It won’t let me start a conversation with you
Probably a dumb question
- Thread starter Jessca95
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Mayflower
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vhusley
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“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13
I believe the key phrase here is “all of your heart.” So it begs the question; has your search for Jesus been a “WHOLE-hearted” search or has it been closer to “half-hearted”?
Jesus requires total surrender of our hearts. That’s not just lip service. In fact, total surrender is much easier said than done. Many SAY they’ve totally surrendered to God….but God sees past our words and actions, straight through to our hearts. Sometimes it requires us actively pursuing Him….and it ALWAYS requires us to “kill our flesh”.
Turning away from the voices of the world and the temptations of the flesh isn’t easy. It isn’t meant to be. It’s sacrifice. It’s sacrificing our “old man” and being totally vulnerable before God…laying our sinful hearts bare…exposing our wretchedness and emptying ourselves so that God can fill us back up with His Spirit.
Sometimes it’s a real fight against our flesh and the world that would keep pulling us back into sin and rebellion. Look at what God’s Word is saying to us through Jude’s letter (Ch3, v3): “concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to CONTEND earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
“CONTEND” for the faith.
“Contend” means that we may have to “compete” or to “struggle” for it, leading us to the understanding that that kind of faith doesn’t always just appear….sometimes we have to keep pushing, pursuing, and striving….with “all of our hearts.” When we do that…God is faithful to uphold His Word….and we WILL find Him.
@Jessca95
Greetings,
reading your reply above:
i would like to offer you the following. Please understand that when i use the word 'you', i am addressing you personally AND addressing the plural 'you', meaning, if i was writing to a lot of people i would write 'you', when referring to them. I say i am addressing you personally because we do need to grasp that the message is to each one of us, personally, as it is true for each one of us.
You don't want to spend eternity in hell. Who does? So, if i were to guarantee you that you were not gong to spend eternity in hell and you believed me, you trusted me that you wouldn't, because i gave you enough evidence and you were convinced that what i said proved it, you might respond with, "phew! That's good. Glad i escaped hell!" But, if that is the case, you have missed something more important in regards to your salvation and faith.
You have to look at how you 'escaped' or better put, why you are saved and how you were saved, that you don't perish.
It is love that did it for you, God's love as seen in His Son, dying for you.
Everyone has sinned and the wages of sin is death. Two things occurred on the cross. Your sin was nailed to it. The wage was paid on it.
Jesus took your sin upon Himself. Jesus paid in your place, for you. That is love.
Every blow of the hammer upon each nail was as if it was your sin that caused it, the reason that those ugly nails were driven through the Saviour's hands. And then, through His beautiful feet. Wham! Wham! Wham! And then to be lifted up for the world to see in full shame, for you! And dropped into a hole with a sudden jolt, bearing the full weight of YOUR sin! How does that make you feel?
Do you believe that the spotless Lamb of God died for you? That your sins hung Him there? That He took YOUR sins, in your place for you?
You see, no one comes to the Father any way except through and by His Son. So, the only Way that you will find God is through the Life given for you by His Son.
There has to be something to be thankful for besides not going to hell for eternity. There has to be a real and honest acknowledgement that what Jesus suffered on that Cross was for you. AND, why He did. That is love.
The Way does not end at the Cross, though. God raised Jesus from death. He is the Resurrection AND the Life.
It is that Life that is offered to you. Life that is free from guilt and shame because He took your place on the Cross. It is that Life which is offered to you, if you will believe.
You can not escape spending eternity in hell if you do not believe that God sent His Son for you. There is no sneaking in another way. There are no shortcuts. Jesus became your sin in order for you to be saved. If you do not believe that, you will not enter into His rest. As God raised Jesus from the dead, so He will raise all who believe.
Do you, can you, trust a God Who loved you so much that He was willing to give His only begotten Son, so you would not perish? That is love.
Will you trust Him? Can you trust a God such as He?
His love in sending His Son should tell you how much He loves you.
Allow that thought to really sink deep and melt away all fear and disbelief. Meditate on His love for you. realize that it was because He loves you that Jesus took YOUR place. If you refuse to believe Him, you refuse Him. If you refuse Him, your refuse eternal Life.
If His Love is not enough, nothing, nothing, nothing will be.
If this breaks you to tears, let it. If you feel shame and remorse for all your part in His suffering death for you, let Him quicken you and put words of thanks in your heart and mouth.
Do not let doubts steal away that love. Hold on tight to His promise. Do not trust what you can do... trust what He has done... FOR YOU.
For this is Love, God has forgiven you. Do you trust His love?
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16-18
Bless you ....><>
Greetings,
reading your reply above:
i would like to offer you the following. Please understand that when i use the word 'you', i am addressing you personally AND addressing the plural 'you', meaning, if i was writing to a lot of people i would write 'you', when referring to them. I say i am addressing you personally because we do need to grasp that the message is to each one of us, personally, as it is true for each one of us.
You don't want to spend eternity in hell. Who does? So, if i were to guarantee you that you were not gong to spend eternity in hell and you believed me, you trusted me that you wouldn't, because i gave you enough evidence and you were convinced that what i said proved it, you might respond with, "phew! That's good. Glad i escaped hell!" But, if that is the case, you have missed something more important in regards to your salvation and faith.
You have to look at how you 'escaped' or better put, why you are saved and how you were saved, that you don't perish.
