Open Church: where all are welcomed
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Greetings fellow Steemians.
Welcome to Week 5 of Open Church
Open Church is an initiative by @majes, @nextgen622 and the Christian trail community on Steemit. It aims to be a place where Christians on Steemit can hang out, encourage and build up one another, and reflect the love of Christ. The church is not a building, but is made up of people who have been transformed by God's grace.
Steemit is not all about money, but it's also a community of real people with real needs. So let us be a community of brothers and sisters that can Truly support one another with our real lives. Hope we can put aside the money element of Steemit and enter into authentic fellowship with one another.
Each week we will be putting up a new post with a new topic or theme for discussion. But feel free to come here just to fellowship and be a blessing to one another. Whatever denominational background your from, or if you're just curious about the Christian faith, everyone is welcome.
So feel free to share a link to your favourite worship song, share a word of encouragement, a prayer request, or introduce yourself. But please do not promote any posts here, or get into any arguments here.
Today's theme is... Feel free to share as you feel led; a word of encouragement, a song of praise, a scripture or prayer request, a question, or topical discussion... whatever you like
You can also join us for some more fellowship in the Christian-chat channel on Steemit chat.
Be Blessed.
For those who have young kids, this is a fantastic app for teaching your kids about the Bible Bible App for Kids, by Life.Church. This is the IOS link, there's probably also an Android version too if you search for it.
haha! awesome we use that app...we also use superbook - thanks for sharing appreciate what you guys do in the christian-trail cohort - glad to be a part of it
Welcome. Glad you could join. O I didn't know about that one. Let me check it out now. Thanks
Awesome, glad to have found this. Been a believer since a young age, but never truly understood grace, forgiveness, and the love of Christ until I was late teens.
Welcome! Glad you found us. Would love to hear more of your story.
Thanks! sorry, just saw this... Steemit keeps having notification problems. :)
I should get a blog up soon of my story...
Have a great day!
Hello @gregm,
The same experience for bleujay....a believer in Christ since a young age......it was not until someone introduced me to R.B. Thieme Jr. Bible Ministries that I learned about God's grace and the plan of God for our lives taught from the Bible from a translation of the original languages of the Greek and Hebrew.
I would recommend his studies of the scripture verse by verse to anyone interested in what the Word of God has to say to the believer in Christ Jesus. www.rbthieme.org
Enjoy reading your posts and sharing them with the family.
All the best to you and your family. Cheers.
With accusations against Christians rising, and unrest being perpetrated by the powers that should not be, rely not on your own understanding, but put your trust in the Lord. Prov 3:5-7
It is well - with my soul!
Stay blessed!
It is well with Christians in Nigeria
Indeed - I was privileged to be part of the worhsip team in a Nigerian Church for a season. It was always my dream to play guitar with powerful black voices singing. God granted my wish! It was awesome.
Heres hopefully a Word of encouragement - to all my friends that have a desire to engage the hurting and broken that are far from God - way to go - my exhortation would be that you would be careful of using any sort of strategy -that maybe a track, or model to share the Gospel. Those can become crutches - instead, as you go ask Jesus how you can love the people in front of you or the people He has put in your heart.
He's the one thats moving through you - and from what I see in the life of Jesus he healed three different blind people three different ways. Invited some to sell everything, invited others to stay and minister where they were...there was no method to Jesus' "outreach model"
He did what His Father was doing, almost always unique, and always exactly what the person/people needed...
He's called us to do the same.
Please be bold with the Gospel - but do your best not to rely on a method but on Holy Spirit
#livebig
Great point. Thanks for sharing.
Here is a question open to everyone: Have you read the entire Bible? If so, when, and what prompted you to do that?
I've read the entire Bible. I've read the Old Testament two or three times, but some chapters a lot more than that. I've read the New Testament many more times, and the Gospels over and over since I was in my 20's. After accepting the Lord as my Savior back then, that's about all I read, the Gospels. I got that idea actually from a pretty secular book - Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. It's sort of "new age" and the Jesus in it isn't really the Jesus of the Bible. But that book pointed me in the direction of another, called The Way of a Pilgrim, which is a mystical book in Orthodox Christianity written over a hundred years ago. I'm not sure I would entirely agree with its beliefs now, but there's an Orthodox prayer in there that I said. It's commonly called "the Jesus prayer." It's based on Scripture. "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a miserable sinner."
In that Pilgrim book, one person recommends reading the Gospels, so I did that. It took me ten more years to read the whole Bible, and I found out what I was missing. I actually graduated from college with a degree in English, but knew little about the Bible. That was okay, though. There's a common course in college called, "The Bible as Literature," and I'm actually glad I decided not to take it. I'm sure it's not taught with any reverence. I couldn't have lasted through it. From what I saw and experienced even back then it's trouble not to take the perspective of professors.
I was finally led to read the whole Bible by getting on the internet. I was pretty liberal then and an atheist on a liberal political forum mentioned that he loved going to the forums of Christianity.com, which have since been shut down, and basically fighting with Christians. So I checked out his accidental tip and started posting a lot at Christianity.com myself. And when I noticed other Christians repeatedly talking about putting on the whole armor of God and talking about the Fruit of the Spirit, it dawned on me after a few times that those weren't their words but must be Bible verses, and I decided they sounded like good verses and I had to learn about them for myself. And I did. I was so excited to read the whole Bible and actually know what God has had to say to us through His written Word. I was also a little shaken to think I might have lived my whole life and never known. Reading the Bible totally changed my life and my relationship with Him. Even though I was a Christian when I read it, I had still been looking around for answers in all sorts of other places, but once I read the Bible, I knew I'd found all the answers I'd been seeking right there, and so much more. I hope to do more than I'm presently doing to point other people in the direction of God's Word.
read the Bible when I was 20 - got fed up with my religious experiences and set out to find if God was real - what about you @timothyb?
