It's Not Easy being the New Girl

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Comment by Mark Winebrenner on August 17, 2008 at 1:02pm

Hello Malina,
I have enjoyed the firestorm of comments you set off with your first blog. For being the 'new girl" you sure got it going quickly.

"Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God." That directive from scripture alone gives me enough personal spiritual homework that I can not image focusing on whether or not a Christian smokes or drinks. My life verse is Galatians 2:20 paraphrased that "I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live. It is Christ that lives in me." I am fairly certain that if a Christian is out of bounds, Christ in them is quite capable of letting them know.
Another great directive from scripture..."Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith". Wow, now that is personal.

As to the original purpose of your blog, I would love more Christian entertainment ideas and options. My wife and I love to laugh. We were recently introduced to comedian Brian Regan. He was clean other than 5 or 6 rookie cuss words. No naughty subject matter in what I saw. So I would love to see an all clean/all the time (not necessarily Christian) comedy club.

Enjoy your day.

Comment by Kirk Booher on April 22, 2008 at 8:54am

Wil,

The way we are to copy perfection and be more CHrist like is to 'abide' in Christ and His Word. Becoming more like Him is a process called sanctification. We will never master it yet we should never stop trying. The following passage sums it up well;

John 15:1-11
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

11 "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
NASU

I say God saves some and not all because everyone does not have a real, dynamic relationship with Christ. Some have never repented and been baptised. Some just go thru the motions and do church and religion. God implores us to check our faith - to make sure it is a 'saving' faith and not just a 'said' faith. Make sense?

I regard to the basis. I am not saying it is 'okay' to lack faith without the basics. Perhaps it actually instills faith to some. What I was writing about was JOY and CONTENTMENT. The Bible defines when we should be content;

Phil 4:11-13

11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
NASU

1 Tim 6:8-12

8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
NASU


Patiently waiting for your response in regard to your thoughts on the WHOLE BIBLE.

Comment by Kirk Booher on April 22, 2008 at 8:36am

Ben,

That helps and I believe it is solid and I support it at an intial read. I am going to print it out and study it.

Comment by Ben McCann on April 22, 2008 at 12:41am

Kirk,

I agree with you 100% especially about it being a non-essential issue. I wholeheartedly agree with the statement about how it being an issue or non-issue for embracing Christ.

Let me elaborate, I don't think Christians should engage non-believers on this issue, although I do think that they should be prepared to talk about it with Christians, especially new ones.

The main focus that I was trying to get across is that in everything, it is a heart issue and people have different times in their lives which they get new revelation of truth, as we walk down the path... we make choices that could cause us more pain than we would otherwise endure. Our Pride makes us susceptible to the 3 sources of pain in our lives.

1. Chastisement from God 2. Consequences of acting outside Gods Will 3. Tribulation from Satan

(1) CHASTISEMENT

What is Chastisement?
Chastisement is the Word of God trying us until the time comes for the Word of God to deliver us (Psalm 105:19) (Deut 8:2)

When does chastisement occur?
Chastisement occurs when God leads us into the wilderness to:
Humble us
Prove us
Know what is in our Heart
Find whether or not we will keep his commandments (deut. 8:2)

What is the Purpose of Chastisement?
To Prepare us to be partakers of God's Holiness (Heb 12:10)

How are we to act during Periods of Chastisement?
1. Chastisement affords us the choice to praise God, become paranoid or wallow in self-pity
(see Joseph in the well as a slave in prison)
2. Even though chastisement seems grievous for the moment, we are not to despise it, faint or become weary (Hebrews 12)
3. we should pray to learn the lesson of chastisement, not pray that it be lifted (Psalm 105:19)
4. We are not to murmur. When we murmur in chastisement, we are really murmuring against God. (Numbers 14:9). Murmuring is as rebellion and rebellion is as witchcraft (1 Sam 15:23)
5. Joseph was faithful in chastisement and was delivered out of chastisement (Psalm 105:19). The Generation of Israel that came out of Egypt was unfaithful in chastisement and , therefore, died in judgement (Numbers 14:23)
6. We are to say to God as Jesus did in Gethsemane, .... nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Mathew 26:39)

What is the greatest danger we face when we are suffering chastisement?

That we will allow the pride of our heart to prevent us from recognizing and enduring God's chastisement (Jeremiah 49:16)

Think of the example of a Gold Smelter or a Silversmith... he has to bring the heat in order to get the impurities out of us to use us for greater purposes and fulfill our greater calling.

