Christianity Oasis Forum

[Mel]

I read the first stepping stone. I think i will try this stepping stone thing out. Just pray that it will help get me closer to God. thanks.

[itsjanet]

Will be praying for you. I'm pretty new at this too, but so far it's life changing.

[Dora]

Praying for you! Janet is right, it is life changing. I am certain you will be blessed through it.

God loves you mel and so do I!

[Mel]

Tonight i did stepping stone 2 and I found out alot. I have a lot of weeds. My biggest one is thinking meds do not come from God. I think I should be able to handle some problems by myself, and God is telling me that I made this for you. My second is that staying clean is not worth it. Third, suicide is an opinion. All these things are weeds that need to be gone. I have a lot of gardening to do.

[Dora]

Good to see the Lord is working with in you Mel. It brought me a smile. Please keep sharing. Praying for you sis.

[Mel]

I don't know why God has trial and tempulations, but i have always known there was a reason. I know that God uses the "bad" stuff in our lives for his glory. I think that some times things happen so we are able to minster to others about christ.

Some times i have a hard time with God's grace. I think i must do something to earn his trust back or have him back in my life. I do not always understand why a giant God (as big as he is) would love someone like me. I'll i know is i need his Grace.

[Mel]

Forgiving myself is a hard thing for me to do. Isn't there a consquence to your actions? Does God just forgive us without any consquence? I didn't think about not forgiving ourselves is like self pity; and it takes up time from God. I never thought about it that way.

So when we forgive we forget about it? Do we let them do it to us again? I guess i don't understand. How i understand forgiveness is that it is not for the other person it is for you. You free yourself when you choose to forgive. I guess you free yourself when you forgive yourself too.

[Mackenaw]

Hello Mel (((hugs)))

God bless you this day.

I like the way you are meditating on the Truth shared in these Stepping Stones. God is so very Good!!!

You asked:

Isn't there a consquence to your actions? Does God just forgive us without any consquence?

The simple answer is: Yes, there are consequences to our actions. And, Yes, God forgives us. However, there are consequences to our actions. If I spend all my money on impractical things instead of paying my bills, I'm going to get harassing phone calls from the Creditors, and my credit reference rating will soon be so low/poor, that it will be almost impossible to ever get credit again, and, and, and. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes. If we repent -- are truly sorry for our poor choices -- God will help us through those challenging consequences. The Lord will help us make better choices. He truly loves us and wants the very best for us.

You asked:

So when we forgive we forget about it? Do we let them do it to us again?

If someone hurts our feelings, we forgive them, and make every effort to dismiss the thoughts of that offense from our mind any and every time it comes back into our mind. The Apostle Peter asked Jesus how many times do we forgive, and Jesus said we forgive them 70 x 7 (490 times), and my understanding is ... forgive them 490 times per day, if need be. Wow, that's a lot. But, God wants us to grow in our relationship with Him, and to access and put to use His blessed fruit -- one of which is patience. Thank You Lord \o/ \o/ \o/

Now, I always feel the need to qualify my answer, not that God's Word needs to be qualified, but, God never intended for that to be applied in cases of severe abuse. If someone hurts us continually -- gravely abusing us -- physically or emotionally, we should seek help from others. God does not condone abuse. Again, I feel the need to qualify...severe abuse is not the same as dealing with a person that says insensitive things occasionally, or is a cranky person -- someone having a bad day or maybe a bad habit of having bad days.

If we have been the victim of severe abuse, once we are rescued and delivered from the situation, we do need to forgive, so that the poison of that abuse, no longer has a hold on us. Once freed from that situation we can pray for that person from afar -- pray they come to know the Love of Christ.

And, yes, if we have offended others, we should repent by confessing our sin to our Lord -- expressing our sincere sorrow for the offense -- then we need to receive His forgiveness/grace. And if we have opportunity, we should also express our sorrow and apologize to those we offended, with the understanding, they may not receive our apology. Sincerity of our heart is key.

