believer bears fruit in their life, suffers persecution, and lives for Jesus, not themselves. If a person is "faking" their relationship with God, then they don't have a true relationship with Him. The best thing we can do for a person who does not have a true relationship with God is to pray for them.

We've all heard Deuteronomy 31:8 quoted many times - ?He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you? What an awesome promise! You never have to doubt if God will be there or not - He said that He ALWAYS will be! So, we know He'll be there, but what happens when it doesn't feel like He really is there? In Psalm 77:7-9, Asaph begins to doubt God. He asks questions like "Has God forgotten to be merciful?" Well, Asaph was a musician who wrote some of the Psalms. Sometimes, even the people who wrote the Bible felt like God wasn't there! It can be comforting to know that the people in the Bible knew how you felt. Elijah wanted to commit suicide, Paul went to jail, Job lost everything, and Asaph felt like God had given up on him. However, when Asaph really thinks about God, though, He can't help but think how awesome He is. Check out the next few verses in Psalm 77. Asaph vows to remember how faithful God has been and all the promises He has given to Asaph. Sometimes it feels like God isn't there because we're focused on the NOW - we forget how faithful He has been and His promises that He will continue to be faithful. Think about the Israelites when they were in the wilderness. They kept whining and thinking God had given up on them. We get frustrated with them because in the next chapter, God provides for them. However, It's hard for us, because we can't see the next "chapter" in our life. We lose focus of God when we forget His faithfulness. I've always heard it said, "When you feel like God isn't there, it's never Him that moved, it's you." Maybe you've got some sin in your life that you need to talk to Him about. For instance, Saul fell into sin so deep that God quit responding to him - he wouldn't listen anyway! And in Isaiah 59:1-2, it says, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." We can't deny that sometimes it does feel like God is not there. But when you come to that point, think about all that He has done for you and all He has promised to do - it's impossible to continue in doubt if you really believe His promises.

To answer this it is best to look at what God tells us in Isaiah 13:11 - "I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." ---- This verse talks about a coming day when God will punish the world for all of its evil. And because this world and the people in it are evil we are not to act like they do. It does not mean we cannot have friends but that we should not act out the evil of this world, but rather instead live the way God wants us to live, holy and pure.

First, you should be a Christian because it saves you from hell and it's also the only way to truly find happiness! Second, when you become a Christian, it's a decision that you make, and living like a Christian is also a decision that you make. Isaiah 42:20 ," You see and understand what is right but you refuse to act on it. You hear, but you don't really listen." You choose how you're going to live. I understand that it's hard sometimes to act like a Christian, but God knows that we are not perfect and HE loves us anyway. Proverbs 6:3," Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your path."

YES, next question? No, I'm just joking! It is true that your parents are supposed to be role models and bring you up in the training of the Lord, but not all parents do that. In light of that, no matter what you parents DO, you are still to obey the Lord and what His word says you should do. While the Bible gives specific commands to parents and children, watching how we should talk is one we all are commanded to do. Colossians 3:8 says, "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, FILTHY LANGUAGE, out of your mouth. While you should obey your parents, you should always obey God above all. Be sure to read your bible and know what it says God wants you to do. Also check out Ephesians 4:29. God bless you and be a strong witness to your parents that they might see Christ living in you!

This is a very good question. Lets look at some scripture.In Matthew 9:10-13 Jesus was having dinner with a bunch of sinners and tax collectors. When the Pharisees saw this they asked why he was eating with such people, Jesus replied in verses 12 and 13, ".Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrafice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance." Basically what he's saying is, just like people who are sick need a doctor to prescribe a cure for their sickness, so sinners need someone to give them the cure for their "sin sickness". That cure is Jesus. How are non-believers ever going to hear about Jesus if there is not a believer around them to tell them about Him? Jesus in Matthew 5:16, Mark 16:15, tells us to let our light shine and that we should preach the gospel to every creature. We do, however, have to be careful, as 1 Corinthians 15:33 warns us that bad company corrupts good character. We have to make sure that we are influencing them in a positive way, not letting them influence us in a negetive way. Romans 12:2 tells us to not be conformed to this world. As we look at Jesus, I don't think his message was revealed by who he excluded, but rather by who he included. Jesus mostly hung out with believers, but he wasn't afraid to show love to and include sinners. I would say, hang out with believers, but remember that we are called to share the gospel with non-believers, and never be afraid to love and include non-believers in the positive activities you are involoved in. When in doubt, ask yourself, "What would Jesus do?".

If you are truly saved, and have faith in Jesus as your Savior, your salvation cannot be taken from you. Therefore, you do still go to heaven.

John 6: 37-40 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.


However…. Romans 12:9-21 Tells us how to behave as Christians. Verses 17-21 specifically talk about repaying good for evil, and letting the Lord deal with the situation. Leave room for His wrath.

Matthew 6: 14,15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive yours…..

Matthew 7:1-5 and Luke 6:37,38 Judge not, that you be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

* In God’s eyes, sin is sin. Your sins are no better or worse than your friend/ enemy. Therefore it is not our place to withhold forgiveness from someone else when we are also sinners. We leave God to judge, have wrath, and have mercy. If he forgives us, not matter how great our sins, we are called to follow His example!

The Bible says to love our neighbors as ourselves. We don't deserve God's love anymore than anyone else - we're just as guilty as the 'worst' sinner.

In Revelation, John describes how he was visited by an angel in a vision. This was his response ---- Revelation 22:8 - "Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, 'See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.'" ---- The angel told John not to worship him for he is only a servant. Actually, the Bible tells us in several places such as Exodus 34:14, that we are to worship no other god than the one true God. And, if you read Psalm 99:5, it tells us that God is holy. That means that he is set apart from all others and therefore, is the only one we should worship because anything else that we worship (angles, money, or anything else) is an Idol. Yes, there were people who worshiped both angles and demons (who are fallen angles) in the Bible, just as there are today. But remember that God is the only one who deserves our worship.

Well, we need to know that God does not tolerate sin whatsoever. In fact God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-19) and there are even verses in scripture that speak of God's hate toward people who are wicked and are lovers of violence or evildoers in other words "sinners" (Psalm 11:5, 5:5). Some people might be uncomfortable with that statement. We have gotten very accustomed to hearing the statements said by people in the church such as "God hates the sin, but He loves the sinner." The thing with this statement is that according to the Bible, it's not true. So, where does that leave us as Christians who still sin sometimes? If you have repented and turned from your sin and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been born again and are no longer viewed by God as a sinner but as His child and a saint in Christ. The bible speaks of the believer as being a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Being born again doesn't result in a perfect human being who never ever sins again, it results in a new nature that desires to live a life pleasing to God, and is enabled through Christ's sacrifice to be viewed by God as perfected in Him. The best way to explain this is that sinners within the scriptures are described as those with no regard for God and His law, those who reject God, continually sinning and wanting no part with Him (All people are born this way, and the only way to change is to be born again in Christ). On the other hand, those who are Christians are of a new nature, saved by grace from a life that wanted nothing to do with God, and are enabled by God's Holy Spirit to live according to the new desires he has put in their hearts to seek and serve Him. However, we must be careful to understand God hates sin, and we as Christians in His image should hate it too. We should examine our lives and make certain that any sin we commit is repented of, turned from, and confessed before God in prayer. God has promised us as His children that if we confess our sins to Him he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). So as a Christian God does not view us in light of our sins, but in light of the righteousness of Christ (Rom 5:19). So in that sense, with the Christian there is no chance of His patience running out. However, from time to time God will give us a "wake up call" (sometimes in the form of a trial, although not all trials are for this reason) to show us an area of sin in our lives that we need to repent from and turn over to Him. If there is a certain sin in your life that you continually struggle with, I'd suggest first confessing it before God in prayer and repenting of it, then if possible seek the advice of a leader personally on steps to take in keeping yourself from vulnerable situations where you may be more prone to struggle in a problem area. I'll pray for you and I hope this is a good answer to your question!

When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, and put our faith in Him, we are justified. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Let me explain what justification is. Justification is when a sinner puts his faith in Jesus, and as a result, God declares that sinner righteous and acceptable in His sight. The only way that we can be justified is through faith in Christ. Many people try to justify themselves by doing good things, or performing religious rituals, but none of that can justify you before God. Acts 13:39 says, "and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." So, by putting faith in Jesus, He deletes the file that kept record of all our sins. Those which we did in the past, those we have done today, and all the sin we will commit in the future have all been deleted. It's like we are perfect! Colossians 1:28b says, "that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." This is what the cross was all about. Jesus Christ took the punishment for all of our sins, and was treated the way we deserved to be treated, so God could treat us the way Jesus deserved to be treated. So, it's not that Jesus lies to the Father, saying that we are perfect, but through the work of the cross He has atoned for our transgressions and clothed us in His righteousness. In Christ I'm justified - just as if I'd never sinned!

Hey great question - it covers lots of issues that the church as well as the individual believer faces in today's society. First of all, I would like to encourage you to continue in the things you have been telling your friends about Christ, music, ect. - you are doing the greatest thing that you can for your friends. I would also like to commend you for standing strong in the faith, morals, and ethics that you have, and I will tell you, that that is one of the hardest and most important things you will ever have to do in your walk with Christ, so stand strong in what you believe and in what Christ says no matter what!!!! Anyway, as far as whether or not Greenday and or secular music is a bad thing to listen to, Phillipians 4:8 says, "Finally Bretheren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - think upon these things." Now according to this scripture, as a follower of Christ it's very important that we think upon good things and not evil things, that we fill our hearts with the word of God, and the things of God and not of this world. So yes, it is not good and doesn't benefit your walk with Christ one bit to listen to music with evil and perverse things. In 1 Corinthians 6:12 Paul the Apostle states,"All things are lawful for me but not everything is helpful to me, all things are lawful to me but i will not be brought under the power of any of them." Paul is saying I can do these things like listen to greenday, but if it isn't going to help my walk with Christ, i won't. He would also say I can listen to greenday but I dont want to be influenced by it {brought under the power of anything} so I won't listen to it. So even if something seems ok, ask yourself is it helpful to you or others, and does it influence you in a bad way, if it does, don't do it, flee from those things. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life." So stand strong even if it is the hardest thing to do because God will Bless you for it - Revelation 2:10 "...Be faithful until death and I will give you the Crown of Life." Keep on praying for and encouraging your friends to do the right thing, and guard your heart from all kinds of evil Romans 16:19 "... I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil." God will Bless you mightily.

That's a question I think a lot of people have, so first of all, let's look at what it means to repent. Repentance means feeling sorry for what you have done and then making a complete turn from that sin. So, make sure that when you ask for forgiveness, that you truly desire to change that sin in your life. If we are truly repentant of our sins, God will forgive us as many times as we repent. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." What you have to understand is that God doesn't expect us to be perfect; He knows that we are going to mess up. Psalm 103:12-16 says, " As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16For the wind passes over it, and it is gone," So regardless of the fact that God knows how imperfect we are, He is still faithful to forgive us of our sins. So if we truly repent of our sins no matter how many times we sin, God is more than willing to forgive us.

Hanging out with unbelievers is okay as long as you are the one influencing them and not the other way around. However, the bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?" What this is saying is that our fellowships and relationships should be mostly with believers. When we hang out with unbelievers, we tend to act the way they do. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, "Bad company corrupts good character." So we want to be around good company and people who are cussing and aren't Christians may not be the best company. Your friendship with them doesn't need to stop all together. Jesus says in Mattew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,." You should still be around them to share God's Word with them. When things start getting bad (cussing, doing wrong things, etc.) that's when you should tell them, "Okay, guys, see ya later," and get out of that bad company.

The first part of Proverbs 17:17 says, "A friend loves at all times." You should lovingly and gently confront your friend about her actions. If she asks for forgiveness, forgive her, for we all make mistakes. But if she continues to act this way, you must question if she is truly your friend.

Halloween is dark and demonic in origin and leaves no opportunity to celebrate it to the glory of God. Although the Bible does not say specifically not to celebrate Halloween, as we've seen tonight, it's pretty clear that God does not want His people participating in anything that even looks like it could be evil.

The first thing and most important is that you have Jesus in your heart and are fully seeking after Him. Just because you are feeling convicted in this area tells me that you are going in the correct direction. Praise God! First thing to be sure of is that you are not bound for hell. Hell is reserved for those who have no love for God and don't have Him as there savior. If you are saved and have a personal relationship with Him, He will keep you until the day you die. Now this doesn't take away our responsibility to be doing the things that please God. Check this out. We are told in Rom 12:2 "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (The Message) So here it is, plain as day. What a wonderful verse. So at school you should be different. Different from all the things around you that don't please God. As the verse says, we need to fix our attention on God. That's the key. So in closing, fix your eyes on God daily and be in prayer. Ask God to give you the strength to be different in a messy world. Check out Philippians 2:15 for further study. Peace.

Girls should not be the priority right now. If you are in middle school or high school, you are in no position to think about marriage, thus you don't have to worry about chosing a girl. Being a Christian as a midschooler is not about having the cutest Christian girlfriend. It's about desiring God and following after him. When I thought I was in love, God really directed me to this verse:

'Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon the earth that I desire but You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.' Psalm 73:25-26. Can you truly say that you desire none upon the earth but Jesus if you're caught up in thinking about girls? God should be your only desire right now. Check out Psalm 37:3-4. 'Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.' If you really want a girl, God will give you one called a wife-but marriage, like I said is a long way off, and what you should be thinking about now is delighting yourself in the Lord.

-James 5:12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your "Yes," be "Yes," and your "No," "No," lest you fall into judgment.- We are told not to swear, not by anything. We need to be careful not put ourselves in positions where we will break our word. Unfortunately, you are in a very difficult position. You do not want to break a promise, but at the same time, you do not want to hurt your friend. If it is something really important that maybe your friend could get hurt then it would be best for you to tell him or her. The best thing to do would be to talk to your parents or an adult you can trust and ask for advice, because this could easily end up damaging one and/or the other of your friendships. Remember Ephesians 4:29 - Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Have no part in gossip!

-1 John 4:19-20 "We love God because He first loved us. If someone says, ?I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar?" Matthew 5:43-44 "You have heard that it was said, ?You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you," 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.- The Bible tells us to love others because God first loved us. We are told to be salt and light in this would by loving others as God loves us so that they may see the love of God in our lives. We may not like the sin that they may have in their lives, but God loved us while we were still sinners. Should we not do the same to those around us? If you are having trouble loving someone, pray that God will help you love them - it's pretty hard to hate someone when you're praying for them!

-Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."-

We are commanded to be a light to this world, but what does that mean? Are we supposed to eat light bulbs? No! We are supposed to live a life that shows that we are Christians so that people will see what God has done in our lives. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical behavior. In fact, in Revelation 3:16, God says that that type of behavior makes Him sick! You should confront your friend and tell them that they need to stop. It will not be easy, but doing the right thing often is not. However, God rewards obedience! Pray that God would give you the right words, that e would soften your friend's heart, and that His will would be done.

God is a God of love and his desire is for us to love him back. (Deuteronomy 5:10, 6:5,7:9) And true love has to be of our own choosing. If God did not give us free will we would not restrain from sin because we want to please God but because we have to. An example of this is if your parents asked you to help them clean the house and you help them because you have no choice in the matter. However what if a friend asked you to help them clean their room you would do it simply because they were your friend and love them. The same way God does not want us to follow Him because we have to, but instead, because we want to. And a second reason is that our sin shows us that there is no way that we can get into heaven on our own ( Romans 3:23). And when we realize that we can not get to heaven on our own we must then place our trust in Jesus Christ to get into heaven (Jeremiah 17:5-8). So even though God does not approve of sin, He uses it to his own glory.

Thank God for giving us freedom here in the USA! It probably would not happen here that you would ever be given this choice. However, the best thing to do about the lava would be first ask God to take care of the problem. Just like in Daniel chapter 3 verse 4 then the herald proclaimed. Loudly "this is what you are commanded to do. O peoples nations and men of every language as soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music you must fall down and worship the golden image that king Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not will immediately be thrown into a blazing fire. Verse 12. But there are some Jews whom you have set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who pay no attention to you, o king they neither serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up. Verse 15b. But if you do not worship the golden image, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand? Verse 17. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the god we serve will be able to save us, and will rescue us from your hand o king. Verse 18.but even if he does not we will not worship the golden image you have set up. These three young men stood up for God no matter what. Now are you ready to do the same?

When we do something that we know is wrong before God's eyes, it is called a sin. Unfortunately, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Romans 6:23 tells us, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, since we are all sinners we all deserve death. However, God gave us a great gift, named Jesus, and when we put our faith in Him and surrender our lives to Him we receive eternal life! That's awesome! When we sin, we must confess and ask for forgiveness (see 1 John 1:9). After we sin, don't be surprised to see consequences and punishment come from God! Proverbs 3:11-12 says, My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. To sum it all up, when we do something that we know is wrong we must confess our sin to God and ask for forgiveness. Chances are you will see correction in your life given by God, but He only does it because He loves you!

First off, as imperfect human beings, everyday we do go out into the world and sin. And as Christians, we have the hope and privilege of coming to God and asking for forgiveness. So how does God forgive us? He forgives us by His grace. He is able to take away our sins if we ask Him to do so, because Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago, and defeated sin. 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 says, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." So because of Jesus' death on the cross, we are able to confess our sins before God and He will forgive us. 1st John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now as Christians, we aren't going to be SINLESS but God does want us to change and follow Him; meaning that we will try our hardest to SIN less. So I wouldn't say that it is a good idea to, for one day do all of the bad things that you can think of, because that isn't pleasing to God. And as Christians, our deepest desire should be to please God because of what He has done for us and because of the fact that He is God. So, we are all going to mess up and sin, but God still loves us and is more than willing to forgive us. So remember that God is faithful to take away all of our sins, if we confess them to Him, and turn from those sins.

Luke 16:13 No man may be a servant to two masters: for he will have hate for the one and love for the other; or he will keep to the one and have no respect for the other. You may not be servants of God and of wealth. - Jesus makes the point that we can not serve two masters. So what is your master? What do you think about more - the way you look and what people think about or what God thinks about you? It is not a sin to be concerned with the way we look as long as that is not our primary concern and we let more important things come first like God and family. Also, remember that we do not want to disregard our bodies, but rather keep them presentable to glorify God and not to be offensive by the way we look to those around us. After all, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

This brings into question what Repentance is. Repentance is when you feel sorry for what you have done, and then make a change for the better because of your guilt. The word repentance means "a change of mind which results in a change of life." If you ask God for forgiveness not because someone tells you to or because you have to, but because you want to apologize to God, and feel sorry for what you have done, then make a change in your lifestyle, you have repented. Jesus says in Matthew 5:37 to let your 'Yes' be 'yes' and your 'no,' 'no.' When you say you will do something, do it to honor God.

Since the Bible says we are not to be unequally yoked, if you go against that, you are sinning and endangering your relationship with God.

Jesus tells us in John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." Jesus DID NOT tell us He only loves us because God wants Him to, but if God didn't care then He wouldn't! We are to love one another, not just because God wants us to, but because people will know we are Jesus' disciples if we do. It may not be a sin to say you only love someone because God wants you to, but it is a sin if you say you love someone when really you don't. That's called lying. 1 John 3:14 says, We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. That is a scary place to be! If we do not love our fellow believers, the bible says we are living in death which means we are apart from Christ. The best thing to do is love one another because we will be known as disciples of Jesus. It is definitely not a good idea to tell people you only love them because God wants you to. If that is the case, you may want to ask God to help you to love others as Jesus tells us to.

I wouldn't say it was a sin to watch a non-Christian tv show, there are a lot of tv shows out there. Just make sure you don't watch so much tv that it keeps you from your quiet time with God and His Word. Remember Matthew 6:22 says, "the eye is the lamp to the body." Whatever we feed our eyes is often what we become0 (either darkness or light). Read Matthew chapter 6 for yourself. Also, I challenge you to time how long you watch tv compared to time spent with God.

In Genesis 2:18 the first thing that God said was not good, was for man to be alone, so God made woman to be a helper for him. It's ok to date people in order for us to find that one person that God created for us, specifically. In the same way that we want to surround ourselves with Christian friends, we want to make sure the person we date is a believer because of what the bible teaches us. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, Bad company corrupts good character. So, as a Christian, the principles that we learn from the bible could be corrupted by dating someone who's not a Christian. For this reason, 2 Corinthians 6:14 tells us not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. In the same chapter it asks the question, how can light have fellowship with darkness? How can righteousness have fellowship with unrighteousness? 9 times out of 10 we are going to be influenced by the unbeliever, rather than influencing them. This doesn't mean that we are to end all association with non believers as that would go against the purpose that God has us on this earth, to share Christ with those who don't know Him. (1 Cor 9:19-23, Matthew 28:19) What this means is that the people that we are around the most, such as friends, boyfriends or girlfriends, should be people who are Christians, so we can encourage one another in our faith, rather then have someone corrupting our good character. So, yes, it's ok to date, but God tells us in His word, that He wants us to be equally yoked in relationships with other believers.

This topic is considered a "grey" area, meaning there is no real clear answer. The bible doesn't say, "You shall not watch Harry Potter," and at the same time it doesn't say, "Watch Harry Potter." There are believers who think the Harry Potter movies are evil and you should stay away and there are believers who think the movies are fine and okay to watch. You're realtionship with the Lord and your personal convictions will play big parts in determining whether you should watch the movies or not. Our convictions are things the Lord lays on our heart and if we feel convicted when we watch certain things, then we probably shouldn't. Another important thing is to listen to your parents and ask them how they feel about viewing the Harry Potter movies. Ephesians 6:1 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." The bible also tells us in 1 Thessolonians 5:21, "Test all things; hold fast what is good." So, the answer is have a strong realtionship wth the Lord and listen to your convictions. Ask your parents to see what they think and also test everything to see if it is good.

Anything can be bad if we deem it more important than God. Exodus 20:3 says, You shall have no other gods before Me. This doesn't always mean a god like Allah, or Buddah. Sometimes we become so obsessed with people or things that they become like a god to us. For some people an X box may be their god. For others, it may be a musician or an actor. Some people become so obsessed with a boy or a girl that they become more important to that person than God is, therefore the boy or the girl becomes like a god to them. This is when it becomes a problem. Liking a boy or a girl, or X box, or a band, is not a bad thing, but it is when we desire them more than we desire God. Proverbs 18:22 says, He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. To find a spouse is a good thing, but to count anything of more importance than God is a bad thing. Just remember that you always have to listen to your parents as to when they say it's ok for you to date a boy or a girl. Even if you think it's not affecting your relationship with God, if you are dating someone, when your parents said it's not ok, then it is affecting your relationship with God because it is causing you to sin by disobeying your parents. The answer to the question is, if God is first in your life, and He is influencing the decisions you make, then it's not bad to like someone. Just be sure that you don't pursue a relationship until it's ok with both parents involved.

1 Peter 2:11-12 tells us first that we are aliens in this world and to keep away from its sinful ways. This it talking about how the worlds standards our not our standards as Christians and because of this we need to judge things from a Biblical standpoint. Weather or not you can watch a movie should not be based upon what the world says about it but upon the content of the movie. Does it have content that will harm your walk with God and that is Displeasing to him? And as a Christians you need to be a witness to others so even if it does not go against your biblical beliefs to watch a certain movie you should not watch it if it will make someone else think less of you. As for which movies are ok to watch, I would ask your parents what is ok.

There is nothing, in and of itself, impure about having a boyfriend or girlfriend. With the title of "boyfriend" or "girlfriend", however, usually comes the expectation of other things. Things such as holding hands, kissing, and the like... Now these things aren't necessarily bad or "impure" in themselves, but they are, often times, just small steps in the wrong direction (toward impure things). It's important to remember that true purity isn't about seeing how much you can get away with without technically sinning, but more about seeing how far you can stay away from impure things altogether. Now the desire to feel loved and appreciated by someone of the opposite sex is God-given and natural. it's good. The truth, though, is that this can be attained outside of the context of boyfriend/girlfriend relationships in just simple friendships. Even if you are strong in your walk and relationship with the Lord right now and you don't have any struggle with remaining pure, my advice to you still would be to find contentment in simple friendship until you are a bit older and more capable of properly handling a boy/girl relationship. Also, if you don't already have some, pray that God would bring some solid, Christian friends into your life... both boys and girls. Most of all, just be sure to remember that if you seek God first, above anyone or anything else in life, He promises to give you everything you need. In His presence is fullness of joy; and in His right hand pleasures forevermore. [Matthew 6:33 + Psalm 16:11]

Corinthians 6:1-8 - "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!" ---- In this passage, Paul is addressing Christians who were taking advantage of each other and suing each other. Paul tells us that it would be wrong for us to take a dispute between fellow Christians before unbelievers. You see, we are to be salt and light to the world, and so we should not even have the appearance of doing wrong. Now, if there is some sound reason such as medical expenses that you may want to sue for then you should go talk to a trusted Christian adult or pastor so that they can look at the situation. However, as Paul said, it is better to be wronged by your brother then to deface his witness before unbelievers.

A1. It is obvious that, "thou shalt not smoke cigarettes" is not one of the ten commandments, but let's look at a few Scriptures that give us good reason to believe that smoking isn't the best thing for us to do. First of all, smoking is extremely harmful to our bodies. Smoking increases someone's risk of getting cancer by over 50%! It destroys your lungs and your kidneys, and is all around harmful to your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Clearly in this Scripture we can see that if we are Christians than our bodies are not our own - they are a temple to the Holy Spirit. God bought us at a price, so why should we destroy our bodies with cigarettes? The second scripture is 1 Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." Paul says in the last part of this verse that he will not be brought under the power of anything. Have you ever heard of someone say that they are trying to stop smoking but they just can't do it? The reason why those people can't stop smoking is because cigarettes contain a chemical named nicotene. Nicotene is a very addicting chemical. Once people get in the habit of smoking, it is really hard for them to stop. Most smokers have to smoke at least one packet of cigarettes a day! If they don't, they get tired, hungry, angry, and maybe even sick! People who smoke cigarettes are controlled by them. Paul says in that Scripture that he wouldn't do ANYTHING that would have such power in his life that it would control him. Paul also says in the first part of that verse that he could do certain things maybe even like smoking but he wouldn't because they weren't helpful to him in his walk with Christ and even in his everyday life. So the Bible never says, " thou shalt not smoke" but it does say that we should take care of our bodies because they belong to God, and that we shouldn't be controlled or addicted to anything. Let's take care of our bodies which belong to God, and let's never be controlled by anything other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The 1st thing to ask yourself is, does the website allow you to download it (for free, or not)? 2nd, is it copy written, if so, then what are the copy write laws? If they say no reproduction, and or for private use only, then it would be a crime, and a SIN (but if it says nothing like that then it is ok.) Thou Shall Not Steal as the TEN COMANDMENTS says in Exodus 20:15. Stealing is when you take something that is not yours or that you did not pay for. If you really want these games, than pray about it and ask the Lord to provide them for you. You can also do chores or save your allowance to go out and buy them honestly.

YES, next question? No, I'm just joking! It is true that your parents are supposed to be role models and bring you up in the training of the Lord, but not all parents do that. In light of that, no matter what you parents DO, you are still to obey the Lord and what His word says you should do. While the Bible gives specific commands to parents and children, watching how we should talk is one we all are commanded to do. Colossians 3:8 says, "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, FILTHY LANGUAGE, out of your mouth. While you should obey your parents, you should always obey God above all. Be sure to read your bible and know what it says God wants you to do. Also check out Ephesians 4:29. God bless you and be a strong witness to your parents that they might see Christ living in you!

First, you need to realize that the Bible is God's word, and therefore is never wrong, 2 Tim 3:16. But we must also study the Scripture to find out what it means. Sometimes a Bible verse will tell us something that seems wrong, but when we look at the verses before and after it (context) we can then understand what it really means. So no, it is not wrong to question the Scripture, as long as you realize it is the final authority. If it is a question of what the Scripture means, we can study and find out. If it is a question about the truth of Scripture, we can study it, and in doing so, we will find much more evidence supporting the truth of Scripture.

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Matthew 18:6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.

- God designed us to be married to one person and to become very close both emotionally and physically only to one person. Now when you make out with someone or do anything else similar, you are beginning to attach to them both physically and emotionally in a way that is inappropriate to someone to whom you are not married. Think of it this way, your emotional and physical intimacy should never exceed the level of your commitment to that person. So, for an unmarried person, making out (or anything else physically stimulating) would be wrong because it brings about great temptation for sexual immorality.

2 Timothy 2:22 says that we should flee from sexual immorality. To flee means to run in the opposite direction. God calls us to a life of purity - don't flirt with temptation - run as fast as you can away from it.

I'm not going to say straight up, "Myspace is bad," BUT...there are two things I do have to say:
1. If it's full of junk, stay away! (Phil. 4:8)
2. If your parents don't allow it--whether you think it's bad or not--don't do it! (Eph. 6:2)

Ok...so I, too, must confess to my membership on Myspace. But these past few, I don't know, weeks? months? I haven't been getting on too often. Why? Primarily because I realized how much JUNK there is on that site. Whether it's false advertisements about "love" (I think they meant to put "lust"..) or inappropriate pictures that people post, bulletins or music, there's just a bunch of junk on that site. What does the Bible have to say about this? "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, wahtever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pu re, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things" Philippians 4:8. Let's be honest, Myspace doesn't exactly promote things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable.

"Ok, that's all good and well. But I don't look at that stuff. I just like to keep in contact with my friends!" ...but your parents don't like Myspace.

I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of us are very familiar with the scripture, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother'--which is the first commandment with a promise--'that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth'" Ephesians 6:2. Bottom line, whatever we're talking about, if your parents tell you not to do it, don't do it! By obeying your parents, you will not only be honoring God (woo hoo!), but you will also be making good decisions. The Bible tells us that if we honor (obey) our parents, we will "enjoy long life on the earth." That's cuz they're older and wiser than us! And I promise they are!

This scripture is the biblical frame for how to deal with problems between fellow Christians. If a brother sins against you, then you are supposed to go talk to him about it. If this brother of yours doesn't feel sorry and repent of what he did, then you take another witness with you. If he still doesn't care, then you take it to the church. Now, it is very true that Calvary is huge, and if everybody was taking all of their disputes straight to Pastor Pete, then he would never have time for anything else. So, I think a good practical way of taking your dispute before the church is, taking it to either the velocity leaders, or even to Kevin. Then, if the problem is something that we or Kevin aren't able to deal with, then we can take it to the whole church. Kevin meets with the other pastors and would then be able to take it before them and take the necessary steps to help fix a problem like this. We would be more than happy to help you and guide you in any way that we can. We as your leaders [Kevin included] are in velocity to be guides and helps for you, the student. I pray that God works out all of your problems and issues with your fellow believers, and I know that He will because He is an awesome God.

Salvation is between God and the individual person. 1 Samuel 16:7 says 'For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' John 10:28-29 says, 'And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.' Ephesians 2:8-9 says, 'For by grace you hae been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.' We cannot earn salvation through anything we do, and thus we cannot lose it no matter what we do. If your brother had accepted Christ as his Savior, he is with Him now, no matter how he died.

I believe that this question sparks from something Jesus said in the Gospels. We will reference the account in Matthew 12:31-32. "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. So here we see Jesus saying that there is a sin that will not be forgiven. We have to look at the Scripture in context, so let's go back a few verses to 12:22-30. By reading these verses, we find that Jesus cast demons out of a demon possessed man who was blind and mute, and healed him so that he both spoke and saw. The Pharisees saw this and said that Jesus had done this through the power of the devil, when in fact, it was done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was saying that it was unforgivable to say that something He did was done by the power of Satan, instead of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus isn't here on the earth anymore, we can't very easily commit this sin. The way that we might commit this sin today, is to see the Holy Spirit at work in someone, whether it be healing, prophesy, or the speaking of tongues, and accredit that work to Satan, rather than the Holy Spirit. The thing to remember is that the Bible says that all sins are forgivable. 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As long as our faith is in Jesus Christ and the work of the cross, anything is forgivable. The only unforgivable sin is rejecting Christ. Forgiveness and salvation come through faith in Christ and ONLY by faith in Christ. John 14:6 says, Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Have you have been avoiding Jesus because you feel like you have done something that is unforgivable? Do so no more! The answer to the question is: there is nothing that you could have done in your life that God will not forgive you for, through faith in Jesus. Don't delay. Ask Jesus into your heart today, and know that you are forgiven for your sins, and have the assurance of eternity in heaven when you die.

Exodus 32:6, "The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and indulged themselves in pagan revelry." Drinking by itself is not necessarily the problem. However, it often leads to sin when it leads to drunkenness, or when it controls your actions, or if it causes you to disobey or dishonor God. For all minors, drinking is a sin because it violates the law. If your parents don't feel convicted by drinking, that's ok - that's between them and God. If they do feel convicted about it, but continue to do it, then it also becomes a sin. Another thing you have to watch out for is if it's causing other people to stumble in their relationship with God. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says in verse 23, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful..." And later in verse 31, he says, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Remember that and you'll never go wrong!

