@@ShannonPisanelli-nj4dv Praise God, I’m praying today that you feel him closer than ever!

@sammystyle-wk2hl thanks little buddy, I love you tons!!!

Hi Carole, I first want to say thank you for reaching out to me. Second, I want to you to know it grieves my heart that you experienced spiritual abuse all those years ago. Spiritual abuse is wrong, it’s sin, and it’s always very ugly. The encouragement I would give you is to remember that Jesus Christ is the way back to a life with true peace. Jesus wants your heart and he is the author of love. His arms are open wide to you coming back to him. Unfortunately, there are times when his church (us) do not represent him well at all and people get hurt. Having a lifetime of feeling that pain you were a victim of is an example of the church not being the church. But where the church fails, Jesus never fails us. Your wounds sound to be very deep and your heart seems to be filled with intense pain. I want you to know there is a way out for you, where Jesus can and will make his peace known to you. I would start by getting into a room by yourself so that you’re completely alone. Then pour out your heart, pain, hurt, the abuse that happened to you, maybe even your anger at God (if that’s there). Tell him exactly what you’re feeling without any filter and ask him for help. If there are things that come up where you find yourself to be in sin, then confess them him and tell him you’re sorry. Jesus is a loving and forgiving God and he communicates and speaks to us when we humble ourselves to him. There is no sin, situation, or event to big that his grace and mercy won’t cover. I am praying for you right now and I will continue to pray for you as God brings you to mind. Again thank you for your vulnerability with me and if you have any more questions please feel free to reach out.

i did not take it that way i thought it was very helpfull IN MY WALK WITH JESUS

@@mikitukka thanks for the reply, it’s not satire at all. The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus in their questions for the reasons of accusation against him. After giving them a short reply, he did in fact walk away. He never stopped loving them but he did walk away from that hostile crowd. He then got into a boat with his disciples and headed for a different spot. With that said, when people desire him to be around he stays, teaches, heals, delivers, and engages with the people. I hope this helps out with any confusion. Thanks for the comment! 😀

No, it's history.

Thanks for the encouragement, really appreciate it!

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

me too love his calming voice 😇😇😇

That is a great question! Here is my take on how God speaks. I know that God can speak audibly but it is something that I have never experienced myself. I know people who have had this happen but I personally haven't. The way that God speaks to me is through that still small voice. One of the problems we have is our world is filled with so much noise. Our phones, TV's, radios, and if you've been into politics lately you'll understand what I'm saying. The key to hearing God is to quiet yourself, pour out your heart to Him, repent of anything you've done that comes to mind, and then sit there and wait for him to speak. It has been my experience that God speaks in (for lack of better words) your thoughts. If you think about it there's only three possibilities here. 1) It's your own thoughts and this you will need to navigate. 2) It's Satan - so anything that goes against God's Word. 3) It's God. Sometimes this comes in the form of correction or encouragement. Many times he speaks to your identity in him. My biggest piece of encouragement is to do the above and just see what he wants to say. I hope this was helpful and if you have any more questions in the future, please ask and I'll do my best to answer them the best I can.

Thank you I really appreciate your reply. I've done the things you suggested before. Even last night in the instance I mentioned in my original comment. I thought the verse Ezekiel 43 came in to my mind, so I thought maybe it was God. But the verse has nothing to do with anything regarding my situation so maybe it was my own thoughts. I repented of my sins as far as I could think of and got still and quiet laying prostrate on the ground. I didn't hear anything. Maybe I didn't wait long enough. I will try again if I can bring myself out of discouragement in order to do it. Thanks again for your advice

@ bro thanks for responding! My advice is to keep at it. Jesus loves you and he does want to talk to you. God brought Elijah through an incredible event in 1 Kings 19 that taught him personally about the “still small voice”. Just don’t give up! And I will be praying for you today that you will recognize his voice in your life.

Thank you so much and for the prayers as well

@@JinKobayashiHearMe You're welcome brother, stay stong and keep the faith!!!

@@cletuskevenduo8814 Amen!!!

@sammystyle-wk2hl I love you too big man!!!

I finish the thought in the full video. If you have any questions about it, please send them my way.. I'd love to help out in any way I can

Thanks bro!

