"Christians/ Bible Sharing/Testimonies/ Witnessing..

Hopefully this will be exactly what you envisioned LadyDi

I am proud to love God and to know He knows me!

I love the miracles he does every day for us.

I love that He has grace enough for all of us.

I love that He cares so much for us that His Faith in us is so large, that He can wade through all the silliness, hate, ugliness, war, fighting, judging, and hurting to send us a rainbow to remind us He is still here.

Mostly, I love that He is in control!

Edited on October 30, 2007 at 6:29 PM Quote

What does this mean:

James 1:26
If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain.

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HI there, YES I am a beleiver myself and I know we are to keep the ten commandents, and the new one: JOHN13:34 LOVE ONE ANOTHER THE WAY I HAVE LOVED YOU. Also do not be mere listeners of the word but DOERES OF THE WORD . BE the salt and light of the earth. ALSO, the church is not just the building you go to every SUNDAY, GODS CHILDREN IS THE CHURCH. OK back to my homework have a great evening all... BIG HUGSXXXJANNETTE

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ITS nice to see you all here.REMEBER LADYDI you were in my contest but had to leave" the scout" we are on our last round its going to be fun for the result day! hugsxxx

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Ahhhh! Di! Where are you? What does that verse mean that I put up there... :(

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HI NOVELLA maybe this will help:If a person thinks that he is religious but can't control his tongue, he is fooling himself. That person's religion is worthless.

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Oh... Majestic..... that's interesting......... Hmmm....

Thank-you for answering!!!

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I am guessing that if that person does not speak things out of love and care and does alot insulting and bikering that person is not really { in the worlds view riligious} GOD is not about religion he is about us acknowleding him, prasisng him, fellowshipping with him everyday. WE are suppose to be imators of GOD. He wants us to bear alot of good fruit{ love,peace,giving,being a light for him.

Edited on October 30, 2007 at 7:20 PM Quote

Hi Novella, Majestic and LadyDi! lol How are you all tonight?
I havn't long come online...but won't be long on here either.
Nice to see that you have made a new thread Di! I'm glad really coz at least this one will be answered when questioned! haha ;) xXx

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I really love that... I sincerely read that and interpreted it a couple different ways... so I really appreciate your view point on it!!!!

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Welshgoddess wrote:at least this one will be answered when questioned! haha ;) xXx

HAHAH! No kidding, eh!? No ridiculous quotes here! Maybe I'll actually be able to learn something from this thread about the Bible and salvation! :)

Hi Welsh!

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Yeah me too Novella! lol Yeah this thread don't need the pointless quotes on here! lol

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Did you buy yourself a good bible then Shan? I'm gonna get one this weekend. A children's one so that it will be easy for me to understand! hahaha

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Hi everyone! Good thread! Novella.... here is verse that, I think, goes along with the one you posted:

Luke 6:45
"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

Basically..... if a person is always using his words for evil or to put others down, that is a reflection of what's in his heart.

This should not be confused with saying that you believe something is a sin....... but it is the manner in which you say things that reflects what's really going on in your heart. The Bible states that we should "restore" fellow Christians to the right path, if they have gotten into something sinful.... but we are always to do it in love, to help the person.... we are not to tell them they are wrong so that we can look down on them and make ourselves look better than them.

Hope that clears things up, Novella :)

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That's beautiful Heidi.... That's how it *should* be, in my opinion.... And the verse you quoted further explains it...

Almost makes me feel pity for those Christians who apparently have so much hatred in their heart...

Thanks guys!

And no Welsh... I checked in a bookstore by where I live but they didn't have any. I haven't been to a mall in awhile but I am doing some shopping this weekend and it's on my list of things I want to get along with a nice new bra and an ab roller! :)

Edited on October 30, 2007 at 7:35 PM Quote

Hey Shan, i'm gonna get my bible from ebay...at least then i can have a good look on there to see exactly the kind of one that i want and they will have a huge selection there too unlike in the shops AND lol they won't be too expensive either on ebay.

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Yes and at least on here it will be quoted from the actual bible not a different unknown source! lol ;)

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WOW this is pleasing to read! Just one more thing you will know them by their fruit. Meaning you will know when come across one of GOD'S true children by the way you feel their kindness, respect and you get a feeling of "hey something is different about this person" They will not need to be wearing a bunch of cross necklaces[ although they r beautiful] . or have bumper stickers saying HEY look at me IM a christian, you will sense GODS love in them for -sure.

