Welcome to Gaia! ::

I apologize for being a day late for posting the church meeting forum, but it is still a 3 day event!

A topic that is on my mind is Spiritual Warfare because it's a topic that some out there don't want to discuss because it's a heavy topic, and everybody needs to know how to protect themselves spiritually.

Every day, we are a target in spiritual warfare - Satan wants us and can give us whatever we want - money, fame, drugs, etc. in order to have us join him in Hell. Temptation crosses many of our paths every day no matter what that temptation may be. If we follow a temptation it's because it seemed right at the time, we were curious, or looking for a sinful pleasure. Every one of us has failed in our life before - falling into temptation. We're not perfect in ourselves, but only through Christ. We have all sinned:

Romans 3:22 - 24 NIV:

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The spiritual enemies are all around us whether we see them or not. How exactly do we arm ourselves? Why, with God's special armor, of course! Any believer can pick up this armor and learn to use it effectively! It takes plenty of practice and meditating on God's word in order to do so.

Ephesians 6:10 - 18 NIV:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Each piece of armor has it's own significance and put together - it can stand against the spiritual enemies we face. Each piece of armor is mentioned more than once in The Holy Bible, and it's a lot of verses so I will post the link to the page here that places the verses for each piece of armor:

http://www.acts17-11.com/armor.html

There is so much more to this topic and I apologize I didn't have the time to post more about it. As always, feel free to post and discuss this topic. Here we can also share our thoughts and ideas that our on our minds and hearts about God! Feel more than free to fellowship on this thread as well so that we may continue to grow in Christ!

Hmm...let's see...one of the biggest things I would have to say I've struggled with in my life was watching pornography. I would have a strong urge to watch it every once in a while - it was most tempting when I was in my room on my laptop all by myself. Sometimes I would think, "Oh, I'll just watch that one video..," like it wasn't a big deal.

When I was introduced to it - I didn't know that's what porn was and didn't realize that it was a sinful thing. Later in life, I realized what it was and I was like, "Oh, that's bad - I shouldn't be watching this." I'd feel guilty and dirty inside everytime I went to a porn site and watched that video. I thought, "Is this one moment of satisfaction truly worth the consequence of sin?" and it wasn't. One day I told myself, "Well, the stuff is fake - a lot of people probably fake things on camera." and, "I'm supporting this industry by watching the content - supporting a sinful activity." So I decided to draw back - at first it was difficult because I felt the strong urge to go back and when I did - I'd try to read my Bible instead. Eventually, it became easier and easier to stay away from porn sites and I haven't watched them in months. Although, there is that once in a while where I truly struggle and need God's help. If I even think about going to a porn site - I'll log off the internet if it's that bad.


Another sin I struggle with is being slothful behavior technically is a sinful behavior - however, I'm naturally lazy so it's something that I need to truly work on. It's truly another struggle that I have to battle every day. Sloth is my biggest deadly sin in my life at the moment. I've been doing well the past few days, but becoming so sore because I did too much house cleaning all at once and I'm in terrible shape as is - I need to exercise more. Plus, it's so easy to be lazy, but I have noticed that once I'm active and doing stuff every day and have a healthy sleeping schedule and everything that I feel like a million bucks. I truly feel more healthy, more confident, more faithful in God, etc. Being a sloth tends to make me more prone to depression because I sit around, do nothing, and think of myself as less when I do it. So I know that God appreciates when we get up - make an effort to do good for Him because then we'll feel good inside ourselves. When I do nothing - feel more vulnerable to being tempted because I have a false sense of being "bored" - it's not that I'm truly bored, it's that I don't want to do what is given so I will be bored. I know when I do nothing I feel worthless and when I do something - I feel like I'm doing what's right.

I can also be incredibly selfish at times. This is another huge thing I struggle with, unfortunately. I've been working on it - it's difficult because at times, I don't realize when I'm doing it. However, I tell myself before I speak to listen before I decide I want things my way and ask appropriate questions that don't sound rude or snappy. I know God doesn't want me to be selfish - he truly doesn't. So I have to consult His word and ask for His strength to help me every day when trying to overcome this. When I help others - I feel that selfishness subside and feel God's peace replacing the sinful need to be selfish.

Usually when figuring out sins - I like to dive into Biblical text and determine factors like society at the time, their culture, what audience was this for, and looking at the Hebrew and Greek for further explanation.

