| Author | Message | ||
| Muddywaters (Muddywaters) |
Hi, I don't know if this is the appropriate place to introduce myself and tell a little of my story but here goes. I will go by Muddywaters because that is about where I am at mentally. I was raised in Keene TX. since I was 13 yrs old. Pheeki and I knew each other there as children. She posted an e-mail I wrote to her in the EGW discussion Tues. Jan 7th (10:48 am) To tell my whole story would take a long time but in a nutshell, I was raised SDA in Dallas. I went to a private SDA school there since I was in 1st grade. I did not have a great school experience ever because of what I now understand to have been Adventist politics. My parents didn't have a lot of money ever to contribute, we were never big faces in the church, I'm sure we were looked down on at times for this. This caused my mother to have a total love/hate relationship with the church which whe was constantly psychologically injecting me with. She was convicted that the Adventist way was the right way because she had searched when she was young for a church and feels like she was lead supernaturally to the Adventist church. This caused us never to question that the Adventist church was "the church." However, she was conflicted because of the way she perceived herself to be treated a lot of the time, so there were constant messages of resentment also coming from her, thinking everyone "thought they were better." Because of my parents convicitons that I needed to continue to be schooled in the church and because of the growing crime rate in the part of Dallas we lived in, we moved to Keene in 1977. Keene was probably the worst place I could have been brought to with my parents already having a history of not making a big social splash with the Adventist church. I was thrown into a hot bed of conformity struggling to survive in my Goodwill clothes, hands tied from the beginning from ever standing a chance at a social life because I didn't have the right last name. My parents weren't teachers or missionaries, doctors, but mostly, not contributing any real money. We drove the oldest car in town (just about,) lived virtually in a dump, and I was literally from the wrong side of the tracks or as we call it in Keene (Old Betsy.) When I was 17 yrs old, I fell in love with a boy who had the right last name. His name was well known in Adventist circles because his dad at one time had been a minister and also sang. His mother had the reputation for being the "salt of the earth." I had an instant face for once in my life but was terribly crippled emotionally and really felt like a fraud. I didn't even realize it until lately but I think that my Adventist upbringing and all of the insecurities from feeling I was never "okay," was behind a lot of my bad choices that I made, including this guy. After 8 years of dating him, I gave him an ultimatum, "marry me or I will have to break up with you." I had been with him since I was 17, I was now 25 and graduating from SAC. He "agreed" to marry me. The long and short of it is, after 17 years total, he left me (going on 5 years ago) with a 2 year old and and a 5 year old for one of my oldest (Adventist) friends. I was also related to her by marriage, you know how small a world it is when you're an Adventist so a few years before my sister had married her uncle. For a while the double betrayal coming from them was like me having a root canal everyday. I never was able to understood my addiciton to him despite the horrible treatment for years until now. I felt like such a nobody especially coming from Keene that I really incorporated "them" his whole family into my identity. I was a faceless without them. Yet he was a skirt chasing ally cat even before we got married and I moved big red flags out of my way and stepped around them. I needed his identity too bad!!! I remarried back last March to a good man who was raised an Episcopalian. (I'm not sure if that is how you spell it.) He never heard of an Adventist hardly until I came along except from Waco, associated with David Koresh. He is not strong in his church and for about the last 7-8 years, I've been drifting from out of the Adventist church. My parents are elderly now. They haven't step foot in an Adventist church probably in over 15 years because they think the church is in apostacy. This is not to say they don't believe in the "old time religion" anymore and "sister White" because they consider themselves to be "historic Adventists." They believe the church has left them. What that left me with was a conflicted feeling of no where to go for a while and I went to the church even though they wouldn't. I was being influenced by them however and really felt like the rug was being ripped out from under me. A few years ago, I started researching the Trinity doctrine and discovered the Adventist church did not always believe in it but they accepted it officially in 1980 at the General Conference in Dallas. I've known for a while that the Adventists are on some pretty shifting sand with the way they change their doctrines with the changing times. All this to say, my parents believe in the historic church, they don't agree with the present church, I don't agree with the church for different reasons than them and I don't agree with my parents either. Isn't confusion like this suppose to be called "Babylon?" You can go from church to church around here and get a different pulse from all of them just about and I am fed up with the whole thing. This can't be right and I am realizing for the first time in my life I probably have been raised in deception. Not just that "Satan