I don't mean this to be offensive but would you mind telling me your story?

@ not offensive at all. Grew up going to church (Anglican) every Sunday, went to a Christian school (baptist) k-12, grew up in a 90% Christian family, and grew up around most flavours of Protestant + Catholics. As I grew up, I found more and more aspects of biblical cannon and Christian actions that didn’t sit right with me, original sin, genocidal acts (the flood, Sodom, the plagues), the hypocrisy, the sociopathy, the irrational prejudices towards gay people, and the mental gymnastics needed to make the bible work. I can’t in good conscience believe in a god with such a high kill count, or being in control of all death and suffering, but not doing anything. I see the Abrahamic canons as interesting but problematic insight into the mindset and politics of the time, the messiah coming when he did reflects on the Jewish struggles and aspirations for independence from the Romans, the Old Testament is an interesting view on how established religions from Mesopotamia influenced the allegories and morals of the abrahamic world, and how people used to rationalise unexplained tragedies, the flood, Sodom and Gamora potentially having been a meteorite strike, plagues, exodus, etc

@@user-uv4xc6by6uThanks for your reply. There’s a lot in your post that I could help you digest but I thought I’d give you my experience and not have a KZbin argument. Saying that if you would like an explanation for any of what you explained I would be happy to help. Here’s my experience, I was a Marine for 5 years and during that time I was in Afghanistan in 2003 for a year deployment at Bagram Airbase. Saying that, before I was deployed I wasn’t living for Jesus, booze, women, and all other kinds of shenanigans brought me to a place is being deeply convicted about how I was living. I didn’t know what to do other than to go back to church. (I had grown up in a Baptist church with probably similar circumstances to you) a long story short I started my turn back to Jesus. What I found was forgiveness for my sins. I was able to unload all my sin, guilt, and shame. It felt like a thousand bricks had been lifted from my back, it was amazing to say the least. What I’ve found was Jesus’ forgiveness and when we turn to him it fixes what is broken in us. I will admit that I wasn’t perfect from that moment and still struggled in many ways. That means I still need to go to him for help on a daily basis, but he is the only way for the true peace we all crave. The reason for that is Jesus took God’s wrath for us on the cross. As an innocent man, he did what no other person could do and he did it willingly. Then 3 days later he rose from the dead conquering sin and the grave. This means that all who put their faith in him will become what the Bible calls a “new creation”. Jesus makes his home in our heart and helps us through the struggles of life. One of the struggles I’ve had in coming home after the war was loads of PTSD. Life got extremely messy (that’s putting it mildly) but he’s always been with me through the pain, sleepless nights, anxiety, and at times depression. Even though all of that is very real in my life Jesus has been beside me the whole time. Some things I can explain and some things still remain a mystery but I trust him. Sorry about this becoming a novel sized response but I just felt I was supposed to tell you that. I hope it helps in some way for you and I welcome any questions you may have. Anyway, I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

@ Merry Christmas to you too. My issue, not with your experience or value that you validly take from Christian faith, is that YHW is in no position to be dishing out forgiveness, quite the opposite, if he were real, he should be asking us for forgiveness and making amends to his mistakes. Everything could have been fine if he just simply didn’t make that stupid fruit tree, or that snake, or the devil, or give his naive creations the ‘free will’ to even consider eating from that dumb McGuffin tree. Sending himself/ his son to ‘forgive’ his creation for a mistake that he made is pretty narcissistic, especially considering all the killing and sadistic toying he did prior to Jesus, along with the fact that no one after Adam and Eve so much as touched that tree (nor could they, the garden was off limits afterwards). the sins of the father aren’t the sins of the son, many of the sins (not all, some are fair enough rules, no murder) and the conditions for “love” and “forgiveness” are pretty conditional and nonsensical coming from someone who preaches ‘grace’. He is all powerful and all knowing, therefore it’s also all his fault, either passively or actively, he’s in charge of the wrongs that happen in the world, I’m sorry but I can’t have faith in someone who doesn’t practice what he preaches, if no man is above his rules, he should lead by example, but somehow he gets a free pass, that’s hypocrisy.