Don't Pray to get out of the situations - Pray for God to turn up the heat: Do not focus on the pain, focus on the joy to come.

We must learn that it is not a sin for us to feel pride, anxiety, pity and fear as they come against us in a time of chastisement. However, when we feel them coming we must, through our knowledge of and faith in the Word of God, resist and suppress those feelings and not allow them to be manifested in our lives. We must have the same resolution to obey the Word of God as Jesus did in Gethsemane ... nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Mathew 26:39)

When we want to faint or become weary in the midst of the chastisement, we should remember:

1. Paul promised that Jesus would never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5)
2. The steps of a good man are ordererd of the Lord: ... Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down .... (Psalm 37:23-24)

(2) THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR HAVING ACTED OUSIDE OF GOD'S WORD

What are we doing when we act outside of God's Word?

1. Sinning. That which is not of faith (faith comes from the Word of God) is sin. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23; 10:17; 14:23)
2. Committing acts of unrighteousness which beget acts of unrighteousness (see David & Bathsheba)

Some examples of people in the Bible who suffered the consequences of their having acted outside of God's Word are:

1. In Numbers 20:7-12, God told Moses to speak to the rock and water would flow from the rock. Instead, Moses struck the rock. Although water flowed out of the rock, the penalty for Moses' disobedience wat that God did not allow him to enter the Promised land.
2. In 2 Samuel Chapter 11, David Committed Adultery and Murder. As a result, David'd son, Absalom, slept with Davids's wife on a rooftop for all of Jerusalem to see and forced David out of Jerusalem. Also, David's son from Bathsheba had to die.

How can we position ourselves to ask God to halt the consequences of our having acted outside of His Word?

1. Repent for having acted outside of His Word (Luke 13:3)
2. Accept His forgiveness (I John 1:9)
3....go and sin no more. (John 8:11) ; and
4. Ask God to use the consequences to mold our character into the character of Christ (Psalm 105:19) The consequences of sin then become chastisement. ( at that moment, God uses this to build us into MEN of God.

We must learn that a penalty has to be paid whenever we act outside of God's Word. Even though God forgives us for having acted outside of His Word, there is a a penalty that must be paid for such violation. With the right to choose between right and wrong comes the counter balance of penalty when the wrong choice is made:

1. Rob a bank - sure God will forgive us, but we still go to jail.
2. Commit Adultery - sure God will forgive us, but there is the pain to the marital partner
3. Smoke a cigarette - sure God will forgive you, but you may still end up with disease.
4. Commit Murder - sure God will forgive us, but we still will go to jail and even pay with our life.
5. David was repentant for the Bathsheba affair, and God took his sin away; but certain consequences (the death of his child and being forced from Jerusalem by his own son) still flowed from the act.
6. Moses was repentant that he struck the rock, but God did not allow him to enter the Promised Land.

Too often we blame Satan for our problems when, in fact, our problems were created by our having acted outside of God's Word.

Turning the consequences of Sin into Chastisement

we can choose at anytime to turn the consequences of sin into chastisement. This is done simply by our repenting for the sin that brought on the consequences, and aksing God to use the consequences to make us into the people of God. At the very moment of that repentance and asking the consequences of sin become chastisement.

Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. we make that redemption ours through repentance followed by a Godly walk.

(3) TRIBULATION

What is Tribulation?

1. In the Hebrew and the Greek, tribulation means: adversity, affliction, anguish, distress, enemy, foe, sorrow, trouble, oppress, pangs, besiege, bind up, vex, persecution, trouble, burden; i.e. tribulation is negative in nature.

2. Tribulation is sent directly against us by Satan to prevent us from entering into the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (John 10:10). This is shown in (john 13:27) when Satan entered into Judas to bring about the betrayal of Jesus. Satan was attempting to kill Jesus so he could steal from us the God-intended benefits of Jesus Christ. As the writer of Acts wrote, Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting the m to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

How can we use Satan's tribulation to our advantage?

God can and will, if we let Him, always us tribulation to build patience in us. Upon patience is built experience and upon experience is build hope (Romans 5:3-4). God used the tribulation circumstance that Satan brought against Jesus to grant to us eternal life.

How do we withstand and become victoriouse over painful circumstances caused by tribulation?

