This is such a beautiful prayer, singleguy. It touched my heart & from what I see, Trying's heart was touched as well.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I am blessed to have you as friends.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">As are we to have you in our lives as well. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my brother in Christ. I love you.

Aw shucks sis, <img border="0" title="" alt="[Embarrassed]" src="images/icons/blush.gif" /> I love you too!!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

singleguy

Hello everyone!!!!! hope everyone is doing well. It is awful quiet here today. Tell me you are OK.

singleguy

sg,

you are OK.

S&C

S&C,

Aw shucks bro <img border="0" title="" alt="[Embarrassed]" src="images/icons/blush.gif" /> I love you too!!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

singleguy

Is this the fourm for biblical truth? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

Seriously, I do have a question.

Back in one of my postings on another thread, lupolady (I'm paraphrasing here), states that God is displeased with my W's rebellion as Him, so this is why she is having various illnesses, etc. going on in her life. My question is, according to what I read in The Book of Job", God is allowing these things to happen to my W, by removing His grace from around her. Why would the devil want to hurt my W, when he can just let her be and she passes on as an unbeliever?

Note: She took herself to the ER yesterday because she had pains in her lower back. She thought it might be a woman's issue. Thank God, it was only a strain and mild siatica(sp).

Love in CHrist,
ttsmm

Caution:

I am going to try to paraphrase myself once again, and it could end up being JUST as confusing as the first comments (apparently) were! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

Trying, This is a spiritual battle. That IN ITSELF should explain it!

Your W is fighting GOD ALMIGHTY. She wants HER WAY, which I presume means you should disappear into a small, insignificant pond scum microbe and she could smash you under her filthiest shoe. Does that sound about right? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Well, anyway, back to the topic at hand.....This is a spiritual battle. God wants your w for Himself. It's that simple. When she was "going her own way" satan was happy......

Now, with YOU praying for change, praying for a Godly household, for God to move your W towards Him, all of these things affect the spirit world, and satan's world is being rocked.....that sets off a spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil, vying for the souls involved. Unfortunately, WE (You, really) are caught in-between.

DON'T quit praying, and fighting now!

We are all with you.

God Bless,

lupolady,

Well put!!!!

singleguy

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by tryingTOsaveMYmarriage:
<strong> Back in one of my postings on another thread, lupolady (I'm paraphrasing here), states that God is displeased with my W's rebellion as Him, so this is why she is having various illnesses, etc. going on in her life. My question is, according to what I read in The Book of Job", God is allowing these things to happen to my W, by removing His grace from around her. Why would the devil want to hurt my W, when he can just let her be and she passes on as an unbeliever?

Note: She took herself to the ER yesterday because she had pains in her lower back. She thought it might be a woman's issue. Thank God, it was only a strain and mild siatica(sp).

Love in CHrist,
ttsmm </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">TTSMM,

Lupolady answered very well, but let me see if I can shed some light on this. The Almighty God of the universe decided to give his children a mighty gift: free will to decide on our own to either turn toward Him freely--or turn away from Him.

Imagine if you will, a loving parent. The parent raises his/her child in a godly and moral fashion and hopes that one day the child will be a productive adult and have a good, loving, adult relationship with the parent. Then coms the TEENAGE YEARS (OY!). The teenager challenges everything the parent ever taught the child, including honesty, morality, and having a good relationship. The child has the free will to decide to turn toward a life of lying, crimes and ungodliness, but the parent's perfect will would be for the child to make the mistakes, realize the error of their way ON THEIR OWN, and willingly and wholeheartedly return to a life of purity and godliness because they want to.

This is what God wants. God wants us to want HIM.

Naturally, the devil does not want us to want God. The devil struggles against anything that God wants and a spiritual battle ensues...literally fighting for the soul of the person. But--God is wise. He allows the devil to bring those things into someone's life so that the person has the opportunity to turn TOWARD God on their own despite the suffering.

