Anxiety and Depression are Real.
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If not following what the Lord says, one should repent and get back on track.
Yeah, apparently some people don't want walk in and accept the whole counsel of the Lord and that's too bad for them as they will not be walking in the freedom darkness that the Lord has for them. Sad.
Who said anything about being perfect in the literal sense? You are imagining things.
I'm advocating for walking in what God's Word says about Christians.
You apparently are advocating for being a cherry picker that rejects portions of God's Word rather than being full gospel accepting the whole counsel of God. That's nothing more than carnal minded religion that leaves people living far far below what the Lord has for them IN Christ.
Very obviously not seeing you refuse to accept the whole counsel of the Lord.
It's sad to see people living under anxiety, depression, and hopelessness un-necessarily not knowing how to abide IN Christ and walk from from this darkness. That;s too bad for them.
I quit being duped when the Lord taught me how to obtain the promises in His Word enabling me to partake of His divine nation having escaped the corruption that is in this world thru canal minded desires the Lord told us about in His Word (2 Peter 1:4)
We know who the tares are when they make fun of and otherwise reject what God's Word teaches
https://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/gods-view-on-clumsiness.221025
The Bible says to test the spirits, and that we will know someone by their fruits.
You've left your fruits, and the spirit behind them, all over the forum.
Disclaimer: the links to threads sometimes don't work, but for anyone wanting to read the actual thread and its full context, it's in the Bible Discussion Forum.
Yes, some of the quotes have been clipped for brevity, but hopefully the links for those should take you back to the original posts.
Sadly, some of those people are walking by sight and not by faith as they have not learned how to be over comers thru God's Word.
We are to walk by faith no by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
And sadly those not accepting the whole counsel of the Lord such as yourself have corrupt fruit.
You disagree with those accepting and walking in the whole counsel of God which is your right but in doing so you are influencing others to walk in defeat. Hope you get the deliverance you so desperately need.
Paul tells us clearly:
I fully understand that you thoroughly believe for your own self that what you say to people is in love, and to reject your message is to reject God.
That's between you and Him.
In the meantime, don't you worry about me.
You seem to be a big fan of telling people they need to be institutionalized.
Fortunately, the institution I reside in believes in allowing us poor, unfortunately souls regular "Enrichment" times -- during which, I write these posts.
See there, statements like that are in opposition to what the Lord says in His Word concerning born again believers.
You need to grow up spiritually and accept what God says and ditch the wisdom of mankind
Hmm.
I guess you don't understand humor, either?
I grew up in an area famous for racial tensio, and between that and my time of writing inmates who had life without parole, usually for murder, I've heard a lot of "suggestions."
Some of these inmates were brilliant, but had misapplied their talents.
And you've never heard criticisms down to the bone like the ones from inmates with absolutely nothing to lose. Especially from the ones who know the Bible from every direction because they literally study it 24/7.
I used to lay their letters out on my table, following the example of Hezekiah, and ask God what to say back.
My point is, I've grown up with insults and criticisms of all kinds all my life.
Now I look back and thank God for the times when inmates shred my emotional, psychological, and spiritual stances to bits, and taughte just to stand, because any other criticisms I get now just don't seem all that meaningful by comparison.
Well lookie there...
It's feeding time at my institution!
Can't miss out on the best time of the day.
Psalm 130 v 1-3 Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD! 2O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy. 3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
I wonder why the links don't work? .
https://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/gods-view-on-clumsiness.221025/
You're dancing with a heavyweight, dude. You're going to need more than simple jabs and uppercuts to deal with this one. seoulsearch grew up in this fighting ring.
Unfortunately you don't have any but the most simplistic fighting moves. You're never going to be able to last, going toe to toe with her.
I mean really...
You think a short, quick jab like that is going to have any effect?
You're going to have to reach way back into the Bible and deliver a proper haymaker to stagger her at all. And I've never seen you do it before, and I don't think you even have it in you.
That much is true.
It might only take a moment, but the timescale to reach that point can take an age. God is long-suffering in view of our waywardness.
We have a High Priest who is touched by our weaknesses (sumpatheó: sympathise, have compassion, to suffer with) Hebrews 4:15
When the Lord of Glory stands at someone's door and knocks, the empathy and compassion of those who've already answered the call from the Master of the house can help set the table.
Line for line and letter for letter is all well and good, but showing concern and fellow feeling for someone who is despairing will aid with oiling the wheels for change.
Boot camping people, individually and collectively, seems as clumsy to me as a man who can't possibly be walking in the Spirit, because he cracked his head off a garage door during the week. The irony, eh.
Why joke around about what God says in His Word.
There's plenty of other topics to joke about.
But He does not leave them living in defeat.
Of course one has to turn their back on their old life, their old way of thinking and doing and instead agree with what the Lord says about them as being a born again child of God.
That's what many are not doing. Instead they are regurgitating their problems to one another over and over again which causes their problems to be stronger and stronger
God's Word calls this sowing to the flesh which causes corruption.
I'd be more interested in talking to people about how to get up out of the gutter.
