Andrew Wommack

I've watched him before. He's great.

GodzPrincess
Pink Cross Forum Admin

Confused........I wasn't sure if your looking for information or a debate?

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

No debate. I watched his show yesterday and found myself drawn to the message, just wanted to know other's thoughts.

ANDREW WOMMACK talks good and has great teaching about love. Granted I will give him that, but people flock to people because some tickle other peoples ears. He does get into a line of prosperity teaching, which I believe to be a gift and yes some are to be prosperous, but God gives grace to people such as gifts, but then we are judged how we use what we are given, which is usually not a part of properity teaching. It's not about getting bigger houses or cars or stuff, while others don't have enough food to eat. A blessing if not used properly becomes a curse. What is not taught in prosperity teachings often is the curse part. I will try to explain this. Anyone can have the power of God to do whatever one has in their heart to do. Just because someone has the power of God does not make that person a part of God's family. God's real family is about learning to be the servant even to the servant. It is not using the power of God to make us something or to be over people. That is called witchcraft. Minor forms of witchcraft are control and manipulation. One can manipulate money using the power of God. All it takes is faith and believing.

We all have a calling and purpose, but either we seek that calling or purpose or we seek the things of this world. Many seek after the things of God to get what they want in life. That is witchcraft. Witchcraft often looks like the real deal, because all power comes from God, but do we care about the things that God cares about? Do we care about the 12,000 per day starving to death? Do we care about the countless number of people that don't have a safe place to sleep at night? Do we care for the sick or those in prison or are we using God's blessings to buy property or buildings?

Here is the bottom line about truth. Either the truth dwells in a person or doesn't dwell in a person. If the truth dwells in you then you know the truth and are not just guessing. Having said that immature people flock to people that sound good, because people often want to hear what they want to hear instead of the truth.

There are two things I could not find on his site. First thing, although love it talked about it is not defined exactly to what is love. I mean it is good to use words like love, but it means something different to everyone, but here is what God thinks about the subject of love, which is laid out in Matthew 25:31-46, which is about feeding the hungry and taking care of the homeless.

Anyone can teach and anyone can preach and many even give prophesy and even evangelize, but they will know that you are mine, not by how well one teaches or preaches or even can give prophesy> Jesus said they will know that you are mine by your love one for the other. Yes they teach a lot of things and some call that a teaching ministry, but they don't seem to be teaching why one has gifts from God, which are not about to use the power of God for self promotion or self gain. Gifts are to be used to help others.

Two other things, if he is an apostle, a true apostle does not promote his name but the name of Jesus, which is the sign of a real apostle over the false. One thing that all real apostles know, which is God shares His glory with no one. This is a scary thing promoting self. Sharing His glory is saying we are god. That's a big warning sign. One either promotes the body of Christ or self. Does he know better? Your guess is as good as mine, but there is a lot of self promotion, which is always a danager because motives become blurry at a point.

Many today are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, because they have not matured and are not with a part of the real five fold gift ministry. The real five fold gift ministry works together so people can come to maturity to learn to stand together in what each person has been called to do in life. How any of us get into trouble is not knowing the path we are to walk. Do we go left or right and how do we know which direction. We all have to learn how to be led by the Spirit of God, but also need to learn to listen and seek godly counsel and godly counsel will always lead one to a closer walk with God and God's purpose for the person.

Many people are like sheep and if you know anything about sheep, well you know that sheep are one of the dumbest critters on earth and they stink. We start out being sheep but God wants us to grow. Don't get me wrong there is a difference between being the lamb of God and just a dumb sheep.

We all have a responsibility to exhort one another daily in our calling and purpose. That will solve problems, all of us walking in that calling and purpose.

Hope that helps,

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

I tend to steer clear of those who preach that prosperity gospel stuff. There are too many preachers that are popular and well known that seem to agree with one another on certain things, and the prosperity/blessings is right up there. There are too many who are tickling our ears with things we want to hear.

How many do we hear that teach about learning to suffer? About enduring trials and tribulations and afflictions? Indeed, what about those countless numbers of people around the world dying of starvation while we in developed countries: USA, France, Europe, China, etc, are eating our fill? Most of us Christians in developed countries don't have much concept of suffering. Do we not understand the suffering and persecutions of our blessed brothers and sisters in the Lord in persecuted countries like Africa and China and Korea? Thousands of christians are dying every year, still.
I think that is going to change soon, for our country and other developed countries.

