6.11.09 - I am not on your mailing list but I read your Mind of Christ in Archives and was to confess - I was raised in a Christian home. I go to church. I have been volunteering and teaching a 7th grade girls bible study group as well... I try to live my life for God and I love Him so much.... but if I love God so much, then why do I struggle with porn? I can't even remember when I first learned about sex or porn but it just happened. I got deeper into it in high school. I was lonely. My ex-boyfriend was terrible to me. I didn't have a good Christian girlfriend. So when I was alone, I resulted to porn. But not just any porn.

It first started with cartoon porn. I thought I wasn't committing a huge sin since it wasn't real people. Then, I got deeper again and resulted to lesbian porn. I am straight and am completely in love with my amazing Christian man God has blessed me with.... but I don't understand why I do the things I do.

I have trying to stop... My boyfriend and I are trying to keep each other accountable because he has the same problem... and I really do not want to carry this into our marriage when we get married... It's like I get up to the point where I feel satisfied and then I stop and immediately feel regret and guilt. I want to rid this of my life. It's not fair to my purity, it's not fair to my boyfriend and ultimately it is not fair to God.

I need to change this... I need lots of prayer... It's funny because most people only think men struggle with this but as our culture gets more and more sexual and it's becoming more "acceptable" in this world for women to do such things... it just becomes easier... I need help. I am addicted. I would like to think otherwise because I don't do it everyday or even once a week. I do it probably once a month or twice. But still... it is a reoccurring sin that I just need the Lord to wash away and replace it with His love....

My boyfriend and I have both installed the X3Watch on our computers... but it is not helping me... I feel terrible... Please pray for me... I need lots of support...

My dear Christian sister, Even Paul had his "thorne in the flesh" and I understand it was sex.  He had been married and his flesh cried out for more but the Spirit of God in Him siad, Not now!  He confessed to the law of sin that worked in his flesh in the last verses of Rom. 7 but honey Romans 8 follows, "there is therefore no condemnation for those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh."   Every time the desire to masterbate comes up turn to the Lord in worship and that desire will fade away.  It takes time, believe me I know but it will go for as we turn to the Lord in worship the desires of the flesh and the temptation of the devil cannot go with you.  I hope to hear from you again and hear of your victory over the flesh in putting the old man down and rejoicing in the Lord will do it every time.  Personal worhsip is manditory for this victory!  Put on the helmet of salvation by openly, out loud worship between you and the great holy Almighty God who loves you in Christ! - Jim Brunner

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06/16/08  One brother after reading some of the devotionals and comparing scriptures emailed in part: "I tell you, brother, there are some promises that the Lord God has helped me to lay hold of Jesus Christ through and by, that I would not have out of the Bible for as much gold and silver as can lie between York and Longdon piled up to the stars!"

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02/26/08   Hi, Pappy, I am just full of questions for you lately:)  I was wondering what you think the purpose for the transfiguration was for.  I know that everything recorded in the gospels has some significance for us as believers, but I just don't understand why Jesus had to experience the transfiguration as part of our redemption.  I would love to have your thoughts on this subject.  Love you! - Shawn

So glad my granddaughter feels free to ask such questions!  It make Pappy feel important in the lives of those he loves!

In Mark 9:1-13, Matthew 1628-17:8 and Luke 9:27-36 we see Jesus taking the three disciples who seem closes to him up a mountain.  Questions had been flying around Jesus as to just who he was.  They believed the scriptures, was he Elijah returned, or Jeremiah, or the prophet Moses had promised?  God had appeared to both Moses (Ex. 24:12-18) and Elijah (1Ki. 19:8-18) on mountains.  God was answering this question, “Who is He?”  There on the mountain of Transfiguration God showed Peter, James and John that Jesus was his divine son above the Law of Moses and above the prophet words of the prophets seen through Elijah, He was the fulfillment of both the Old Testament law and the prophetic promises.  He was not a reincarnation of Elijah or Moses.  He was not merely one of the prophets.  He was God’s one and only Son far surpassing them in authority and power.  The voice from the covering cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, Hear Him!”  It made an impression on the disciples that was forever with them as Peter says in 2Peter 1:16 “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”  Here I will quote Oswald Chambers devotional fro May 17th in My Utmost, “On the Mount of Ascension of Transfiguration is completed.  If Jesus had gone to heaven from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone; He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure.  But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the Mount to identify Himself with fallen Humanity.”  From the Transfiguration Mount to the Ascension Mount Jesus went through the fallen state of man to its death, resurrection and eternal life with the Father!  All praise and honor belongs to the Lord Jesus and Him alone! - Pappy

