I am 25yrs old and I did not grow up in a church environment so at 22yrs old I gave my life to the Lord. There’s a lot of things that I do not know and I have been studying on my own aside from what my church teaches. A lot of young adults my age are single and are struggling because we all feel like we are getting old and we are still single and most with no kids. Anyways I have been battling to know some truth behind this “unequally yoked” thing. I read your article and I went to 1 Cor 7:14 and 2 Cor 6:14-18. I only see text about a believer and a non believer is unequally yoked. My question is, what if your mate and you attend different churches due to different denominations? For example a Pentecostal and a Seventh Day Adventist? If you both believe that Jesus died for our sins etc, etc but certain things are believed different like the sabbath and eating fish and pork, etc does that make you too unequally yoked?

I was reading through the article you wrote regarding the Seven Churches of Rev. 2 and 3 (part 2, specifically). When speaking about the death of Tammuz and his mother’s 40 day mourning period, in parenthesis you stated that today it is referred to as Lent. Forgive me if I misunderstood your point, but since you went on to list other pagan influences I assumed that our modern day observance of Lent is also influenced by pagan rituals/beliefs. Since we are currently observing Lent, it bothers me to think that I am ignorantly participating in a pagan-based observance, rather than a Biblical one. Am I correct in inferring that Lent is indeed pagan-based, and that I should not be participating in it?

A brother asked me a very good question (loaded as well) about why aren’t we performing the miracles as in the days of the apostles. I have heard of some great miracles being performed in other countries, but why not in America? In Mark 16:17 it states these signs shall follow them that believe… where has our faith gone? The Lord says He is not a respecter of persons, so I know if He can use Peter and Paul He can use me as well. Is it a matter of our faith not being at a certain level, or can it have something to do with our condition in this country? Meaning if we get sick, the first thing we reach over for is the medicines not the Oil.

I have recently become legally separated and have to pay my wife maintenance (alimony), I am currently tithing on my gross income, which is a financial burden. Am I supposed to tithe on the money I pay my wife? Is she supposed to tithe on the amount she receives from me? If the answer to both questions is yes, isn’t this double tithing?

I wonder if the reason God allowed sin into the world isn’t because we only grow through adversity and struggle. Without sin, would we not be spoiled brats, always getting everything we wanted? Character is built through struggle. We are probably much more interesting as individuals because we haven’t had it too easy in this life. Then, too, God is always there for us, helping us if we will only ask for His help. We are made in His image, and don’t we experience joy when we can help another? God must feel joy when He can help His children.

In response to the recent inquiry concerning Ezekiel 38 timing you quote Ezekiel “from that day forward Israel will know I am the Lord”. However, shortly after that, Israel will turn and worship the anti-christ. That doesn’t look like “from that day forward”. Am I misinterpreting here?

I was wondering why we don’t experience the power of the Holy Spirit in the same way the early Christians did (found in the book of Acts)?

At a recent church meeting, two ladies were prayed with to receive full baptism of the Spirit. Both sincerely asked to be filled with the presence of God; nothing happened. The concerns here are that the ladies referred to will begin to doubt the love of God, their question being ‘Why has He filled others but not me?’

I know that it is possible to seek the manifestations of God rather than God himself, but I don’t believe this was the case here. Jesus tells us to ‘..ask and we will receive…’, and that ‘mustard seed ‘ faith is all that is required. So what is wrong here? Why does something that appears so easy become so difficult?

Just as I believe it is wrong to tell a sick person that they weren’t healed because of a lack of faith or because of sin in their lives, I also believe it would be inappropriate to apply the same reasoning in this instance.

Although in some cases this is a possibility, is this not suggesting that the responsibility lies with the individual; thus resulting in feelings of inadequacy or condemnation?

If I remember rightly, the accounts in the book of Acts reveal an abundance of God’s Spirit and in the case of Pentecost, faith was never an issue because nobody asked in the first place!

Thank you for your time and for fulfilling the call of God on your life.

What is the purpose of Lent and how did it originate? And if we tell somebody what we are doing for Lent, with the purpose of having them keep us in prayer for the 40 days, is that considered a bad thing?

While the prophets were 100% accurate when predicting the Messiah’s first advent and the situations surrounding it, the people of the day were more than likely thinking that the event and the Man and the circumstances were not much like they were described to be by the saints of old. By the same token, why are we to believe that the circumstances surrounding the second advent are going to be anything different?

I’ve been reading accounts on a number of near death experiences and would like to ask: 1. Do you personally believe that such experiences are actual “visits” to heaven or hell? 2. Don’t you think they’d all have the same elements if they were real? (It seems that stories of alien abductions have more similarities than some of these alleged near death experiences.) I find a disturbing lack of consistency and some things that I simply cannot accept as either Godly or Biblical. Some accounts are outright blasphemous. Please give me your take on this issue. I’m very grateful for your help, and for this wonderful site.