Bible Study Chat 15

Originally Posted by Fearnot: I can definitely say, that studying God's word since joining FH has greatly greatly healed my "mental/emotional sickness"!!
I can't say it's 100 percent because I still do have moments of depression, but I know what to do, and rather than having my life like it was 85 percent depression and 15 percent happy-ish ( but not true peace and joy)
To know, being 85 percent peace, and even some joy with 15 percent depression trying to bring me down, but I almost immediately start taking my depressed thought captive and I start talking to Jesus, and fairly quickly peace and calm come back, because I know He loves me and is in control!!
So I really am convicted of the truth that God's word 'heals' at least, my mental/emotional sickness. It's just that it seems like my phyisical pain is for the most part continuing on a downward slope.
But then, to be honest, I have not yet been in God's word the way, I know I ought.....so perhaps that is a clue why there is not the healing of bones in the manner I would like.
I am also fairly certain that years and years of sin and stress, took a hIuge toll on my body, but more than that, I wasn't walking with the Lord.
If the very little I have been in the word (mostly with you and your Bible studies), imagine if I were even 50 percent near what I should be?
I reckon if I just count Bible studies with you ( up to 1/2 hr generally) a day, that might be 5 percent of what I really ought to be studing God's word.
So I think that might be my answer.
I wonder if I could challenge myself to be a certain amount of time daily in God's word, for a certain amount of time, as an experiment? Would that be a wrong motive? Because of course the true main reason would be a closer relationship with Jesus.....but to sort of test out the medicinal healing power of God's word with some serious study?
I would not be disappointed if I didn't gain a speck of improvement, because of the many many years and multitude of sins,

 

Praise God Barbara! you're doing so well and have come so far! I know the Lord must get a great big smile on His face every morning when He greets you!

And yes, years of sin and stress have taken a huge toll on my body as well hon. Plus, there's "sin in general" that's infected the whole of creation and is what causes everything to decay. That affects our bodies too of course. Like you, I've also often wondered where I'd be if I'd started spending more time with Him and in His Word sooner. Then I have to remind myself that God is in control and working His perfect Will in me, and that He promises that He will finish what He started, so what's important is that I started and continued to spend time with Him and His Word, not "when" I did it or "when" you did it.

As far as setting up a time you want to spend with Him every day, that's always a good idea. BUT, not to test God or the medicinal properties of His Word. Why? Because think about what you're really saying if you do that.... you're saying that you're not sure if He is telling you the Truth, which means you think He might lie to you, and in order to find out if He lies or not, you're going to test Him. NOT a good idea! Instead set a time for yourself because you are obeying the Lord's command to spend time in His Word daily.

Matthew 4:7 —Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” *

Deuteronomy 6:16 —Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah. *

Psalm 95:8–11 —do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, *where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. *For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” *So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
1 Corinthians 10:9–11 —We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. *And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. *These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. *

Hebrews 3:7–13 —So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, *do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, *where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. *That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ *So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” *See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. *But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. *

Originally Posted by Fearnot

I would not be disappointed if I didn't gain a speck of improvement, because of the many many years and multitude of sins,

 

Don't do that to yourself Barbara. That's a thought that needs to be taken captive because when you think that, you're accepting one of Satan's lies. None of your sins from the past are held against you. Remember what Jesus says to you?

John 15:3 —You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. *

Your sins have been washed away and you're cleaner and brighter then new fallen snow. Our Lord says this to us every day when we confess our sins to Him too. He saved us when we were still his enemy and hated Him. He did that because He loved us. He died for us because He loved us. If He was willing to go through all that for us personally when we hated Him, how much more will He do for us now that we love Him? I was reading a book during the night when I couldn't sleep and wrote down this quote which really said a lot to me:

‎The way we treat the Bible is the way we treat Jesus Christ, for He is the Living Word (John 1:1, 14) and the Bible is the written Word. If a father paid no attention to his son’s words, he would be admitting that his son was not important to him. If we ignore or neglect God’s Word, or if we treat it carelessly, we are admitting to God that He is not important in our lives. W. Wiersbe

God and His Word do heal us in many ways. But God doesn't heal us the way the world does. He heals us from the inside out and He starts at the roots of our problems, which are often things we're totally unaware of - at least until He starts working on it. And even then, we're often completely unaware of what that has to do with what's being healed or even that we are being healed. It's really hard to explain until you've been through it yourself.

There's one way He heals us that is fairly easy to explain though. I used to be just like everyone else, and worried about everything all the time. With 5 kids, I was constantly totally stressed out. There is absolutely no way I could have ever lived through the things that have happened in my life over the last 4 years or so and not wound up in a psych ward at the very least and most likely have been drugged up with valium long before that!

But the Lord prepared me before any of this happened, and He was able to do that because I cooperated with Him by spending time in His Word daily and applied what I learned to my life - or at least tried to. Including of course taking my thoughts captive etc. During the years that He was training me and preparing me, like anyone else we went through some hard times then too, although nothing like what happened later. While they were hard to go through, they weren't quite as stressful as these last 4 years would have been. So I got to practice on those somewhat smaller issues. (at the time they didn't seem so small to me though lol) Again, because I spent time in His Word daily, I became more and more at peace with myself and my world because I knew God was in control. It wasn't just something I thought I believed anymore. It was something I knew because of all He'd taught me from His Word. I was also at peace because I knew He loved me and that I was saved. There wasn't a sliver of doubt or guessing in my mind any longer and it was because of His Word. I could go on and on with all He taught me that made me KNOW He was in control and I didn't have to worry etc. That's one way He heals, because the more we know Him, the more we can trust Him, and the less we think we have to do on our own.

Bible Study Chat 14

Originally Posted by eva_from_greece: I am waiting for you answer Cindy , about the fact that sometimes I am being influenced by the world thinking that my life is bad...

Eva, we will always have to fight against the world, our flesh and Satan. Always. They are always going to try and tell us the opposite of what God tells us. You know that hon. And you know exactly what God says to do about it too. We have talked about that a great deal. Your job is to stay alert and take those kind of thoughts captive and replace them with the Truth from God's Word.

Every single day... in fact, every single moment of every day, we have to make a choice. Are we going to believe God, or are we going to believe Satan? If we choose our flesh or the world, then we are choosing Satan because he is in charge of both of those. So our constant choice is about who we are going to believe and who we are going to obey.

Sometimes we try to get around it by saying we can't choose because we don't understand something, but that's just another of Satan's lies to us. We don't have to understand something to choose to believe it or to obey God. In fact, simply because God is God and is so much more intelligent then we are, there are always going to be things that we don't understand.

For example, the trinity - It's hard to understand how Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are all one person and yet are also 3 distinctly different people too, but they are. The greatest minds in history have never been able to understand it and never will until we get to heaven. But just because I don't understand it, that doesn't stop me from believing that Jesus is God and so is the Father and the Holy Spirit.

God doesn't require us to understand everything. He requires us to know His Word and obey it.