The wages of sin is death. That's what Romans 6:23 says. Now that doesn't always mean physical death, but it does always mean spiritual death in hell. 1 John 3:15 says, Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 4:20 says that if you say you love God, but you hate your brother you are a liar. So hate is equal to murder which is a sin deserving of death. However, sin can be forgiven in Christ. 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Don't be confused about sin. All sin, from murder to white lies, are deserving of eternal separation from God in hell, but Jesus died on the cross so that ALL of our sins could be forgiven. Though Jesus paid the price for our sins, that doesn't give us the right to continue on living in sin. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep his commandments. It just means that if and when we mess up and sin, once we have confessed it and repented, we are forgiven because of the finished work of the cross. The question is, whether or not your faith is in Jesus Christ, because it's only through Him that we can get to heaven. The answer to the question is, the price for all sin, including hatred, is death, but Jesus paid the cost so that we could have the hope of eternity in heaven when we die. When we feel tempted to hate someone, let us follow the example of Jesus who loved and prayed for those who hated and persecuted Him.

In Proverbs 20:6 Solomon posed a similar question. In it, he wrote, "Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?"... In other words, any guy can claim to be a friend and to have the best of "intentions" (as your parents put it), but measuring what he says up to his ACTIONS is the best way to test whether or not his claims are true. Anybody can claim to be your friend, but does this person's actions match up with his claims? Do this... Make a point of carefully noting all of things that these two friends of yours both do and say. Also, take careful notice of how they speak about and treat other people. Do they display honorable, Godly characteristics, or, do they display more worldly characteristics? 2 Corinthians 6:14 instructs us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. This scripture doesn't pertain only to marriage, as it is often used, but also to our friendships. Are these two guy friends of yours really and truly friends? And, more importantly, are these two friends of yours even Christians? Proverbs 17:17 tells us that a friend loves at all times... True, Godly love is described for us in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. Take the time to read verses 4 through 7, and then see how these two friends of yours measure up. Even the best of friends can't totally measure up 100 % to that standard of love, but as Christians, it should be our aim to. For now, it would be wise to just heed the advice of your parents. The Bible instructs us to honor our father and mother for a reason. Trust that your parents probably know what they're talking about simply by obeying them. If they're wrong, time will prove them to be wrong, and if they're right, time will prove them to be right. But, in the mean time, I would encourage you to commit your questions and concerns over to God in prayer, and to seek out further biblical advice from Christian leaders who you look up to and respect.

First of all, in Exodus 20:7, it's one of the 10 commandments not to say the Lord's name in vain. If God made it one of the 10, it must be pretty important! Pray for your friend or classmates and ask God to change their heart. Then, if you get an opportunity, share the Scripture verse with them in love (not hate). Be patient and watch God work in that person's life....

When someone is pressuring you into something you don't feel is right or don't feel comfortable with, tell the person how it makes you feel. If the person still insists on pressuring you into doing what you don't want to, then I would say that person doesn't care about you or love you. Stay faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from that person. Talk to one of the leaders when you get a chance. We love you and we care for you. We are not gonna laugh or look down on you - we want to help. You'd be surprised how many of us have gone through the same things you guys have. God is our protection, we are his children, and He is our Father. Tell this guy not to mess with you - he doesn't want to make your Father mad!

Alright, if I understand the question correctly, this is all about the assurance of our salvation. The answer, simply put, is no. We never have to recommit our lives to Christ. God is so good! Once He saves us, that's it! We're saved! We become a new creation and are to live righteously, following His Word, being obedient, and enjoying Him...FOREVER! The Bible tells us, "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and be lieve in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved," Romans 10:9. Notice it doesn't say, "you will be saved...until you mess up again." It just says, you will be saved. If you're still in doubt, however, check this out: "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28). Like I said before, once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are to follow that up with a life of loving, willing obedience to Him, but no one and nothing can take our salvation from us...not even talking back to our parents! (Which, by the way, we should definitely avoid... Eph 6:2)

Hopefully this is never the case. Romans 12:18 says, If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. So God wants us to do whatever we can possibly do to make sure that we are at peace with people and not causing fights. However, the verse says, as much as depends on you, so there may be times where there is nothing that you can do about someone wanting to beat you up. What are we to do in this type of situation? Well, Jesus tells us what to do in Matthew 5:38-39 where it says, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." Jesus tells us not to resist the evil person. He says if someone punches you on the right side of your face, to turn and offer them to punch the left side of your face also. Why would He tell us to let people beat us up? I believe for a few reasons. One, being that if we know that God doesn't want us to fight, and if someone hits us we just have to sit there and let them beat us up, then we are going to try that much harder to live peaceably with people. Sometimes we don't try very hard to live at peace with people. We say or do things to make people mad, and then we fight with them and justify it as self defense when we started the problem in the first place. Another reason I think Jesus gives us this commandment is because He knows that we don't have to fight cause God fights for us. Exodus 14:14 says, The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. So we are supposed to hold the peace and allow God to fight that battle for us. Again in Deuteronomy 3:22, You must not fear them, for the Lord your God Himself fights for you. And Psalm 18:17 says, He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me. So the answer to the question is, God instructs us not to fight because He promises to fight our battles for us, it's our job to try to live at peace with everyone and avoid fights.

Simply stated: give it back! Whether it's an ATM, a cashier at the grocery store, or something else, it is always our duty to be honest. You are probably familiar with the Exodus 20:15, "Do not steal." This falls under that category, as well as under the category of "Do not give false testimony" (vs. 16) . Although many people would argue "It's not stealing. It wasn't my fault they gave me more than they should have," it IS stealing. It may not have been your intention to receive more than you were supposed to, but once you become aware of the fact that a mistake was made, it is your decision to return the money that is not yours or to keep it--a.k.a. steal. In Genesis, we read the story of Joseph. When Joseph sees his brothers again after many years, he puts extra money in their bags as they are returning home. When the brothers discover the money, they return to Joseph following their father's good advice: "Take twice as much money with you. Return the money that was returned [to you] in the top of your bags. Perhaps it was a mistake" (Gen. 43:12). We should follow this advice as well.

It looks like you are doing the right thing ? you're trying to talk to your friend. But there may be few things missing: Talk to God about the situation, and ask God to open their hearts to your peace offering. Did you offend this person by something you did wrong? If so, ask God for forgiveness and go to that person and ask them for forgiveness. You can talk to them directly or perhaps a note of apology may work. Remember the bible tells us to live in peace with all people if possible?this includes your friend. If your friend will not receive your offer of peace - love them anyway and look for opportunities to bless them in the Lord.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,"[a] says the Lord. 20 Therefore, " If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21

Now first off I want to define both virgin and gay and this is how they will be used for the rest of this answer. A virgin is someone who has never had sex. And a gay person is either a guy who has intimate relationships with other guys or a girl who has intimate relationship with other girls as opposed to a guy with a girl.

Now on to your question...I would first like to ask who (using the above definition) told you that it was wrong for a Christian to be a virgin. In fact, we are all virgins at some point in our lives. Mary the mother of Jesus was a virgin until some time after she gave birth to Jesus. We also are called to live lives of purity (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). One way to do that is by saving sex for marriage, which would classify you as a virgin until marriage. Now as for bring gay...In Genesis we have an account of when two angels disguised as men were staying with Lot in Sodom.

---- Genesis 19 - "Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally." So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, "Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!"

---- the word "know" in this passage does not mean to know as friends, but in this verse it means "to have sex with". It is the same Hebrew word to say when Adam "knew" his wife, and she conserved and bore a child. And if you note that Lot tells these men do not do so wickedly.

You see God created man and woman and he designed for them to get married and have children. But when two people who are gay act as only a husband and wife should, not only is it sin but it often causes both to get diseases. Sin has serious consequences.

In Genesis 15:5, God makes a promise to Abraham that He is going to have a child, because up to this point Abraham and his wife Sarah didn't have any kids. Genesis 15:5 says, " Then the LORD brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, "Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that?too many to count!" And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD declared him righteous because of his faith." So God promised Abraham children and Abraham believed God. Now, a little bit of time went by and Abraham and Sarah still didn't have a kid. Sarah was getting very impatient, so in Chapter 16 of Genesis, she tells Abraham that he should sleep with his servant Hagar. That way they could have a kid. Instead of Abraham doing what was right and saying no, he thought that it would be a good idea. So to answer your question simply, no matter how much faith we have and no matter how good of a walk with God we have, the fact remains that we are all still imperfect people who do stupid things. We all still mess up and sin, that is why we continue to need the ever flowing grace of God in our lives.

"Fake" is defined as "to alter, manipulate, or treat so as to give a false appearance to; to deceive". Someone who has a false relationship with God and is trying to deceive others into thinking that they have a true relationship with God is not good at all! The bible says in Proverbs 19:9, "A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies shall perish." YIKES! I don't believe that people who have a true relationship with God would try to fake it. In John 15:5 we read these words from Jesus, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." So a person with a true relationship with God bears fruit in their lives. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Another reason I believe a person with a true relationship with God would not fake it is because being a follower of Christ brings persecution. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, "4But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings;". Do you think if you were not a true believer you would want to go through things like this just for the heck of it?! I don't think so. Lastly, a person with a true relationship with God does not want to fake it or do anything evil. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, "14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again". These verses say that we who believe do not live for ourselves but we live for Jesus. Someone living for Jesus does not want to fake it.

The answer to the question is a person who has a true relationship with God does not fake it. A true believer bears fruit in their life, suffers persecution, and lives for Jesus, not themselves. If a person is "faking" their relationship with God, then they don't have a true relationship with Him. The best thing we can do for a person who does not have a true relationship with God is to pray for them.

Hate exists usually as a result of pride, bitterness, unforgiveness, or stereotypical judgment. Basically, hate exists because of sin. One thing we have to realize is that everything that is wrong in our lives, and in this world is a direct result of sin. Racism is usually a result of a people or people group considering themselves of greater value and worth than another people group. The root of this is pride and judgment, mixed with hate. All of which are sin. Jesus addresses hate in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5. He says in verses 21-22; "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." In light of what Jesus says in this sermon, those who hate without cause are guilty of murder. Hate is not a small thing by any means. This is very serious and needs to be dealt with in the heart of a believer. Basically, the answer to this question is that the reason people hate is because of the sin in their heart that needs to be dealt with. Remember to pray for those who deal with these issues and deal with them in love!

The issue is whether or not the person is born again. If so then biblical repentance must be involved. Divorce is a sin, no doubt about it (Matthew 5:31-32). The thing about sin though, is that it is forgivable. 1 John 1:9 says that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The only sin that is unforgivable is the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ and the work of atonement He did on the cross. We have to understand that Jesus says in John 3:16 that we will not inherit the kingdom of heaven unless we are born again ( "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." ), so the first qualification in this question is whether or not the person who divorced is truly born again. If this is not the case then we can't assume that the person is going to heaven whether they have divorced or not. When we give our lives to Christ it doesn't mean that we will never sin again, but when we do we are required to confess our sins to God and repent, meaning to turn away from that sin, not allowing it to characterize our lives. As believers we have to have a good balance of the grace of God, and how nothing can seperate us from the love of God so that we don't think we've lost our salvation every time we mess up, and the standard of obedience that God has set for us. The answer is that if there is tsur repentance in the life of a born again believer after a divorce then their sins are forgiven. Jesus your love has no bounds!

Defending the faith is very important in the life of a believer. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;." We need to always be ready to answer those who wonder why we believe in God. Make sure you read the bible, which is God's word to us, so that you can know more about Him. Another thing you can do is ask the people who are agaisnt you why they are against you. When you know what they believe it will be easier to give them an answer. In the meantime, here are some verses that will help you in your debate with evolution: 1Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis 2:3-5, "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;" Nehemiah 9:6, "You alone are the LORD; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You." Isaiah 45:12, "I have made the earth, And created man on it. I?My hands?stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded." Acts 17:24, "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands." Hebrews 11:3, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." These are only a few verses of many that speak of God's creation. Study up, ask questions, and defend the faith that you have in Christ Jesus!

Genesis 2:7 says, And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Later in verses 21-25 of chapter 2, the Bible says that God took one of Adam's ribs and made woman and she became his wife. We don't know whether or not they had a childhood, or what age they appeared to be when they were created because it doesn't say that in the bible. You may be quick to believe that they didn't have a childhood because it says that God created man, not child, however the Bible often refers to man as the human race as a whole. Also, keep in mind that Adam was created old enough to have a wife. These are just facts to consider, but we still don't have the answer, as the Bible doesn't tell us specifically. Whenever you are trying to understand something that is not stated specifically in the Bible, be sure to pray that God would help you to interpret His Word accurately, and consider what the Bible does say. We won't always find the answers to every nonessential question that crosses our mind, such as this one, however the Bible always speaks on the important things that are essential.

That is a question we will never know here on earth. You see the belly button is where your mother's umbilical cord was attached to you before you were born. Since they were not born, you could assume that they did not have belly buttons. But what what if God created them with belly buttons? What if that is part of the way He designed them to look and so He gave them belly buttons? So, I guess we will have to wait and find out when we get to heaven.

Dinosaurs certainly did roam the Earth in the ancient past! Fossils of dinosaurs have been found all over the world, and their bones are displayed in museums for all to see. Scientists have been able to reconstruct many of their skeletons, so we know much about how they may have looked. And the Bible tells us that God sent two of every (seven of some) land animal into the Ark (Genesis 7:2-3; 7:8-9)?there were no exceptions. Therefore, dinosaurs must have been on the Ark. Even though there was ample room in the huge ship for large animals, perhaps God sent young adults into the Ark that still had plenty of room for them to grow. At the time of the Flood, many of the sea creatures died, but some survived. In addition, all of the land creatures outside the Ark died, but the representatives of all the kinds that survived on the Ark lived in the new world after the Flood. Those land animals (including dinosaurs) found the new world to be much different than the one before the Flood. Due to (1) competition for food that was no longer in abundance, (2) other catastrophes, (3) man killing for food (and perhaps for fun), and (4) the destruction of habitats, etc., many species of animals eventually died out. The group of animals we now call dinosaurs just happened to die out too. In fact, quite a number of animals become extinct each year. Extinction seems to be the rule in Earth history (not the formation of new types of animals as you would expect from evolution).

First we need to establish that God is omniscient, which means He is all-knowing. 1 John 3:20 says, "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." So, yes, God knew that one of His angels would fall and create a lot of trouble. Because God is omniscient, we cannot understand most of the things He does. We have finite minds and God has an infinite mind. Most of us wonder why God didn't destroy Satan right away. We have no idea why He didn't.

One day I cleaned out my junk drawer by putting all of the junk (broken crayons, pocket lint, paper clips, etc.) into a shoebox which I set by my window. About a month later, as I was cleaning out my room, I picked up that box that had been sitting in my room for a month by the window. I had forgotten what was in it, so I opened the box, and I couldn't believe it - it was a cell phone! I guess since the box of junk had sat by the window, the sun caused all those random parts to form into a cell phone! Amazing huh? You think that is a ridiculous story, but the thing is, a lot of people think that the world was created in a similar way. Some teachers, and even some scientists believe this way. Wise people...or so they think. God doesn't think these people are wise, in fact he says they are fools. (Romans 1:22) But maybe these scientists and teachers would call us fools for believing that God created the world. Listen to what the bible has to say about that. (1 Corinthians 3:18) So though people may think we are fools for believing that God created the world, God considers us wise, and really, who are we trying to impress anyway, right? Let's talk a little bit about evolution. Some of you that are in public schools may be more familiar with it than some who may be home schooled or go to a Christian school. What is the theory of evolution? The theory of evolution is the idea that living things in our world have come into being through unguided naturalistic processes starting from a primeval mass of subatomic particles and radiation, over approximately 20 billion years. In other words the world and everything in it, including us, accidentally happened naturally after a "mold like" substance was exposed to radiation. Pretty incredible right? No...not really. Actually it sounds pretty stupid to me. People think it takes a lot of faith to believe in creation, but I think it would take more faith for me to believe that everything just happened out of nowhere. People believe this because they can't comprehend how everything came to be. They don't want to have faith, they want to have evidence. Though he didn't come up with the theory of evolution Charles Darwin brought something new to it when he came up with his idea of natural selection. A quick example of natural selection would be that I all of a sudden gained the ability to grow wings and fly. I would pass that ability on to my kids and so on. Well, everyone else who didn't have this ability to grow wings and fly would eventually die out leaving only the "superior" winged flying people to live. How would I grow wings like that? Well, because of mutation. This is the accidental change in genetic material used for reproduction, as a result of exposure to radiation. I know...it doesn't make much sense, but this is what some people believe. Now onto what we know is true. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Really, because we know that the bible is the infallible word of God this is all we need to believe that the world didn't just happen on accident, or occur after some big bang. Of course this isn't the only place in scripture that it talks about God being the creator of the world. Here is some ammunition for bible study at home. Look up these scriptures about God the creator. Genesis 2:3, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 12:25, Isaiah 45:12, Isaiah 48:13, Acts 17:24, and Hebrews 11:3 just to name a few. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. There is no other way that creation could be documented as it is without it being given by divine revelation by God. No one was there but God, so no one could possibly know how it happened except that God himself spoke to the author of Genesis, whom many believe to be Moses, and told him all about it. There are scientific laws that support creation such as the first and second laws of thermodynamics, but I'm not going to get into all that. If you want to be able to scientifically discuss creation, I suggest you study up on it. A good resource would be "The Case For A Creator: Student Edition" by Lee Strobel. Now that I've addressed everything except the question at hand, I guess I oughtta get to that. 1 Peter 3:15 says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. You should always be ready to tell people about what you believe, but do it in a way that is going to be effective. I heard Pete say that we have to earn the right to be heard. That couldn't have been said much better. If we want people to listen to us, and care about what we have to say, we have to genuinely listen to people and care about what they have to say. Proverbs 26:5 says, Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. So if you are talking to anyone about your faith and they are acting like a fool, don't join them in the way they are acting, or else you look just as bad as them. Most importantly, pray about how you do it. Ask God to give you the words, the correct approach, and a loving and compassionate heart. And there we have the answer to the question. If you want to share your beliefs with an evolutionist, or anyone for that matter, first listen to what they have to say, then pray about the approach you would take, and finally share your faith in love and compassion.

The devil, or Satan, was never a man. Actually, as hard as it may be to believe, Satan was an angel, and a beautiful one at that. We learn in Ezekiel 28:12-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15 that Satan was an angel and was cast down because he rebelled against God. Basically, like I said, Satan was a beautiful angel. The thing was, he was too beautiful. Ezekiel 28:17 says, Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. Well, Satan started believing his own press. He thought he was so beautiful and so great that he could be better than God, and began to try to do just that. Isaiah 14:14 tells us that Satan said, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high". Unfortunately it says in the very next verse, Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol (hell), to the lowest depths of the pit. We see this come to pass in Revelation 20:10 where it reads, The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. The answer to the question is that the devil was never a man, he was an angel that was cast down from heaven for rebelling against God, and trying to surpass his glory.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." In Genesis 1:26-28, God created us in His image. Man and woman were perfect in the Garden of Eden and the bodies that they had were very similar to the ones we will have in heaven. They would not get sick and they would not die, as both sickness and death were an effect of the fall. These are the facts, however to answer whether or not you would have been born would be speculation. God did tell Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, meaning to have kids and make families, and he told them to fill the earth. So we could assume that if Adam and Eve had never sinned the world would be filled like it is today, except without the curse of sin on all creation, but that would just be speculation. In reality, Adam and Eve did sin and we are under the curse, but because of Jesus Christ we have the hope of life the way it was in the garden for eternity in heaven! Praise God!

That's a good question, but I think we need to clarify something first. God didn't actually create sin. "What?!" That's right, God did not create sin! Lets check out where sin came from. In Romans 5:12 it says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned". Now I'm sure that your next question is, "Who is this "one man"?" HMMMM, who was the first human to sin? That's right, Adam! Check it out. Verse 14 in that same chapter in Romans says, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come". So when we look at what took place, it looks like this: God created all life and all things good. Genesis 1:31a - Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Then God set Adam to tend the garden. God, desiring a relationship with Adam and Eve, decided to let them eat whatever they wanted, except of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So God gave them a CHOICE. He said, "If you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die". (Gen 2:17) We all know that Adam made the choice to let his woman wander off and eat the "bad apple". And then he did the same. And that's when sin entered the world. God told Adam NOT to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and he did anyways, he made the choice to sin. So why the option to do good or evil? Simply this, if we had no choice to do good or bad, we would never have a way to show the Living God we love Him. John 14:15 says, "If you love me, you will obey my commands". God loves you so much that he doesn't want you to be a robot. He wants living, breathing, children who have the choice to obey or not. Just think, if we were programmed to do only good, then God would never know if we would do good on our own. By giving us a choice, we get to show God we love Him by knowingly making a choice to do good instead of bad. We show Him we love him by saying, "I'm not going to do that thing I know I shouldn't, instead, I'm going to obey God and show Him I love Him." Some other good Scripture to dig into is Romans 6-8, and John 10:10. Check it out, its sweet material!

Well, in order to get the correct answer to this question there is a very important thing that we need to understand, and that is the fact that Lucifer (or Satan) was not always the horrible menace we know him as today. In fact in Ezekiel chapter 28 God is speaking through the prophet as he says of Satan "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." It's important to understand that God created Lucifer (or "light bearer") as a perfect being with a will of his own. So as God created Lucifer, Lucifer is the one that created "Satan" within himself when he sinned, rising up in pride and desiring in his heart to overtake the Most High God. The scriptures declare that Satan had said in his own heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" & "I will be like the Most High" - Isaiah 14. Now that we have that basis to build on we need to now look at the fact that God is truly omniscient (which means "all knowing"). 1 John 3:20 says that God knows ALL things, so in light of that, we must trust that God knew Satan would fall. I think it is a valid point to be made that if God would have not created Lucifer because of future knowledge that he would one day sin, He would have never created you or me because of the same type of future knowledge. So, God created Lucifer for the same purpose that He created all angels and mankind? to worship, glorify, and love Him. The fact that Lucifer fell does not change the reason that God created him. It only changes his obedience to that reason and purpose. God is glorified in either circumstance, for He is perfect love and perfect justice. We must believe by faith that God in His infinite wisdom had counted the cost, and that when Satan fell, God was not surprised, nor did He wish He had done anything differently.

This is a question of what does it mean to be made in the image of God. Have
you ever heard someone say that a kid looks like or takes after their
parent? Could you not say that the child is the image of their parent? Or
perhaps you have seen a picture that someone made of a car. Is that picture
not an image of a car? In both these example you see that the object that is
the image of another one is not the same in every way. It has some of the
same attributes, but there are many that it does not have. Is the child the
same as their parent? Does the picture of a car drive like a car? In the
same way, we have some of the attributes of God but there are many that we
do not have. Genesis 1:26 gives us one of those attributes that we share -
power. It says that man is to rule over the earth. This is an image of
God's absolute rule over the entire universe. Genesis 2:19 says that Adam
could make decisions and think. We humans are conscious, intelligent,
rational beings who can make decisions. This also is an image of an
attribute of God. God also gave man emotion, which is also an attribute that
1 John 4:8 tells us that God has. God also has attributes that we humans do
not have. Psalms 102:25-27 tells us that God is both unchanging and eternal;
attributes that we as humans do not have. Although we may be made in the
image of God, we are far from being God - there is no way we could ever know
as much nor learn as much as God. Now what about Him being before time?
Isaiah 57:15 tells us that God dwells in eternity, and Jeremiah 10:10 tells
us that He is everlasting. Revelation 4:8 tells us that God Was and Is and
Is to come. You see, God is not limited by time like we are, but He is
outside of time. What about alpha? Revelation 22:13 tells us that God is the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. What
this means is that He is before everything and after everything; He is the
most important out of everything; everything begins with God and everything
ends with God. So, yes, being the Alpha does mean He is before time, but it
more directly refers to His importance.

Before the fall of man, when Adam and Eve sinned and ate the fruit off the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:6), they were actually in the presence of God - they could see Him. God dealt with them in the Garden of Eden. But, because of their sin, they were separated from God. Gensis 3:23-24 says, "therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." Sin separated Adam and Eve physically from God and sin separates us spiritually from God. Only Jesus can brings us back together again!

Let me tell you what your many science teachers believe. Some believe that millions of years ago, long before there were any people, there were dinosaurs. They'll tell you that dinosaurs were one of several kinds of prehistoric reptiles that lived during the "Age of Reptiles." Some believe that dinosaurs suddenly became extinct about 65 million years ago. There are a lot of theories why the extinction occurred. The most widely accepted theory is that an asteroid impact caused major climactic changes which the dinosaurs couldn't adapt to. This may sound familiar to you, if you have learned about it in school, however, it isn't consistent with scripture. I know that scientists have evidence of dinosaur fossils and bones, but the timeline they have is way off. As I stated earlier, they believe dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, but bible scholars only believe the world to be about six to ten thousand years old, at the most. The bible doesn't say anything about dinosaurs so we can't really get a biblical perspective on it. Another problem that I see with the above theory, is the "long before there were any people on the earth" part. You can read in chapter 1 of Genesis that if or when God created dinosaurs, the day He would have created them was on the sixth day, when He created the beast of the earth according to it's kind (vs. 25). The problem lies in the fact that the sixth day is the same day God created people (vs. 26). Maybe when they refer to "long before there were any people on the earth," they think of a couple hours as a long time. Probably not. I believe, because of the evidence we have in fossils and bones, that it is possible that dinosaurs did exist, but the bible doesn't mention where and when, so that information is unknown. You can read Job chapter 41 to learn about the leviathan, a creature who some believe is described as a dinosaur. It sounds more like a dragon to me, but I guess they could be considered the same thing. With all of that said, the answer to the question is: Tangible evidence leads us to believe that dinosaurs existed, even though the bible doesn't speak about them specifically. It's always good to question scientific "evidence" because it's scientific "evidence" that says the world just evolved and wasn't created by God. Study the bible, and continue to validate everything you are taught with the word of God!

I think that we have to understand that the bible begins with a very important phrase "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth" (Gen 1:1). A very important thing to take note of is that we are asking this question concerning the creation of other worlds about the God of the Bible. This is the God that through whom all things in existence have been created (Col 1:16-17), and apart from Him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:3). Another important thing that is said of our God in scripture is that there is no other like Him, there is no other god (Deut 4:39). So now that we have this foundation laid, that there is only one God, He is the creator of ALL things, and we know that His works are revealed to us through the Bible. We can come to the conclusion that since there is absolutely no foundation within scripture for the belief that God had created any other world, then He must have not. However, since the Bible doesn't tell us either way, there's not a solid answer.

The answer to the question i s found in Genesis. So lets start out by reading Genesis2:16-17, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." So God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of one tree in a garden filled with trees. In chapter 3 of Genesis Satan apears to Eve in the form of a serpent and tempted her to eat of the forbidden fruit, which she did, and later Adam as well. What is it that we just read God saying to Adam and Eve, about the consequences of eating off of that tree? He told them that they would die! If you read you ask well they didnt die right then! So when did they die? Well actually they did die, they died spiritually. You see Adam and Eve were perfect, so much so that it says that Adam would walk through the garden with God! But when they disobeyed God, they sinned and according to the Bible (Habbukkuk 1:13, " You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong") God cannot look upon sin, He can have no part with it. Perfection can have no part with imperfection! So when adam and eve sinned their spirits that had previously been united with God, were eternally separated from God, because once a perfect thing is made to be imperfect it can no longer ever be made perfect again. Ok, so I would encourage you to read the rest of the story in Chap 3 of Genesis. Ok so we have established how Adam and Eve sinned, but why are we punished for their sin? Check out Romans 5:12-14, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned? for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come." So through Adam sin was brought to all man. The reason for this goes back to perfection and imperfection. I said that once a perfect thing is made to be imperfect, it can never again be perfect. So Adam and Eve had become imperfect, and their kids, kids, kids, kids, ect. could never be born perfect, man as a whole had become separted from God! Think of it like this, when Adam and Eve sinned, the disease, and sickness of sin was injected into the race of man for all generations to come! Sounds kinda depresssing right, well I am going to leave you with the rest of the passage that I quoted from Romans. Romans 5:12-21, "12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned? 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18Therefore, as one trespass ◙led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness ◙leads to justification and life for all men. 19For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.-- Praise God for sending His Son Jesus Christ that through Him all may be saved from their sickness of Sin!!!!!!

Well God made people to serve Him. "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Edan to tend and keep it." This is stated in Genesis 2:15. Also Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them." So therefore He created us to serve Him, and work for Him.

The fall of mankind. The day that everything went from all good to all bad. In the beginning of Genesis, we see how God created everything. He makes the land and the sea. He makes the ocean, and every living creature from mammals to fish, to lizards and creeping things. God created the world. It was all good. Then, in chapter 2 of Genesis, we see a glimpse of heaven. God and man dwelling together harmoniously in fellowship. The reason that God created us was that we might have fellowship with Him. But something happened. At the end of chapter 2 a rule was made. One stinking rule. All of us have rules. You guys have rules that have been set by your parents, I have rules that are set by my job, we all have rules that have been set by God. So, we all have to follow some kind of rules. Adam and Eve only had one rule to follow, that was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now I know, the way the children's bibles usually tell the story, Eve ate the "apple". Well, I can't really confirm that the type of fruit that the tree of knowledge of good and evil produced were apples, but anyway, that really doesn't matter. we'll move on. Let's read a little in Genesis chapter 3 so we can see how the plot thickens. We read about how Satan, in the form of a serpent came and tempted Adam and Eve. He told them that God was lying about their punishment, and that the only reason He didn't want them to eat from the tree was because they would then be like God. Well, Eve went for it, hook, line and sinker. She ate of the tree, and caused her husband to fall into sin as well. Well, they were punished and the consequences of their sin is still affecting us today. So here we are. Here is where we have to ask ourselves the question, was it God's fault that Eve sinned? That's the core question. The answer is no, it's not God's fault that Adam and eve sinned, and this is why. God created us to have free will. He's not going to control us like robots. He gives us the opportunity to choose to love Him, or to reject Him. To choose between right and wrong. To obey his commandments, or to disobey Him. Now think about if I offered you a soda. I told you that you could choose any kind of soda you wanted, but all I had was Pepsi. You wouldn't have much of a choice, would you? Well, how could Adam and Eve choose between right and wrong, if all they had to choose from was right? We are called to make a choice. Joshua 24:15 says choose for yourselves this day who you will serve. God gives us the privilege of choosing, but we are responsible for the choices we make. Job 19:4 says, if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me. Also, Galations 6:5 says, For each one shall bear his own load. So when we sin, it's nobody's fault but our own. We can't blame our friends for making us, or God for allowing it to happen. It's always important to remember that we may sometimes make a wrong decision and choose to sin, but we can make it right by choosing to confess and repent from that sin. Remember, Jesus died on the cross so that we could be forgiven, and to restore us to the relationship that Adam and Eve had in the garden of Eden before they sinned. So the answer to this question is, God placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve the freedom of choice between right and wrong. It's our responsability to make the right decision when confronted with a choice

Interesting insight?Well, your question is really best answered in the understanding that there never has been nor will there ever be a state of nothingness. The scriptures teach us if an eternal God who is, was, and always will be.

Deu 33:27 The eternal God [is thy] refuge, and underneath [are] the everlasting arms:

Eternal in the above sense is defined as "Being without beginning or end?"

It is a hard thing to comprehend, but so are a lot of other things? like the concept of forever or timelessness for instance. It's important to come to terms with our limits as human beings?we are not infinite in our understanding like God is. We have limits to our comprehension, and these limits are something to be joyful about because it's when we recognize our limits and shortcomings that we learn to trust in God more, the one who has no limits. The one with whom all things are possible.

Mat 19:26 But Jesus beheld [them], and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

I think that a good definition of a Christian, in my own words, is one
who believes in Jesus, trusts in Him as Lord and Savior, obeying and
following His teachings. Many people would say that a Christian is just
someone who believes in Jesus. The thing about that is that the bible
says in the book of James 2:19 that even the demons believe and tremble.
Would we call demons Christians? Probably not. Am I saying that
Catholics are demons? Certainly not. What I am saying is that we have to
look at whether or not their faith is in Jesus Christ, and nothing else,
for their salvation. The problem with the catholic religion, is that for
the most part they believe that salvation comes through Jesus plus good
works. That is not what the bible teaches. Galatians 2:16 says; "knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in
Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be
justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the
works of the law no flesh shall be justified." This is just one area of
the bible that is neglected by the Catholic religion. The problem is
just like they believe in salvation by faith plus works, they believe in
the bible plus tradition, even if the tradition is contrary to the
bible. I suggest that you talk to your Catholic friend and find out what
they believe, then pray that god would show you in His word where that
is unbiblical, and then share with them what the bible says in love.
Remember, they don't normally hold to the bible too firmly, so the best
witness to them is going to be the life that you lead and the love that
you show them. Good luck and God be with you!

