William Wallace, a revolutionary and protagonist in the film “Braveheart” said: “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” Most of us are aware that at a future date we will die. At times we can be scared of what comes after, we can be filled with shame or fear, we can be lacking confidence in our eternal destiny, and as a result we do not truly live. Our body may be alive, its cells titillating with the energy of life, but our spirit is burdened with the unbearable weight of eternal uncertainty. This is the fear that I myself grew up in. To whom the debt for my fear is owed, I cannot say, nonetheless I was paralyzed for much of my young life. Perhaps it was the Christian culture I was raised in, or the misapplication of law passages like James 2:10. Very likely it was a combination of the two and the evaluation of my own failures as I struggled to attain Biblical and cultural perfection. At the end of every day I would beg God to forgive me for the many weaknesses and failures of that day, hoping He would forgive me, knowing that if He did not, I might die in my sleep and surely end up in hell. My assurance of salvation proceeded from primarily one thing, how well I was fulfilling Gods commands.

If it was a good day, and I stayed out of trouble, avoided lying, didn’t lust, didn’t play computer games or watch TV, I would go to bed thinking I was possibly safe. Though to be sure, I would ask God to forgive me for the sins “I forgot about.” The next day at school a kid would show me a porno picture, hidden discreetly between the pages of his notebook, and once again, I was uncertain if I was indeed going to heaven. I would lay in bed and mentally try to make myself competent, finding good deeds that would outweigh the bad of the day. I would seek out sinful acts by “Bible heroes” hoping to convince God that since David got into heaven after killing someone and committing adultery, I would still be allowed in, after all I hadn’t yet killed anyone. I did hear about Jesus and forgiveness, or that the “blood of Jesus washes all sins,” but from what I understood that was a very serious thing, if the blood washed you and made you clean, and that cleanliness was the only thing that could get you into heaven, then you had better not get your robes dirty again, or else you would lose it, and maybe God would not re-wash them for you. I even heard it preached that if you “lose” the Holy Spirit, God would likely not forgive you and you would be doomed. And so I was locked in perpetual fear and insignificance, barely able to keep afloat in a raging storm that seemingly wanted to swallow me and send me to hell. Yet, this is not the type of dreaded existence and lack of confidence the Lord has called Christians to (2 Pet 1:10).

Read the rest at: http://ask.yuriyandinna.com/2012/05/22/know-you-are-saved/

Youre welcome.

Perhaps many JW's themselves are nice people and dont mean harm, but I agree the organization is very faulty and has cult-like (sect) tendencies.

Magic tricks? They are simple illusions and tricks.

Iinvocational "magic" is the act of calling upon some kind of spirits for certain manifestations is both forbidden by Scripture and can result in many problems.

If you are referring to the diversity of interpretations and beliefs that claim to come from Scripture I would say there are a couple of reasons that are pretty similar. The first and foremost is the lack of strong hermeneuts (science of interpretation) on the account of the reader. Unfortunately many people are not able to understand the Christian teaching that while all of the Bible is God-inspired, not every section is the same genre or style. There are historical accounts, dialogue, poetry, songs, allegory and apocalyptic literature in Scripture. All are read differently, much the same way you read a history book and a poem differently. Or during a conversation you understand that idioms or slang are not always literal even though they do convey meaning. So the first reason is the lack of historic and grammatical background and understanding, meaning we come to the Bible and interpret it the way we feel or think it should be interpreted, instead of letting the original context dictate it.

The second reason is likely that we elevate our logic, tradition, or emotions to outweigh the things that we read. If we read something about being joyful, but our culture and tradition teaches that smiling and joy is a sign of being stupid, then we use our culture to ignore the Bible. So we will say something like, "thats not what the Bible means, to be joyful means to avoid looking happy, indeed we are to look sad and stoic, but just be joyful inside" or etc.

A third possible reason is that we simply let our sinful nature dictate our understanding. If we think sex outside of marriage is very pleasing, then we begin to change the Bible to accommodate our sinful desires. We begin to seek in Scripture ways to counteract what it truly and simply says. We will use one obscure passage out of context to prove away tens that strongly discount our desires.

I am sure there are probably more reasons, and every person is different (which may also be a reason namely that describe the same thing with different words).

Not necessarily. It could be the case that his heart and mind is committed to nothing but his own pleasures and he will do exactly what he wants. It also could be that he is repentant and while he did do it in the past, he is now a committed "one woman man."

It all depends on his deepest convictions.

The most important thing is that they deny Jesus is the son of God. I had a JW friend that I wrote this blog for showing 12 reasons that Jesus is indeed God:

http://egblog.yuriyandinna.com/2011/05/27/reasons-jesus-is-god/

Thank you :)

Mojna pramo zdez

Is internet a hobby?

You should hand if off to God and quit worrying about it. If they are meant to be married to you, they will eventually fall in love with you; if they are not, then there is no use crying about it.

"Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!"
Psalm 47:1

Yahweh

My wife got it at H & M; great store.

Jesus does't allow you to marry someone who is not Christian, if you do so, you are acting in rebellion against Jesus. If you marry an unChristian man, with serious problems, you prove to yourself that you care more about your feelings than about what Jesus said.

There are many people who have feeling that pass and go away. There are no people, to my knowledge, who have married an unchristian spouse and had a perfect and happy life. It doesnt even make sense how that could be.