Eva, the only reason we ever think our lives are "bad" is when we don't understand what's really happening and why it's happening.

We think we're very smart and intelligent. We think we are wise, but we are not. We forget that our minds are corrupted by sin; everyone's mind is, including the mind of the most intelligent person on earth. We actually think of ourselves as though we were God because we "know it all". (we think) After all, we invented electricity, we have sent people to the moon, we can build great things, and even give people artificial hearts to keep them alive. So what do we need God for? We may not say we're smarter then He is out loud, but that's what we really think. After all, if God is in control and I believe my life is bad, then He's doing a pretty bad job of it isn't He? We can even list all kinds of "reasons" that our life is "bad". We can even list all the things that should happen to make our life good. Given the time, we could even sit down and figure out how to make things happen so that our lives would be good (if we had supernatural powers to make things happen the way we wanted them to). So, if we can do all that, and God is making our lives bad, then He either isn't very smart, or else He's a very bad God. Right?

There's one very big problem with all of that. It's simply not true. If we could see things as they really are, we would understand that all we've just said, sounds at best, more like something an infant would say to their parents. Actually it sounds more like something an ant might say to a human, because our understanding an "intelligence" is about equal to that of an ants when compared to the intelligence of God.

We are not all that intelligent, and what intelligence we do have is tainted with sin, with evil, so that we tend to think evil thoughts. Of course we don't think they're evil, we think they're "normal", because they are normal to the world, our flesh and to Satan. But to God, who does know the Truth, they are evil. We know next to nothing, but pretend we know everything. We are the most arrogant creatures alive! I often wonder why the Lord doesn't stamp us all out of existence!

Ephesians 4:17 —So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. *

Gentiles is referring to all who are unsaved. Their thinking is futile. Our thinking is futile. It has no worthwhile results. Once we are saved, we have the capacity to make the right choices, to realize that we don't understand everything; that we not only don't understand but that we cannot understand it all yet and will not be able to do so until we are in Heaven and have our new uncorrupted bodies and minds.

Titus 1:15 —To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. *

Again it shows the truth about our minds and hearts. They are corrupted. But when we apply the truth of God's Word and replace those corrupted thoughts with His Truth, then we will realize that everything is just the way it should be and our conscience will work the way it is supposed to.

Job 15:14–16 —“What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous? *If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, *how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water! *

We think that the angels are pure and righteous, and very intelligent, and yet even they aren't as pure, righteous or intelligent as God is. Notice what it says about us? Our natural selves drink up evil like water! That's what those thoughts about your life being "bad" are about. You're drinking up evil like water.

Psalm 14:2–3 —The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. *All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. *

Are you beginning to see just how evil we really are? It's our thoughts and thought processes that make us evil. Think back to our study about the fall of man and how that affects us as it shows in Mark 7:21-23 and other places.

Mark 7:21–23 —For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, *greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. *All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ” *

Ecclesiastes 9:3 —This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. *

Romans 8:7 —the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. *

Jeremiah 17:9 —The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? *

Again, all the above continue to show us just how wrong our thoughts and feelings are and that we should not trust them. Please read those verses carefully to understand why the Lord tells us that we must take our thoughts and feelings captive and replace them with His Truth. We cannot trust them. We cannot trust "man's reasoning" for it's all tainted by sin. That's also why the Lord says:

Proverbs 28:26 —He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe. *

We shouldn't trust ourselves and our thoughts and feelings. Instead we're to trust God and His Word. That is the only place in this world where we can find the Truth. So God tells us to Trust Him instead of our own thoughts:

Proverbs 3:5 —Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; *

There are many examples in the Bible of people who thought their lives were bad and found out differently. Here's one story that is a good illustration of why we cannot trust our thoughts and feelings:

2 Kings 6:15–17 —When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked. *“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

They were completely surrounded and obviously going to be captured and killed and the man was terrified! If other people had been with them, they would have all agreed with this man that they did not have a chance. They would certainly be killed! Thankfully, a man of God was with him and this man understood that he couldn't trust his own thoughts and understanding, but instead had to trust God. He was trying to teach this other man this very thing, So he prayed:

*And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. *

In other words, the first time the man looked, with only human understanding, he saw that they were surrounded by an entire enemy army of soldiers and chariots. That's why he was sure they would be killed. But after Elisha prayed, he then saw that the enemy army was actually surrounded by God's army of angels! The Truth was that the enemy army was about to die, if God ordered it, not them! It was then obvious to him that God was in control and would let no harm come to them, and they had no problems at all after that.

The same is true about your life Eva. Your life is not "bad". You simply do not understand why some things have happened or are happening and you may never understand. Your choice is to trust God and believe what His Word says about Him or not to trust Him.

Originally Posted by eva_from_greece

Yes we should discuss this more.
I really need to know more.
Sometimes its like the world wants to drown me, the more I try to get closer to God the world gets angry and tries to steal my soul. A battle...

 

I need to know exactly what you're thinking in order to tell you what's happening and how to correct it. What did my last post teach you or remind you of? Did my last post help at all? What else about what it says do you need to know more about? I need some more feed back from you hon....

 

Originally Posted by eva_from_greece: Theres a lot of thoughts...
Some of them I remember, some of them not.
Everyday I realize more and more about the evil around me.
Things that used to be accepted by me before I consider them as really bad now. There were everyday things for me before I was used to them.
Now its different.
And I see the way I grew up.
One thing I learned is to recognize whos lying. Because my father lies, 3.9 of his 4 words is lies I can tell whos lying. Probably thats why God put me there. I have this unique gift to know now and protect me from lies.
I will write more 2morrow.
I had a lot of house cleaning today, and I am unfortunately still a bit sick.
I will open my bible and rest a bit

Eva, I was talking about your thoughts when you read my reply to you. What did you think about that? I also meant what is it that is causing you to feel that the world is trying to drown you or trying to steal your soul? Speaking of that, what do you mean when you say it's trying to steal your soul? And what exactly is it that you need to know more about? Originally you said that sometimes you are "being influenced by the world thinking that my life is bad." What exactly do you mean by that? If you can answer each of these questions, then I can help you more.