has gotten to the Adventist church" but "hey, maybe I've been duped!" I never knew how much of a business "Adventism" was and frankly now, a lot of the pain of my upbringing makes sense. We didn't have money or prestige to run with the big dogs so we had to sit on the porch so to speak and remain common unknown "muts" licking our wounds. My ex-husband's family think the kids should be raised strictly in the church, this really causes them to come from a split family even more. Of course I've battled with depression because I was suppose to be Caroline Engles, married to Charles and living out in a perfect "little house on the prairie, (or in the mountains, always acceptable,) and have had to let go painfully of a lot of my ideals. Divorced, angry and bewildered was not in my plans. I am bitter toward the Adventist church, getting worse and harder and harder for me to hold my mouth especially where my kids are concerned and "how we will raise them", Adventist school, I am told, "of course we want them to be able to color pictures of Ellen White..." ugh!!!!! I have been leaving my past behind for a long time. It still grieves me though and I don't understand all of it yet. The divorce also made me very angry at God for a long time I am trying to find my way to Him, dropping all of my Adventist rhetoric I've learned. I feel like I get God and Adventism mixed up a lot of the time. I think though that God has allowed me to go through all of this because He is really trying to teach me who He is. Hope I have not been too long winded. Will continue to visit. Signed "Muddywaters" | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Dear Muddywaters, No, you have not been too long-winded. I'm so glad you've joined us! What a lot of pain and confusion you have been enduring! I can so relate to your disillusionment. Divorce and the accompanying guilt and loss and fear are things that I and several of us on this forum have also experienced. One thing I have come to know, Muddywaters--God redeems our past. He wastes nothing, and He redeems everything we submit to him. Another thing I have come to know is that finding Jesus and knowing he has forgiven you and saved you will leave you completely changed. No amount of power plays from the ex-in-laws will be able to destroy you or to undo what Jesus does in you. I believe that my divorce and the entire loss of my identity and fear of being lost and of no use to God was a significant part of my beginning to find him. Losing my first marriage made me question everything I had been taught as an Adventist. My husband Richard, who also was divorced, said that losing his first marriage was what caused him to begin to see that Adventism simply did not have answer to the questions his cirucmstances led him to ask. I finally discovered that Jesus was asking me to surrender everything that I thought identified me and let him be my identity. It felt as if I were losing myself, but He is so faithful. He does not let us slip from his hand, and he more than fills the voids of the lost identities we mourn. I will pray for you to know the peace and the deep reassurance of Jesus' love, Muddywaters! I'm going to make a suggestion: if you don't have any, invest in some praise and worship CDs. Vineyard Music, the Hosanna! label, Dennis Jernigan, Michael W. Smith "Worship" and "Worship Again"--these are wonderful sources of songs that will fill your space with praise to Jesus and have a remarkable effect upon your outlook. Somehow I think when we fill our home with praise to God, Satan with his doubts and fears and depression has a hard time hanging around comfortably. Ask God to heal your heart and to draw you to himself. Ask him to make you willing to let go of the things that hold you in bondage, and ask him to be more real to you than are the assaults from your ex-in-laws and your own disappointment. Ask him to help you read the Bible with clear eyes and an open heart. And know that Jesus, who has already begun a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it! Love, Colleen | ||
| Sabra (Sabra) |
Muddywaters, We have so much in common. I'm about to cry reading your story. I was always the poor pitiful SDA kid with the hand-me-downs and to make things worse, my mom was divorced and almost noone was divorced in those days, at least not at my school. I've been dealing with a lot of my past and one thing that has painfully, but in a good way, helped me to deal with it is the study by Beth Moore, Breaking Free. Your ex-husband is a jerk! His loss! Send the kids to public school or worse, a Baptist school and really make him boil! (That wasn't nice, sorry) Read Galatians and see that God isn't Adventist, it is so reassuring. God loves you, He's calling you out of all that mess to some well deserved peace, Bless you and welcome, Sabra | ||
| Thomas1 (Thomas1) |
Muddywaters, Hi Sister! You will find so many here who's stories are so similar in so many ways. It will take time to heal and get rid of the past, but you've made a great start. My two cents worth; Make friends with Jesus. I mean real, personal, first name basis friends. Get to know Him and what He has done for YOU. Talk to Him and don't be afraid to let him have both barrels. Give Him EVERYTHING that hurts. Give Him everything that makes you mad as hell. Don't hold anything back! Except the fact that He said "Come to ME, when you are tired and loaded beyond your ability to handle it, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST." He meant YOU. You don't have to be afraid of Him. He already knows your pain and hurt , so you aren't going to offend Him or drive Him away, or make Him angry with you. Then when you have made real personal friends with Him, Except that He has saved YOU, and NEVER..NEVER take your eyes away from Him again! Welcome to the family. There are a lot of hurting people here. There are a lot of people who used to hurt a lot worse and now can help you find your way to Him. Jesus loves YOU. So Do I. <>< Thomas | ||
