You Have a Little Strength

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Ariel82

Guest
#21
#21
some people fear death. I have heard many Christians do. I found it strange because I just see it as God calling me back home to be with Him.

i don't seek death because I know God still has plans for me on this Earth and He has task He wishes me to do. However I have faith He will give me the strength and wisdom to do it.

i don't see myself very wise or knowledgeable, but what little I know I have found it gives me strength and build my faith in God and not myself.

Alone i would mess up everything and when asked to choose my own path, I would always choose the wrong way.

However, God often speaks in my heart and I do a 180 and back track and find that other path.

i learned that about myself during my Appalachian trail hike three years ago. when left on my own, i choose the wrong path, but if i remembered to pray and stop and wait: God showed me where to go.

backpacking 30 plus miles when you never done it before can teach you a lot about your preconceived notions of self. when the only person you have to talk to is God. when you stand on top of a mountain and look down on clouds and tops of trees....it makes heaven seem not so far away and Earthly reality a distant spot in the horizon. makes me understand more the Bible verses where "Jesus went alone on the mountain to pray" really means.

sorry i wandered off topic but I figured you would be okay with it Stunned and I wanted to share. not sure why.
 
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Stunnedbygrace

Senior Member
#22
Nov 12, 2015
9,112
822
113
#22
Ariel82 said:
some people fear death. I have heard many Christians do. I found it strange because I just see it as God calling me back home to be with Him.

i don't seek death because I know God still has plans for me on this Earth and He has task He wishes me to do. However I have faith He will give me the strength and wisdom to do it.

i don't see myself very wise or knowledgeable, but what little I know I have found it gives me strength and build my faith in God and not myself.

Alone i would mess up everything and when asked to choose my own path, I would always choose the wrong way.

However, God often speaks in my heart and I do a 180 and back track and find that other path.

i learned that about myself during my Appalachian trail hike three years ago. when left on my own, i choose the wrong path, but if i remembered to pray and stop and wait: God showed me where to go.

backpacking 30 plus miles when you never done it before can teach you a lot about your preconceived notions of self. when the only person you have to talk to is God. when you stand on top of a mountain and look down on clouds and tops of trees....it makes heaven seem not so far away and Earthly reality a distant spot in the horizon. makes me understand more the Bible verses where "Jesus went alone on the mountain to pray" really means.

sorry i wandered off topic but I figured you would be okay with it Stunned and I wanted to share. not sure why.
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I'm glad you did. :)
And you NEVER have to worry about going off topic in one of my threads. The Spirit leads us where He leads us!

I'm also not afraid of dying. Truthfully, if I was given the choice of when I get to die, I'd pick right now. I can't help it. I want to be away from this body of death. I want to see Him face to face. There's nothing on the earth that I cling to. People say if I'd ever had children I'd feel differently but...I don't think I would...
 
Deade

Deade

Called of God
#23
Dec 17, 2017
16,724
10,530
113
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Vinita, Oklahoma, USA
yeshuaofisrael.org
#23
You want spiritual martyrs look no further than The Church of Smyrna: Rev. 2:8-11. He found nothing wrong with this church, all the others had something negative about them. What He means by a little strength: suggest the open door is something they need to use. He also warns them to hold fast that which they have. They are very soft rebukes, but alas are rebukes. :cool:
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#24
#24
i am willing to live here as long as God is willing to help me walk in this world and has a purpose for me to be here.

though we may not see God face to face, God says "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God".

i believe god has purified our hearts and if we truly ask He will allow us to SEE Him work in this world. I see Him through the kindness of a child hugging and comforting another out of love. I see Him in the beauty of nature He surrounds us with. I see Him in songs of worship, hugs and words of love. I see Him in many people on CC seeking wisdom and knowledge.

remember when Jesus told us about the goats and the sheep. The sheep asked when did I do those things?