 

Originally Posted by eva_from_greece

Actually, to correct what I wrote. I dont truly believe that my life is bad, I believe though that I am forced to believe this by people in this world.
Let me explain
Yes. For example at work. There's too much tension. Lies. Nobody likes noone. Remember I told you that we have a girl there that she refused even to say good morning and she did only whispering that , didnt even looked at me. She resigned today. After a big fight the boss had with her in November her boyfriend (10 years older than her) found her a job at a store that he was the manager. The same with another man working there that approached them as a ''friend".
They spent 3 months whining and saying 24/7 ''I want to leave'' . Discussing with the other guy about how bad is this job ALL THE TIME. I was very tired listening to them. I tried just to do what I have to and there she goes again, whining and whining again and again. Also they were talking about me that I am a bit ''silly'' and "naive" because I dont do the same. Its sad that these guys have no idea of what poverty and unemployment is, and that is also true for my boss. They have so many blessings that they dont even know about them, they dont see them. I am not sayning that my boss is right to fight with them, hes violent. But neither are they. The girl was taking 1000 euro at the time that most of the people in greece take 480-580 and they have to feed their families with this. And what does she do with them? Shopping and trying to pay the credit cards she overused for shopping. I feel sad about this. I am not ''angry'' or have anything against them. I am a bit worried -lets say, because I see they dont make right choices and they dont even see the gifts they have. Health, a job with good salary, a family that aint broken and more. And because I dont see all these things as real problems I am ''naive'' for them.
She took 7 days off, and she came back today. The day the other guy stopped working and get to the other job. And at the same day she told them she quits. And she had a look of pride in her face... She will stay till the end of the month, until they find somebody else.
They think I am silly that I should leave also. If God wants me out of there He will lead me out of there. If not I should be there.
Its like mandatory to feel sorry for yourself instead of doing your best. They dont know about my life and family, but I know that if they knew they would say "Poor you... You live such a ****** life''.
The same with my parents. I dont see them all the time, but everytime they see me they are shining that they do not have enough money. But in fact they do have all they need. Everyday food, gas, they can afford to pay their bills and put gas in their car. Why on earth they want more? What do they want?
And when you try to be content and pleased with God has offered you till now, you are silly! You are naive! You are out of your mind!
Thats the battle I have to fight.

 

Ok, I understand now Eva, thank you! That was very well said! All of those people, as you know, are unsaved and of the world. They are part of the world, and they can't see or know the Truth. What is very obvious to us, is hidden to them. So they follow the world's teachings, which we know are actually Satan's teachings. Satan is their father and they are growing up to be just like him. I am not saying that to be mean Eva, I'm saying it only because, whether we like it or not, it's true. What you are experiencing is something every true believer goes through.

Remember, God warns us about this and tells us that because we belong to Him, we are strangers to this world, and because we're strangers here, others are not going to like us. We're different, and we will always be different from them. In fact, as we continue to grow in our faith, we'll become more and more different from them and they'll like us less and less. We're to always remember that this world is not our home. Our Home is in Heaven and that's where we belong, where our true family is and will be; that's where our love and acceptance is and where our future is.

We really are like aliens here on this earth for this life. We don't fit in and most of us never really did, because even though we didn't know it, we belonged to God and He chose us before He ever even made this world. So even before we were actually saved, we didn't really fit in here. Even then the world hated us, even though they didn't know why, because even then we belonged to God. So, we were different somehow. Then when we were saved, the world began to understand why it hated us and their hate became more obvious. As I said, the more we grow in our faith, the more the unsaved will hate us, the more different we will be. They hate us because they hate our Lord and God. They hate us because their father hates our God and us and they are like their father just as we are like our Father.

We even speak a different language then they do. Oh we may use the same words, but they don't mean the same things to them because they don't understand us or anything we say about our Lord, His Word, or our Home. Even though we can't see it and often don't realize it, God uses many things we say and do throughout each day to plant seeds in the hearts and minds of the unsaved, that may some day take root and grow causing them to be saved like us. But we rarely know who it will be until it finally happens, so we have to be careful of all we say and do so we don't mislead anyone.

You're right too in that you do know how to deal with this problem. You must continually take captive any thoughts that try to creep back into your heart or mind and replace them with the Truth. One thing I used to do when I'd hear them talking, was to simply pretend in my mind that I was talking to them and imagine what I would say to them in order to explain the truth to them. That actually helped quite a bit too. It can be hard to keep smiling in that situation, but again it can help if we remember that this isn't our home. I used to often think about how it will be when I'm finally in my real Home, surrounded by loving friends who are all, also family.

Eva, I am hoping that one thing you said is just a bad translation, because no one can force you to think or feel anything. How and what you think is entirely up to you and God says it is our responsibility to be in control of our thoughts at all times. When we first learn about this, our thoughts are often like unruly, misbehaving children that have to be taught to behave correctly. And it can be quite a battle of wills to get those naughty children (thoughts) to behave the way you want them to at first. But you have been practicing this for some time now and are way beyond that, or should be. By now your thoughts should be behaving the way you want them too and only misbehaving and needing correction once in awhile.

One thing I did not take into consideration though was when you started working. That placed you in a brand new environment, so while you may have had your thoughts under control before you started working, you may have had a rough time with them again in this new situation. But it's just like before. You simply have to insist they behave the way you want them to in this situation also and before long they will behave for you again. Like that old saying goes, "practice makes perfect!"

So keep telling yourself the Truth and insist on that truth for yourself. Don't accept their lies. Don't be angry at your co workers though, because no matter how rotten they are, they're only doing what their father tells them to. They don't know any better and they don't understand. We can see how very unhappy they are, and how unhappy they are making themselves and all the pain they are causing themselves, but they can't see it. They actually think they're happy and normal. They even think they're "good". They aren't to blame though, it's their father who's to blame. So instead of being angry at them for hating you and treating you badly, feel sorry for them because they don't have a loving Father to show them the way.

You know what's really weird? Have you heard how abused children will often run to the person who abuses them and not want to leave them? It's true. It's even true of adults who are abused. They often convince themselves that they "love" the abuser and don't want to leave them, so they keep going back to them. It's the same way with the unsaved. They don't realize they're being abused by Satan and that he really hates them. They can't see that our Father is offering them hope and freedom from that abuse. They keep running back to their abuser -Satan. It it wasn't for the mercy of our Lord, it would be impossible for any to be saved. But thanks be to God for He is merciful and saves many of us! We're the lucky ones Eva. The blessed ones. So feel sorry for those who hate us because they're blind and confused and don't know what they're doing.

James 4:4 —You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. *

1 Peter 2:11 —Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. *

1 Peter 1:1 —Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, .... *

1 Peter 1:17 —Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
Philippians 3:18–20 —For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. *Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. *But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, *

Bible Study Chat 13

Originally Posted by Fearnot: Cindy what you wrote to me again was soooo beautiful, and helpful and because it was( so beautiful)... it made me cry. You spent so many of your 'spoons' to take up your precious time, to help me with my sin of vanity.
You did not admonish me for my foolishness, but took my concern and dealt with it in a Godly fashion. I am going to have to read and study those verses, but already what you wrote was a great help, a really really big help!!
Thank you so much, it lifted such a burden off my heart. Oh I do think of others and their needs, but I also am self-centered still and vain, worldy vain ( I guess that is the only kind of vainity there is LOL).
I think you covered basically all my ugly worries, but like Eva the dying issue still is there, but not nearly so much. It used to be 90 percent fearful, but talking with you over the years, it's down to maybe 20 percent fear....fear Jesus won't be there. I know He has promised, and to think He won't is to call Him a liar...and I don't want to call Him that.
But I know I am not worthy, yet He loves me and promises to never leave me. Maybe I think my end will be like my beginning.....the middle of my life for sure was better than my childhood or teen years.
Even now, I am far more happy than what seems right. I have Jesus, FH, my family ( hubby, my daughter, and grandchildren right here...only lacking my son)...I have my own laptop LOL so hey!

