Not By Works

How do we encouraged one another ? ? ?

We all are gifted differently, Some have a gift with just the right words to say on particular subject, Some are Gifted to Pray for Others, Some are gifted to come along side and share the Burden, Some are gifted to share with Humor, Magenta there is a GIFTED Artist, and her artwork encourages me immensely, one of my Gifts is Bible History: and all of us seem to have the GIFT of JOY.

HE Blessed us with 36.5 years of happy memories as Husband and Wife. Still it is the small things that bring back that JOY. I have a very old Sunsweet Ones California Prunes empty Tube, that I fill up with packets of nutra sweet, for my coffee in the mornings. It is the most Cherished thing I own, . . . . because when reach for it to get a nutra sweet packet out, I AM TOUCHING THE FINGERPRINTS OF MY WIFE. She used that last two years of her life.

It is not Head Knowledge that Counts, it is HEART KNOWLEDGE that is proof of have been SAVED.

DO YOU LOVE HIM WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART ? ? ?

I strive to. Like others have posted the emotional element of love comes and goes. But the commitment of love as a decision is what always pulls me back to Him when I struggle.

Psalm 23:1
Thank you as always for your very kind words, VCO

Philippians 4:13 + 12a

@Magenta , Yes, yes, the young and the beautiful.
How about the old and decrepit?



Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
(Pro 31:30)

Proverbs31-30


Are you making a request?

With me it was not a decision in my Head, it Was in my HEART, Forever. The Last week of 1977, I tried to commit suicide 3 Times. Late at night, after the third attempt, HE brought me to my End of the Line. I dropped to my knees, as WAVE, After Wave, After Wave, of extreme GUILD over my WHOLE LIFESTYLE, washed Over me. I Cried more that a Baby cries, for at least 90 or more minutes, begging HIM to Forgive me. The Holy Spirit gave me a PRAYER, and I prayed from the bottom of my Heart: "Lord Forgive me, Please Forgive me. If you Got a Purpose for my life, YOU are going to have to come into my Heart, and Run it. I CAN'T DO IT, I AM MAKING A TOTAL MESS OF MY LIFE." No Church ever taught that Prayer to me.

That was a complete Surrender TO HIM, forever, out of pure LOVE for HIM. Not a Partial Surrender, a COMPLETE SURRENDER TO HIM, NOT 90% You can have, but 10% I want for myself. With my WHOLE BEING, I meant HE COULD HAVE ALL OF ME, and their was a DEEP, DEEP LOVE FOR HIM I my Heart. And it is Still Their.

I want to keep this short, but I need to tell you the Difference I noticed in my life from that moment on. I was like I had two minds, one in my head, and the other was in my HEART. The mind in my head seemed to be at War, with the Mind In my HEART. But the Spiritual Mind got Stronger, and Stronger, as I fed on the Word of GOD. Sometimes I have a Running Conversation with the LORD, AND I know HE is Listening. Now the Spiritual Mind dominates my life, and the human mind is but very small part of it. That Moment I said that PRAYER, was the very moment, the Holy Spirit immersed me into the Spiritual Body of Christ, even THOUGH I was Saved from the beginning of TIME.

2 Timothy 1:9 (HCSB)
9 He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

That is what I meant when I said:
DO YOU LOVE HIM WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART ? ? ?

I used to be an just a Lutheran, Now I am a Born Again Christian, and sure of it.

My salvation experience is similar VCO. Not as intense like that, but the same sort of thing.

I THINK my first Spiritual Gift, was Total Trust in HIM.

He put it on my Heart to move West. After I moved to California, from Nebraska, without KNOWING WHY? He finally revealed HIS purpose to me. I was to TRUST HIM, as HE opened the Doors for me without a single hour of Bible College, to become a Volunteer Protestant Prison Chaplain, in a brand new super max prison.

He opened the Doors, and all I did was Step Threw the doors HE OPENED. For 15 years I went into the Prison, one or two nights a week, while I worked in the Post Office full time.

No, I was just wondering why you pretty much post 'the young and beautiful' and not post a few more of the 'old and decrepit'?

