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Old 06-26-2009, 12:52 AM
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tonybones2112 tonybones2112 is offline
 
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Originally Posted by Jassy View Post
Brother Tony, indeed we are promised trials and testing, persecution, and what I consider our own little version of Paul's "thorn in the flesh." The life of a Christian is not for the faint-hearted. I could tell some stories... I just become a bit wary and reluctant to share them here on a public forum. I've had all manner of reactions, most of which I've disagreed with, regarding the subject of "healing." There are many Christians, I have found, that believe that if a Christian is not HEALED and in perfect health, that their faith is WEAK and lacking. I would like to be able to exchange lives with one of those "perfect life" Christians - and see how they'd manage, if God didn't seem to be heaping blessings upon them! I thank God for the fiery trials - for I have learned much in them and they are of great value. I wouldn't change anything - God always knows best for me. He uses everything for GOOD in a believer. Perhaps we cannot always see the "big picture" - but we can be certain of the Lord's promises.

I sure wish that you could embark upon an email "debate" with this person. I am now at a loss. For every email that I've sent to him, he has had rebuttals and I can't keep up with it. I keep trying to bring it back to the MAIN POINT that I had about dispensations and not mixing LAW with GRACE - but he keeps pointedly asking me to ANSWER his questions. And they are always going back to the LAW and keeping the LAW and him saying that PAUL taught the keeping of the Law and Jesus kept it while on earth.

I can share his email address with you - because, at this point, I give-up. I am simply not equipped to debate with him. YOU ARE. I fully believe that God has equipped you with the knowledge and experience for this sort of thing. I am still gathering - and not at the point of debating beyond the fact of keeping the dispensations clear and not mixing Law with Grace.

I will email you off the forum and give you his email address. I hope that will be OK. I have told him that I will find someone more knowledgable than I am to help him understand clearly.

Thank you for your help brother. I am simply not prepared to debate with him.

Jassy
You don't have to do anything you don't want to. This is an SDA geek out to either recruit you or use you for a whet rock, turn him over to me and let's see how fast he runs from me. I give him a week. Nothing for a seared conscience like a good Two Edged skinning knife. Contact me anytime Jassy, you are always welcome.

Let's consider this:

II Cor. 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

Do you know what Paul called all this?

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

I don't demean or marginalize what you yourself have been through, what we all have in just day to day life apart from our Christian service, but the Cadillac Crowd is a group I pity because they are not hardened to being soldiers for Christ, and why we have so many of them "losing their salvation" and "backsliding", and "rededicating" themselves. We used to have the Name it-Claim It crowd come out and get in a circle and growl and moan like a gang of Stonehenge druids and then leave, and not pass one tract out.My wife was hit with a rock on the street ministry, it just made her more zealous. We were spit on, had beer thrown on us, I was hit with a Ziploc bag of urine. I went into one of the bars, cleaned up, I had clean clothes in the trunk of my car, I expected to be hit with something.

Paul calls this light affliction.

Ro 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Arthur Blessit was spit on, rained on , snowed on, blistered by the sun, put up against a firing squadfor preaching the cross, he walked 36,000 miles. Yeah, Arthur was on Paul and Jan Crouch's TV show and is a Baptist, I don't hold either against him. If you are offered a door of opportunity to inspire people, as he did me, I say go for it.

I got a little brother buried somewhere in Kentucky. Mom's first husband beat her and beat the baby to death, she carried a brain dead baby inside her for two months. When it was born it's head was flat like a Frisbee from being beaten, it coughed once and its heart stopped. Mom had like dents and lumps in her back from where she was beaten. I go to bed every night I can still feel those lumps in her back.

Paul calls this light affliction.

We should not do like many metally ill people do and have a martyr complex and go looking for trouble, it will find us. And we should remember that our apostle has promised us, who was told by Jesus Christ to tell us, it is, no matter what we endure, light affliction. He took our place on Calvary so it would not be eternal affliction.

Grace and peace sister, I look forward to hearing from you.

Tony

Last edited by tonybones2112; 06-26-2009 at 12:55 AM. Reason: punctuation