Divorce & Remarriage

I am divorced and remarried. What I have done in the past is the past. Sin is sin, and I praise God for HIS forgiveness. This sin is no more unforgivable than any other sin. God picks me up where I am. He recognizes the marriage relationship I am in now as binding. And so I go on from here. The past is forgiven; praise God, it is past. It is just as forgiven as any other sin. We are a perfect match in heaven. We have so much in common. We are best friends as well as wonderful lovers. Spiritually, we have a wonderful relationship with God and we both are excited about our future. I (usually) don't worry how others may "judge" me or my marriage because I leave the judging to God. My Church accepted us, our families have accepted us and they all know why this have happened. God knows too. Why should others who don't know us judge us? they don't know my heart as God knows. God is not impressed by my works (1. Samuel 16:7). The Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord don't make decisions the way you do. People judge by outward appearance (i.e. works), but the Lord looks at a person's thoughts and intentions (heart)." (NLT) Judging based on appearance and doctrines are man-centered more than God-center. "A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself" (A.W. Tozer). Those who similar to Pharisees' attitudes are those who magnifies the faults of those who based others on appearance and diminishes their graces, while they promote their doctrines. Self-righteousness is terrible among Christian community because it is very naturally that we judge everyone by what/who we are because it is usually smug satisfaction with self. Self-righteousness also leads to self-satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of what is going on. As long as our conscience is clear and our heart is pure before God, don't be concerned with issues. That is GRACE. In Romans 14:5 "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind." 1 Corinthians 10:28-29 "both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake, the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?"

I Got this in an email one day awhile ago.

THOSE WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING ! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.! We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer!, no Internet or chat rooms....... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We didn't even worry about touching another person's blood. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?! After 1980, the world have changed.

Sin and Love

Through Adam, we are born spiritually dead. Through Jesus Christ, we are born-again spiritually. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— Unregenerated person means spiritually dead person. Sin is separation from God meaning spiritually dead facing eternal death. Born-again means spiritually alive facing eternal life. The concept is this: Sin, is where an unregenerate person runs away from God, meaning that a person called a "fugitive" that as a sinner, it is a person's inclination is to flee from God. Like when Adam and Eve sinned, they fled from God and hid. There are two ways looking at the Ten Commandments 1. For those who are without Christ in our hearts, if we broke ONE law... we broke them all. We all are sinners and we need to be saved. We are doomed and seperated from God. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 2. For those who are WITH Christ in our hearts, the Ten Commandments are about LOVE. Christians do not look at the Ten Commandments as laws but Grace of Love. We are to LOVE God first (first 4 commandments) and we are to love one another (last 6 commandments). Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. We are commanded by God to love sinners as well as Christians. The only difference is that we are to HATE what they do but still love them. Love is the key. God is love. He gave us two commandments. We are to love God and others. With the Holy Spirit and love, I will walk in the Spirit, Christ produces the fruit. It is Christ through the Holy Spirit produces power, love, a sound mind through us. Christ helps us. Without Christ, we are nothing. Along with love and under the control of the Holy Spirit, the power of love and Holy Spirit flows through us. However, man's doctrines often gets in the way of the doctrine of love. Jesus didn't say: "Love your fellow Christians with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'hate sinners who have not accepted Christ as their savior.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." What did Jesus REALLY say? " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Galatians 5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Christians speaking, even quoting Scriptures, may not be practicing their faith (in their spiritual walk). Faith will express itself in faith deeds not just words alone. Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Is our Christian practice consistent with Jesus Christ?

Christian still sins quotes...............

We often do a bad act, and make a worse excuse. Thomas a Kempis God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. Max Lucado A man becomes a Christian; he is not born one. Tertullian The cross-carrying Christian, furthermore, is both a confirmed pessimist and optimist the like of which is to be found nowhere else on earth. A.W. Tozer A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. J.C. Ryle If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he lives, he cannot be a Christian anywhere. Henry Ward Beecher Christians sometimes live as practical atheists, professing belief in Christ but without any real conviction that God exists as a person. Jerram Barrs and Ranald MacCaulay God knows His own. It is well that He does, for sometimes it would be difficult for us to determine who are His! Vance Havner Don't stay away from church because there are so many hypocrites. There's always room for one more. Arthur R. Adams Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes along and straightens me out. Dwight L. Moody lf law is, in fact, some form of legislated morality. The question is whose morality will dominate. Franky Schaeffer If Christianity is really true, then it involves the whole man, including his intellect and creativeness. Christianity is not just "dogmatically" true or "doctrinally" true. Rather, it is true to what is there, true in the whole area of the whole man in all of life. Francis Schaeffer How very hard it is to be a Christian! Robert Browning If you are what you've always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation. Vance Havner Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you. J.C. Ryle "No man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail. No man is morally worthy of success in religious activities until he is willing that the honor of succeeding should go to another if God so wills. God may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy." A.W. Tozer "We need to improve the quality of our Christianity and we never will until we raise our concept of God back to that held by apostle, sage, prophet, saint and reformer. When we put God back where he really belongs, we will instinctively and automatically move up again; the whole spiral of our religious direction will be upward." A.W. Tozer

Can a Christian sin?

Over the years, I always thought: Why do I not act like Christ-like manner at times? I have learned and realized that Christ in me does not mean that I am no longer without sin. My old sinful nature is not ripped out from my heart. Christ is in my heart and with the help from the Holy Spirit, Christ changing me from the inside and lives through me. So the answer is YES....if a Christian is not careful and forget. This is where Paul is talking about in Romans 7. Old Creature (Following flesh's desires) = Self-Centered New Creature (Following God's desires) = God-Centered From our old creature, we learned worldly desires and causing us to think more worldly (still do). We are still sinners but forgiven sinners when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. A disciple must understand that God is both holy and loving; that I am a sinner, are made in the image of God; that Christ's death was the substitute payment for my sin; and that because of Jesus' payment, I am granted access to the heart of God. Sin by accident as part of our sinful nature: Those who are in Christ Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Galatians 5:17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. We just need to be looking at our adequacy in the Holy Spirit, which will always be in us. This is God's design, and it pleases Him to do so that we can rely on the Holy Spirit. "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."--Matt. 26:41. Biblically, Christians are no longer "in the flesh": "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). The Greek word for "dwells" is okv (oike), which means "I inhabit." "If Christ is in us, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10). In other words, our human body is subject to death (and is already dying) because of sin, however our spirit is alive in Christ. We have eternal life in our possession, even though our body is dying because of sin. However, as Christians, our spirits are fully alive and thriving "because of righteousness"--because HE is justified and therefore already has "passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). "My temorary body is decaying at the same time, my inner being is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16). "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:25.