If you curse God, you would have to question whether or not you are truly a Christian. Psalm 29:2 says, "Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness." The thing is, because of our sin, we deserve to go to hell for eternity, but if we have put our faith in the work of Jesus Christ, and have become a Christian, then we have been saved from hell and given a new eternal destination of heaven! If that is the case, then all you are going to want to do is worship and adore God for what He has done for you. You wouldn't even think about cursing Him. No one is perfect, and there may be times when we lose a loved one, or things don't go the way we want them to, and in our selfishness we can say some stupid things, however if there is a true conversion of the heart, you will recognize your sin and repent. If you are cursing God as a continual practice, it is likely you may not have experienced a regenerated by the Holy Spirit which happens in the life of all Christians. Jesus says that in order to go to heaven we must be born again. He doesn't say that we have to help someone become a Christian to be saved. However if you are saved then Jesus has given you a commission to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). We are saved by faith, not by works, however in the book of James 2:20 we learn that faith without works is dead. So you don't have to help people become a Christian in order to be saved, but if you are saved, you should want to help people get saved. It's the great commission!

James 1:19 -21 - "Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." --- We are commanded as Christians to put aside all filthiness and wickedness. Now I don't know about you, but I would classify bad words as being filthy language, so we are called not to practice it. However, if you look at the first part of verse 19, you notice that it is addressed to "my beloved brethren". The word "brethren" there tells us something very important - the passage is addressed to Christians. You must realize that non-believers will not see any reason not to use bad words. You can't expect non-Christians to act like Christians! You can gently ask people not to use those words around you. Those who are not Christians may not stop but that does not mean that you should stop showing the love of Christ to them.

Hey great question - it covers lots of issues that the church as well as the individual believer faces in today's society. First of all, I would like to encourage you to continue in the things you have been telling your friends about Christ, music, ect. - you are doing the greatest thing that you can for your friends. I would also like to commend you for standing strong in the faith, morals, and ethics that you have, and I will tell you, that that is one of the hardest and most important things you will ever have to do in your walk with Christ, so stand strong in what you believe and in what Christ says no matter what!!!! Anyway, as far as whether or not Greenday and or secular music is a bad thing to listen to, Phillipians 4:8 says, "Finally Bretheren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - think upon these things." Now according to this scripture, as a follower of Christ it's very important that we think upon good things and not evil things, that we fill our hearts with the word of God, and the things of God and not of this world. So yes, it is not good and doesn't benefit your walk with Christ one bit to listen to music with evil and perverse things. In 1 Corinthians 6:12 Paul the Apostle states,"All things are lawful for me but not everything is helpful to me, all things are lawful to me but i will not be brought under the power of any of them." Paul is saying I can do these things like listen to greenday, but if it isn't going to help my walk with Christ, i won't. He would also say I can listen to greenday but I dont want to be influenced by it {brought under the power of anything} so I won't listen to it. So even if something seems ok, ask yourself is it helpful to you or others, and does it influence you in a bad way, if it does, don't do it, flee from those things. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life." So stand strong even if it is the hardest thing to do because God will Bless you for it - Revelation 2:10 "...Be faithful until death and I will give you the Crown of Life." Keep on praying for and encouraging your friends to do the right thing, and guard your heart from all kinds of evil Romans 16:19 "... I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil." God will Bless you mightily.

There are many different things that can be used as resources to help others grow in their walks with Christ, but there are a few that I want to encourage you in. 1st of all PRAYER! Prayer is such an important part of following Christ, and is vital for growth in Christ.

I love to read the letters written by Paul in the New Testament, because he is constantly praying for his friends. Check out Ephesians 1:15-19, "For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might,..." Paul was a prayer warrior for those whom he loved, and I believe that in praying for those we love, their growth will become apparent to us.

Secondly, I think that you yourself are a resource to help others grow.You might not think that you can help anyone grow, but you can!

It may be as simple as you calling those people once or twice a week and asking them how their personal times with God have been going. You can tell them that if they have any questions about the Bible, that you would be more than happy to answer them. You can encourage them to come to Velocity (the leaders are always here for you, anything you need), get them involved in Church, and hanging out with more people that have faith in Christ. Also the way you live your faith out in everyday life can be a very powerful tool in helping others grow. But I must caution you about this resource! As followers of Christ we must make sure that if we are going to help others grow, that we ourselves are growing in Christ, and learning, and following hard after the Lord. Because lets say that you are really thirsty, and ask me for a drink. So I tell you that I really want to help you out, and your just in luck because I happen to have a glass with some water in it. So I walk over to you and attempt to pour some water into your empty cup, but there is a problem, I never filled up my cup so mine is empty as well. So I cant really solve your problem or help you on any sort of level! It is they same way with helping others in their spiritual growth, if we arent filling up our spiritual lives with the living water of Christ, then how are we going to help others quench their spiritual thirst? Check out 2 Timothy 4:1-2, "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching...." Paul tells Timothy to teach the word of God to others, but what must Timothy do? Paul tells him to always be ready and teach the Gospel, whenever it is needed. So remember that their are tons of ways to help others grow, but also remeber that you are an awesome resource to help others, as long as you yourself are growing and learning. And never stop praying for others because as James 5:16 says, "...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much...."

Your best witness will be how you live. Ephesians 4 and 5 talk a lot about how you should live-specifically Ephesians 4:17, 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.' and 5:8, 'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.' Everyone is watching you the second you claim Christ for your own and the way you act will speak louder for the Lord than anything you can tell your friend. If you've told him about Jesus and His love and death, you've planted the seed. You've done your job: it's not your place to convert your friend, all you can do is talk to him, which you've done, and then live as a child of the light. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest

Alright, so we've all been taught to hang out with the right kind of people. Don't get stuck in "the wrong crowd," right? I would like to point out, first of all, that the point is not to avoid, or "get away from," the "wrong" people; the point is to not be brought down by them--to not let them affect our walk with God. 1 Corinthians 15:33 tells us, "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'" If we are hanging out with "bad company," it is very likely that we will begin to act like them, and our good morals will be corrupted. Like they say, "you are who you hang out with." James tells us that "friendship with the world is hostility toward God" (4:4). But we cannot forget our Great Commission to "go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations" (Matt 28:19-20). -- Or in other words, our "Charlie's Angels' mission" to tell everyone about Christ and His salvation! How on earth are we going to tell non-believers about Christ if we're never around them? Christ Himself points out that it's the sick people who need a doctor, not the healthy people (Matthew 9:12). So, for the purpose of witnessing, we are actually encouraged to (as Christ did!) hang around "the wrong people." The important thing to remember is that we are to be ambassadors for Christ because our sole purpose for hanging around non-believers is that they would be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 4:20). Or in other words, we are supposed to represent Christ correctly in everything we do and say around non-believers (and always!) because our goal is their salvation through Christ. (Check these verses out too: Phil. 2:3-8, 14-16; Col. 3:17, 23; 1 Cor. 10:31-33; Matt. 5:16)

A good way to help you understand the bible is saying a prayer before you start reading. Ask God to help you understand what is being said and ask Him to teach you. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. In John 14:26 Jesus says, "'But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.'" It is hard to understand the bible on our own power. Allow God to help you! Another good way to understand the bible is to read a commentary. Commentaries give further insight to what you read in the bible. Some great commentaries are "The Be" series by Warren Wiersbe, which covers every book of the bible. Another good resource is "How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It" by Skip Heitzig. Once you start understanding the bible, it will be a lot easier to tell people about God and His love for us! Happy studying!

Your best witness will be how you live. Ephesians 4 and 5 talk a lot about how you should live-specifically Ephesians 4:17, 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.' and 5:8, 'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.' Everyone is watching you the second you claim Christ for your own and the way you act will speak louder for the Lord than anything you can tell your friends. We are told to tell people about Jesus, but if they already know about Him, it's not your place to tell them about who He was and is. That doesn't mean cut God out of your conversations. Talk about God when relavent, but don't push the plan of salvation-if they know about it, it's now up to the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. Your job now is to live as a child of the light. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest.

One day I cleaned out my junk drawer by putting all of the junk (broken crayons, pocket lint, paper clips, etc.) into a shoebox which I set by my window. About a month later, as I was cleaning out my room, I picked up that box that had been sitting in my room for a month by the window. I had forgotten what was in it, so I opened the box, and I couldn't believe it - it was a cell phone! I guess since the box of junk had sat by the window, the sun caused all those random parts to form into a cell phone! Amazing huh? You think that is a ridiculous story, but the thing is, a lot of people think that the world was created in a similar way. Some teachers, and even some scientists believe this way. Wise people...or so they think. God doesn't think these people are wise, in fact he says they are fools. (Romans 1:22) But maybe these scientists and teachers would call us fools for believing that God created the world. Listen to what the bible has to say about that. (1 Corinthians 3:18) So though people may think we are fools for believing that God created the world, God considers us wise, and really, who are we trying to impress anyway, right? Let's talk a little bit about evolution. Some of you that are in public schools may be more familiar with it than some who may be home schooled or go to a Christian school. What is the theory of evolution? The theory of evolution is the idea that living things in our world have come into being through unguided naturalistic processes starting from a primeval mass of subatomic particles and radiation, over approximately 20 billion years. In other words the world and everything in it, including us, accidentally happened naturally after a "mold like" substance was exposed to radiation. Pretty incredible right? No...not really. Actually it sounds pretty stupid to me. People think it takes a lot of faith to believe in creation, but I think it would take more faith for me to believe that everything just happened out of nowhere. People believe this because they can't comprehend how everything came to be. They don't want to have faith, they want to have evidence. Though he didn't come up with the theory of evolution Charles Darwin brought something new to it when he came up with his idea of natural selection. A quick example of natural selection would be that I all of a sudden gained the ability to grow wings and fly. I would pass that ability on to my kids and so on. Well, everyone else who didn't have this ability to grow wings and fly would eventually die out leaving only the "superior" winged flying people to live. How would I grow wings like that? Well, because of mutation. This is the accidental change in genetic material used for reproduction, as a result of exposure to radiation. I know...it doesn't make much sense, but this is what some people believe. Now onto what we know is true. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Really, because we know that the bible is the infallible word of God this is all we need to believe that the world didn't just happen on accident, or occur after some big bang. Of course this isn't the only place in scripture that it talks about God being the creator of the world. Here is some ammunition for bible study at home. Look up these scriptures about God the creator. Genesis 2:3, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 12:25, Isaiah 45:12, Isaiah 48:13, Acts 17:24, and Hebrews 11:3 just to name a few. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. There is no other way that creation could be documented as it is without it being given by divine revelation by God. No one was there but God, so no one could possibly know how it happened except that God himself spoke to the author of Genesis, whom many believe to be Moses, and told him all about it. There are scientific laws that support creation such as the first and second laws of thermodynamics, but I'm not going to get into all that. If you want to be able to scientifically discuss creation, I suggest you study up on it. A good resource would be "The Case For A Creator: Student Edition" by Lee Strobel. Now that I've addressed everything except the question at hand, I guess I oughtta get to that. 1 Peter 3:15 says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. You should always be ready to tell people about what you believe, but do it in a way that is going to be effective. I heard Pete say that we have to earn the right to be heard. That couldn't have been said much better. If we want people to listen to us, and care about what we have to say, we have to genuinely listen to people and care about what they have to say. Proverbs 26:5 says, Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. So if you are talking to anyone about your faith and they are acting like a fool, don't join them in the way they are acting, or else you look just as bad as them. Most importantly, pray about how you do it. Ask God to give you the words, the correct approach, and a loving and compassionate heart. And there we have the answer to the question. If you want to share your beliefs with an evolutionist, or anyone for that matter, first listen to what they have to say, then pray about the approach you would take, and finally share your faith in love and compassion.

I know what you are talking about. Sometimes I can barely pronounce some of the names in the Bible. But the funny thing is that to them the names are not strange. The reason is that those people spoke a different language, and so just like their worlds sound different and funny to us, their names sound strange, but to them our names would sound strange. Also, remember that in the Bible, names played a much bigger role in their culture than they do in ours culture today. People would name their children, often times, from the situation or circumstances going on during their time of birth. That's why people would have names like "Lo-Ruhamah", which literally meant "No-Mercy". If you read Hosea 1:6, where you find this name, God has just said that He will NO longer have MERCY on Israel.

-Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."-

We are commanded to be a light to this world, but what does that mean? Are we supposed to eat light bulbs? No! We are supposed to live a life that shows that we are Christians so that people will see what God has done in our lives. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical behavior. In fact, in Revelation 3:16, God says that that type of behavior makes Him sick! You should confront your friend and tell them that they need to stop. It will not be easy, but doing the right thing often is not. However, God rewards obedience! Pray that God would give you the right words, that e would soften your friend's heart, and that His will would be done.

Well first it depends on what kind of love you are talking about. If this loved one is a friend or family member, the best thing you can do is tell them about the love of Jesus and the salvation He offers. Then live your life through Him, and they will see His Spirit in You. Galatians 2:20 says 'I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.' This living in Christ will be your greatest witness to those around you. 1 Corinthians says, 'Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.' If, on the other hand, you are referring to someone you love romantically, things are a little different. The above still applies-tell them about Christ and live for Him. But if you are striving to live for Christ, you cannot have a romantic relationship with someone who is not. It's called being unequally yoked. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says 'Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?' A yoke is a piece of wood to hold two animals, generally oxen, together while plowing a field. This meant the two oxen have to go the same way. If you are connected to someone who is constantly trying to go a different way than you are, there will be a constant strain between you, and no work will be done. Witness to them, but do not connect yourself with them on an intimate level.

God does not want us to fit into this world as believers. Romans 12:2 says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." People should be able to look at your life and say, "Wow, that person has God living inside of them." We are transformed when we accept Jesus into our hearts. We do not want to hide Him or pretend He's not in us by fitting in with the world. In fact, fitting into the world is will not bring people to the Lord. In Matthew 5:13 Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." If you lose your flavor, or Jesus, you cannot do anything and will be trampled over when you try to bring someone to God. The best thing to do when you are wanting to witness to someone is to pray for them, live your life pleasing and acceptable to God (not of this world), and share God's Word and love with that person.

The first thing you could do is ask your cousin which parts of the bible she believes are taken out and why she believes her bible is correct. You can also ask her if she has ever read the bible. A lot of people make false claims because they have never done the research to back up what they are saying. Some good verses to share with your cousin are 2 Timothy 3:16 which says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," and Revelation 22:18-19 that says, "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." You could tell her that we believe the bible is the word of God and He tells us that if we add or take away anything from it, we will receive some pretty bad punishments. Invite your cousin to read the bible with you and instead of telling her what she believes is wrong, allow her to hear the truth and let the Holy Spirit convict her. Praying for her to receive the truth is another awesome way to help her!

Yes there are a few things you can do. The first, most powerful and most important thing is to pray, and ask your close Christian friends to pray too. Proverb 15:8 says that the prayer of the upright is His delight. Psalm 37:4 says 'Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.' God hears you, and will answer you. The answer may not be immdiate, and it may not be the one you want to hear, but it will come. The second thing you should do is live your life as a witness. In 1 Peter 3, Peter tells women that their unsaved husbands may be saved by seeing their wives' godly behavior. This is applicable to you, too. 1 Peter 3:15-16 is also important. 'But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.' Meekness means power under control, not weakness. If your dad asks you about Christ, don't jump down his throat with all the answers. Be controlled, or meek. Also keep in mind 2 Corinthians 2:17 when talking to your dad about Jesus and His salvation. It says, 'For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.' Don't be annoying about God-first pray, then live, then talk, in that order. A wise man once said, 'Tell people about Jesus every day. Use words when necessary.'

Hey, just to let you know, you are doing an awesome job in sharing your faith with your dad and with showing him God's love - please, please continue in that (Galatians 6:9). Not only do I think that you should continue in sharing your faith with your dad, but you should also continue to pray for him. In James 5:16 it states, "...The effective fervent prayer of a righteouss man [or woman] avails much." and again in Phil. 4:6 "Be axious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your request known to God; and the peace of God which passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Prayer is very important; and like James said, the prayer of a person following after Christ is very effective as long as it is in the will of God. I believe that it is in the will of God that your father would become saved and come to know the same Saviour that you have. I believe this because in 2 Peter 3:9 it says," ... God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." So keep on loving your dad and showing him the true life and light of Christ through you and the way that you live. Keep on praying that God will show Himself to your dad and that he will become a Christian. you and your dad are in my prayers as well, and remember to look up this scripture for some encouragement Psalm 37:4 God Bless and keep on livin for the King.

Proverbs 1:7 - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction." ---- Not only this verse, but many others in Proverbs tell us that wisdom is a product of understanding, rightness, and serving God. The problem with being human is that we are always lacking in wisdom. If we had a lot of wisdom, we would not sin because we would know that following the rules of God is better than sin. We would also be able to make wise decisions on matters that are not sinful. The best advice you can give your friend is to first, serve God with all her heart, and secondly, to listen to instruction - not to be as the fool thinking that they don't need instruction because we all do. Remember what James 1:5 says - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach

At the end of the movie Back To The Future, Doc tells Marty, "You gotta come back with me". Marty asks, "Where?" Doc's answer was classic. He raised his futuristic sunglasses and said, "Back to the future!". In the book of Revelation, John takes us back to the future. He gives us a view of the end of the world. Throughout the book of revelation we see mighty judgment upon the earth. There will come a time when God raptures the church (Christians), and then harshly, but rightfully, judges the rest of the earth that rejected Him. In the end, we see the 2nd coming of Christ and the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. The second coming of Christ happens in chapter 19 of the book of Revelation (Revelation 19:11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.), so there is alot listed in the first 18 chapter's of revelation that happen before the second coming of Christ. If Christ had come back for the second coming, then there wouldn't be many trees and no green grass (Revelation 8:7), pretty much all of the waters on the earth would be turned to blood (Revelation 8:8-9), a third of the sun, moon, and stars would have been darkened (Revelation 8:12), plus much, much more. These are just examples from one chapter. Everything that happens prior to chapter 19 in Revelation would had to have happened in order for Christ to have come for the second time. So the answer is: You can show your friend the truth about the second coming of Christ directly from the Scriptures. Invite your friend to read some of the book of Revelation with you.

Just to let you know, what you did was absolutely the right thing - you stood strong for what you believe in, no matter what, even when your best friend thought it wasn't cool. That's awesome, so keep on standing strong for Christ. Also, what happened is a good indicator that you have a good walk with Christ. In John 3:20 it says, "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed." Also in 1 Peter 3: 14 "But even if you should suffer for righteoussness sake, you are BLESSED. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled." So I encourage you to keep on walking with Christ because when the world dosen't like you (even though it kinda hurts)remember that you are doing what is right in the sight of God, so who cares what little tiny man thinks! And as far as what should you do about your friend, keep on showing her the love and joy that God has given you. Who kows what God will do in your friend's life if you continue to show her how much you love her and how much God loves her. Always remember that we serve a huge God, and He can do anything. Also just a suggestion, the book of 1st John is an awesome book to read and has a lot of things that go along with your question, so if you want, you should try and read it [it is one of my favorite books of the Bible] God bless and you are in my prayers as well as your friend!

You can pray, you can be an example, and you can be a friend to her. You cannot change her mind, but you can pray that she will change her mind and that God will use your example to soften her heart. Last but not least, you need to be her friend; you need to be there for her when she is going through hard times so that she will see the love of God through you. You can gently reason with her about it, but I would be very careful when doing so, so as not to get pushy or demanding. If she shows even the slightest hint of being annoyed about talking about it, you should probably drop the issue because you do not want to offend her. Her relationship with God is completely out of your control, she is in God's hands, so pray often for her that God would change her heart.

I am right there in the same boat with you. My sister believes but does not follow Christ as well. There is a few things you can (and should) do. First: pray, pray, pray! "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Philippians 4:6). It might sound cliché but God works in mysterious ways and although you may not know what is going on with her and her walk, God may be working in her heart in ways that you don't know. Trust in His work! He does amazing things. Second, be an example to her. "do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:2). Let her see God working through you. Show her love. If she sees the joy that you have in your life she will wonder what it is, then you can tell her "I have joy in my life because I know Jesus died for me and I know that He loves me, and He loves you too." Third, don't ever give up on her and allow God to use you!

It's really cool that you are talking to your teacher about her relationship with God - keep it up! Remember, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that can separate us from God's love. What your teacher needs to do is have some faith. In 2 Corinthians 1:22, it says that God "...has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." When God places His "seal" of eternity on our hearts when we accept Him as our Savior, we never have to worry again about whether or not we're going to heaven. Encourage your teacher, pray for her, and do your best to be a witness to her and to the rest of your class! Keep it up!

I know what you mean, rumors can be very hurtful, but unfortunately there is not much you can do about the actions of others. But there are two great things that you can do to help deal with the situation. The first is pray, bring your pain and your concern about the rumors before God. And if you feel that they are damaging your witness you can pray also that the rumors would not be heard or taken seriously to those you are trying to minister to. The second thing you can do is take the advice given in 2 Peter 3:14 “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless”. What you can do is make sure to live your life in such a way, with the highest standards of purity that anyone who knows you realizes that the rumors are false and ignores them.

It is always good to remind people about how much God loves us. Although God may reject homosexuality, He loves homosexuals. God hates sin, but He loves the sinner. The thing is, God will accept the sinner just as they are, but He loves them too much to leave them the way they are. Although they may not always admit it, homosexuals, and others living in different sins, are often miserable and empty looking for ways to make themselves feel whole and complete, but they can't seem to do it. Everything they try always falls short. Homosexuality is sin, and a very destructive lifestyle. God, in His love for us, wants to take us from the sin that destroys us, give us a new life, and grant us freedom from the controlling power of that sin. They way He accomplishes that is by the fact that He sent His Son to die for our sins. Romans 5:8 says but God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. I would just tell your friends that God loves us and knows what's best for us. He tells us not to live certain ways because wants to keep us from things that will harm us. Although homosexuality is sin, and has severe consequences, as all sin does, Christ paid the price for the sin of homosexuality on the cross, which means not only forgiveness of that sin, and a hope of heaven, but the power and enablement to turn from that sin, and start living for God.

Matthew 5:44 - "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." We as Christians are called to love our enemies. This is part of what signifies the difference in our lives. If you continue on to the next few verses, it reads "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?" The best thing you can do is show the love of Christ to him even when it is not easy.

That is a very difficult situation, there is not much you can do but pray for him and be an example of a follower of Christ. Pray that God will soften his heart, and be an example of the love of God in his life. 2 Thessalonians 3:5 says "Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ." God is the one who directs a person's heart to love Him, so pray for your friend, and pray for an opportunity to speak to Him about Christ. But remember, every day is an opportunity to live as an example before him.

First I'm going to assume that what you're talking about is Faith in Christ and Jesus being the only way to Heaven, (John 14:6) along with how we ought to live as Christians. So with that said, let's see what we really have to gain or loose if what we believe is true or fake. To be able to see what might be fake, let's see what might be (AND IS) true. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 it talks about the Gospel or the Good News. Specifically verses 3-4 say, (1Co 15:3) "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,(1Co 15:4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." So we see that Paul, a very trustworthy source says that Christ died for our sins and not only died, but was resurrected from the grave! That's sweet! But it doesn't stop there. Now that we have seen what is true, we will see why this truth is important. In the Gospel of John in chapter 20:31 it says, "But these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name." (John 20:31) So I would say that a pretty darn good reason to believe what we do is to be with Christ in heaven. I don't know about you, but I don't really want to spend FOREVER in hell! I'm sure you agree. And not only that, but a we will have a fulfilling life here on earth as we obey His Word, the Bible. But check it, if all that we believe is false, what is the outcome of living for Jesus? You live a pure life. You focus on helping the poor and needy. You love your friends no matter what. You live a life of forgiveness. You get the point. You don't have all the "mess" of the world. And then you die and that's it??.BUT Let's say that all this faith stuff is true and you decide to not live for Jesus?. Now we have a problem. Because you will live a life for yourself and what the world calls "fun". And at the end what will happen? Well if you're correct and all this faith stuff is fake, than the "believer" lived a better life and had less "mess". But if the "believer" is correct, (and they are!) than you now face eternity in Hell and the believer faces an eternity with Jesus in Heaven. So there ya have it. For further reading check out Hebrews 11. Peace out and keep the faith!

I think there is a difference between living two lives, and just being kind of quiet about your faith. Let me explain. An example of living two lives would be to go to church and carry your bible, and tell everyone you see, "Praise the Lord", but when you go to school, you cuss, you lie, you steal, and you don't acknowledge God at all in your life. If asked, you may even tell people that you aren't a Christian. That would be living two lives and is totally different from believing in Christ but just being quiet about it. I'll address both. First, living 2 lives is definitely wrong. Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. By living two lives you are trying to serve two masters. You are trying to serve and please God and trying to please the world, and that is impossible. James 4:4 says, ...Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You can't live two lives and please God, because if you are a friend of the world, that makes you an enemy of God. Secondly, if you love the Lord, but you are quiet about it, that's not good either. God wants us to tell people about Him. In the gospel of Mark you can read about how Jesus healed many people and told them not to tell anyone, but they couldn't keep it quiet. They were screaming from the rooftops about what Jesus had done in their lives. Jesus has told us the opposite. He tells us in Mark 16:15, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. If Jesus told the people he healed to keep it quiet and they told people about Him, how much more should we tell people about Him being that He has told us to! God wants us to be on fire for Him. If you found a hundred bucks on the street, I bet you would tell everyone you know. God saved you from hell and has given you heaven. That's worthy of telling everyone about! The answer is, if you are living 2 lives, you need to stop trying to serve two masters and begin to serve God, the only true master. And if you are being quiet about how much you love the Lord, don't be. Tell people about how excited you are that God has saved you from your sins!

Jesus warns us of this in John 15:20 "Remember the word that I said to you, ?A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also." ---- He tells us that because when we are Christians people will not like us. It's not because they don't like us, it's because they do not like Jesus. They don't know and understand him and they don't want to be accountable for their sins. Just remember (although it is difficult) to show the love of Christ to everyone - even those who look down upon you.

Check out Mark 1: 10-11 - Mathew 28:19, 16:27-28 - Acts 2: 32-39 3 who's & 1 what. Know that we will never (fully) understand alot of things, this side of heaven. However, we do know that scripture tells us God is 3 in 1. God the Father, God the son & God the Holy Spirit (The Trinity). 3 seperate personas to make up 1 God. All 3 are equal in power. Man is made in a similar fashion, known as a (tricotomy), body, soul, spirit. All three make up one. Jesus came to show us the way. We are to follow his lead. He is an example of how we are to live our lives. Scripture tells us we are to imitate Christ and we are to be conformed to his image (be more and more like him each day). Be Christ like (WWJD). When we go to heaven we will be face to face with The Father And Jesus. Jesus will put his palms on our cheecks, hold our face and with an overflowing Love and GREAT joy say Well Done Good And Faithful Servant.

Your best friend is the friend you are closest to, that you care about the most, and that you will usually end up spending the most time with. And so, anyone who is your friend can be your best friend. James 2:23 tells us that Abraham was called the friend of God. This is just one example of how man can be friends with God. The answer to your question is, yes, God can be your best friend and He should be! He's already your best friend whether you realize it or not!

Isaiah 46:9-10 - Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,' In verse 10, it says that God declares the end from the beginning and that he declares things that are not yet done. How can He declare what will happen in the future (things not yet done) if He does not know the future?
God can tell the future because God is omniscient which means he knows everything there is to know. Besides, since God is an eternal being (meaning He never began and will never end), He is outside of time and space. As humans, we are ruled by time and space, but God is outside of it - he sees the beginning and the end. That's why Jesus calls Himself "the Alpha and the Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last" in Revelation 22:13.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20 it says, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are, "YES" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God." Even though God has made thousands of promises, He is capable of fulfilling each and everyone. He is not able to make a promise that He cannot keep. We could believe with all our hearts, whatever He says will happen!

When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, and put our faith in Him, we are justified. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Let me explain what justification is. Justification is when a sinner puts his faith in Jesus, and as a result, God declares that sinner righteous and acceptable in His sight. The only way that we can be justified is through faith in Christ. Many people try to justify themselves by doing good things, or performing religious rituals, but none of that can justify you before God. Acts 13:39 says, "and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." So, by putting faith in Jesus, He deletes the file that kept record of all our sins. Those which we did in the past, those we have done today, and all the sin we will commit in the future have all been deleted. It's like we are perfect! Colossians 1:28b says, "that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." This is what the cross was all about. Jesus Christ took the punishment for all of our sins, and was treated the way we deserved to be treated, so God could treat us the way Jesus deserved to be treated. So, it's not that Jesus lies to the Father, saying that we are perfect, but through the work of the cross He has atoned for our transgressions and clothed us in His righteousness. In Christ I'm justified - just as if I'd never sinned!

Luke 18:37 says "So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by."

Jesus actually didn't have a last name. Some people might believe that Jesus' last name was Christ, however "Christ" is a title that means "Messiah" or "anointed one." Last names were not used until after 1160 AD which is over 1160 years after Jesus. Before last names, in order to distinguish who a person was, they would attach to their name where they were from, or what they did for a living. For example, they might have called Jesus' earthly dad Joseph the carpenter, and Jesus was commonly known as Jesus of Nazareth.

Deuteronomy 33:27 - The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you, and said, Destroy. Revelation 4:8 - And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" -- These two verses are just a few that talk about God's existence. The terms used include "eternal," "everlasting," and "who was and is and is to come." These are all trying to convey the same concept - God has no beginning - He has always existed. From a human perspective, this does not seem possible; but when you realize that God is outside of time, then the proper question would be "when was God created?" If God is outside of time, there can be no beginning because that is a time-based concept. You see, God did not become alive nor did he come from anywhere, God has simply (though not simple to understand) always existed as He does today and for all of eternity.

Jesus is the Son of God. In John 14:6 Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That is an outrageous statement for just another wise teacher. Some try to wave him off as just being a good teacher, but if you delve into what he actually said, you'll see that Jesus was either 1) insane or 2) God. It's pretty simple. In John 12:49, Jesus makes another bold statement by saying, "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." He didn't claim to be a nice guy or a good teacher, he claimed to be speaking the words of God, and He was. This is what seperates Him from every other religious leader in history; Jesus is the only one who is God.

Nice question?. As humans we can't and won't fully understand how God could be uncreated. In Colossians 1:15-17 it says "He is an image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that were in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." In Revelation 1:8 says "I am the Alpha and the Omega,", which means I am the first and the I will be the last. God has always been and always will be to everlasting to everlasting. God is eternal, everlasting and the Alpha and Omega and the uncreated Creator.

First off, I want to tell you that what you are going through and experiencing is not an unusual thing. It is a natural thing for us as humans to doubt the existence of God. Look, even one of Jesus' very own disciples named Thomas, doubted whether or not He was raised from the dead. Check out John 20:24-29:

"24Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." 26Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

You are not a bad person if you doubt. See, here in this passage of scripture, Jesus doesn't get mad at Thomas for doubting, but instead He takes away his doubt. You said, that you shouldn't pray to God to take away your doubt, well I think that you should pray for God to take your doubt. Ask God to give you faith. Heb 11:1 - "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Ask God to take away all doubt in your mind that He is real. I believe that He will be faithful to reveal Himself to you.



Secondly, you said that you were doubting such things as who created God? Well, nobody made God, God is above and beyond all time, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, He is from everlasting to everlasting. So you might be saying, "Great! That didn't help me one bit." Well the reason I said those things was to show that there are certain things about God and the Bible that we are never going to understand, until we get to heaven. I don't even begin to say I understand how God wasn't made, but was just, always there! But I can say that through prayer and trusting in God, and knowing that He understands how it all works, I can believe. And a lot of times when it is hard to believe, I just pray and ask God to help me believe by giving me more faith in Him. James 1:5 "5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him"



So to sum all of this up, Please don't walk away from your faith. Remember that you are experiencing something that every follower of Christ goes through. Don't lose hope, God is there! He Loves You! He wants to forgive you of all unrighteousness! If you ask Him to help you believe with more faith, He will give it to you! If you are having trouble understanding, ask of God and He will give you what you need to have faith and believe.



I hope that I have answered you question, but please do not hesitate to write again if you still have any concerns, or things you need more clarification on. I will leave you with this scripture:

Phil. 4:4-7 - "4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Well ask yourself this; have you repented of your sins, confessed your sins to the Lord, and asked Jesus to come into your heart? If you haven't then Christ isn't in your heart and therefore, no, you aren't saved. Ephesians 2: 8-9 says " for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." 1 Thessalonians 5: 9-10 " For, God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake, or sleep, we should live together with Him."

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. -Isaiah 31:3 There is a name for the type of love that God has for us. Agape is a Greek word that describes the love that God has for us. It is an unchanging, unconditional, sacrificial love. It doesn't change, we don't have to do anything to receive it, and He was willing to sacrifice His only son to demonstrate it. God is love. That is as simple as I can explain it. He just is. He never changes, He can't possibly get any better or any worse. He is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. God doesn't change. Therefore, God's love for us doesn't change. Romans 5:8 says, But God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This proves that God loves everyone the same. He doesn't love people who follow Him anymore than He loves those who are in sin. By sending His son to die on the cross, God demonstrated the deepest kind of love that anyone could possibly have for someone, and He did that for sinners. It doesn't get any greater than that. People often mistake God's love with God's favor. God loves everyone the same, and that will never change, but God favors those who are living for Him. 1 John 3:22 says, And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. This is called God's favor. Because we love and obey Christ, He promises to bless us. The sad thing is, if we are disobedient, the promises are a little different. 1 Samuel 12:15 says, However, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you. God is our Heavenly Father. Think about your Dad. When you are doing what you are supposed to do, and obeying your Mom, than your Dad is likely to treat you well, and possibly reward you, but when you are being disobedient, and doing what you're not supposed to do, He is more likely to punish you, rather than reward you. He loves you just the same whether you were good or bad, but the way he treated you was different. That's how God is. He loves us all the same, but when we are obedient, we have His favor. The answer to the question is, God's love never changes and He loves everyone the same. Don't confuse God's favor with God's love. God loves you, now be obedient so you can have His favor!

