Originally posted by skythewood:Whatever you guys are discussing, you are scaring the new guy...
If the new guy is really new, someone has to put the fear of the Lord in him. LOL. But I am really the Devil's Advocate now...
read the gospels, then read Romans. then genesis
read about Jesus' divine birth, How God loved us so much, He rather give up His precious only begotten Son than to be seperated from us for eternity.
Read about how Jesus, leaving the glory of heaven, and becoming a small cell in a woman's womb. How Jesus leaving the splendor of heaven, and becoming a human baby in a cold, damp, smelly manger in a stable.
From needing absolutely nothing, to needing air, food, water, warm clothes, and salts for his tired feet.
From being everywhere, going anywhere, at anytime, to being limited in movement, going only where his feet and stamina can take him.
From being the ultimate authority of the universe, to submiting to human authority, meeting the demands of cranky customers at his carpentry shop who wanted everything yesterday, but can't pay for anything until tomorrow.
Read about Jesus' life and ministry, His passion, His grace, His love to all sinners. Read about his declaration about himself, how he condemned the hypocricy of religious leaders and reached out a loving hand to a woman who lived a life of sin whom they were about to stone and kill.
Read about how he searches the hearts of those who seek him, affirms the discouraged, heal the sick, comfort the sorrowful, and protect the shamed.
Read about how he delivered his messages of love and peace, and watch how he delivered those who are demonically oppressed.
While you're reading about his divinity, read about his humanity, he suffered hunger, loss, sadness, joy, fear, abandonment, and death.
Read about his death, every painful stroke of the whip tearing into his flesh, tearing apart his back. The crown of thorns crueling shoved into his face, before the roman soldiers forced him to drag the crushing weight of the cross on his torned back. Read about how the soldiers abused Jesus, despite only being given the order to whip him. How they played games with Jesus, punching him and asking him to guess who did it, spitting on his face, an act not to injure the body, but injure the soul.
and then finally, hear the thud of each stroke of the heavy hammer driving the coarse nail into God's hand.
Read about how Jesus, hanging from the cross at the top of the mountain surrounded by demons all around, choose to stay silent, while legions of angels were begging to Christ to just speak the word, and they would immediately be at his side, to save him and destroy all who laid a hand on him.
And hear the resounding verdict in the hallowed halls of heaven, pronouncing the sins of every slut and sailor since Adam and Eve, and hear the cry of Jesus, weak, but victorious, proclaiming that "It is finished".
Read about what happened to the temple at the point where Jesus finally died, the cloth seperating the tabanacle in the holy of holies (where God's presence resides) was torn into 2, from top to bottom, symbolizing that now, everyone who puts their faith in Jesus can come into the holy of holies without worrying about being slain for their sins.
After reading about His death, go ahead and read about His ressurection, how death is trumphed. We have every reason to believe, to have hope, is because of Jesus' ressurrection.
In the ancient times, a priest stands before God on behalf of the people, representing the people. If the priest was clean, the people are blessed, if the priest screwed up, the people miss out on God's blessings, as accordance to the old covenant, do good, get good, do bad, get beat.
Read about how Jesus is now the high priest for all of us, forever perfect, forever holy, representing us. He understands all our problems, how exactly we feel when things go bad, and intercedes for us.
essentially it's good to read about the past in the old testament also,
from genesis, since Jesus fulfilled the laws, so u must understand how sin and the law came about, etc. and the bible says we inherit the blessings of abraham, so what was the covenant of abraham, why is he called a man of faith, despite him doing so many faithless things etc.
read how the earth was created, how everything that God made was good. Remember that everything that God created is good.
Read how satan fooled adam and eve into sinning against God, introducing sin into the world, and turned everything that God created to be good, to become bad.
read and understand what does a covenant mean, why must the animal be slain, why must there be shedding of blood?
read how moses led the israelites out of eygpt, reflecting how Jesus lead us out of bondage.
read how God slowly, but surely prepared for Jesus' arrival all the way from genesis to matthew.
Read how powerful God is, with His mighty hand, toppling the tower of babel, splitting the red sea, ushering in the 10 plagues on eygpt, providing manna and quail, and with the same hand, opening up for the nail of the cross for our redemption because of his love which matches His power.
