What a Mighty God we serve.

[BaSsFiShEr20]

I know this forum is probably not the place for a post like this, But as a minister I have to share the blessing of the Lord with everyone, so bear with me.

I love the Lord. Today was an amazing service at church. We bagan a revival, and We had a young lady there who came at my invitation, who had never been one much for going to church.Not her style. She had never been to a Apostolic Pentecostal church before, and was a little aprehensive, but came as a friend to me.

Let me tell you this. My God is Great. The Holy Ghost fell on her and convicted her, and By the end of the service, she had repented, was baptised in Jesus Name for the washing away of her sins, AND Recieved the Holy Ghost.Remember this was the first time she had been to church in years.She said as I talked with her that as soon as she walked in she could feel the presence of the Almighty God, and she couldnt have sat still if she had wanted to. As the Holy Ghost fell, another brother was Baptised with the Holy Ghost and healed of back problems, and a sister who had been unable to even stand without help, who had been coming for weeks,
Got up and walked out on her own. PRAISE GOD!!!

I want somebody to try and tell me that the Holy Ghost don't still fall. I want somebody to try and tell me that miracles don't still happen. I say this, in a world of uncertainty, it sure is good to know we serve a God who is certain. A God who is Still in the saveing business. A God who Still Heals and Delivers.

Sorry, dont mean to preach, But every once in a while I just have to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Tell me what He has done for YOU lately.Have you been saved, healed, delivered,baptised in Jesus Name, filled with the Holy Ghost? I would love to know.

God Bless ya'll

Charles

[madmarty]

Good post. It makes me happy to see this kind of post. What church do you attend?

[BaSsFiShEr20]

First United Pentecostal Church of Waverly Tn.

Charles

[mallard]

was baptised in Jesus Name for the washing away of her sins

Do you mean that the baptism of Christ takes away sin? (Water baptism is just an example we should follow. )

Baptist here. I was saved about a year and a half ago when I was 15. I'm glad that God led me to a church where the Bible is preached without "New Age" thinking.

[randerson52]

I was baptised when I was little

[BaSsFiShEr20]

[quote author=Lone_Archer link=board=Tourneys;num=1121024323;start=0#3 date=07/10/05 at 20:55:47]

Do you mean that the baptism of Christ takes away sin? (Water baptism is just an example we should follow. Â*)

Baptist here. I was saved about a year and a half ago when I was 15. I'm glad that God led me to a church where the Bible is preached without "New Age" thinking.

[/quote]


No new age thinking here. Good old fashioned book of acts. Read it. how do you interpret the passage in acts 2:38. Repent, and BE BAPTISED, every one of you, In the Name of Jesus Christ, FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Mark 16:16 "Whosoever believeth AND IS BAPTIZED shall be saved."

Acts 22:16 "Repent, and be BAPTIZED, and wash away your sins."

These passages are Jesus, Peter and Paul stateing them. If all you have to do is believe the devil could be saved. He believes. If the disciples preached baptism for salvation, who are we to change that. The doctrine of Believe and you are saved did not even exist till 324 AD. Â*There are records from as far back as 125 Ad of Christians baptising in Jesus Name For the remission of sins. Read the book of Acts and tell me where any of it is applied in the Baptist church. Â*I am not trying to condemn you,I have a sincere burden for you. I Â*only want to show you the truth of the Bible, not traditions of men.


You also say you were saved when you were 15.There is no way a man can be saved exept he be born of the Water(baptism) and of the Spirit(The baptism of the Holy Ghost). Were you filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues? We are buried with Christ(go into the water), the water symbolizes the blood as it covers us to cleanse us, and we are raised from death unto life when we come out of the water.

If baptism were not essential for salvation and to recieve the Holy Ghost, then God would not have used it as a type when Jesus was baptized. Noone can do the works of God without baptism and the Holy Ghost.

Iunderstand that you are familiar with the Baptist church, and I am not trying to blast it or condemn that which you believe. Ask yourself this. If Mary, the mother of Jesus, had to be in the upper room and be baptised with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, are we any better than she. She may have birthed our Lord, but she still had to have her sins washed away. She still had to be Baptized in Jesus Name.

Just pray about it, and read the scriptures.

God Bless you,

Charles

[mallard]

Well, I appreciate your concern and respect. I am a fairly new Christian, and I don't consider myself a Biblical scholar by any means. But I have looked at a few things. I don't have the verses memorized, but I know they are there:

1. The Bible does not contradict itself, right?
2. Several verses say salvation is by faith, not works
3. Water baptism is a work.
4. There are three types of baptism: Spirit, fire, and water
5. The man on the cross next to Jesus' was told by the Lord that he would go to heaven. This man was not baptised in water.
6. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 that one must be born of the water and of the Spirit in verse 5. But look at verses 4 and 6. By born of the water, He meant born of the flesh (from your mother.) What happens before a baby is born? Water breaks.
7. So unless the Bible contradicts itself here, the verses you posted clearly indicate baptism in Christ.