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Well i havn't sang in 2 weeks now! lol :O So i am gonna have a look at what to sing now but i promised someone that i would sing a duet tonight. He is one cool guy! ;) and has a wicked sense of humour aswell! hehehe

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Novella wrote:That's beautiful Heidi.... That's how it *should* be, in my opinion.... And the verse you quoted further explains it...

Almost makes me feel pity for those Christians who apparently have so much hatred in their heart...

I agree, Novella. The problem with "religion" in and of itself is that it can be very deceiving. Being human beings, we start to think that if we follow all the outward rules, it will get us to heaven. We think that by giving intellectual assent to the fact that we believe in Jesus, and following all the "rules" in the Bible, we are ok with God.... but when we do these things out of habit, our hearts can get hardened..... Jesus spoke about this a lot.... the Pharisees(religious leaders) in His time were so wrapped up in the outward things that they didn't even realize that their hearts weren't right with God, and they were the ones who, by human standards, were considered the most holy! As a Christian, I constantly have to "check" myself, to make sure that anything I do that is "good" is out of love for God, and wanting to serve Him, and not to make myself look good or, even just doing things out of habit.

I also believe that there are those who are Christians just because that's the way they've been raised, but being a "Christian" really hasn't made any impact in their life whatsoever. True belief should always produce actions... preferably good actions hehe...

But yeah... that's my take on it :)

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Only recently disovered him on here but he is a top guy. ;) xXx

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I shall defintately do that this weekend Di...gonna get one from ebay so at least then i'll have a huge selection to choose from....but i will be getting myself a children's one though coz i want to be able to understand it easily and i love coloured pictures aswell coz i am a visual person. lolxXx

Edited on October 30, 2007 at 7:47 PM Quote

Anyway...gonna have a look at what to sing! lol ;) Great to have this thread going Di. xXx

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Ebay makes me wearisome... I may check Amazon...

Another:
Mark 10:25
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Does this ... in simple words... mean that when a person doesn't 'give' or practice giving/kindness... Then he doesn't have a chance to get into Heaven... Greed, I suppose?

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I used to have this great Bible, that actually had a Greek and Hebrew dictionary in the back, so you could try to get a better understanding of what the passage was really trying to say in its original language....... I left it at my old church one day when I was back home visiting my parents.... and they said that no one had found it...... I was without that Bible for.... probably a good year.... and then finally one day, someone found it somewhere in the church and returned it to my mom. Then, I vowed that I would take my other Bible to church and leave that one at home for studying..... but then when we just moved recently, it got packed away, only God knows where, and now I haven't been able to find it since the move!! So I'm back to using my other Bible for studying :( Pray that I come across it soon!!

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Aww Heidi!!! I hope ya DO find it!!! I'm sure it will re-appear just when you need it the most :)

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Novella wrote:Ebay makes me wearisome... I may check Amazon...

Another:
Mark 10:25
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Does this ... in simple words... mean that when a person doesn't 'give' or practice giving/kindness... Then he doesn't have a chance to get into Heaven... Greed, I suppose?

ooh... this is a good verse hehe. I could be wrong, but what I have always thought this verse to mean that people who have a lot of material possessions have a harder time realizing their need for God. When you have little, you tend to trust God more to provide for you from day to day. When you are rich, you can start to feel like you don't need God, because you have everything you'll ever want or need. That's just my own personal interpretation.

If you look at the context that the verse comes out of... you can see that Jesus told the man to go sell what he had and follow Him(Jesus). I think this is the main issue. God wants us to trust Him completely and devote our lives to Him. Most people aren't willing to do this..... they want to live life their own way, they want control of everything. Ultimately, God is in control of everything, whether we know it or not..... God wants us to admit that He's in control, and to use our lives to serve Him...... I think where the "rich" thing comes in is that it is harder to give your life completely over to God so that you can build up heavenly treasures, because you have SO MUCH material possessions.... things of earth can start to matter more to you than things of Heaven....

