Robynwelo1:


I suspect you are disguising as a christian.

Anyways, There are many heavens and hells so get ready to share yourself into many parts after you die.

A part of you will be in the Christian heaven, other parts will be in Allah's, Ra's, Vishnu's, FSM's and the rest's hell.

Same applies to Muslims, Buddhist... etc

But atheists, na them go suffer pass.

bigocean:
when a person finds "MERCY" before God, "Grace" follows. Remember the spirit controls the physical so "Grace" is the enabling power to achieve great/difficult/unusual goals with ease.

I give you an example of a business owner who is in a competitive market. If GRACE is upon him, he would always excel above his competitors.

Robynwelo1:


I suspect you are disguising as a christian.

Anyways, There are many heavens and hells so get ready to share yourself into many parts after you die.

A part of you will be in the Christian heaven, other parts will be in Allah's, Ra's, Vishnu's, FSM's and the rest's hell.

Same applies to Muslims, Buddhist... etc

But atheists, na them go suffer pass.

CuteMadridista:


I was banned https://www.thoughtco.com/the-bible-belt-1434529

DavidEsq:

Wow! Don't u think it wld be clearer if u used scriptures to explain and back it up?

bigocean:
yea, there are quit a number of verses to explain it but let me use these two:-

- Heb 4:16 :- LET US THEN APPROACH GOD'S THRONE OF GRACE WITH CONFIDENCE, SO THAT WE MAY RECEIVE MERCY AND FIND GRACE TO HELP US IN OUR TIME OF NEED.

-Acts 6:8 :- NOW, STEPHEN A MAN FULL OF GODS GRACE AND POWER PERFORMED GREAT WONDERS AND SIGNS AMONG THE PEOPLE.

did the above scriptures help?

bigocean:
yea, there are quit a number of verses to explain it but let me use these two:-

- Heb 4:16 :- LET US THEN APPROACH GOD'S THRONE OF GRACE WITH CONFIDENCE, SO THAT WE MAY RECEIVE MERCY AND FIND GRACE TO HELP US IN OUR TIME OF NEED.

-Acts 6:8 :- NOW, STEPHEN A MAN FULL OF GODS GRACE AND POWER PERFORMED GREAT WONDERS AND SIGNS AMONG THE PEOPLE.

did the above scriptures help?

DavidEsq:

Hm.... I see. If u look at Acts 6:9-10. It tells us that the result of the grace and power on Stephen. Which is that he was filled with scriptural wisdom and knowledge which in turn was seen in his preaching. In Acts 7:54-60, we see that Stephen is faced with a difficult situation and was killed as a result of that difficult situation. What was the "great, unusual goal" which he achieved in that situation of imminent death?
Secondly, Is this grace not also referred to as God's undeserved kindness?
As for Hebrews 4:16, it is a conclusion of verses 14 and 15, which speaks of Jesus Christ as our high priest, whose ransom sacrifice has made it possible for us to approach God with a clear conscience (which is the same as confidence). So the approaching of the throne in verse 16 is in appreciation of the ransome sacrifice of Jesus Christ via prayers. Now the "help" that we wld receive in the time of need is wat exactly? Is it strength to cope with our challenges or absolute victory over our challenges. I sincerely appreciate ur drive and wld be grateful for more clarification on dis.

Robynwelo1:


The whole of that passage is trying to tell you that those things they did in the past are not valid anymore.
If God felt the need to bring Jesus, the high priest into the World, it's to correct some things that were not right. If those rules where perfect there would be no need for Jesus to come.

So Jesus the ultimate High Priest has come to give us the perfect rule.
Further down the passage, it says, Those animals that were sacrificed as offerings, No need for that anymore cause Jesus is the perfect offering. He has done it once for us all, so we are no longer indebted to God.

Also Note that only the Levite's were instructed by God then to collect tithes. And only the tribe of Israel were instructed to pay tithes. Other tribes like Judah did not pay tithes.

Also Note that not once did Jesus and his disciples collect tithes or asked us to tithe. When Jesus taught us about giving( the widows mite), he encouraged us to give with our whole hearts, not necessarily a percentage or amount.

jesmond3945:
you are wrong going to church is one of the measurement criteria including what you mentioned.

remi1444:
impressive. are you a JW?

desiredhome:
While going to Church is good, not disputing that, but it is important to note that, the reason you go to Church is so that you have a transformed life (Christ like) by u demonstrating the Christianity in you outside the Church, a lot of people go to Church for eye service

majekdom2:
work without faith does not work. I don't know where you got this from. Non believers use the word hope... Nothing works without hope. This is faith to me. Believing something will work, being positive about your work and actions. In business publications, you see words like outlook. It means they are looking to something, hoping and working towards it. This is how life has made it.