Take on the whole armor of God by: (Eph 6:10-20)
1. Girding our loins about with Truth: - Don't Lie, look for truth - "God, I want to know and act in truth in the matter"
2. Having on the Breastplate of righteousness: protects our Heart (Soul: mind, will, emotions)
3. Shodding our Feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace: every where we go we walk in peace.
4. Holding up the Shield of Faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; the dart is a lie, rebuke it by God.
5. Putting on the helmet of salvation; which protects your mind... you know you are saved
6.Taking the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God
7. Pray : Get on your knees and fight like a man

What do you do when you wake up in the morning and you have 1. The consequences of your sin, 2. Chastisement from God, 3. and Tribulation from Satan... that is a Bad day.

FIRST: Take control over Satan
1. Rebuke the enemy
2. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill the void that the enemy left
3. Deal with the Consequences of Sin, Repent for sin, Ask God to forgive you and take it away
4. Ask God to use chastisement to use what He wants us to be and "God if you will... Turn up the Heat!!"
5. Finally, Thank Him for Loving you enough to Chastise you. The Lord Chastens those he Loves... A really bad day would be you mess up and nothing happens.

I hope this clarifies and gives insight into this... sorry so long... but it needed to be said.

Comment by Kirk Booher on April 21, 2008 at 11:27pm

Ben,

Disclaimer - by no means am I trying to argue the merits of smoking. I can't even make a successful argument that it is not a sin. I am simply stating that it is not an essential.

I was really enjoying your post but I must take exception to this last piece. I must preface by saying I am not a smoker. I am an ex-smoker. I quit after over a decade of smoking at least a pack a day about 13 years ago. Did God and His Spirit help me overcome this addiction - yes. However, this is not an essential doctrine and come across legalistic and almost pharisaical Is it unhealthy? Yes. Do you eat and drink unhealthy items at times? Be honest.

What is your opinion of Martin Luther? Do you question his salvation too? He regularly drank beer and often in pubs. Does this make him less of a reformer? I say not, unless he was addicted / an alcoholic.

Would a Christian be less loved by God and less in merit of salvation if he continued to smoke. NOT. He (or she) would just get there quicker. After all, it is not by works that warrants entrance to Heaven. It is ALL because of Him.

Can you please elaborate on this statement? “PAIN is in all our lives, we are responsible for how much of it we will have”.

You wrote, “If you SMOKE, your witness to others is seriously tainted... period. The same could be said for Drinking, Overeating, etc...” Perhaps this is true in many cases but this shouldn’t be a reason (or not a reason) people embrace Christ. It is should be much more than this. Again, this is a personal preference; albeit not a good one in my opinion.

Comment by Ben McCann on April 21, 2008 at 10:56pm

Kirk, Good points and I agree with you... What do you think about the smoking issue? do you think it is a heart issue? could smoking be a sin for one person and not a sin for another based on the outline of the 3 stages of messing up 1. foolishness 2. disobedience 3. rebellion.

Mali... I liked your points about being seperate, and seeking the truth in God... what do you think about the questions that I posed kirk above here?

Comment by Kirk Booher on April 21, 2008 at 10:47pm

Wil,

Yes, they lack faith if they are not content (provided they have the basics - food, housing and clothing) and not living joyfully. Like the song, "I have joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart...to stay". In the book of James, the Word tells us to count it ALL joy. We can do that because we know God makes it all work for good for those that love Him and are called to His purpose (not ours). Now that isn't something we do all the time because of our flesh and sin, but something we should strive to do all the time by and thru His strength. We are what we think about. If we think about the glories and wonders of God, we will be predominately joyful, blessed and happy. If we think about the strife and calamity, we will be sorrowful, pitiful and of less value than we ought. We have the freedom to choose and God gives us the strength, love and grace to do so.

I wouldn't say Protestants and Catholics are different denominations, but they share some similarities and essentials of salvation and yet there are substantial differences. Different denominations would be Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Etc... .

Does Jesus save Catholics – yes, but not all.

Does Jesus save Baptist – yes, but not all.

Does Jesus save born-again,. repentant believers – yes and all.

A worthy saying is; "Unity in the essentials and Grace in the non-essentials". If you read the scriptures with a prayerful heart and truth seeking mind, perhaps you will be able see. Perhaps a couple of those MANY verses may be out of context that I pulled out, but the vast majority are very simple. Which are out of context and why do you think such?