Jesus told us, if you do it for the least of these, you did it for me.

so I see God in the least of these people ....the homeless, the orphans, the abandoned and those who feel unloved....God sees how our hearts respond: is it love or is it avoidance....then we either get a gem (treasures stored in heaven), or we get tossed into the refining fire. (chastenmen never pleasant but the fruit is righteousness)
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#25
#25
Deade said:
You want spiritual martyrs look no further than The Church of Smyrna: Rev. 2:8-11. He found nothing wrong with this church, all the others had something negative about them. What He means by a little strength: suggest the open door is something they need to use. He also warns them to hold fast that which they have. They are very soft rebukes, but alas are rebukes. :cool:
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he tells them Satan is going to persecute and kill them. (Jesus knew when He was to be cruxified, Paul knew he was going to his death, Peter knew he would be tested and deny Jesus three times and then later die by cruxification)....

*********
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

*****

some people say they will die for God....How many will LIVE for God if it meant suffering and torture, beatings and imprisonment? losing all earthly possessions and living homeless? wandering from town to town with just the clothes on your back and the charity of people who take you in and ask you to tell them the gospel? then at the end you don't get a nice retirement but a gruesome death filled with pain and more suffering?

yet death is not the end of the story.

Jesus says He has prepared mansions for us to live eternally with God. Do we believe the suffering of this world is worth the promise of the next?
 
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Stunnedbygrace

Senior Member
#26
Nov 12, 2015
9,112
822
113
#26
Deade said:
You want spiritual martyrs look no further than The Church of Smyrna: Rev. 2:8-11. He found nothing wrong with this church, all the others had something negative about them. What He means by a little strength: suggest the open door is something they need to use. He also warns them to hold fast that which they have. They are very soft rebukes, but alas are rebukes. :cool:
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Huh...I never saw them as rebukes but rather encouragements....I can see what your view of it is though.
The main thing Ive wondered is what happened to give them little power? Could you explain your thought more on that part of your post?
 
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Stunnedbygrace

Senior Member
#27
Nov 12, 2015
9,112
822
113
#27
Strange thing happened in that other thread, by the way. Does it ever seem to any of you in a thread like...people who are standing counterpoint to someone else's point somehow...ah, this isn't going to make sense to anyone...but they work their way to where they themselves then begin to argue FOR the thing they were previously arguing against...? No, of course that won't make sense. I seem to be seeing it though. Its odd. Okay just ignore that. I can't even explain it.
 
S

Stunnedbygrace

Senior Member
#28
Nov 12, 2015
9,112
822
113
#28
Ariel82 said:
some people fear death. I have heard many Christians do. I found it strange because I just see it as God calling me back home to be with Him.

i don't seek death because I know God still has plans for me on this Earth and He has task He wishes me to do. However I have faith He will give me the strength and wisdom to do it.

i don't see myself very wise or knowledgeable, but what little I know I have found it gives me strength and build my faith in God and not myself.

Alone i would mess up everything and when asked to choose my own path, I would always choose the wrong way.

However, God often speaks in my heart and I do a 180 and back track and find that other path.

i learned that about myself during my Appalachian trail hike three years ago. when left on my own, i choose the wrong path, but if i remembered to pray and stop and wait: God showed me where to go.

backpacking 30 plus miles when you never done it before can teach you a lot about your preconceived notions of self. when the only person you have to talk to is God. when you stand on top of a mountain and look down on clouds and tops of trees....it makes heaven seem not so far away and Earthly reality a distant spot in the horizon. makes me understand more the Bible verses where "Jesus went alone on the mountain to pray" really means.

sorry i wandered off topic but I figured you would be okay with it Stunned and I wanted to share. not sure why.
Click to expand...
I don't seek death either but I was thinking the other day that if something really awful health wise came to me, I'd be more upset at the thought of pain than of death. And then I thought, I don't think I would pray for healing. I just don't feel attached here any more.
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#29
#29
Stunnedbygrace said:
Strange thing happened in that other thread, by the way. Does it ever seem to any of you in a thread like...people who are standing counterpoint to someone else's point somehow...ah, this isn't going to make sense to anyone...but they work their way to where they themselves then begin to argue FOR the thing they were previously arguing against...? No, of course that won't make sense. I seem to be seeing it though. Its odd. Okay just ignore that. I can't even explain it.
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i believe its the Holy Spirit showing them and its the reason i stay on this site because i have seen people change their mind and come to a fuller understanding of the Gospel and scriptures as a whole. i believe God used many on this site to teach me the same.
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#30
#30
Stunnedbygrace said:
I don't seek death either but I was thinking the other day that if something really awful health wise came to me, I'd be more upset at the thought of pain than of death. And then I thought, I don't think I would pray for healing. I just don't feel attached here any more.
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pray to endure and do whatever God has for you to do. strength enough to finish the race.