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02/07/08  A couple questions from my grand daughter.  ...  I just had a couple things that I wanted your thoughts about.  Nothing too urgent, but just thought you would have some insight.  THe first thing is that Steve and I were researching bread and wine in the Bible and the first time they are mentioned togehter is when Melkisidek (i know that is spelled wrong) gave them to Abraham.  What is your thought about this. The second thing I was wondering about is when Jesus casts out the demon from the boy that the disciples couldn't cast out and He said that "this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting".  What is the reason for this?  Do you have any insight about it?  Thanks for your thoughts! - Shawn

Thanks for your questions Shawn ........            Concerning your first question about the bread and wine of Melchizedek offered to Abraham:  in comparing Genesis 14:18-20, Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 5:6-11 and Heb. 6:20-7:28 we can discover that there is a spiritual order of intercessory priest in the Kingdom of God that can be called the order of Melchizedek.  These scripture indicate that the priestly order of Levites with Aaron as it first priest is patterned after this spiritual order of intercessors.  Melchizedek was the “king of righteousness” and of Salem meaning “king of Peace.”  He was a “priest of God Most High” (Heb. 7:1-2) and was thus the appearance on earth of the preincarnate Christ in a temporary bodily form.  When he offered “bread and wine” to God’s chosen, Abraham, who had just defeated the kings who had captured his relative “Lot” and his company he was picturing the Passover celebration where Jesus offered his own flesh and blood for all believers establishing a new everlasting covenant with all believers.  Abraham’s offering of the tithes to Melchizedek indicated his position as God who alone had claim to the tithes.  Jesus himself recognized the statement of David’s in Psalm 110:4 as referring to himself (Mk. 12:35-37).  Further the book of Hebrews indicated that the human priesthood of Aaron has been superseded by the superior priesthood of Christ that exists forever!  I thus understand that there are those alive today called and gifted to be prophetic intercessors in the Kingdom of God.  All who pray can and most be praying for and standing between a righteous God and the sins of men, a thing that our Lord did completely for eternity.  But some have this ministry as the prime gift in their life.

    Now about fasting and praying!  Jehoshaphat called a national fast in 2Chron. 20:3 and God heard their prayers and gave them a tremendous victory of their enemies.  Their fasting was an expression of their national repentance.  In Ezra 8:21 the Levite asked God for traveling protection through hostile territory and God protected them.  The true attitude in fasting is to secretly before God alone humbly seek his presence as in Mat. 6:17-18.  Fasting therefore helps us become more focused on the Lord so we can better receive his guidance. (Joel 1:14).  Esther asked for the Jews to fast for her that she might have courage to lay her life between the king of Persia and her people.  In 1Chron. 10:12 the warriors fasted for seven days after burning the remains of king Saul’s body for the fasting reinforced their grief.  Finally the words of Jesus indicated that fasting could open the way for deliverance from demonic activity in one we love.  Isaiah 33:2 pictures prayer and fasting as an act of seeking deliverance expecting God to act.. There obvious are many others but this I came up with here. - Jim

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01/22/08 -- I just received a telephone call from a friend in Austin who is teaching a Wednesday night class of about 300 women.  Last week the statement was made that satan could NOT read our mind while God can.  This was challenged by some of the women with the stamement that that is NOT in the Bible.

I have also taught that -- but can't find anything to back me up and had to tell him so -- but promised to hunt for someone who could. 

If it is a Bible truth that we can show scripture to back up -- please HELP!!  I need to report to him again before Wednesday.  Thanks for your help. 

In His Love,  Ray Holder in Midland, TX

Ray - here are some Scripture reverences to Satan -- Satan – Adversary or accuser.