One of my favorite quotes is by Mark Twain; 'It is not the complex things in the Bible that trouble (challenge) me, it's the simple things”.

God highly encourages us to know Him. Yah, we aren’t going ever to figure Him out totally or He wouldn’t be much of a God. BUT we are know Him. So when He calls, we shall recognize and hear our Master’s voice. When we intimately know Him, we know truth because He is the creator of ALL truth and ALL that is good. All Christians must know this or they are not Christians.

WE ARE TO BE LIKE CHRIST and HE IS EVERYTHING TO US. If a professed believer does not wish to follow Christ and attempt imitate Him this is BIG RED FLAG. Scripture makes this abundantly clear. That isn't complex. It is simple and it is a Christian’s FOUNDATION. Actually HE (Jesus) is our foundation. What kind of building has a weak or faulty foundation? One that will not stand the storms of life.

BTW Wil, you haven’t responded to my earlier question, ‘do you believe it. All of it (the Bible)?’

Comment by Ben McCann on April 21, 2008 at 2:15pm

Here is my 2 cents on the smoking issue.

It is all about the heart and the maturity of the "Christian". As far as non Christians go, I don't expect anything out of them keeping any of the laws of God as far as he is concerned. There attitude is all about whatever makes them "feel" good... do it so I don't expect them to not smoke, not drink, not view porn etc... I expect non-christians to feed their flesh because that is what they are living for.

BUt once you become a Christian, a maturing process starts to take place, it is all about our "attitude" towards Christ and our relationship to him. Paul exhorts us to not to be a stumbling block to those who are not saved. He also says that All things are permissible, but not all are profitable. We are to treat our bodies a living sacrifice to him. That means that we need to win the battle against the flesh. What Glorifies God out of smoking? nothing. Only the fleshly desire is fed... and even that could be argued because we are destroying the temple.

Where the maturity comes into play is directly related to our "knowledge of God and his word" when we know God, and his word, we know that we should "die to our flesh daily" in order to glorify him. i.e.: not smoke, not drink, not overeat, not indulge in any behavior that feeds our flesh, etc.... A new believer has much more "grace" when it comes to non-salvation related issues and behavior such as smoking. If the new believer is addicted to cigarettes and then gets saved, sometimes God delivers them from the addiction upon salvation. But at salvation starts our maturity process, as we grow in the Lord and desire to please him, our desires of the flesh we need to put into subjection to our Spirit, which is now connected to God's Holy Spirit... see the diagram on the last post on this blog.

If we smoke, (which is simply at this point before knowlege just FOOLISHNESS/ CHILDISHNESS) which is not sin and then revelation knowledge of the Holy One convicts us and shows us that this is not good for us and that doing this anymore would be sin, then we have a choice...

1. Obey the Spirit and Stop or take steps to stop.

2. listen to God and make efforts to overcome the flesh and quit, or start down the road of DISOBEDIENCE and disobey and pay no attention to God and continue doing what "feels" good to us and feed our flesh. (at this point it is now sin) the progression of that worse yet, our attitude changes ... and we start to justify the feeding of our flesh and say that "God understands" or No one has any right to judge me, it doesn't say don't smoke directly word for word in the Bible so I am going to keep on doing this. at this point, our attitude has become one of outright REBELLION and this is as the sin of witchcraft.

When our attitude goes from FOOLISHNESS (not sin or blind to sin) to DISOBEDIENCE (sin) to outright REBELLION (sin) we have deceived ourselves if we think that God is going to wink at this. He won't and consequences of that sin will be more severe than the simple foolishness consequences which in the instance of smoking are cancer, emphysema, etc....

the consequences of the sin will have both physical and spiritual effects, because when we are in sin, we are outside the protection of God and we open our SOUL to attack of the enemy and he will start messing with our mind, will, emotions, intellect and also he will attack our body. moreover, when we are in sin, and we are a child of God, he then begins to discipline us for our sin.

THere are 3 sources of PAIN in our lives
1. CHASTISEMENT: from God to test us to see what is in our heart and whether or not we will keep His Commandments (duet 8:2, Heb. 12:6)
2. the CONSEQUENCES: of our having acted outside of God's Word and will
3. TRIBULATION: from Satan to keep us from entering the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness (John 10:10)

So I said all of that to say this. PAIN is in all our lives, we are responsible for how much of it we will have... if you smoke and you didn't know any better, now you know and you need to seek God to help you quit.