You're such a sweetheart Barbara and to me, you're a very beautiful person. I was thrilled when I saw you'd changed your avatar because the new picture shows some of God's joy shining through you and the difference is just incredible! I know you probably won't believe me, but the very first time I saw it, I was just totally shocked. It didn't even look like the same person! This was the person I'd come to know and love and it was and is your smile that made all the difference in the world. I know that hearing one person, no matter how sincere they are, tell you that you are truly a lovely woman, won't make any difference, but I say that with all sincerity and love. If you recall, I never raved over your other avatar. The most I ever did was simply acknowledge it. From that time on though I hoped and prayed the Lord would teach you to smile and make it so you couldn't help it

I know we've talked about this before, so forgive me for repeating myself, but I wanted to remind you too that even though you and I might use a magnifying mirror to find every little defect on our faces and despair about them, other people don't see us that way, and they don't notice the things that to us seem very very obvious. (Yes, remember, I used to spend hours in front of the magnifying mirror too lol) It was my mother that put her foot down and told me this though. I learned it's best to not even have a magnifying mirror, because that's not giving us the true picture. Like Satan, all it does is magnify our defects, or else magnify our good points and cause us to become more in love with ourselves then God. When you smile, people honestly don't notice your teeth or lack of them, because that's not their focus. Their focus is "all of you", not just one little area. Do you stare at other people's faces when you meet them, trying to find every little defect and see how bad it is? Of course not! For one thing, you're busy talking to them, getting to know them, etc. I don't care how physically beautiful the world thinks a woman is, there isn't a woman alive that couldn't list all their physical defects for you and who would tell you that they don't think they're beautiful at all. Not if they're truthful anyway.

It's actually kind of funny, because I've met women who had the most beautiful hair I'd ever seen. I'd always wanted my hair to look like theirs. When I told them that though, they looked astonished and told me that they hated their hair! They honestly thought it was ugly! Once again I was shown that beauty is truly what's inside a person and not outside, because what's outside, like a persons hair, is always just a matter of opinion, and opinions about what's beautiful change from one person to the next. I could give you many examples of talking to women who I thought were beautiful only to discover that they hated how they looked for various reasons. Or, and I believe we've talked about this before too, how I've met women who were physically beautiful, or so I thought when I first met them, but as I got to know them better, I was surprised to discover that they no longer looked beautiful to me. Their looks hadn't changed at all, but because I'd gotten to know them and now knew they were mean and nasty inside, the outside seemed almost ugly to me now. And I swear to you that I didn't attempt to make that happen or make myself see them differently. In fact, I wasn't even aware that I was seeing them differently for quite awhile. It wasn't until another friend of mine happened to be with me and we ran into them that I realized it, because the first thing out of my friends mouth was how beautiful she was. So I glanced up, ready to agree with her and then tell her that she was ugly on the inside, and was shocked to discover that to me, she didn't even look pretty, much less beautiful anymore!

I've also experienced the opposite. Women who were simply "plain" looking who were such godly women, so kind and sweet and pure, that they just seemed to glow with God's special love and light that made them appear quite beautiful. Nor am I the only person that's experienced these kind of things. You can hear about it from millions of women everywhere. It's not a secret.

Another example which I'm sure you've seen too is how a woman who's filled with sin and continuing to live in sin, appears older and just plain ugly. Haven't you seen pictures of women on TV that were being arrested for prostitution or drugs or both or maybe some crime as well? How old and wrinkled and ugly they looked? Only to hear the reporter say that they were only in their 20's! It's the devastation of sin on the body we're seeing. I've seen pictures like that of women, all who were heavily into sin, but some had just begun their sinful life, others had been into it for only months, others years, and still others, for 10 or more years. You could pick out the order without knowing who was who, because the longer they'd been involved in it, the older and uglier they looked.

Praise the Lord that the opposite is also true! A woman like those I just spoke about, can repent and come to the Lord, and slowly but surely, her body will begin to show that it has a new owner - the Lord Jesus Christ! The wrinkles will fade, the skin will become healthier and more glowing and firm, their eyes will be alive with joy instead of dead like they were before. The transformation is just totally amazing! It doesn't happen overnight, though at times it seems to when you haven't seen them for awhile. Because I support Teen Challenge, who's mission is to bring addicts and alcoholics to Christ, I've been privileged to see this amazing transformation happen over and over again. When the Lord changes us, He REALLY changes us LOL, but it's from the inside out. So the more the inside of a person is filled with Him and submissive to Him, the more the outside reflects His beauty.

But my dear Barbara, the mind, our thoughts and feelings, as you know, are very powerful. If you keep allowing those negative ones in your mind about your looks, then it will obey you -at least to your eyes. However, I KNOW that we can already see Jesus in you and that He's only going to become more and more obvious as time goes on. Because after all, you've already begun living your eternal life, your abundant life! Fill your mind and heart with His Truth and with Him, and your body will follow suit.

So this year, let's not be like Sleeping Beauty's evil step mother (I think that's the right movie lol) the one who was always looking in a mirror and saying, "mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the loveliest woman of all?" (or something like that)
Instead, let's admit that there's only one person who's truly lovely, and that's our lord Jesus. There is no one more lovely then He is. (and yet we know that when He was here, while He may not have been ugly, He also wasn't handsome. However, regardless of that, when people met Him, they were drawn to Him, and I feel sure they would have seen Him as being most beautiful, for His inward beauty had to have shown through his physical plainness.

Isaiah 53:2 —He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. *

Psalm 27:4 —One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. *

Just like the ugly or plain woman, who sure looked beautiful to me, so I'm quite sure that if we ask any of the women who followed Jesus, they would tell us that Jesus was the best looking man they ever knew! His goodness shone through and overcame the physical bodies characteristics.

So when we must look in a mirror this year, let's first make sure it's not a magnifying one and then, as we look, say instead,
"may all I come in contact with today,
see the Lord Jesus through all I do and say;
May His love, peace, and joy, from me overflow,
to touch the lives of everyone I know".

 

Originally Posted by Fearnot: Awwwwww you did it again!!! Such lovely, truth filled, helpful words.
Yes I think it was maybe Snow White's evil step mother, who spent her time looking in the mirror. I always thought the truth of it was, because Snow White was young that she was so beautiful!! That when you are young you are beautiful because you don't have wrinkles, you have a beautiful set of pearly whites, you are trim and fit etc. And when you are old you are none of those things.
But you just jogged a thought, Snow White was actually sweet and caring ( to the 7 dwarfs, so much so that they loved her. At least a portion of Snow's beauty was her tender heart, and visa-versa her step mother was jealous, greedy, mean, complaining, non-smiling LOL
I am afraid to ask because you have devoted such precious time with me on this, and I fear you are doing so in a lot of pain, and I hate adding to it. But be assured, you lifted up a great burden and have given me a lot to chew on....if I had all my teeth LOLOL
P.S. I wondered if you had ever noticed I changed my cover photo. I kind of did it for you, because you said I would look more approachable and therefore pretty. I had been meaning to ask you if you noticed the change we made but then kept forgetting HA!