It's like the parent who allows their child to endure the consequences of their rebellious ways so that in the end, the child will return to an honest, godly life OF THEIR OWN ACCORD. No parent WANTS their child to have to sit in jail for shoplifting or writing bad checks or being drunk or prostitution, but sometimes allowing that suffering to happen is just what the child needs to "see the light" and choose to live a life where they don't end up in jail anymore.

Does that make sense??

I don't know that the devil wants to hurt your wife. I think it's more like he will desperately do anything he thinks he needs to do to have your wife's soul. If he just "left her alone since she's an unbeliever anyway"--well, DUH!! God loves her and will fight for her and wants her for his own. She is His dearly beloved, valuable daughter for whom He would suffer great pain to provide her a way to Himself. The devil knows, God is not going to just "let her go" --God LOVES her!!

See??


CJ

Time to resurect this post again!

The devil can't read minds, correct? Is he able to contol cirucmstances? I don't want to say what this yet, so I am going to be general, as I don't want the particulars of the situation to influence your answers.

Thur - A Christian at work, told me of her beliefs; much different than mine.
Fri - A show on TV, I was surfing, talked for two hours about those same beliefs.
Sat - The bulletin I rec'd at Easter Vigil mentioned a talk, run by our diocese's Inst. for Spiritual Devel. about these beliefs.

Can Satan line up these separate events on three separate days for ME? Or is God going to use me to denounce these beliefs when I go to this talk? Or is God saying, open your eyes and your mind, because this is part of My Church as well.

Sorry for being so cryptic, but I feel some of you will say, that there are so many parts to the "Body of Christ", while those same people might say "This teaching is Heresy(sp).

Thanks for your input.

God bless you,
ItsInHisHandsNow

ItsInHisHandsNow:

I'll try to be as vague as you are in my answer. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

First of all, ANY "beliefs you want to put your faith in MUST, I repeat - MUST line up with the scriptures. We are to "hide scripture in our hearts...." and this is the reason!!!

satan is a LIAR!! It's all he knows how to do. SOmetimes he appears "as an angel of light....." in order to confuse us..........we would trust an angel, right? It SURELY wouldn't lie to us?? After all, if it's an angel, then it must come from God? Surely satan wouldn't be able to "appear" in lots of different places with the SAME MESSAGE, would he?????

Circumstances cannot be trusted (especially any that leave you "wondering" - look at Job). THOUGHTS cannot be trusted. ANY "truth" anyone feeds you cannot be trusted unless it lines up with scripture. That's pretty much where you will find your answers for this dilemma.

KNOW THE SCRIPTURE. PRAY SCRIPTURE OVER THIS SITUATION AND ASK GOD TO OPEN YOUR (SPIRITUAL) EYES TO SEE TRUTH.

He IS ALIVE and HE IS STILL IN CONTROL!!

PTL \O/

God Bless,

<small>[ April 11, 2004, 07:14 AM: Message edited by: lupolady ]</small>

I haven't read this entire thread yet, but this is what I learnt:

The more we pray and the closer we get to God, the more jealous Satan becomes. He knows our weaknesses, and will work in subtle ways, distracting us or offering easy solutions to our problems God 'had not yet answer'.

Like the story of Job, God allows trials and testing to build our faith. Our willpower is not strong enough. Most times, we don't even have the wisdom for this battle. But God does. And we must remain faithful.

I want to share a little incident that happened last week. I am currently praying for me and my husband, and for God to salvage our marriage. For two days, I felt I had a little breakthrough in my communication with God. I was able to talk to him freely about all my troubles and worries, and I felt His loving closeness.

One morning, my best friend at work came up to my cubicle. She had keyed in my birthdate and my H's birthdate in an astrology website and was holding the results in her hands. Mmmm. I know enough not to go to fortune tellers, but hey, my girlfriend is bringing it to me. I couldn't resist. She read the results and I was amazed at how accurate they were. In fact, we had a good laugh. Ewwww! my husband is a lost case... there it is, in black and white, he is a born loser!! Yikes!! Will I live my entire married life to be miserable with this man? Why don't I divorce him now that I have the chance?