If you know better and you continue any way... more pain is coming your way... it is up to you to decide how much. I encourage people not to smoke, not to start, if they have started, they need to quit, and if they are justifying it... deal with the heart issue, it is not a smoking issue at that point, it is a heart issue. If you call yourself a Christian and you are saved for any length of time, you should not be a smoker, period.

If you are A Christian Smoker, then you are very immature in you faith and should be very careful not to share you opinions because if you cause someone who is immature in their faith to stumble, that becomes a sin that you are accountable for. once you are going down the path of justification of feeding the flesh... you leave yourself open to every other type of sin. (Maturity should not be confused with Knowledge and ability to quote scripture) I digress.

The world is looking for something they can believe in... I said before, the church has become so worldly and the world has become so churchy, that they can't tell the difference, in an effort to be more relevant, we have become irrelevant.

As Christians we are to overcome the world as Christ has overcome the world. People are looking for something real... If you smoke, drink, chew or date girls who do... I question your salvation and question your maturity as a Christian... be real with yourself... Christianity is not just saying a prayer once and done... we get saved at the moment our heart is revealed to be depraved of any good and we recognize our need for him and repent and turn from our wicked ways... we constantly work out our salvation daily.

The world is looking for Christians to Be Mature and show them something different and offer them something more than what they have. We need to be salt and light, If you SMOKE, your witness to others is seriously tainted... period. The same could be said for Drinking, Overeating, etc...

Ben :o)

Comment by Malina Simone on April 21, 2008 at 9:30am

Wow, Kirk- your responses are insanely long! Ha, I love it! And I love the banter and I'm not offended by any of it. Totally friendly and mind-boggling and ok to have green tea over. Conversations like these help us think and reasses what we know, what we think we know and why we think it. Very cool. My two cents on only two issues- I agree with both of you that being a Christian doesn't make life easier. We still have problems, we still get our cars stolen, we still may even be late paying a bill. But our outlook and our peace and joy that we have from Christ does make all the difference. Our reactions to things are different. And God USES us because He knows that in the end, someone else will be saved and He'll still get all the Glory. Laslty on the smoking issues- I'm no longer going to say it's unChristian to smoke. We all know that it is totally unhealthy so I will continue to provide "clean" atmosphere's and entertainment but the meaning of clean is not just spiritual, it's physical. No smoking because it takes away from clean air!

Comment by Kirk Booher on April 21, 2008 at 6:48am

Wil, Sorry for mispelling your name prevously and for a couple redundant verses above. I tried to fix them but this thread won't allow editing once you post. Nonetheless, if you believe your points are Bibilically based, then you should be able to support them with the Bible in context. So please do!

Faith in Christ is important...the real Christ and not our own made up one. That is idolatry - when we make up our own rules. We, as flawed as we our, can figure out the main points in Scripture - if we hae been enlighted by the Holy Spirit and we are truly seeking truth and to find Him. Different denominations are different styles. Get too far off and away from essential doctrine, then it is a cult

Pride is a great sin no doubt. But truth overcomes it, if we are obediant and humble. There is absolute truth regardless of our own misconceptions of it. Just like the laws God created in nature (gravity, inertia, seasons, etc) even more so are there laws in the spiritual realm and the Bible is our textbook. So yes, grace is huge but so is truth and justice. Both exist concurrently.

I have experienced Joy abundantly. The Bibles speaks of it in many places. Yes, knowing there is a future beyond the here and know helps but nonetheless God does comfort us.
You wrote that "It doesn't mean that your day to day life is all together better", that is competely true. In many cases, being a Christian is more difficult. The enemy now sees your Christ uniform. Our cross is heavy. Sin is present.

Yet at the same time...His burden is light and His Spirit is with us and that makes all the difference in this world.

You are wrong. Many people doubt the Word of God. Many believe it. Some do, some don't.

My question for you is do you believe it. All of it (the Bible)?

Do you have saving faith? LIke if you were about to jump out of an airplane and had a parachute. Do you believe that parachute will save you and have faith to land you safely?

Is so, Jump!

If not, get packing your shoot and make sure you fold it right because the plane is gong down in a fiery crash. Good news! It comes with instructions:

B asic
I nstructions
B efore
L eaving
E arth

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