| Gene (Gene) |
Welcome, Muddy, and congratulations. It gets better. Sometimes it takes a while, but it gets better. I'm not angry or bitter - just GLAD, GLAD, GLAD I'm free from the deception. And I'm GLAD, GLAD, GLAD for you, too. | ||
| Janice (Janice) |
Colleen, Muddywaters should feel right at home with me, shouldn't she, ha, ha? I told you that I would probably open another post tonight and look at me, doing just what I said I wouldn't do. Maybe it would be better if some of you just wrote me an email sometime and it would "free up" some space in the forum for others to join. Welcome Muddywaters anyway and good night to all. Janice | ||
| Pheeki (Pheeki) |
Hello my old friend, Muddywaters. I am so glad we talked that day at the school. I know the Lord put us together that day...you are the first person I told that I wasn't an SDA (remember it was on my birthday last September). I didn't know how you would react but I had to tell someone! The funny thing was you were having the same thoughts. It wasn't an accident we were both in that parking lot after school had started-Praise God. I am so glad you are here. This is a group of very caring people who take the time to talk you through your trials...case in point my tangle with the Judaizers over the last few weeks. So many have helped me stay strong. I have come to learn that the Law makes sense to our mortal selves...it is something we can do, while walking in the Spirit doesn't make any sense but requires something much harder than rule following-faith. Laws appeal to people b/c it makes them feel powerful, and when they are able to will themselves to keep it pretty good (dare I say nearly perfectly) aren't they able to congratulate themselves. Of course they say they are relying on faith to save them, but just to make sure, I'm going to hedge my bet by keeping the Law, which isn't real faith. But boy do they defend the Law with a zeal. If they put that much zeal into winning souls for Christ, not for the Law, imagine what would happen! Just jump on in here anywhere my friend and post away, "the water is fine!" (think "O' brother where art thou"...one of my favorite movies!) Wish I had thought of a cool alias! Maybe thebabythrownoutwiththebathwater? haha. I do remember looking over at you across the street from KAES wondering why you weren't in school! Not to bring up another painful memeory! | ||
| Another_Carol (Another_Carol) |
Pheeki, Laws appeal to people b/c it makes them feel powerful, and when they are able to will themselves to keep it pretty good (dare I say nearly perfectly) aren't they able to congratulate themselves. Of course they say they are relying on faith to save them, but just to make sure, I'm going to hedge my bet by keeping the Law, which isn't real faith. This is profound, I think you should patent it b/c it's something that has been in my mind set but I have not been able to put it into words. It also works real well if a person is already a little bit of a perfectionist and very proud and unable to say they messed up. It is only when we are completely broken that we can experience what marvelous freedom God has for us. There is no place for God unless we are able to say He did it all and then totally rely on Him for whatever we need. Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Praise God that out of brokeness comes freedom, Carol | ||
| Another_Carol (Another_Carol) |
Welcome Muddywaters, I came to this site because my son-in-law was duped into and now after a 14 year marriage my daughter after 41/2 years has said enough of the lies and filed for divorce. I came to find answers since I did not get them from my s-i-l and found a wonderful group of people who I know know and love the Lord. I want to leave some scripture with you that have been helpful to me to dispel SDA, as I believe SDA presents a God who is sitting up in Heaven shaking His finger at us. 1 John 4 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Abba here has the same meaning as daddy would to us. He is our daddy and I dare say that any daddy worth anything did not create a child just so he could be a disciplinarin. And of course John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Just read it until you understand it on your own not with any help from anyone else. Love and Prayers, Carol | ||
| Terryk (Terryk) |
Angie I read a post from you way back. It was about the books I want to have a big book burning. So many books so little fire. I was in my aunts house at christmas and I saw a book I had given her I picked it up and put it right in the trash she just started laughing. She of course is not a cult member. Terry | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Oh, Angie--I intended to address your book question, too, but forgot! We actually (gulp) burned them in the fireplace. We had the same concerns you do: we didn't want anyone else getting their hands on them and being deceived. You have to know that book burning to me is almost a sacrilege, but burning a false prophet's words from a source that was not God--well, now, that's a different matter! I have another friend who recently had a book-burning, too! Colleen | ||
| Doug222 (Doug222) |