I', not interested in laying down and crying with them in the gutter about how bad things are.
That's exactly how people never grow spiritually and never get delivered out of their trouble.
What many are offended at is some folks won't join them in their disrepair because misery love company ya know.
I'm not joking about God's Word.
And I agree, there are plenty of other things to joke about -- like people who believe in bringing others to the love of God by telling them they should be institutionalized.
I myself, find that approach humorous -- and humor tends to be my typical reaction to most situations.
If you tell people they belong in institutions, well, I will gladly joke about being in an institution -- and happily make myself the butt of the joke.
If you've been where they are, and want them to be where you say you now are, the despondent are fertile ground.
The better hope isn't only to be illustrated, it needs to be demonstrated. Which necessitates supporting the weak. Consoling and encouraging the faint-hearted and feebleminded; being patient with all.
If you believe that's to no avail, there's nothing more to be said.
Lol.
While I appreciate your endorsement, @Lynx, I am by no means of any kind of spiritual significance. If nothing else, I'm just stubborn, and I apologize to @33Michael33 for dragging this thread off the rails and over a cliff. But I am concerned about those who might not know how to stand up for themselves in these situations, and I want to let people know that you do NOT have to listen to everyone who recites Scripture to you. Sift it out for any wisdom you can glean -- but throw out the rest, such as the personal insults.
I'm just a tiny little guppy at best, but I can tell you about the times when God put me in the ring with true giants.
Inmates often told me they talked openly to me because they knew I was talking to them on my own time and on my own dime, not for the media, and not for a paycheck. And my rule for myself was, I never asked about their cases -- unless they brought it up -- because I didn't want to treat them like just another case number.
One in particular tried to use every spiritual manipulation tactic in the book. He started out by telling me I only did these things for the praise of men and not really for God. I was very young and very naive and struck to the heart. I took his letter to my mentors and asked them to pray with me that God would convict me of anything I was doing wrong. Of course, my poor mentors didn't want me talking to inmates in the first place, but that's another story.
So what it eventually led up to was him asking me for money. When I declined (believing this was from God,) he asked me "how I had fallen so far that I had allowed Satan to fill and harden my heart to refuse to help someone in need" (as the Bible tells us to do.) He told me I was refusing to obey God, because after all, he said, "If we have a need, God tells us to ask." (He would then list a page of Scripture to endorse his cause.) This guy was genius level intelligent, and I'd be hard-pressed to bet against him if he went up against any modern-day Pharisee or Sadducee.
His own lawyer, with whom I had the privilege of speaking to, told me he would have made a "brilliant" attorney on his own if not for his convictions.
Now, I knew I was up against a T-Rex. This guy was 100 times my size in every way -- intellect, Biblical knowledge, and life experience. I was a piece of chewing gum under a table by comparison. So I put his letter on my table, page by page, and PRAYED like my life depended on it. And I believe God gave me an answer.
I wrote back and said, "Yes, God tells us to ask. But He told me that in this case, asking doesn't mean you're supposed to ask ME. God is saying it means you're supposed to ask HIM."
Yes, I know that sounds like a cop-out, but I'd donated to inmates' cases before, and this situation had a lot of shady details to where I knew God was telling me, "Stand. But don't cater to him."
God taught more in that one exchange than what I had learned over years in church.
There was another inmate I used to write who was in with LWOP (life without parole) for murder, and his track record in prison included strangling someone to the point of permanent brain damage (he would have been dead if someone hadn't stopped the fight,) and nearly decapitating another with a homemade shiv (knife.) Now, I should also mention that I don't know the full context of these situations. He was young and good-looking, and it made me question myself as to what lengths I would go to in order to protect myself in a situation like that.
But he said he was a Christian and believed God was giving him another chance. I went to that prison to sit at a table and talk with him in person, because we all "know" God forgives us. But what does it look like when you've had your hands on someone to the point where you feel the life draining out of their body, then repent and believe that God has truly forgiven you?
I never judge the state of someone's salvation -- I believe only God can do that -- but I do pay attention to fruit, as God tells us to do. But I am always interested in the testimonies of people's own walks (whether real or for show -- that's for God to know,) because it greatly affects the formation of my own journey with God.
I asked God once who I should take seriously when it comes to criticism, and He said, "If someone has proven they're willing to bleed WITH you (help carry your burdens,) those are the ones you can trust."
The thing about being stubborn and strong-willed is, you tend to make friends with other (lovingly) stubborn and strong-willed people. People who aren't afraid to call a spade a spade in front of you, even if it's at your own expense. And believe me, the ones closest to me have no hesitations about doing that.
Now sure, some things and some words still get to me, of course.
But unless it's from someone who's shown they can bleed with me through the hard times, or unless they give off the same kind of energy of a life without parole inmate who studies the Bible 24/7 and knows how to pick apart every last nook and cranny of who you are and what you think are your beliefs -- most other "corrections" directly aimed at me just aren't going to catch much of my attention -- except perhaps as the center of my next joke.