I will pray for you and your friend.

Trying to give up drink or drugs when you've become used to it can be hard, and depressing, it can feel like you've got nothing left to live for. But I believe this is a sign from God, that you need to have more faith. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 - and pretty much the whole of Ecclesiastes.

If you can encourage her to attend counselling or group sessions, that would be helpful. Christian-based therapy is better if available, but failing that, any qualified therapist will do - after all, all good things and all healing comes from God, including healing which appears to be granted by secular physicians.

But probably the most important thing right now is to make sure she stays in touch with you, and the rest of her friends and family, and the community. Is there any risk that she might decide she knows better than you? If so, then that will make it more difficult to heal her. If you ever offer her advice, then try to make sure you don't sound preachy - and if she criticises her advice, then try to take it on board - and give her thanks for that criticism too - after all, you value her more than the advice - and so does God.

It's certainly not easy but God is pleased that you still care about your friend. I will pray that God is able to work in her life, and in your friendship with her to bring healing.

I think that in my journey towards faith, I have gone through a pantheistic phase, so I'd like to find out your opinions on this.

I had progressed from being an atheist to being a pantheist when I came to try to understand the concept of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Perhaps that doesn't surprise you, because while I was still an atheist, I didn't see any point in trying to understand it.

Here's how I see the debate on pantheism. Advocates seem to say that pantheism encourages you to have more respect for nature and environmental issues than traditional Christianity, and I agree that would be a good thing. But on the other hand, critics of pantheism say that it can encourage materialism - because it teaches that God exists in that cabinet you bought from Ikea - or the money that paid for it - or even worse, that line of cocaine you're about to snort. And I agree that would be a bad thing. So I think I can see both points of view.

Forgive me if it seems like I'm oversimplifying things, my purpose is not to construct a straw man. If anyone has any other reasons for or criticisms of pantheism, I'd very much like to hear them.

The reason I ask this is because I like to think I've moved on a bit from simplistic pantheism. Believing in God the Father as the creator is slightly different from believing that God exists in everything, because it means that you can happily believe that God doesn't exist in that line of cocaine. All the same, God still created it, in the same way that God created the angel that fell, I think you know who I'm talking about. So perhaps it might cause some problems or confusion for some people, but I don't think it bothers me. If you lack faith, and you're looking for reasons to support your lack of faith, you'll always be able to find them - after all, besides cocaine and Satan, why did God create the forbidden fruit? You could go round in circles on that one, but I think my faith has got past that point.

The thing that troubles me is that my interpretation of the Trinity still seems to be a bit pantheistic, or have some common ground with pantheism.

Recently I've been a bit depressed. Fortunately I hit upon 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 and the book of Ecclesiates, so I believe that depression can be a sign from God that you don't have enough faith in God.

However - what does having faith in God actually mean? Is it possible to have faith in God without having faith in the people around you? Because I believe that to have faith in God, you need to have faith that the power of the Holy Spirit is able to act through communities that meet in the name of Jesus - amongst other things. And if you don't have faith that God is able to work through your church fellowship, then, by definition, you don't have faith in God at all.

Furthermore - a person who is self-righteous and who passes judgement on others is a person who is looking for reasons not to have faith in the ability of God to work through their community, and shut themselves off from the world - which is most definitely not what God wants us to do, in my opinion.

However, to me, the idea of having faith in God's power to work through communities seems remarkably close to faith in those communities themselves - and therefore close to the pantheistic "communities for the sake of it" beliefs that I started to form for myself before I started to attend church. Indeed, had it not been for those beliefs, I might never have started attending church in the first place.

This thought bothers me. Have I lost my way? Have I missed the point? How much common ground does Trinitarian Christianity have with pantheism anyway? On the other hand, perhaps I'm labelling a set of beliefs as "pantheism" when they're not really pantheism at all. What's your slant on God's creation of the Devil, drugs and material trappings? I assume you don't think that environmental issues are overstated by those who call themselves witches and pagans - or do you? Do you feel that Christianity's alleged disregard for the environment has been exaggerated, perhaps by those who like to cast the first stone? If so, why? Thanks.

Lots of good posts. But going back to one of pocket's earlier posts ..

and has God not given the bible to all?
So their is no excuse any of us can have for not having the whole truth and absoulute truth; Given to all in his Scriptures.

Yes God has given the Bible to all of us - but that's not the same as saying there's no excuse for not having the whole and absolute truth. Leaving aside the fact that some people suffer from learning difficulties, or don't get good grades in school for whatever reason - you need to remember that most of us have to make do with a translation of the Bible. All translations have their strengths and weaknesses. And scholars continue to debate the probability of variations of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. A good translation will try to take into account the scope of this possible variation, though this may sometimes be at expense of simplicity of meaning.

