Why can it be good to have a 'thorn'?

2 Chorinthians 12:6-7

6 Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

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Sufficient

Why didn't God take this "thorn" away?

It seems like it was the thing that kept him from thinking to highly off himself. That if he hadn't had this thorn he would think he was better and that the things he did was all him.

What are some of the hard things in your life that God (because he loves you so much) might be using to teach you? What are you learning?

I find it hard to trust people, almost any people. He might use it to help me trust in Him more. Because He will never do anything 'bad' towards me. I am learning that I do have to trust people, giving them a chance to show that they are not my past. And I learn that there are only things in myself I can change. He is also learning me patiente, there is a lot of trust in waiting...

Till next time,
God Bless

Why overcome?

John 16:33

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

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Overcome

What does it mean that Jesus has overcome the world?

He died in for the world and broke all it's ruels by overcomming death. Nothing can hold Him. He has shown us that when we end life in this world, it's not the end. No one else could have done what He did.

This verse is meant to be one of encouragement. Is it? Why/Why not?

YES!! All the noice, struggles and all the bad things that happens in this world can never be swayed by God's peace. And when you feel like the world is at peace for a moment, it doesn't even come close to God's peace. Nothing that happens to us here, NOT ONE THING, even how bad it might seem God is with you. He has already been there and done the things that you need to overcome it with Him!And with Him we can overcome everything!!

Till next time,
God Bless!

Why Faith

1 Peter 1:6-7

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Greater Hope

What is genuine faith?

Genuine faith is teste faith, tested with various trials, fireproofed if you want, and not failed. Jesus is the victorious one!!

Why do you think God puts such a high premium on genuine faith?

Because it cost a lot to get there. We do the same for gold or diamonds. If it is pure and have been tested to make sure it is 100per cent pure, we gladly pay what it is worth. Granted we have that kind of cash. But to get genuine faith you don't need cash.


Till next time,
God Bless

Why are we who we are?

Romans 5:3-5 

3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

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Rejoice

What is God's response to our suffering? 

To pour His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit!!!
How has your character been affected by what you've endured?

It's still growing, but I have to admit that I do fight the change God wants to do. I want to do it on my own... So I keep reminding myself to just chill and let Him do the work. Everything that happens makes you into the person you are today. The choices that are made when you face struggle or situations. It is a choice to let Him be your guide or to guide yourself. As I just wrote I have a tendency to start my own way in undiscovered terretory. But I do give up and let Him take the reins, because He know every bump in the road!!

Till next time

God Bless 

Why wait?

2 Peter 3:9 

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

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Godís Patience

This verse is about the End Times and Jesus coming back. Why, according to this verse, is God waiting to come back and end suffering?

Because He doesn't want to lose anyone, He wants everyone to come with Him to Salvation!!

What are your thoughts on this aspect of God's character?

It shows that He sees things in a very different perspective. Time doesn't matter, only souls. He counts each and everyone, not one means less than the other. All ecual important. It doesn't always feel like that, and sometimes it is very hard to believe that He notices me. Or that I am important. But if I was the only one left to persish, God would wait for me!!

Why forgive?

 We all get hurt from time to time. Sometimes it's on purpouse, but most times it's more of an accident. The doer doesn't even know what he did. A small word they don't know the affect of. So why should we forgive? In most cases we should forgive 'cause they have no idea what's just happened. We should forgive because it's the best thing for us. We can't  control anyone else but ourself. We can't control that someone might want to hurt us. But if we do our best not to hurt them or give them any reason to hurt us, then we have done what we can. All that's left is forgivness. When we forgive something happens in us, we let the pain go. It has no power over us.

Genesis 45:4-8 

4  So Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please. And they came near. And he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

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Joseph

Why did God allow Joseph to suffer?

So that they all could be saved. He was the one to make sure there was enough food for the people. God had always a plan to get Joseph to Egypt. I am not saying that he gave Josephs brother their jealousy, I am just saying that He made the merchindisers come by at that moment so they wouldn't kill him.

Have you ever suffered for someone else's sake? What happened to your perspective as a result?

I haven't done any big things. Not sure that I have ever really suffered for anyone else. In a way I am to busy wiht not being in the way, being to agreeable. ..


Till next time
God Bless 

Why do I need help?

 

Romans 8:35

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 

Romans 8:37

37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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Separate from Christ

Does an easy life mean we are loved more? Explain.

No, I almost think it is easier to feel loved the more tribulations you have. Not that you are loved more because of it, but you need His help more, and you see His hand helping you more clearly.

Have you wondered if God has forgotten you in the pain you face right now? Does this passage give you perspective?

 
It does give me perspective, 'cause I know He is always there with me. But it is very comforting to be reminded of it everyday. And it perhaps makes it easier to lay all things upon Him. To let Him help me through the rough times. Sometimes you do wonder, but He has never forgotten you. It is more the case that you yourself refuse His help or turn away from it. Because you think you can do it on your own. And by writing this at this moment, it makes me realize that I am no different. I want to prove that I can do it myself. And in a lot of cases I can do it myself. But it doesn't mean that I have to or that it's easier. The best is to be helped, to know that I am not alone it anything. He only wants to take me through the best way. I don't have to go at it alone, not knowing which is the best way, the less painfull way. If I do go at it alone, I might very well end up on the more difficult route...