Martinez19:
Go and read your bible and get what faith is.

majekdom2:
faith is a borrowed word in the bible. The origin of faith is not the bible. I am not here to debate biblical faith or dictionary faith

Martinez19:
The faith hopefulLandlord, the guy whom you mentioned, was talking about is the biblical faith. Works without biblical faith works, biblical faith without work fails. It's either you believe the biblical faith or not, don't be arrogant to say he doesn't know what he is saying because he didn't employ your definition. I won't be surprised if despite your twisted notion of faith, which contradicts biblical faith, you are still a christian. After all, as I rightly said in my last topic, moderation is about convenience not what the holy books say.

majekdom2:
you are limiting faith here to religion. Faith is belief in something. When you work you have to believe in that work for it to succeed. This is what people call hope. Whichever, you need faith or hope for your work to succeed.

Martinez19:
The faith hopefulLandlord, the guy whom you mentioned, was talking about is the biblical faith. Works without biblical faith works, biblical faith without work fails. It's either you believe the biblical faith or not, don't be arrogant to say he doesn't know what he is saying because he didn't employ your definition. I won't be surprised if despite your twisted notion of faith, which contradicts biblical faith, you are still a christian. After all, as I rightly said in my last topic, moderation is about convenience not what the holy books say.

hopefulLandlord:


Don't mind that guy. he started conflating hope and faith with biblical faith. talk about dishonesty

majekdom2:
work without faith ( biblical/ non biblical) WILL never work. This is because you have not believed in the work. For your work to "work", you got to believe in it. This is "faith". The substance of things hoped for. Why did I say it will not work. This is because success is never a one time thing. Never. You keep trying and trying till you get it right. If you do not have faith, you won't try. You won't put your best after you have failed different times. There is a strong correlation between the following words- faith, hope, tenacity, patience and success. Where you mention one, expect to mention another. When people give up, they have lost faith, hope or patience. So you see for your work to work, there needs to be an element of faith.

majekdom2:
you are limiting faith here to religion. Faith is belief in something. When you work you have to believe in that work for it to succeed. This is what people call hope. Whichever, you need faith or hope for your work to succeed.

Martinez19:
The biblical/definition of faith is different from the "English language" definition of faith. The faith you are talking about is different from that of religious faith. There is no case of limit the definition of faith here. It's just that you lack of understanding and that's why I said go and read the bible to understand the meaning of biblical faith.

majekdom2:
work without faith ( biblical/ non biblical) WILL never work. This is because you have not believed in the work. For your work to "work", you got to believe in it. This is "faith". The substance of things hoped for. Why did I say it will not work. This is because success is never a one time thing. Never. You keep trying and trying till you get it right. If you do not have faith, you won't try. You won't put your best after you have failed different times. There is a strong correlation between the following words- faith, hope, tenacity, patience and success. Where you mention one, expect to mention another. When people give up, they have lost faith, hope or patience. So you see for your work to work, there needs to be an element of faith.

majekdom2:
according to dictionary faith is: complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
According to the bible: being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Since many of you find it hard to comprehend: we hope for something, so in the bible, faith is being sure of something, something that is yet to come to reality. According to the dictionary: complete trust means being sure. So, we are being sure or confident in someone or something. You can be sure of the work of your hands to give positive results. The positive results here is hope because you have not yet seen it or know it. So is there really a difference here Ignorance is the problem with many of you thus you are not patient with people's belief. I am not disputing the fact that there a lazy people that use "religious faith" as cover but please always think broad.

bigocean:
Ok, 1st let me take you back to the example i made with the businessman in a competitive market, now stephens own "TRADE" was "PREACHING" and because of the GRACE he had, he was filled with scriptural wisdom & knowledge which meant he excelled in his trade(preaching)

Secondly, yes GRACE is the unmerited FAVOUR of God. I want you to know that the greatest loss of any believer on earth is not the physical death here but not meeting the creator.
Acts7:55 said stephen looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God(that was still grace at work) and if you read down you will notice that stephen was in agreement, he wanted to be with the father in heaven. He had already seen where he was going. Verses59-60 said he called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit(That was all that mattered to him in his trade). He even prayed that God should not count this sin against his afflictors. KJV said after he said that, he fell ASLEEP(the world would say died). No, he didn't die, he FELL ASLEEP and woke up at the masters side in heaven. That was his whole desire in life as a PREACHER and GRACE did not fail him.