Although the Bible is God's word and is holy, the language that it is rendered into is not. The meanings of words change as time passes by. Some people revere the King James Version as if it's the only Bible translation into any language with any credibility - but even among English-speaking people, many find the KJV to be obscure and hopelessly inaccessible by itself.

Not to mention people whose mother tongue is not English. Are we to insist that people must learn English to understand the Word of God? That seems to be very arrogant to me. How is that better than requiring everyone to learn Arabic?

My point here is that there is room for variations of interpretation on some of the finer points within the church, and the church encourages discussion on that.

Outsiders consider these to be different denominations - but I believe we're still one church.

Once you start saying that your own denomination is the right one, because it sticks closer to scripture, and all other denominations are wrong - then you're ignoring Biblical teachings on Christian unity - and therefore, by your own arguments, your own denomination becomes the wrong one. Ironic really, isn't it?

But the good news is that Christ has taken the sins and restored the life of everyone - regardless of the denominations of church communities near you.

Good point - and I think it's useful to bear this in mind when evangelising new-agers.

There are many new-agers with varying degrees of Biblical literacy - some have studied the scriptures in great depth, others have only brushed the surface. But all have missed the point.

They all think that it's okay to pick and choose your beliefs. When you explain that you can't do this, they point to sectarian divisions within the church - and explain that if Christians didn't pick and choose their own beliefs too, then there would be no different denominations.

Now that's all very well - but if you make up your own faith from scratch, or pick your beliefs from various different traditions, then no-one else will hold the same faith as you - which means that you won't be part of a church. New-agers tend to overlook this point.

It's worth pointing out to these new-agers that there's plenty of room in the church for discussion of interpretation of scripture - indeed, it's encouraged, which is why we have forums like this one. But the overriding thing is that you must belong to a church. After all, if you don't belong to a church, then who can you have discussion with anyway?

Despite the apparent divisions, we are still one church, one community and one family. Who wouldn't want to be part of it?

Sorry but racist ramblings cut no ice with me, I sincerely hope that DigitGem doesn't hold them in higher esteem than the Bible itself. From Straight Dope

To emphasize, the bible never says that black-skinned people are descended from Ham, nor that black skin is a curse or a debasement. On the contrary, in the bible, black Africans are described as militarily powerful, tall, and good-looking, similar to images in Greco-Roman culture. There is no indication whatsoever of a negative view of black-skinned people. In fact, there is one episode (Numbers 12:1ff) that can be interpreted as God punishing Aaron and Miriam for being prejudiced against the dark-skinned Kugotcha2es. No matter--if your goal is to twist the bible to suit your political agenda, the actual text can be ignored.

Salvation through Christ's death and resurrection is available to everyone who has faith and who repents of their sins, regardless of the colour of their skin. Any suggestion that scripture supports a racist view is blasphemy.

Permission to add the NIV, the CEV and The Message? Thanks.

NIV:

There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called — one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

CEV:

All of you are part of the same body. There is only one Spirit of God, just as you were given one hope when you were chosen to be God's people. We have only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There is one God who is the Father of all people. Not only is God above all others, but he works by using all of us, and he lives in all of us.

Message:

You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

But I think that to understand what it means, you need to get it in context, by reading verses 1-3 and verse 7 as well. Basically it's telling us we need to behave like a community, and not go off and do our own thing. There's no such thing as a solitary Christian - a Christian has to be part of a church. Verses 4-6 home in on the reason why - there's one God, one faith, so we are one family, one community and one church.

But as verse 7 says, that doesn't mean we all think and act the same. We all have our own unique gifts - and yet they're all very much needed by the one church, to make it into one church. A bit like the different parts of a body, I guess. I suggest looking at 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 for a fuller explanation.

the school has absolute authority to teach whatever it decides, no matter how objectionable or inappropriate, to any child, at any age, at any time, in any manner.

That seems a bit odd to me. Don't schools have to follow a set curriculum where you live, then? If not, then how do you know that kids will graduate from school knowing how to read and write? Surely there must be some sort of control ....

Lots of good posts. DigitGen says:

Tongues were to be easily understood.  I Corinthians 14:9 says, "So likewise you, except you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?  For you speak into the air."

... but if that was actually true, then what about Acts 2:12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" - indeed, if tongues were so easily understood, it wouldn't occured to anyone to ask what it means. And people would definitely not have alleged drunkkenness, as you see in verse 13.

