All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Persecution
Tammy will be thrilled to know that Joyce Meyer's site was down a bit today and therefore, I took to listening to Jackie Francis Chan. LOL I gotta pull her chain on this occasionally.
So Chan is talking about how most people say they're not persecuted because we live in America and he disagrees. He says if we're not persecuted it is because we don't go to the dangerous places to preach. He quotes about Paul going into the places he knew were dangerous but doing so because that's where God told him to go.
Ok...so God told Paul to go there. To some He called as pastors, some teachers, some evangelists, etc. And to some...maybe He told them to be missionaries, to go into dangerous places, etc. Perhaps He has another call for others. If we're not being shot at, imprisoned or threatened with death...is that all there is to persecution? How about being refuted by relatives, neighbors, friends? They may not threaten our lives, but then did God tell each of us to leave your home and family and go into the most dangerous places you can find?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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I read my Bible daily. That is why I listen based on content and not author. I don't agree with everything from any of them. Some I agree more with than others, some only a little, and some, just a message or two and throw out the rest as garbage. God can use anyone to get His message out, even if they don't always preach exactly as we feel is right. I don't discount anyone based on what people think of them, but I discount messages based on their content.
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Permalink Reply by Grazer #E2H on
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That's a great position to take Seek. The one thing I've learned is that no matter who you listen to, someone will think they are a heretic or wolf in sheeps clothing. Reason is, they disagree with the views and think you should listen to them instead. Everyone believes they are right, that's natural; no one holds views they believe are wrong. Theological perfection is not a pre-requisite for getting into heaven though, there is room for different views in the vast majority of topics. I read a great quote on Twitter recently which said "Christ is the only way to God, but there are as many ways to Christ as there are people on the planet" and I think its absolutely true.
The acid test is how do we react when confronted with a different viewpoint.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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"Christ is the only way to God, but there are as many ways to Christ as there are people on the planet"
Define what you mean by different ways.
The acid test is how do we react when confronted with a different viewpoint.
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Grazer will have to answer for his viewpoint, but I too feel similar in that all of us come from different backgrounds. To some, God may give a more stern message. They have bold hearts, can easily become prideful, are self-sufficient, etc. To others, God may offer a lot of encouragement and hand holding as they come from backgrounds that gave them such a low opinion of themselves. They have no boldness, feel nothing they can ever do will be good enough, etc. To another, they may already have a heart for people, be very compassionate and yet lack in other areas, while another may have broken emotional ties that need healing before they can learn to love others. We're also all at various levels of spirituality. Kinda like saying God meets each of us where we are. And perhaps the messages that don't resonate with me (or someone else) are God inspired, and just meant for other ears. We have to work with what we can, always praying God will lead us.
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There are certain basics that are universal regarding coming to Christ that every person will experience if they are going to be saved. There is the understanding that every life is unique and thus the path is unique to a point, but no one will come to Christ without the basics of God's prescribed plan of salvation unfolding in their life.
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Your journey to Christ is not the same as mine, both are different to Seeks, who is different again to any other Christian. You may get a core of similarity but there many differences.
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Grazer,
I agree except that the core will not be similar, but the same. There are basics that cannot be avoided or left out regarding one coming to Christ. The externals, the life lived, etc may have great variance, but the basics remain the same for every human being as designed by God.
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What are those basics?
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Conviction regarding personal sin and a need for a Savior.
Conviction that Jesus is that Savior who died and rose again from the grave.
Conviction that Jesus dying on the cross shedding His blood for us is the payment required and only payment acceptable by Father God to cover our sins.
Conviction that through repentance forgiveness is granted and that I am a child of God by the grace of God through faith.
Those are four basic points that the Bible teaches.
To summarize them we find that I am a sinner deserving hell, but through the grace of God by faith I am able to repent and receive Jesus as my Savior acknowledging that He died on the cross and rose again, and that the shedding His blood is payment for my sin and brings forgiveness and new life.
Our journey to and through these steps may on the outside look different, but these steps cannot be missed or circumvented.
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LT - I agree with those 4, as you said the journey to acknowledging those 4 are very different from person to person.
Grace - unity and complete agreement are not the same thing. LT are I are on polar opposites of the theological spectrum but I would say we have unity in our aim; to worship Christ, spread the gospel and bring people to Christ. I would say we are also united in Christ (I can only speak doe myself LT will have to speak for himself if he chooses) but I disagree with him on many things, most of which don't affect salvation but I would still call him a brother in Christ. As for your first bit, I agree but everyone would say they pray and allow the Lord to direct them, doesn't stop them getting branded a heretic (and I've been branded one more times than I can count)
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Grazer,
Yes, as you know I have stated before and repeat here for others to see, I believe you love Jesus, seek to serve Him, and desire to do what is best for reaching people and for seeing them built up. Yes, we disagree on many things and, IMO, The disagreements mostly stem from the differences in our basic hermeneutics.
I do believe that if we ever met we would actually get along quite well and have many very ... VERY ... interesting conversations :-)
Lord Bless,
LT
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