| Author |
Message |
Flyinglady
Registered user
Username: Flyinglady
Post Number: 72
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 9:26 pm: |     |
Hi all,
I have to give you some good news. My brother and his wife, from Montana, are also going to a 4 square gospel church and are studying a course, called the Alpha. What that is, is the essentials of becoming a Christian. There is a class of kids for his 9 year old step son. The son really likes his class. My brother and his wife are enjoying their class and learning a lot.
Please continue praying for them.
Like I said in my earlier post, we can talk about anything without getting upset at each other. God is answering my prayers for this brother. Thank you God.
You are awesome.
Diana |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 246
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 10:46 pm: | |
Praise God, Diana! Prayers continue!
Colleen |
Carol_2
Registered user
Username: Carol_2
Post Number: 154
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 4:37 am: | |
I have plugged Alpha a few times on this forum also. It seems to be growing, and is an awesome program for reaching the unsaved. Again, if you haven't checked it out, go to alphacourse.com (or it may be .org) and read about it. Might be something some of you would want to consider in your churches.
Hallelujah Diana! The Holy Spirit will guide your brother and his family.
Carol |
Tealeaves
Registered user
Username: Tealeaves
Post Number: 21
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 3:36 pm: | |
My husband wrote a letter a few nights ago to the SDA conference asking his name be removed fromt he books. He talked aout it for a while, then finally did it.
He didn't do the long drawn out version, it was one page, it talked about God calling him in a different direction, and about Adventism's unique unscriptural doctrines that rob them of the assurance of salvation offered by Christ.
I have actually seen a difference in the spiritual side of our relationship since he put this down on paper. It feels like a weight was lifted, or the last link of a chain was broken. I can now see why what good it did for him to "take a rest" from the SDA doctrines from a few years and just focus on Christ without really picking the SDA doctrines apart. -- Now that he has taken a break and come back to study the doctrines, he can see them in light of the scriptures, and see how twisted and dangerous they really are.
Mayb God continue to lead us and teach us, and bless us as He has been faithful to do! |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 264
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 8:50 pm: | |
Tealeaves, that is wonderful news! Praise God!
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Esther
Registered user
Username: Esther
Post Number: 14
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 5:20 am: | |
Tealeaves,
I have been praying for you and your husband...and will continue to keep you on my prayer list that God will continue to lead 
What a Great God we have! |
Tealeaves
Registered user
Username: Tealeaves
Post Number: 22
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 9:06 am: | |
thanks all,
GOd is definitely working in our lives.
We have a small group of people from different churches around the area who meet at our house on Wednesdays for dinner and prayer. We are doing a study called Experiencing God. Anyone heard of it?
It talks about how many CHristians go throug life doing what they think is good and then thinking God will "close a door" if He doesn't want them to pursue whatever it is they are doing. But the bible doesn't eteach that method of following God. THe biblical model is to listen to God, watch for where He is working, and wait for His invitation to join in exactly where He wants us.
So we are learning to listen for Him, be still and submit to Him, and watch for His Work in and around us. It is exciting - I'd recommend the study to anyone who is interesting in learning how to really communicate with God, how He communicates with us. |
Busymom
Registered user
Username: Busymom
Post Number: 10
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 9:21 am: | |
Hi Tealeaves, it sounds like the study would answer a lot of questions I have been having about learning to listen to God. Can you order the study online? Or if you have time and can share some of what you have learned, I would love to hear more of what you are learning. |
Tealeaves
Registered user
Username: Tealeaves
Post Number: 25
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 9:40 am: | |
The study is by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King. ( These authors have several studies out.) It is worth taking the time to really go through.
I recommend getting the workbook version, although there is a hardbound book as well. YOu don't need the hardbound version at all to do the workbook, the workbook functions completely on it's own. THere is a picture of Moses on the front, I think.
I ordered it online, I think through Barnes and Noble, (but it could have been Amazon.) THey had brand-new and barely used versions available.
There are a few studies that follow it that are very good too. I did one that really goes into the faith of Abraham, and what faith looks like in our lives. I'll try to find the name of that one too, but the Experiencing God study is definitely the one to start with.
If you can't find it on Barnes and Noble or Amazon, let me know, I'll find it for you and give you the site address. |
Melissa
Registered user
Username: Melissa
Post Number: 333
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 10:18 am: | |
Experiencing God was a highly popular study several years back. Our church had done it for years. I highly recommend doing it in a group to discuss the things God reveals to you as well as to keep you accountable for the intensive time it involves. But very life changing.
We just used the workbook too, but I hear there is a video series to go along with it. |
Praisegod
Registered user
Username: Praisegod
Post Number: 64
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 7:13 pm: | |
If Adventists study Experiencing God, that can be the crack that will help them move out of doctrinal error.