In 1992 I was brought to the realization that what I had wasn't the truth. Because I knew I hadn't given God the rightful chance to make these things plain, I read the Bible. That was the beginning of a twenty year experience of continuous reading/studying that culminated with my life being consummated with the truth.
Read it, the Old beginning to end once. the New lost count.. just wanted to know all that the Lord wanted to tell us..
I've read through the Bible several times. I didn't read it before I was around 35 years old. I thought I knew what is was all about, but when I actually read it I realized that I didn't know anything at all. There's a whole story behind why I starting reading it, but that's a long story...lol
So I opened up a voice chat room for a few years and read through the Bible with others there as well.
It doesn't matter how many times one reads the scriptures, there's always more to learn. Every time I read the bible, even if it's just a chapter, I discover something I missed before.
Encouraging people to read the Bible is my heart. God's word is amazing!
Yea verily, twelve times, I was raised to be a minister. I was drilled on the material every day for eighteen years. Fortunately, I was also taught to reason.
This is such a nice forum...thanks for having this. So many questions I could ask. Perhaps I will start here. How do folks feel about once saved always saved. Can folks loose the gift of salvation? Again thanks. - Troy
Hi Troy, this may differ from the majority view but I certainly believe OSAS is biblical truth. Salvation cannot be lost as the implication would be god who fails which would paint a God who is less than sovereign. The God of the Bible's plans CANNOT be frustrated by the actions of men. He ordains EVERYTHING that comes to pass from the movements of subatomic particles to the thoughts of men, yea even those concerning salvation.
The bottom line is this... Christ will save ALL that are given to Him by the Father. He's not going to lose one. The logical conclusion is that whoever's sins had been paid at the cross will necessarily believe the gospel and one day be given glorified bodies INCAPABLE of sin and preserved until that day. Christ is not only the author but finisher of the faith of the saints. Thank God for that!
It always comes back to free will, no one outside of oneself can snatch one out of His hand but if one cannot choose to walk away than it means our free will is limited.. not seeing this as a sovereignity issue..satan and the demons chose to rebel and they were in heaven experiencing the fullness of Him..if they could with their free will under those circumstances don't c how we can't.
Hi @wilx, I beg to differ. It says "no man" so that would include oneself. A blood-bought born-again gospel believer cannot repudiate His gift for such gifts are without repentance. I am happy to discuss further and look forward to any opportunity. Have a good weekend!
Including verse for reference. May it be a blessing :)
Romans 11:29 KJVS
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Hey brother, I disagree about "no man" I think the reference is pretty clear it means someone else, as one cannot "snatch" oneself, word refers to someone or something else.
Gifts without repentance refers to the spiritual gifts, not salvation.
We can agree to disagree God bless bro.
Not so much lose, but give it up.. free will lets us reject the Lord and his ways, hard as it is to understand why someone would want to..
Yes, well said @wilx
I have been listening to My Redeemer Lives on repeat recently. The lyrics are powerful!
I can't agree with you more. Your post reminds of a comment that came from a person who was about to die. This person said that if only he knew that life would wind up with the sense of beign short, he would have spent more time in fellowship with people more than working hard to make money. Yes we need money but it is not all that there is to life.
I'm inspired, thanks.
Amen, good word..
Amen....thx for share this: upvoted..I posted my art work of mama and of Martin Luther King Jr..then see your post too... plz do check my post for support.. thx ...
My participation is with a question; Do all Christians have the gift of speaking in tongues? If so, what happens to those that God has not given them that gift.
Hi @deisip67, my answer is no, I don't speak in tongues even tho I have desired it, I once asked the Lord why he hasn't given me that gift when someone else newly saved did and His still, small voice answered me "because he needed it." So I don't, and know many Spirit filled believers who don't, it's a gift that He gives as He deems..
Hi, Willx, thanks for replying, also once I asked myself that question and now I understand. God awakened me that morning, and gave me a Galatians verse 22, and now I understand, that the Gifts are not as important as the fruits. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is permanent while the gifts are temporal.
The Lord is great and wonderful, and He always has an answer to our supplications.
Mark
16:15-18
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Bold highlights are mine.
Doesn't necessarily mean all tho, if all saved speak with tongues than I and hundreds of millions of others who accepted Jesus and know Him personally are delusional.. few before Azusa St spoke in tongues, that move was used of God to restore to His people, but not all.
That is because the bible is not taken literally.
The scripture above says: He that believeth, not some that believe...
It's another feat of satan to deprive the believer of the power that comes with speaking in tongues.
I can recommend teachings that support Jesus' word, if you're interested.
Blessings.
I know them all, also know it's not a determining factor of who's saved.. have moved in the power of God for a while without speaking in tongues, as have tons, including most of the great reformers and revivalists of the past.
Sorry - you know them all? Teachings? Wow! You must be all - knowing... :D
All I am saying is that tongues is a gift available to ALL believers. It is satan who does an effective job promoting teachings that say otherwise.
Stay blessed.
PS:// Please remember that Jesus warns us against false teachers...
The establishment sacred cows... Perhaps I want to make this a God-Waves Series...
The only word we can rely on as absolute truth is scripture (in the original)...
Yes I do, if u can why can't others :) In fact have been studying the scriptures for decades and the subject of tongues is not very extensive.
Yup Satan and false teachers.. but there are disagreements among brethren on secondary issues like tongues, different interpretation of certain scriptures.. eternal security, rapture timing, speaking in tongues etc .. each believes the other has been led astray.. best to just agree to disagree and let the Spirit lead into truth in His proper time.