In order to answer that question, we need to understand a few significant facts about who God is and His plan for creation. God is a God of love. He does not want people to go to hell. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us --- The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. --- The Bible specifically tells us that God does not want anyone to perish. In this context, "perish" means a spiritual death by going to hell. So, if God does not want us to go to hell, then why do people? Romans 6:23 tells us why --- For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. --- You see, people go to Hell because they have sinned and not put their faith in God to save them from their sins. The devil, just like us, is a creation of God, and God does not want him to go to hell, but the price the Devil must pay for his sins is death in hell.

The confusion here is from a common misunderstanding of the nature of God. Yes, God is all powerful (Job 26:5-14), which means that what He wants to do, He does, no one or no thing can resist His will. Also, at the same time, God is unchanging (Heb 13:8), meaning His desires and personality do not ever change. One of the personality traits of God is that He is perfect (2 Samuel 22:31, Deuteronomy 32:4). And because sin is breaking the law (1 John 3:4), which is imperfection, God does not accept imperfection. When Jesus died, He took all of our sins upon Himself, and so God could not stand the imperfection, and as a result, He could not look at Jesus.

That's a good question, but I think we need to clarify something first. God didn't actually create sin. "What?!" That's right, God did not create sin! Lets check out where sin came from. In Romans 5:12 it says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned". Now I'm sure that your next question is, "Who is this "one man"?" HMMMM, who was the first human to sin? That's right, Adam! Check it out. Verse 14 in that same chapter in Romans says, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come". So when we look at what took place, it looks like this: God created all life and all things good. Genesis 1:31a - Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Then God set Adam to tend the garden. God, desiring a relationship with Adam and Eve, decided to let them eat whatever they wanted, except of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So God gave them a CHOICE. He said, "If you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die". (Gen 2:17) We all know that Adam made the choice to let his woman wander off and eat the "bad apple". And then he did the same. And that's when sin entered the world. God told Adam NOT to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and he did anyways, he made the choice to sin. So why the option to do good or evil? Simply this, if we had no choice to do good or bad, we would never have a way to show the Living God we love Him. John 14:15 says, "If you love me, you will obey my commands". God loves you so much that he doesn't want you to be a robot. He wants living, breathing, children who have the choice to obey or not. Just think, if we were programmed to do only good, then God would never know if we would do good on our own. By giving us a choice, we get to show God we love Him by knowingly making a choice to do good instead of bad. We show Him we love him by saying, "I'm not going to do that thing I know I shouldn't, instead, I'm going to obey God and show Him I love Him." Some other good Scripture to dig into is Romans 6-8, and John 10:10. Check it out, its sweet material!

This question is in reference to something Jesus said in Mark 13:32. He said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." So, Jesus says that even He doesn't know when He will come back, but if Jesus is God then why doesn't He know? Well, when Jesus said that, He had no idea when He would come back. Even though Jesus was fully God, as it says in John 1:14 (And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth), when He became a man, he chose to put off a lot of the divine attributes, or "God powers." He did rarely use some of His "God powers", but only as the Father directed Him. Omniscience is the divine attribute of God that allows Him to know all things. Jesus used this omniscience on several occasions, but He restricted it to only those things that God wanted Him to know. The date and time of His return was not one of them. After Jesus was resurrected, He resumed His full divine knowledge. The answer to the question is that Jesus didn't know the date or the time of His return when He was a man on this earth because He willingly forfeited His divine attributes to take the form of a man. Now that Jesus has been resurrected, He is back to being omniscient and knows all things, including when the end will be.

Who said that God can't take our free will from us? God has every ability to take our free will from us. The reason we have it is because he allows us to have it. God is a God of love ---- 1 John 4:8 - "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Not only does He love us, but He wants us to love Him back. However, love is not an emotion, but a decision. So how can we really love God if have no other choice? That's not true love at all. God allows us to have free will so we can love Him, but I guess if He wanted to (which I don't know why He'd want to), He could take that choice away.

This is a question of what does it mean to be made in the image of God. Have
you ever heard someone say that a kid looks like or takes after their
parent? Could you not say that the child is the image of their parent? Or
perhaps you have seen a picture that someone made of a car. Is that picture
not an image of a car? In both these example you see that the object that is
the image of another one is not the same in every way. It has some of the
same attributes, but there are many that it does not have. Is the child the
same as their parent? Does the picture of a car drive like a car? In the
same way, we have some of the attributes of God but there are many that we
do not have. Genesis 1:26 gives us one of those attributes that we share -
power. It says that man is to rule over the earth. This is an image of
God's absolute rule over the entire universe. Genesis 2:19 says that Adam
could make decisions and think. We humans are conscious, intelligent,
rational beings who can make decisions. This also is an image of an
attribute of God. God also gave man emotion, which is also an attribute that
1 John 4:8 tells us that God has. God also has attributes that we humans do
not have. Psalms 102:25-27 tells us that God is both unchanging and eternal;
attributes that we as humans do not have. Although we may be made in the
image of God, we are far from being God - there is no way we could ever know
as much nor learn as much as God. Now what about Him being before time?
Isaiah 57:15 tells us that God dwells in eternity, and Jeremiah 10:10 tells
us that He is everlasting. Revelation 4:8 tells us that God Was and Is and
Is to come. You see, God is not limited by time like we are, but He is
outside of time. What about alpha? Revelation 22:13 tells us that God is the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. What
this means is that He is before everything and after everything; He is the
most important out of everything; everything begins with God and everything
ends with God. So, yes, being the Alpha does mean He is before time, but it
more directly refers to His importance.

Well the truth is that we don't know what Jesus looked like, the Bible does not give us a good description of what He looked like and so a picture that you see of Jesus is really just an artist's representation of how that artist thinks of Him.

I love this question! I've heard it time and time again, and although it's kind of a hard concept to grasp, I enjoy doing what I can to explain it. First, let's look at what the Bible has to say about this. In John 17:3, Jesus refers to God as "the only true God." In verse 26 of Genesis 1, God says, "Let Us make man in Our image." John 5:7 says, "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." From these verses, it is easy to see this idea of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, portrayed in the Bible. All three are fully God. There is only one God, but He has these three distinct persons. And that's where people get confused. "What? How can one God be three persons, or beings?" Alright, let's talk about pie. :o) Imagine that you have a pie that is cut into three pieces (it can be any flavor you want; I'll use cherry for my example). Ok, so let's think about this cherry pie you have in your possession: How many pies do you have? One. How many distinct pieces do you have? Three. If you take any one of those pieces of pie as an example, is it fully cherry pie? Or is it just kind of cherry pie, or partially cherry pie? No, it's completely cherry pie. No aspect of any of the three distinct pieces is non-cherry pie. So it is with God. There is one true God, and He has three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three are fully God, known as the Trinity.

Well, the easiest answer to this question is that Jesus was never created, He is God and has always existed as God. The Bible teaches that there is only one God who exists in three co-equal persons (The Father, The Son or Jesus, and The Holy Spirit), not only in the beginning but now and forever, there always was and is only one God. This isn't the easiest concept to understand, but it isn't hard to come to the conclusion that if God truly is the creator of all things including us and the rest of the entire universe, our minds probably aren't going to be able to comprehend everything about Him. So let's check out the scriptures and see how we come to this conclusion? There is only one God - Isaiah 44:6 "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." 1 Corinthians 8:4 "?there is no other God but one." Jesus is God - John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (The "word" spoken of in this passage is referring to Jesus) Titus 2:13 "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;" Romans 9:5 "of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." The Holy Spirit is also spoken of within the scriptures to be God Himself, thus validating the doctrine of the Trinity within scripture. However, this should be enough info to answer your question! Thanks and God Bless!

The basic definition of an idol is "An image used as an object of worship." God is the object of our worship, but He's not an image that was created. God is the Maker of the World. Genesis 1:1, " In the Beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth." We were made by Him, not vice versa. Isaiah 64:8 says "But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter; and all we are the work of Your hand." In answer to the second part of the question, no, God is not an idol. In Biblical times, people made idols in the shapes of their gods. They could make images of their gods because their gods were fake, imperfect gods. No one can make an idol of our God because He's perfect. Could we make something that is perfect and that could create the heavens and the earth and give us breath to breathe, etc., etc.? No way! We can't. God is the uncreated Maker of the heavens and the object of our worship.

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be?"The LORD is one," And His name one. Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. -You can see that there is only one God, there are no other gods. But isn't Jesus God, how could that be possible? 1 John 5:7 - For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. -It says that the Father, the Word (Who is Jesus John 1:1-14), and the Holy Sprit are all one. Somehow, however, at the same time, there are three. But we only serve one God, not 3! We can not understand how this works, but we know from the Bible that there is one God and three persons or beings that are all God. The word we use to describe this is "Trinity." A good definition of the Trinity would be: "there is only one God, one divine nature and being. This one divine Being is tripersonal (has 3 persons), involving the distinctions of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are joint partakers of the same nature and majesty of God." I know it's a bit tricky, but that's the God we serve. So in answer to your question, since God and Jesus are one in the same God (along with the Holy Spirit), they are equal in importance.

When we talk about having a broken heart, usually we are talking about having our feelings hurt, which to our knowledge has never been the cause of death. However, I believe this question is asked in a literal sense. Did Jesus actually die from a heart that was not working properly anymore? A broken or failing heart. Although the bible does not tell us the specific cause of death, many, after researching the effects of all that Jesus endured during His crucifixion, believe that Jesus died of cardiac arrest, or heart failure. As a matter of fact, Psalm 22:14 says, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. This Psalm describes a little bit of what Jesus went through on the cross. It tells us, in figurative language, that Jesus had definite heart problems on the cross. Without getting into too much detail, I'll explain. The position that one is in, on the cross, puts a person in a position where they have to fight for each breath. Once they have no more energy to fight for their breath, their heart begins to beat irregularly and eventually the heart will fail. When this happens, a clear, water-like fluid collects around the heart, probably the reason that when the spear was thrust into His side, blood as well as this water like fluid came out. So, yes, it is very probable that Jesus died form a cardiac arrest, or literally, a broken heart. Either way, the manner in which Jesus died for our sins was slow and agonizing. John 15:13 says, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. Are you His friend? If you have asked Jesus into your heart, then you are His friend and the punishment He took that day on the cross was for you, so that you can be right before God. If you haven't, then what Jesus went through means absolutely nothing to you, and you are still separated from God. Ask Jesus into your heart today, so that His death was not in vein.

Check out Deuteronomy 10:17 it says "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe." ---- Now if you stop to think about this it is amazing. If you look at any false god or idol, or any ruler or king or president on this earth, God is way bigger and way more powerful then they are. And if you look at the word "homeboy" it means someone from your own town or a fellow gang member. But God is neither of these - He is not just one of us, He is far greater. This is the point that Kevin was getting at - that we should never belittle God and think of Him like He is just another one of the guys. Instead, we should be amazed at how big and powerful and loving He is. So, in answer to your question, it is not wrong to think of God as your friend, just keep in mind that He is not just any friend but the greatest friend of all. A good example of this is Abraham, he was called the friend of God, but every time we have an account of Abraham praying he has the utmost respect and reverence of God.

I believe that this question sparks from something Jesus said in the Gospels. We will reference the account in Matthew 12:31-32. "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. So here we see Jesus saying that there is a sin that will not be forgiven. We have to look at the Scripture in context, so let's go back a few verses to 12:22-30. By reading these verses, we find that Jesus cast demons out of a demon possessed man who was blind and mute, and healed him so that he both spoke and saw. The Pharisees saw this and said that Jesus had done this through the power of the devil, when in fact, it was done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was saying that it was unforgivable to say that something He did was done by the power of Satan, instead of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus isn't here on the earth anymore, we can't very easily commit this sin. The way that we might commit this sin today, is to see the Holy Spirit at work in someone, whether it be healing, prophesy, or the speaking of tongues, and accredit that work to Satan, rather than the Holy Spirit. The thing to remember is that the Bible says that all sins are forgivable. 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As long as our faith is in Jesus Christ and the work of the cross, anything is forgivable. The only unforgivable sin is rejecting Christ. Forgiveness and salvation come through faith in Christ and ONLY by faith in Christ. John 14:6 says, Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Have you have been avoiding Jesus because you feel like you have done something that is unforgivable? Do so no more! The answer to the question is: there is nothing that you could have done in your life that God will not forgive you for, through faith in Jesus. Don't delay. Ask Jesus into your heart today, and know that you are forgiven for your sins, and have the assurance of eternity in heaven when you die.

Sometimes parents can be so mean and not even know it or they just want every thing done right, because they know of all the mistakes they have made in thier childhood that they do not want you to make the same mistakes. Be patient and pray. The fifth commandment says to honor your father and mother. It does not say honor your father or mother only if they are right. Even if they are wrong sometimes (they're not perfect either), you must honor them (Exodus 20:12). As far as not wanting to worship God, remember that God did not do any thing wrong to you. As a matter of fact, He has done all good things. Have faith that your mom will not be so mean, but remember that faith without works is dead. James 2:26 - For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. So do your part in being an obedient child (doing your homework, chores, etc.), then watch God do a work in your mom. It may be a good idea also to sit down with your mom and let her know how you feel. Remember not to tell (that's not honoring your mother), and just maybe she will understand. Remember, she does not know everything like God does. God Bless you - you will be prayed for!

Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Notice that it says "In the beginning". It doesn't say after the world was made or after everything existed, it says "In the beginning". That alone tells me that God existed before anything and nothing made Him. John 1:1-3 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) He was in the beginning with God. 3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." We see here that God made all things, and nothing that was made was made by anyone or anything. God is outside of space and time. We can't quite wrap our human minds around the concept that nothing created our God, and nothing was before Him, but its true! And that is the awesome God we serve! I would want nothing less that to serve a God so BIG, that nothing created Him! So in short God has always existed and He created everything, nothing created Him. Here are a couple of verses for you to look up yourself and study about God's existence: Colossians 1:17, Rev 1:8. Happy Hunting!

Romans 8:32 says that God freely gave up his Son for us. 1 John 3:16 says He laid down his life for us. John 10:17-18 explains it perfectly. Jesus says in this passage-'Therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I have the power to take it again. This commandment I have recieved from my Father.' God the Father gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16) and Jesus laid down His life freely-no one took it away. Judas was guilty of sin. But because he followed his own desires, he was just an instrument in a bigger, ancient, divine plan. Jesus made the decision to endure torture and the cross. He could have said Enough at any time. For that reason, no one can be blamed for killing Christ, as though if they hadn't he would not have died. Judas and all the others associated with the death of Christ used their free will to make the decisions that led to the death of Christ, but God foresaw it all. Jesus made the decision to die for us all because he loves us that much.

Jesus was sent to this earth as both an example and a sacrifice. Many of us know that Jesus was sent by God the Father to die for the sins of the world. John 3:16, from The Message, says, "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life." Hebrews 2:9 tells us, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone." So we see Jesus being sent down to earth, tasting death for everyone, and giving everyone the gift of eternal life if they believe in Him. This is the sacrificial picture we get of Jesus. Jesus as an example can be found in 1 Peter 2:21-23, "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 'Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth'; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;" Jesus is our perfect example. He did not commit any sin, even when he was being beaten physically and verbally. He put His life in the hands of God. As the bible says, we should follow in His steps. He should strive to act as Jesus did, and if you're not sure what He did in His life, read the bible. The books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record Jesus's life and you can learn how to act as Jesus did. So the answer is Jesus was both an example and a sacrifice. We should strive to follow His steps and the best way to do that is reading the bible so we know how to act.

Taking communion is something believers do to remember Jesus' death on the cross. It helps us to remember that Jesus died a terrible death so we could be free from our sins if our lives are given to Him. It is okay to take communion by yourself at home. God will not be mad at you. 1 Corinthians 11:24-26 says,24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. This passage is speaking about the communion supper. Jesus doesn't limit us to only take communion at church. As long as you understand what communion is (remembering Jesus' death and the washing of your sins by His blood) you are free to do it whenever and wherever you are.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit, is something mentioned, and occurs quite a few times in the New testament, but it never occurs in the Old Testament(it is promised to belivers in Joel 2:28-29, and in Ezek. 36:26-27), because it is a work that came with the coming of Christ to earth. John the Baptist was the first guy out of four to mention this spiritual baptism, in Matt. 3:11, "I (John) indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He (Jesus) who is coming after me is mightier than I, who's sandal I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Now Jesus in his time on earth never actually baptized anyone with the Spirit, but when He was ascending into heaven told the eleven disciples, Acts 1:5, "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now." Ten days after Jesus said this, the disciples were baptized with the spirit (read the account in Acts 2:1-4). OK, so we have kinda covered a time period for it, but what is it still? Well Paul defines it really well in 1 Cor. 12:13, "For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all have been made to drink into one Spirit." OK, so I am going to kinda break this down real quick. The baptism of the Holy Spirit - gives every one who is saved an identity with Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Every believer is in Christ due to this baptism. We have been made right before God and put into an acceptable posotion due to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of The Holy Spirit is what occurs when we accept Jesus into our hearts, and ask Him to take our sin, and give us life in Him. It is part of the act of santification, which is when God comes into our lives and cleanses us from our sins. And the spirit remains with us through the process of santification which is the life long process of conquering our sins, and becoming more and more like Christ. So when we call upon the name of the Lord, we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is always with us until we leave this Physical body, to Go and be with the Lord in Heaven. When we accept Christ we are blessed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit, our helper! I would encourage you to read more on the Holy Spirit, here are a few verses to get started, John 16:7-15, John 15:26-27, and John 14:25-31. So Ii know this seems of kind of complicated, but just remember, as a child of God we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, helping us to become more and more like Jesus Christ our savior!!! I want to leave you with one of the verses I mentioned earlier. I think it is such a beautiful passage about God saving us and baptizing us with His spirit. Ezekiel 36:25-28, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God."

Matthew 5:22 - 21"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' 22But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.'" --What these verses say is that you should not be angry without cause nor should we hate anyone. The Bible tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves - is it love to be angry at someone for no reason? Is it love to be mean to someone because they were mean to you? No, it is not. However, when Jesus flipped the tables at the Temple he was angry with a just cause. He was angry because the men were using the temple, which was designed to worship God, to get rich instead. They were insulting God. Jesus' anger was a righteous anger, not a sin. Ephesians 4:26 says "'Be angry, and do not sin'": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,". Righteous anger is being angry at the sin, not at the sinner.

Let me ask you a question: do you love your parents? Do you fear your parents? Love and fear are not opposites in some situations. It depends upon what definition of fear is applied. If we are to be afraid of God and want to run away from Him, then how can we love Him? There is another definition of fear - "to have reverence and respect for, to be in obedience to." Now if you look at when it talks about fearing God which definition of fear do you think you should apply?

Genesis 22:12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you FEAR God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

Do you think this means that Abraham wanted to run away from God or that he loved and respected God? There are many more examples, but I think that you get the point. We are supposed to both love and fear God, but we are not to be afraid of God (unless we are not saved). God is worthy of the most fear (awe and respect) and love that we could ever give Him.

If you look at the amount of time covered in the Bible, there are literally thousands of years covered. Then, if you look at the times where God actually appeared to someone, there were not very many times, in fact, most of the time, He spoke through prophets. Let's look at the prophet Elijah, for example. 1 Kings 17:2 tells us that the word of the Lord came to him. This is also how God communicated with many other prophets. So what about hearing the word of God? It can be an audible voice, but again, the times the Bible tells us that it was an audible voice are very rare. So what does this mean to us today? This means that God is not very likely to show up in person or use an audible voice to speak to us. God is sovereign and he can use people around you, events in your live, and a large variety of ways to speak to you, but the most common method will be the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is from God. Have you ever heard the Bible referred to as the Word of God? Now compare that to the Word of the Lord that came to Elijah and the other prophets. The logical conclusion would be that though God can speak to us any way He desires, He is most often going to use His Holy Scriptures, the Bible.

It's interesting to hear this question, because Jesus used the same question to shut the Pharisees down in Matthew 22:41-46. Jesus asks the Pharisees, "How can Jesus be David's son when He is David's God?" Jesus has many names in the Bible similar to this: "Son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1 - Matthew); "Son of Man" (Matthew 8:20 - Jesus); "Son of God" (Matthew 4:3 - Satan); "Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16 - Simeon Peter); "Son of the Most High God" (Mark 5:7 - demon-possessed man); "Son of Mary" (Mark 6:3 - people that heard Jesus teach); "Son of the Blessed" (Mark 14:61 - the High Priest accusing Jesus). "So did Jesus just have a lot of parents?" "What happened to Joseph, His dad?" Mary and Joseph were Jesus earthly parents, but God is His Father.

This all began in 2 Samuel 7, when God promised David that his offspring would reign eternally - what an honor for David! When people read 2 Samuel 7, they began to expect this "Son of David" to come and bring peace and salvation. The term "Son of David" is only used in the first 3 books of the New Testament (when Jesus was on earth). It's only used referring to Jesus and His earthly form, not His heavenly existence. Jesus was the "Son of David" that God had promised in 2 Samuel 7. Unfortunately, many Jews weren't ready for Him and didn't believe Jesus was the right guy. In fact, they lived with Him, experienced His miracles, listened to His teaching, but then killed Him

Sp, Jesus is called "The Son of David" because it refers to the fact that He came from David's family. God had made the promise of an eternal ruler to come from David, so that's why He's not referred to as anyone else's son - it was a descendant of David that the Jews were waiting on.

We've all heard Deuteronomy 31:8 quoted many times - ?He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you? What an awesome promise! You never have to doubt if God will be there or not - He said that He ALWAYS will be! So, we know He'll be there, but what happens when it doesn't feel like He really is there? In Psalm 77:7-9, Asaph begins to doubt God. He asks questions like "Has God forgotten to be merciful?" Well, Asaph was a musician who wrote some of the Psalms. Sometimes, even the people who wrote the Bible felt like God wasn't there! It can be comforting to know that the people in the Bible knew how you felt. Elijah wanted to commit suicide, Paul went to jail, Job lost everything, and Asaph felt like God had given up on him. However, when Asaph really thinks about God, though, He can't help but think how awesome He is. Check out the next few verses in Psalm 77. Asaph vows to remember how faithful God has been and all the promises He has given to Asaph. Sometimes it feels like God isn't there because we're focused on the NOW - we forget how faithful He has been and His promises that He will continue to be faithful. Think about the Israelites when they were in the wilderness. They kept whining and thinking God had given up on them. We get frustrated with them because in the next chapter, God provides for them. However, It's hard for us, because we can't see the next "chapter" in our life. We lose focus of God when we forget His faithfulness. I've always heard it said, "When you feel like God isn't there, it's never Him that moved, it's you." Maybe you've got some sin in your life that you need to talk to Him about. For instance, Saul fell into sin so deep that God quit responding to him - he wouldn't listen anyway! And in Isaiah 59:1-2, it says, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." We can't deny that sometimes it does feel like God is not there. But when you come to that point, think about all that He has done for you and all He has promised to do - it's impossible to continue in doubt if you really believe His promises.

I don't really believe that God does bad things to good people. I believe that he may allow bad things to happen to good people for a good reason. It may sound wierd, but God makes us better by allowing us to go through "the fire", or what we see as bad things. Just as silver and gold are made clean and beautiful, by being put into the fire, so God refines us, (makes us beautiful), by allowing us to go through the fire. (Isaiah 48:10, Jeremiah 9:7, Zechariah 13:9)
Job and Paul the apostle are good examples of good people that had some bad things happen to them. You can read about them in the book of Job, and the book of Acts. I also believe that God gets glory when we get through bad things and we praise Him for how He helped us and brought us through.Then He can use those bad things that we went through in the lives of others who may be going through the same thing, as encouragment and hope for them! Many good things can come out of bad situations. We just need to focus on God in good times and bad.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18 tells us that God is just. For God to be just requires Him to defend and keep the Law. As 1 John 3:4 tells us, sin is breaking the law of God. God cannot sin because that would be breaking rules that He Himself set out and that is against His holy and perfect nature.

This question is in reference to something Jesus said in Mark 13:32. He said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." So, Jesus says that even He doesn't know when He will come back, but if Jesus is God then why doesn't He know? Well, when Jesus said that, He had no idea when He would come back. Even though Jesus was fully God, as it says in John 1:14 (And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth), when He became a man, he chose to put off a lot of the divine attributes, or "God powers." He did rarely use some of His "God powers", but only as the Father directed Him. Omniscience is the divine attribute of God that allows Him to know all things. Jesus used this omniscience on several occasions, but He restricted it to only those things that God wanted Him to know. The date and time of His return was not one of them. After Jesus was resurrected, He resumed His full divine knowledge. The answer to the question is that Jesus didn't know the date or the time of His return when He was a man on this earth because He willingly forfeited His divine attributes to take the form of a man. Now that Jesus has been resurrected, He is back to being omniscient and knows all things, including when the end will be.

Jesus talks a lot about His return in Matthew 24, telling signs and events that will take place before His return. No one knows when the exact day is that He will come back, so we should be focusing on our own salvation and be doing everything we can to save those around us.

You can read all about this in the book of Revelation. The period that you are referring to, after the rapture, is called the tribulation period. This is seven years of God's judgment on the earth. As a matter of fact, the majority of the book of Revelation is dedicated to this tribulation period. Beginning in chapter 6, all the way through chapter 19, Revelation tells all about it. The chapter I will draw your attention to is chapter seven, where we are introduced to a group of people called the hundred and forty-four thousand. These are, as the name implies, one hundred and forty-four thousand Jews, (the Jews have been God's people since the book of Genesis), that God specifically chose to endure the tribulation that they might preach the gospel. The bible says that these hundred and forty-four thousand people will be "sealed," meaning that they will not be harmed at all by anything that happens during these seven years. Unfortunately people who are "left behind" during the tribulation, who may have been pregnant will have children, and these innocent children will have to suffer the consequences of their parents rejecting Christ by having to endure this period of God's wrath. Fortunately, God did appoint people to share the gospel and it will still be possible for people to accept Jesus Christ and be saved, however it won't be as easy as it is today to accept Christ because, at that time, if you don't reject God and take the mark of the beast you won't be able to purchase food, clothing, or any other necessities for survival. So the answer is: Yes, those who are left behind will have an opportunity to be saved, but I would recommend accepting Christ now so you don't have to experience all of the horrible things the bible says will happen during that time. Plus, who's to say how many of us will be alive that long?

That question can not really be answered for it says in 2 Peter 3:10-13 that God will create a new heavens and a new earth, but 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us that we do not really know what it will be like in heaven except that it will be awesome - no mind can imagine it!

When Satan was cast from heaven as many as a third of the angels followed him. Since the Bible does not give us the indication that they can reproduce (Matt. 22:30) or that God created more, it would be safe to assume that God has two thirds of the angels he originally created and Satan has the other third. (Revelations 12:1-11) However, even if Satan had all the angels, we would have no reason to fear because God is more powerful than all of them combined.

We have no idea if angels take naps or not because the Bible doesn't tell us that in particular. Angels minister to our needs as they did for Jesus in Mark 1:13; they protect us as they did Daniel in Daniel 6:28. They help us and serve God in many ways, but whether or not they take naps is really unknown. The only thing I can possibly think of in the Bible about angels sleeping is when two angels in the form of men came to stay the night with Lot in Genesis 19. I assume they were going to sleep because in verse 4 it says that before they laid down the men of Sodom came. When I lay down, I lay down to sleep, but who knows with angels! Answer: We really don't know if angels take naps. I guess we'll find out in heaven.

Matthew 22:30 - For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. - When we go to heaven we shall not be married to one another like we do here on earth. However, if you read Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus tells a parable of how His coming will be as a bridegroom to take his bride. We, the church, are the bride of Christ. And if you really think about it, when we get to heaven, our last focus will be on who else is around us - WE'LL BE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD!!

In Revelation, John describes how he was visited by an angel in a vision. This was his response ---- Revelation 22:8 - "Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, 'See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.'" ---- The angel told John not to worship him for he is only a servant. Actually, the Bible tells us in several places such as Exodus 34:14, that we are to worship no other god than the one true God. And, if you read Psalm 99:5, it tells us that God is holy. That means that he is set apart from all others and therefore, is the only one we should worship because anything else that we worship (angles, money, or anything else) is an Idol. Yes, there were people who worshiped both angles and demons (who are fallen angles) in the Bible, just as there are today. But remember that God is the only one who deserves our worship.

The Bible never directly says whether or not animals go to heaven. It does say that man was made to be over the animals. Now we know that man is able to go to heaven thru faith in Jesus Christ. We also know that man is different from every other creature on earth. Man is the only creature on the planet that is made in the image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 says, "26Then God said, "Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life?the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals, and small animals. 27So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them." So humans are created in the image of God and we are able to go to heaven through faith in God, and also God has given the animals and creatures of the earth, for our benefit. Check out Genesis 1:28-31, "28God blessed them and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals." 29And God said, "Look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30And I have given all the grasses and other green plants to the animals and birds for their food." And so it was. 31Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way. This all happened on the sixth day." So God made us responsible for the animals, we are supposed to be respectful of them, and use them only as we need. It isn't murder to kill an animal for food, or by accident. If your were driving down the road and you ran over a bunny rabbit, God wouldn't call you a murderer. And if we eat meat or other types of animal meat it isn't murder, because God gave us animals for a food source, and for our benefit. Now if you were to squish an ant on accident, it would be nothing more than an accident, and if you forgot to feed your goldfish, it would be an accident. But remember God wants us to take care of the animals and creatures on earth as best we can. So it is hard to say whether or not if animals go to heaven, but God knows, and we can trust that He knows what is best. And also God has given us animals for our benefit, so it is ok to eat animal meat, and it isn't murder if we accidentally kill an animal, but let's not abuse the privilege that God has given us, of animals.

The bible does not talk about animals going to heaven, therefore, we can conclude that they do not. God created animals because 1) He wanted to and 2) for us to eat them. Genesis 1:24-25 says, "24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." So here we see that God created all the living creatures according to their different kinds. The bible doesn't say why God created them, He just did and He saw that it was good. God Himself tells Noah in Genesis 9:3-4, "3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." So "every moving thing," or animals, are to be food for us. We are told not to eat the blood of the animal which means we are suppose to make sure it's cooked first. However, we know that is an Old Testament law, and so if you like your steak rare, that's cool too. So the answer is, no, animals do not go to heaven since we don't find any evidence of it in the bible. God created animals because He wanted to and saw that it was good and also as food for humans.

The bible doesn't say that any specific "religion" will go to heaven. What the bible teaches us is that when Adam sinned in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:6), sin entered the world and, as a result, all of the earth was put under sin's curse. Because of this curse our fellowship with God was broken (Gen. 3:24), and all of humanity is now born with a sin sickness from birth (Psalm 58:3). Because we have this sickness God provided the cure by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, taking the penalty for the sins of the world and restoring our fellowship with God (John 3:16). The way that the bible teaches that we are saved is not because we are a part of any religion, but only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and the work of atonement He did on the cross for our sins (Ephesians 2:8). God provided only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus. In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. So whether or not a Catholic, or member of any other religion, would go to heaven is based wholly on their relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus told Nicodemus, a religious man, in John 3:3 that Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Make sure that all your friends and family have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and if they don't, tell them about the good news that God provided one way for us to get to heaven through His son, and the best part about it is that it's free (Romans 5:18)!

No, God does not put down a ladder to bring us to Heaven. He will resurrect us, at the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. Just like Jesus was resurrected, we shall also be. Acts 24: 15 says "I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both the just, and unjust." Also Romans 6:5 says "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection."

I have to answer yes to your question for a few reasons. First, the bible says that God is sovereign - He is all-knowing, and his knowledge encompasses all. There are so many passages that talk about the knowledge of God; check out for instance, I John 3:20, "...God is greater than our hearts, and knows ALL THINGS." God created all things, and he knows his creation more than anyone could ever imagine. I know that it is kinda hard to understand how God can know everything, because as humans, the fact is that we don't know everything. Due to this fact, I have to say that yes, God knows whether or not you are going to heaven, check out 2nd Timothy 2:19, "...The Lord knows who are His...." If you read the New Testament, and the Old Testament as well, you will see that those to whom call upon the name of the Lord are saved, and are called His children. John 1:12, " But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God..." So if we are truly saved, and have asked Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, we become His children, and I can't believe that Jesus would ever forget about, or not know, who His children are. So yes, Jesus knows if you are really going to Heaven. So if you have received Him, then trust that you are His child, and nothing can change that. But if you haven't received Jesus into your heart and asked Him to forgive you of your sins, then you need to ask yourself a question, "Do I know if I am going to Heaven?" If your answer to that is No, then pray and ask God to forgive you of your sins, and ask Him to be the Lord of your Life so that you can know today where you are going when you die.

