Thank you so much for your commitment in sharing God’s word! My question concerns Micah 6:16. The NKJ version reads,

For the statutes of Omri are kept; All the works of Ahab’s house are done; and you walk in their counsels, That I make you a desolation, And your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people.

My question is who is Omri? What is his historical Old Testament significance? I am familiar with Ahab and understand his and Jezebel’s wickedness but who is Omri?

We are wondering who the 7 shepherds and eight principal men in Micah 5:5 are. I typed Micah into search and found some information in a question about an Assyrian anti-Christ.

It’s great to have a Bible teacher to ask when you have a question. Thanks for all the time & effort you put into this.

Please help me explain something to my son. He says God is partly to blame for our sin because He created us. I told him that God didn’t create people to sin but that Adam chose to sin. I know that God was not surprised and had a plan already in place. What can I tell him so that he does not blame God for his sin. He says he does not feel guilty because it is not his fault that he sins, he was born that way.

I have two questions on baptism. For those of us who can not find a true bible believing Church, how do we get baptised? My family and I would all love to be baptised, but don’t know any other Christians we can ask to do this….and we do not want to be baptized into a specific denomination…

My other question is this. Through the years I have attended many Churches and have seen alter calls yet they never offer to baptize new converts immediately afterwards….shouldn’t the two go hand in hand (understanding of course that baptisim doesn’t play a part in salvation)?

Thank you for the time you take to answer so many questions every day. I have another one for you.

My dad is a really bad alcoholic. He battled his addiction for many years while me and my siblings were younger, but he got sober after my mom left him. He stayed sober for a long time, until I went to college. Then he starting drinking again.

I have heard many people say that if you are saved, then you cannot be possessed. I am wondering if this is the same as having a demonic attachment of some sort. When my dad gets drunk and falls asleep (which is every night), he screams and cusses in his sleep. He screams horrible things, and it’s like he is being tortured. When he wakes up, he has no recollection of it. I know that this is demonic.

My question is, if my dad is saved, would he still have this demonic attachment? My dad has never been baptized, and it is almost impossible to have a coherent conversation with him about Christ. I just don’t think that someone who is saved would have these problems. Am I wrong? Thank you for your time.

I’ve been reading about how Jesus said all who are not willing to pick up their cross and follow Him are not worthy of Him and also II Timothy 3:12 That all who desire to live a godly life will suffer persecution. I have told the Lord that I desire to surrender my will to Him and want to follow Him completely. I want to carry the cross I am given. What if I’ve deceived myself into believing I am doing this when actually I am not? I do not suffer persecution. I’m a disabled lady who is housebound unless I have help from the husband to get to the car. The surgery I need for my hip was denied due to my weight. I’ve had difficulty all my life trying to lose weight; from the time I was a child. This to me is not persecution in Christ Jesus.

Am I disobedient because I do not lose weight when this has always been a problem for me? Am I deluded into thinking I am a Christian when possibly I am not? Will the Lord say to me He never knew me one day? I am sorry if some things it would seem I should know better but I am easily upset. I came from an abusive childhood and have PTSD and depression and anxiety. When I read Scripture like this all the compassion and mercy I thought I saw in Jesus is gone.

Something I’ve been concerned about lately (to the point of severe distress) is the arguments I’ve heard against images of Christ, and how that is clearly in violation of the second commandment. Arguments I have heard include that Aaron and the Israelites created the golden calf to be representative of THE God, not a non-specific pagan one and that God was clearly against ANY representation of himself since in Deuteronomy it’s pointed out that no one saw the face of God on Mt. Horeb and that in the New Testament it says that the Godhead cannot be likened unto gold or stone. I’m familiar with the iconoclasts and am very much afraid for the people I care about who genuinely love God, but have images of Christ (although they do not worship the images) in their homes. Even my church has a drawing of Christ in the sanctuary. I don’t want to be idolatrous. (I’ve also heard that to represent the symbol of the cross is sinful –I’m talking about the empty cross as well as a crucifix.) What do you think about these issues?

I used to be able to hear God not in audio but I always knew when he was talking to me but after a medical issue I cannot hear him anymore and it is very bothersome. The medical issue was the worst time of my life although it turned out just to be stress. Since that time I have felt so abandoned. It was the only time in my life that I felt Jesus actually left me and said your on your own. It has been about 6 months and I have not felt like that “Praise God” but he has still not revealed or communicated himself to me the sameway he used too. I know he loves me (and he knows I love him), I know I’m forgiven, and I know the end is soon but should I be worried about this? Maybe I failed a test when I was sick?

I have just read your article on tithing and I still have questions that are unanswered. First, the tithing for New Testament believers is very questionable to me. I find that in the entire N.T. there’s no place where Jesus instructs the church (except for the Pharisees) to tithe. The apostles do not mention tithing either. I was of the idea that N.T. believers were under grace and not Law.

In my entire life as a Christian, I have never been blessed because of the tithe but God always blesses me when I give. I believe that when I give I am making a covenant with God and He never disappoints me unless I did not give in the right spirit.

My wife and I have decided to tithe and put it first in our finances. We have been sending some money to a missionary for a while now, but not the full ten percent. A week after we made this decision and were going to start my father calls and says that he and my mother would like to stop by and talk with my wife and I. After some persuading he tells me it has to do with their finances, and that things are not going very well. My wife and I prayed that God’s will be done, and to let us listen with love. My parents came over the next day and proceeded to tell me that they were falling behind by a few hundred each month because of one large bill, and that they are going to file for bankruptcy. My wife and I listened then excused ourselves for a few minutes and quickly agreed that we had to help. We told them of our decision to tithe regularly, and the amount that would put us at a full ten percent was only a little less then what they were falling behind every month. We also met with them the next day and helped create a budget that they could stick to, and got their bills up to date.

My question is this, will God see this as tithing, or did I just put my earthly wealth into earthly things until this large bill is paid for? We did not give them the money with the hope of being paid back, and have decided that if they feel the need to pay it back, then the money will go to the Church.