We have a short family Bible study every night. We rotate the opening prayer each night between my children so that they learn that they are speaking to a real God and not a figure like Santa Claus. They are attentive, ask questions, and when I go over chapters we studied weeks before they remember what we have studied. My question concerns James 3:1. Am I held to a stricter judgment because we have Bible study as a family and I am teaching my children, or is James speaking of a formal teaching role within the Body of Christ?

I recently heard that the stones on the breastplate that the priest wore, were taken out, and cast down, much in the way (for those who practice it) chicken bones are thrown down, to see what God wanted them to do. I was told, “that is the only way they heard from God”. Personally, I don’t believe this. I have never read anywhere in God’s word of the Priest throwing down the stones out of the breast plate. Surely, if God can speak to Moses, and Abraham, He could speak to those High Priests too, couldn’t He,

Here’s a follow up question concerning your answer to “Who Lives In The Mansions?” Do you think the ‘church age’ saints that have already died are already in this New Jerusalem or are they just in what we normally call heaven and will go to the New Jerusalem at the time of the rapture at the same time the raptured saints do?

Could you give me all the references to God’s Laws that we are required to follow now? I know about the 10 commandments, loving God and loving others, but I’d like a complete list of them if possible.

We get yearly season passes to a theme park and it so happens that our church sponsored a youth group outing to this park. My 12-year-old daughter went and a good male friend who is also a family friend went too. The topic came up that the boy could use my pass (which is a photo id) – of me mid 40’s and he could save the price of admission. The park would have probably not checked the id…

Now – what should have been done – Let the boy use the pass or say sorry – that is deception?

I appreciate your teaching and sharing. What is the “word of faith” belief? What is your opinion of it?

Here’s another follow-up to “OSAS And Unanswered Prayer.”

You listed four things that you believe can prevent believers from being delivered from their afflictions, putting a very fine point on the issue:

1. Lack of faith, 2. Unconfessed sins, 3. Subconscious feelings that we deserve to be afflicted, 4. Secret desire to remain where we are.

My questions are these:

1. If we have a subconscious feeling that we deserve to be afflicted, does God hold this against us? (if so, why?). Your answer seems to imply this.

2. If we are held responsible for things of which we are not conscious, how do we recognize this and “repent” of it?

This is a very serious set of questions for me as I am very introspective, know I cannot fully understand what’s going on inside me, so it would seem that I am doomed to a life of (mostly) unanswered prayer.

Today I read this letter “OSAS & Unanswered Prayer” on your site. It’s my shame but I often become very discouraged if I read such a “testimony”. What is troubling me is this: “Having thrown herself on God’s mercy and spent many hours in prayer, she has received no solution to her problems.” Can this happen that a believer trusts her/his problems or troubles to the Lord and she/he does not receive a solution/deliverance?

As a follow up to ‘Still Saved After Denying The Lord’, I have a question for you.

A friend of mine, once a very loving and dedicated Christian, has over the past several years gone through many traumas in her life. Having thrown herself on God’s mercy and spent many hours in prayer, she has received no solution to her problems. For example, she has prayed constantly that the Lord would bring peace to the heart of her mother -also a Christian- who is suffering from dementia and is living in a confused and tortured state literally trapped inside her own body. These prayers have not been answered.

She now believes in her heart that God can not exist and that Jesus was just a good man who was crucified along with countless others.

Where Peter, understandably, denied the Lord out of fear, this lady has made a conscious decision that God is not real – not out of bitterness but by deliberation. What happens to her Salvation?

I have a question I have needed to be answered for a very long time. I can’t even get a straight answer from my own pastor. I believe in Christ’s finished work at the cross. I know that behavior cannot change our salvation.

However, if someone accepts Christ and is baptized as a young person, then loses faith and denies the existence of God, what then? I get different arguments from people on this. I have heard, “Once saved always saved” and I’ve heard that denying the Lord is unforgivable. Please help me settle this. I lose sleep over this for my dear family members.