There are a few different views concerning the rapture and when it will take place. There is the "post tribulation" theory that shortly before the end of the 7 year tribulation, the church will be raptured. Then some believe there will be a "midtribulation" rapture, assuming that 3 and a half years, or halfway through, the 7 year tribulation period Jesus Christ will rapture the church. Scripture leads us to believe that there will be a "pretribulation" rapture, meaning that Jesus Christ will rapture the church before the 7 year tribulation period, saving us from having to go through any of that judgment. Concerning signs, some feel like the world will appear to be at peace (1 Thessalonians 5:3), and that the temple will have been rebuilt (Matthew 24:15), as well as other small signs. These things may be true, but Jesus tells us that in Matthew 24:36,42,50 25:13 and Revelation 3:3 that noone knows the day or the hour, and that we don't know the hour our Lord is coming. Scripture also says that Jesus will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). We usually have no idea when a thief is going to try to break into our house, or else we probably wouldn't allow them to break in, right? (Matthew 24;43). 2 Corinthians 6:2 says now is the day of salvation. When Jesus spoke about the rapture, His focus was more on our readiness than the signs that might precede it. If your faith is in Christ, and you have asked him into your life, you have the assurance that you will meet Jesus in the air when the rapture does happen. If you have not given your life to Christ, and you want to know that you will be included in the rapture just say this prayer to God from the bottom of your heart, "God, I confess to you that I am a sinner. Forgive me for all of my sins. I believe that Jesus died on the cross so that I could be forgiven. Jesus, come into my heart. Help me to live for you and to walk with you. In Jesus' name. Amen." If you said this prayer come talk to us at church, or email us. We would love to talk to you and encourage you in your new walk with the Lord. Congratulations!

There are a few different views concerning the rapture and when it will take place. There is the "post tribulation" theory that shortly before the end of the 7 year tribulation, the church will be raptured. Then some believe there will be a "midtribulation" rapture, assuming that 3 and a half years, or halfway through, the 7 year tribulation period Jesus Christ will rapture the church. Scripture leads us to believe that there will be a "pretribulation" rapture, meaning that Jesus Christ will rapture the church before the 7 year tribulation period, saving us from having to go through any of that judgment. Concerning signs, some feel like the world will appear to be at peace (1 Thessalonians 5:3), and that the temple will have been rebuilt (Matthew 24:15), as well as other small signs. These things may be true, but Jesus tells us that in Matthew 24:36,42,50 25:13 and Revelation 3:3 that noone knows the day or the hour, and that we don't know the hour our Lord is coming. Scripture also says that Jesus will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). We usually have no idea when a thief is going to try to break into our house, or else we probably wouldn't allow them to break in, right? (Matthew 24;43). 2 Corinthians 6:2 says now is the day of salvation. When Jesus spoke about the rapture, His focus was more on our readiness than the signs that might precede it. If your faith is in Christ, and you have asked him into your life, you have the assurance that you will meet Jesus in the air when the rapture does happen. If you have not given your life to Christ, and you want to know that you will be included in the rapture just say this prayer to God from the bottom of your heart, God, I confess to you that I am a sinner. Forgive me for all of my sins. I believe that Jesus died on the cross so that I could be forgiven. Jesus, come into my heart. Help me to live for you and to walk with you. In Jesus' name. Amen. If you said this prayer come talk to us at church, or email us. We would love to talk to you and encourage you in your new walk with the Lord. Congratulations!

The best way to recognize a phony or a counterfeit is to study and know the original or the authentic as well as possible. The people who have to be able to identify counterfeit money do not study phony or false money, they study the real thing so that they can quickly recognize when something is different. You have to know and understand the real thing. Say that someone called you claiming to be your Mom, and it really didn't sound like your Mom, but you weren't sure. You would probably start asking that person questions that only your Mom would know. You know your Mom so well that the first time that person said something your Mom wouldn't say, you'd know right away! God tells us to do that with spirits. 1 John 4:1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So we know that there are fakes out there and we have to be careful. Desire to know the Word of God. By knowing the Word, you better understand the author, who is God. By understanding God, you will know what He would or wouldn't say and what He would or wouldn't do. Let this be your prayer, 1 Kings 3:9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart ... that I may discern between good and evil.... Study the Bible so that you will know well the authentic and be able to identify the phony. The answer to this question is: the best way to be able to tell the difference between an angel and a demon, is to know the word of God well, and know that anything that contradicts the word of God, is not of God, and is surely of the devil. (See also: Hebrews 4:12, Psalms 119:47, Isaiah 34:16, Titus 1:9)

Many, many scriptures come to mind when I think about this question. Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord,'Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven." Also 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Also 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things become new." Think also about Paul how he used to persecute Christians. God eventually saved Paul and made him an amazing servant, and totally used him in many various ways. If God can save and use a guy like Paul with a terrible background and many regrets, WHO CAN'T HE USE?!

So many people walk around unsure of where they will end up when they die. That can be a very sad, and stressful existence, unsure of your eternal destiny. Well, the bible teaches us that we don't have to be unsure about whether we will be in heaven or hell when we die. The answer to this question is actually depends on what you have done with Jesus. Have you given your life to Jesus Christ? The bible says that there is only one way to heaven, and that is through Jesus Christ who has paid the price for the sins of the world on the cross. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me John14:6. Because of our sin, and we have all sinned, we deserve to go to hell (Romans 6:23), but God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlating life.(John 3:16) So if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and the work of the cross for our salvation, and we repent of our sins and live for Him, then we can have full assurance that we will be in heaven when we die. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life , and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:13. That's the encouraging part, however knowing this we understand that anyone who hasn't put their faith in Jesus Christ will be in hell when they die, no matter how "good" of a person they seem to be. That is why it is so important that we share the gospel with everyone that we can. The heart of God is that no one would perish, and that should be our heart as well! If you have given your life to Christ then you know for a fact that you will be in heaven when you die, for this is what the bible teaches us, but also remember the destination of those who haven't and share the gospel! It's the great commission!

Well here are some thoughts on the rapture: The Bible never actually uses the word "rapture." It usually refers to this as Christ's second coming or the day of the Lord. So if you're looking around in your Bible for "rapture," you might not have much luck. But there's definitely a lot in there about it. In Matthew 24, Christ tells his disciples all about the end times. He tells them all the signs of Christ's coming: wars, rumors of wars, famine, and earthquakes. Basically, the world is going to be just full of stuff God doesn't like! In verses 11-13 (of Matt 24), Christ says, "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." That means we gotta be ready for Christ to come back! He tells us that His coming will be like lightning (Matt 24:27)--no one knows when it will happen, but everyone sees it when it does happen. He also compares it to a thief in the night (Matt 24:42-44). So basically, even though we have all these signs that Christ is coming back, no one knows exactly when it's going to happen; so we just gotta be ready at ALL times!! (Jesus says a LOT about His return in Matthew 24 and on into chapter 25...check it out!) Some other verses you can check out about how BIG Christ's return is going to be are: 1 Thess. 4:16, 2 Thess. 1:7, Titus 2:13, 1 Peter 1:7, Rev 1:7. Now how can we be sure we're ready? Well isn't God good! He says of His children (believers in Christ), "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28). "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). So how do we know we are/how do we become a child of God? I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Romans 10:6-11 is pretty cool too. Verse 9 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." And once we're saved, no one can take that from us! (John 10:28). So there ya go. I hope that answers your questions. Sorry it's kinda long, but there's a ton more I could say too! There are bunches of verses out there about salvation, our security in Christ, and His return.

That is a very good question. It is not clearly stated in the Bible though, I believe that all infants who die before they are able to make responsible, moral decisions ( I.E sins) are saved upon death. The Lord Jesus died for everyone, including infants who die. Deut. 1:39 " Moreover you little ones and your children, who you shall be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. I am also reminded about when David's son became ill, which is found in 2 Samuel 12:15-23. David at first pleaded with God to heal his son, then fasted, and laid on the ground all night. 7 days later his son died, when David found out about this he; rose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; he went to the house of the Lord and worshiped. His servants couldn't understand why he had did this, so he said to them "While the child was alive I fasted and wept; for I said Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

This question is in reference to something Jesus said in Mark 13:32. He said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." So, Jesus says that even He doesn't know when He will come back, but if Jesus is God then why doesn't He know? Well, when Jesus said that, He had no idea when He would come back. Even though Jesus was fully God, as it says in John 1:14 (And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth), when He became a man, he chose to put off a lot of the divine attributes, or "God powers." He did rarely use some of His "God powers", but only as the Father directed Him. Omniscience is the divine attribute of God that allows Him to know all things. Jesus used this omniscience on several occasions, but He restricted it to only those things that God wanted Him to know. The date and time of His return was not one of them. After Jesus was resurrected, He resumed His full divine knowledge. The answer to the question is that Jesus didn't know the date or the time of His return when He was a man on this earth because He willingly forfeited His divine attributes to take the form of a man. Now that Jesus has been resurrected, He is back to being omniscient and knows all things, including when the end will be.

God has created man to glorify God and to serve Him wholly. With that being said, God will keep us here to glorify Him as long as HE wants. I think that Ephesians 1:11 answers it real well? "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will." As well as 2 Peter 3:10..." But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with great heat; both the Earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." It is important to know that the Lord's returning has nothing to do with our own opinions as when HE should or shouldn't return. The ONLY THING to be worried about is being prepared for His return, because it may happen today!

Jesus' finished work on the cross paid for our sins - past, present, and future. The good thing is, the Bible guarantees that you can't lose your salvation - you either have it or you don't (Philippians 1:6). Some people think salvation is like your wallet or the TV remote - you always have to worry about losing it. A true relationship with Christ makes an eternal difference. Romans 8:38-39 says that NOTHING can separate us from God's love - NOTHING at all would ever cause God to stop loving us (even if He came back while we were sinning). The question is whether or not you have a true relationship with God. If you've surrendered your life to Christ and are living for Him, He's already forgiven you for your sins - every one of them that you have done or will ever do. Do your best, serve God with your whole heart, when you mess up, confess it, but don't ever worry about whether or not you'll go to hell if you have a true relationship with Christ.

Matthew 7:21 tells us “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” What Jesus was saying here is that being saved is not simply a manner of saying some words or a prayer and then you get to go to heaven, but instead being saved is repentance - truly turning back to God. If you keep that in mind when you read about every knee bowing, you can see that not all of those knees are bowing out of love and respect but out of sheer terror of the creator of the universe. A good verse to see an example of that type of submission to God is James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

In the gospels Jesus tells us that the Heavens and the earth will pass away, but His word will always remain, in the parable of the fig tree. We also read other refrences to heaven passing away in other parts of the Old and New testaments. This causes us to wonder," If heaven is passing away, where am I supposed to spend eternity?". We find the answer in 2 Peter 3:10-13. We learn by reading these verses that, when the day of the Lord comes, the heavens and the earth will pass away. In verse 13 we really understand God's plan. It says, Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So God will create a new heaven and a new earth just as he promised. You can find God's promise to create this new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 65:17 as well as an awesome description of what it will be like in Revelation Chapters 21 and 22. So, even though we know this world, and all the sin in it, will pass away, we can rest assured that God will create a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells, in which believers will spend eternity in direct fellowship with God! How exciting!

The answer to your question is NO, there is not a waiting list for heaven. There a few reasons for why there is not. First, a heavenly waiting list would mean that heaven would be able to fill up, and in John 14:2, Jesus tells His disciples, "In my Father's house there are many mansions..." Jesus is saying that there is room for all that recieve Him as their saviour, to go to heaven. Secondly, a heavenly waiting list would show that if someone got kicked out of heaven then there would be room for someone else on the list to enter into heaven, but anyone who is in heaven can't be kicked out. In John 10:28 Jesus says, " And I give them [Christians] eternal life; and they shall never perish; and no one shall every take one of them out of my hand." Finally, and maybe the most important reason why there can't be a heavenly waiting list is God wants everyone to be saved and go to heaven - He can't and won't turn anyone away from the gates of heaven. In 2 Peter 3:9, it says," ... God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance." John 3:16 says," For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that anyone one who believes shall not perish but have eternal life [in heaven]." So nobody that truly follows Christ and accepts Him into their hearts neither has to wait or be turned away from heaven, they all have a house being built for them as we speak. Praise Be to God!

If you read in Matthew 24 this chapter talks about everything about the end times. Jesus is with his disciples and they ask him what will be some of the signs. And this is how Jesus answers them (vs 4-8) "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying ?I am the Christ', and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows." No one knows the time or the hour when He returns but He is coming and be ready.

The most important determination of where a person will go after they die is did they believe in Jesus Christ. Did they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Did they believe Jesus died for their sins and then did they repent of those sins? Salvation is given to us when we accept Jesus as our Savior. When a person truely accepts Jesus Christ, they will go to heaven, no matter what they have done in the past or will do in the future. Christ died for our past sins, present sins, and all the sins we will committ in the future. Nothing can separate the Believer from God. Romans 8:38-39 tells us, "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. " Suicide is a sin, but nothing stops the Believer from being in heaven with God, not even physical death. On the other hand, if a person kills themselves and does not know God and has not excepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, their eternal destination is hell just like everyone else who denies Him. Jesus says in Matthew 10:33, "'But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.'" The answer to the question is people who kill themselves and truly believe in Jesus Christ and have a relationship with Him will still go to heaven because nothing can separate them from the love of God. Suicide is a sin and, like all sin, leads to spiritual death. People who do not have Jesus as their Savior and deny Him will spend eternity in hell.

You have probably thought at one time or another that a certain circumstance in life was "like heaven". I have heard people say that certain chocolate desserts are "heaven." Some would say that Hawaii is like "heaven." For certain 5 year old kids, the McDonalds play land is like heaven. Fortunately, Heaven is better than chocolate, surfing, and happy meals. Heaven is the place where God dwells and the place where Jesus is preparing a place for His followers! The truth is, we can't even fully comprehend what exactly heaven will be like. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. We can try to imagine what it will be like, but whatever we come up with won't even be close to what God has prepared for us. The best picture of heaven we get in the bible is in Revelation chapter 21. Read the whole chapter and you will see a great description of how beautiful it will be, with streets of gold, pearl gates and everything made from beautiful and precious stones and gems. All of these things are amazing, but I think the best part about heaven will be the presence of the Lord, and all that means to us. Revelation 21:3 says, And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. So God will be there and that is the most important aspect of heaven! Another great thing about heaven is what won't be there. Rev. 21:4 goes on to say, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." So the best part of heaven will be that God will dwell with us and the result of that is no more tears, pain, sorrow, or death! I don't know about you, but I can't wait.

1st of all, everyone in heaven will be our friends, brothers, and sisters. 2nd If your friends aren't saved, it's very important that you plant the seed of how important it is that they become saved, that way they will be in Heaven with you. It's important that you stress this to them, but do it with love. John 3:5-7 says " Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be reborn." John 3:16 " For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Remember, Jesus is our greatest and best friend as He said in John 15: 13-14 "Greater love has no on than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all thing that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."

Here's the thing, God is not dead. He's alive! Do you remember what
the angel told the women at Jesus' tomb when they came to see Him? The
angel told them He was not there - He had risen! So, God is not dead -
He's alive and well.
Now, onto the rest of the question: there are some things in life that
are kinda confusing, and not always clear or easy to see and understand.
The 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ is definetely not one of those things.
When God comes
back for his people and then when He comes back to finally judge the
world, it will be unmistakable. Check out 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 - "16
For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud word of
command, and with an archangel's voice and the trumpet of God, and the
dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Afterwards we who are alive and are
still on earth will be caught up in their company amid clouds to meet
the Lord in the air." Lets just say that it will be completely obvious
that it is God. There will be no doubt whether or not it is God. And
don't worry - if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ and He has
saved you from your sins, then you will be one of those people that will
be caught up in the clouds with Christ as it talks about in the previous
verses.

Revelation 22:20 "He who is the faithful witness to all these things
says, "Yes, I am coming soon!"
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!"

Well we don't really know where heaven is at. But it is not just a place up in space such as another planet. Heaven is actually in another dimension. Just as we can't see angles (who come from heaven) we can't see heaven. And the really crazy thing is that God is going to make a new Heaven! Revelation 21:1 "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea."

The human population did not start out speaking different languages. God made different languages when people came together to prove their power was greater than God's. Check out Genesis 11:1-9. Verses 6-7 are key; "And the Lord said, "Indeed, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." When people could understand each other, they went against God instead of glorifying Him, so now we have different languages so we can't go against Him like that again. The next time the whole world comes together will be a sign of the endtimes.

The Bible says we will be changed that our mortal bodies will be changed into immortal bodies (Romans 15:52-53). There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body (Romans 15:44). Here on earth, our spirits are clothed with human flesh which is made of dust. However, in heaven we shall be clothed with a new glorious, immortal heavenly bodies, better and way cooler than any name brand jeans or shoes (it cant even come close)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The issue is whether or not the person is born again. If so then biblical repentance must be involved. Divorce is a sin, no doubt about it (Matthew 5:31-32). The thing about sin though, is that it is forgivable. 1 John 1:9 says that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The only sin that is unforgivable is the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ and the work of atonement He did on the cross. We have to understand that Jesus says in John 3:16 that we will not inherit the kingdom of heaven unless we are born again ( "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." ), so the first qualification in this question is whether or not the person who divorced is truly born again. If this is not the case then we can't assume that the person is going to heaven whether they have divorced or not. When we give our lives to Christ it doesn't mean that we will never sin again, but when we do we are required to confess our sins to God and repent, meaning to turn away from that sin, not allowing it to characterize our lives. As believers we have to have a good balance of the grace of God, and how nothing can seperate us from the love of God so that we don't think we've lost our salvation every time we mess up, and the standard of obedience that God has set for us. The answer is that if there is tsur repentance in the life of a born again believer after a divorce then their sins are forgiven. Jesus your love has no bounds!

Hebrews 9:27 says, And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Have you ever had a doctor's appointment? Similarly, all of us have an appointment to die and to be judged. Everyone, in Christ or not, will be judged. The difference is one will be a happy judgment, and the other....not so much. In Revelation 20 we read about the "White Throne judgment", where those who have not received Christ in their life are judged. (Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.) This is not such a pretty scene. However, Christians will be judged too, but instead we are rewarded for our works at that throne judgment. This is called the judgment seat of Christ, or the bema seat of Christ. You could say that this is the time when we are given the treasure that we have built up in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad, and Romans 14:10 says, But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Are you storing up treasure in heaven? What are you doing on this earth that has an impact on eternity? The answer to this question is: Yes, if the rapture happens tomorrow we will face judgment for our works on this earth. Make an eternal investment. Tell people about Christ!

This question is in reference to something Jesus said in Mark 13:32. He said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." So, Jesus says that even He doesn't know when He will come back, but if Jesus is God then why doesn't He know? Well, when Jesus said that, He had no idea when He would come back. Even though Jesus was fully God, as it says in John 1:14 (And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth), when He became a man, he chose to put off a lot of the divine attributes, or "God powers." He did rarely use some of His "God powers", but only as the Father directed Him. Omniscience is the divine attribute of God that allows Him to know all things. Jesus used this omniscience on several occasions, but He restricted it to only those things that God wanted Him to know. The date and time of His return was not one of them. After Jesus was resurrected, He resumed His full divine knowledge. The answer to the question is that Jesus didn't know the date or the time of His return when He was a man on this earth because He willingly forfeited His divine attributes to take the form of a man. Now that Jesus has been resurrected, He is back to being omniscient and knows all things, including when the end will be.

A lot of people mistake Satan to be the opposite of God. They think that Satan has pretty much all the power God has, but he uses them for evil and God uses them for good. This is incorrect. God can read your mind. The Bible often refers to the mind as the heart. Psalm 44:21 says, Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. 1Chronicles 28:9 says, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. So God, being God, knows our thoughts. Satan is a fallen angel, and angels do not have the power to read minds. Angels don't know our thoughts, nor can they weight our hearts. But when Satan fell, he brought 1/3 of the angels in heaven with him. So Satan and his fallen angels, or demons, can't read your thoughts, but they can study you to find out your weaknesses, and try to attack them to cause you to fall. (1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour) Thankfully, Satan is under God's restriction and can only act with God's permission. (Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.) And God will not allow Satan to tempt you with more than you can handle. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape. The answer to the question is that Satan can't read your mind, but God tells us to be alert, because Satan is always seeking to devour us.

The Devil is a fallen Angel who was cast out of heaven for sinning. The Scriptures show us that angles do not know everything. Matthew 24:36 - But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. The Devil, being an angel, is a lot smarter than us and has had thousands of years of experience (having existed from before the world was created). He most likely is very good at guessing the future, but he still does not know what is going to happen.

Yes, God created the devil. He was originally one of God's angels. Isiah 14:12-15 says "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: ?I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. The Devil (Lucifer) was in heaven with God until he decided that he wanted to be like God. And now he is the evil one who tempts or weakens the nations.

The place we really go, if we are unsaved, has many names. Hell, Sheol, Hades, Lake of Fire, and the underworld are just a few. The English word hell comes from Germanic word "hel" which means "to cover." These nicknames represent a very real place. The bible says in Revelation 20:10, "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." Also, in Revelation 20:15 it says, "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." So we see that the lake of fire, or hell, is a place of torment day and night forever and anyone who is not written in the Book of Life will be cast there. Hell is a very real place and has many names it goes by. Making sure your name is in the Book of Life is key if you don't want to spend eternity there.

Proverbs 16:18 says that pride goes before destruction. In other words, pride leads to destruction. The answer to this question is pride. Pride is what can make someone who is so good, go so bad. What happens is that people keep saying that we are so good that we start to believe our own press. That's what happened to the devil. The account of how Satan fell is in Isaiah 14 starting in verse 12. Verses 13-15 say, For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. We see, in this portion of Scripture, that it was the pride of Satan that made him want to be as great as God, but it was that pride that caused him to be brought down to the lowest depths of the pit. Pride is a dangerous thing. Satan is still beautiful. He comes to us, and tempts us with sin, in a way that looks good to us. Beware of pride in your life. It tends to be a sin that is often overlooked, but it is indeed a dangerous sin.

The best way to recognize a phony or a counterfeit is to study and know the original or the authentic as well as possible. The people who have to be able to identify counterfeit money do not study phony or false money, they study the real thing so that they can quickly recognize when something is different. You have to know and understand the real thing. Say that someone called you claiming to be your Mom, and it really didn't sound like your Mom, but you weren't sure. You would probably start asking that person questions that only your Mom would know. You know your Mom so well that the first time that person said something your Mom wouldn't say, you'd know right away! God tells us to do that with spirits. 1 John 4:1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So we know that there are fakes out there and we have to be careful. Desire to know the Word of God. By knowing the Word, you better understand the author, who is God. By understanding God, you will know what He would or wouldn't say and what He would or wouldn't do. Let this be your prayer, 1 Kings 3:9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart ... that I may discern between good and evil.... Study the Bible so that you will know well the authentic and be able to identify the phony. The answer to this question is: the best way to be able to tell the difference between an angel and a demon, is to know the word of God well, and know that anything that contradicts the word of God, is not of God, and is surely of the devil. (See also: Hebrews 4:12, Psalms 119:47, Isaiah 34:16, Titus 1:9)

"Devil" is simply one of the names used in the Bible to identify Satan. Actually it is used 33 times in the New King James Version, but it only occurs in the New Testament. The name literally means "accuser." Revelation 12:10 tells us that he loves to accuse the brethren (Christians). Accusing is something that the devil loves to do - he wants to accuse of of wrongdoing and cause us to doubt that we'll ever make it to heaven. Don't let him do what his name says he loves to do!

So many people walk around unsure of where they will end up when they die. That can be a very sad, and stressful existence, unsure of your eternal destiny. Well, the bible teaches us that we don't have to be unsure about whether we will be in heaven or hell when we die. The answer to this question is actually depends on what you have done with Jesus. Have you given your life to Jesus Christ? The bible says that there is only one way to heaven, and that is through Jesus Christ who has paid the price for the sins of the world on the cross. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me John14:6. Because of our sin, and we have all sinned, we deserve to go to hell (Romans 6:23), but God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlating life.(John 3:16) So if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and the work of the cross for our salvation, and we repent of our sins and live for Him, then we can have full assurance that we will be in heaven when we die. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life , and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:13. That's the encouraging part, however knowing this we understand that anyone who hasn't put their faith in Jesus Christ will be in hell when they die, no matter how "good" of a person they seem to be. That is why it is so important that we share the gospel with everyone that we can. The heart of God is that no one would perish, and that should be our heart as well! If you have given your life to Christ then you know for a fact that you will be in heaven when you die, for this is what the bible teaches us, but also remember the destination of those who haven't and share the gospel! It's the great commission!

Well the first thing that I must ask you is what do you mean by ghosts? If by ghosts you mean dead people floating around and causing problems then no, in Luke 16:19 Jesus tells a parable about death and it is very clear that people either go to a place of suffering or a place of peace depending upon their standing with God, which means they won't be hanging out here. But what people call ghosts are not dead people but spiritual forces such as angels and demons which the Bible often talks about. In that case it is possible for there to be what you could call "haunted houses" because spiritual forces are at work there (Ephesians 6). And there is also the possibility that the show is just making things up to make a profit. Even if that is the case there are spiritual forces at work in this world, but we have no reason to fear because as the bible tells us “Greater is He that is in me, than he who is in the world”. (1 John 4:4b)

The devil, or Satan, was never a man. Actually, as hard as it may be to believe, Satan was an angel, and a beautiful one at that. We learn in Ezekiel 28:12-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15 that Satan was an angel and was cast down because he rebelled against God. Basically, like I said, Satan was a beautiful angel. The thing was, he was too beautiful. Ezekiel 28:17 says, Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. Well, Satan started believing his own press. He thought he was so beautiful and so great that he could be better than God, and began to try to do just that. Isaiah 14:14 tells us that Satan said, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high". Unfortunately it says in the very next verse, Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol (hell), to the lowest depths of the pit. We see this come to pass in Revelation 20:10 where it reads, The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. The answer to the question is that the devil was never a man, he was an angel that was cast down from heaven for rebelling against God, and trying to surpass his glory.

Well, in order to get the correct answer to this question there is a very important thing that we need to understand, and that is the fact that Lucifer (or Satan) was not always the horrible menace we know him as today. In fact in Ezekiel chapter 28 God is speaking through the prophet as he says of Satan "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." It's important to understand that God created Lucifer (or "light bearer") as a perfect being with a will of his own. So as God created Lucifer, Lucifer is the one that created "Satan" within himself when he sinned, rising up in pride and desiring in his heart to overtake the Most High God. The scriptures declare that Satan had said in his own heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" & "I will be like the Most High" - Isaiah 14. Now that we have that basis to build on we need to now look at the fact that God is truly omniscient (which means "all knowing"). 1 John 3:20 says that God knows ALL things, so in light of that, we must trust that God knew Satan would fall. I think it is a valid point to be made that if God would have not created Lucifer because of future knowledge that he would one day sin, He would have never created you or me because of the same type of future knowledge. So, God created Lucifer for the same purpose that He created all angels and mankind? to worship, glorify, and love Him. The fact that Lucifer fell does not change the reason that God created him. It only changes his obedience to that reason and purpose. God is glorified in either circumstance, for He is perfect love and perfect justice. We must believe by faith that God in His infinite wisdom had counted the cost, and that when Satan fell, God was not surprised, nor did He wish He had done anything differently.

God has given us, as well as the angels apparently, the free will to worship and love him or not. True love is a choice, and true love is what God wants. Satan made the decision to set himself against God and a third of the angels followed him, and he fell from heaven (Luke 10:18). Why did God allow this self-will? So that the love he gets from the angels and ourselves is true.

Jesus' finished work on the cross paid for our sins - past, present, and future. The good thing is, the Bible guarantees that you can't lose your salvation - you either have it or you don't (Philippians 1:6). Some people think salvation is like your wallet or the TV remote - you always have to worry about losing it. A true relationship with Christ makes an eternal difference. Romans 8:38-39 says that NOTHING can separate us from God's love - NOTHING at all would ever cause God to stop loving us (even if He came back while we were sinning). The question is whether or not you have a true relationship with God. If you've surrendered your life to Christ and are living for Him, He's already forgiven you for your sins - every one of them that you have done or will ever do. Do your best, serve God with your whole heart, when you mess up, confess it, but don't ever worry about whether or not you'll go to hell if you have a true relationship with Christ.

God is a God of love and his desire is for us to love him back. (Deuteronomy 5:10, 6:5,7:9) And true love has to be of our own choosing. If God did not give us free will we would not restrain from sin because we want to please God but because we have to. An example of this is if your parents asked you to help them clean the house and you help them because you have no choice in the matter. However what if a friend asked you to help them clean their room you would do it simply because they were your friend and love them. The same way God does not want us to follow Him because we have to, but instead, because we want to. And a second reason is that our sin shows us that there is no way that we can get into heaven on our own ( Romans 3:23). And when we realize that we can not get to heaven on our own we must then place our trust in Jesus Christ to get into heaven (Jeremiah 17:5-8). So even though God does not approve of sin, He uses it to his own glory.

Matthew 7:21 tells us “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” What Jesus was saying here is that being saved is not simply a manner of saying some words or a prayer and then you get to go to heaven, but instead being saved is repentance - truly turning back to God. If you keep that in mind when you read about every knee bowing, you can see that not all of those knees are bowing out of love and respect but out of sheer terror of the creator of the universe. A good verse to see an example of that type of submission to God is James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

Matthew 5: 22 says if we call our brother a fool we are in danger of hell. Fool is a big word to God - we just have used it up too much. It's just like calling some one stupid. The fool here in Scripture is actually cursing your brother. If you read verse 21 through 26, Jesus is focusing on murder in the heart. We need to forgive those who have hurt us and not curse them; even those who have not hurt us - Jesus is telling us not to curse our brother. So if we call someone a fool and are just kidding, that is not a sin. What we should do is think about that word before using it - it's a big word to God. If you have murder in your heart, it's the same as actually doing it. Check out these verse: Proverbs 1:7 and Proverbs 12:15.

In Revelation 13, we are introduced to the Anti-Christ. In Revelation, he is refered to as "the beast." It says that " The dragon gave him (the beast) his power, his throne, and great authority." (Revelation 13:2b) The dragon is refering to the Devil, so it's clear that the power comes from Satan. With regards to if the Anti-Christ knows that he is the Anti-Christ, we cannot know for certain. He may become aware of the fact once Satan gives him his power, throne and great authority. Scripture outside of Revelation include 2 Thessalonians 2:4 which says "He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God." This seems to indicate that he is a human, with Satan acting as the force behind him.
Also, there is some speculation as to whether Satan will possess him. In Revelation 17:8 it says, "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." This is refering to when the Anti-Christ seems to resurrect from the dead. Some believe at this point that he will be possessed by either Satan or a mighty demon, though we do not know for certain.

Well, in order to get the correct answer to this question there is a very important thing that we need to understand, and that is the fact that Lucifer (or Satan) was not always the horrible menace we know him as today. In fact in Ezekiel chapter 28 God is speaking through the prophet as he says of Satan "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." It's important to understand that God created Lucifer (or "light bearer") as a perfect being with a will of his own. So as God created Lucifer, Lucifer is the one that created "Satan" within himself when he sinned, rising up in pride and desiring in his heart to overtake the Most High God. The scriptures declare that Satan had said in his own heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" & "I will be like the Most High" - Isaiah 14. Now that we have that basis to build on we need to now look at the fact that God is truly omniscient (which means "all knowing"). 1 John 3:20 says that God knows ALL things, so in light of that, we must trust that God knew Lucifer would fall and become satan. I think it is a valid point to be made that if God would have not created Lucifer because of future knowledge that he would one day sin, He would have never created you or me because of the same type of future knowledge. So, God created Lucifer for the same purpose that He created all angels and mankind? to worship, glorify, and love Him. The fact that Lucifer fell does not change the reason that God created him. It only changes his obedience to that reason and purpose. God is glorified in either circumstance, for He is perfect love and perfect justice. We must believe by faith that God in His infinite wisdom had counted the cost, and that when Satan fell, God was not surprised or caught off guard, nor did He wish He had done anything differently.

The wages of sin is death. That's what Romans 6:23 says. Now that doesn't always mean physical death, but it does always mean spiritual death in hell. 1 John 3:15 says, Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 4:20 says that if you say you love God, but you hate your brother you are a liar. So hate is equal to murder which is a sin deserving of death. However, sin can be forgiven in Christ. 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Don't be confused about sin. All sin, from murder to white lies, are deserving of eternal separation from God in hell, but Jesus died on the cross so that ALL of our sins could be forgiven. Though Jesus paid the price for our sins, that doesn't give us the right to continue on living in sin. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep his commandments. It just means that if and when we mess up and sin, once we have confessed it and repented, we are forgiven because of the finished work of the cross. The question is, whether or not your faith is in Jesus Christ, because it's only through Him that we can get to heaven. The answer to the question is, the price for all sin, including hatred, is death, but Jesus paid the cost so that we could have the hope of eternity in heaven when we die. When we feel tempted to hate someone, let us follow the example of Jesus who loved and prayed for those who hated and persecuted Him.