Prison work is tough work. It can be like getting blood from a stone from hard men who have mental issues. I have been a volunteer mental health support worker. Sometimes the people I'm supporting don't want to communicate at all. Other times because of the drugs their on, they aren't on this planet in their minds.

But thanks for the testimony, 15 years is a big time.

Prison Ministry, to tell you the Truth, it is easier than to Witness to your unsaved Neighbor. The inmates KNOW they have a Sin Problem, while you unsaved Neighbor does not think he has any problems.

I you see me when we are called before the Throne of Grace, come over to me, I got some one I want to meet. He is the person immediately on my Right. He was convicted of two murders, sentenced to Life with No Hope of Parole, and GOD chose Him to get a Parole, anyhow, do to over-crowding in the Prison, for good behavior. It took over 6 years to reach Him, one night a week, to lead Him to the LORD.

I had a guy on this thread, tell me, "I cannot believe any murderer will be pardoned by the LORD." I told Him Paul was a murderer when his name was Saul. Then I showed HIM THIS VERSE:

Matthew 25:36 (NIV)
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

You see, it was not me, it was Jesus Christ in me, that did the loving work of the Prison Ministry.

'Jesus take me as I am.. I can come no other way..' part of a christian song...

'People don't have to clean their life up first to come to Jesus.. they can just come. He'll save them, from the inside out..' - paraphrase from LeCrae's song.

Just song lyrics.. but true. If someone has to be already trying to reduce sin in their lives before Jesus will accept them.. then that's not love. He saves them as they are and then when they have the Holy Spirit.. then they have the unction to flee sin. Not before.

Thank You !

Way back then, when my wife and I first married; we were searching for Bible Teaching Church. One Sunday morning when we tried this one Church who happened to have a guest missionary from Africa, teaching the Sermon. As he closed his Sermon, he made this Statement:

"The reason I serve the Lord on the mission field in Africa, is because I don't want to get stuck with a little cabin out back on a bend in the Crystal River. I WANT THE BIGGEST, FANCIEST MANSION ON THE STREET OF GOLD."

My mouth fell OPEN. Since when does GREED, have anything to do with GOD. He will have a rude awakening, come the Rapture. On the way to the car, I Told my wife: "I don't Care what he said, I will take that little cabin of the Crystal River, I just want to be there."

Here is the Cabin, my mind eye, as I can picture it:


I can imagine I can see movement in that big picture window, and KNOW she is waiting for me to COME HOME.
Oh how I miss her!

True, but obviously I was speaking of the 'young and beautiful' which companion with your scriptured text.

Does everyone hear, know who Flavius Josephus was ? He was a historian born in 37 AD, and died in 100 AD. He wrote several History Books, and the Description of most of Ancient Jerusalem, including the Temple, and the Roman Fortress Antonia. He has very little respect, among the JEWS, in fact, many of them call him an exaggerator. That is despite he was raised as a member of one of the ascetic Jewish sects, who later became a Christian. Ascetic Jews, were known to never tell a lie, because that is a SIN. Yet, His writings are not respected by Jews, and brushed off as ramblings of an exaggerator.

I think the REAL RUB, is when coming from the Ascetic Jews, he actually became a Christian.

Josephus said:

The dual Colonnades (Covered Bridges) that ran from the southwestern corner of the Fortress, down to the north outer wall of the Temples was about a STADE, (600 feet).

Here is the best I could do picturing the Cloisters alone the eastern outer Wall of the TEMPLE.
He said the path the he was on, when it met the Eastern Cloister (Covered Walkway) that ran along the East side of the outer Temple wall, was on the OPHEL.

He said that the Palace of King David, was adjacent to the Temple, and King David's Palace was discovered in recent years by archaeologists, to be just south of the OPHEL.

Etc.



So, how come the Sanhedrin, and the Israeli government, keeps denying these obvious evidence for the OPHEL being the correct location of the TEMPLE?

My guess is they do not know HOW they are going to tell their people, have been Praying at the Wrong Wall, for Centuries. The wall they pray at, is part of Fortress Antonia.