do you know the passage in the old testament where God told the commander of his armies to take LESS people into battle because if they had too many men they would claim they saved themselves instead of it being of GOD?

the whole scene about men who drank standing up with hand upon their sword, versus those who lapped the water like dogs in the stream?

i always wonder: are we ready battle or do we take our leisure?
 
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Ariel82

Guest
#32
#32
nope actually fasted until about 1 pm today. lol. i find i have more energy the less I eat and can live on one meal a day if my husband didn't worry so much and wasn't a food pusher.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#34
#34
Stunnedbygrace said:
And why did Jesus call it little power?

Yes I agree its encouraging to read. :)
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Probably because the church was near a volcano, causing constant earthquakes so bad that the residence lived in tents outside the city.

How powerful would you feel if your whole life was effected by earthquakes? Forever cleaning up after one and starting over again.

I'm kind of fond of that church. (Gee, wonder why. lol) I get how little a person can feel when life is just one big, "let's start over again." Always hoping to get somewhere this time. Always having that hope shaken away violently.

Add to that, they were one small town being overwhelmed by both Roman forces trying to gather Christians to kill them and that synagogue of Satan causing even more problems because they weren't Jews.

But one thing they must have gotten out of John the beloved. "I know you have little power, but you have kept my word and have not denied my name." Jesus is their power! He's not little. He's bigger and more powerful than that dumb ole volcano and the forces on them put together.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#35
#35
Stunnedbygrace said:
I'm glad you did. :)
And you NEVER have to worry about going off topic in one of my threads. The Spirit leads us where He leads us!

I'm also not afraid of dying. Truthfully, if I was given the choice of when I get to die, I'd pick right now. I can't help it. I want to be away from this body of death. I want to see Him face to face. There's nothing on the earth that I cling to. People say if I'd ever had children I'd feel differently but...I don't think I would...
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I don't fear death. I fear dying. Doesn't seem painless, and I hate pain. lol

I also fear hubby's death. Not where he will go after death, because I'm confident in that, but the missing him is that same kind of pain I fear in dying. It just hurts.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#36
#36
Stunnedbygrace said:
I don't seek death either but I was thinking the other day that if something really awful health wise came to me, I'd be more upset at the thought of pain than of death. And then I thought, I don't think I would pray for healing. I just don't feel attached here any more.
Click to expand...
I was surprised God brought hubby back from the point of death. He was 69 when he had the heart attack. Not like he's owed anymore life or anything. As much as I didn't want to be without him, I also knew God could carry me through. I've seen him do a world of good for others along the way, so it wasn't like God didn't get enough use out of him. God never gave me a sense of peace that hubby was leaving, nor a sense of peace that he was staying. None of that stuff, so really thought it wouldn't surprise me if that's all God needed him for here.

BUT, when he came back, he has had testimonies that shock doctors. Doctors really understand he shouldn't have lived. I understand he shouldn't have lived just by reading all I could get my hands on back then on what they were talking about. (EKMO machines, anyone who stays in an ICU for 35 days or longer will be dead in a year, even if they leave ICU, dialysis machine nonstop for three days, even he shouldn't be able to eat or pee on his own now.) He honestly shouldn't be alive. And yet he is, and he is so grateful. (Annoyed sometimes as he had to rework to regain strength, but that didn't diminish grateful.)

And the told him to watch out about smoking again, because even though he slept through withdraw, the habit part would call him back. He absolute has no interest in smoking. He's been released from it again, and doctors have trouble with that one.

His witness to doctors, nurses, and aids shocks so many, because they have no other answer but the one he tells them. "Jesus brought me back."