When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article "the adversary" #Job 1:6-12 2:1-7 2. In the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with Diabolos, or the devil, and is so used more than thirty times. He is also called

a. "the dragon," "the old serpent" #Re 12:9 20:2

b. "the prince of this world" #John 12:31 14:30

c. "the prince of the power of the air" #Eph 2:2

d. "the god of this world" #2Co 4:4

e. "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" #Eph 2:2 3.

The distinct personality of Satan and his activity among men are thus obviously recognized.

a. He tempted our Lord in the wilderness #Mt 4:1-11

b. He is "Beelzebub, the prince of the devils" #Mt 12:24

c. He is "the constant enemy of God, of Christ, of the divine kingdom, of the followers of Christ, and of all truth; full of falsehood and all malice, and exciting and seducing to evil in every possible way."

His power is very great in the world.

a. He is as a ”roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" #1Pe 5:8

b. Men are said to be "taken captive by him" #2Ti 2:26

c. Christians are warned against his "devices" #2Co 2:11 and called on to "resist" him #Jas 4:7

d. Christ redeems his people from "him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" #Heb 2:14

e. Satan has the "power of death," not as lord, but simply as executioner. 

    Ray, from these reverences we can see that Satan can definitely tempt us with thoughts but the question is can he read our minds.  I do not think he can read our minds but he watches our actions and listens to our words to discover our weaknesses, fears and strengths in order to tempt us and destroy that which God has made.  The believer can overcome him by turning to the Lord Jesus in worship and prayer where Satan cannot come!  God is omniscient – Satan is not!  God is all knowing, loving and caring for all his creatures on earth.  Satan not only is only hateful and wants only to destroy what God is doing and the important truth here is that he cannot destroy what God is doing.  God will finish that which He started and finish to completion all people born into the kingdom of God.  Satan is not the opposite of God!  His activity is limited to that which God allows him to do as Rev. 20:1-6 clearly says.  His release at the very end is to deceive the nations not individual.  Government powers will and have been turning against God but His people will remain true.  God is in control.  Satan is not an equal opposing force to God as thought from the East believes as in the Yen and Yang!  Ephesians 3:10 the evil powers can learn God’s wisdom by the way God deals with His Bride, the Church!  If these evil powers can learn they certainly do not know it all!  No, evil powers nor Satan himself can read our minds but they can read our actions and listen to our negative words and work against us accordingly.  If I think of other ways to scripturally answer this question I will send it to you – Bless you brother for your faithful witness of the faith of and in our Lord Jesus Christ – Jim

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1/15/08 Comment: What happens to our souls when a human being commits suicide?

- Johnell Barkley

Johnell, The Bible does not give us a direct answer to this question.  Genesis 1:27 states that God created people in his own image and loves us deeply even after we have turned from him as 1Corinthians 6:20 says that God bought us with the high price of his own son.  Therefore we must honor God with our bodies.  Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us that we could have life.  It would go against everything Jesus taught us to take our own life.  The loss of this truth within can cause great depression, morose and feelings of suicide but we must remember that God does not change.  If he loved us before we came to him he still loves us when we forget it.  The Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8).  All eternal judgment must be left to our Lord.  We can make no judgment concerning another person apart from the truth that states that as many as call of the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved (Acts 2:21)!  It is the Holy Spirit that draws us to salvation with Christ.  Salvation is God's idea concerning men not ours. 

 So what happens to the soul of one who has come to the Lord and commits suicide?  That can only be answered ultimately by God on an individual basis.  My own grandfather who had confessed the Lord Jesus before men many times took his own life in his barn in Indiana because of excruciating pain brought on by a ruptured appendix.  My grandmother asked the Lord to forgive her husband promising to give God his seed, my father and uncle, both of which become Methodist Ministers in their early twenties.  I do not believe we can make God any more kind or less loving through some kind of bargain!  He does not change.  He is holy and righteous therefore nothing evil can ever be in his presence.  Continue to “look up” knowing that He will finish what we started.  This one thing God promises us is our life!  We must never seek to take that which we have given him! – Jim

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1/14/08 Could  you  please  be  so  kind  and educate  me  on  the  following - Mohammed Nkansa

*PROPHET;

Do  we  have  in  existence  prophets  in  comtempoary  christianity?