If statisticians could figure the math out, what would the statistics look like if they measured the amount we Christians give compared to how much we make and how we live our lives? Do we give sacrificially? And how much of our giving actually goes to the people who need it and how much is used for the well known preachers and ministries to build up their churches and make them bigger and nicer with better seats and sound systems, etc? They sure do a good job of stating their case of why we need to give and the justifications of making the churches bigger and having bigger cars...

We need to look beyond their smooth talk and see the truth from God's perspective. No, we should not judge, but pray for those we suspect are using our tithes/offerings more for themselves than the intended purpose. We should not judge, in the sense of being judgmental and self-righteous. But we should use our judgments to determine what is true and right and act accordingly. Pray for those who are deceived and teaching wrongly, and watch ourselves that we don't fall into the trap of believing those teachings.

Ultimately we should be looking for ministries that truly walk out God's agape love which should be demonstrated as Sarah said...but many of those ministries APPEAR to be doing just that. There are some websites that will tell you the facts about the finances of most ministries and tell you how they rate as far as the ratio of receiving monies and giving.

Back to basics. Knowing God's love. Jesus said the world would know that we are His disciples by our love. That is hard to see when things are going good. It's more clear when things are going wrong. The hidden stuff inside our hearts will come out and then people can see if our fruits are good or bad.

The concept of purifying gold applies here. The fire in this case represents tribulations of life, which is designed to reveal the hidden things in our hearts that God desires to bring up to help us see the truth about ourselves, the ugly truth we don't want to see. But His purpose is to bring us to place of confessing these sins and asking Him to forgive us and cleanse us so we are free.

We need to seek Him, focus on relationship with Him, knowing His heart, knowing His voice, knowing His ways. Being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. This is of utmost importance.

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine!...I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;...You are precious and honored in my eyes, and I love you...do not be afraid, for I am with you." (Is.43:4-5)

I was not aware that Andrew was a part of that movement, nor was that the message I heard. I agree w/James Robison, the prosperity gospel is a heresy, but so is the poverty gospel. I neither believe God wants us rich and healthy all the time or poor, sick and suffering at all times. It seems to some that the plumbline of one's authentic christianity is if they're poor, sick, suffering and a failure at any "secular" endevor. How does that square w/John's prayer?

"Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers."

Let me also assure you that many of the preachers of sound doctrine we admire; John MacArthur, Hank Hanegraaff, David Jerimiah, Erwin Lutzer, Alistor Beg, Steve Brown...and even Shelley Lubben are not living in poverty, in fact they are doing quite well. Good on 'em, do I envy them? Of course not, I'm above such things! :-) Most of us would probably be doing a lot better if we put first things first, ie; seeking the kindom of God and His righteousness. Of course that does not mean we will be as well off as this person or another, but I'm willing to bet I would've done far better if much of my earnings were not spent on porn, drink, and a life out of controll.

I didn't get the "prosperity gospel" out of Andrew Wommack's teaching. What I got was this...

Humanly speaking- how many of us would choose to spend a life in absolute squallor if we were given an inheritance of great riches?

Fact is, we have been given an inheritance because of Jesus' death and resurrection!! So, why do some choose to live in the degradation and squallor of their pet sins when they could have JOY, PEACE, LOVE- ABUNDANCE IN ALL THESE THINGS- AND a CLEAN conscience that doesn't constantly condemn them from receiving God's love and the blessings God has in store.

All God requires is that we "seek the things of His kingdom". (The blessings are HIS business.) That means learning to love ourselves as GOD LOVES US! So many seem to think it is "honorable" to suffer and still struggle with their sins when Jesus DIED for those sins!!!!

Our inheritance- made possible through the Lord Jesus Christ, thank YOU Lord- is a life free from our sins that once bound us!!!! (Can anyone say "AMEN!" here- lol) It is impossible to be free from them unless we focus and pursue righteousness- not stay focused on our sins! To do so is to glorify them (and ourselves) over Jesus!

There has never been a Champion runner who focuses on the runners behind him- he focuses on the Finish Line up ahead!! We need to stop glorifying our struggles/suffering and thinking that is our "destiny" in life. That is nothing more than an excuse to stay in them and is actually a slap in Jesus' face because He ALREADY took care of those sins by defeating them and death.

