Hi Ruth, my understanding is that anything that you spend most of your time and money on can be an idol. Let's face it praying to wood or stone will not answer your prayers. Neither will hours spent on FB and other media whether it is TV, your phone or Pinterest. The Father and Jesus want a personal relationship with you. Pray to them and talk to them through out your day. Go to Him first about all your worldly issues with your whole heart and you will see great things happen in your life. I am not saying the other things are bad, but if they are all you think about and do, they may have become an idol in your life. Remember Philippians 4:8 and not to put any wicked things before our eyes. As you spend time in your Bible, you will see exactly how He wants to be worshipped...in Spirit and in Truth. Hugs, Cissi
Christ is our mercy seat , only through him can we have access to God . No one else has the power to answer any of our prayers other than God Himself . We approach God through Christ .
I bieleve that we are to only address our prayers to Our Heavenly Father ,God , the Holy One of Israel and that we address them to Him through the mediator ship of His Son ,Jesus Christ the Righteous who is our Sinless High Priest in heaven . God is all powerfull and if we want to ask for something or to thank someone it should only ever be Him , He is in charge , He is all powerfull and all blessings and mercies come only from Him . To ascribe any power or glory to any other is idolatry I think .
In essence, praying to anyone but God is idolatry. You can certainly ask for prayer from people you know as long as they are alive in this world. but not people who have died and believed to be in heaven.
The Word says that"there is one mediator between God and man". ( 1 Timothy 2:5-6) That person is Jesus Christ, no one else, not mary, nor saint, nor loved one that has died, no statue. He is very happy to hear your prayers. He brings them before the Father and they give you the best answers to every one of them. No one else can do this.
So be assured, Jesus is sufficient for us. We have no need to turn to anyone else with our prayers or give our hearts to. Mary and they are believers just like us. God used them for His purpose and worked through them like He does with us. Their work on earth is completed now that they have died. In the resurrection we will see them and have conversations with them and maybe even have "work" to do with them in heaven in obedience to God.
But for us in this life still, we best stay away from any kind of attempts to contact those who have died.
True prayer is incense that rises to God the Father, presented and made acceptable through Jesus Christ our High Priest and lit aflame, expressed beyond words and taught by the Holy Spirit within hearts of the priesthood of believers in Christ. Like the incense offered to God in the Mosaic law, the incense offered in the tabernacle and later in the Temple was forbidden from being made or offered in any other context than God's appointed worship, his appointed priesthood, and in the appoint manner prescribed.
Prayer is made in the name of Jesus, who again makes our prayers acceptable to God the Father and who also interceded for us both in heaven and through the mind of the Spirit. The biblical saints and Mary are fellow members of the priesthood of believers and prayed in the same manner.
The assignment of powers to answer prayers in specific realms of life to saints and Mary as the so called queen of heaven is a thinly veiled transference of pagan polytheism under their pagan names to the names of saints and particularly Mary.
The acceptance of Christianity by Constantine caused a sudden influx of vast numbers of pagans with no interest in leaving behind their pagan roots, who only wanted to maintain their political and religious standing under their current Emporor. They easily incorporated their pagan forms into the church under new names, as they had done in renaming them when they went from Greek to Roman rule before. Mixing in elements of Christianity to legitimize their pagan hearts was a form of deceit they were very well versed in as they had blended old forms of paganism with new forms under other national and political regimes before. If persecution had been the devil's primary method of tempting and testing the church before, the seeming legitimization of Christainity in the pagan world brought in new temptations and testing as the devil shifted strategies over to the legitimization of the pagan world in the church.