-James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.- According to this verse it does not matter which sin you commit - you are still a sinner. Whether it is lying, swearing, or even rejecting Jesus, they are all sins and make us not right before God. If we have ever committed even one sin, we are a sinner and destined to hell. However, in Ephesians, we are told that we are saved by grace. -Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,- So, if we trust in Jesus to save us from our sin, we are forgiven by God and can therefore enter into heaven. -John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."- Further, the only way to heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ. No matter how many good things we do, or how many people we help, or how many times we pray, go to church, or ready our Bibles, none of that will get us into heaven. Only by believing in what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross, accepting Him as Savior, and surrendering your life to Him will get you into heaven.

We don't really know where the exact location of hell is. It is often described as being "down". But down from where? Heaven? Earth? Somewhere else? We don't really know. When you think about it, though, it does not really matter where it is, what matters is are you going there or not? Hell is described as a lake of fire. So do you really want to spend eternity being burned alive? Make sure that you don't go there. And the only way to do that is by putting your faith in Jesus Christ.

Satan, also known as the Devil, once had a place in heaven with God, but he and those under him decided to fight against God and were kicked out of heaven. We have an account of this in Revelation 12:7-9 ----- "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" ---- And so the Devil is now on the earth waging war against God's children, the Christians, until the day that God will deal with him once and for all. We already know what will happen to him. Revelation 20:10 ----- "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." ---- So the answer to your questions is that Satan will always be a sinner and he will be tormented forever for his wrong. And because God already knows that Satan will not change his ways it does not matter what God would have done if Satan had changed his ways.

God is Almighty. He not only created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, but He also has dominion over them. In other words, God controls all the elements of nature. He makes it rain and snow, and also makes the sun shine. God told Job about how He controls all these things in Job 28:22-30. He can do whatever He wants to do, for whatever reason seems pleasing to Him. Sometimes He sees fit to use His natural elements as a sign of His power or presence (1 Samuel 12:17-18). He may decide to use them as a weapon of warfare or a shield of protection for His people (1Samuel 7:10). God is sovereign and He will do what He sees fit with His power. Can anyone ask for this and God grant their wish? If it's His will. 1 John 5:14 says, Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. If we ask for anything that is in accordance with God's will, with the right intentions and for God's glory, with much faith, we will receive. Matthew 19:26 says, But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Anything is possible with God, but we have to be living for Him and doing the things that please Him (1 John 3:22). The examples that we see in the Bible of men asking for thunder and rain are always situations where God didn't do it because the men asked Him to, God wanted to do something, so He put it on the men's hearts to ask for it. We can't just ask for things to see how cool God is and expect Him to do it - that's normally not how He works. The answer: As stated in 1 John 5:14 and 1 John 3:22, if we are living for God and doing the things that please Him, God will grant any request that we ask according to His will. Ask yourself if what you are praying for is according to your will, or according to God's will.

Life sometimes gets rocky. The bible refers to these times as tribulations. I looked up the word tribulation in the bible dictionary and found that there are 2 definitions to the word tribulation. In the Old Testament, the word used means cramped or narrow, distress. It describes a claustrophobic type feeling. In the New Testament the word used means affliction, trouble, anguish, or burden. We've all felt kind of troubled, or burdened, maybe even afflicted. It tends to make us feel cramped, or trapped. Jesus told us we would experience this in John 16:33, where he said: These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. By reading the bible you can see that pretty much everybody went through hard times. Joseph was sold by his brothers and enslaved in Egypt. Jonah did some time in a whale. David had King Saul throwing spears at him all the time. Paul was constantly being beaten up and thrown in jail. Even Jesus was falsely accused, and crucified. One thing these guys all had in common, is that in their Rocky times, they cried out to the Lord in prayer. Now, I would love to focus on each individual and their prayer life, but for times sake, I'm going to focus on the prayer of one of these guys tonight. Psalm chapter 6 is the prayer of David, as he was going through some rough times. David's prayer was honest. He expressed his helplessness in verses 1-4. He could not help himself, he needed God's help and God's mercy and he was completely honest in telling God that. He expressed his hopelessness in verses 5-7. He told God exactly what he was going through, and what he was feeling. Finally, in verses 8-10 he expressed his confidence. He told God that he had Faith that He had heard his prayer. He also said that the reason for his distress, his enemies, better watch out because God was going to answer his prayer. This was David's prayer in a rocky time, but the point is, it's just an honest prayer said with confidence and faith in God. The answer to this question is: During rocky times, it doesn't matter what you pray, just pour out your heart to God, with confidence that God has heard your prayers, and will bring you out of whatever you're going through!

First off know that you are not alone. The disciples asked the same question and we have Jesus' response recorded in Luke 11. Now there is so much to what Jesus said there that my fingers would fall of trying to type it all out, but let me give you a brief outline. There are thee major areas that Jesus instructed the disciples to pray about. Praise - honoring and giving the glory to God, Requests – asking of God what you need, and Thanks – giving thanks to God for what he has done. In addition to the Lord's prayer, Matthew 6 also has some more advice from Jesus about prayer which I would encourage you to read. But there is one more aspect of learning how to pray that is often left out, and that is praying with others. You see, the disciples did not just hear Jesus teach about praying, they saw and heard Him pray. If you read the Gospels, a common theme is Jesus praying. He did not just tell them about prayer, He demonstrated it. That is one of the best ways to teach someone, and that is how I learned a lot about how to pray. What I would encourage you to do is join a prayer group. Get together with other people who have a desire to pray and spend time in prayer. That changed my prayer life and it can do the same for you. As a final note, the absolute hardest thing about prayer is discipline, making the time to pray, and focusing your attention on God while praying. It is one of the hardest things you will ever do, but also one of the best things you can do.

There are a lot of different definitions for the word prayer, as it is used in the bible. A few definitions of prayer are, to call upon the name of the Lord, to entreat, or to seek the favor of, to bow in worship, to draw near, to meet, to cry out, to appear before the Lord, and to give thanks. A lot of different definitions of prayer, and a lot of different reasons to pray. The most important reason to pray is because God tells us to in His word. Luke 21:36 says, Watch therefore and pray always. Also, Philippians 4:6 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. We are called to pray, even though we know that God knows everything. In John 16:30 the disciples told Jesus that they were sure that He knew all things. Psalm 139:1-4 says, O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. God knows our hearts, but He wants to make sure that we know our hearts. He wants to hear us confess our sins. He wants to hear us ask for the things that we need. And even though He knows what we will say, He hears and answers us. Check out this cool verse in Isaiah 65:24. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. Isn't it cool to know that God begins to answer our prayers before we even pray them? The answer to the question is, Yes, God listens to our prayers, even though He always knows what we are going to say. Prayer is a commandment of the Lord in the bible, so we ought to obey the Lord by praying without ceasing.

evaluate your situation with this person and base it on the word of God. In 1st Corinthians 13 love is described as: "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

God will always be faithful to fulfill what he wants for your life. When you pray make sure you have a open heart to hear either answer(yes or no) and which ever it may be always remember that the love of Jesus will far surpass any love on this earth. The love that Jesus gives is unconditional and never ending. Devote your self to loving Jesus and and you will find that God will reveal his will for your life.

God is listening and hears your prayers by faith. In Hebrews 11, it speaks of many who had faith. In verse one it give a definition of faith - "now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Verse 3 says that "by faith we understand that God formed the world." Sometimes we feel like our words go up into the air and just float there; but they don't - they go straight to God. Read all of Hebrews 11 a couple of times and then ask God to help you understand that He is here. Also He has put you here for a good reason - Jeremiah 1 verse 5 says that he knew you before you were even born. He has set you apart to glorify him. What talent do you have? Use that talent to glorify Him and you will have no regrets. God Bless You.....

According to Google, there are 31,173 verses in the Bible. Depending on what translation that is speaking of, some people may come up with slightly different numbers. Depending on the translation, it's probably around 31,173! That's a lot of verses!

Prayer is wonderful-it is our way to communicate directly with the one living, sovereign God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. But in order to fully see and focus on God we must spend time in His Word as well as in prayer. One cannot go without the other-we must read the Bible and pray equally, because just reading the Word without seeing it is pointless. We must partake of the bread of the Word of God. We are told that man cannot live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:3, Matt. 4:4). Praying and reading and meditating on God's word is generally known as a quiet time or devotional, and in order to see, hear, and understand God you need to have one every day-time set apart to focus on Him, read His word, and talk to Him. That's a fundamental part of your growth in your walk with Jesus, and the more you walk in Him, the clearer His words become. James 4:8 says, 'Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.' Another thing to keep in mind when spending time with God is to spend time listening. We have a tendency to do all the talking. So take time each day to just be quiet in front of the Lord. Meditate on His Word. Listening comes in all forms-be observant. Spend time actually listening in church-you'll find yourself learning a lot. God speaks to us in all kinds of ways. It's not a matter of whether He's talking-it's a question of are you listening. Don't pray five minutes before you go to school and expect to hear God's voice. You need to invest the energy to draw close. That means lots of time. But it won't be wasted. God has promised us He will draw near to us if we draw near to Him, and His promises never go void.

Prayer is talking to God, and so when you pray you should praise God for who He is and what He has done. You should repent of your sin, you should Him for what he has given you, and ask Him for help in difficult situations. Do not be afraid to chat with Him. God wants to be your friend, so talk to Him - tell Him about your day, talk about your dreams, your goals, your troubles and school. Prayer does not have to be a certain time or place, in fact the Bible tells us to 'pray without ceasing.' You may ask how can we do that? This means you should always be aware of His presence and glorify Him with your actions.

A good way to help you understand the bible is saying a prayer before you start reading. Ask God to help you understand what is being said and ask Him to teach you. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. In John 14:26 Jesus says, "'But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.'" It is hard to understand the bible on our own power. Allow God to help you! Another good way to understand the bible is to read a commentary. Commentaries give further insight to what you read in the bible. Some great commentaries are "The Be" series by Warren Wiersbe, which covers every book of the bible. Another good resource is "How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It" by Skip Heitzig. Once you start understanding the bible, it will be a lot easier to tell people about God and His love for us! Happy studying!

Well I know it is not easy to hear when you are going through a difficult time but James 1:2 tells us “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,” and it tells us to do so because God uses difficult times to make us stronger in our walk. A good example of that is Job, he lost everything: his health, his kids, and all of his possessions, but in the end he said, "Before, I had heard about God, but now I have seen Him. So no, just because God is not answering your prayer the way you want does not mean He is ignoring you. He could be telling you no because He has a better plan for dealing with the situation. But no matter what happens take the advice of James and rejoice because it is an opportunity to know God better.

God absolutely hears your prayers!! Isn't that amazing?! There are many places in the bible that assures us God can hear when we pray, here are a few... 1 John 5:14 says, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." Proverbs 15:29 says, "The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous." Psalm 6:9 says, "The Lord has heard my supplication;The Lord will receive my prayer." Not only does God hear our prayers, but He answers them too. It's not always "yes." Sometimes it's "no" or "wait." Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8, "'Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.'" It's important to pray for God's will, because this verse does not imply that you will get a million dollars if you ask for it. When we pray for God's will, then He will hear us. Also, the leaders in Velocity are there to support you. Don't be afraid to talk to them... they love you! So the answer is yes, God will hear you when you pray to Him. Praying for His will is key, He knows what's best for our lives!

No, God is always listening to you, He always hears your prayers, and he always answers them. Now the fact of the matter is that He may not answer it the way you expected Him to answer it. You see God is above and beyond all of us, and our thoughts, and knowledge, so alot of times God does stuff that seems really irrational, or illogical, but He is perfect, and He knows what he is doing. Isaiah 55:8-9, " For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." So God has a will and a plan for all of our lives, us being his children. And His will is above and beyond anything that we could ever will for ouselves. So sometimes when you pray and ask God for something, even if it is a really good thing like that your parents would not get divorced, or your brother would stop doing drugs, or whatever it is, God may not answer it in the way that you ask, or He might eventually, but the time is not right, in order for Him to fulfill His greater plan. Like I said God has a purpose for everything, He even uses really terrable things and turns them into good. Rom 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." I want to show you an example of a prayer, that God answered with a No if you will. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gesthemene on the night before he was to be crucified, He asked God to take the cup of His death away from Him. He aksed God that if there was anoother way to save mankind from their sins that God would do, so that Jesus wouldnt have to suffer and die such a terrable death. But God bascially denied Him his request, but I want you to notice ssomething that Jesus said, Luke 22:41 "And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."" He syas Not MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE! I think that should be all of our attitudes when we pray, God I am asking you to do something but I understand that you hjave a greater plan than I can possibly understand, so your will be done in this situation rather than my imperfect desires. God do what you will! I think that is a perfect picture of trusting fully in our heavenly Father. I encourage you to never stop praying and asking God to do miraculous things, because He can do as He wills, but remeber that God has a bigger plan than you can understand, and ask Him to do whatever He sees best. His will be done not ours!!!!! I want to leave you with a passage a scripture that I would encourage you memorize, and hold close to your heart. Because I think it is so important to never forget to make our requests known to God, because He is so faithful to answer them. So look these up and memorize them. James 1:5-8 Philippians 4:6-7 James 5:16 God Bless, and Pray Hard for God is faithful!!!!!!!

First, you need to realize that the Bible is God's word, and therefore is never wrong, 2 Tim 3:16. But we must also study the Scripture to find out what it means. Sometimes a Bible verse will tell us something that seems wrong, but when we look at the verses before and after it (context) we can then understand what it really means. So no, it is not wrong to question the Scripture, as long as you realize it is the final authority. If it is a question of what the Scripture means, we can study and find out. If it is a question about the truth of Scripture, we can study it, and in doing so, we will find much more evidence supporting the truth of Scripture.

God is omnipresent, which means He is everywhere all the time. He hears us all the time, knows our thoughts, and sees what we are doing. God also knows all our needs, so He knows what we need before we even ask Him! In Matthew 6:8 Jesus says, "'Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.'" Like a loving father, God wants us to ask Him for things. So just because He already knows what we need does not mean we should stay quiet. Luke 11:10 Jesus says, "'For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.'" He likes when we talk to Him and express our needs. John 14:13-14 says, "'And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.'" Jesus says that when we ask for things in His name, He will do it. Keep in mind, the things we ask should be in accordance with His will. Jesus said He will do it that the Father may be glorified. Sometimes a request we have may get a "no" answer if it's not in God's will. If you want to know more about the will God has for us, read His word! So the answer is God does hear our prayers because He knows what we need before we even ask. When we ask in Jesus's name, He will do it so that the Father may be glorified.

In Mark chapter 1 verse 35, it says; Very early in the morning , while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. First of all, remember Jesus was old enough to leave his house and pray, whereas you are probably not; so do not leave your house to pray early in the morning. The whole point here is that Jesus wanted a quiet place. So try praying early in the morning, in your room. If you have trouble getting up, set the alarm clock, and try it out. Remember, God likes faithful prayer, try 15 minutes every day. Don't try to pray for hours, just try to be consistent. God likes everyday prayer not just 1 hour in one week. Ask God to give you a private place and He will.

Last time I checked Jesus IS God, (who came to earth in human form). So really, when you pray to Jesus, you ARE praying to God. Check this out. Before Jesus, (came to earth and died for our sins at the cross), there were all kinds of prayers going up to God. Look at David; he was a man of prayer, just read the Psalms. And like father like son, Solomon was a man of prayer. 1Kings 8:54 - And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, that he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. 1Kings 9:3 - And the LORD said to him: "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. So even before Jesus was born, there was mucho prayero going down. In fact the Bible even talks about prayerlessness being considered sin. 2Chronicles 15:12-13 - Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. Now obviously you're not going to be put to death if you forget to pray tomorrow, but it shows how serious prayer should be in our lives as believers. Now to sum it all up in a smooth fashion, until Jesus came and freely gave up His spirit to the Father, we as humans had no way to have true communion with God (on a free will basis). But now that the price for ALL SIN has been paid, no matter how many times you or I mess up, we can come directly to Jesus and God with a sincere heart and pray with confidence. So while God is most definitely a Holy God, He loves us and wants to hear our hearts. But without Jesus, prayer would be meaningless. So always remember that when we pray we should always thank God for sending Jesus Christ to make a bridge between The Most Holy God and us! Check out some of these verses to further your own personal study. Peace, and remember, "Life is a spiritual battle. Take it one knee at a time". - Nathan Wise Ephesians 2:18, Ephesians 6:18, Isaiah 55:6, Matthew 7:7, Philippians 4:6-7

Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it will be opened to you." If you truly seek forgiveness, out of a pure heart (Matthew 5:8), God will answer you. Matthew 21:22 says, "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will recieve." When you are praying on auto-pilot, you are not really seeking God. Mean what you say to God, and He will answer you. When you keep doing the wrong thing repeatedly, look at Romans 6:7, "For he who has died has been freed from sin...14:For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slave to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" So what is this passage telling us? It's saying we are not condemned for our sins because Jesus took the punishment for all our sins when He died on the cross. We are saved by grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9). That means we get to start over afresh. So when you truly ask for forgiveness for sin, you are forgiven every time. But that does not mean you can take God's grace for granted and keep purposefully sinning. That would mean you are a slave to sin, when you are supposed to be worshipping the God whose grace saved and keeps saving you. So if you keep sinning, ask God truly from your heart for help to stop, but know that His strength is sufficient for you (2 Corinthians 12:9 "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'") when you fall.

Matthew chapter 6 verse 5 says and when you pray do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.(verse 6) But when you pray go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done will reward you . So when you do pray, God always likes it when it's quiet because it is just you and Him. However, as we are all walking with God daily, we must communicate with Him throughout the day. It would not be wrong to pray out loud for someone who needs prayer, we just have to make sure we are not doing it for any kind of attention like the hypocrites do.

God spoke through man to show us how He can work though us. 2 Timothy 3:16,17 says," All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." This teaches us that God's word is accurate. Even though it was penned by man, it was inspired by God. If you look all throughout the bible, especially in the Old Testament, God rarely spoke to people "flat out". The way God normally chooses to speak to man is through people, and sometimes through angels in the form of people. Read any prophet book, like Jeremiah or Isaiah, and you will get a good understanding of how God speaks through people. God usually chooses to use people to get His message across, as He did with the bible. If we are willing, God can use us to be His messengers! Isn't that exciting?

To them, the names were not weird. Obviously, in Bible times, it was a completely different culture in a different time and a different language. Have you ever heard the names of someone from a different country? Often they have seemingly weird names because they use a different language and have a different culture. Actually if you think about it, our names would be weird to them - they would probably laugh at some guy named Kevin! Also, in Bible times, names meant a lot more than they do today. Today, people name their kids with names because they like how they sound. In Bible times, names had meanings behind them. For instance, when the Ark of the Covenant was stolen from Israel in 1 Samuel 4, Phineas' wife was in labor, about to have a son. When she heard the news, she went into labor and named her son "Ichabod," which means "the glory has departed from Israel." So, although their names may seem a little weird, there was a reason for them and names meant a lot more back then.

By a "regular Bible", you likely mean something like a New King James Version (NKJV) or something similar. Originally, the Bible was written in Hebrew (the Old Testament)and Greek (the New Testament); and not many of us Americans can read that. So there have been people who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek so that it is in English and we can read it. The problem is that whenever you translate something, you can not translate 100% of the full meaning. So there have been many different translations of the Bible. Now the reason that a New Living Translation (NLT) and a NKJV are so different is that they are two different styles of translations. The NKJV is what is called a word for word translation. They did their best to take one word of Hebrew and Greek and turn that into one English word. Sometimes it becomes 2 Hebrew or Greek word to one English or visa versa. The NLT is a totally different style of translation - it is what is called a "thought for thought" translation. This means they took one idea, sentence, or paragraph in Hebrew and Greek and translated the whole chunk into English. They are both the Bible and both have their strengths and weaknesses.

It is major argument now that the Bible belittles women and their role in society. It doesn't. The feminist movement in America was fueled by the belief that women had the right to roles that men held, believing that holding the same positions would offer immediate equality. It is important to keep in mind when faced with this argument that being equal does not mean being the same. Gender roles in the Bible are not harsh, but rather helpful when put to practical use. Check out the characteristics to the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:10-31. She's not laying around watching 'General Hospital'. Her job is very important. Her main concern is the household. Ever since the American feminist movement, "the housewife" has been looked down upon as weak and unimportant. This is not the case. The home is very important. The world is hard to live in sometimes, and the home is supposed to be a place of peace and harmony. Some one has to run the household, or there will be no refuge from the world. Proverbs 31:27 'She watches over the ways of her houshold and does not eat the bread of idleness.' This doesn't mean that women cannot work or go outside the house. The woman described in the section is productive, industrious, and active.

Also take a look at the women throughout the Bible. They weren't dependent weaklings. Just look at Rebekah, Isaac's wife in Genesis 24. She watered camels not once, but until they were full. That's a lot of water, and a lot of muscle. She wasn't weak. Abigal is another example of a strong-minded woman. Her husband Nabal was a jerk to David, but she took action to do the right thing and repay David and his troops for their kindness to her shepherds. Also check out Ruth. She determined a course of action, and worked hard to help her mother-in-law and serve her God. Esther was brave enough to confront the most powerful king at the time at the risk of her life in order to save her people. Rahab turned from her sin and risked her life to help the servants of Joshua. There are not many weak women in the Bible. But there are plenty of smart, strong women who fear the Lord, and they serve as examples to all of us aspiring to be women of the Lord and handmaidens of Jesus Christ.

First, we must ask a question that is more important. Why would a Christian, a true believer in our Savior want to kill themselves?

Depression? When lonely or depressed turn to God for comfort.

Psalm 42 is a great example of a downtrodden soul who has hope in God to see them through.

Guilt? Jesus washes all sin and we become a new creation, free from old sins.

Romans 3: 22-26

Lack of Hope? We have hope! Psalm 42, Psalm 16, Titus 2:11-13, 1 Peter 3: 14

Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside the still waters
He restores my soul
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His names sake

Yea though I walk through the valley of the
Shadow of death, I will fear no evil
For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy
You anoint my head with oil,
My cup runs over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life
And I will live in the house of the Lord forever

Worry? God always provides, and knows our needs. If he provides for the
insignificant birds, he will do even more so for us. Matthew 6:25-34

Lack of control over our lives? God is always in control.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Isaiah 46: 8-11

To answer this question more specifically, we need to know if the person has been saved by their faith in Jesus.

*If not, then their salvation and ability to go to heaven is unlikely. Some call themselves Christians, but lack a true relationship. A good example here is Judas Iscariot. He followed Jesus, heard all that he had to say, claimed to be Christian, but he was never truly saved. In fact, he betrayed Jesus. He would not have gone to heaven.


*If yes, then it is likely that they will go to heaven. Using the apostle Peter as an example. Peter denied Jesus (John 18:22-27) and often had wavering faith. In Matthew 14:28-32 we see that Jesus called Peter out to walk on water, and he sank. Jesus said to him “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And yet Jesus forgave him, because Peter loved him.

Also, in 2 Chronicles 33: 11-13 the Bible tells about King Manasseh, an evil king who worshipped other gods and sacrificed his won children. But, when he cried out to God, He heard him and brought him out of bondage and back into the kingdom.

So we see, that for those who have faith, there is no sin that is unforgiveable. Once you are truly saved, you can’t be unsaved (John 6:37-40). Jesus tells us that those whom God has given to him, they cannot be taken out of his hands, and they will have everlasting life.

Yes I believe that mentally challenged people can believe in God and be saved by God. I believe this for a many reasons, but there is one main reason that sums them all up. The answer is found in Romans 10:9-13. This scripture talks about the fact that salvation is for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. Romans 10:9-13 says, "For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11As the Scriptures tell us, "be Anyone who believes in him will not disappointed." 12Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord, who generously gives his riches to all who ask for them. 13For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This verse promises that ANYONE who calls upon the name of the Lord WILL BE SAVED. The verse doesn't say some people, a few special people, people with college degrees, NO it says ANYONE! So yes I truly believe that anyone, no matter what mental, or physical state that believes that Jesus died for them, and they accept Him into their hearts, will be saved from their sins, and given access into Heaven. You and your uncle are in our prayers!! God Bless You!

Yes!!! Anyone, no matter what mental or physical state, believe that Jesus died for them and accepts Him into their hearts will be save and be given access into heaven. Romans 10:13 says, for, EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!

evaluate your situation with this person and base it on the word of God. In 1st Corinthians 13 love is described as: "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

God will always be faithful to fulfill what he wants for your life. When you pray make sure you have a open heart to hear either answer(yes or no) and which ever it may be always remember that the love of Jesus will far surpass any love on this earth. The love that Jesus gives is unconditional and never ending. Devote your self to loving Jesus and and you will find that God will reveal his will for your life.

Jesus is the Son of God. In John 14:6 Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That is an outrageous statement for just another wise teacher. Some try to wave him off as just being a good teacher, but if you delve into what he actually said, you'll see that Jesus was either 1) insane or 2) God. It's pretty simple. In John 12:49, Jesus makes another bold statement by saying, "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." He didn't claim to be a nice guy or a good teacher, he claimed to be speaking the words of God, and He was. This is what seperates Him from every other religious leader in history; Jesus is the only one who is God.

Your best witness will be how you live. Ephesians 4 and 5 talk a lot about how you should live-specifically Ephesians 4:17, 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.' and 5:8, 'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.' Everyone is watching you the second you claim Christ for your own and the way you act will speak louder for the Lord than anything you can tell your friend. If you've told him about Jesus and His love and death, you've planted the seed. You've done your job: it's not your place to convert your friend, all you can do is talk to him, which you've done, and then live as a child of the light. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest

1 Corinthians 15:33 in the New Living Translation says that bad company corrupts good character. We can't be influenced by the things that the world, or our friends who don't know Christ are doing. As a matter of fact it's not always bad to have nonbelievers as friends, however if they are doing drugs then it is definitely bad and you need to stay away from them. You can love them, and pray for them, and try to encourage them to stop, but as long as they are doing those things you need to stay away. Proverbs 27:17 says as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. It is important that we surround ourselves with people who are going to encourage us to live the way God wants us to and help us to grow in our relationship with God. People who are going to sharpen us! Remember Romans 12:2 which says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God! Instead of being influenced by your friends, I encourage you to be transformed by the word of God! We will pray for you.

Sounds like you're in a tough spot. You want to do the right thing but you don't want to take it further than it needs to go. You are definitely doing the most important thing by praying. And don't stop! More battles are won on our knees in prayer than by any other means. If you think this person is serious about suicide then I would definitely tell someone you trust, like your parents and/or a school counselor. But some practical things you can do for this person are to help them focus on life instead of suicide. John 10:10 says, "The thief (the devil) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I (JESUS) have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." God doesn't just want us to live, but to live ABUNDANTLY. If I were a Greek surfer I would say, "Live MOST EXCELLENTLY, DUDE!" (That's the Greek equivalent of abundantly, without the "dude".) Remind this person about the love that God demonstrated by sending Jesus to take away our sins so we could have ABUNDANT LIFE. Basically when we focus on something else besides our own troubles, (especially Jesus) our troubles seem to melt away. 1Peter 5:7 - "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." Give this person mad, crazy encouragement that God loves them sooooooo much and wants them to have a "Most Excellent Life." Some other verses to read and share are: Romans 8:28, Romans 8:31, Romans 8:35, and Romans 8:37-39. And know this, I'm praying for you and this person! Oh, and by the way, live that "Most Excellent" life in front of them. A picture is worth a thousand words!

The first part of Proverbs 17:17 says, "A friend loves at all times." You should lovingly and gently confront your friend about her actions. If she asks for forgiveness, forgive her, for we all make mistakes. But if she continues to act this way, you must question if she is truly your friend.

How devestating it is to lose a loved one. The good news is that God understands our pain and can get us through. Crying and mourning for your loved one is a normal thing. Jesus says in Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted." We have an awesome Lord who is willing to comfort us in our tribulations. God says in Jeremiah 31:13b, "For I will turn their mourning to joy, Will comfort them, And make them rejoice rather than sorrow." Not only does God comfort us, but He makes us rejoice! When our lives are right on with God (spending time in prayer, reading our bible, making the right choices) He gives us joy. We might not understand why God has done certain things in our lives. We may wonder why He allowed a death in the family. Remember this: God has a plan for your life. Maybe He has put this trial in your life so that you can comfort someone else who is experiencing the same thing. This verse is one to keep in mind when you are in despair: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

The first thing and most important is that you have Jesus in your heart and are fully seeking after Him. Just because you are feeling convicted in this area tells me that you are going in the correct direction. Praise God! First thing to be sure of is that you are not bound for hell. Hell is reserved for those who have no love for God and don't have Him as there savior. If you are saved and have a personal relationship with Him, He will keep you until the day you die. Now this doesn't take away our responsibility to be doing the things that please God. Check this out. We are told in Rom 12:2 "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (The Message) So here it is, plain as day. What a wonderful verse. So at school you should be different. Different from all the things around you that don't please God. As the verse says, we need to fix our attention on God. That's the key. So in closing, fix your eyes on God daily and be in prayer. Ask God to give you the strength to be different in a messy world. Check out Philippians 2:15 for further study. Peace.

This is a tough question to answer. It isn't plainly stated in the bible why exactly God chooses to take from us the people we love. What we do know is that God is perfect, and He doesn't make mistakes. Let me remind you of Romans 8:28 that says, "and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." So we can trust that no matter what happens God has good things planned, whether we can see it or not. The writer of Psalm 119 understood that sometimes bad things are good for us. He said in Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word." Then again in verse 71 he says, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes." Sometimes when we are afflicted with painful circumstances God teaches us lessons we can only learn through pain and sorrow. God allows everything in our lives, good and seemingly bad, because he loves us!

First of all, there is nowhere in Bible that says that God needs anyone. However, because He loves us, He wants to use us. Psalm 103:1-5 says Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life form destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the angel's. So now you may be thinking, "If He loves us so much, then why does He let bad thing happen? James 1:2-4 says "brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Sometimes He allows tough things to come our way to perfect us and remind us to look to Him. In conclusion, God doesn't necessarily need us, because He is capable of taking care of things on His own. However, He created us for His glory and wants to use us, we just have to let Him use us. Here are some more cool verses: 2 Corinthians 7-10, 1 Peter 5:10, Acts 17:22-30

To answer this, we must first look at what purity is. To be pure means that you are not mixed. For example, pure milk is 100% milk - it does not have any water or chocolate or dirt or anything else it - it is pure milk. Now for a Christian, purity is a similar concept. Purity means that we live a pure life out of pure motives. This means that you don't commit sin. So really, we are all impure. But often when we talk about losing our purity it is about some things that many people consider "major" sins. The reason you lose your purity is because you can't get it back. Just as you can't get the chocolate back out of the milk once it has been put it. An example would be if you have sex before you are married, you have committed a sexual sin and some people will say that you have lost your purity because you can never undo what you have done. We as Christians should not strive only to live a pure life sexually but in all areas of our lives. Only then can we truly be pure. The only way we can do this is by the blood of Christ. ---- Romans 4:7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered."

Salvation is between God and the individual person. 1 Samuel 16:7 says 'For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' John 10:28-29 says, 'And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.' Ephesians 2:8-9 says, 'For by grace you hae been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.' We cannot earn salvation through anything we do, and thus we cannot lose it no matter what we do. If your brother had accepted Christ as his Savior, he is with Him now, no matter how he died.

Sometimes parents can be so mean and not even know it or they just want every thing done right, because they know of all the mistakes they have made in thier childhood that they do not want you to make the same mistakes. Be patient and pray. The fifth commandment says to honor your father and mother. It does not say honor your father or mother only if they are right. Even if they are wrong sometimes (they're not perfect either), you must honor them (Exodus 20:12). As far as not wanting to worship God, remember that God did not do any thing wrong to you. As a matter of fact, He has done all good things. Have faith that your mom will not be so mean, but remember that faith without works is dead. James 2:26 - For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. So do your part in being an obedient child (doing your homework, chores, etc.), then watch God do a work in your mom. It may be a good idea also to sit down with your mom and let her know how you feel. Remember not to tell (that's not honoring your mother), and just maybe she will understand. Remember, she does not know everything like God does. God Bless you - you will be prayed for!