As for the tongues thing... please clarify for me please. The only tongues I know in the Bible is when the apostles were given the ability to speak other languages for the purposes of witnessing to others.

See, we only need to look at the examples in the Bible to see what is true or not.

Take for example the issue of "Slain in the Spirit". We KNOW this is fake because every time in the Bible someone meets God, they fall down forward on their faces.
These people who claim to be slain in the spirit fall backward.

It doesn't say in the Bible that all saved people speak in tongues. The apostles did, yes, so that they could witness to people of different languages.


This is what I see. I hope you see why we believe what we believe, and that it is Scriptural. I do think we should pray about it. Like I said, I'm a young Christian so to say. Hopefully a more "mature" one can help out.

For now, God bless.

[NJRapala46]

I am probably going to be hated by many after I make this post, but here goes:

My family is very religious. Catholic on ym Dad's side, Presbyterian on My mom's. But as much as I go to church, and do the religious stuff, I can't get myself convinced that there is a big man sitting in the sky, on a cloud, making stuff happen. It doesn work that way. I think the bible, was a book that was written to explain things that were unexplainable. I honestly believe that half of it isnt true. I mean come on- A man one day heard it was gonna rain, so he collected every animal and had them reproduce? Are you kidding me?

I also am starting to break away from organized religion. The way i feel about religion, is somewhat eexplained by these lyrics-

Lift up a stone and you will find him,
cherish the beauty in the world around us
Not in buildings or crosses made by man.
And we were given this life to live,
not exist under standards,
set by some stupid rule book.


Whatever, thats my two cents

[officerhoyt]

tell you the truth i dont believe in god because i dont think one man could control everything from the sky

[Rebbasser]

Originally Posted by officerhoyt

tell you the truth i dont believe in god because i dont think one man could control everything from the sky

You are correct-one man can't. But there is no doubt in my mind God can.

[Marty]

I'm not a believer either, but does the God that you believe in really approve of intolerance, bad language and insulting people because of their beliefs?

[NJRapala46]

hm....sounds like someone got served

[PowerBass]

Originally Posted by Rebbasser

You are correct-one man can't. But there is no doubt in my mind God can.

Very Well put Reb.

[Sluggo Man]

Reb,

AMEN!

[WTL]

I am no theologan, and hence I will refrain from attempting to decipher each piece of scripture. What I will say is that I was Baptized around the age of 1, and that I've tried to live a good life. I simply do not think that God the Almighty punishes us if we get a verse of scripture wrong, say for instance the argument going on in this thread about the nature of salvation. So here is my conception of salvation. Forgive me if the terms sound wooden, but I believe I have a contract in good faith with God. The terms of it are that I will do my best to understand and obey Him, but that I am so meager as to not be able to understand the complicated portions of the religion - and that I will not be damned just for getting something wrong like whether or not it truly is the Body of Jesus when we take communion. I'll follow the commandments, follow the Bible where its easy to interpret. What is the nature of the Trinity? I really don't know, and wont pretend to know. I will accept that God is both 3 and 1 or 1 and 3, but I will not apply my reason to it because in this one area and perhaps only this area of religion, I believe that my reason alone is not sufficient to get a clue of whats going on. I really don't think many here will be happy with my concept, but God seems to me to like simplicity - shepards, fishermen, carpenters - simple people who have both faith and practice it each in every day. The works vs faith thing to me seems irrelevant, if you have true faith, you will have works. You do need both, or rather, you will end up having both or just 1 or the other. Faith without works - well as said logically Satan knows of God's existance. Works without Faith, well thats a tough call - and gladly, not my call.

[Sluggo Man]

"Works without Faith, well thats a tough call - and gladly, not my call."

Works without faith are our own efforts to make it to heaven. The Bible is very very clear that we cannot do so.

Faith is what saves us. If we have faith, then works will follow.

Satan believes in God, but he doesn't trust in God for salvation. He hates God. He hates His ways. This is why he rebelled against God.

It is one thing to believe God exists. It is another thing entirely to trust in Jesus Christ to save you from your sin as you accept the free gift of eternal life.

WTL has very good points that it is unprofitable to argue about things that we cannot possibly understand. However, the Bible does make salvation a very clear matter. After all, it was written for that purpose.

[WTL]

Then we define faith as not the mere belief in the existance of God ("for even demons and dogs believe that God exists" -not the exact phrase but something like that), but as the will to entrust yourself to His will. Fair enough.

But on the question of works without faith, or perhaps approximate faith (faith in something non-specific, a higher being), like I said its Gods' call. Maybe the Bible is clear on the matter, but I neither have the heart nor the will to tell a good person who is not a Christian that they are going to hell for sure. Perhaps God will give them a break, perhaps there is a purgatory.

The one argument that I dislike is the idea of faith without works leading to salvation. I knew a guy, who lived immoraly in many ways, and claimed that this did not matter because he was "saved". Just what his concept of "saved" was I'm cloudy on, but he seemed to use it like a blank check. Like I implied in the other post, if you have faith you will act in good faith.