Mel, continue with the Stepping stone, and meditating on the blessed Word of God. You are doing well, and The Lord loves you so very much.

Prayers are rising to our Lord in the name of Jesus, on your behalf. May God's blessed will be done.

God bless and keep you, Mel.
Love,
Mack

[Mel]

Blame is a difficult thing to answer too. I blame God for my disabilities, I blame my parents for the abuse, I blame everyone else for the decisions i make. I mean it's easier to blame someone else for my problems. Taking the blame means i have to own up to my responability and that is hard. I have to own the sin then and repeat. (not fun at all).

I just got angry today because I thought that the taxi didn't get here on time and didn't pick me up on time. I was so angry I hit the wall and everything. I wasn't slow to anger at all today. I was more hurt then anything because I was thinking I didn't matter. I have always thought of anger as a secondary emotion. We are either hurt, scared, worried, or another emotion before we are angery.

What is a conscience? How do you describe it? On this field trip i choice suicide because I have sucidial thoughts alot. Some times the only reason i don't committ suicide is because i don't know where i would go if i did. But i know God has a plan of me, too.

[Dora]

I'm glad to see God is speaking to you through this study Mel. sister Praying for you

[Mel]

Think upon the "good" things in life is hard to do. This miricle grow stuff is going to take sometime, but i guess i will have to put aside time for God. I tend to give him the last of my days instead of the first. Pray that i meant keep my promise and do these things that I have read tonight.

[Mackenaw]

Hello Mel (((hugs)))

God bless you this day.

Stepping Stone 5...Blame.

Again, you are truly embracing the blessed message of The Lord. Awesome, Mel. The Holy Spirit is working in you, helping you. Isn't He Awesome?!!! Yes He IS!!!

Yea, we humans are taught from a very early age to point blame. Weird, huh? But, NOW The Lord is teaching us the Truth and even though our flesh/carnal nature may try to resist, our new nature/life in Christ is growing stronger and stronger.

I'm sorry you got angry the other day, and that you hit the wall. I still have times that anger rises up in me, too. But, remember The Lord is still with you, and He will continue to help you make better choices, and to overcome the urges of the old carnal emotions. Your carnal nature is the one that doesn't want to repent, but, your new nature wants to, because you know you are going to feel better. Again, your new nature is getting stronger and stronger by the indwelling of The Holy Spirit and by The Word...Jesus.

You said:

I have always thought of anger as a secondary emotion. We are either hurt, scared, worried, or another emotion before we are angery.

I tend to agree with you on that, Mel. I think most of us feel like we are driven to anger by something else. The problem is, anger wields power, whereas the other emotions don't feel powerful at all. So in essence, when we resort to anger, it is because we want to control something -- whether it be to control another person or a situation, and we are trusting in anger to bring about what we want. Anger becomes our god.

We know, however, that God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit is the only True God, and that He is our God and He is teaching us to lay down all other idols, even our idol of anger. Jesus is The Way...the way of peace. Hallelujah!!!

You asked:

What is a conscience? How do you describe it?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes "conscience" as: the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.

I describe it as that little voice inside my head that say "No, don't do that."

When God created mankind, one of the awesome parts of our design was God placed a conscience inside of us -- to know good from evil. But, because mankind strays so far away from God, and because of worldly teachings ...our consciences become desensitized or watered down, and we stop hearing that inner voice that says to us "No, don't do that."

Those of us that have received/accepted Christ Jesus as Saviour, we now have the indwelling of The Holy Spirit inside of us. One of the marvelous works of The Holy Spirit is that He sort of unclogs our consciences. It may sound odd, but I sorta think of my conscience as being like an inner telephone line that The Lord uses to talk to me, to guide me, to comfort me and lead me into all Truth. God is so Good!!!

Mel, continue with the Stepping Stone, and continue meditating on His Word and talking to The Lord. Your relationship with The Lord is growing. Awesome!!!

Prayers continue to rise to our Lord in the name of Jesus on your behalf. May God's blessed will be done.

God bless and keep you.
Love,
Mack