As Christians, our destiny is a life of believing that God loves us and living in that love as one who are VICTORS. We can either focus on our sins and still struggle in them or we can focus on God's love and abandon them. This is what I got out of Andrew Wommack's teachings and I agree with it totally.

Money is a "man-made" system. We're not to focus on earthly things... we're to focus on heavenly things/God's kingdom and let the Lord take care of the rest and give us what He wants us to have (and that may or may not include "earthly" blessings.) I think that is a "good trade". If Andrew Wommack is supporting "earthly blessings" more than spiritual blessings, then I disagree with him there. But...

His message of "God's part in His relationship with us is grace, our part is faith" is biblically supported. Too many people want to glory in their sufferings. That is self-aggrandizement (putting self over God.) Yet, the Lord tells us, "You shall not have any other gods before Me." Needless suffering by still struggling is another god!!! Funny how we humans seem to glory in all the wrong things. Only God can teach us His way of living. Well, God bless everyone as we seek and learn to love Jesus more and more.

I don't know this specific man, but the prosperity gospel can be very distracting.
I'm convinced that when you follow God's law very well you will be taken care of, "like the birds" as Jesus says in His sermon on the mount. God has a purpose for everyone. Some are to be poor to be an example that christianity isn't about the physical riches, like the apostles in the New Testament when they went from town to town preaching the Word and not allowing people to reward them besides basically just accepting food. Others are to be extremely wealthy to reach masses of people and to lead entire nations, like king David or Salomon for example.

It has got everything to do with what you're called to do. Maybe you are to be sharing the gospel amongst the poor and needy and you end up being the precise blessing God wants you to be in charity work, while hardly earning a thing.
Maybe you're called to reach out to masses of people through music and God blesses you with wealth that you can then use to reach a lot of people.

It all seems to come down to using whatever you get for God. Non-christians can get extremely rich, but they use it for their own benefit one way or the other, and therefore they're doomed. Or non-christians can get very poor and live ungodly lives and be doomed too.

The prosperity gospel seems to put a link between living a godly live and being wealthy and that's where it fails.
I do believe there's some general rules for success and I certainly believe living a godly life can open doors to that success, but you should never go for success and accept God as the Way to success, while He should be the Way to heaven, and success can be granted to you when you proved you can use it selflessly to honor God.

Concerning John's prayer: Prosperity is certainly a blessing. John seems to be praying for good christian people here ("just as your soul prospers"), so prosperity can be nothing but a blessing.
And you always want for your brothers and sisters the best right?

I definitely see truth in the prosperity gospel. I think when you live holy lives God will not want you to crawl through mud. God will most likely want you to use your gifts and talents to help others, and crawling through the mud would just distract you. God can use that as some sort of disciplinary method to make you become holy, but when you actually begin to live a holy life I think it would just be distracting. So the important thing to learn is that you should boldly go for the desires God put in your heart and to be disciplined in developing your talents so you can use them best in being a useful tool for God. In that sense you should drop the apathy and get up to do something wonderful with your life, because God needs you and your specific talents in the world, not behind the tv, where you are because you never dared to live out your wild dreams.

I do believe the prosperity gospel is actually underrated. You see lots of followers there because they love material blessing, but you should basically ignore that stuff and try to extract the great messages these people try to get across.

("just as your soul prospers"), sort of depends on ones heart in how they read that.

Usually how one grows is by being in the fire which is not a comfy thing to do, but if the teacher is telling you that it is about prosperity then you will avoid the fire, because your expecting comfy. The false teacher will not warn about the fire.

What it comes down to it in the end is a set of beliefs and those beliefs are either of God or not and is either where one is over the other and then it is all about self and how to gain and be prosperous or the other path that one takes, which is about getting closer to God, which is often times not a comfy thing, but the end result is to be more like God which is a servant even to the servant and how one gets to be that servant is to be placed in that position.

Give you an example. The reason I care about hookers and them being beaten half to death and even on the street is because I have been there. It was not about comfy, but about survival and my heart is that others will not have to go through that so I do everything I can to help people not have to go through the things I did in order to just survive. It came from being broken. I prospered, because I got it. I desire to share that so others do not have to go through what I did.