 

Please don't worry about me hon, and please ask. I LOVE answering questions. You know that! It's getting me to stop talking that's hard LOL

I've always thought that the moral of snow white was that beauty is caused by who you are on the inside, not by what you look like, and that the more you concentrate on it, on wanting to be "beautiful" the uglier you get. I looked it up and got these two interesting replies along with a recap of the story:

The moral of the story of Snow White is that jealousy and vanity can lead to your demise.

The moral in the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is not to be vain and be blessed with what you have.

A recap-

The Queen is very vain. She has never cared for anyone but herself, and especially not for her husbands daughter. She prefers to spend her days applying makeup and curling her hair, perfecting her image. And her head is made larger with every passing day by the compliments she receives from her enchanted mirror. She never expects that anyone would surpass her in beauty. But one day her brown nosing friend inside the mirror, who can only tell her the truth, gives her title to the young maiden.

Deranged and furious she demands the young girls heart, only when it stops beating will she be content. Her love of her own reflection has driven her to insanity, she would rather take a life than be considered second best. In the end her vanity betrays her, she is so obsessed with wanting to be the most lovely that she distorts her appearance to look like a humble haggard beggar to win over Snow Whites trust. When the young girls seven friends catch the Queen on their property a chase ensues and the Queen dies haggard and ugly.

Her vanity is her own demise.

That's how I remember it too. The queen hated the daughter because she knew the daughter was prettier then she was. What she didn't understand or "get", was that the girl's beauty came from inside her, who she was. She was beautiful because she didn't think about herself or her looks. Instead she thought about others. Because the girl was still growing in her love for others, she continued to get more beautiful every day until finally she was literally more beautiful then the queen. The queen on the other hand, was becoming uglier as she got older. She covered it up with make up though, or tried to. People who didn't know her, thought she was beautiful, but once people knew her, all they could see was how ugly she was. Finally even her mirror had to tell her that Snow White was more beautiful then she was. That of course brought out even more horrible traits in her. All had been there before but now she acted on them and as always, those became even more a part of her and she became uglier then ever. To me, even as a child, the movie taught that it was far better to be loving, kind, helpful, and unselfish, even toward people that didn't like you. Even then it taught me that it's what is inside a person that matters, not what's outside.

By the way, I didn't plan the graphic that's on today's notice it just happened to work out that way!

Barbara, the bible teaches that if we look hard enough for something, we'll find it. If we search for evil, that's what we'll find. If we search for people to dislike us, that's what we'll find. If we look for people to always get the short end of the stick, then that's what we'll see, etc. But if we look for people to always be helping others, then that's what we'll see. If we look for good in others, that's what we'll see, etc. The same is true of course for what we see in ourselves. We will see whatever we most look for. Knowing that, and remembering that our thoughts and feelings are corrupted by sin, it's easy to see how we mess ourselves and our lives up by what we look for in ourselves and in others.

For example: let's say that someone gets raped and instead of allowing God to heal their hearts, they become angry and bitter, and before long they wind up hating men in general. As far as they're concerned, all men are rotten and not to be trusted. Now, there's another woman who was also raped but has been healed by the Lord, so she's not bitter or angry and she doesn't hate and distrust men. These two women could have the exact same life experiences over the next year, but if you sat them down at the end of the year and asked them to tell you about their lives for the last year, you'd get two very different stories!

The first woman's story would be all about herself and all the horrible things men had done to her over the last year. Many of the things she relates, never actually happened except in her own mind. She took unrelated events and simply blamed them on the last man she's had any contact with. If her car broke down, it wasn't because it was an old car, it was because the mechanic that last worked on it, did a rotten job. If it snowed and she had to shovel the driveway by herself, it was because all men were rotten, not because she'd been rude and insulting toward the men that lived around her. When she met a man who was shy and couldn't get his words out right because he had a crush on her, she just figured he was rude and you probably couldn't trust him. When it came right down to it, in her mind, she'd had a horrible year. She expected and looked for the worst, so that's what she found.

But the other woman, her story was entirely different. She'd had a wonderful year! Yes, her car had broken down, but then it was old, and she'd had to shovel her own driveway, but then she knew (because she'd cared enough to ask) that the young men in the neighborhood were sick that day. And that poor young man who'd stuttered and didn't know what to say and couldn't get his words out right? Well, she had found a very good friend in him and enjoyed being with him! She looked for the good in others and that's exactly what she found.

I'm sure you've seen that in other people just as I have all my life. The people who have come to believe that other people are somehow out to get them, that sooner or later other people are always going to hurt them, always wind up hurt because it's a self fulling prophecy, they find what they're looking for. Even when it doesn't really happen, they're so sure that it will, they will even make things up so that it comes true, just like in the story above.

See, she cared about other people and focused on them, not herself, while the first woman was consumed only with herself and was sure other people were rotten so why bother? Both women found exactly what they looked for, and that's true in all our lives. That's another meaning of the verse, Titus 1:15 —To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. * The more we fill our hearts and minds with God and His Word, the more pure we become, and the more we will see and experience pure (good) things instead of the bad. This is another reason the Lord tells us to concentrate on these kind of things and not the other: Philippians 4:8 —Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. * "Pure" really describes all those other words. And on top of that, the more we are filled with God and His Word, the more our physical bodies will reflect that as well. In fact, if people really wanted to find the fountain of youth, they don't have to look any further then that dusty bible on the shelf. God is changing us to be more and more like Jesus and He does that through His Word. Part of that change will be our bodies, which of course will be given the finishing touches when we receive our new uncorrupted bodies. But in the mean time, these bodies really will reflect all of God's Word that we apply to our lives. Until then, we have to believe the Lord when He tells us, Psalm 45:11 —The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. *or Song of Solomon 4:7 —All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. *and just rest in His love, knowing He always tells the truth.

Enough of that lol, please feel free to ask anything you'd like!

 

Originally Posted by Fearnot

Another perfectly wonderful explanation!!! So the queen really was physically beautiful, and perhaps had she not been so caught up in maintaining her beauty, she may have remained beautiful for many more years than she did.
I kind of think that wanting to be beautiful is in a way, wanting ( like satan who also was beautiful at one time) like God.
Because many people in the world put a high price on beauty, they worship it...until the inner ugliness comes out, with selfish demands, hurtfulness in words and deeds.
You made me laugh tho!! What a 'sneaky' (just joking) way to get me to really dig into the word....the more you read the more 'beautiful' you become LOL
I have a 'situation' tho, I probably should ask you about in the 'private' accountability.

