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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/18/2006 12:49:03 AM | Initially I was going to tell you that the church that I am a member of,Methodist,accepts everyone to the congregation and to communion. Although the Methodist church does do that,my church under its previous minister didnt accept an "insider" who didnt "fit the mold". My brother was taken off the churches membership role because he didnt reply to the churches mailed out request for the amount of money he would be willing to pledge for the coming year. | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/18/2006 8:52:28 PM | | My question is why do we need to put a name to it? why have a special building for welcoming strangers? I think some of these values are better used in day to day life. | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/18/2006 9:06:21 PM | To the following I would like to add: Matt 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens.
############################################################### Hi folks ,new here. I work with 'wilderness' christians. These are folks who walk with God nd Jesus outside the church walls. Some have left for many reasons,legalisms, doctrines of man,another gospel and another Christ, church rules that contradict the scriptures,apostacy etc and some are literally 'called out' by God to feed such. In many cases the main result is ....where is the biblical love among the breathren! It is more concensus,conformity and rank of societial status.
I do feel the true church is a body/group of believers in Jesus the Messiah. The Temple of God is spirit and 'we worship God in Spirit and in Truth'. The group is to be bound in the love that comes from God aka 'agape' love. Is divine 'agape' love the seal of a believer in Jesus the Messiah? I believe this to be so.
john 4...
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 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. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
2 cor 3:4
The Spirit, Not the Letter
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
For that matter what is a true christian? But one who keep the commandments and has the testamony of Jesus,who picks up their cross and follows after Jesus, their Messiah, Kinsmen Redeemer and Rabbi.
Jesus said if you love me you will keep my commandments
john 13
31 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. 33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
john 14
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
john 15
The True Vine
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 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. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Love and Joy Perfected
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 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 things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Ephesians 5
Walk in Love
1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. 3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know,[a] that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Walk in Light
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:
“ Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
1 peter 1:22
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because
“ All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man[f] as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25 But the word of the LORD endures forever.”[g]
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
1 john 3:14
The Imperative of Love
10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 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. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
The Outworking of Love
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Who are the brethren? Those who are In Christ Jesus,as they are family. Yet Jesus instructed us to love our enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who despitefully use you. luke 6:27-49 ( it's all good reading btw!) romans 12:9-21. so the law of divine love is towards all mankind! I calll it the Golden Rule!
And of course, no one of this can be done unless born of Spirit, from above. It is a spiritual birth one needs. The born of water(flesh) and born of Spirit(from Heaven). For the seed that comes from Heaven aka the Spirit of God transforms the carnal man into a new creation. But like the seed unless it dies it can not bring forth life. And like a plant it is like 'the parable of the seeds', there is danger of many things until the plant comes to full maturity and bloom. Thru this new creation, thru the seed being planted from above, can one receive a new Spirit and a new heart. ezek 36:26,ezek 18:31,ezek 11:19 And people wonder why Jesus came in the flesh and die on the cross and resurrected? I call it 'the Gift from God'!
Well I din't mean to be longwinded, especially on my first posting, but this is one big issue that was brought across and there are no simple answers for it. If scriptures were heeded for the Golden Rule that is it, we would not have this problem. But just like ancient Israel with the priests in the Temple, so to now history again repeats itself. ezek 8
Ezekiel 8 Abominations in the Temple
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain. 5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. 6 Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” 7 So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. 8 Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door. 9 And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” 10 So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” 13 And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” 14 So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” 16 So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east. 17 And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
Shalom. | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/22/2006 6:50:36 AM | funn1 you brought tears to my eyes and touch my heart deeply with the WORD.  | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/22/2006 6:25:44 PM | Firstly, all churches welcome everyone.
Secondly, all church members are sinners. Yes, believe it or not they all sin. A person doesn’t stop sinning when they accept God into their life. Their purpose is to sin less and less until they have the measure of their sin.
Thirdly, if you are going to look towards someone as an example, then look towards Christ. If you look towards any other you will be disillusioned, because they will be captive to sin and trying to get the measure of their sin. | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/22/2006 6:50:24 PM | ^^^
That’s an interesting point. I can’t readily figure out in what way a new born baby sins. Sin comes from within. But since a baby has not been exposed to the world as yet it’s a difficult call to make.
I suppose a baby has no concept of God, so the baby is faithless. I’m only guessing here. | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/22/2006 6:56:40 PM | I think it has something to do with us being the offspring of sinners. Adam and Eve | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/22/2006 9:04:24 PM | We are all born with a sin nature.
I’m happy to say that my church is very loving and welcoming. We are located in a very depressed area and have a food pantry and soup kitchen, so you never know who might wander in. I’ve never seen anyone come in who was not treated with love and respect.
I’d like to add that there are many churches who do not welcome everyone, and I think that’s really sad. I’ve visited several churches that didn’t seem welcoming at all. The church I grew up in seemed to have more of an attitude of "What are you doing here?" instead of "We're glad you're here." | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 1/22/2006 10:02:10 PM | I also work in a soup kitchen and free store and am really pleased to be a part of the efforts that people put forward to help others. It`s a great feeling. Peolpe treated with dignity and not looked at as the "unlovely" ,as I have too often heard them called, are some of the best people a person could meet and certainly the most loyal. There`s a lot of infinite good to be said of the "poor" of this world. Jesus knew where to hang, I`m sure.  | |
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| A question for Christians Posted: 2/21/2006 7:53:22 PM | I agree that many Churches are not open to accepting new people although those same Christians will quote scriptures ad nauseum to claim otherwise. I was actually struck dumbfounded by how fortified my former Church has become. This was partially necessary because of the local vandalism and lack of respect for property. That being put aside, it is now virtually impossible to reach a priest at will. I went through some desperate times where I really needed to seek shelter and comfort. Approaching my church, I rang for a pastor only to receive a phone message at the door telling me what time the masses are and giving me a blessing. It reminds me of that passage where Jesus says to stay awake for one will not know the hour of his return. He may come as a thief in the night. Suffice to say that most parish priests are safely tucked away and fast asleep. Peace Robert | |
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