It is love that did it for you, God's love as seen in His Son, dying for you.
Everyone has sinned and the wages of sin is death. Two things occurred on the cross. Your sin was nailed to it. The wage was paid on it.
Jesus took your sin upon Himself. Jesus paid in your place, for you. That is love.
Every blow of the hammer upon each nail was as if it was your sin that caused it, the reason that those ugly nails were driven through the Saviour's hands. And then, through His beautiful feet. Wham! Wham! Wham! And then to be lifted up for the world to see in full shame, for you! And dropped into a hole with a sudden jolt, bearing the full weight of YOUR sin! How does that make you feel?
Do you believe that the spotless Lamb of God died for you? That your sins hung Him there? That He took YOUR sins, in your place for you?
You see, no one comes to the Father any way except through and by His Son. So, the only Way that you will find God is through the Life given for you by His Son.
There has to be something to be thankful for besides not going to hell for eternity. There has to be a real and honest acknowledgement that what Jesus suffered on that Cross was for you. AND, why He did. That is love.
The Way does not end at the Cross, though. God raised Jesus from death. He is the Resurrection AND the Life.
It is that Life that is offered to you. Life that is free from guilt and shame because He took your place on the Cross. It is that Life which is offered to you, if you will believe.
You can not escape spending eternity in hell if you do not believe that God sent His Son for you. There is no sneaking in another way. There are no shortcuts. Jesus became your sin in order for you to be saved. If you do not believe that, you will not enter into His rest. As God raised Jesus from the dead, so He will raise all who believe.
Do you, can you, trust a God Who loved you so much that He was willing to give His only begotten Son, so you would not perish? That is love.
Will you trust Him? Can you trust a God such as He?
His love in sending His Son should tell you how much He loves you.
Allow that thought to really sink deep and melt away all fear and disbelief. Meditate on His love for you. realize that it was because He loves you that Jesus took YOUR place. If you refuse to believe Him, you refuse Him. If you refuse Him, your refuse eternal Life.
If His Love is not enough, nothing, nothing, nothing will be.
If this breaks you to tears, let it. If you feel shame and remorse for all your part in His suffering death for you, let Him quicken you and put words of thanks in your heart and mouth.
Do not let doubts steal away that love. Hold on tight to His promise. Do not trust what you can do... trust what He has done... FOR YOU.
For this is Love, God has forgiven you. Do you trust His love?
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16-18
Bless you ....><>
I just sent you a pm. I have it to start only except for moderators.
let me know if you need help, please
Bless you ....><>
Mayflower
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And then there are passages like in
Matthew 11:29:
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Living the Christian walk might be striving to follow God's will with all of your heart, but when you come to love God and His commandments, it isn't hard. You find it to be the best way to live life. It really is abundant life in Christ Jesus. There is so much to look forward too every day as a child of God. And it isn't striving to stay out of Hell once a Christian. It is a striving to grow closer to God and become more like Him.
A few years ago, I was going through this and I kept a prayer journal, which I still do, so that I could see the prayers that were being answered and I had so many answered within a short period of time. It was amazing to see really because I had never really tried that hard to see how prayer worked. I kinda just said them. That time I had meaning to them and I was really calling out to God. I was super depressed so I only focused on that. But I still do that
Mayflower
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Sounds like God has been knocking on the door a long time.
I gotta open it though
And that’s what I struggle with and I don’t know why
I would suggest if you have found him or rather he find us then you can seek after him who picks us up when we do act as fools Like the foolish Galatians (chapter 3) . No man can seek after him unless he does the first work of revealing himself as it is written (sola scriptura) .
Roman 3:10-11 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is "none" that understandeth, there is "none" that seeketh after God.
I would be careful with the idea of sufferings after one takes their last breath .It s a doctrine of men which began in corrupted Judaism, a law of the fathers and was passed on to Catholicism .A doctrine of men (I heard it through the grapevine oral tradition of men) It does despite to the fulness of Christ grace the price we were bought with . The sufferings of hell are performed in these bodies of death .When yoked with Christ the burden is lighter .
Catholisicim like corrupted Judaism teaches that only a queen of heaven has received the fullness of grace while the rest of the creation receives a unknow, unknowable remnant of grace and must keep on sufferings even after taking ones last breath with no end of faith, the salvation of ones soul . . visible .
Mayflower
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So for a person, when you seek to know a person and don't want to let them in your life, there is usually a red flag as to why. So I would say to ask yourself what red flags do you have about Jesus and address those privately, opening up to Him about it.
I would offer finding Jesus the Son of man shows us the Father has been working in us as it did with him . He persuades us to seek after him giving us a desire to hear his understanding and the power to perform it . As sons of God we have the treasure of his power in us but that power is not of us , it is of the Father. Learning of the father we come to the living example of the two working as one
John6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
As Jesus offered to the Father his earthen body as living sacrifice we can rejoice that us too are empowered yoked with him our reasonable service.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rhema
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This also means that God is not faithful to uphold that which is not His Word (whether Logos or Rhema).
Rhema
Bethel
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It means that you've stopped seeking God in a false way, which is by religion or self effort.
You've stopped doing this, because you have recognized that their is only ONE Way to God, and this is Jesus.
So, to seek God "truly", is to seek God according to the knowledge of the Truth, which you have understood is Jesus, who Himself is "the truth".
John 14:6