So now I serve instead of being over others, not having big anything, but share what I have been given. Now to me that is a big difference. How you know someone is not about the teaching or how good they sound, but how you really know them is by how they share with one another as equals. To bring people up, by being a servant. The other direction is to be over, but then what happens is people start seeking me for answers and the true path is for me to make sure they know how to seek God for answers.

The reason people fall off is because people don't walk with others through life. It is like anyone. We all may be able to have children, but the real loving parent is not just about having children but raising them properly. Anyone can have sex and have children, but that does not make them a parent. What makes a good parent is for that parent to lay down thier lives and will for the good of the child and seek God for the child so it goes in the right direction. The other way many try to be parents is do what i say not as I do. There is a huge difference in how that child is brought up. One path will lead people to having a bunch of babies and the other path is about laying down our lives so the child will live and raising that child, not as thier own, but because that child belongs to God.

A good woman and mother does what it takes for her child. The bad will come up with reasons why she can't. Todays theology is pass the buck to Jesus or God or somebody. Just read the book or buy the tape........... when the reality of it is we are to stand together understanding we have been given the power and authority to fix it.

The real is about taking care of those that are hungry or those that have no safe place to live or are sick or in prison. The false does not pay much attention to those, but are more intersted in ways to get stuff for themselves or have better buildings or nicer cars or homes.

It is why the scripture is there when they shall say "Lord, Lord we did not see you ever hungry or homeless or in prison or sick and He will say to them, be gone from me for I know you not." How we prosper is by laying down our lives so others may live and caring about the thing God cares about. It is not about teaching or preaching, but about love and real love lays down thier life and will so others may live.

Today's theology is "Jesus saves its all on Him." When actually its about each one of us to reach out as the good mother does, beause to a good mother, she lives for the child and not herself.

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

Even in the bible we can see how Paul and other apostles and disciples would disagree with each other. But somehow, God can help us overcome our disagreements and still come together in unity in Spirit. So rather than discussing what we believe in terms of various issues, I would prefer to get back to the heart of the issue again: The heart. Do you, Candlemass, believe that God loves you? Do you truly believe with all your being that He loves you? Are you so rooted and grounded in the love of Jesus that if and when all hell breaks loose, that nothing can shake your faith and trust in God? Do you know that you know that God loves you and you know that He promises to never leave you nor forsake you; that He can cause all things to work together for good; that if there is a famine, trouble, hardship, persecution, danger, sword, nakedness...that nothing can separate you from the love of God through Christ Jesus? (Romans 8:35).

These are questions that we should ask ourselves. Then, if we decide the truth is that we don't really feel rooted and grounded in the love of God and not sure we really trust Him, will we seek to keep seeking Him and calling on Him until He reveals Himself to us and brings us to the place of true intimacy with Him and we can trust Him in everything?

I admit that I am struggling with this, and would love to have at least one other person who struggles with this and will join with me in seeking God and encouraging each other and holding one another accountable. For some reason, I seem to be running from God, still. I've been seeking Him for as long as I can remember, but at the same time, still running from Him! Dunno if LJ Phoenix is still around, but I think I remember him saying something about God lovingly chasing me--pursuing me- until He catches me! :)

Blessings,
Tonya

Ephesians 4:2-6,12-13,1-5-16 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all... to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining in the whole measure of the fullness of Christ...speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine!...I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;...You are precious and honored in my eyes, and I love you...do not be afraid, for I am with you." (Is.43:4-5)

Just got done reading some of Andrew Wommack's studies. He said, "Sin is not the issue." AMEN to that! Jesus eradicted and destroyed sin so now we all must reckon with God's love that paid for the sins of the whole world. We're not held accountable by our sins any longer when we were born again, we are now accountable for not loving God and THAT is the greatest sin of all.

The Lord said, "You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind and soul." Sin doesn't let us do that. Andrew Wommack is right on... sin is no longer the issue for the regenerated child of God. The issue now is whether or not we're loving God with every ounce of our being. When we do that, sin flees! Struggling with a sin is still focusing on the sin... The struggle goes away when we focus on just loving God with our actions and that's where we get our power. Jesus couldn't have made it any simpler.

Only thing we need to keep in mind is that how we show our love to God is by how we love others. Well Jesus also said that they will know you are mine by your love one for the other, so Jesus also loved people to show that He did love God.

