I love the Lord, and he filled me with his Holy Spirit when I was 25 years old back in 1989. It made a huge difference. I was born, baptized Lutheran, went through catechism. When I was a teenager, I began to really want to have more with God, I had always wanted to really know if He was able to relate with me. As a young child, my parents prayed with me at night in bed, and as a teenager I knelt and in the dark would seek, for Him, and search for Him with all my young heart, so wanting Him to relate back with me. It always seemed like a one way street. I was always praying to Him, and searching in my heart for Him and seeking for Him deeply, but I always felt so alone, I was never able to know this God that I was talking to and seeking all the time. At age twenty, I remember in church we were singing a hymn that was describing the joy, the revelation of God in the hymn writers life. As if he had something I didn't have. I thought about that and as we were singing the hymn, I looked around the pews at people singing it with me, to see if any of them understood this and had the joy too, and to my depression... no... no one was happy, no one's eyes were gleaming, it was cold dead. People's mouths moving is all. They looked mindless. I was distraught. Leaving church, that Sunday, a young mother came over to me from the congregation, we were outside on the sidewalk along the street, she asked me if I've ever experienced Jesus. I said no. I said I wish I did and I wish I could. She said she has and it has helped her faith greatly. She told me to keep seeking. And I too would know Him. Zoom ahead to 1985 now. I got married ( and still am) to my husband. In 1986 we bought a farm. In 1987 we had our first son. In 1989 we had our first daughter. Eight months after our daughter was born, which would be December of 1989, one night - ( it was December 7th) - I took my Bible after everyone was in bed and knelt by the sofa in the dimly lit room. I desperately wanted to know my God I've always prayed to and talked to and read about and sang to, and as if opening by the Holy Spirit Himself, my Bible opened to Psalm 6. I prayed that Psalm. I prayed it and was in tears and the psalm seemed to match my desperate moment I was having in my search for God. At the close of so many of David's psalms, he talked about rescue from his enemies and that God would do it, He would rescue him. So when I got to that part, I was enlightened by the Holy Spirit to see that my enemies weren't human, but spiritual, and that God would take them out of the way. He would rescue me from them. That's all I knew, I then cried out with my soul and spirit that if He ( God) is alive I should be able to know! And I begged Him to let me know. And if I felt simultaneously that if He didn't let me know I would be devastated. And most likely lose my little faith that I did have. I went to bed exhausted. Woke up on December 8, 1989, upon waking up I felt in my chest a lightness. A weight had been lifted off my chest. That's what I felt immediately upon opening my eyes. Then I actually had the feeling that I was forgiven. That was an amazing feeling of joy and of being set free, and that's what I felt when I say I felt forgiven. Then I went downstairs and at my kitchen sink, God talked with me through His Holy Spirit, for the first time in my life! ( I was 25 years old in 1989). He said "Paul". And I grabbed my Bible and sat down and it opened right to Ephesians chapter 2. I began to read, first: seeing it was an epistle by the apostle Paul! I went on with the first 10 verses. 😃 I read about that salvation is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. That I was saved by grace. ❤ God opened my eyes from that day to this day ... I am now 60 years old and I have known God, and walked with Him via the Holy Spirit in me my entire adult life. That day and all the days since, He has made Himself known to me, He has done for me what He did for that hymn writer that I talked about earlier in my comment, He has done great things for me and I have loved doing things for Him. And He has used me to bring lost souls into the Kingdom and they too got baptized and lived in His new life He gave them. I say all this because it was from that day forward that I make my will subject to God's will whether I understand it, whether I feel like it, or whether I think people will make fun of me, or argue with me if I do what He says. I love God so much that I have placed every bit of trust in Him and would die for Him if that day approaches my doorstep as a believer in Christ, God's Son. So I have worked out hard verses of Scripture by realizing that God has a plan, it's His plan and His way and all things are here because of Him and all things will end because of Him and all things will report to him at the end and you only have one choice and that is: that what God says is true and let man be a liar if what man says to contradicts God. God wants to protect women. We saw that when Jesus was on earth. Over and over Jesus defended women and allowed them special and sometimes even first access to Him. So many examples there are to show us that through Jesus on earth, He's demonstrated that He has women's best in mind. And knowing that, I have no problem hearing His will for men and women. I always said men have been given the greater responsibility and accountability than women. And I thank God for that. I pray for men everywhere because Christ is their Head and they must submit to Him and hear Him and do His will as leaders in this dark world. Bless the Lord, for He is good and everything He says is good. And it is all because He has only our good in mind and in intention. We would all do well to recognize His great plan is for our good if we follow it without doubting. ❤✝️🙌
Beautiful message. Thanks for your testimony, I can see you have had a real born again experience. We all have our own ministry, men and women. God bless you
You can see why thousands of years ago religion took hold. It not only help to make sense out of the world. Like lightning killed the cow because Thor was upset and threw a lighting bolt, but it gave people hope and also gave a way for civilizations to form strong group identities. Religion used the other as bad to gin up enough hate to make individuals single mined and willing to do anything for the group. Civilizations were built by narcissistic leaders using religious intolerance and hate to take over other groups and territory. Survival was the goal and strong groups had the advantage. Fast forward to today and many of the things that made religion so strong are now impediments to a modern society. Always looking for "others" to hate makes having a democracy hard, special considerations for religion take billions out of the public coffers to run the government. Blind faith gets in the way of scientific thinking and it cost 1,000,000 Americans their lives during COVID and threatens the world over climate change. Religion has a way of bringing out the worst in people. That being said, there are millions of people who don't get caught up in the hate and they believe in the best of ideals that Religions try to teach. But we have to be smart enough to figure out what we need to keep and we need to throw away if humanity is to survive.