Your first reaction in any situation - good or bad - should be prayer. Talk to God about everything that's going on. Pray for your family, your parents, yourself, and any brothers and sisters that you may have. Family problems are tricky, because, being the child, it's completely out of your hands. The best thing you can do is pray. Remember, if your life or your parents' lives are not centered on God, there's no way you can expect relationships to work - a relationship with God is the foundation of all relationships. Make sure you do your part to make it easy on them - Colossians 3:20 says to obey your parents in ALL things. The last thing your parents need when there is already stress between them is stress between you and them. Also, take some time to read Colossians 3:12-15 and see if you measure up to how you should be acting. In conclusion, you may feel like you can't do much, but, that's right - you can't do ANYTHING. It has to be God that does the work, that's why prayer is so important. Remember, with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27). (see also: ?Service Archive' >> "God: The Foundation Relationship")

There a many different reasons that God would allow problems in our lives. One would be to get our attention. Sometimes when we aren't focused on God like we should be, God will get our attention and bring our focus back on Him by allowing a problem to come up in our lives. He knows that the first thing we do when problems arise is start calling out to Him. Another reason He may allow a problem to arise in our lives is test us. To test our faith, such as He did to Job. I'm sure many of you are familiar with that story. What happened was that the devil accused Job of only being faithful to God because he was blessed, and said that if God allowed problems into his life, he wouldn't be so faithful, as a matter of fact he said that Job would curse God. So God allowed some serious problems in Job's life to test his faith. The other reason that God might allow problems into our lives is to teach us a lesson. God is constantly working in our lives. He is perfecting us, but some lessons and virtues are only learned by going through problems. As a matter of fact the bible talks about this in the book of James. James 1:2-4 says: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So in these verses we see that trials or problems test our faith, and the testing of our faith produces patience which works towards making us perfect. For this reason, James tells us to count it joy when we go through problems, cause we should know that it's just God perfecting us. I know, it's easier said than done. Unfortunately, it doesn't say anywhere in the bible that when we go through problems if we turn to God they will get better right away. If that was the case we wouldn't learn patience. The bible does say, however, in Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. So God promises that, if we love God, even the problems and the bad things in our lives are working together for our good, even if we don't see it. Turning to God is the right thing to do when problems arise, but don't expect things to get better overnight. Just pray that God grant you the patience to get through the problem, and that you would learn the lesson He may be trying to teach you through these problems. The answer to this question is: If you're going through problems and you've turned to God, then you've turned in the right direction. Now keep your eyes on God and allow Him to teach and perfect you through these problems.

It looks like you are doing the right thing ? you're trying to talk to your friend. But there may be few things missing: Talk to God about the situation, and ask God to open their hearts to your peace offering. Did you offend this person by something you did wrong? If so, ask God for forgiveness and go to that person and ask them for forgiveness. You can talk to them directly or perhaps a note of apology may work. Remember the bible tells us to live in peace with all people if possible?this includes your friend. If your friend will not receive your offer of peace - love them anyway and look for opportunities to bless them in the Lord.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,"[a] says the Lord. 20 Therefore, " If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21

The human population did not start out speaking different languages. God made different languages when people came together to prove their power was greater than God's. Check out Genesis 11:1-9. Verses 6-7 are key; "And the Lord said, "Indeed, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." When people could understand each other, they went against God instead of glorifying Him, so now we have different languages so we can't go against Him like that again. The next time the whole world comes together will be a sign of the endtimes.

It is very sad when people die. Death is a result of the fall of man when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. You can read the complete story in Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they were punished. Part of man's punishment was death. The New Living Translation says in Genesis 3:19, "All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return." If your life is in Christ, you don't have to worry about the death of this world. Our hope is in Jesus. Jesus says in John 14:2-3, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." To make sure everyone we know will go to heaven after they die we need to tell them about our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Hate exists usually as a result of pride, bitterness, unforgiveness, or stereotypical judgment. Basically, hate exists because of sin. One thing we have to realize is that everything that is wrong in our lives, and in this world is a direct result of sin. Racism is usually a result of a people or people group considering themselves of greater value and worth than another people group. The root of this is pride and judgment, mixed with hate. All of which are sin. Jesus addresses hate in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5. He says in verses 21-22; "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." In light of what Jesus says in this sermon, those who hate without cause are guilty of murder. Hate is not a small thing by any means. This is very serious and needs to be dealt with in the heart of a believer. Basically, the answer to this question is that the reason people hate is because of the sin in their heart that needs to be dealt with. Remember to pray for those who deal with these issues and deal with them in love!

I don't really believe that God does bad things to good people. I believe that he may allow bad things to happen to good people for a good reason. It may sound wierd, but God makes us better by allowing us to go through "the fire", or what we see as bad things. Just as silver and gold are made clean and beautiful, by being put into the fire, so God refines us, (makes us beautiful), by allowing us to go through the fire. (Isaiah 48:10, Jeremiah 9:7, Zechariah 13:9)
Job and Paul the apostle are good examples of good people that had some bad things happen to them. You can read about them in the book of Job, and the book of Acts. I also believe that God gets glory when we get through bad things and we praise Him for how He helped us and brought us through.Then He can use those bad things that we went through in the lives of others who may be going through the same thing, as encouragment and hope for them! Many good things can come out of bad situations. We just need to focus on God in good times and bad.

Galatians 5:19 -21 says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. --People are sinful! Because of our sinful lives, we do things that hurt both ourselves and others. It is wrong for someone to hit and abuse his wife; he should be instead loving and protecting her. This is considered wrong even by the world's standards, but we, as Christians, are called to an even higher calling than that of the world. --Galatians 5:22-24 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. --Pray for your mom and do your best to protect her. If there's danger, don't be scared to call the Police - watch out for yourself. Also, please come talk to a Velocity leader so we can help you through this!

The word damn means "to sentence to hell." Therefore, if you damn someone, you are telling them to go to hell. This is a far cry from the love God calls us to have toward people. Now you also must look at how it is used. People today use it to tell others to "go to hell," or they use it with some other equally unpleasant implied meaning. The bottom line is, none of us has the right to condemn anyone to hell. After all, hell is what we all deserve because of our sin

Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen. God rewards you when you have faith in Him. Faith is knowing that God will supply for all of your needs. When you sit down in a chair, you trust or have faith that it will withhold your weight and not collapse to the ground. Faith is trusting God that he will supply for all of your needs. Faith is also obedience to God's Word. When you obey God's Word, He will reward you for trusting in him. When you trust that God will not let you down, and you follow the path God has for you faithfully, He will bless you with something amazing! When God tests your fai th and you don't pass the test, you miss out on the great blessings God has for you. However, God loves you and is merciful enough to give you another chance.

If you are truly saved, and have faith in Jesus as your Savior, your salvation cannot be taken from you. Therefore, you do still go to heaven.

John 6: 37-40 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.


However…. Romans 12:9-21 Tells us how to behave as Christians. Verses 17-21 specifically talk about repaying good for evil, and letting the Lord deal with the situation. Leave room for His wrath.

Matthew 6: 14,15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive yours…..

Matthew 7:1-5 and Luke 6:37,38 Judge not, that you be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

* In God’s eyes, sin is sin. Your sins are no better or worse than your friend/ enemy. Therefore it is not our place to withhold forgiveness from someone else when we are also sinners. We leave God to judge, have wrath, and have mercy. If he forgives us, not matter how great our sins, we are called to follow His example!

First, we must ask a question that is more important. Why would a Christian, a true believer in our Savior want to kill themselves?

Depression? When lonely or depressed turn to God for comfort.

Psalm 42 is a great example of a downtrodden soul who has hope in God to see them through.

Guilt? Jesus washes all sin and we become a new creation, free from old sins.

Romans 3: 22-26

Lack of Hope? We have hope! Psalm 42, Psalm 16, Titus 2:11-13, 1 Peter 3: 14

Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside the still waters
He restores my soul
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His names sake

Yea though I walk through the valley of the
Shadow of death, I will fear no evil
For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy
You anoint my head with oil,
My cup runs over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life
And I will live in the house of the Lord forever

Worry? God always provides, and knows our needs. If he provides for the
insignificant birds, he will do even more so for us. Matthew 6:25-34

Lack of control over our lives? God is always in control.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Isaiah 46: 8-11

To answer this question more specifically, we need to know if the person has been saved by their faith in Jesus.

*If not, then their salvation and ability to go to heaven is unlikely. Some call themselves Christians, but lack a true relationship. A good example here is Judas Iscariot. He followed Jesus, heard all that he had to say, claimed to be Christian, but he was never truly saved. In fact, he betrayed Jesus. He would not have gone to heaven.


*If yes, then it is likely that they will go to heaven. Using the apostle Peter as an example. Peter denied Jesus (John 18:22-27) and often had wavering faith. In Matthew 14:28-32 we see that Jesus called Peter out to walk on water, and he sank. Jesus said to him “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And yet Jesus forgave him, because Peter loved him.

Also, in 2 Chronicles 33: 11-13 the Bible tells about King Manasseh, an evil king who worshipped other gods and sacrificed his won children. But, when he cried out to God, He heard him and brought him out of bondage and back into the kingdom.

So we see, that for those who have faith, there is no sin that is unforgiveable. Once you are truly saved, you can’t be unsaved (John 6:37-40). Jesus tells us that those whom God has given to him, they cannot be taken out of his hands, and they will have everlasting life.

There is a day, called Good Friday, which people reserve as the day Jesus died on the cross. Usually this day is remembered with prayer and meditating on the painful death of crucifiction that Jesus suffered for us who are saved. Back in the biblical times, the Friday when Jesus died was a day of mourning from His disciples. They thought all was lost when Christ died. Not much celebrating comes on Good Friday because it represents the death of our Savior. However, the celebrating comes three days later, on Easter, in which Jesus rose from the dead conquering death forever!

We read throughout the book of Acts that Paul was in jail alot. As a matter of fact, he would probably have a hard time getting a job in today's society because, on the application, he would have to admit to alot of jail time. Paul liked jail as much as I would like it. Not at all. What Paul did was focus on God's goodness. Instead of thinking about his bad situation, he was focusing on the good things God was accomplishing through his bad situation (Philippians 1:12). Paul was able to look at the big picture. The thing about Paul was that he had Patience, as you stated. Galations 5:22-23 tells about the 9 "fruits of the spirit". These are love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This means that if you are saved, then Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, will manifest these things in your life. Paul had the fruits of the Spirit in his life. That's why, though most of the epistles he wrote from jail, he was still able to speak of Rejoicing (Philippians 1:18). We can relate to Paul, as we may not always like our circumstances, but if we are focused on the "big picture", as Paul was, we can sing and rejoice and praise God, even in the lowest of times. Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. Knowing this, we can trust that even in our "darkest hour", God is working something good. Where will you place your focus? On the circumstance you're in, or the God in control of that circumstance?

The bible does not talk about animals going to heaven, therefore, we can conclude that they do not. God created animals because 1) He wanted to and 2) for us to eat them. Genesis 1:24-25 says, "24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." So here we see that God created all the living creatures according to their different kinds. The bible doesn't say why God created them, He just did and He saw that it was good. God Himself tells Noah in Genesis 9:3-4, "3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." So "every moving thing," or animals, are to be food for us. We are told not to eat the blood of the animal which means we are suppose to make sure it's cooked first. However, we know that is an Old Testament law, and so if you like your steak rare, that's cool too. So the answer is, no, animals do not go to heaven since we don't find any evidence of it in the bible. God created animals because He wanted to and saw that it was good and also as food for humans.

The flood wasn't just a really heavy rain-it was a world-wide catastrophe. Genesis 7:11 says that all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Water was shooting out of the ground and pouring from the sky. There was no way out-there was nowhere to go, save the ark. Thousands of people died in Hurricane Katrina, and that was a little patter compared to this storm. Also keep in mind when reading this passage that God is soveriegn. He said He was going to wipe out everything except for Noah and his family. And He did. God's plans don't fail, and His promises never go unfulfilled.

Great question! This question has two views: The first view (Dichotomy) believes there is no difference between the soul and spirit they are one and the same. The second view (Trichotomy) believes the human is made up of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. The spirit is the part of the person that relates to God or God-consciousness. The spirit is also the component in a person that is dead until he receives Christ as his savior. The soul is personality and emotional part of man, or self-consciousness. The body of course is the body, world-consciousness, meaning we thirst, hunger, and other bodily drives. This is my view, I know believers who have a different view and we love one another. "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Note: This commentary has an excellent illustration and explanation: In Genesis 2:7, we are told that when God created man he "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life", or, rather, as the original, "the breath of lives." Man as originally constituted, is body, soul and spirit - a plurality in unity. By the body man has world-consciousness; by the soul, self-consciousness; by the spirit, God-consciousness. Of course, the mind, or contradiction there is that which is termed the "spirit," by which the man is able to commune with God and to posses the vivid consciousness of Him. Now when man sinned death struck into this holy-holies in man's being. Man died spiritually, in the sense that this part of his spiritual being ceased to function. God said to Adam: "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"; and man did die. He died spiritually before ever his body died. This is the condition of men and women today, apart from Christ; and it is to this fact that we refer when we speak of them as being "unregenerate." But why should sin thus bring this spiritual death? Because sin, inasmuch as it was and ever is, at root, self-will in preference and opposition to God's will, necessarily separates man spiritually from God who is the life-giving environment of man's "spirit." You know what would happen if I placed drinking-glass over a lighted candle. The flame would survive for a few seconds, then flicker, and quickly go out. Why? Because the oxygen inside the glass is used up, and the flame being now separated from its life-giving environment dies out. The tallow and the wick remain, along with the capacity to become alight again; and the candle is till a candle; but the flame, with its bright light, is gone, so that there is, as it were, both death and darkness. It is even so with our fallen human nature. The physical and the mental remain, along with out distinctively human "capacity" for God; but that highest part of our being, which is distinguishingly called the "spirit," had "died-out," because separated form its life-giving environment; and the result is spiritual death and darkness. Reference: J. Sidlow Baxter; Enter Ye In

Have your parents ever told you that when you meet the one that your gonna spend the rest of your life with, that you just know. Well, I wish I could say that this statement is correct, and it very well may be, but since I am not married it is hard for me to say whether or not it is. But I do have a girlfriend that I have been dating now for over a year, and I can tell you that I pray God has chosen her to be in my life forever. Now you are probably saying ok whatever, what about me! Well there was a reason for me telling you that stuff and that was this: I believe that God has a special person for you, but you just have to be willing to wait for Him to bring he/she into your life. My girlfriend and I were friends for a year and a half before we were allowed, by our parents, to date. It was the hardest time of my life, but God got me through it with this Scripture, Matt. 6:33 - "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and ALL these things shall be added unto you." I believe that God wants us to seek Him first in our lives, and yes relationships are fun, and they seem like the thing that everyone is doing. But I challenge you to do this: Follow hard after the Lord, give Him your whole heart, and life, and every thought, and wait for the Lord to bring someone into your life. I believe that if you do this, He will be faithful to bring someone into your life that you will know is the perfect one. And remember God isn't stupid, He knows you best, and what you need best, as well as the person that He has picked out for you, so be patient and wait, knowing that God will bless you, and in due season He will allow you to have a relationship with someone that He has chosen for you. If you wait and let God give you a relationship instead of making one on your own, it is gonna be so much better. Also pray and ask God for patience, and ask Him to prepare you and the one whom He has chosen for you, for being in a relationship. Pray that God would guide your steps and your thoughts and, allow you to remain pure and holy. Check out this scripture and remember to put God first in everything, and everything else in your life including your future spouse will fall into place where it should be. Psm 37:3-6 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. ◙ 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 and 1 Corinthians 15:52 that when the rapture happens it will be like a thief that comes in the middle of the night, totally unexpected and quickly. 1 Corinthians say the Rapture will happen "In the Twinkling of an eye" meaning that it will be quick, instant and all at once. It will not be an event that continues to occur but happens in an instance.

I am assuming you are referring to a passage such as Galatians 3:26 which says -- For you are all SONS of God through faith in Christ Jesus. -- Now I see what you mean by this sounding strange. I looked up the Greek word used. In this case, that words means "child or offspring". In English, it does not really matter because when the gender is unknown, you can use the masculine form. To put it simply, in verses such as this, "sons" does not mean guys only but means the same thing as children.

Ezekiel 33:1-9 describes this in greater detail. What is being said in James3:1 is that if a teacher does not tell someone what God commanded him to, or if he teaches false teachings he will be accountable for the other man's sins that result from this. However, if he does say what God tell him to say and does teach correctly he will no longer be accountable for the other mans sins

Women worshipped Diana by becoming priestesses and worshipping her through temple prostitution.

evaluate your situation with this person and base it on the word of God. In 1st Corinthians 13 love is described as: "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

God will always be faithful to fulfill what he wants for your life. When you pray make sure you have a open heart to hear either answer(yes or no) and which ever it may be always remember that the love of Jesus will far surpass any love on this earth. The love that Jesus gives is unconditional and never ending. Devote your self to loving Jesus and and you will find that God will reveal his will for your life.

The world is anti God. The world wants the 10 commandments, a representation of God, out of the courts. They want prayer out of schools, and the word "God" taken out of the pledge of allegiance. The world hates God, but it loves sin. Eminem's last album, "The Eminem Show", sold over 19 million copies worldwide. The world applauds sin. None of this is news to God. Jesus said in John 7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil, and in John 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. But we, being a new creation in Christ, are not of this world. We are in this world, but not of it. Jesus in John 17:16 says They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. God calls us to be distinct, different, set apart, and recognizable. In Daniel Chapter 3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden image and said that everyone had to worship this image everytime a certain song played or they would be cast into a firey furnace. Well Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that this would be offensive to God, so they refused to worship the image. Even though everyone else was worshipping this image, God didn't want His people to be involved in the sinful ways of the world. God wants us to take a stand for Him, and refuse to do things that are displeasing to Him, even though everyone else may be doing them. We can apply this today. If everyone else is going to a dance where the music being played is offensive to God, He may be calling you to take a stand, and be different for His name sake. The answer to this question is: You go to a dance, mostly to listen to music, and if the music being played is offensive to you, and offensive to God, I don't see a reason to go.

Romans 2:11-16 tells us that our conscience tells us what is right and what is wrong. It is Gods way of telling every man his sins. So, your conscience is one of the ways that God communicates to you. When you hear your conscience - God's speaking to you through it.

Wondering who your spouse will be is a very common thought single people have. Wouldn't it be great if God just told us, "See that girl/guy right there? He/she is the one!" Unfortunately, God doesn't usually speak to us out loud like that. He does keep us in His thoughts and has a plan for our lives. Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. The best thing to do is to pray that God would give you discernment, or the ability to judge between the right and wrong choice, when it comes to "the one." If you ask God to reveal the person He has for you, chances are that He will! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So don't worry about who you will end up with, simply be in constant prayer about it. Live your life as Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Jesus is the Son of God. In John 14:6 Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That is an outrageous statement for just another wise teacher. Some try to wave him off as just being a good teacher, but if you delve into what he actually said, you'll see that Jesus was either 1) insane or 2) God. It's pretty simple. In John 12:49, Jesus makes another bold statement by saying, "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." He didn't claim to be a nice guy or a good teacher, he claimed to be speaking the words of God, and He was. This is what seperates Him from every other religious leader in history; Jesus is the only one who is God.

Your best witness will be how you live. Ephesians 4 and 5 talk a lot about how you should live-specifically Ephesians 4:17, 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.' and 5:8, 'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.' Everyone is watching you the second you claim Christ for your own and the way you act will speak louder for the Lord than anything you can tell your friend. If you've told him about Jesus and His love and death, you've planted the seed. You've done your job: it's not your place to convert your friend, all you can do is talk to him, which you've done, and then live as a child of the light. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest

Your best witness will be how you live. Ephesians 4 and 5 talk a lot about how you should live-specifically Ephesians 4:17, 'This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.' and 5:8, 'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.' Everyone is watching you the second you claim Christ for your own and the way you act will speak louder for the Lord than anything you can tell your friends. We are told to tell people about Jesus, but if they already know about Him, it's not your place to tell them about who He was and is. That doesn't mean cut God out of your conversations. Talk about God when relavent, but don't push the plan of salvation-if they know about it, it's now up to the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. Your job now is to live as a child of the light. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God." Does celebrating it glorify your Master? It doesn't give us any opportunity to bring honor and to glorify Him.

Well the first thing that I must ask you is what do you mean by ghosts? If by ghosts you mean dead people floating around and causing problems then no, in Luke 16:19 Jesus tells a parable about death and it is very clear that people either go to a place of suffering or a place of peace depending upon their standing with God, which means they won't be hanging out here. But what people call ghosts are not dead people but spiritual forces such as angels and demons which the Bible often talks about. In that case it is possible for there to be what you could call "haunted houses" because spiritual forces are at work there (Ephesians 6). And there is also the possibility that the show is just making things up to make a profit. Even if that is the case there are spiritual forces at work in this world, but we have no reason to fear because as the bible tells us “Greater is He that is in me, than he who is in the world”. (1 John 4:4b)

Frustration is something that is always going to be around while we are here on earth. Check out Romans 7 - Paul the apostle is way frustrated about the battle between the flesh (what our sinful nature wants) and the Spirit (what God wants). Verse 24 in that same chapter says, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Paul's frustration was righteous, or you could say godly. He wasn't frustrated that he couldn't get some new, hi-tech sandals; he was frustrated about the battle of the flesh vs. Spirit. Two points about frustration to think about: 1) what are you frustrated about? 2) Is your frustration about the nasty effects of sin, or just not getting what you want? I believe the best medicine for this challenge is found in Phil 4:6-7. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." I would pray about it. When frustration comes, immediately pray about the situation and give it to God. Remember the battle is NOT between us and others, it's between God and Satan. We need to pray. Some other verses that may also help are Mathew 6:25-33 and Ephesians 4:26. Press on Christian soldier!

Understandably confusing. Alot of times we are confused by God because we can't possibly fully understand the mind of God. What we do know, however, is that He's sovereign and just. I looked up the word sovereign in the dictionary and it said, Having supreme rank or power, and to be just, means to be fair and to judge each person individually, according to their sin. So the combination of being sovereign AND just gives God the power and authority to judge us fairly and according to our sin, in what ever way He sees fit. Now I believe that what God was saying in Deuteronomy 24:16, is that the death of our children is not the new "standard punishment" for sin, though as he judges individually, he may, in his sovereignty, see fit to do so. The point God was trying to make was that we are responsible for our own sins. There were a few VERY RARE cases, God saw fit to punish people through the death of their children such as Saul's Grandchildren (2 Samuel 21:5-9), as well as David and Bathsheeba's first son (2 Samuel 12:14). As a father, I want to punish my children, when necessary, in a way that I feel is going to be effective in discouraging further mistakes in that area. God, as our Heavenly Father, I believe has the same agenda, but he has an advantage. He is Omniscient, meaning He knows everything, so He knows EXACTLY what punishment we deserve as well as what will be effective in discouraging us from future failures. Obviously, in these rare occasions, God, in his sovereign wisdom, saw fit to punish in this way. So, the answer to this question is, though God, in his sovereign wisdom, may see fit to punish through the death of a child, it is very rare and not the "standard" punishment for sin. Again, we will never, in this life, fully comprehend the mind of God, but we can rest upon the fact that He is Holy, Sovereign, Just, as well as omniscient and perfect.

Let me first ask you why do you want to go to public school? Is it because all your friends do? Or perhaps because you think that you will get a better education there? I do not think that going to public school to be with or like your friends is a good reason because public schools are a very corrupt environment and have restrictions that sometimes make it very hard for you to be a professing Christian. If you think that you will get a better education, that could be the case, but you could also get a much worse education and so that is likely not a valid reason but I would have to know more about your specific situation to answer you any better. A third reason you may want to go to public school is perhaps you have heard that kids who do not go to public school often have trouble relating to people. Although this can be the case, I know many people who have gone to private school or home school and never gone to public school (myself included) and do not have such difficulties. My advice would be to pray about it and then discuss it with your parents and honor their decision even if you do not like it.

Of course you probably know Revelation has a lot of symbolism and imagery throughout the book. Because of that, it’s challenging to figure out what is literal and what is more symbolic. From its roots, Babylon was a wicked city. It was founded by Nimrod (a wicked descendant of Noah’s son, Ham) who was a very evil man (Genesis 10) that also founded Nineveh. Babylon was the site of the tower of Babel, so from its roots it was sinful. Throughout the Bible it is seen as wicked. It was eventually one of the places that God’s people were held captive (2 Chronicles 36). In Revelation, it’s debated whether or not Babylon will be rebuilt or if the Babylon that is being referred to is more symbolic than anything. Whether or not it’s symbolic, Babylon in Revelation certainly points to the Antichrist’s kingdom and administration (Revelation 14:8) which will fall when judged by God.

looked up the definition to the word covenant in the Wycliffe bible dictionary and this is what it read: A covenant is an agreement between 2 or more persons in which the following 4 factors are present: parties, conditions, results, and security. A covenant is a little more than a promise, it's a deal. This definition didn't say that it had to be made with a man. A deal is a deal no matter man or woman. In Genesis 9: 12-17 God made a covenant with "all flesh" (man and woman) that he would never flood the earth again. This shows us that a covenant is still a covenant even if it's a covenant made with a woman. Note: Remember the most important covenant, or deal, that God made with us is that if we believe that Jesus is the son of God, was crucified and rose again, and ask him into our hearts, then God promises us that we will spend eternity in heaven with Him. If you haven't recieved Jesus Christ into your heart, do so today!

This is a good question. We read in chapters 2 and 3 about how Eli didn't discipline his sons which was not pleasing to God. It is a father's duty to discipline his children if they are not living or acting right. We understand from 3:1 that Samuel served the Lord under Eli. First of all, most scholars believe that Samuel, at this time, was about 12 years old. So he was young, but not too young to know what was going on. I believe that Samuel did see the fact that Eli's sons were not living right, but it does say in 3:7 that Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. At age 12, not yet fully knowing the Lord, I'm sure Samuel knew that Hophni and Phinihas were not living right, but may not have known exactly what to do about it. Especially cause he had no revelation from God at this point. Think about how hard it would be to go up to your pastor, as a 12 year old kid, and give him advise on parenting. The important thing is that when God did speak to him, Samuel obeyed the Lord, and spoke up to Eli about what God said about the issue. It's important that when we talk to someone about an area of their life that is not measuring up to God's standards, that we share with them what GOD has to say about the issue, not what we have to say. How do we know what God says about things? God's word addresses everything, and is the final authority on everything. I encourage you to read your bible so that you'll know what God thinks, and let that influence the decisions you make about how you're living!

In 2nd Samuel 6:6-9, the Levite Priest Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark and died. The reason that God killed him for touching the Ark was that he disobeyed a direct commandment in Numbers 4:15 where God says, " ...but they [the Levites or priests] shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die." This commandment was given in the Old Testament and no longer applies to us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Galatians 4:4 says," But when the time had come God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons of God." and in Vs. 7 "therefore you are no longer a slave to the law, but a son of God, and as a son then an heir of God through Christ." So if we could find the Ark of the Covenant, we would no longer be under the Old Testament law of Numbers 4:15, so we would no longer be in fear of death like the priest Uzzah.

No one has ever seen God in His full glory - we never will until we get to heaven, but some people have seen a theophany - God appearing in human form.

Read Matt 5:43-48. It tells us to love our enemy, but why? The last verse tells us to love them so that we will be like our Father in heaven. Now read Romans 12:17-21 It tells us to show kindness to our enemies so that they will feel guilty. When you bring these passages together, we have a good understanding of the principle. We are to be witnesses to the work Christ has done in us by acting differently than the world. The world hurts those who hurt them, but we are to show kindness to those who hurt us, so that they may see the love of Christ in us. Now, as for loving the devil, read Psalms 97:10 and Amos 5:15 They tell us to hate evil. Now if the devil is both our enemy and evil what are we to do, love or hate him? The reason that God tells us to love our enemy is to show them the love of God, and it is referring to people, not spirits, so this does not apply to the devil. Remember, you are called to love the sinner, not the sin that that person commits. And even if that person does something mean to you, you are still called to love them.

Well, first of all, we dont know where the Ark of the Covenant is, but let's say we do. The story you may be referring to is in 2nd Samuel 6:6-9 where the Levite Priest Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark and died. The reason that God killed him for touching the Ark was he disobeyed a direct commandment in Numbers 4:15 where God says, " ...but they [the Levites or priests] shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die." This commandment was given in the Old Testament and no longer applies to us because of the death and resserection of Jesus. Galatians 4:4 says," But when the time had come God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might recieve adoption as sons of God." and in Vs. 7 "therefore you are no longer a slave to the law, but a son of God, and as a son then an heir of God through Christ." So if we could find the Arc of the Covenant, we would no longer be under the Old Testament law of Numbers 4:15, so we would no longer be in fear of death like the priest Uzzah.

Matthew 22:37 says, 'Jesus said to them, "You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."' As Christians, this should be our aim in all that we do, to love God. We must also put our faith into action. Ephesians 4:1 says, 'I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.' Ephesians 5:8 goes on to say, 'For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light.' This is our goal-to walk as children of the light. If anything is hindering us from walking in the light, we must throw it away, just like Jesus says in Matthew 5:30, 'If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.' Jesus was saying if something makes you sin, cast it away from yourself. This applies to everything, music included. If listening to some songs turns your heart away from loving the Lord God with your heart, soul, and mind, it's sin to listen to them. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 says, 'Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.' Be discerning to what you listen to-not by labeling music "Christian" or "non-Christian", but by asking yourself if what you are listening to is hindering your walk with Christ. If it is, turn it off.

To commit adultery means to have a relationship with someone outside of marriage. You may think, "Well, if someone is divorced, they are no longer married, so they can marry someone else.". Unfortunately, that's how too many people in this world think. Hence the reason our divorce rate in America is so high. People think that when they get tired of their spouse they can just trade them in for a new one. That's not the case. God's word, in Romans 7:2-3 says that the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband, but while her husband lives, she can't marry another man. Another circumstance that would free a person to marry again would be if someone divorces that person unbiblically (1 Corinthians 7:15). So God, who created marriage, says that marriage is a LIFE LONG commitment. Nothing but death can justifiably divide a marriage, however, it does happen so God clears up, in His word, when He will allow remarriage. In either case, a person coming to Christ after divorce is free to marry again, because they are a new creation in Christ, so they have a clean slate. (2 Corinthians 5:17). Remember, marriage is making a promise to God that you will be with this one person till one or both of you die. This is why it's so important that we pray long and hard about who we marry, because God is so faithful to keep his promises, we have to keep our promises too. Start praying about your future spouse now! So it is adultery to marry someone who has divorced someone unbiblically, while they claim to be saved.

Jesus tell us in Revelation 1:3 that we will be blessed if we read and keep the words of this Book (prophecy)so we need not fear. The terror that will go down in The Tribulation will be after we have gone to be with the Lord (1Thessalonians 4 and 1Corinthians 15:52)because we will be raptured. God says that those who believe in Him will not go through the events that take place in the Tribulation. We are told to comfort people with this truth, so that their not afraid but excited to be with the Lord. So be excited that Jesus died on the cross and saved us from all of this crazy scary stuff.

As Christians we are well aware of God's instruction not to murder. After all, it is one of the ten commandments given to us in scripture (Exodus 20:13). Believe it or not, though, the bible also illustrates for us some instances in which God viewed killing as justified. In the Old Testament, for example, there are instances in which God instructed His people (as a nation) to go to war with other nations (who were evil, pagan nations) and to completely eliminate them. Obviously, this would have to entail killing them. Knowing that God is perfect and holy, however, we know that He could not and would not ever instruct His people to do something that was wrong or sinful. Also, as another example, we read in the book of Ecclesiastes (3:3) that "there is a time to kill." In context we see that this, again, is talking about in times of war. (Read through verse 8). There are those unique situations, such as in war, where killing is not sinful, but it is justified. In defending those who are too weak and helpless to defend themselves, the taking of human life is sometimes necessary. Lethal force should only be used as an absolute last resort, but it must sometimes be done in order to defend and bring about peace. Killing someone in a just battle or war-like situation would not be the same as murdering someone just for the sake of murdering someone, or killing someone out of selfish, unrighteous anger (as Cain did his brother Abel). There is a huge difference. Ultimately, only God can judge each and every unique situation, as only He can weigh the motives of a man and see what is in his heart (Jer. 17:10). In times of war, however, there are times when one must stand up and fight for what is just and true, and that, sometimes, requires the taking of life.

In the beginning of Ephesians 6, For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (world). He is saying that we are not just fighting against a man, but the authorities, powers, rulers, and spiritual forces, which refer to evil demons, that we cannot see. This is called spiritual warfare. That is why the rest of Ephesians 6 instructs is to put on the full armor of God and to pray - that is how we fight a spiritual battle. This is not physical, for example, we can not punch out the devil with our hand, but we can with a prayer and by God's Word. These demons came from heaven, but they chose to be the devil's princes. 2 Peter 2:4 - ?God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment? Now what does heavenly world (realms) mean? "Realms" basically means "kingdom." So, on the spiritual realm (outside of time and space), there is a war going on which Paul refers to. Satan is fighting for our souls.

At first this verse can seem very confusing. Why would David, a man who serves the ONE true God, say that he has two Lords? The confusion comes from the translation. If you look closer you will see that the first time it says "LORD" (in all caps), and the second time it reads "Lord" which is actually very significant. The reason is that in Hebrew they are two different words. When the bible says LORD in all caps it means Jehovah, which is the proper name of God. Often times when the word Lord isn't in all caps it is referring to a ruler or master, such as a king. So when David wrote the LORD said to my Lord. what he meant to say is; "God said to my master."

God gives us really good guidelines for living in His word, the Bible. But to give you some important examples of what God says about living a Christian life...