When you said, "Like, should I buy this?" It's a good question. There are some things we could buy for ourselves that may be questionable - there are also gifts we should wonder if we should buy those for people or not.

I mean, sometimes physical gifts need to be thought out. For example, if I was rich and walked into the worst neighborhood in town and found a homeless person and decided to get them an expensive gift - so I get them this extremely expensive watch. Will it do more harm than good? Was the gift really worth anything? Well, that gift could get them in harms way if they are homeless and in a terrible neighborhood - they might get killed for a $50,000 watch. So that gift doesn't help them so I feel it's not exactly pleasing to God. If I were to give to someone in need - I would put together a care package of things they could truly use in order to survive. A watch isn't necessary for survival.

Like some people, I don't hear God's voice like as a physical voice - I know some people can, but I haven't. Although, inside me - I just feel like if God's telling me something. I have strong feelings to do something or not to do something and feel that's The Holy Spirit through God telling me what I need to do. It depends on the situation to what course of action I take. Lately, I've been wanting to help others, but don't have money to spend on something of that sort so I think about other ways to go about it. Sometimes being nice or asking people how their day was or being a shoulder to cry on can turn someone's bad day into a better day if not a good day.

Joyce Meyer has a lot of great things to say. I may not agree with her a percentage of the time, but I still listen to her sermons online and she often has some great insight on what to do. I remember doing something for someone once and I felt this peace inside me like I was floating on a cloud. I felt so carefree and felt as if I was flowing through the crowd instead of standing still and dragging my feet. I totally know when I have done something good in God's eyes because I feel that inner peace that Joyce Meyer is talking about. It's that peace that tells us, "Good job, now rest." I can usually tell the difference easily because God's peace is peace without repercussion. It's peace that doesn't harm or lead into any type of sin later.

What Satan offers - it may feel like a peace to some, but it's only a temporary comfort to make sin feel right. If I am doing something only because it "feels good" and feels like it is going nowhere - I often take a moment to examine what I'm doing, look at God's word, and make sure what I am doing is right and if it's not - it can be corrected. Also, if you mean something else by "Satan's peace" then please describe what exactly you mean by that in case I missed the point.

I remember hearing Joyce Meyer mention God's armor before and said, "God gives us armor for the front because he's got our back," which is a good one smile and I've also heard, "God gives us armor for only the front because we're not supposed to turn our back and run away," which is also another great one xD because it's true - running away from problems can usually put us where every other person that ran away was found in - the wilderness.

Indeed, it's something I need to work on a lot more as well. God has given us the armor and now it's up to us in order to use that armor properly.

Thanks for the link! I've honestly avoided reading plans because I usually found ones that weren't quite appealing to me. I suppose it's because when I read The Holy Bible, I get carried away and sometimes read an entire book, or many chapters in one sitting. Although, it probably doesn't always do the best when it comes to retaining information. Perhaps the site will have one that's good for me smile

No need to apologize for long posts - any length of post is appreciated smile the purpose is to fellowship, grow, and encourage others so it's alright ^_^

The Bible plans that they have are great! There are a lot of 'em biggrin Haven't decided on one since I only got to take a peek since I had to leave abruptly earlier but I'm sure I'll find a great one that works for me.

I notice that when I read The Holy Bible, I can read through it - understand the basic concepts of it and then keep reading and later on when I'm way past Abraham and Sarah or way past Moses - they come up and I think, "Wait, did Sarah/Abraham/Moses/whoever do that? I need to go back and read it again." It shows that we need to keep reading these stories more than once so that the details stick more and more each time. It never hurts to dive into a deeper study with what's written there as well - that tends to help me remember because if I do an in-depth research I find a lot of interesting things and tend to remember it better. Although, I learned that not everything will stick the first time around and there's things in The Holy Bible that we may never fully understand 100%, but it's still best to keep praying and studying smile

Scripture memory is important most definitely! Never know when we will be somewhere where we don't have our Bible and we NEED those verses and we NEED God's word! I encourage scripture memory for everybody because it's important! It takes constant practice to maintain that, too! 3nodding

I love reading on paper best - it's easier on my eyes and more relaxing if I read a few verses before sleep since computer screen lighting can have a tendency to stimulate the brain >_<

Putting the pieces together is most definitely the funnest part. To keep finding new things and creating a picture until it's larger than life ^_^ we can learn so much from The Holy Bible.