Just because someone is nice to you doesn't mean you fall in love, what if a psycho serial killer was nice to you? would you fall in love with him too? Please splash some cold water on your face and leave him alone. The best thing you can do for him is pray. If you truly love him, encourage him to plant himself in church and to repent, if he cannot prove to you that he is a true Christian for a some period of time before trying to start a relationship how can he love you?

Seriously think about this, he is unable to be responsible, he is unwilling to do whats best for you (a husband who can lead financially, physically, and spiritually) and he claims he loves you? No way that can be true.

God does forgive, however, if the guy cannot yet be a responsible and dedicated Christian, do not date him and encourage him towards love or romance.

Encourage him to find Jesus, become planted in a church, and after a year or so of him proving himself as a faithful man, submissive to Jesus, only and only and only and only and only then think about romance, love, and marriage.

Don't, under any circumstance make excuses such as saying he will change and rush into a relationship. First let him change, then you can talk about romance.

God does forgive, however, if the guy cannot yet be a responsible and dedicated Christian, do not date him and encourage him towards love or romance.

Encourage him to find Jesus, become planted in a church, and after a year or so of him proving himself as a faithful man, submissive to Jesus, only and only and only and only and only then think about romance, love, and marriage.

Don't, under any circumstance make excuses such as saying he will change and rush into a relationship. First let him change, then you can talk about romance.

Some, perhaps; all, probably not. In my reading about the Amish I have found that there is a very strong permeation of legalism and salvation by works in their community.

The only reason it freaks you out is that you are allowing yourself the option of having a man who is not a Christian as your spouse and merely renaming his un-Christianity as "problems as we all do." Don't lie to yourself, if this is a specific person, there is a reason you are asking this question, its because you are not even sure if he is a Christian, which seems to hint that he isn't.

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Cor 6:14)

The Scripture commands that believers only marry believers, simply refuse to marry someone who is not a devout Christian. If he says "yea I kind of believe in a God" that is not even close to being a Christian, even demons believe in some kind of a God. Someone must love and confess Jesus Christ as his Savior from sin, Lord and God. I wrote a blog about being married to people of other faiths that may help you: http://ask.yuriyandinna.com/2011/11/14/romance-other-religions/

As far as knowing whether they are a true Christian, you must engage in serous discussion with this man and spend some time testing what he means by all the things that he says. Do not even think about marrying someone without either pastoral premarital counseling and/or taking hours and hours of discussing what you and he believe, that would be the worst mistake of your life, unless neither he nor you cares, in which case, neither he nor you are likely even Christians. John Piper has a list of questions that he encourages couples to discuss before considering marriage, and I would recommend you to look at this list and go through it with any guy who is planning on marrying you. If this guy is not willing to discuss what he believes, its likely he doesn't care either. And if he doesn't care, that is evidence that he may not even be saved. And if you aren't sure that he is saved, then don't even think about marrying him.
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/questions-to-ask-when-preparing-for-marriage

The only mission field that the Bible forbids believers to embark on is specifically marrying someone to save them; don't disobey the Bible. Again, it could be the worst mistake of your life. If you do not date an unbeliever, then you will not marry an unbeliever, then you will not have to worry about things like predestination (in any event who are we to discuss who is predestined or not, we are only called to preach the word and share the good news.)

I grew up hearing people say that they normally “heard the voice of God.” At varying times I tried to listen in for an audible voice that would call my name, much like it called Samuels, but alas I heard nothing. At the time I felt those who heard it were super spiritual and I was not, but if I persisted in long prayers, contemplative meditations, fasted, abstained from _____ (insert random hobby) long enough then I too would become spiritual enough to hear the voice of God. Later in my life, two things caused me to reconsider my naïve view; these things included a thorough reading of Scripture and seeing the paths blazed by those claiming daily hear Gods audible word. Yes, I believe we can, and indeed should, hear Gods voice; no I don’t think hearing God’s audible voice, or the receiving of new special revelations from God should be on our daily agenda, as some insist.

Read the rest at: http://ask.yuriyandinna.com/2012/04/10/hearing-gods-voice/

cont below

I am glad she has a friend like you, and I pray that God would use your loving involvement to change her heart, character, desires, and behaviors. However, as far as what you can do, remember there is a limit to how much you can influence another person. Its very unfortunate, but you cannot force someone to change for the better, if that were so we wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit to open sinners hearts, but could simply force everyone. The good news is that the Holy Spirit does precisely that, and through prayer and a gentle relationship with this girl, you may be the instrument the Holy Spirit uses to save her from her self-destructive ways.

You should do three things, pray, investigate her motives, and show her the cure is Jesus.

The first thing you should earnestly focus on is prayer. It sounds like she is a Christian or at least was raised in the church. In any case first pray that God would really reveal Himself to her and she would truly know Jesus. The Apostle Paul said three tremendous life-changing prayers that you could adapt and pray from. The man who God used to write the Bible, had similar problems with people who were falling into sin, and thus he prayed for them to have a mind which could discern (understand) what is wrong, a life that is worthy of the Savoir, and strength from the Holy Spirit that would help Christians overcome failure and sin. If you pray along with Paul, the Lord may grant her grace and lead her to repentance. Honest to goodness, prayer is the means by which God accomplishes much in our world.

Read the rest here: http://ask.yuriyandinna.com/2012/04/15/oversexed-friend/