Doinky me! For a minute. For a mere minute, I frowned and I fretted. Then I asked, am I also saying that if I prayed and asked, God doesn't have the power to change things? I am asking for a believing husband, a husband whom I can pray and grow with, someone who can relate to God and perhaps one day, lead me in His ways. I know I am not asking for what I shouldn't have.

Not time to pat myself on the back yet, I expect a lot more to come. Everytime I worry, I tell God. Yes, the trials will continue to come, but if I remain close to Him, I will overcome them. God is moulding me to become the Christian wife I asked to be. When we backslide, there'll be fewer trials, we're sliding towards Satan's side! It's fun and easy all the way!! So which side do you want?

I do really want to express my heartfelt appreciation for those who have shared and prayed in this section of the MB Forum. I have learnt a lot, and I want to say thank you.

Since there have been only a few answers here, I'll give the whole story.

Thursday
An associate at work tells me her Christian belief is in Jehovah and that Christ is a great prophet, but NOT God. She told me I should read the Davinci Code, because there are other Gospels that have not been included in the current NT. She mentioned that in the painting of the Davinci's Last Supper, the apostle on Jesus's right hand side is Mary Magdalene. She is one referenced in the Bible as "...the apostle Jesus loved..." (at the cruxifiction).
I thought this was a bunch of nonsense, and said half heartedly that I would look into it.
When I checked Davinci and Mary as a search on the web, alot of pages came back. One of which has nothing to do with Davinci and Mary M (I'll mention more of that at the end of my posting here).

Friday
Found several documentries about this on cable. Interesting.

Saturday
In our weekly church bulletin, the Diocese's Institute for Spiritual Development is holding a meeting to discuss the Gnostic Gospels.

I know that God knows everything that will ever happpen; the number of hairs on our head; when we will take our last breath. Is Satan so powerful that he can line up these different approaches to me: co-worker, cable TV (scheduled at least 1 week in advance), and my church bulletin (printed at least 1 - 2 weeks in advance). Can Satan control these three different events, just to influence me?

Btw, I am going to attend this meeting. Perhaps God wants me to expose this teaching as heresey (Jesus and Mary M were married - <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="images/icons/mad.gif" /> ).

This is what I wanted to know from you wise folks.

God bless,
ItsInHisHandsNow

PS One site I checked on Davinci's Last Supper was the models he used for the painting. He picked a young man for Jesus and it took Davinci six months to paint him. After that he spent the next 6 - 7 years painting in the other apostles, while he looked for an evil man to sit for Judas. After searching all over, he was informed about a man in prison who would be perfect. When he met the man, the man apologized to him for how he destroyed his life. This man in prison, who was perfect for Judas, was the the young man, who sat for Jesus six years prior.

Come ON, IIHH...........
YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO BELIEVE THIS KIND OF STUFF...........

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial"><strong> An associate at work tells me her Christian belief is in Jehovah and that Christ is a great prophet, but NOT God. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">WARNING!! MAJOR MB 2 x 4 coming at ya.........

Once she said THIS, you should have quit listening.

Nothing past this point lines up with scripture, (IMNSVHO) so it doesn't even deserve the time it took to examine the validity of it.

Period.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial"><strong>PS One site I checked on Davinci's Last Supper was the models he used for the painting. He picked a young man for Jesus and it took Davinci six months to paint him. After that he spent the next 6 - 7 years painting in the other apostles, while he looked for an evil man to sit for Judas. After searching all over, he was informed about a man in prison who would be perfect. When he met the man, the man apologized to him for how he destroyed his life. This man in prison, who was perfect for Judas, was the the young man, who sat for Jesus six years prior. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This was an interesting side note, however.

lupo,
Thank you for your NSVHO <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" /> . This is WHY I was being so cryptic because I knew people would focus in on the content of the individual events and not where the events came from.

So I'll ask again. Is the devil SO powerful that he can arrange these three events, with their different timetables, occur one day after another. I know Satan can put thoughts in our minds, but can he control three separate entities (co-worker, TV broadcast and church announcements) towards one individual, ME?