@@user-uv4xc6by6u You're question is critical and very deep. In Genesis 1 God creates everything. After each day of creation he says it's "good". Then after he creates man he says it's "very good". You are right in saying he put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and Satan appearing as a snake also takes place. If God didn't give mankind a choice to love him back then we would all be robots, A real relationship is a two way street. God created man because he wanted to. He did it because he wanted to love mankind and have mankind love him back. The question you have to ask is, "how can someone love something without a choice?" He placed that tree in the Garden and gave them one single command to not eat of that tree. Every other tree was good to go. The problem occurs when Satan shows up and tempts them with the lie that they will "like God". At that point the question arrises, "how did Satan get there?" To that point, the bible is simply quiet, meaning we really don't know. But Adam and Eve violated God's commandment. God as supreme Judge finds them guilty and hands out the punishment. But in Genesis 3:15 is the first prophecy of Jesus. This means that God had a remedy for sin right as the first sin was committed. What also took place at that moment is, sin entered the world. The infection of sin meant all of humanity would be guilty of sin because of their actions. I am guilty of sin in my own life and with out a redeemer we would be hopelessly lost. When you read the story of the Old Testament what you see is a God who is constantly calling his people back to himself. I believe an honest reading of the text reveals a lot of God's grace on people who continue to rebel. For example, the people of Israel in Exodus witness the 10 plagues, the parting of the red sea, the provision of manna, and when Moses goes up the mountain to get the law from God, the people have a giant orgy and worship a golden calf. God not destroying them in that moment is his grace in action. I will admit that his Judgment does fall on people from time to time. In past posts you've mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah. In this example there was a limit to God's grace. The people had become so wicked that he brought justice. But there are countless examples of his grace being applied as well. The main point or take away is God is a Holy Judge. Sin must be punished because God is a God of order and law. The escape from the horrors of his judgment is belief in Jesus. Jesus was the sacrifice for all people (Old Testament and New Testament) of faith. Jesus took the punishment of God's wrath on himself so that those who would willingly choose faith in him would not perish. John 3:16. This is the question that every person has to take into consideration. Basically the question is this, "will I surrender my life to Jesus Christ so that he will forgive me of all my sin?" I grant that there is a lot to wrestle with but it all comes down to that question. I hope this helps and would love to continue the conversation with you. I think you've thought a lot about this. If there is anything I can do to help you, I would love to help.

Thanks Cherokee, and I saw your baptism picts! That is soooooo awesome!!!!

@@lizardink2900 you are right about women wearing a covering over their heads as you pointed out in (1 Cor 11). My understanding of proper edict for men with wearing a covering on their heads at least partially comes from the military. Unless you are “under arms” your cover or hat must be taken off. That rule could vary well come from other places and I don’t dispute that. My only point was, as a teenager I didn’t understand the “why” behind that rule and it didn’t make sense to me. The reason I pointed that out is a relationship with Jesus isn’t based on a rule like that. Jesus wants us to come as we are to him.

Amen, and you are welcome. If you would pray for me in this endeavour, that God would guide and direct it all!

I completely understand the way you feel bro. Sometimes as Christian’s we make Jesus look bad by our actions, the good news is that he can’t be mocked and he can still work through our stupidity. It doesn’t make it right when we as Christian’s mess up but I’m thankful for his continued grace to help me when I get myself in those positions! Thanks for the comment!!!

That is a great point that I failed to mention in my video. We did make up after that conflict and I do agree that forgiveness and reconciliation is a vital aspect of our christian walk. Thanks for the constructive criticism!

Was there not a church on base, JD ?

@ there was but it held zero appeal to me because it was super formal. At the time that really turned me off to it all so I went out into Yuma to a little Baptist church.

Thank you for those kind words, it means a lot!

@@JDGoding From one messenger of the Gospel to another. Keep up the great work.😀

That is so awesome to hear! God loves you so much Cherokee!!!!

Thanks you for the encouragement, it really means a lot!

Thanks Cherokee 😀

Thank you so much!

Thanks Cherokee, where are you going to church these days?

Thanks Jeanette

Very true and well said!!!

Thanks for the encouragement!!! Love you guys heaps!!!

That is a powerful message “if you people knew how powerful His name was, you would never stop praying.” That is so encouraging, thanks for sharing!!!

Thanks man, appreciate the kind words!

Thanks Nelle!!!