Read about king david, the man after God's heart, how his faith in God toppelled the giant goliath, how a sling and 5 stones rivaled against the babylonians who monopolized metal swords and weapons.
Read about the wisdom of king solomon, the king who wrote the book of proverbs
Read psalms, my current fav book.
Read the epistles, the book of letters by all the apostles to the growing churches.
and when you're up for it, read revelations, how God is going to end it all and finally we will live with Him. We will be His people, and He will be our God.
haha basically read everything. =)
don't just read intellectually, read and pray, because God speaks to His children in a personal way. The bible is His love story for you.
Originally posted by dumbdumb!:read the gospels, then read Romans.
essentially it's good to read the past also, from genesis, since Jesus fulfilled the laws, so u must understand how the law came about, etc. and the bible says we inherit the blessings of abraham, so what was the covenant of abraham, why is he called a man of faith, despite him doing so many faithless things etc.
read about king david, the man after God's heart,
read about the wisdom of king solomon,
read psalms, my current fav book.
read the epistles,
haha basically read everything. =)
You forgot the last and the most important book of all-Revelations written by Saint John the Evangelist, the Eagle of Patmos.
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:You forgot the last and the most important book of all-Revelations written by Saint John the Evangelist, the Eagle of Patmos.
haha noted. but every book is impt. =)
dunno about the eagle of patmos part. but yeah, john. =)
Originally posted by Babelfish:why is that when we heard of the gospel we MUST believe it?
You sound like a religion fundamentalist.
We have a right to choose what we believe in.
Dun u know Herzog_Zwei is SUPER anti-religion?? haha...
Lol @ the prosperity gospel thing.. all this person is asking is which to start with..
In my opinion, Galations is a ideal starting ground. It builds the foundation for new believers. After htat, moving on to the four Gospels and then Romans , Corinthians, etc. First find out what belongs to you as a New Creation in Christ in the New Covenant before looking for the secrets in the Old Covenant.. Always read everything in context to Jesus and His finished work, and what other people might see as useless or cruel is actually God saying exactly how much He loves YOU. Imagine a magnifying glass over you and God's love is the sun. Yes, He loves everyone, even the atheist( infact he doesnt believe in atheists.. since there are no atheists on a sinking ship or a crashing plane..) , but as a Christian, God especially loves YOU..
Also, dont just simply read a bible, attend a church that preaches Jesus and Jesus and did i mention Jesus? For faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ, but how shall they hear without a preacher? Therefore, attend a church and listen. The more you listen, the more faith grows. All Christians have faith, just like all humans have muscles.. Just how we grow them.
Hope i helped! ^^
I attending church at Church of our saviour.
I was in the cell group attending baptism class.
April gt baptism 26th april .
I do read bible .
Originally posted by xXIron_fistXx:I attending church at Church of our saviour.
I was in the cell group attending baptism class.
April gt baptism 26th april .
I do read bible .
Originally posted by +Sikoyo+:Dun u know Herzog_Zwei is SUPER anti-religion?? haha...
Don't you know that I am based on facts?
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
Don't you know that I am based on facts?
Originally posted by Miracles&Prophecies:
No you base that on your own perceived fact. You figure you have no spiritual encounter so that you surmised that other people don't either. we tend to view other people the way we view ourselves.
Hmmm... That's hypotectical.
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:Hmmm... That's hypotectical.
No that was my experience.
A liar considers other people liar too.
A cheater considers other people cheater too
A corrupt man considers other people corrupt too
A dirty minded person thinks other people dirty minded aswell
A power hungry person thinks other people power hungry too
A traitor thinks everybody else are a traitor too
An honest man considers other people honest too ....until someone took advantage of this and he learned from it the hard way.
Of course when one is being exposed frequent and consistent enough to an environment in which the people he interact with are different than what he thought of himself then his view of other people will be readjusted if he is rational or in some cases the belief is even further reinforced as a denial mechanism by believing that 'had they been me' they would turn out the same.
In reality we never really know other people well enough to paint an accurate picture of character. So what's left in the dark then is taken over by our own sentiment and our own beliefs based on our own character.
In simple words: We tend to paint ourselves in other people. In a rather sophisticated words: We think we are the prototype of other people while in fact we ARE NOT.