 

yeah, I thought about that afterward, but hon, it's honestly the complete and whole Truth. God never cheats us and He's never been a scrooge or miser, only giving us a little bit here and there. Instead, He's always the opposite of that. He gives us EVERYTHING He can, everything we'll accept and wants to give us even more! For every little thing we do in obedience, He rains blessings down like a flood to encourage us to do yet more, and tells us that He also has rewards in Heaven for us for those very same things!

God tells us over and over that His Word is "ALL sufficient" for us. That in His Word He gives us ALL we could ever need for this life. Many people wrongly assume that He means for our "spiritual lives", but that's not true. His Word is completely and fully sufficient for everything we need for our physical, mental, emotional, material, and spiritual well being! Through the Lord and His Word, He gives us all we need to have an abundant life here and in Heaven. John 10:10 —The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. * Let's look at some other words that mean "abundantly": exceptionally, greatly, extraordinarily, intensely, markedly, exceedingly, excessively, exceptionally, plentifully, amply, richly, liberally, fully, thoroughly, substantially, lavishly, extensively, generously, profusely, copiously, exuberantly, in plentiful supply, luxuriantly, unstintingly, bountifully, bounteously, plenteously. That's the kind of life that God offers us if we will abide in Him and His Word. While He doesn't guarantee us tons of money, great health, etc, He does guarantee us that we will have all we need to live our lives in such a way that even if we don't have tons of money, we'll be able to live our lives free from the prison of fear, worry, anxiety, etc. He says that while Satan may steal things from us, or destroy parts of our lives, like relationships, etc. He will restore them.

Look at it this way, while Satan and sin corrupt and ultimately destroy everything they touch, the Lord heals and restores all that He touches. What Satan and sin kill, the Lord brings back to life. There is nothing more powerful in the this world then His Word. It always accomplishes what He sent it out to do. Therefor why should it surprise us to know that His Word actually affects our physical bodies? If you think about it, you'll realize that there are many scriptures that show how our thoughts and His Word can affect our bodies:

John 15:5–7 —I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. *If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. *If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. *

Proverbs 14:30 —A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. * How can we be at peace? Only through a close relationship with the Lord, which means abiding in Him and having His Word abide in us.

Proverbs 15:13 —A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. * same as above

Proverbs 15:15 —All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. * The oppressed are those who are still in chains to Satan. Jesus has freed us from those chains and we have no reason to feel oppressed, therefor our days will be like one continual feast for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Proverbs 12:25 —An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. * When we're abiding in God and His Word is abiding in us, we cannot be anxious, therefore we are not weighed down by it.

Proverbs 17:22 —A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. * Our spirits are crushed when we don't have the Lord and aren't in a good relationship with Him; but when we are, our hearts are cheerful, which is like good medicine for our bodies.

Proverbs 18:14 —A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? * This one shows that when we don't guard our hearts and minds, and allow ourselves to get fearful, anxious, depressed, etc. that we're apt to get sick and our spirits won't have the strength to help us heal.

Proverbs 16:24 —Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. * Again we're shown the effect that thoughts and words have on our physical bodies. All our words and thoughts are powerful, but the most powerful of all are God's Words.

Proverbs 3:7–8 —Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. *This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. * What brings health to your body? Fear of the Lord does and we know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. We know that we receive the fear of the Lord as we continue to study His Word with Him daily. As MacArthur puts it, The fear of the Lord is a state of mind in which one’s own attitudes, will, feelings, deeds, and goals are exchanged for God’s. And we exchange them how? By knowing His Word because we can't very well replace our thoughts with His if we don't know His.

But, the bottom line is that it's true that the more time we spend in His Word with Him, always applying it to our lives as well, the more it effects our thoughts, feelings and our deeds, and those affect our looks.

 

Originally Posted by Fearnot

You know, thinking about what you said,a face in a frown is not it's prettiest, even the most beautiful woman ( outwardly) is not very pretty in an angry rage and yelling tirade!!
A face scrunched up and tense in worry, is not a face at it's best either.
And while a sad face is not necessarily ugly, if it is continually sad, it will make others uncomfortable, because they may have tried to uplift the sad person over and over, to no avail.
But where proverbs says pleasant words are healing to the bones, how far can we take that? If a person has severe arthritis, they are not to really read scripture with the idea of 'healing' their bones are they? Wouldn't that sort of be like the faith healers?

 

Let's look at another scripture and see what it says. That will help us understand better what God is saying in the ones I posted before. Proverbs 3:5–8 —Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; *in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. *Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. *This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. * Let's also look at one of the many that say the opposite: Psalm 32:3–4 —When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. *For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah * In this last verse David is talking about becoming sick when he didn't confess his sin with Bathsheba right away and instead continued to live in it.

We've talked before about how stress affects the body and the many ways it can quite literally make us sick, remember? Stress can cause all kinds of both physical and what people call mental illnesses too. Remember, it can cause some pretty severe physical diseases if the person continues to be stressed, anxious, fearful, etc. and those diseases are quite real, they're not "all in their heads". Because we live with pain, we're both very aware of the fact that any amount of stress can make the pain worse too, or even start a bad flare up if we're not already in one.

Now, remember how we've also discussed that God's Word is totally sufficient for all we need. I'm not saying we should never go to a doctor when we're sick, that would be silly. But we should never "just" go to a doctor. God wants us to rely on Him, not doctors and medicine. For example, in 2 Chronicles 16:12 we're told Asa was really sick but he still refused to seek the Lord and only relied on doctors, and therefore died from it. On the other hand, Hezekiah got very sick and was even told by a prophet that he was going to die from it, but he knew the Lord and prayed. Because of that, the Lord healed him using medicine and added another 15 years to his life. All because he sought the Lord and trust Him. So we see it's perfectly ok to go to doctors and get help from them, but only if we're also constantly seeking God and His Will for our life. God doesn't want us to just seek Him when we're in trouble though, He wants us to have an ever growing, living relationship with Him.

Now, look at that first verse I posted again:
Proverbs 3:5–8 —Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; *in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. *Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. *This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. * I should have posted the entire chapter, but you can check it out on your own later. What his is telling us is that we're not to be wise in our own eyes, not to rely on our own knowledge and wisdom etc. We've talked about this a great deal too. Sin has corrupted everyone's reasoning which is why we can't trust our hearts and why we have to take our thoughts captive.

We're told here to trust in the Lord instead of ourselves or other people and to fear God. We know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that someone who fears God trusts Him completely and obeys Him. And of course we're also told to shun evil. None of that is new for us, it's all things we're told over and over again. The only "new" part is where it says that if we do all this, it will bring health to our bodies.

Well, if we're fearing God, trusting Him and obeying Him, we most certainly are not stressed or fearful or anxious about anything are we? Yeah, "bad" things still happen to us, including sickness at times, but because we trust God, we don't worry about it. We pray about it, we go to the doctors and we obey the Lord. We also obey the doctor assuming He's not telling us to do anything that's contrary to God's Word. Now all of this presumes that we know God's Word, or, at the very least, are learning to know it, because knowing His Word is the only way we can know His Will about everything. It's His Word that brings us peace instead of fear, calm instead of stress, etc. So it's His Word that keeps us healthy and mentally balanced. (assuming we're reading it with Him, asking Him to guide us and teach us, because if we're trying to understand it with out own wisdom, we'll fail because our "wisdom" is all messed up.