So when you write off tongues that you personally don't happen to understand as occult and satanic, I see it as like verse 13. And Peter goes on to explain it in verses 14-36.

That said - I'm certainly not going to disagree with you that Jesus might be coming again any time soon. As it says in Acts 1:7, It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

So I'm broadly with GKB and Pastor Roger on this one. The gift of either speaking in tongues or of understanding tongues isn't everything. If you've got it, great. If you only seem to have it some of the time, well that's fine too. But if you never seem to have the gift at all, that's not a problem. You certainly don't need to prove that you have the gift in order to be saved. Indeed, the idea that you're guaranteed to be saved because you spoke in tongues once a little while ago is fallacious.

Speaking in tongues does not give you a licence to commit sins and not ask forgiveness for them. It doesn't give you a licence to pass judgement on others either. But then again, we shouldn't be ignoring God and judging other people anyway - if we want to be saved.

Congratulations from me too.

Quote from Pastor Roger

There is a difference between condemning the sin and condemning the sinner. No matter what the sin may be we are to speak against it and attempt to draw others away from it.

Very good point, thanks for that. I think many people get confused on that one - indeed, it's easy to forget it if it's not pointed out.

Quote from TalkerCat

Now please don't get me wrong about my views on Equality and Civil Rights - I DO agree that all of us are equally precious in the eyes of God and that we all have a right to fairness and humanity... fair pay for fair work, etc. etc.  I just think that the simple issues have been taken way over the line!  I just don't believe that being equal means that cross dressing, homosexuality, or abortion is alright in the eyes of our Lord. And I also believe that sexual deviance includes porn and is an abomination.

I take your point but it seems to me that you're trying to absolve people's responsibility for sin by blaming it on the law of the land. And I think that doesn't work. It's been tried.

You can't stop people sinning, no matter what kind of political or legal system or constitution you've got - be it market economics, republicanism, democracy, socialism, communism, anarchy, or even Islamic Shariah Law. Of course, state institutions can impose fines, custodial sentences, community sentences, welfare sanctions or even death sentences for the crimes that the people commit - but that's not the same thing as stopping people from sinning.

Just because something isn't against the law in the local land doesn't mean that it's not a sin. It's impossible for a government to legislate against every possible sin - but sometimes they legislate against things that arguably aren't sins. And not without precedent - after all, didn't Paul receive beatings and prison time for speaking the Good News? My point is - you base your decision on what is and isn't a sin on what it says in the Bible - and not primarily what it says in your local laws and constitution.

After all, it's not up to the government to save us from our sin. Jesus has saved us from our sins by dying on the cross, so why should we need the government to do it as well? We don't. As long as you repent of your sins and ask for forgiveness, you will receive eternal life - again, regardless of whether your earthly life was lived under market economics, republicanism, democracy, socialism, communism, anarchy or even Islamic Shariah Law.

I realise that this is a subject that many people feel strongly about, but I think we should not pass judgement on others, lest we be judged ourselves. We're all sinners. There's only one person who can judge, and that's God. If we pass judgement, we're acting as though we're God, and that's blasphemy.

People who view porn do not need our condemnation. They need our prayers, so that they will learn to repent, like (hopefully) the rest of us.

For me, the most important thing is strong fellowship. If you don't have that, then you might as well not go to church in the first place. A church where people are simply going through the motions, and dash out as soon as the service has finished without actually talking to anyone is not a church for me.

Some might say that following the Word of the Lord is more important than fellowship - but I think that's a red herring. Every church keeps a pretence of following the Word of the Lord - but if they lack fellowship, then it's wrong to call them a "church", and they're not following the Word anyway.

• 1 John 1:7 NASB but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

A word of warning though - although you need to have fellowship to follow the Word of the Lord, it doesn't work the other way - having fellowship doesn't automatically mean you're following the Word. Islamic mosques, Wiccan covens and even secular clubs and societies and football teams can all have fellowship, but they're not necessarily following the Word.

Oh dear, sorry to hear how hard things are for you. Is there a codependents support group near you? Or marriage counselling? Does anyone from the church know about this yet? I hope he hasn't started drinking excessively or taking drugs yet, but judging by his behaviour I'd consider it a definite risk.

It's hard to know what to do during this difficult time. Should you give him time to come back to faith, or should you leave him? I don't know. But either way, it's going to be difficult without support from your friends in the church.

So I pray that God gives you strength during these difficult times. I pray also that God gives you guidance. I pray that the power of the Holy Spirit is able to work through your church community to give you and your husband the support that you need, both as a couple and as individuals.

Welcome!