If  yes,  then  what  are  their  roles  in  todays  christianity?

How  do  we  know  that  one  is  a  prophet?

*BAPTISM;

I want  you  to  explain  in  details  baptism  for  me.

*Infant  baptism

*Baptism  by  sprinkle

*Baptism  by  immersion

Are  all  these  biblical?

Dear Mohammed,

  I appreciate your request for a Bible, without it a child of God is truly deprived of needed guidance from his Creator.  Mailing Bibles overseas has become very expensive to the point of being prohibitive since there are sources for the very Bibles you mentioned there in Ghana.  You might contact brother Martin Ampomah at matin2gh@yahoo.com for more information on getting one there.  On my web site where you got my address you have free access to many different translations of the Bible through the devotionals I have written. 

  As for your question concerning modern day prophets, there certainly are prophets and prophetesses in the body of Christ today (Eph. 4:11).  They are used of God to give hope and encouragement.  Any public address to a group of saints must always be judged by that body of believers and checked against the word of God.  Their words must always check true against the Bible for God never contradicts himself.  Jesus said there would be false prophets (Mk. 13:5-7) in our day but do not fear them for God gives us a spirit of "wisdom and understanding" of his ways when we seek it.  Be not overly concerned about them for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!  You can trust God for the future!  All prophecy rather public or individual must always bring glory to our Lord Jesus for "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10)!

  Concerning your question about baptisms, (Eph. 4:5) tells us that there is one baptism necessary for salvation and that is to be baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit of God as Paul says in (1Co. 12:13).  That first baptism is to be "born again" into the Kingdom of God!  As the Holy Spirit places the believer into the body of Christ so the Lord Jesus then wants to baptize you into the Holy Spirit.  All four gospels tell us that Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, which first happened at Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4 and continues until the Lord Jesus returns in glory (Eph. 4:13).  The Spirit of God present in the believer will then manifest his ministry of glorifying Jesus in many different ways, one of which is "speaking in tongues" and another is in "prophecy" as you had asked.  Infant baptism is not scriptural for it is not found in the Bible.  The mode of baptism in the Bible is immersion both in practice and meaning for that is the meaning of the original word which means "to immerse". 

 In closing, contemporary Christianity is not of the Lord at all if it is not Biblical in intent and purpose.  The purpose of our life together is the up building and growth of the body of Christ which is the reason for all the words of the Bible and prayerfully the words on my web site and devotionals.  God's richest blessings to you now and always and thanks for the questions!  I pray this short comment is helpful to you. - Jim

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1/9/08 Dear Friends and Families,   Greetings from Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal.   Our Program "Jeewan Marg" was  On Air this evening on Capital FM and it was the begining of our Media Ministries. I know that this is the time of technology, and technologies has brought great change in the livestyles of the people too. This is the privillage of technology that, hundreds villages where it was not possible for me alone to go and share the gospel, but we are reaching from today through our Radio Outreach. Hundreds thousands of people whom, I won't be able to meet in whole life, may get the oppertunity to hear the gospel through this program. And I am glad to inform you that Lord has brought our  ministries in new leval.    It may be small things for western world to preach in Radio Stations. But there was time in Nepal, when the ministries like FEBA and TransWorld Radio used to broadcast Nepali program from Mosco in Russia. There was time  in Nepal, when it was not permitted to preach in Nepali Radio Stations. But God is not only bringing the change in this nation, Lord is opening more wider way for reaching lost and unreached souls for Christ with modern technologies.    Please pray for this program. Please pray for the people who hear this program today. Please pray so that Millions people may hear this program in the days to come.    One of my desire is to see more and more souls coming to the Kingdom of God. Because of that, in future, we would like to start the programs on some other stations of Nepal too. Please pray for the resources so that our vision  may come  into reality and we may send on air this program in different Radio Station in different parts of Nepal.   On Behalf of Lost Millions of Asia, Chandra

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1/3/08 Please pray for the Christians in Kenya - the country is facing terrible times because of the last election.  You may read about it in this Las Angeles Times articles @ http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-church3jan03,0,1132272.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntothtml.  You can copy and paste to read the article.  That way you can pray for effectively. - Thanks so much - Jim

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