Thirdly, 2corinth12:7-9 paul besought God 3 times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed but God said unto him "my GRACE is sufficient for thee: for my strenght is made perfect in weakness".
So, GRACE is both strenght to endure challenges and also absolute victory over challenges as would best benefit the purpose of your faith in God.

Martinez19:
The hope and faith non-belivers have usually has a logical basis in reality eg. I believe Chelsea will beat West Ham (there is a good reason to believe so). Most times, with some exception, the hope and faith of non-belivers is not absolutely certain to materialise and even non-belivers admit that there are probabilities that their hope and faith may fail. It's when the chances are high or significant that they start having hopes and faith.

For the christian, faith is believing(with certainty) without evidence. Unlike the unbelievers, they are certain that they are correct and can't be wrong even though they have no basis or evidence. What are those things believed?
1) The existence of god.
2) The entire bible.

If you believe the bible, you would believe that if you pray to God to heal your diseases without going to hospital, it would work. No unbeliever has the hope, confidence or faith to try such rubbish.

The bible says that faith is SUBSTANCE of things hoped for and EVIDENCE of things not seen. Ponder on the upper case words and you will see that that verse describes the function of faith in christianity not it's definition. When believing without evidence or concrete basis is the substance of what you hope for and is the evidence of things not you don't see then you are plain stupid. This shows your entire religion has no basis in reality.

Please, please, please and please, go and read your bible.
Cc. hopefulLand.lord, HardMir.ror,

Martinez19:
The hope and faith non-belivers have usually has a logical basis in reality eg. I believe Chelsea will beat West Ham (there is a good reason to believe so). Most times, with some exception, the hope and faith of non-belivers is not absolutely certain to materialise and even non-belivers admit that there are probabilities that their hope and faith may fail. It's when the chances are high or significant that they start having hopes and faith.

For the christian, faith is believing(with certainty) without evidence. Unlike the unbelievers, they are certain that they are correct and can't be wrong even though they have no basis or evidence. What are those things believed?
1) The existence of god.
2) The entire bible.

[b]If you believe the bible, you would believe that if you pray to God to heal your diseases without going to hospital, it would work. [/b]No unbeliever has the hope, confidence or faith to try such rubbish.

The bible says that faith is SUBSTANCE of things hoped for and EVIDENCE of things not seen. Ponder on the upper case words and you will see that that verse describes the function of faith in christianity not it's definition. When believing without evidence or concrete basis is the substance of what you hope for and is the evidence of things not you don't see then you are plain stupid. This shows your entire religion has no basis in reality.

Please, please, please and please, go and read your bible.
Cc. hopefulLandlord, HardMirror,

Martinez19:
The hope and faith non-belivers have usually has a logical basis in reality eg. I believe Chelsea will beat West Ham (there is a good reason to believe so). Most times, with some exception, the hope and faith of non-belivers is not absolutely certain to materialise and even non-belivers admit that there are probabilities that their hope and faith may fail. It's when the chances are high or significant that they start having hopes and faith.

For the christian, faith is believing(with certainty) without evidence. Unlike the unbelievers, they are certain that they are correct and can't be wrong even though they have no basis or evidence. What are those things believed?
1) The existence of god.
2) The entire bible.

If you believe the bible, you would believe that if you pray to God to heal your diseases without going to hospital, it would work. No unbeliever has the hope, confidence or faith to try such rubbish.

The bible says that faith is SUBSTANCE of things hoped for and EVIDENCE of things not seen. Ponder on the upper case words and you will see that that verse describes the function of faith in christianity not it's definition. When believing without evidence or concrete basis is the substance of what you hope for and is the evidence of things not you don't see then you are plain stupid. This shows your entire religion has no basis in reality.