The sections of the bible attributed to Paul suggest that the return of Jesus was imminent, about to happen any day. So, it has not happened and enough time has passed, and there is enough horrifying stuff in the bible and the world is a mess. Just think if god did not come for WW1 or WW2 or even now when his holy land is a mess, this isn't gonna happen.
If Jesus was a Nazarene he definitely would've had long hair according to the Nazarene vow recorded by Moses. But In the past I have witnessed small fellowships split according to brethren theology being brought in and all weren't in agreement moving forward. So when it comes to the Bible it all shouldn't be taken literally, as many things in it are symbolic or literal or command or ceased or even applicable to that very time.
Fundamentalism is all screwed up for sure, but the whole BELIEF in ancient mythological gods such as Yahweh is dangerous enough all by itself for peoples mental well being.
The most accurate definition of "fundamentalism" is Biblical Christianity, they are one and the same. Your definition of fundamentalism is way off the mark, it's a definition that lumps worldly criticisms of Christianity under one all-encompassing negative label, and is inherently hostile to Biblical Christianity. Jesus told us the world will hate us, and you've bought into the lies and jumped on that "bash the church" bandwagon. You dishonor Christ by airing out your misinformed grievances in the public square. Shame on you.
I'm giving a balanced response to Paul's letters. I said I'd prefer men as Pastors but I still think they have a case. Protestants dont believe in Priesthood so only way they can justify not having female leadership is fundamentalist position.
I love the Lord, and he filled me with his Holy Spirit when I was 25 years old back in 1989. It made a huge difference. I was born, baptized Lutheran, went through catechism. When I was a teenager, I began to really want to have more with God, I had always wanted to really know if He was able to relate with me. As a young child, my parents prayed with me at night in bed, and as a teenager I knelt and in the dark would seek, for Him, and search for Him with all my young heart, so wanting Him to relate back with me. It always seemed like a one way street. I was always praying to Him, and searching in my heart for Him and seeking for Him deeply, but I always felt so alone, I was never able to know this God that I was talking to and seeking all the time. At age twenty, I remember in church we were singing a hymn that was describing the joy, the revelation of God in the hymn writers life. As if he had something I didn't have. I thought about that and as we were singing the hymn, I looked around the pews at people singing it with me, to see if any of them understood this and had the joy too, and to my depression... no... no one was happy, no one's eyes were gleaming, it was cold dead. People's mouths moving is all. They looked mindless. I was distraught.
Leaving church, that Sunday, a young mother came over to me from the congregation, we were outside on the sidewalk along the street, she asked me if I've ever experienced Jesus. I said no. I said I wish I did and I wish I could. She said she has and it has helped her faith greatly. She told me to keep seeking. And I too would know Him. Zoom ahead to 1985 now. I got married ( and still am) to my husband. In 1986 we bought a farm. In 1987 we had our first son. In 1989 we had our first daughter.
Eight months after our daughter was born, which would be December of 1989, one night - ( it was December 7th) - I took my Bible after everyone was in bed and knelt by the sofa in the dimly lit room. I desperately wanted to know my God I've always prayed to and talked to and read about and sang to, and as if opening by the Holy Spirit Himself, my Bible opened to Psalm 6. I prayed that Psalm. I prayed it and was in tears and the psalm seemed to match my desperate moment I was having in my search for God. At the close of so many of David's psalms, he talked about rescue from his enemies and that God would do it, He would rescue him. So when I got to that part, I was enlightened by the Holy Spirit to see that my enemies weren't human, but spiritual, and that God would take them out of the way. He would rescue me from them. That's all I knew, I then cried out with my soul and spirit that if He ( God) is alive I should be able to know! And I begged Him to let me know. And if I felt simultaneously that if He didn't let me know I would be devastated. And most likely lose my little faith that I did have.
I went to bed exhausted. Woke up on December 8, 1989, upon waking up I felt in my chest a lightness. A weight had been lifted off my chest. That's what I felt immediately upon opening my eyes. Then I actually had the feeling that I was forgiven. That was an amazing feeling of joy and of being set free, and that's what I felt when I say I felt forgiven. Then I went downstairs and at my kitchen sink, God talked with me through His Holy Spirit, for the first time in my life! ( I was 25 years old in 1989). He said "Paul".
