Let me first say: I believe in the Church as a body under Christ. I believe there are church organizations that are formed under Christ. I also believe that there are false doctrines and teachings...and I believe many people and organizations have fallen unto them...or have made them idols.

I have many people who have tried to convert me to their belief and system of their belief.When I first started searching for a church home, this baffled me. I thought Christian churches were united under Christ.

Then I realized that history is repeating... Just like the Jewish faith has divided in many forms... Just like many of other faiths have divided...so has the Christian faith.

In looking through the Bible, history tells me that the reasons are many: those in leadership fall to pride, etc. and lead what they want and not what God wants; lack of teaching; lack of making changes within lives and the acceptance of it; no discipline; those not knowing any better listen to man and not what God says; many people not called are put into position leading others astray...

And in every one of these He tries to gain their attention and when He doesn't He scatters...

I have had people tell me that I am not of Christ because I am not baptized in their church...
I have had people tell me I do not have the Holy Spirit because I do not speak in tongues...
I have had people tell me that I do not attend their church so therefore I am not of Christ....
I have had people tell me that if I don't use a certain name in praying to Him,that He will not listen to me....

I have had all use scripture to prove their point....

Yet, I know better...because I know my Savior. I know what He has done for me and that He is with me. I opened my heart and He walked in and continues to guide me.

What really gets me is when someone who claims they are of Christ doesn't listen to what Christ has done for me...how He has changed my life. It is as if they do not believe me...or Him and what He is capable of.

They try to take me to their doctrine and pick scripture here and there to prove their point...

I ask them now: tell me who Christ is to you without using doctrine or scripture.....
Because I have had people who have known me my whole life, some even have participated in giving me my name... YET they do not know me.

Their reply is usually mechanical...

So, can anyone just simply describe their Savior...tell me who He is...and let the Spirit flow...

lasa

Thanks for sharing

Christ Jesus is my creator and Father by the hand of the Father of all.
Christ is the reconciliation of the meaning of God that all creation came through and all things are reconciled through Him and for Him as we are blessed with convictions by His Holy Spirit that dwells in us and for our salvation as we receive the reconciliation. Christ is the true church as we are his members in Spirit and truth let no man deceive you otherwise.

God bless

brother and friend in Christ.


Meaning Reconciliation Creation

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Joey/Rodger
Moderator

Dear Lasa:
Are you currently participating in a worship group; church or family or friends or otherwise? If so, what are your criteria for joining? What are you looking for?

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"There will never be peace until something can be found which will restrain the passions of men and nations." -Billy Graham

I have met a few friends... We have not been able to get together as much lately.
I recently reunited with an old friend who is Jewish. Her sister has converted to Christianity and is married to a pastor. Their church is about 30 to 40 minutes away. I don't mind that. However, I am not able to sit for very long since I have 2 disc that have moved because of my fracture in my back and the doctor wants to wait on the operation. I am conversing through e-mail with them all.
When I have walked into a church, I first take note of the fruits thereof. Do they welcome me...and others. I then look to what is being taught...does it put God's children into captivity or curse them.
I know that there is no continuous perfect church organization because the body makes up the church and we all fall short. However I would like to see proper discipline in that area for righteous and truth to prevail.
I have many who come by my home who are the usual "home converters" (don't know how else to say it without mentioning names). I do not believe how they believe.
One of my sisters says she is Christian, but does not have time to study. She doesn't like to talk about scripture or the Bible... I think she feels uncomfortable because of her lack of knowledge in the area and my enthusiasm. So, I talk with her in Christ but without using scripture.
I usually study on my own and pray that the Lord is guiding me and to give me wisdom and understanding.
lasa

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
Thank You Jesus!

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Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man unto a bruised thing, And sayest, Turn back, ye sons of men.
Luk 15:4 `What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one out of them, doth not leave behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go on after the lost one, till he may find it?

lasa,

You are the church. You can't go to yourself. Follow Jesus in your heart. You can fellowship with other believers but you must bear in mind that you are the temple of God. You are to meet God in His temple.