So, honestly, not so much when you think you're ready to move on. It's when God has you ready. I thought hubby was ready, but God is still using him.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#37
#37
Ariel82 said:
pray to endure and do whatever God has for you to do. strength enough to finish the race.

do you know the passage in the old testament where God told the commander of his armies to take LESS people into battle because if they had too many men they would claim they saved themselves instead of it being of GOD?

the whole scene about men who drank standing up with hand upon their sword, versus those who lapped the water like dogs in the stream?

i always wonder: are we ready battle or do we take our leisure?
Click to expand...
Gideon's story. That one makes me laugh. Definitely not Zen and the Art of Warish. lol
 
S

Stunnedbygrace

Senior Member
#38
Nov 12, 2015
9,112
822
113
#38
Depleted said:
Probably because the church was near a volcano, causing constant earthquakes so bad that the residence lived in tents outside the city.

How powerful would you feel if your whole life was effected by earthquakes? Forever cleaning up after one and starting over again.

I'm kind of fond of that church. (Gee, wonder why. lol) I get how little a person can feel when life is just one big, "let's start over again." Always hoping to get somewhere this time. Always having that hope shaken away violently.

Add to that, they were one small town being overwhelmed by both Roman forces trying to gather Christians to kill them and that synagogue of Satan causing even more problems because they weren't Jews.

But one thing they must have gotten out of John the beloved. "I know you have little power, but you have kept my word and have not denied my name." Jesus is their power! He's not little. He's bigger and more powerful than that dumb ole volcano and the forces on them put together.
Click to expand...

They had little strength because their lives kept getting uprooted by constant earthquakes?

I have many upheavals in my life too. They haven't given me little strength. They have strengthened me. My circumstances have begun to not weaken me but to strengthen me.

I don't know, I guess its one explanation.
 
notuptome

notuptome

Senior Member
#39
May 17, 2013
15,050
2,538
113
#39
The Saints in Philadelphia had little strength yet they kept the word of God. They remained faithful in the face of tribulation from Satan. Religious people were attacking their faithfulness to the word of God but they did not compromise on the word.

We should see in this passage that we need the strengthening of the Holy Spirit to remain faithful. We cannot rely upon our little strength when the strength of Almighty God is ours to stand. No man can shut the door that God has opened. The door opened is the door to those who need Christ as their Savior.

The strength of Christ is perfected in our weakness. If we had the faith as of a grain of mustard seed we could move mountains. The strength needed to stand and the strength needed to overcome is ours in Christ Jesus not ourselves.

Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.

For the cause of Christ
Roger
 
G

garee

Banned
#40
Mar 28, 2016
15,954
1,528
113
#40
Stunnedbygrace said:
Okay here's the thread. We can continue talking about if we might possibly be that church Jesus said to: you have little strength but you have not denied Me. (And any other nook or cranny we find ourselves talking about. :))
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I would offer. We can deny Christ in unbelief "no faith" like the foolish Galatians who did in effect say there is no God in the hearts.
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But if he has paid the wage of our sin he cannot deny his own self but remains faithful. The key...he cannot deny Himself.

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, (no faith no strength) yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.2Ti 2:11

He uses the same idea when it comes the word faith calling it little faith and not no faith as that which is connected to natural uncovered man called an evil generation, the generation of Adam .

Faith is always presented as the faith of God. No faith identifies those who look to the imaginations of their own fleshly minds.

The strength of those who are born again as the generation of Christ is that Christ works in us with us to both will and do the good pleasure of God.as a imputed righteousness

The disciples and apostles erred when trying to reason through the philosophies of men not mixing the unseen eternal in what they did hear or see .Again they reasoned after the philosophies of men as the wrong manner of spirit and not by the faith of God. Therefore missing the spiritual understanding hid in parables.

“Little faith” is the same as saying “little strength” and not no strength ,no faith

Matthew 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?....(or why notpbut your trust in that not seen)

Matthew 8:26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

Matthew 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Matthew 16:8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves,(philosophically) because ye have brought no bread?

Luke 12:28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
 
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