Matthew 22:37 'Jesus said to them, "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."'

ask yourself- is my way of life (in this case emo or gothic) hindering my ability to follow this commandment? change whatever it is about your life-whether or not it has something to do with your style- that hinders you from following this commandment. also consider Ephesians 4:1-3, the words of Paul: 'I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all lowliness, and gentleness, with longsuffering [patience], bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' If you like emo music that isnt offensive to God or against the wishes of your parents, if you wear gothic clothing that is not immodest or against the wishes of your parents, cool-just live according to that verse, and according to the whole Bible. Make sure that God is your focus and motivation to live, not your style or desire to be "cool". God made us unique-He wants us to follow His rules for a holy life so that we can "live life to the full", but He gives us personal style and freedom to express ourselves- just MAKE SURE that you are always within His guidelines. This includes honoring your parents-if your parents don't want you listening to emo music or dressing gothically, don't.

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11 What this verse is saying is that we should do whatever we do with the ability that God gives us and for His glory. If a model is what we want to be, it should not be for selfish desires to be cool, or for people to think that we are special, or for self promotion. It should be with the intentions of serving God, being an example, and maybe having an opportunity to witness and impact people that only a model would be able to reach. I think it's important to pray and ask for God's direction in any decision, including your career paths and job opportunities. We want to allow God to lead us. He has plans for our lives that are better than the plans we have for ourselves, so we need to allow Him to guide our steps. Psalm 119:133 says Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me. Answer: It is ok to be a model if you're a Christian and that's where God leads you. Just remember to do all things for His glory, and make sure that you are only representing products that are not offensive to God. (see also: 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Peter 3:3-4)

Matthew 6:21 tells us that "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" - this can include your friends. If you start to value time with your friends more than time spent with God, and the things of God, then you should re-prioritize your life. Also Romans 12:2 instructs us not to conform to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are to be different, and although we do want to spend time with our non-Christian friends and be witnesses to them, we need to exercise caution; so that while with them we do not start acting like the rest of the world. We are called to be salt and light, and if we spend all of our time in the darkness how can we be a light? In summary, it is not wrong to hang out with non-Christians friends (Jesus hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes, and criminals), but I would make sure that you are spending more time with God and your Christian friends so that you do not get pulled down into acting like the world. Be an influence on them, don't be influenced by them!

Homosexuality is a sin. Regardless of what the world says, it is a sin. As a matter of fact, God destroyed all of Sodom and Gomorrah primarily because they practiced homosexuality. In Genesis chapter 19, you can read all about the homosexuality of Sodom that lead to their destruction. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: 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. The bible says that these people will not be in heaven. So should we vote for that to be OK? Read Romans 1:28-32: And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. We clearly see that God not only wants us to be pure and without sin, but that we should not approve of those who sin. Voting for gay marriage to be legal would be approving of that sin. The answer to this question is that we should have the same intolerance for sin that God has. Voting for gay marriage to be legal would be approving of sin, which the Bible says is wrong.

Well ask yourself this, are you doing it to the glory of God? If your answer is yes then no, it is not bad. Take a look at David in 2 Samuel 6:14. It tells us that he danced with all his might before the Lord. If to you moshing is praising God, then go for it, but just remember a few things, you are there to have a good time and not to hurt people. There are some people who will go into a mosh pit and go so crazy that they start kicking and punching and that is not glorifying to God because we are called to love our neighbors. So as long as you are doing it to the glory of God with people who want to do it, and no one INVOLVED is INTENTIONALLY getting hurt then go at it. Personally I enjoy a good mosh pit.

You may ask yourself "Is myspace glorifying to God?" Phillipains4:8
tells us to "think about whatever things are true, whatever things are
noble, whatever things are just and pure, and whatever things are of
good report." Not everything on myspace promotes things that are true,
noble, just, pure, and of good report. Myspace is not bad as long as
you don't look at things you're not supposed to and listen to music
you're not supposed to. Myspace is not bad if it doesn't take away from
your time with God. If myspace makes you stumble in your relationship
with God and if it becomes an idol in your life and logging on takes
away from your time with God, You may want to reconsider whether or not
you should be a part of the "myspace community." If your par ents s ay
no it's because they want to protect you from the world. They know that
it's not all pure. They know that myspace has a lot of junk on it that
you may have access to. Your parents also know that it can be
potentially dangerous. Not everybody on myspace is who they claim to
be. Your parents love you and want to protect you from any evil and
harm that is in the world. As Christians, we are called to honor our
parents and obey the rules they set before us (Ephesians 6:2).

In Revelation 13, we are introduced to the Anti-Christ. In Revelation, he is refered to as "the beast." It says that " The dragon gave him (the beast) his power, his throne, and great authority." (Revelation 13:2b) The dragon is refering to the Devil, so it's clear that the power comes from Satan. With regards to if the Anti-Christ knows that he is the Anti-Christ, we cannot know for certain. He may become aware of the fact once Satan gives him his power, throne and great authority. Scripture outside of Revelation include 2 Thessalonians 2:4 which says "He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God." This seems to indicate that he is a human, with Satan acting as the force behind him.
Also, there is some speculation as to whether Satan will possess him. In Revelation 17:8 it says, "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." This is refering to when the Anti-Christ seems to resurrect from the dead. Some believe at this point that he will be possessed by either Satan or a mighty demon, though we do not know for certain.

A cult is defined as, a religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or bogus, or WACK.! They claim to be orthodox Christians, and claim to believe what Christians believe but teach differently. Cults like to take Bible verses and twist them around and get a different meaning which is out of context. A few good examples of cults are The Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and the Word of Faith Movement. Cults generally attack the Trinity. We can back up our belief in the Trinity with verses like: John 17:5. "And now, O Father glorify Me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was." Combined with: Isaiah 42:8 "I am the Lord, that is my name; and my glory i will not to another, Nor my praise to carved images." Then you have verses like 1 JOHN 5:7 that defends the faith/ Trinity. "For there are three that bare witness in Heaven: the Father, the Word ( Son), and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one." 2 CORINTHIANS 11:4 - For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted- you may well put up with it." Cults will seem very innocent and loving at first making you think they believe what you believe. When in reality our beliefs as Christians, are entirely different, from that of the cults.

Yes the bible does not have all the events that happened. If it did it would be thousands of times larger because there is two many events to write them all down. Talking just about the life of Jesus the Bible says in John 21:25 -"But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."

Communion (the last supper) is the way we honor Jesus. Jesus and His disciples shared their last meal together before Jesus was crucified the next day. Luke 22: 19-20 says "and He took the bread gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is My body given for you do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way, after the supper He took the cup saying this is the new covenant in my blood which is poured for you." Catholics believe that taking communion is a step in your salvation. In other words, you will go to heaven because you take communion. Although Christians also take communion, it is purely a reminder of the flesh and blood Jesus shed to save you from your sins. For it says, do this in remembrance, not do this and you will be saved. In Ephesians 2:8 it says: "for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so no one can boast". There is no ritual nor sacrifice that you can make that will earn your way into heaven only accepting Jesus into your heart will you spend eternity in heaven. So, communion is a great thing; you just have to keep in mind that it is in remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus made and to acknowledge that you have accepted Him in to your life.

To answer this question, we first need to establish what "gothic" is. According to the Religious Tolerance website, goth cannot be defined. It is a term that only the follower can define. The website also states that the mentality of a gothic follower is "I want to be left alone but I want to be seen. I want to see the shock on other peoples' faces." You can read more about goth on their website at www.religioustolerance.org/goth.htm. The interesting thing I found is that goth followers claim to be of different faiths. There is not one goth religion. So that means someone who is "gothic" could very well be a Christian. However, many gothics claim their faith is atheism, agnosticism, new age, gnosticism, or other neopagan traditions. If that is the case, it might be hard to determine who the Christian goths are. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessolonians 5:22, "Abstain from every form of evil." This means if something is evil, whether it be in practice or appearance, then we should be far from it. The Bible also tells us in 1 Samuel 16:7b "...For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." So if there is a gothic person who claims to be a Christian, we should not judge them by their outward appearance (goths tend to dress in all black and wear white make-up), however, we should see fruit in their life. Jesus says in John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." The answer to the question is: it is possible for a Christian to be gothic. The term gothic can be translated in many ways. Those who say they are Christians and are gothic should stay way from anything that may be considered evil and there should also be evidence of Jesus in their hearts.

Well, I want to be careful that in answering this question you understand that none of this answer is meant as a personal attack on your Mother's comment or her intentions if Skip were to return. However, as a Christian, if my personal opinion on any matter does not fall in line with what God's word clearly states, I MUST accept my opinion as false and do all that is within my power to change my view in order to be in line with God's truth. I am assuming based on your question that she feels as though she has unresolved personal issues with Skip. According to God's word in Matthew chapter 18, we have very specific guidelines for how to deal with situations like these. Mat 18:15 "If another believer* sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. Mat 18:16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. Mat 18:17 If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. If the church decides you are right, but the other person won't accept it, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. It also MUST be understood that unless Skip has said or done something bad directly to your mother, she has absolutely no ground to stand on biblically. This means that if what has offended her came as word from an outside source (anyone other than Skip himself) it is hearsay and cannot be verified unless Skip is spoken to directly. I understand that it may be hard to contact Skip personally, but we are called to also have patience in all our dealings with people in love (described in 1 Corinthians 13). We as Christians must be very careful in situations like this because it is incredibly easy to fall into sin in these areas. The sin of gossip can take place when matters involving one person are discussed with others in a slanderous way (discussing information that is hearsay). This could easily happen if the issues your mother has with Skip haven't been dealt with in the way described by Jesus in Matthew 18. If Skip were to return and your mom decided to leave the church, whether that is a good thing or not would have to be answered by her as a Christian in accordance to the word of God. Romans 12:18 says that we are to do everything in our power to remain peaceable with all men. Whether leaving the church is good or not, really should a be a secondary question following the first of whether she has done all that is within her power in accordance with God's word to resolve whatever is causing the issue in the first place.

Today, the whole concept of anointing is strange, but to those who read the Bible at the time the New Testament was written would understand it as part of their culture. In the Old Testament, they would anoint people to make them king. This meant that they would pour oil on their head. They did this to set the person apart, and was a representation of God choosing them for His service. The pouring of oil on the head was an analogy for what the Holy Spirit does to Christians. No, the Holy Spirit does not pour spiritual oil on us! When the Holy Spirit anoints us, we are made holy and set apart and chosen as children of God.

Romans 8:32 says that God freely gave up his Son for us. 1 John 3:16 says He laid down his life for us. John 10:17-18 explains it perfectly. Jesus says in this passage-'Therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I have the power to take it again. This commandment I have recieved from my Father.' God the Father gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16) and Jesus laid down His life freely-no one took it away. Judas was guilty of sin. But because he followed his own desires, he was just an instrument in a bigger, ancient, divine plan. Jesus made the decision to endure torture and the cross. He could have said Enough at any time. For that reason, no one can be blamed for killing Christ, as though if they hadn't he would not have died. Judas and all the others associated with the death of Christ used their free will to make the decisions that led to the death of Christ, but God foresaw it all. Jesus made the decision to die for us all because he loves us that much.

The answer to both questions is yes, and I'll tell you why. In Matthew 1:18, the Bible says that Mary got pregnant while Mary and Joseph were engaged but before they came together. The phrase "came together," as used in this verse, means to come together intimately as a man and a woman do to conceive a child. Mary and Joseph had not come together in that manner, so she was still a virgin. This fact is reiterated in verse 25 of chapter 1, where it states that Joseph didn't "know" her until after Jesus was born. Again, the word "know" here refers to the type of intimate relationship a husband and a wife have. Secondly, yes, God placed, or conceived, the baby in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit. When Joseph found out about Mary's pregnancy, He was going to break up with her. He thought that because she was pregnant she must not be a virgin, but an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and, it says in verse 20, that the angel confirmed that the baby was conceived of the Holy Spirit. In other words, no man was responsible for the child in Mary's womb. God was responsible, because He divinely placed Him there. The answer to the question is: Jesus was the son of God because God conceived Him in His mother's womb. One of the things that made the birth of Jesus so miraculous was that Mary was a virgin. She had not known a man intimately, yet she was found with child.

Genesis 6:5 says,'Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' Also check out vs.8: 'But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.' God is omniscient and omnipotent-He knows everything and is everywhere. He saw the hearts of men-all men-and saw that all of them were evil. Our God is a just God-had someone in a seperate location from Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, He would have spared him too. But we are told that Noah was the only exception in the whole world.

John 14:6 - "Jesus said to him, ?I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." According to Jesus, He is the only way to be saved. In the Old Testament (before Christ) they did not know about Jesus and what He would do for us. However, they could still follow God. James 2:23 - "And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ?Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God." You see they could follow God by faith trusting in Him to save them even if they did not know the details. Plus, God had revealed His plan of salvation through the modern-day prophets.

Whether it's Christmas time or not, there are many things you can do to help the homeless. The first thing you want to do is pray. You can pray for the homeless people, for safety, warmth, that they would be able to find work and shelter, and that they would come to know Jesus. Also pray that God would show you were you can help. There are many opportunites listed under "Homeless Services" in the Yellow Pages. Remember to be safe and to make sure you have permission from you parents!

The upside down cross is a very interesting symbol. The upside down cross is used today as a symbol to mock Jesus' death upon the cross. People draw this and wear necklaces of this symbol, in order to show rebellion against the cross of Christ. It is a way that people try and make fun of Jesus. Kids at your school may think that it is a cool symbol to draw because, Jesus isn't very popular, and doesn't let people have fun in their sin. They think that by drawing this that they are cool, because they don't like Jesus: they do this for the same reason that they make fun of the other kids at school. It is interesting to note where the concept of an upside down cross came from! Now as you know the cross was the way that Jesus was killed, but many other people were killed in the same way. Now many years after Jesus' death, and resurrection His disciple Peter was in the city of Rome, and the Roman emperor wanted to kill him. So when Peter was caught, the Romans decided to crucify him. Peter was more than ready to die for his faith in Jesus, but he had one last request. Peter asked if he could be crucified upside down, because he did not think that he was worthy to die in the same position as Jesus did. It is kinda weird that people take a symbol, such as the position of peter dying, to make fun of Jesus. Maybe a few ways that you get the kid in your class to stop drawing those symbols are. 1. ask him if he knows what it is that he is drawing, and tell him what it really is, and how that symbol first came about, and that it was not originally a way to make fun of Jesus, but a way that Peter honored Jesus. 2. You could tell him that, the symbol he is drawing is offensive to you, and politely ask him if he could stop. Don't be mean about it, but instead show him Christ's love, and compassion through your words, because by the way you treat him, and talk to him, is a witness of Jesus. 3. pray for this kid, that Jesus would save him, and make him realize his sin. Have compassion on him, because he does not know God. Read of few passages, that I think will really help you love this kid even though he is making fun of Jesus, whom you love. Matthew 9:35-37, Matthew 5:43-48. I will be praying for you, and the kids at your school. I pray that God would give you the right words to say to the kids at your class. I pray that He gives you wisdom, a compassionate, and prayerful heart, and a desire to tell all of those around you about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I also pray that the kids at your school would be led to repentance by the kindness of Jesus, and that they would be saved, and come to the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the grace of our Lord keep you until the day of His coming. God Bless!

Being a vegetarian or a meat eating person is determined by your personal beliefs and diet. Yes, animals were put on this earth for us to eat and have dominion over. In Genesis 1:27-28 it says, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" God does not force us to eat meat, He is gracious and meriful and allows us to eat what we want. God did provide meat for the children of Israel because He knew they needed it as a part of their diet. In Exodus 16:12 the Lord says, "'I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, "At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God."'" Some people say that large amounts of red meat is unhealthy and white meats are better for you and others say a vegetarian diet is unhealthy because you don't get enough protien. Whatever the case, we want to take care of our bodies because it is the home of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" So the answer is God does not tells us to be or not to be vegetarians. He gives us the freedom to choose what we want to eat and He provides the things we eat. We want to make healthy choices and take care of our bodies because it is the home of the Holy Spirit.

In Micah 6:6-8, God calls us to be humbled before Him. This means that God wants our entire being to belong solely to Him. God wants our hearts to be His, our minds to be His and our lives to be His. He wants us to do all things to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31). Basically follow Deuteronomy 6:5. "Love the Lord God with all your heart, all your strength, and all your soul". Matthew 28:19-20 states the purpose of a Christian's life. Matthew states "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fathe r and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." The reason we are on this earth is that God wants to use us to bring others who don't know Him to Christ. We are called not only to tell people about Jesus, but we are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ as well. This means we have to live out what we preach to our friends. We have to show them through our own lives that Jesus Christ and His love are real.

Keep in mind that that this verse was seen as a sign in heaven. This is not an actual depiction of an event on earth but symbolizes the nation of Israel and the 12 tribes around the time of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.

The Bible doesn't say anything about hypnotism specifically, but it does talk about sorcery, and I believe hypnotism falls into that category. A sorcerer, according to the bible dictionary, is one who is said to have superhuman or occult power by virtue of spells, magic, or secret knowledge obtained by evil spirits. Another name for a sorcerer is a medium. Leviticus 19:31 says, 'Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. It was a crime punishable by death. Levitcus 20:27 says,' A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. So God forbids His people from having anything to do with these type of people. Why? Because magic and sorcery are rivals to a true relationship with God. Instead of seeking God for direction, people seek the help of a psychic; or instead of allowing God to change them, they seek to by hypnotized into changing a thought or action pattern. God knows everything and He is sufficient for us. We can lean completely on Him, trusting Him, and depending on only Him to change us. Keep in mind that hypnotism isn't the only thing that falls in this category. Be very careful about your involvement with things such as horoscopes, Ouija boards, and certain card games which are all related to magic, and are not good. The answer to this question is, hypnotism, a form of magic or sorcery, is spoken of in the Bible as being real and demonic. The Lord cautions us to stay away from things like these, lest we be defiled by them. Isn't it a bad thing to make a representation of the Ark of the Covenant, because we aren't supposed to make a representation of God, right? Exodus 20:4-5 says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. The commandment that God gives us is not to worship any idols, images, or anything that we have made. God says that we should be worshipping and serving Him alone, and He gets jealous if we worship anyone or anything else. The picture of the ark that we saw was not meant to be a representation of God, it was supposed to resemble the ark of the covenant so the we could see and visualize what we were reading about. It was not created as an item of worship, but a tool through which we can get a better understanding of things mentioned in the Bible. The answer to this question is, it is a sin to worship anything other than God, but to make a representation of the Ark of the covenant, such as the one we saw, for educational purposes is not a bad thing. If the Lord loves His children, why does He punish them so harshly? In 1 Samuel 6:19 it says, Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. The "men of Beth Shemesh" were Isrealites from the tribe of Levi. In other words, they were God's people. Why would God judge them so harshly? It's becuase God is faithful and just, and He keeps his promises. In the book of Numbers, chapter 4, God is giving the Levites specific duties and instructions. Among these instructions God made a promise. In Numbers 4:20 it says, But they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die. The ark of the covenant that the Levites of Beth Shemesh opened and looked into contained the "holy things" mentioned in Numbers. Now, because God said that they would die if they were to "go in" (or open) and "watch" (Or look into) the holy things, He would be a liar if He didn't keep His word, when the Levites did exactly that. And if God were to lie, then we wouldn't be able to believe anything He says. So, the answer to this question is, God punished the Levites that harshly because He said He would, and He keeps His word. Remember, Proverbs 3:12 says, For whom the LORD loves, He corrects (or punishes), Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

I believe this question is in refrence to a story found in the book of 1 Kings chapter 3. Solomon was very wise. The way Solomon became so wise is that The Lord asked what He should give Solomon, and he asked for wisdom. Imagine that. Most people would have asked for a million dollars, or a ferrari, but Solomon asked for wisdom. Well God granted his wish because what he wanted was in accordance with God's will. Well one day 2 harlots came to Solomon with a problem. They lived together and both had little infant sons that were only 3 days apart. They both had the little baby sleep with them in the same bed. One of the ladies, while she was sleeping, rolled over on top of her baby and killed him. When she awoke to her dead baby she was so sad that she switched her dead baby with the other womans baby that was still alive. When the other woman woke up, she knew that the babies had been switched, but the other woman wouldn't admit it, so they took their case to Solomon. Solomom, in his wisdom, suggested they cut the baby in half, so they would no longer argue over the live baby. The real mother of the live baby loved her son and would rather have the baby live and be with the other woman than be killed so that she could have half of a dead baby. The other woman was willing to cut the baby in half. This proved to Solomon who the real mother was, so Solomon demanded the baby be given over to the real mother. Solomon never intended on cutting the baby in half, but he knew that this would determine the real mother. Cool story!

James 4:4 says, ...Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. In other words, the bible tells us that we have a choice to make. Either we put our faith in Jesus Christ and live wholly for Him, which makes us distinct and an enemy of the world, or we reject Christ and fit in, which makes us an enemy of God. Living for God sometimes, but fitting in the rest of the time isn't being distinct at all. Even people who don't know God behave themselves sometimes. To live for God and be distinct doesn't mean to "act" differently sometimes because you love God, but rather to live a completely different lifestyle as a result of your relationship with Jesus Christ. Trying to fit in with a crowd of nonbelievers is a very dangerous road to travel. It may seem like no one else is living for God, but remember what the bible says in Matthew 7. vs.13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. vs.14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. So Jesus tells us that we don't want to travel the path the world is traveling because it leads to destruction, but rather He encourages us to walk the path less traveled which leads to life! It may be hard to be distinct now, but it will be well worth it when we receive our reward in heaven!

There is a distinction to be made here between the noun "homosexuality" and the noun "homosexual." We must first understand that the most important part about a homosexual person is that they are a person. John 3:16 states, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." A homosexual is a person, thus they are part of the world. It then follows that God would wish them to be saved. More evidence of this fact is found in 1 Timothy 2:4. This verse says that God is one "who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." When the Scripture says "all", it includes homosexuals. Now we must address the noun "homosexuality." This is separate from "homosexual". Homosexuality is a sin. This is stated quite clearly in Leviticus 18:22, which is addressed to men, "Nor shall you lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination." But it doesn't end there-there is good news. Above is mentioned that God would wish that all should be saved, including the homosexual. It is true. Through Jesus' death on the cross, all sins were forgiven, if the sinners repent. Through Jesus' blood, all can be made new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new." In the homosexual's life there is sin, which is true for all who have not repented of their sins and accepted Christ as their Savior. But there is a way to rid one's self of sin and live life to the fullest, and that is through Jesus Christ. That is the only way for the homosexual, and all the world, to be rid of their sin and saved. We find proof of that in John 14:6, "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"

In that situation there is not much you can do besides prayer. You should make it a habit of praying for them and make sure they know that you still love them. At the same time be very careful about how often you hand out with them. Proverbs 13:20 tells us that the companion of fools will be destroyed, So you do not want to go down the same path that she is going down. So be very very careful not to get pulled down with her and sadly that may mean that you stop hanging out with her.

A week of purification, thankfulness, and remembering God's grace, celebrated by Jews after the Passover.

I like to think of baptism like I think about a wedding ring. Anyone can wear a wedding ring, but that does not make them married. A wedding ring shows that there's a commitment to someone behind that ring. Same with baptism. Anyone can be baptized - even a baby, but that does not mean anything is different with their life. Baptize is a sign of a commitment to Jesus Christ. Here's a good way to remember it: baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. Mark 1:4 says "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." If you've made a commitment to live for Christ, baptism is a great way to show others and remind yourself of that commitment. It's a celebration of new life - leaving your old sinful life in the water and raising again to new life. If you were baptized as a baby or at some point in your life when it was just a ritual or you didn't understand what you were doing, being baptized again might be a great thing for you to do. Now that you can make a decision for yourself, you can decide whether or not you want to be baptized.

In Matthew 5 it talks about baptism. So I really encourage you to read that whole passage. Don't worry it isn't long at all its only 16 verses. But it's really good!!! But baptism is a way to show others you are serious about following Christ and it is a landmark in your own life to remind yourself in your decision. Baptism doesn't get you into heaven and not required for salvation but is a great thing to do to follow Christ. Baptism should be done when you are old enough to do it and know what it means!

Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it will be opened to you." If you truly seek forgiveness, out of a pure heart (Matthew 5:8), God will answer you. Matthew 21:22 says, "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will recieve." When you are praying on auto-pilot, you are not really seeking God. Mean what you say to God, and He will answer you. When you keep doing the wrong thing repeatedly, look at Romans 6:7, "For he who has died has been freed from sin...14:For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slave to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" So what is this passage telling us? It's saying we are not condemned for our sins because Jesus took the punishment for all our sins when He died on the cross. We are saved by grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9). That means we get to start over afresh. So when you truly ask for forgiveness for sin, you are forgiven every time. But that does not mean you can take God's grace for granted and keep purposefully sinning. That would mean you are a slave to sin, when you are supposed to be worshipping the God whose grace saved and keeps saving you. So if you keep sinning, ask God truly from your heart for help to stop, but know that His strength is sufficient for you (2 Corinthians 12:9 "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'") when you fall.

There are many different ways we as humans view love. Some people claim they love their puppy, or they love Taco Bell, or they love American Idol. Although we may think we love these things, in actuality we probably just like them a whole lot. The Wycliffe Bible Dictionary says, "Love is not a mere sentiment but a voluntary self-dedication to the point of self-slavery." In other words, love is not the happy feeling inside you when you see something or someone you like. Love is something you have to work at and become completely selfless to obtain. The best way to know true love is to know God. 1 John 4:16b says, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. We will know we are ready to love others when we first love God. 1 John 5:2 says, By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. So our first focus should be falling in love with God. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus tells us, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." When He says it's time for you to "fall in love," He will reveal your future spouse to you. Remember to be in constant prayer and ask God to help you know who this person will be. Take Paul's advice in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

It's unknown what happened to Joseph, Jesus' earthly father, after Jesus began his ministry, but Jesus' heavenly Father was always there - and will always be there for us too!

When someone refers to the holidays, they are generally not just referring to Christmas, but to a period of about 6 weeks at the end of the year. The reason being is that there are 3 holidays very close together. It begins with Thanksgiving in November, then in December we have Christmas, which is just a week before New Years. Many people are not trying to avoid the word Christmas. Now another time that you will see the word Christmas not used is x-mas. Now this is sometimes used to save space such as on signs or because people are being lazy. But there are also times when that is used simply to avoid the word CHRIST in CHRISTmas. I have even see people go so far as to misspell the work Christmas to something like "Crismas" and the reason for this is because people are uncomfortable with the concept of God. Many people do not want to believe in God and will avoid anything that has to do with Him. So remember that we live in a lost and dark world who loves to deny Christ, and unless they repent, they will have to answer to God for their sin. Matthew 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."

Luke 1:26-31. Just in case you don't have your Bible handy, it says this in the New King James Version, 'Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" vs. 30 says, 'Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'" God looked at Mary's heart, and liked what he saw. Mary also fulfills the prophesy in Isaiah concerning Jesus' lineage. Check out Is. 11:1 'There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.' This is basically saying (hundreds of years before Jesus' birth) that he will be a descendant of David (remember that Jesse was David's father). Now take a look at Matthew 1:1-16. It's the precisely detailed lineage tracing Jesus' roots (through Mary and Joseph) back to David, just as was predicted.

God created Satan and knew that Satan had the ability to make choices. God tempts no one and He Himself is not tempted. He created Satan not to be a robot, but rather made Satan to be a leader, to be a worship leader and to exalt God in heaven. Everything God creates is perfect. Nothing God creates is imperfect. God gives us the free will to make decisions for ourselves. Satan chose to focus on himself. He became prideful, and allowed that pride to stir up a desire to be greater than God. This pride became sin which led to his fall. U ltimately, Satan's pride and selfishness lead to his fall from heaven.

The human population did not start out speaking different languages. God made different languages when people came together to prove their power was greater than God's. Check out Genesis 11:1-9. Verses 6-7 are key; "And the Lord said, "Indeed, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." When people could understand each other, they went against God instead of glorifying Him, so now we have different languages so we can't go against Him like that again. The next time the whole world comes together will be a sign of the endtimes.

Gneisses 37:3-4 tells us that Joseph's brothers hated him because he was the favorite child not just because of the coat. When they saw Joseph getting all the attention and the best presents they were jealous because they were not getting nice presents or a lot of attention. Let me ask you a question, If you had a brother or sister who always got more attention then you and always got better presents, it would be easy to be envious of them, right? The key is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4 says that love does not envy. Make sure when others are blessed, you rejoice with them instead of taking after Joseph's brothers and becoming envious.

First thing to remember is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). So unfortunately we,as people, will always do things that God doesn't like. I know almost everyone has told a lie. Some of us have even told a lie this week, so you could ask yourself the same question. "Why do people lie if God doesn't like it?". The other thing we have to remember is that the wages of sin are death. (Romans 6:23) Now we know that this always means spiritual death, but sometimes our sin can also lead to physical death. Just like God uses people to do good things, he can also use people to punish by death. I came across a perfect example of this in my personal quiet time in the book of Isaiah. In Chapter 10 of Isaiah God uses Assyria as an instrument of Judgement against Israel and Judah. In other words, their sin brought about physical death, and God used the Asyrians to execute this judgement. We also see, however, at the end of chapter 10 how Assyria is punished for being prideful, thinking they accomplished these things on their own, apart from God. The answer to this question is that we all, even as believers, fall short of the glory of God and do things that He doesn't like. But until we are in heaven there will always be sin on the earth. The thing we have to remember is that there will always be consequences for our actions. Jesus, by His death on the cross, saved us from the power of sin. If you are in Christ, sin has no power over you. I pray that you would have victory over sin in Christ Jesus.

Genesis 30:27 says it pretty clearly- "And Laban said to him, 'Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned that by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.'" Laban was selfish and wanted to keep reaping the benefits of the blessings God was giving Jacob.

Giving and receiving presents during Christmas time first started way back when Jesus was born. We read about the wise men who came to see Jesus in Matthew 2:1-2, 1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." These guys were wanting to see Jesus and worship Him. They also had presents to give to Him as we read in Matthew 2:11, And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gifts that were given to Jesus were the first Christmas presents. Early Christians began celebrating Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ in the 4th century with traditions of giving gifts to family members and friends.

Feelings can be decieving. We can't be swayed by the way we feel because, if you think about it, we have bad feelings sometimes. Sometimes we just wake up in the morning and feel like smacking our brother in the head, or like bugging our sister and her friends. Both of those things might feel good, but they are obviously not what God wants us to do.The way we feel does not always reflect how God wants us to feel. In fact, Proverbs 16:25 says, There is a way that seems right to man, but it's end is the way of death. This tells us that something may feel really good, and seem right to us, but acting upon these feelings could be very harmful to us, or those around us. Usually the time you will find the person God has for you, is the time when you're least looking that person. If we focus completely on God, and His will for our lives, we will be content wherever He has us. Single or married.

The reason that we blame others for our mistakes is because we are selfish sinners who care more about ourselves then anything else. Romans 3:23 tells us that we have all sinned. The questions is, what does it mean to sin? When you sin you are disobeying the laws of God, and so it is like saying that what you want is more important than what God wants. Therefore, as Christians, we need to not only put God above ourselves, but we are also commanded in Mathew 19:19 to love our neighbors as ourselves. If you follow this command, will you blame someone else for what you have done? We as Christians need to daily strive to be more like Christ so that we do not sin against God.

It is major argument now that the Bible belittles women and their role in society. It doesn't. The feminist movement in America was fueled by the belief that women had the right to roles that men held, believing that holding the same positions would offer immediate equality. It is important to keep in mind when faced with this argument that being equal does not mean being the same. Gender roles in the Bible are not harsh, but rather helpful when put to practical use. Check out the characteristics to the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:10-31. She's not laying around watching 'General Hospital'. Her job is very important. Her main concern is the household. Ever since the American feminist movement, "the housewife" has been looked down upon as weak and unimportant. This is not the case. The home is very important. The world is hard to live in sometimes, and the home is supposed to be a place of peace and harmony. Some one has to run the household, or there will be no refuge from the world. Proverbs 31:27 'She watches over the ways of her houshold and does not eat the bread of idleness.' This doesn't mean that women cannot work or go outside the house. The woman described in the section is productive, industrious, and active.

Also take a look at the women throughout the Bible. They weren't dependent weaklings. Just look at Rebekah, Isaac's wife in Genesis 24. She watered camels not once, but until they were full. That's a lot of water, and a lot of muscle. She wasn't weak. Abigal is another example of a strong-minded woman. Her husband Nabal was a jerk to David, but she took action to do the right thing and repay David and his troops for their kindness to her shepherds. Also check out Ruth. She determined a course of action, and worked hard to help her mother-in-law and serve her God. Esther was brave enough to confront the most powerful king at the time at the risk of her life in order to save her people. Rahab turned from her sin and risked her life to help the servants of Joshua. There are not many weak women in the Bible. But there are plenty of smart, strong women who fear the Lord, and they serve as examples to all of us aspiring to be women of the Lord and handmaidens of Jesus Christ.

Because he loves us unconditionally. psalm 8:4 reads, "what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"
David was amazed that God even considers us. Hosea 11:1-9 speaks of Gods care for a disobedient people. verse 7, "my people are bent on turning away from me..." verse 8 "...my heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender" we will never fully understand God, nor his love for us.