Recently I heard a talk that said that God used that book more than anything else in modern history to break down the walls between denominations. Also, since it teaches you how to hear from God, without saying you need to speak in tongues etc, it is acceptable to more mainline believers and charismatics as well and that is often a huge wall between those camps.
One of the reasons it breaks down disunity is because you then have things in common with other friends of different streams of faith because you all can hear from God for yourself without having to run to church to check with your pastor.
I highly, highly recommend the workbook. Please consider going through it for yourself and then waiting for a God-moment to encourage SDA friends and family to study it.
In the SDA church where I attended I taught the series twice and those people who hung in with it are in a much better position to sort through truth and error. Person after person said it changed their life. Adventist churches do give the course so if you find out it's offered, that's great.
Praise God... |
Melissa
Registered user
Username: Melissa
Post Number: 337
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 7:49 pm: | |
PraiseGod, Didnít you find great conflict with the study since the author repeatedly says God directed him in building those Sunday churches, which Adventism seems to identify as the enemy? B went through the series with me, and not only did he have the strangest answers to most questions that me and my friends had ever heard (I later figured out it was a bunch of EGW stuff that he seemed to think was scriptural), but when I point blank asked him that question, he just said ìGod takes you where you are...î well, yes, but if Iím in an adulterous relationship, God doesnít say, well, stay in it until you get to a better place in life... or if youíre stealing, he doesnít encourage you to keep stealing until you get a better paying job. Yet, he tells this man building churches that arenít adventists, that are following the popeís false sabbath and tells him to keep doing it? I just couldnít understand why that wasnít a huge conflict in the study for him...that God actually encourages people to build churches where services are on Sunday, yet that was the mark of the beast...? It is still a question I donít understand.
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Praisegod
Registered user
Username: Praisegod
Post Number: 70
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 4:21 am: | |
Melissa, you bring up an interesting question. The first time I co-taught Experiencing God with the pastor we had a contingency show up at registration with the sole purpose of being disruptive. They walked around the room telling others that this wasnít an Adventist book and would be full of lies. It didnít work to dissuade anyone so they soon left.
As to me, Iíd already pretty well processed out of Adventism at this point. The pastor just advised people to look for principles and not get hung up about the mentioning of being Baptist. I believe the hardest concepts for Adventists are to believe God truly intervenes in everyday life and to understand the ìbody of Christî as being all Christians. If they hung in for Chapter 10 and Chapter 11, where it discussed koinonia, they definitely were starting to think outside the SDA box.
This particular pastor found the book at seminary where evidently it was being used or discussed extensively. The second series, which I taught alone during Sabbath School class time, was just as successful as to the Holy Spirit showing up. So as I said, this book can totally change Adventist lives by planting some fast growing seeds.
Praise GodÖ
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Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 275
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 9:58 am: | |
Praisegod, I agree with your assessment about Adventists not understanding God intervening in everyday life and not understanding the body of Christ. That fact about the body of Christ was forcefully reinforced during our women's Bible study this past year. We went through the book of Acts, and I have never seen the miracle and singularity of the establishment of the church so clearly as I did in this study.
The founding of the church was systematic and deliberate; it was as much of a singlarity as was the incarnation of Jesus. Just as Jesus said in His great commission to baptize and make disciples in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, so the church was formed in three stages. Peter preached at Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit fell on 3,000 Jews. (Acts 2) In Acts 8, Phillip called Peter to come to Samaria because there were believers who had been baptized but had not received the Holy Spirit. Peter went, prayed for them, and they received the Holy Spirit. In Acts 10-11, Peter was told to go to Cornelius the Gentile and to eat with and preach to him. Peter obeyed, and Cornelius and his household and guests were baptized and received the Holy Spirit. In those three stages the church was formed with the apostolic oversight of Peter to whom Jesus had given the keys to the kingdom. If Peter had not been present to give the apostolic blessing to these three different ethnic groups of converts, the church would have been divided from its inception. Peter affirmed the reality of their conversion and of their entrance into the infant body of Christ.
The birth of the church was God's plan, and it was God's way of placing Himself in the world through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
When we studied those chapters, I realized that Adventists really can't get much out of Acts because they don't believe the true church formed until 1844 or so. All that came before was "present truth for their time", but it wasn't truly God's church.
I also realized that whenever someone is baptized, we are witnessing an unbroken heritage of birth and growth in the body of Christóa heritage that began on Pentecost and has not stopped for 2,000 years. The church is an astonishing miracle!
Colleen |
Flyinglady
Registered user
Username: Flyinglady
Post Number: 106
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 8:02 pm: | |
Tealeaves, Praise God for your husband's decision.
Colleen, I always enjoy your postings. I learn so much. I am not a Bible student, so all this is new to me. I am learning and reading and studying and asking God to show me what he wants me to learn. I have finished 2 Timothy and I know I will re read the NT again and again and learn something new each time.
I thank God for all of you.
Diana |
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