Please, please, please and please, go and read your bible.
Cc. hopefulLandlord, HardMirror,

bigocean:
Ok, 1st let me take you back to the example i made with the businessman in a competitive market, now stephens own "TRADE" was "PREACHING" and because of the GRACE he had, he was filled with scriptural wisdom & knowledge which meant he excelled in his trade(preaching)

Secondly, yes GRACE is the unmerited FAVOUR of God. I want you to know that the greatest loss of any believer on earth is not the physical death here but not meeting the creator.
Acts7:55 said stephen looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God(that was still grace at work) and if you read down you will notice that stephen was in agreement, he wanted to be with the father in heaven. He had already seen where he was going. Verses59-60 said he called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit(That was all that mattered to him in his trade). He even prayed that God should not count this sin against his afflictors. KJV said after he said that, he fell ASLEEP(the world would say died). No, he didn't die, he FELL ASLEEP and woke up at the masters side in heaven. That was his whole desire in life as a PREACHER and GRACE did not fail him.

Thirdly, 2corinth12:7-9 paul besought God 3 times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed but God said unto him "my GRACE is sufficient for thee: for my strenght is made perfect in weakness".
So, GRACE is both strenght to endure challenges and also absolute victory over challenges as would best benefit the purpose of your faith in God.

majekdom2:
again. Your type is quick to mention religion because of the bias you have for it. The same bible tells you pray that your faith may not fail. Now if the Bible does not believe one’s faith can fail will what the be in the Bible. Go to your dictionary again, you will see complete trust.... faith does not nullify the place of planB or other options or contingency plans. Like I said you have related wiTh the Christians that use faith to cover for weaknesses. There is no where in the Bible where one is told not to take medications or go to hospital. @ bolded, shows clearly the type of Christians you have related with and why you have come with your silly assumptions. Whoever stays at home without going for medical care and believes he will be healed is wasting his time. The work in this situation is going to the hospital and faith without work is dead. You can’t be believing God for healing and not be taking care of yourself. That’s plain stupidity. Like I told you clearly, the God factor is the differentiating factor. Being spiritual in every situation is what makes the Christian faith different not the fact that you do not do things required and expect results. Faith without deeds is dead!!!!!. The substance of things hoped for- what you are doing, evidence of things not seen- belief that you have the results. There is no where the required actions are nullified. Relate broadly with Christians and don’t mix up the Bible you know nothing about.

Martinez19:
Are you alright? Do you think you are chatting with an atheist that doesn't really know much of christianity. I am an ex-christian and I read and digested the bible very well so stop your dishonesty, it's annoying. Or perhaps you are ignorant of christianity and you need to read your bible. Your understanding of "... pray that your faith will not fail" is too unimpressive. Let me explain.

You purposely and dishonestly(or perhaps ignorantly) left out the fact that, in Luke 22:32, it was Jesus saying that he has prayed for Peter that his faith will not fail. It was not a general commandment to all believers that they should pray so that their faith will not fail. A faith failing doesn't mean that faith, if applied correctly, will sometimes fail or is uncertain instead it means that your belief in god and christianity crumbles ie. you are beginning to/have disbelieved in god and Christianity. In Peter's case, Jesus prayed so that Peter would not disbelieve due to hardship and trials and that when he is strong, he will strengthen his brother's faith. Stop twisting things. According to the bible, faith is sufficient to heal diseases and disease won't be healed if your faith fail(as I explained). Please, read your bible.

Please, please, please and please read your bible.

Martinez19:
@majekdom2

You also need to ask yourself what are those things hoped for and what those things not seen.

THINGS HOPED FOR(A):
1) promises in the bible eg. answered prayer(faith healing and others), prophecies(second coming) etc.
2) guaranteed results of following rules stated in the bible eg. have faith(even as little as a mustard seed) and you will get whatsoever you ask for God in prayer according to his will; protection of his children ; if you believe in God and keep his commandments you will go to heaven, etc.

THINGS NOT SEEN(B):
All that constitute the so-called supernatural eg. God, Jesus, holy spirit, angels, Satan, demons, hell, heavens and others.

Faith is the evidence and substance of the certainty and eventual materialisation(where appropriate) of A and B. Looking at this, it becomes clear that faith, in the bible, is simply believing, without any basis and/or evidence, the doctrines of christianity(which includes A and B). Also according to Heb. 11:6, you are must have faith to believe in God and it's a condition to please him( a cunning strategy to bound people and subject to maintaining faith in god). If you believe in God by faith, you will automatically believe the entire bible by faith.

So we can accurately see that in christianity, believing(without evidence or any logical basis) is the evidence of things hoped for, things not seen(eg. existence of god and all supernatural) and the entire bible. Please read your bible.