So yeah..... not sure if that's completely accurate.... but it might be close :-D

Edited on October 30, 2007 at 7:59 PM Quote

Alot of rich people idolize their money; the eye of the needle is a small gate somewhere in the middle east and the camels have to get down on all fours to crawl through it. Therefore, it's not impossible for rich people to get into heaven but, hard because they make money their god

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Thanks Joanne for shedding some light on that phrase "easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle"!! Never knew where that came from! I always thought it was a figure of speech, rather than an actual place! :)

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Yeah,very very good Heidi and all of you wow this is a great thread ;)

I would also like to add that some people just wear the title christian, they may go to church religiously and go through all the motions. But the verse (james 1:26) like so many others is kind of like a 'mirror' that we see ourselves in as we really are inside, and one that the Holy Spirit would use to prick our hearts as unbelievers (and believers, yep we struggle with sin!) to repentance, letting Jesus reign in us more and more....good good stuff ladies ;)

It's a lifetime process as God transforms us from the inside out to be like Jesus, love it.

I am sooo busy until tomorrow night as the last of the political mail goes out......blah, blah, blah rhetoric, they all say the same things lol. I guess they don't realize that nobody reads the junk lol, well I don't anyway.

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Hi Kevin! lol ;) Phew, i'm back for a little bit.. what's news? lol ;) xXx

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Mmmm what ya cooking for ya dinner tonight Di? lol ;)

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Novella wrote:Ebay makes me wearisome... I may check Amazon...

Another:
Mark 10:25
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Does this ... in simple words... mean that when a person doesn't 'give' or practice giving/kindness... Then he doesn't have a chance to get into Heaven... Greed, I suppose?

Hey, I'm here, Whew! *wipes brow*

I've thought about this verse a lot. May I opine? LOL

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I think it's time that religion and politics got their own folders.

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I hope PussPuss likes my song that i sang with him tonight! ;) hehehe

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Jesus said this after the rich guy approached him and said he wanted to follow him. Jesus told him to sell all he had and come back. The rich guy couldn't do it. So, to this rich guy, worldly goods meant more to him than following God and finding everlasting life.

It's been my experience that most rich people get that way by oppressing and using other people. Money doesn't usually just fall in someone's lap - you have to go out and get it and if you love money enough, you'll do illegal and immoral things to get it. The love of money corrupts people...ergo, it's easier for a big, clumsy camel to go through the tiny eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven. There are some good, decent rich folk out there who got their money through no deceit or treachery, but they are very few. Just because you're rich won't keep you out of heaven. Wealth in and of itself isn't a bad thing.

Also, with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). IMO If a person has money, only the love of God can prevent them from becoming corrupted.

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agamoto wrote:I think it's time that religion and politics got their own folders.

Oh yeah me too. ha ha Flaming trolls!!!!!!!!!!!! eek!

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LOL

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scarlettohall wrote:Alot of rich people idolize their money; the eye of the needle is a small gate somewhere in the middle east and the camels have to get down on all fours to crawl through it. Therefore, it's not impossible for rich people to get into heaven but, hard because they make money their god

I've heard this too - about the eye of the needle being a gate in a wall.

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Novella wrote:Ebay makes me wearisome... I may check Amazon...

Another:
Mark 10:25
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Does this ... in simple words... mean that when a person doesn't 'give' or practice giving/kindness... Then he doesn't have a chance to get into Heaven... Greed, I suppose?

If one looks at the Aramaic for this verse it takes on a slightly different meaning. There is question that the hyperbole in 3 of the 4 Gospels use different words for the word needle. In Matthew and Mark, the word in Greek is for a garment sewing needle. The one in Luke is for a surgeon's sewing needle.

If you look at the Aramaic version of this verse in Matthew, it is a contrast between the largest animal in the Middle East and a very small object. It is sorta of the same concept as the hyperbole if a tree sticking out of one's eye whilst one is removing a speck in another's eye. Indicating the unlikely or impossible.

Additionally there is a pun if you use the Aramaic. The word "kalma" translates as vermin or louse. The word in the verse for camel is "galma" which can and is also translated as rope because ropes were made of camel hair.

The crux of the verse is of course where one puts their focus. It it on deeds (wealth) or on grace and mercy?

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Peachy, please tell me about the grace & mercy part. I've never heard that and I'm interested!

Added: I've also never heard about the "rope" thing either. That's different too.

Edited on October 30, 2007 at 10:32 PM Quote