Love is an interesting word, which may mean different things to each of us. Some of us that have been out there, need to really learn what love is and that takes time and even if we think we have it right there is far more to it.

One question that was asked about being faithful; there was a time when my life was I thought at risk. I really thought that at the moment. I would like to say that my faith stood firm while that happened, but that would not be honest as my faith at that point was shaken even though nothing happened, but i honestly thought something would happen.

What is difficult is that two things happen, first how we show our love to God is by how we love others and secondly often how God shows His love to us is through others. It is why a lot of us are in ministry, because we do our best to lay down our lives and will so that others may live. I have to admit there are times when that happens better than other times, but that is the idea.

Have to also keep in mind that we are often blessed to see what we will do, whether we keep it for ourselves or do we give to others? I am not sure how much we have learned if we keep it for ourselves, especially if we are dieing to self daily?

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

The focus is to LOVE God. Loving people is just a "by-product", not the other way around.

The Lord is worthy of our gratitude for "going before us" in every way. When we love Him, that love automatically flows onto other people. There's a kajillion ways to show the Lord we love Him. The first one is to ACCEPT & RECEIVE His love for ourselves (which is undoubtedly the HARDEST thing to do- it's EASY to tell others "God loves you"), then live in the JOY of being associated with Him.

I guess what I'm saying is that loving God should be the ultimate motive, others just naturally receive when we do. If loving people is our goal and focus over loving God, alot of times it is a way to seek self-aggrandizement and/or feel good about ourselves. If that is the case, then the Lord is left out of what "looks like" love.......... (I say these things from experience. I thought all my "giving" was a way to love God when all it was, was wanting to feel better about myself and wanting to impress people! I made it all about ME! NO wonder I was left empty... I was doing empty things!) Loving God first should be our motive. If it's not, we're not really loving Him the way He DESERVES.

I do understand........... but, it may be something that you fell into, but scripture is really clear in that what we do to even the very least of these we do to God directly. That doing is good or bad and it is not just about money although while we are on the subject of money, if everyone that called themselves a Christian or believer even gave just $1 per month we could end starvation and in the end it would be delightful to stand in front of God and tell God we loved Him and others enough to end starvation, which does not take an all powerful act of God, but our hearts to want to see starvation come to an end.

But now your in a postition were you influence others by even what you write. Your comment is that we should love God of which there is no disagreement, but how we show out love for God is by how much we do love others. The reason is because it is the Holy Spirit that breathed life into all. Without the Holy Spirit there would not be life. The question is, "do we see the Holy Spirit in all people?"

If not, then we need to learn to see His Spirit better, perhaps? When we go out there do we see flesh or God's Spirit walking around? If we see God's Spirit then we will treat each other differently? OOPS, See if we are loving God more then we are denying His Spirit in each of us. To love God is to love all. The two cannot be separated and is not then just a by product. To love God's Spirit in all is to respect the creator and what He did. If we really understood that we would be standing against war and starvation a lot faster, because of God's Spirit. How we grieve the Spirit is by not seeing that it was His Spirit that brought all life into being.

It's like being pro life, either one is pro life in all things or just kidding everyone including themselves. If one is pro life and pro God then we will be caring equally about God and people. That means that with that blessing we have been given we are to share what we have to all. It is how unity came to the church to begin with in Acts. People don't like to read that to often, but how unity came to the church is that all loved God and people so much they got rid of all thier stuff and gave to everyone that had need. There is a lesson there not being taught in most churches today and if we really want to get this right, then we need to go back and see how they achieved unity and be willing to do the same things. OUCH ok that's rough, but do we love God enough to make those changes or continue on with "my stuff is my stuff and I am blessed and its cool and you can be like me and be blessed and here is how you do it." that is the prosperity movment. God blesses us so that we learn to share with others and if you look at that parables if we are faithful in the small things, He gives us more and more and more to share with others.

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

Showing love to all people is wonderful and we do that everyday with our families, co-workers, etc. etc. But... the only point I was bringing out is- It's possible to give to others without the motive being done for God. All looks good on the outside...