I still have mine. Can't quite bring myself to burn them. I never look at them--except that I have gone back once or twice to look at all my highlighting in "The Great Controvery." Wow, the stuff that I thought was important (or true for that matter). I didn't have that many of them. I mainly had the Conflict of the Ages series and a couple others (along with Uncle Arthurs). Maybe one day I can bring myself to burn them, but a book is a book. In His Grace Doug | ||
| Janice (Janice) |
Pheeki and Carol and others, I really did enjoy your posts to MuddyWaters this morning. I really could relate to what was said about wanting to HELP God along with our salvation and the remark about the perfectionist really hit home because it reminded me of my sister and how she and her husband have lived for the last twenty years. My brother-in-law is a home builder and built all three or four of the houses that they have ever lived in over the last twenty years. My sister is constantly trading furniture, curtains, wallpaper, etc. and knocking out walls and rearranging her furniture in rooms constantly. Nothing in their home was ever the same from one visit to the next. My sister has a very generous heart and gives stuff away all the time, and even cleans out her closet every few months, her clothes are always up-to-date and cost doesn't seem to play a part in any of it, she even paid $400 for her porcelain kitchen sink with its brass fixtures, mine cost about $40 with a $10 faucet. My sister even had a bidet (spelled wrong) in her bathroom, it was the first one that I had ever seen actually installed in a home, but my mother seems constantly worried because, in her eyes, they are always "struggling" just to get by but then turns around and brags that she knows that God is blessing them for their "obedience" to the laws. I sometimes can't help but wonder though, if it is charity or is it a lack of contentment that motivates the constant changes. I can see where a builder would love to use his hands and build new things, but I would think that this could be fulfilled by building other people's homes instead of keeping his in such shambles all the time. One time I visit and find hardwood floors and the next-I find carpet. Pretty wallpaper and beautiful cabinets are torn down and redone every year it would seem (different shades of wood and arranged differently around the kitchen) with complete floor plan changes, etc. They are equally fascinated with gardening and landscaping and have made several homes look good enough for those fancy magazines you see in the grocery stores like Good Housekeeping and Home & Gardens. My sister is equally talented in her knowledge of home crafts and sewing and has made some beautiful christening gowns and candlewicking guilts and pillows and even had a boutique shop for a while where she arranged dried flower wreaths and created some beautiful Christmas ornaments like hankerchief angels and miniature wreaths with small vines that she braided herself. Her talent seems to be endless, she can even paint pictures, my talent with paint only goes towards painting houses or ceramics. I do sew and have made many different items and I love to do counted-cross-stitch when I can ever find the time, and I do like to see a freshly trimmed lawn with flowers and shrubs nicely arranged but it would seem that there is so much more of a drive to be perfect when I look at my SDA family. I could list many more things but won't. I just thought I would comment this morning before getting ready for a wonderful, though wet, morning at our church. We are having our second annual Ladie's Retreat at our church this morning beginning at 9:00, the testimonies, the music, the fellowship, and the great lunch is really uplifting and provides much needed solace in our time of troubles. I will be praying a special prayer for each and everyone of you as I worship and praise the Lord this morning. Yours in Christ, Janice | ||
| Lydell (Lydell) |
Welcome Muddy! You definitely didn't have that conversation with Pheeki accidently. Isn't it awesome that your Heavenly Father realized that you had reached THE point of openness to really step out and move in a new direction?...for that is exactly what you are doing in posting here. You have reached that point of willingness to trust, willingness to truly examine and toss aside stiff and be free. You are starting on a most wonderful journey, friend! I most heartily agree with Colleen's suggestion of getting worship music going. My favorite is the Vineyard CD "Surrender". I'd make another suggestion too, that you get a Message Bible and begin reading that. It isn't a serious study type Bible, but one that is written in everyday, more conversational, type language. I believe it will help you begin to see with whole new eyes the God who overpoweringly loves you. This is where we all have to begin. THE issue after all is not that Adventism stinks (which it most seriously does), or that the past contained mistakes (as it does for all of us). THE issue is that God does have a glorious plan for our lives. He passionately desires intimate relationship with us. It is worth everything to find and walk in that relationship! Oh Doug....you really should try the book burning. I know I know, burning books.....it just seems soo wrong. These are BOOKS. But hink of it this way, this suckers aren't real books. Something worthy of the title "book" should contain something that makes the spirit soar, that grabs the imagination and takes it to good places, that educates, encourages, or does something good. Do these miserable things do that? noooo, none of it! You can't imagine how freeing it is. Once you get the first one or two going, you find yourself snickering and giggling thru the rest. It just feels so GOOD! | ||