do you believe that Jesus teachings started in 4 gospels and in acts? I have read the Bible finding no Christmas 25th for Jesus at all....I know world has refer to Luke as the Christmas Story all my life. Easter same but I have been studying sense 2008 but a deeper and diligently seeking and searching Holy Scriptures to pursue TRUTH! I am finding out because LORD GOD is teaching me His ways not men as God said their mere men I know you and understand and love and care more than anyone or things . I am a old Christian Woman as a Child of my Precious Father and Lord Jesus Christ as one ! im here studying and came across these comments so I am trying it out....im not a facebook or media I believe the cell phones have rob our children and people minds from GOD! A true real honest relationship....not even good at this I love my Bible living in God through Christ Jesus . sorry im not good at this i hope you can understand me. Its or time seek the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness first and riches and glory all in Jesus Christ Who Father has given me over to bare fruit and live in Him thru Spirit of TRUTH and LIFE is JESUS.......BIBLE < PRAYING> and our attitude and behavior is transformed life ....therefor those in Christ are in a new creation and all old is pass{oldself} and {newself} all in Christ as we die daily JESUS is our Master that owns us due to the Father has given us over to Jesus but some are still His......Jesus said nobody or nothing can snatch us out of Jesus Christ hand but my Father is greater and nobody or things can snatch us out of His hand.Amen....
what about paganism also about Easter and Christmas . Jesus was not born on 25th Dec and its not Easter but passover is Jesus Resurrection right? please respond. God Bless!
I personally am not stumbled over the days chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ or the Resurrection. These two events can be celebrated every day in my personal life, but I want a time of year to celebrate them in church with others. Reading the passages of scripture that describe these events and singing songs about them with others is not a cause to break fellowship in my view, no matter what date you chose. I can celebrate by faith without a weak conscience, and I have confidence God won't judge me for loving people that love these two events. If you can't do that I won't judge you, but you are not in a position to judge me either. As long as it is Christ we do it for, let's respect each other and God's grace.
The date is much less important than that we agree Christ was born of a virgin, died for our sins and rose again for our salvation according to scripture. That is true every day and largely the reason I go to church year round.
Christian fellowship is something we should maintain with a Bible preaching church if at all possible. If you are always alone trying to fulfill Christ's command to love one another as He has loved us, you will have a really hard time doing it right. You have to be with other Christians to fulfill that command. You're a sinner and I'm a sinner, but if we gather in His name He is in our midst. That is transformative. And He truly is glorified when we actually love one another.
Hi Darlene, So good to meet you here. You have raised some good concerns about our the dates we use to celebrate our Lord's birth, resurrection, etc.
I have been researching on these lately and I read just last night that the early church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus, although Mary, who hung with the apostles certainly knew his birthday. Celebrating birthdays was associated with pagan practices, which did have such celebrations. The Jews did not celebrate birthdays for this very reason and the early church reflected the Jewish viewpoint of this topic. Historical data seems to indicate that Jesus' birth began to be celebrated on December 25th during the 3rd century (200-300A.D.) But this does not mean that He actually was born on this day. The church in Constantine's day adopted this date as the official day of Christ's birth throughout Christendom because it had already been in practice for some time.
They did celebrate His resurrection by meeting on the first day of the week from very early times. If we were to honestly celebrate the resurrection we would do so according to the Jewish calendar having the night of the Passover meal be the night of the Last Supper and the daytime of this same day (our next day) as His death day. We would have the resurrection day the following Sunday, the morning of the first day after the Sabbath.
Darlene, I know that you said you do not do social media, etc. But since you seem to have a computer to be able to post here, I suggest that you google for your own research. There are many good Christian sites to choose from and if you read several you can notice somewhat of a consensus on this subject.
I would google: What day was Jesus born on? Why do we celebrate Jesus' birthday on December 25th? When did the church first begin to celebrate Jesus' birthday? Why did the church choose December 25th for the day of Jesus' birth?
What are the influences in choosing the day for Christmas and for Easter?
Well said, we see how Israel was doing these same things, Jeremiah 7:18-20 and Jeremiah 44 and how God dealt with them. Israel was constantly tempted to learn the ways of the pagan nations around them and fell into that often. Paganism is still at work today and it is like leaven, it slowly corrupts from within. It started in Babel/Babylon, and we see it from Genesis to Revelation.
[Comment Removed]
In essence, praying to anyone but God is idolatry. You can certainly ask for prayer from people you know as long as they are alive in this world. but not people who have died and believed to be in heaven.