And I grabbed my Bible and sat down and it opened right to Ephesians chapter 2. I began to read, first: seeing it was an epistle by the apostle Paul! I went on with the first 10 verses. 😃 I read about that salvation is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. That I was saved by grace. ❤ God opened my eyes from that day to this day ... I am now 60 years old and I have known God, and walked with Him via the Holy Spirit in me my entire adult life. That day and all the days since, He has made Himself known to me, He has done for me what He did for that hymn writer that I talked about earlier in my comment, He has done great things for me and I have loved doing things for Him. And He has used me to bring lost souls into the Kingdom and they too got baptized and lived in His new life He gave them. I say all this because it was from that day forward that I make my will subject to God's will whether I understand it, whether I feel like it, or whether I think people will make fun of me, or argue with me if I do what He says. I love God so much that I have placed every bit of trust in Him and would die for Him if that day approaches my doorstep as a believer in Christ, God's Son. So I have worked out hard verses of Scripture by realizing that God has a plan, it's His plan and His way and all things are here because of Him and all things will end because of Him and all things will report to him at the end and you only have one choice and that is: that what God says is true and let man be a liar if what man says to contradicts God.
God wants to protect women. We saw that when Jesus was on earth. Over and over Jesus defended women and allowed them special and sometimes even first access to Him. So many examples there are to show us that through Jesus on earth, He's demonstrated that He has women's best in mind.
And knowing that, I have no problem hearing His will for men and women. I always said men have been given the greater responsibility and accountability than women. And I thank God for that. I pray for men everywhere because Christ is their Head and they must submit to Him and hear Him and do His will as leaders in this dark world. Bless the Lord, for He is good and everything He says is good. And it is all because He has only our good in mind and in intention. We would all do well to recognize His great plan is for our good if we follow it without doubting. ❤✝️🙌
Beautiful message. Thanks for your testimony, I can see you have had a real born again experience.
We all have our own ministry, men and women. God bless you
@danmillar9582 Thank you Dan. I love your channel. God bless you and answer all your prayers.
You can see why thousands of years ago religion took hold. It not only help to make sense out of the world. Like lightning killed the cow because Thor was upset and threw a lighting bolt, but it gave people hope and also gave a way for civilizations to form strong group identities. Religion used the other as bad to gin up enough hate to make individuals single mined and willing to do anything for the group. Civilizations were built by narcissistic leaders using religious intolerance and hate to take over other groups and territory. Survival was the goal and strong groups had the advantage.
Fast forward to today and many of the things that made religion so strong are now impediments to a modern society. Always looking for "others" to hate makes having a democracy hard, special considerations for religion take billions out of the public coffers to run the government. Blind faith gets in the way of scientific thinking and it cost 1,000,000 Americans their lives during COVID and threatens the world over climate change.
Religion has a way of bringing out the worst in people. That being said, there are millions of people who don't get caught up in the hate and they believe in the best of ideals that Religions try to teach. But we have to be smart enough to figure out what we need to keep and we need to throw away if humanity is to survive.
The sections of the bible attributed to Paul suggest that the return of Jesus was imminent, about to happen any day.
So, it has not happened and enough time has passed, and there is enough horrifying stuff in the bible and the world is a mess. Just think if god did not come for WW1 or WW2 or even now when his holy land is a mess, this isn't gonna happen.
Gods time is not early or late, its perfect. None of us will know our last hour. Matthew 26
If Jesus was a Nazarene he definitely would've had long hair according to the Nazarene vow recorded by Moses.
But In the past I have witnessed small fellowships split according to brethren theology being brought in and all weren't in agreement moving forward.
So when it comes to the Bible it all shouldn't be taken literally, as many things in it are symbolic or literal or command or ceased or even applicable to that very time.
Exactly. Completely agree.
Jesus says take your own eye out if you lust another woman, is that to be taken literally!!!
Fundamentalism is all screwed up for sure, but the whole BELIEF in ancient mythological gods such as Yahweh is dangerous enough all by itself for peoples mental well being.
The most accurate definition of "fundamentalism" is Biblical Christianity, they are one and the same. Your definition of fundamentalism is way off the mark, it's a definition that lumps worldly criticisms of Christianity under one all-encompassing negative label, and is inherently hostile to Biblical Christianity. Jesus told us the world will hate us, and you've bought into the lies and jumped on that "bash the church" bandwagon. You dishonor Christ by airing out your misinformed grievances in the public square. Shame on you.
I'm giving a balanced response to Paul's letters. I said I'd prefer men as Pastors but I still think they have a case.
Protestants dont believe in Priesthood so only way they can justify not having female leadership is fundamentalist position.