This happens because the only character we know fully and in most consistent manner(all the time in fact!) is ourselves and we have no access to know what other people is really like.
This gives raise to some interesting conclusion:
So the next time you fear other people remember that you are only fearing yourself.
a cruel person acts in cruelty consitently because he expects other people to act the same towards him given the chance.
etc
As for example: Stalin, Saddam Hussein would make a fine example.
So what we do towards other is a reflection of who we are and how we expect to be treated back.
Originally posted by Miracles&Prophecies:No that was my experience.
A liar considers other people liar too.
A cheater considers other people cheater too
A corrupt man considers other people corrupt too
A dirty minded person thinks other people dirty minded aswell
A power hungry person thinks other people power hungry too
A traitor thinks everybody else are a traitor too
An honest man considers other people honest too ....until someone took advantage of this and he learned from it the hard way.
Of course when one is being exposed frequent and consistent enough to an environment in which the people he interact with are different than what he thought of himself then his view of other people will be readjusted if he is rational or in some cases the belief is even further reinforced as a denial mechanism by believing that 'had they been me' they would turn out the same.
In reality we never really know other people well enough to paint an accurate picture of character. So what's left in the dark then is taken over by our own sentiment and our own beliefs based on our own character.
In simple words: We tend to paint ourselves in other people. In a rather sophisticated words: We think we are the prototype of other people while in fact we ARE NOT.
This happens because the only character we know fully and in most consistent manner(all the time in fact!) is ourselves and we have no access to know what other people is really like.
This gives raise to some interesting conclusion:
So the next time you fear other people remember that you are only fearing yourself.
a cruel person acts in cruelty consitently because he expects other people to act the same towards him given the chance.
etc
As for example: Stalin, Saddam Hussein would make a fine example.
So what we do towards other is a reflection of who we are and how we expect to be treated back.
Then why didn't the prophets lose their faith in a faithless environment?
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
Then why didn't the prophets lose their faith in a faithless environment?
I think it's not related to my post but anyway the prophets didn't lose their faith....
simply because not only the prophets believed in God but they KNEW God.
Originally posted by Miracles&Prophecies:I think it's not related to my post but anyway the prophets didn't lose their faith....
simply because not only the prophets believed in God but they KNEW God.
They don't know God but they fear without reason of God.
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:They don't know God but they fear without reason of God.
No they knew God perhaps not like a person knowing his best friend but they to some extent knew God. There are people who know God to this day too.
hey miracles & prophecies,
i was juz tinking...maybe herzog zwei doesnt exist in real life as a person since we cannot see him in person, touch him in person, feel him in person, smell him in person or taste him in person...perhaps herzog zwei has been a figment of our imagination all these while since we have no personal experience wif him as a person...
Originally posted by despondent:hey miracles & prophecies,
i was juz tinking...maybe herzog zwei doesnt exist in real life as a person since we cannot see him in person, touch him in person, feel him in person, smell him in person or taste him in person...perhaps herzog zwei has been a figment of our imagination all these while since we have no personal experience wif him as a person...
But we know herzog wei exist vexcause he writes in this very forum and we read his posts we know his mind and stand. Though we do not know him well wnough we have seen his posts and know him as to be ceratin that he is a living personality.
On the contrary . . . if I said to you there's a forumer with the username of AaHDKJASHDF7T46T7632T6TUBSADCSXC47\=` and I gave to you his supposed posts would you believe me? even if I suceeded in convincing you, your confidence in it may waver easily since you really don't know such forumer yourself. You don't know AaHDKJASHDF7T46T7632T6TUBSADCSXC47\=` and you think the name is too long to be allowed.
I made a promise to add this sig I add myself for one entire year. Bear with me. If you don't like it don't read it. Okay?
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Gary: He said to me at the lift lobby 90% of the exact words - ”Mr Tan,if you walk out of here tomorrow,you might get killed.You might meet with a mysterious accident,you might disappear and nobody will know what happened to you! Mr Tan, some things and people in this country you cannot offend! Some people are above all things! You better make sure you know this! Mr Tan,we can arrange for things to happen to you.You understand or not!”
FUCK YOU AND FUCK THEM
hmm, me no really like christians.sigh
Originally posted by brainerror:hmm, me no really like christians.sigh
wow.. thats a frank 1