Understand that everything that you need is inside you already.

The kingdom of heaven is within you. All your answers are in you right now.

Again, the temple of God is where you are to meet God at and you are that temple.

Realize now, that your quest is one of the heart. Everytime you move from a thought or emotion that is His, He will respond....Every Single Time.....

If you pull in other people from the outside of you to fulfill what your heart needs, you will always be hurt. They cannot be god. They are just people who are looking for answers too.

Instead, have mercy on them, as they are like you.

If you get what you need from the Father inside you and then you go meet with other people understanding that they are not perfect as you are not perfected yet, then you will be able to have much mercy on them and compassion. We are all in this war together you know.

Here is an article I wrote and there is much on my website to help you find that perfect will of God in your life:

http://www.breadandwineministries.or...0my%20life.pdf

Blessings,

Angel

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Love the Truth will all you heart, mind, and soul.

It is by the scripture that we come to an understanding of Christ. The Jesus I know is the Jesus found in scripture. He is the seed of Abrham. He is a prophet like unto Moses. A prophet that God raised up from among the Israeli brethren, God put his words in Jesus' mouth, and Jesus spoke all that God commanded him. The Jesus I know is from the seed of David, he is a son of David. He was made of woman from th eseed of David, and he was made under the law. So we see in the first chapters of Luke that all concerning the birth and early days and years of Jesus were all according to the law.

So Jesus is one that God raised up from among the brethren, God sanctified him and sent him into the world.

So the Bible calls him Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph, and we read in Acts 2 that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by/through him in their midst. Jesus, was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and was taken, and by wicked hands he was crucified and slain: But God hath raised him up, having loosed the pains of death:

And in Acts 10 we read how God sent his word unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. Christ means anointed, God sent his word by means of Jesus his anointed. And Peter goes on and says, That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

So this is a word that began to be gospeled by Jesus, and afterwards, by those who were eyewitnesses of all he had said and done.

Peter says that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and with power: and Jesus went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

So Jesus could do the things he did because God was with him. God was with Jesus by means of the anointing.

Peter continues, And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, [even] to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God [to be] the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

So it is through him we receive forgiveness of sins, he is the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. When Jesus was made manifest to John the Baptist, John said, behold th elamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. When the apostle received the revelation of Jesus, it was the revelation of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When Jesus prayed and said, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world was, that is the glory he was referring to, the glory of the lamb slain.

Peter says, 1Pe 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

So Jesus had been foreordained, or foreknown from before the foundation of the world. He was foreknown as a lamb without blemish and without spot. But although he was foreknown of God as the lamb, and although he was slain from the foundation of the world, yet there needed to be the time when he would come into being, when he would be made manifest, and when he would actually be led as a sheep to the slaughter where the sins of the world would be upon him.

So this is what the prophets spoke of, they testified of his coming, and they made known in a mystrery the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. So God, from the seed of David, raised up to Israel a saviour. But they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which were read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled that which th eprophets had spoke, in condemning Jesus. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead:

So it was God that raised Jesus out of death, and God exalted Jesus to his own right hand, and God made Jesus both Lord and Christ. Jesus has now been made a quickening spirit, it is he who quickens, and he will quicken whomsoever he will. He was sown in weakness, he was raised in power, he was sown a natural body, he was raised a spiritual body. It is he which was ordained of God [to be] the Judge of quick and dead.

Act 17:31 God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof God hath given assurance/faith unto all, in that he (God) hath raised him (Jesus) from the dead.

1Pe 1:21 By him we do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that our faith and hope might be in God.

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul describes the church as a body in which the individual Christains are parts. Just as the parts of a body need each other and none of them can function alone Christians need each other to live as God wants us to. Each of us has been given spiritual gifts which are to be used for building up and strengthening the body and we are commanded to use these gifts. We can't do this if we are isolated from other believers. We have gifts and abilities to help other believers and we need the help that others can give us if we are to develop spiritually. We can survive in isolation without fellowship with other Christians but if we do we will never fulfill all that God has planned for us.