| Sabra (Sabra) |
Doug, Throw them in the big black garbage bag and toss 'em out back. That's what I did since I don't have a fireplace.  | ||
| Doug222 (Doug222) |
Lydell and Sabra, I know that I will do that one day. I also know that it will be a momentous occasion. You have to realize that you are talking to a person that still has many of the things from my marriage--including outdated furniture (been divorced for going on eight years now) simply because I cannot bear to throw them out. Don't ask me why. It has nothing to do with thinking we will be together again. Muddy, I would agree with the advice that Lydell gave you about reading the Bible, with one minor modification. I would not recommend reading the Message as your sole devotional Bible. I would recommend using a modern translation (as opposed to a paraphrase). I do, howewver, highly recommend the Message Bible as a supplement. The author, Eugene Peterson, attempts to make the text come alive by using language and examples that we can relate to. It is extremely helpful to read something in a more "traditional" translation, then look and see how he paraphrases it. I fear that if you use the Message as your sole devotional reading, you will get too much of Peterson's interpretation, and have difficulty distinguishing the demarcation between what the Bible actually says, and how he has "updated" it. I purchased the Message several weeks ago and have read some of it. For me (and I cannot speak for anyone else), I find that it loses its effect when I attempt to study/read it in large doses, as opposed to when I cross reference small passages here and there. Maybe an example will help. Just this morning, I was studying from the book of Mark (in my New Living Translation--which I absolutely love), and I came across a passage about the "unpardonable sin." Now, how many sermons have you heard about that? I've heard more than a few. Watch how the NLT translates it and compare it to how the Message "expands it: New Living Translation:
The Message
Do you see the difference? the Message expounded on the passage. I am not slamming the Message. I love it. I found his paraphrasing of this passage extremely helpful. What he actually did was to take into consideration the context of the passage, and use that information to assist in his paraphrase of this smaller section of scripture. However, I would prefer to know what a translation that is more true to the "original" says, so that "I" can assess someone else's (in this case Peterson's) interpretation to see whether I agree with it or not. I guess I am a little gunshy after my experience in Adventism and with EGW. Had I not read it in the NLT first, I wouldn't know where the Bible ended and Peterson started. Hopefully this comment is taken in the Spirit it is intended. My intent is not to put down (or lift up) any particular version of the Bible. It is simply to provide a different perspective. In His Grace Doug | ||
| Muddywaters (Muddywaters) |
Thank you to all of my new (and old) friends for your encouraging words. I almost feel like printing them out and carrying them around. I am so glad to hear confidence that He redeems our past. That's what's been so painful. What was my life about, my children? The healing from it all is what has been missing for sure but I think God had to wrestle me down to a point where I knew what all I was being healed from. In other words, He is trying to heal me completely and cause me to realize, there is a reason why I chose that man, there is a reason why I stay in the same job working for an SDA organization, there is a reason why I haven't been able to leave Keene behind totally and move on. The more I understand it the more I feel like I am relaxing this death grip I've had on everything trying to keep it together. I have prayed for a while for God to "restore the years the locust has eaten" but I have not understood that this is not just about a divorce, until lately. One thing I have learned too is that we live in the wake of other people's sin. We don't get to skate out of it just because we're not the one that did it. However God turns horrible things into beautiful things for those who trust him. Thank you also for the suggestion about the music and I was also wondering who is Beth Moore and where can I find her study? Is it a book? | ||
| Sabra (Sabra) |
You can look up Beth's studies and books on www.lifewaystores.com The breaking free study is a study book where you write in it a lot and it comes with videos, but I didn't get those. I'm hoping our church does it as a group soon. It digs into your childhood and can get pretty messy, at least for me, but it is very therapeutic. | ||
| Janice (Janice) |
Hello everybody, I just had the most wonderful morning of praise with about 100 women, followed by a nice lunch and great fellowship. It is strange how I waited until I was 50 years old to go to a Ladie's Retreat or is it something new that we are doing nowadays? I don't know, I just knew that it felt so great listening to all the glorious testimonies and hearing the beautiful songs being sung and it blessed my soul to hear our guest speaker speak from the book of Hebrews. You might enjoy these verses on patience too: Rom 5:3 And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; Rom 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it]. Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Rom 15:5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: You know that all of us here have been singing the praises over the wonderful truths found in the book of Galatians but, praise God, Hebrews is just as wonderful. I know that ALL scripture is given by God and is for our profit but, wow, I wished that I could have been sending that message out to all of you in the forum as I was listening to those truths being revealed to me this morning, and I couldn't help but wondering what kind of DULL fairy tales of sorts was being spoke about in all the SDA churches this SABBATH morning. It was another form of "venting" as we say here but was truly a worship service where we praised God for his wonderful provision of grace. The book of Hebrews is all about faith and about having patience. Our preacher calls Hebrews 11 the "hall of fame" of the believers. Many of the blessed saints endured things that we can only begin to imagine and personally it put all my little "pity parties" to shame. The message was about being humble and having faith and focused on Hebrews 12: 1-Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2-Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3-For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4-Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. I came away from the retreat with a renewed sense of purpose and just want to keep on praising Jesus for what he has done and continues to do for us. We have to keep the faith and have patience when we live our lives day to day trying to win souls for God. We must not let Satan rob us of our joy either. Read the following verses concerning this: Mat 28:8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. Luk 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luk 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward [is] great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. (Note that persecution is no new thing, and we should expect a reward for what we endure) Luk 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Luk 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Luk 24:41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? Luk 24:52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: Jhn 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. (We will rejoice with the saints someday soon!!!) Jhn 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full. Jhn 16:20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Jhn 16:22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. Jhn 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (Let's unite and ask God to intervene and open the eyes of the blind SDAs.) Jhn 17:13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Act 2:28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Act 8:8 And there was great joy in that city. (Acts is the historical account of the first Christian church) Act 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. Act 15:3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. Act 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Don't feel bad if you feel that many want you dead for preaching the gospel, count it all joy for great rewards are waiting for us) Rom 5:11 And not only [so], but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Received is in the past tense, it is a finished atonement!) Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Rom 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom 15:32 That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. 2Cr 1:24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. 2Cr 2:3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is [the joy] of you all. 2Cr 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. (Note that our trials and afflictions grow in our liberty in Jesus) Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Phl 1:25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; Phl 2:2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind. (I think that this verse is very important for each of us to keep in our minds, we should have the same love and be in one accord with eachother, all true Christians are the church and should hold up eachother in prayer. This SDA arguing is of the devil and as long as the blinders are on those still in SDA bondage, nothing but faith, patience, and prayer is going to do any good. I will end this post with offering you these verses about joy, God bless and have a great day. Phl 2:17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. Phl 2:18 For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. Phl 4:1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, [my] dearly beloved. 1Th 1:6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: 1Th 2:19 For what [is] our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? [Are] not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 1Th 2:20 For ye are our glory and joy. (Jesus alone, the living word) 1Th 3:9 For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; 2Ti 1:4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; Phm 1:7 For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Phm 1:20 Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord. Hbr 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hbr 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that [is] unprofitable for you. Jam 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Jam 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness. 1Pe 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: It is 72 degrees here at my house and the daffodils are blooming in the pastures all around me. What a beautiful day!!! Janice | ||
| Pheeki (Pheeki) |
Janice, you must be close to Texas. We have daffodils and iris too! Today was wonderful-70's opened all the windows and aired my house out! |