God bless,
IIHHN

IIHHN (aka "G"):

I think you know I love you in a Christlike way here my brother, but don't you think you're being rather arrogant to think that Satan would go to all that trouble "for you"?? I mean, I'm sure Satan jealously covets each soul he can steal--but did it honestly not occur to you that the scheduling of the show on cable might have had more to do with the station director working too many hours and harming HIS marriage, and the cable content editor starting to believe this stuff and destroying HER faith, and the co-worker at work beginning to believe in occultic gibberish and destroying HER relationship with God, and the archdiocese was just an interesting coincide of them preaching about how deceiptful and half-true the Gnostic gospels can be...and that's why they were not included??

My heavens, that's a body count of THREE souls that Satan can affect (and it's probably MUCH MORE) and you are thinking it's "because of you"!!!! I bet he did it for the THREE OR MORE!!! And yeah, he can mess with things for the destruction of so many lives.

Like I said, I care about you and think you are a wonderful brother--but stop toying with this, G. It's not of God, and the more you allow your mind to wander here, the more you will lose your focus which is right relations with God. What does right relationship with God have to do with all this??? Nothing.

BTW, I'm not being harsh here--as in my tone is not yelling but more like surprise. You fell right for this trick! Your mind is off your marriage, off your wife, off God--and on this silly nonsense of "Can Satan coordinate all of this just to mess with me?"

PPffffft <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> (in that sheesh kind of way) Put your mind on more mature spiritual thoughts than this okay???


CJ

INHHN

In one word... YES!

Just for you? No. One thing I 've learned is the enemy is very efficiant in his work. He's had a long time to practice and he's got a third of the angles helping him. He's taking aim at a few people.

Now that you've recognized this; focus back on God and help others focus on Him too.

Blessing to you.

S&C

See, noone wanted to give an answer to this when I had it very cryptic, without the mention of Gnosticism, just the events themselves. Again, the question was is Satan powerful enough to line this up one day after another? for me ( I was being mostly facitious(sp) here by saying "me").

Would I beleive any Gnostic writings, No. How I can beleive writings where they believe the God of the OT was an evil God and they only beleive in Jesus (or the other flawed beliefs).

As for believing this drivel(sp), I think it is important to understand the way the enemy changes the Word of God. Ok, those "missing" gospels are 99.9% a bunch of heresey. And how much of it has infiltrated the bibles we currently use as Christians? I don't know chapter and verse, but,
... "Glory to God in the highest. Peace towards men of good will." was changed to "...Peace and good will towards men." Look at the huge difference in that. If you are not following God's precepts and commands, should you have peace?
... "...she will strike at your heal." became, "...he will strike at your heal." The original showed that not only would Satan be less than Jesus, but the woman who would bore Him, Mary, would be even greater than the devil.
... "and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life." becomes, "and without him nothing was made. What was made in him was life." (John 1:3b-4a).

Why do the modern bibles (many of them) say "he" and "him" and "you", instead of "He", "Him" and "You" when they write God's Word?

There is no justifiable reason for the numerous amount of translations of God's Word. If you to change "sheweth" to "show" put it in notes at the beginning of the bible, before getting into His Word. I have on my PDA 7 different versions of the Bible, all valid without today's world. However, if I were to pick any verse and select them in more than one Bible, there will be differences most of the time.

That's my humble opinion.

As for the devil lining these up. I don't think so. As for God, yes. I think He wants me to take these statements I sheweth <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" /> you above and let others know that even in our mainstream bibles, there are flaws with every translation. God willing, I want to learn to read Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek someday so I will better understand the text and its true meaning.

God bless and thank you for your VHO's <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> ,
G

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by ItsInHisHandsNow:
<strong> the question was is Satan powerful enough to line this up one day after another?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I believe he is.

Read Job.

What satan wanted to do with Job was "approved" by God. It was quite a spectacle.

lupo,
Thank you. So this could be a test from God?

God bless,
IIHHN