I was in a discussion with my 20-yr old son the other night regarding his life, his new-found passion for Christ, and his future. He said a few things to me that generated a general sense of confusion about what a child of God is or is not allowed to do. One of those was doing things that bring pleasure to the flesh and his belief that such pleasures are basically a no-no.

My son is a fantastic musician (drummer), I'm biased of course, and he mentioned that he could no longer play drums because he was gaining personal satisfaction from it. He elaborated by giving an example; "when I'm playing the drums it feels great, when I accomplish something on the drums that is difficult it brings a joy, pride, to me that I should not experience". That discussion was extended to playing video games, watching movies, pretty much anything brings joy to the flesh is a no-no. He quoted the apostle Paul "it is not I who lives" verse and noted that it refers essentially to just that - we cannot do things that bring any joy to this flesh because we are not intended to "live" anymore for ourselves but allow Christ to live in/through us.

So, that made me wonder, and it made me sad to think that this is potentially the way it "could" be. There are many things that bring joy to my life, from spending time with my wife, hitting a golf ball nice and straight (rare), playing the guitar, riding my Harley, watching college football, etc.

What does the bible REALLY say about that? Are we supposed to be totally immersed in God to the point where nothing else really matters, including living this life?

-Samson

Interesting note on this topic - I've found that many folks in our church tend to carry King James bibles and most have no idea what they are reading. But, these same folks consider it heresy to recommend they try a different translation...

I find it so critical that we read scripture to know what God is saying to us - but we should also point out that we need to listen in a language we can understand. I, too, carried a KJ for a long time, it was tradition in our church while I was growing up. I still love to read it, compare it to other translations, etc. but I'd have a hard time if I was totally dependent on it.

God Bless,

-Samson

Apparently my last post got deleted because I linked to my homepage.  So I should be ok to repost with no website right?

1)Sept 2003: I was down Pittsburgh, and I heard a voice that said,"Good News". It confused me, but I felt compeled to come home to my old church.
2)When I arrive home and held my dads hands inside the Church(he is grounds keeper, and just so happened to be there), and profess to him and God my love, he went up and brought me down a Bible, The Good News Bible.
3)I have never heard of this Bible before in my life, the "Good News" I was spoken to is manifested in physical form.

Wow... what did the voice sound like? Soft, loud, masculine, like thunder, powerful, sweet... Just curious. I've heard the statement many a time from local church members stating that "God spoke to me", "God told me", "God said" but when I ask what they really heard they can't tell me. I'm just jealous, I guess. since I've only heard to speak to me through his completed scripture... and that's good enough for me...

God Bless,

-Samson

When one says they believe God still speaks to us in dreams there must be an underlying purpose for Him doing so:

What is this purpose?

For new revelation? For personal enlightment? To warn of an impending danger? Etc?

God has already given us his completed Word through Jesus, true? If so, then why would he still need to visit us in our dreams?

I agree, there is a danger is attempting to find God in our dreams, in visions, in signs, in wonders... He's already told us how to find him...

God Bless,

-Samson

Grace,

Many thanks for your response and perspective. While perusing the Internet for info I came across this article, one among many:

http://www.the-highway.com/God_Speak.html

I would definitely like someone to read it and provide a response, poke holes if you will. I've read it over once and I'll be printing it out so that I can read it at home again.

Interestingly enough, I had an email exchange with a church member that brought this to mind again. We currently have a "role" in our church where someone is designated as responsible for "directing" a given service. In this case, this individual was going to be responsible for directing a Tuesday evening worship service. She emailed me asking if I thought her outline for that evening was acceptible in my eyes (I am the current worship director of our church). What got my attention was this:

She wanted to eliminate a part of the service that is traditionally a part of every one of our services and she felt there was going to be repercussion from some church members for doing so. However, she'd spoken with our pastor's wife and was told by her that she should direct the service as God leads her to do it. And, with that in mind, she (the service director) felt that God was leading her to do it in this manner. But, she wanted to know if it was ok with me.

So, that got me to thinking...

First, I wondered what it means to "let God lead you on how to direct the service" meant.

Second, since she believed that God was leading her to direct it this way why did she feel it was necessary to ask me if it was ok? How in the world am I going to go against God??

So, therein lies my desire to get clarification and direction on this...

God Bless,

-Samson

Thanks! I just wish I had enough of a scriptural foundation to engage in an adult, peaceful conversation on this issue with these folks.

Any good articles, books, etc. that you can recommend on this topic?

God Bless,

-Samson

... outside of the Bible? This question was born out of my lack of experience in "hearing" God's voice as others in our congregation appear to do on a daily basis.