Till next time, 

God Bless

Why suffer

We all suffer in different stages. Some gets a lot and takes it standing while some hardly gets any and has to take it lying down.

We have not come to Sinai, but to Zion

18  For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest

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Christ Testing

Why did God allow Jesus to suffer when he was a human? What difference does it make?

I think God thought about us when Jesus suffered. To let Him go through everything in some way or another so that we can relate. So He can help us get through it. His words are not empty, He knows what we are facing, and how to get better on the other side. Not just scrape by, but grow.
If you have a problem you need help with, you don't seek someone who hasn't had any problem. You try to find someone who has been through some of the same as yourself.

When have you been able to help someone else through your experiences?

I am not sure, it's not always you get feedback, but I always do my best to lend my side of things. Hoping that I don't talk everyones ears off....

Why do we keep on doing 'the wrong' thing?

Why do we do those things that we know are bad for us. We almost promise ourselves that we wount't do it again, and suddenly there we go again. Why?

4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

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Galileans

What does Jesus say about suffering always being the result of personal sin?

They go hand in hand. The result is that we cut ourselves from Him and His presens. He never leaves us, He is still standing next to us, and by sinning we choose to turn our back to Him. 

How does this make you feel? Why?

It makes me feel sad. 'Cause it seems like I can't always control it. I try my best to keep to the narrow road, yet I suddenly seem to be on the highway at times. Not sure how I got there. But I have learned that it is the shortcuts, the small things that sends you there. The' I can do that just once' or 'that little thing doesn't mean anything' that sends you there. 

Why change?

 Why do we change? Why are we never happy with having the other person stay the same? We're never satisfied with whom we are, yet we always want to change the wrong things. The things that others like in us, and the things they don't like we often stick to as glue. Not seeing ourself in others eyes. We do the same with our partners. We want to change the little annoying things, and if we manage, something worse appears in its stead. God created us to be the best we can be, and if we are going to become that we have to let Him change us!
 

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

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Characteristics of God: Part 2

How does James describe God?

No changing, no shadow, He is constant, good and perfect.

Do you believe this verse? Why/Why not?

Yes I believe this verse. He has been the same since the dawn of time. That is one of the things that is so good to know. That He doesn't change, only  I do, or people. Even if it seems like He is not as harsh as He was in the old testament, He still is. The only thing that has changed is Jesus. Gods ultimate gift. Now we are seen thought the glasses of Jesus. 

Till next time,
God Bless

Why tears?

 Why tears?? Why don't we have control over them?? They seem to live a life of their own. Swelling up and flowing over...

John 11:33-37 

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.34 And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see.35 Jesus wept.36 So the Jews said, See how he loved him!37 But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

 Challange:

Characteristics of God: Part 1

Why would Jesus weep for his friend if he was going to bring him back to life?

I think He weeps because it is a sad thing that has happened.
It's not only sad that the person is gone, but the emotions, the loss experienced by those that are left behind. Soometimes I find myself crying more when someone else is going through a loss, than when I do myself. Not that I have lost to many myself, but I have witnessed many lose someone dear. I was to little to understand it when I lost my first grandfather. I barely remember him. Then when I lost my second I was older, but didn't really have a relationship with him. My cosin (old enought that her oldest daugther was my age) lost her father in law, then her three month old baby boy (only boy) and not long after her mother. Mother's sister in law. I am ranting a bit here, but this is only a little piece of the losses that I have witnessed. Those last once happened after I turned 13, so you see I wasn't very old. A lot of the time I wasn't sure what to feel myself, 'cause I didn't always know those that was lost. But I could see what those people meant to those that where left behind. The grief they had to live with. I do also think that there might be a chance that Jesus weapt because He knew where Lazarus was, what He had to bring him back from.

Do you agree with the statement "Deep love allows for deep suffering"? Explain.

The more you love a person, the more you will miss them. The bigger impact on your life, the more you see what they meant, what they did and what you have lost. I recently lost my mother in law. I knew she was a great person, I knew she did a lot for us. But now that she is gone, I can see just how much she did. How much she was a part of our lives. It's been almost a year, and sometimes I miss her more now. She was like a second mother to me. If there was something I was wondering about, I often called her. Now that I can't call or drop in. I see how much I did need her, and how much I should have been there even more. Does that make sense?? Our neighbour just lost her father. Relatives of my husband. Husband of our other neighbour. We didn't have much to say to eachother since we moved in here. Even the fact that we were related didn't seem to matter. But these last couple of years, since the daughter married. We spoke, greeted and started a relationship. And before we could really get to know him, he was gone. So I hope that it makes the rest of us a little closer...

Till next time,
God Bless