Mother Theresa is the perfect example. In her memoir, she said that she felt empty and unsatisfied and actually has a secret hatred for God for all of the suffering she witnessed, etc. as if "God didn't care." She admitted that her motive wasn't her love for God but for her SELF. No wonder she felt empty and left with a disdain for God. The Lord would rather that she gave out of love for Him than give to others as a way to gain heaven and salvation. How could she share God's love unless it was her motive for helping many, many others? She admitted that she couldn't and didn't. She did not teach that Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life while giving to others. She had prime opportunity to share the Lord's Gospel but didn't. Many died in her arms never hearing of the love of God through Jesus' sacrifice.

Better to go to heaven malnourished in body and rich in God's salvation and forgiveness than to wind up in hell with a fat belly.

Loving God is the Christian's only purpose in life in every way and in whatever way that means, whether it be feeding people to loving our next door neighbors as we love ourselves.

Hold on there buddy, Mother Teresa had doubts, a "dark night of the soul" if you will. However to judge the totality of her life/faith based on those writtings from moments of doubt is unfair and an unrighteous judgement.

According to her own memoir, her dark night lasted for many years throughout her service to others. Just quoting Mother Theresa. I like to think that she made peace with God and grew to love Him at the very end of her life but God only knows the truth about that.

Yet during all that time she continued to serve, unlike some christians who leave the faith for the slightest sign of trouble. I just think it is unwise of anyone to make a judgement on the condition of her soul/faith, or if she shared the Gospel/God's love w/those who died in her arms.

Wommack tends to blur the lines between physical and spiritual. The gospel is above all spiritual and that is our focus because our sin leads to eternal death where physical things are only temporary. Spiritual healing trumps physical healing. Spiritual prosperity trumps material prosperity.

I was born a Jew and had relatives go through the holocaust. It made one wonder, that is unless one understood that it is the body of Christ that has all power and authority in heaven and earth and so if bad stuff is happening here it is because of insensitivity in the body of Christ, because as God's people we demonstrate God's love or the lack of it to people.

I am fairly certain that you are not getting a lot of what you are saying from scripture?

Actually we all have been called to serve and all called to be ambassadors for Christ "to all on earth."

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

The point was missed but that's okay. God bless all as we pursue His love today.

I think that is the point..........One line of thinking is that we have to either do something or as you put it pursue His love and the other side is that we already have it and need to walk in it. Yes there are times that are more fluffy, ok I admit it, its more fun when it is fluffy, but that is the physical realm and with God it is all about the spiritual realm and us learning how to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh and if one can do that we don't have to seek or even wonder if we have is love or favor, we just have to learn to walk in it, but what we do get we are to share with others. It was one of them major downfalls of the Jews prior to WWII, they did not share kept what they had. That is the lesson to learn, that if we keep what we are given then it likely will be taken away from us, but like it or not, we are on earth as God's people to represent His love, will, ways, statutes, commandments and ordanances.

Granted before we get into what we have been called to do it is about learning and understanding His love, but beyond that there is far more to the picture to being faithful.

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

Absolutely. Pursue means to "walk in full assurance of and confidence in". There's no way to follow Jesus' sometimes rocky and steep paths without having complete confidence and trust that HE knows where He is going... He is a JOY to follow and pursue after.

I'm moving this to the apologetics forum, seeing as how this is rapidly ecalating into a debate over the life of Mother Teresa, and this is just not the forum for it.

I know the memoirs of which you speak. I am in the middle of that book right now. I haven't finished the whole book yet, but from what I have read thus far, Mother Teresa was an extremely humble woman who loved Jesus with all of her heart. I don't get the impression that she was trying to "earn" her salvation, as I believe that she already knew she had it. One of the statements she made was about how she knew it was by God's grace that she was saved, and that nothing she could do in and of herself could merit salvation.

That doesn't sound like a works-based faith to me.

I am actually astounded at how much of her own heart reflects how I feel. I just want Jesus to increase in me His love for Him, and to just dive deeper and deeper into that love. When you have a burning love and an aching passion for Jesus Christ, of course you will have a burning and aching desire to please Him...to bless Him and do all you can to demonstrate that love. It appears that Mother Teresa's service was motivated by that -- not by a desire for salvation.

Anyhow, I never knew Mother Teresa personally, so I can't say that I know for sure the condition of her heart...but I can see the fruit from her life, and God certainly blessed her service.

Beloved Branch
Moderator
Pink Cross Forums

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Ps. 108:13 Through God we shall do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies