Lena VanAusdle Comments
%user:name Comments
Hi Francisco,
Family relationships are always complicated. One thing to keep in mind is that "being friends" and honoring and respecting your parents are two different things. God does not require us to "be friends" with our parents, though that is a laudable goal. What you should focus on is being respectful to them, and honoring them despite the difficult relationship. This article might be very helpful to you, https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/the-ten-commandments/how-should-we-treat-parents-who-are-difficult-to-honor.
In addition to the above, I do hope that you're able to communicate with your parents and forge a new and healthy relationship with them.
Hi Jonie,
I'd like to quote the article above, "At any time, God can and will forgive the sin of departing from Him, if the sinner wants forgiveness and genuinely repents. God inspired John to write, 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness' (1 John 1:9). Clearly, God will extend mercy to all who sincerely repent and change—regardless of their sin. Christ’s words, coupled with the warnings in Hebrews, are sobering. Nonetheless, we should hold fast to the hope that God will grant us repentance when we turn to Him."
Repent, and God will forgive you. Turn to Him! He wants a relationship with you, He wants you to be in His Family, He wants you to have eternal life, " who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4).
1 Corinthians 11:16-17 shows that this is not the case, "But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God." Our hair is out covering.
Jose, please don't consider suicide. It would hurt your family, and every person that you know, even if you're not close, people don't "get over" that kind of thing. Your friends will think about it years later, and hurt over the loss. God loves you, and cares for you, but He isn't a genie, His timing is always perfect.
Hi Tertese,
No where in Acts 20:7 does it say that they were meeting on the Sabbath. It simply says they met to break bread (eat a meal). In almost every instance of gathering on the Sabbath it is mentioned, "And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." There is no mention of the synagogue or the Sabbath in this verse. Notice what Acts 16:13 says, "on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there."
The Sabbath has been the same seven day cycle since creation, and God's people (the Jews specifically) have been charged in maintaining the Sabbath (Romans 3:1-2). Jesus Christ corrected the Jews of His day (the Pharisees and Sadducees) on many things, but the day on which they worshipped Him, the Sabbath day, is not one of them.
If you look at the context of the tassel (tzitzit) command, it is in the same section of scripture as the sacrifices and penalties for sin (not with the Ten Commandments, not with the food laws, not even with most of the civil laws). What can we take from this positioning? Is it possible that wearing the tassel was similar to a sacrifice and an offering? Sacrifices and offerings were a picture of the penalty for sin that Jesus Christ would later pay. As you said, Jesus Christ would have worn the tzitzit, He likely would have also offered offerings and sacrifices. But once He died, the penalty for sin was paid; there is no longer a need for physical sacrifices. The NT shows us there is no longer a need for circumcision (at outward symbol of a spiritual act); with the coming of God's Holy Spirit, is there still a need for that physical reminder?
Since God told us He would write His laws on our hearts and on our minds (through the circumcision of our hearts through the Holy Spirit), are we denying that power by choosing to continue a physical symbol of something spiritual?
Hi Jan! I don't think the article indicates that anyone will be given a second chance, nor does the United Church of God believe or teach that. What the Bible does teach is that God wants ALL to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). The second resurrection is for all of those who were not called by God, not given the opportunity to hear the name of Jesus Christ (think of the billions of people today that don't have access to Bibles, or the millions of people that were born before Christ's sacrifice). There is, however, another group of people to consider: those that knew God and deliberately and arrogantly reject Him and His ways, the incorrigibly wicked (Revelation 21:8; 1 John 5:16; Mark 3:28–29; Matthew 12:31–32; Luke 12:10). These are the people who knew God, accepted His Holy Spirit with baptism, and actively turned their back on God.
The Book of Enoch is not part of the cannon and therefore not scripture.
Rejoice,
The first question I have to ask is, have you repented of this sin? Have you gone before God and humbly asked Him for His forgiveness? Have you stopped committing this sin, and are you determined to never repeat it? If you've done these things you, then you need not fear God. Notice the quote from above, "At any time, God can and will forgive the sin of departing from Him, if the sinner wants forgiveness and genuinely repents. God inspired John to write, 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness' (1 John 1:9). Clearly, God will extend mercy to all who sincerely repent and change—regardless of their sin."
God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), He offers you peace (2 Timothy 1:7), but you have to take the steps of engaging with God through prayer and His word, through repentance and change.