So in that way, yes, God's Word heals us, and keeps us healthy, because it promotes a healthy lifestyle, teaches us God's ways, and keeps us from being stressed and worried, among other things. Also keep in mind that God allows sickness for various reasons, one of which is to discipline us for sin in our lives. That's what He did with David and why David said that his bones wasted away when he kept silent. When David turned back to the Lord, and confessed his sin, he began to get better and was healed.

We can also bring sickness on ourselves through sinful lifestyles such as getting STD's because we messed around with other people instead of our spouse, or cancer from smoking, ruin our livers by drinking, etc. If something like that is the problem (a disease brought on by a current sinful lifestyle or one in our past) there is no guarantee of healing, because God generally allows us to suffer the consequences of our sins even though we're forgiven. For instance, divorce is a sin, and like any sin, it can be forgiven. Even if it's forgiven though, the person and any children that may be involved, will still suffer the consequences of that divorce. See what I mean? I believe we've discussed this before too, didn't we?

But, in general, yes, studying God's Word with Him daily can in fact bring healing to our bodies, as well as make us look more beautiful. Our God is a pretty amazing God and because He loves us, He gives us all this and more. Or rather He offers it to us IF we will meet His conditions. And His condition as always been the same: to study His Word with Him daily and apply it to our lives - or if you'd rather, you could say it, study it with Him daily and obey Him.

Now you know about my physical problems, yet I can honestly say the Lord has healed me many times in many ways. People always ask me how I can spend so much time in His Word every day when I'm in so much pain. The truth is, that as long as I'm in His Word daily, He helps relieve the pain. Well, I hope this helps some, but I have to get going now, so we can talk more later if you want.

Bible Study Chat 12

Eva said:

Ι dont want to lie about this. I often tend to be influenced by the way people tend to see my life, my family, my sufferings as a kid. I sometimes tend to think my trials as something bad. Not always, some other times I am glad about the great lessons God taught me. But... some other times...
I think we need to discuss this more.

 

Fearnot said:

Like Eva I agree I like to discuss it a bit more.
First tho, I want you to know how amazingly wonderful was the insight you shared with us about would Jesus make someone He loved dearly go thru something in the nature of the most scary horror movie ( death)?
And I agree with you most physical pain now isn't scary, it is something to be endured.
But I am trying to find the good of daily growing ugly, due to old age. I mean hair loss, skin thinning, dry, and now not just wrinkles, but many many more and much deeper and wider and longer wrinkles. And losing teeth, to the point now, where I almost think losing all of them, might be better. As it is now its one tooth, and a gaping hole, two more teeth, and another hole etc. Plus they are browning from cavities, gums are red and swollen, where the teeth meat the gum line a lot of teeth are missing enamal there resulting in more holes.
The point is, I am embarrassed because I feel self-conscious about browning teeth, holes etc. so that when I do see someone I am trying not to talk in such a way my teeth are not on display.
But really rather than trying to convince you of the greatness of the changes, I am trying to see ugliness in a positive light. What does God want me to learn?
I have gain a lot of accepting the need to endure pain and learning from it, and you have really given me a new light on dying.
I think I still some core feeling or fear of being alone when I die. I really think I
acquired that perspective the day of being beat by a foster man and locked in a closet for over 24 hours. I was in physical pain but even more I felt all alone and guilty.....and I somehow became convicted that death was like that only much worse ( the utter darkness and being alone).
I am feeling much better because I know Jesus says He will not leave me ( and I know he really was with me that day, because I needed to suspend normal bodily need to go pee etc. or face real death as I was threaten. I was not hungry, nor had to go pee, nor needed to 'talk' with someone because Jesus was there helping me.

 

We can discuss it as often as you'd like to Eva. That's one of the functions of the body of Christ and why the Lord wants us to have friends who are Christians, so we can discuss things like this together as often as needed to remind ourselves and each other of what our attitude is supposed to be.

 

Barbara, what you're seeing, obviously is "the outside" and you consider it "ugly". Not all other people do. I'm sure you're aware that different cultures have different standards of what is beautiful and what is ugly right? I learned that when I was in Italy as a child. The men there prefer their women with "a little meat on them", or what we would consider at least "chubby" if not downright fat. To them, that's beautiful. There are many other differences in many other cultures. It all depends on where you live and what you accept for yourself. You have obviously bought into the american culture of what's beautiful - in fact, it's not even the american culture's idea, it's hollywood's ideas you've bought into.

What's one thing we see over and over and over about everything that's different between God and the world? God always says the opposite of what the world teaches us doesn't He? What He teaches us is that the body you are currently wearing is not you. You are a soul, a spirit, and you "have" a body, not the other way around. Your body is no different then something you're wearing for this particular part of your life. It's not permanent. It's perfectly normal for it to age and fall apart. Not because God wanted it that way, He didn't, but because of sin. The ugliness you see is sin. Not "your" sin, but the sin that is in the world including you, decaying everything.

In reality, you are only as ugly or as old as you think. Period. Notice I did not say, "as you think you are". I ended with the word "think". What you think about, determines in many ways what you look like, and mostly what other people see. If you smile and forget about whether or not you have teeth or what color they are etc, and you smile from your heart so that your eyes light up and you feel your happiness, THAT is what people will see. They won't see your teeth or lack of them. If you think about your teeth, their lack, their color, etc. and you dwell on that, then you're being self centered, and that's what people are going to see - someone who's totally wrapped up in themselves.

God teaches us that beauty is something that we get on the inside and is projected to the outside, and it begins with our thought life. Remember those pages I made for you about who you really are? When people see you that way, they see a beautiful woman! Just as this graphic says. “True beauty emanates from a woman who boldly and unabashedly knows who she is in Christ”.

Even the secular world has learned that beauty is inward:

They simply don't understand that the ultimate secret to true beauty is Christ and who we are in Him. I know, you're thinking, well my thoughts won't change my teeth, etc. Well, that's not necessarily true, because in some cases, your thoughts actually can change how you look physically and not just what other people see when they look at you, but for the most part, you're right. However, it's what other people see that seems to concern you the most, so that really doesn't matter does it? What does make up and all the other junk people buy to make themselves look better do? It covers up what they think doesn't look good and highlights what they like so that other people will be more likely to focus on the good parts instead of the bad parts, or so the bad parts won't stand out so much, right? Same principal as how our thoughts work.

The more you focus on your looks, the more power you give them over yourself. You are giving your body, which is corrupted by sin, power over you. You're giving it the power to decide how you will relate with others, who you will enjoy being with or talking to, and when and how you'll enjoy being with or talking to others. You're allowing your body to determine how you will feel about yourself, your life, other people, etc., instead of your mind and God's Word. That's not good or healthy or scriptural and it's certainly not what God wants or teaches us.

