King James Bible
King James Version (KJV)


Viewing page: 1735 of 6006
< Previous Discussion Page Next Discussion Page >
1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744
Posting comments is currently unavailable due to high demand on the server.
Please check back in an hour or more. Thank you for your patience!
challenging in a number of categories then don't because its not best for both of you and you may have to involve the
authorities. Protect yourselves first so that your lives are blessed remember Firt commandment with promise.
I believe there's only 1 simple option: to be baptized. This shall be done according to the example in the Bible which were people old enough to know right from wrong and to believe, and they were immersed in water. I suppose someone could try to complicate this, but I don't believe following the example in the Bible is complicated.
acts 2:38, Isaiah 7:16
Our family went through this with my brother who is severely bipolar. His troubles began to manifest at about 14 years of age and he got involved in drugs and began criminally offending. He abused is girlfriends, stole from my Mom and Dad and siblings, would come home to stay and then get in trouble. My Dad passed away in 1989. My Mom tried to help my brother, but he just took advantage of her and other brothers. I lived out of town from my Mom, so I was left alone by my brother, thankfully, since my kiddos were very young. My brother was homeless for quite a while, lived in the woods by my Mom's house for some time. He refused to get treatment or take meds once he was released from police custody.
So, eventually, about 2000 my mom got a 10 year restraining order on him, thinking that by the time the order was up for renewal she'd had died. But she remains alive now at 88. Before the restraining order was up for renewal, my brother became involved with a woman who helped him get treatment. He did successfully and they married about 5 years ago. My Mom was happy that she did not have to renew the restraining order and that my brother is now safe to be around. She is enjoying having him live just a few miles from her and he helps her all the time.
I prayed for him since the time he was a teen. My prayers were not fulfilled until he was in his mid 40's. But God did answer them. This is my story.
I hope that God will bring you and your husband to a united front to deal with your son in the best way. I will remember you in my prayers. This is such a heartbreaking and difficult ordeal for your family. I don't know that much about meth, but I do know that it does alter the brain negatively. He need healing on so many levels. May God deliver and restore him healthwise, and in is faith
In Matthew 16:13, Jesus is not asking His disciples who they say He is. He's asking what the public's opinion was about who He is. He says who do men say that I the Son of man am?
In Matthew 16:14, the disciples give four different answers as to who the public says He is. Today, when the question is asked, we get many different responses about who Jesus is.
But when we get to Matthew 16:15, now it's personal. Now Jesus wants to know who His disciples say He is. The first question is public opinion. Now Jesus asks whom do you (His disciples) say that I am.
Peter gives a perfect response. Peter says "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Wow! There are two very important parts to this confession. The first part says "Thou art the Christ," HO CHRISTOS, the Christ. Christ is the translation of the Greek word that is the same as the Hebrew word for Messiah, MESHIACH, and it means the anointing.
So the Jews believed that when Messiah came, He would be the anointing of God in human form. And that's who He is. Peter says "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
If you ever look up the phrase (Son of the living God), not from a religious standpoint, but from a Hebrew standpoint, you will find out that is the phrase that is used for God.
This was Peter's response. And please keep in mind that Peter was a Jew. So when Peter said "the Son of the living God," that is a title of God to the Jews. So, what Peter was confessing was you are the Messiah and you are God. Wow, what a Confession!
The importance is that everybody must settle it in their own hearts and minds about who Jesus is. Was He just a great man? Was He just a great teacher? Was He a great healer? Or was He God in the flesh? I'm going with Peter's confession and saying that He was God come in the flesh!
God leaves Jacob and Jacob puts up a pillar in the place they first (on the hill top) He pours a drink offering (wine, perhaps to symbolize blood) on the stone and then anoints it with oil.
From Bethel they journeyed to Ephrath (Bethlehem-house of bread) we and stopped since Rachel was in difficult hard labor. There BenOni (Benjamin) was born and Rachel died in childbirth. Jacob must have been very grieved due to Rachel being is "true love". Jacob marked her grave with a stone pillar.
Then Jacob (Israel) journeyed and put down the tent near the tower of Eder( about 1000 paces from Bethlehem-a shepherd's watchtower on a knoll where shepherds watched their flocks grazing in the valley below). It seems that Israel stayed there a while and during that time, Reuben, about 20 years old, slept with his stepmother, Bilhah and Israel heard of it, probably from Bilhah. Reuben dishonored is father and Bilhah, committing adultery with her (she was most likely submissive to Israel and his sons) and taking what belonged to his father. He probably desired to have a wife, but no suitable woman was around. He probably knew it was wrong to do this. The significance of this action will be discovered later when Israel is old.
