The Holy Spirit convicts of sin

[Stunnedbygrace]

JOHNLOVE, it's nice to meet you.
That's pretty amazing that you managed to raise your family in a tent!
That has to be very challenging.
What kind of community do you live in? Everyhting is shared? that sounds like it could actually be quite a blessing...

 

[Grace777x70]

Not everyone is a preacher.

(Ephesians 4:11-13) “And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some pastors and teachers; so that the saints together' make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. -In this way we are to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man,' fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself,”

Very true!

But you did not answer my questions: I'll give it again. I think this is very important because there are people that shout out we need to keep God's commandments ( which is a true statement ) - but we need to qualify exactly what that is or the young Christians will be harassed by our enemy.

Here are my questions again:

...so to say "we must obey the commandments of the Lord" or we are children of the devil. - this statement needs to be qualified. Do you agree with that?

.....obviously we need to interpret scripture with other scripture and through the lens of the finished work of Christ.

Would you agree with that?

 

[Johnlove]

JOHNLOVE, it's nice to meet you.
That's pretty amazing that you managed to raise your family in a tent!
That has to be very challenging.
What kind of community do you live in? Everyhting is shared? that sounds like it could actually be quite a blessing...

That would have been amazing if I had raised my family living out of a tent. No five weeks after Jesus sent us to another state twelve hundred mils away from our home town, we found a low rent house to live in. We slept on the floor, my wife had to cook our meals on an Old pump Colman camping stove, and our kitchen table was a fold up card table. Things became somewhat better over the next almost forty years, at least we no longer lived in the tent.

Six months after leaving the tent with me working for three dollars and seventy-five cents an hour, with no benefits, Jesus told me to have another child. I went and told my wife what Jesus said to me, and she said, I know he just told me also. So then we had three babies and another one on the way.

Not only did Jesus teach me about him, but he also let me live in trust of him for all these years.

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

Oh, I see. I misunderstood. But even 5 weeks would be difficult.
I have begun to learn that I can get by on much less than I used to think was possible.
The lust of my eyes never thinks what I have is enough.
But He has somehow taught me to be happy with a little.

 

[Johnlove]

Very true!

But you did not answer my questions: I'll give it again. I think this is very important because there are people that shout out we need to keep God's commandments ( which is a true statement ) - but we need to qualify exactly what that is or the young Christians will be harassed by our enemy.

Here are my questions again:

...so to say "we must obey the commandments of the Lord" or we are children of the devil. - this statement needs to be qualified. Do you agree with that?

..

...obviously we need to interpret scripture with other scripture and through the lens of the finished work of Christ.

You may need to interpret scripture, but Jesus/Holy Spirit tells me what the written Word of God is saying.
Would you agree with that?

The following scripture is so straight forward any fifth grade student can read it and understand it. It does not need an advanced degree in theology to know what the Apostles were telling people.

(1 John 3:9-10) “No one who has been begotten by God sins; because God’s seed remains inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God. In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil: anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God’s”

(John 12:47-48) “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall condemn him, since I have come not to condemn the world, but to save the world: he who rejects me and refuses my words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.”

(Luke 12:33) “Sell your possessions and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in Heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

(Luke 14:33) “So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.”

(Matthew 5:39) “You have learnt how it was said: ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance.”

(Matthew 5:48) “Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
(1 John 2:6) “Whoever claims to remain in him must act as he acted.”

(1 Corinthians 5:11) “What I wrote was that you should not associate with a brother Christian who is leading an immoral life, or is a usurer, or idolatrous, or a slanderer, or a drunkard or is dishonest; you should not even eat a meal with people like that.”
(Matthew 7:17-18) “Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.…

 

[Johnlove]

Oh, I see. I misunderstood. But even 5 weeks would be difficult.
I have begun to learn that I can get by on much less than I used to think was possible.
The lust of my eyes never thinks what I have is enough.
But He has somehow taught me to be happy with a little.

Living in the tent with the three babies was very hard. One night during a thunder storm we woke up two inches or more of water in our tent. One night our baby was sick, and I had to walk her up and down the dirt road in front of the tent all night long. Sitting down with her and she would cry so loud that it would have woken up the other people in their tents.

We have only Two hundred and forty dollars when we left on our trip. So living in the tent and needing ice to keep our food cold was a problem. I had no money, did not know anyone, and needed to find work, any sort of work that would give us an income.

I did not know anything about food stamps or understand that there was a government agency that could have helped us, so I had to trust that God would make sure that we would survive.

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

Living in the tent with the three babies was very hard. One night during a thunder storm we woke up two inches or more of water in our tent. One night our baby was sick, and I had to walk her up and down the dirt road in front of the tent all night long. Sitting down with her and she would cry so loud that it would have woken up the other people in their tents.

We have only Two hundred and forty dollars when we left on our trip. So living in the tent and needing ice to keep our food cold was a problem. I had no money, did not know anyone, and needed to find work, any sort of work that would give us an income.

I did not know anything about food stamps or understand that there was a government agency that could have helped us, so I had to trust that God would make sure that we would survive.

Sometimes He has to force us into a situation when we can do nothing else BUT trust Him. It grows our faith.