I was having a conversation a couple of nights ago with another church member who is mostly responsible for identifying and selecting "speakers" for our church. A couple of the folks who've been allowed to speak or preach didn't seem qualified (in my eyes) to do so. I say that because of blatant errors in reading and therefore interpreting scripture, nervous to the point they couldn't speak, and one actually changed his mind and walked away from the pulpit because he was so nervous. So I asked this church member why these people were selected.

Here's an excerpt from that actual conversation:

Me: What qualifies this individual to speak? How did you decide to select them?
Them: I was led by the Spirit to select them.
Me: Oh...

I left it at that, not wanting engage in a discussion at the time.

So, it would seem to me that Scripture would be the ultimate source of reference for deciding these types of things. This conversation opened my eyes to something; I noticed that this type of spirituality is fairly prevalent in our church where many folks are saying things like "I felt", "God told me", "the Spirit led me", "I was directed by God to", etc. Yet, on most occasions, these "commandments" totally contradict what scripture may say about the topic.

It seems that being driven by anything other than scripture leaves one open to false feelings, emotions, and thoughts.

So, back to the original question: Am I way off base? Should we be seeking God's direction, Words, promises, etc. outside of scripture?

I hope I made sense...

God Bless,

Samson
(yep, been away a while...)

Let me rephrase my question:

Can an individual that God chooses fail?

Heidi,

Can anything or anyone that God chooses fail?

-Samson

Heidi...

?

Do I think he will be rewarded by God or defeated?? Are you seriously asking those questions???

Personally, I believe that Satan has ALREADY been defeated at the Cross. Why would he have to be defeated again?

I'm not sure I understand your questions.

You made an interesting statement in your previous post: "The punishment will therefore be the ABSENCE of God's love forever." Isn't God's love eternal? Isn't it impossible for God not to love his creation? God can't stop loving anyone, it's impossible. Isn't it?

Are you saying that hell is going to be death? Complete death? You can't be separated from God and still be alive, can you? Isn't he the essence of life itself?

Humans will be going there because they reject the one and only way to salvation. Until one is born again, they belong to satan and will spent eternity with him in hell without salvation.

Satan ans his menions will be doing the punishing.

aw

So Satan will be getting punished by God but Satan in turn will be punishing the humans? I would have thought that Satan would be suffering way too much to be concerned with punishing someone else... But, then again...

God Bless!

-Samson

Will the Anti-Christ be acting freely?

How does he know when to step in?? We are speaking of God here, how can you ask "how does He know when to step in"?

Let's use your analogy of parents and kids. More specifically, my parents and my brother when we were younger. My parents have had dreams for us, they desired us to reach certain heights, they taught us moral values, they taught us what was right from wrong.

My older brother and I would fight like cats and dogs, I darn near killed him with a pair of shears when I was about 14. My parents intervened and I felt the wrath of my father, boy did I ever.

We would fight and they would watch, let us go at it until the KNEW that it had gone too far. They KNOW those things, be it intuition or experience. I know that with MY kids.

Needless to say, both my brother and I became different people than they desired us to be. They did their job, they put the path before us, they enlightened us, we were drawn to their thoughts and ideas, but we chose different paths. Where we end up will be a result of what we chose to do.

You say that "we either respond from Satan or the Holy Spirit". How can we respond if we don't have free will? What you're really saying is that we don't respond, that we're CONTROLLED, right? You're saying that we're either possessed by one or we're possessed by the other.

Was Eve possessed by Satan when she ate of the forbidden fruit? Or did the Holy Spirit force her to eat of the fruit? Who actually made the choice? Or was there even a choice to be made?

-Samson

Thanks Heidi!

Somehow this makes it seem like we're all puppets in a "game" being played by God. We are pawns that get manipulated at his leisure. Is that the view you are expressing?

I was always under the impression that God allowed life & free will to exist and that He intervened when he desired in an effort to accomplish his Greater Plan. Always, though, with the intent of letting his creation ultimately decide whether they wanted to love him or not. Yes, they would first have to be drawn but then they could decide.

You are saying that this is not the case, true? That even the love that we have for him is not a love comes from us to Him, but instead a love that is put in us by Him directed towards Him.

I can't quite see how that would be satisfying to Him but, then again, I'm not Him...

God Bless,

-Samson

Also, how would one reconcile the statement that God doesn't punish people with Isaiah 10:12 -

"When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes."

That seems to state that God was going to punish the king. Am I interpreting that wrong?

If not, would God punish this king for something he didn't do out of his own will?

Is this where one says "God is sovereign, just, perfect, and he can do whatever he wants"? That I understand but the question is still remains, is that what He does?

God Bless,

-Samson