I'm not saying we should ignore our bodies and dress like bag women on the street though. We should treat our bodies with kindness and tell them the Truth. Not the world's truth or cultures truth, or even our own, but we should speak the Truth of God to them with love.

So what is God's Truth about our bodies? The Truth is that God made you body exactly the way it is. Not the defects you see - those again are caused by sin in the world. But your body as a whole was made by God to be vehicle for you to use in this life to bring honor and glory to Him. It wasn't made for you to obsess over. It's not that important. it's kind of like a car, although I hate to say that too because so many guys obsess over cars It was given to you to use for His glory, and His glory has very, very little to do with how your body looks. Instead it has to do with how you think, how you behave, how you act toward others. Do you hold grudges or do you forgive? Forgiving glorifies God with your body. Do you love or hate? Love glorifies God with your body. Do you think about others and their problems, hurts, and needs, or do you concentrate instead on yourself, your needs, wants, hurts, etc? God is glorified when we put others ahead of ourselves. etc. That's what this body is all about, it's about being there for others, not looking in a mirror to see what we look like.

If we want to be beautiful, then we need to be the fountain of joy, others can run to when they've run out of hope; the fountain of peace others can run to when they're overwhelmed; a fountain of love that others can run to when they're hurt or betrayed. When we make ourselves and our homes a place where others can come for comfort and love, to find peace and joy in the midst of their storms, then believe me, they will see us as the most beautiful of women, for we will be like Jesus to them, and we'll be using our bodies as He wants us to.

Like everything else the Lord's taught us, this is simply another area of our lives that we are to be in control of our thoughts. Actually, there is NO area of our lives that we shouldn't be in control of our thoughts and feelings. God doesn't say we're to guard our hearts and minds only when we're thinking about or might think about certain areas of our lives, now does He? He tells us to stay alert and on guard constantly, and take captive all those thoughts that are contrary to His Word.

It sounds to me like this is important to you, therefore I would strongly suggest talking to the Lord about it and listening to what He has to say to you. Read His Word when talking to Him about it. Start with Proverbs 31:10 and on, and check out: Matthew 23:27-28; Romans 10:15; 1 Peter 3:3–5; 2 Corinthians 4:16–18; 1 Timothy 2:9–10; Titus 2:3–5; Isaiah 61:10; Galatians 5:22–23; James 3:17-18; Isaiah 32:17; Isaiah 46:3–4; Proverbs 20:29; Ephesians 5:8-10; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 4:4-8; 1 Peter 2:9–11; 1 Peter 3:8–12; 1 Peter 4:7–8; 2 Peter 1:3–9; Psalm 48:14; Psalm 71:18; Proverbs 16:31; Psalm 145. Reflect on them with the Lord and see what He tells you about it.

1 Peter 3:3–5 —Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. *Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. *For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, *

Besides doing the above, what else can you do to change things for yourself? What do you want to change and what do you want not to change?

Originally Posted by Fearnot

I have gain a lot of accepting the need to endure pain and learning from it, and you have really given me a new light on dying.
I think I still some core feeling or fear of being alone when I die. I really think I
acquired that perspective the day of being beat by a foster man and locked in a closet for over 24 hours. I was in physical pain but even more I felt all alone and guilty.....and I somehow became convicted that death was like that only much worse ( the utter darkness and being alone).
I am feeling much better because I know Jesus says He will not leave me ( and I know he really was with me that day, because I needed to suspend normal bodily need to go pee etc. or face real death as I was threaten. I was not hungry, nor had to go pee, nor needed to 'talk' with someone because Jesus was there helping me.

 

Perhaps you did acquire it then hon, but that's not really important. Because although I'm quite sure He was with you then and in control of everything, you didn't know that yet and didn't know you could talk to Him and get answers from Him. You didn't even know about Him, much less know Him personally, and now you do! So please don't equate that experience with what death is like, because death is nothing like that hon. You know, I often hear people ask "why did God take so and so?" and I always want to say, "God didn't take them, He was receiving them!" As excited as we are to see our Lord, we need to know that Jesus is just as excited for us to see Him and to be able to give us a physical hug finally, as we are! As we die, we close our eyes to this physical world, which up till then is all we've been able to see with our eyes, and we open them a fraction of a second later to see everything! We will finally see both the physical and spiritual realms and most of all we will finally, "see" our Lord. When we close our eyes, knowing in faith that the Lord is with us, we will open them to be rewarded with the sight that all He promised was and is indeed true and He really IS with us! I can't wait to see what I know to be true!

Hebrews 11:1 —Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. *

Bible Study Chat 11

Forgive me for a moment while I go a bit off subject, but I just must share something that I think just might help anyone who has any fear of death a great deal. Remember, we were talking about how Job lost all of his children and how Job was grieving? So if we tie it into that, at least it's not entirely off topic. But I read something today that made so much sense and I just must share it.

It was about the story of Lazarus when Jesus raised him from the dead. Many people have discussed what it must have been like for Lazarus to have been dead for 4 days and then brought back to life. Many even then, probably questioned him about what death was like. But the thought that really made the light bulb go off in my mind was something that's rarely discussed - that Lazarus, as well as the others Jesus raised, all had die again. That thought doesn't particularly bother me, but I know it does some people, especially those who have ever had any fear of death. So for any who have any fear of death, let me pose these questions: Did Jesus ever do anything during His time here that harmed anyone in any way? Did He ever cause anyone to go through physical pain? No! Never! Not even when He cleared out the temple those times! He never caused anyone any physical pain at all and never harmed a soul. As scripture itself says, He wouldn't have even broken a bruised reed! (or as we would say today, "he wouldn't hurt a fly!) Why? Because He loves us, especially those of us He's saved!

I feel absolutely positive that none of the people He raised from the dead, ever, for a single second, feared death again. If anything, I'm quite sure they felt as Paul did, and longed for it at times. If death was something horrible to go through, something to fear, our Lord would have never asked anyone to go through it twice, and especially not someone He dearly loved! So if Satan ever starts trying to scare you about it again, remind yourself of that!

Yes, sometimes the illness or pain can hurt before we die, but death itself? Not at all! It's a blessed relief and besides, we can also remember that Jesus promised He would never leave us -never, and that includes at our death. Those of us who live with severe pain and illness every day, can also assure you that even pain before death isn't that bad. We've experienced some pretty severe pain and already survived it, dealt with it, and got through it, often for quite long periods of time before it died back down to our "normal severe pain". The Lord always, always, give us the strength and the grace to deal with it, at that moment. Never before, and never a moment too late, and He always walks through it with us. While it's no fun and not something we ever look forward to, it's certainly not anything to be afraid of. We've been there. We know.

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 —“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” *The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. *But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. *

2 Corinthians 5:8 —We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. *

Hebrews 2:14–15 —Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— *and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. *