The text goes through the list of Israel's children-which children were from which wife. And ten skips to Israel finally coming to his father's dwelling having not seen him for 20 years, Israel may have wondered if he was still alive, or perhaps Esau had told Isaac was still living and were he was living. Isaac was living in the same place that Abraham first lived when he arrived in Canaan, Mamre in Hebron, also call Kirjath Arba (city of four-perhaps related Canaanite chiefs-the ancient name of Hebron.) Sarai died there, and Abraham bought the field with the cave where Sarai and others were buried.
After reuniting with Jacob, Isaac dies there.
In the relationship that you presented, as much as the couple are both widowed, in their later years, & certainly unable to conceive a child, it still remains that the matter of sexual fidelity must still be maintained. As both are single & able to be married without fear of having committed adultery, the matter of fornication (i.e. sexual engagement outside of marriage) is still evident. I realize that marriage is more than a piece of paper which verifies what has taken place; it involves a deep growing love, commitment, faithfulness, honesty, etc., which of course can be had even without that paper. But the door is still open to renege on that commitment. Therefore, a verified public declaration of marriage leaves everyone with no doubt of the relationship - any other relationship can bring up questions & destroy one's witness & standing. And this type of relationship, particularly if based purely on sexual gratification, the Lord cannot condone. You can see Jesus' Words in Matthew 19:3-9, particularly verses 5 & 6, pertaining to the 'one flesh' union that is enjoyed & blessed in a monogamous marriage. And 1 Corinthians 7:1,2, where the apostle speaks of sexual fidelity pre-marriage, & to enjoy the fullness of the blessings of a deep meaningful relationship, then the two ought to be married. The persons in your question may indeed enjoy all the facets of a marriage even to sharing in a Last Will & all possessions, so to make it official would be a very small matter.
Jacob continues to speak, recounting how God had met him there at Bethel and answered him in his time of distress. That God had been with him in all his sojourning. Jacob probably needed to recount this to himself just as much as to those in his household. So the people surrendered their idols and earrings (may have been part of pagan identity) to Jacob and buried them (as into the grave our sins went with Jesus and did not rise with Him) in Shechem. Do not know the significance of the terebinth tree. It was a turpentine tree that people tapped the resin from and/or a pistachio tree.
Shechem was a turning point for this family. They were going to go God's way away from the "safety" of Shechem and into a walk of trust God and the leading by God. As they journeyed, God made the people in the area fearful of what He might do if they attempted to harm Jacob's group. Arriving at Luz (Bethel) in the land of Canaan, Jacob first built an altar there, renaming it Beth El (house of God). Deborah, is mother's nurse, dies here, and again, Jacob buries her under a terebinth tree. Jacob called named the site of the grave, Allon Bacuth (the tree of weeping). Jacob had known Deborah all of his life.
God appears to Jacob again. Here God reiterates that Jacob is no longer his name, rather Israel (He who contended with God). God tells Jacob the same promise He gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
At this time, (within a few years of leaving Haran), Jacob's oldest son, Reuben, was at most 18-19 years old. Joseph, the youngest was probably not far out of infancy. They were very vulnerable as a family in a land without kin near, with young children and Jacob being the only adult male in the family. They had large herds of sheep and goats, and maybe cattle, (called kine in the Bible). They also had a large number of servants/slaves of varying ages. Some of these male servants were most likely adults.
Jacob was living in Shechem still , even after what had happened to Dinah and the men of the town. Without the men, Jacob may have felt secure and content to stay there. But God said "No." God speaks to Jacob, telling him to pack up and go to Bethel, 10-15 miles south of Shechem. He was to dwell there. Jacob was to build an altar in Bethel, in the place God had appeared to Jacob on his way to Haran. So, God was bringing Jacob back to the place where Jacob first vowed to "make" God his God, under specific conditions.
Jacob gathers his household (wives, children, servants/slaves) and tells them to put away their foreign gods. The servants and some or all of his wives, being from Haran knew of the God of their grandfather, Nahor, but they also worshipped idols. They were double minded in their worship perhaps trying to cover all of the bases, just in case one god does not pull through for them. Maybe these were "back up" gods. Jacob told them to purify themselves. Funny that Jacob had not insisted on this after they left Haran. He tolerated this, but he knew God's people are to be pure before God, having only one allegiance to Him. He told them to change their garments. He knew that God wanted His people to not have any trace of foreign idolatrous worship practices on them. Perhaps the garments of those in the household had idolatrous symbolism.