The Word says that"there is one mediator between God and man". ( 1 Timothy 2:5-6) That person is Jesus Christ, no one else, not mary, nor saint, nor loved one that has died, no statue. He is very happy to hear your prayers. He brings them before the Father and they give you the best answers to every one of them. No one else can do this.
So be assured, Jesus is sufficient for us. We have no need to turn to anyone else with our prayers or give our hearts to. Mary and they are believers just like us. God used them for His purpose and worked through them like He does with us. Their work on earth is completed now that they have died. In the resurrection we will see them and have conversations with them and maybe even have "work" to do with them in heaven in obedience to God.
But for us in this life still, we best stay away from any kind of attempts to contact those who have died.
Prayer is made in the name of Jesus, who again makes our prayers acceptable to God the Father and who also interceded for us both in heaven and through the mind of the Spirit. The biblical saints and Mary are fellow members of the priesthood of believers and prayed in the same manner.
The assignment of powers to answer prayers in specific realms of life to saints and Mary as the so called queen of heaven is a thinly veiled transference of pagan polytheism under their pagan names to the names of saints and particularly Mary.
The acceptance of Christianity by Constantine caused a sudden influx of vast numbers of pagans with no interest in leaving behind their pagan roots, who only wanted to maintain their political and religious standing under their current Emporor. They easily incorporated their pagan forms into the church under new names, as they had done in renaming them when they went from Greek to Roman rule before. Mixing in elements of Christianity to legitimize their pagan hearts was a form of deceit they were very well versed in as they had blended old forms of paganism with new forms under other national and political regimes before. If persecution had been the devil's primary method of tempting and testing the church before, the seeming legitimization of Christainity in the pagan world brought in new temptations and testing as the devil shifted strategies over to the legitimization of the pagan world in the church.
The date is much less important than that we agree Christ was born of a virgin, died for our sins and rose again for our salvation according to scripture. That is true every day and largely the reason I go to church year round.
Christian fellowship is something we should maintain with a Bible preaching church if at all possible. If you are always alone trying to fulfill Christ's command to love one another as He has loved us, you will have a really hard time doing it right. You have to be with other Christians to fulfill that command. You're a sinner and I'm a sinner, but if we gather in His name He is in our midst. That is transformative. And He truly is glorified when we actually love one another.
I have been researching on these lately and I read just last night that the early church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus, although Mary, who hung with the apostles certainly knew his birthday. Celebrating birthdays was associated with pagan practices, which did have such celebrations. The Jews did not celebrate birthdays for this very reason and the early church reflected the Jewish viewpoint of this topic. Historical data seems to indicate that Jesus' birth began to be celebrated on December 25th during the 3rd century (200-300A.D.) But this does not mean that He actually was born on this day. The church in Constantine's day adopted this date as the official day of Christ's birth throughout Christendom because it had already been in practice for some time.
They did celebrate His resurrection by meeting on the first day of the week from very early times. If we were to honestly celebrate the resurrection we would do so according to the Jewish calendar having the night of the Passover meal be the night of the Last Supper and the daytime of this same day (our next day) as His death day. We would have the resurrection day the following Sunday, the morning of the first day after the Sabbath.
Darlene, I know that you said you do not do social media, etc. But since you seem to have a computer to be able to post here, I suggest that you google for your own research. There are many good Christian sites to choose from and if you read several you can notice somewhat of a consensus on this subject.
I would google: What day was Jesus born on? Why do we celebrate Jesus' birthday on December 25th? When did the church first begin to celebrate Jesus' birthday? Why did the church choose December 25th for the day of Jesus' birth?
What are the influences in choosing the day for Christmas and for Easter?
Well said, we see how Israel was doing these same things, Jeremiah 7:18-20 and Jeremiah 44 and how God dealt with them. Israel was constantly tempted to learn the ways of the pagan nations around them and fell into that often. Paganism is still at work today and it is like leaven, it slowly corrupts from within. It started in Babel/Babylon, and we see it from Genesis to Revelation.
God bless,
RLW
Be blessed in His holy Name Jesus Christ
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