I am going to try and articulate my question. First let me say, that I understand I am a sinner, have a sin nature and need a redeemer. I don’t DESERVE anything, but thru grace and faith and the work of Jeshua on the cross I am saved.

Here goes my analytical mind: I didn’t chose to be born. Since I didn’t chose to be born I didn’t chose to be a sinner. I have an invisible (to me) enemy that wants to see me in hell. I also didn’t chose my body/mind/ brokenness. Some I’ve known seem to be a lot more hard headed than me, etc. Which seems to lead them into the trap of not wanting/believing they need a savior. So they go to hell. That seems like a HUGE penalty for something one didn’t chose in the first place.

When I think about this it makes me very fearful that I could have missed it. But for the grace of God go I. I can almost hear your answer, the one I could come up with. My problem with that is it is hard for me to believe that everyone regardless of their issues got/gets at least one chance. My mind replies: what if? Maybe the answer is: It just is.

I had a question on prayer. Does prayer change God’s mind? Or is God changed by prayer? According to Hosea 11:8b it says, “My heart is changed within me. All my compassion is aroused.” Indicating that God changed his mind. Or King Hezekiah when the LORD extended his life 15 years in 2 Kings 20. Also, in James 5:16b it says, “the prayer of a righteous man availeth much…”

On the contrary, in 1 Samuel 15:29 it says “Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; He is not a man that He should change His mind.” Also in Malachi 3:6 says “I the LORD do not change.” And somewhere, I couldn’t find where, it says that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So I was just wondering if you could help me seek truth with respect to God changing His mind through prayer.

I have always been taught that God gives us freedom of choice because He wants us to be free to love Him or not love Him by choice. Therefore we are free to either sin or not sin. If that is true, then why can’t I choose NOT to have freedom of choice? I WANT to be a robot, loving God and not sinning continuously. I constantly sin…constantly. I am beset by a sinful addiction.

I pray to God, through Jesus, to keep the opportunity for sin away from me. I do not place myself in situations where I can sin, but the thoughts of my sin barage me constantly, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. This week some sins that I committed 25 years ago came back to haunt me. I confessed these sins to Jesus and repented many years ago but, even though He forgave me, He let me suffer punishment now. I understand that just because He forgave me didn’t mean that I would escape punishment. These were some very serious sins.

What I would like to know is that long before I committed these sins I would have gladly given up my freedom of choice and would like to have been an “android for Christ” (if such a thing would have been possible). You seem to be a very spiritually blessed person so maybe you could answer this for me.

I have a friend who has begun the study of Revelation with her husband and she asked if I had any material to help them understand it better. I printed out your complete study on the book. It’s the best that I have read.

As a result of my friends interest it has prompted me to “re-study” it and I do have a question concerning Chapter 17 where the woman on the beast is revealed, it says the beast was scarlet. What is the implication of it being this color?

I’ve been married to the same man for 21 years, and we have two sons. During all this time, for the most part, I have been the main bread winner. For long stretches of time, the longest being 4 years, my husband has not worked.

It’s not that he won’t work per se, but he’s not the type to go out and search consistently until he finds a job, he always waits for work to come to him, via family members etc. We are both believers, and have been since we were kids. There fore I just don’t understand how a man can sit at home day after day after day, while his wife gets up everyday and goes off to work, so that the family can eat and have a roof over their heads. I will never understand how he can watch me struggle so hard to keep us afloat financially, while he sits and does nothing.

I’m tired of getting very little in return in the way of a loving gentle caring husband. He basically treats me like a room mate, except he doesn’t help with the rent and groceries. I understand what Christ said about the biblical reasons for divorce, but would He expect me to keep up this charade, and keep caring for someone financially who clearly has the ability to get up off the sofa and get a job and help me?

Thanks so much for all of the great articles, they are very much appreciated. Your articles on Job, however, had a disturbing misunderstanding of scripture which could lead to undue pain to a new Christian (or an old one for that matter). There is nothing in the book of Job which states or leads one to believe Job was out of fellowship or being pained due to sin, or that Job had the sin of self-righteousness to deal with at all. The self-righteousness did not come out until Job was well into the trials, and explaining himself to his “friends”. God does not hold us accountable to confess sins we have not yet committed and would not commit if we were never given a specific trial in order to bring them out of us.

Please reconsider and study Job from the perspective of God’s sovereignty, His plan for us, and the process of sanctification. Sanctification is often why God allows us to suffer trials, to bring things out of us, to make us more holy. The gold goes into the fire appearing perfect, and only when the fire is lit do the impurities show up and flow out. That is the perspective we should approach the book of Job with. It was sanctification, not sin or lack of fellowship. To have a clear understanding of the book of Job is to have a clear understanding of God Himself. It’s a very important book. I humbly ask you to reconsider this. And again, thanks for all you do for the Church.

Just reading about Mary and Joseph who both have genealogies that take them back through the Kingly line to David. However, Luke describes Elizabeth as cousin to Mary and her descent was from the daughters of Aaron. Zachariah was a descendant of Abijah the priest. Were Mary and Elizabeth cousins as we would understand cousins (i.e. their parents were siblings)?

I read your article “What Is Sin.” You did a good job in explaining what sin is in the life of a believer in the fact that it means “to miss the mark.” You also did very well in showing that all of us sin and miss the mark, pointing out that one sin, no matter how small, is just as bad as what others call larger sins such as murder and adultery. You spoke of repentance being a change of mind. True, we change our mind regarding living a perverse lifestyle, acknowledge that we need a Savior, and accept that Savior (Jesus Christ) as our Savior.

All in all you did a marvelous job in showing people we should not be pointing the finger in judgment toward others who “fall into” sin just like we do when we “miss the mark.” Very good!

Unfortunately, you did NOT address the real issue. What you avoided speaking of was the believer who doesn’t strive. You avoided speaking of the person who declares they are saved and always will be saved because they have had a change of mind, have accepted Christ, but are NOT striving to be holy. Falling short (as we all do) or “missing the mark” in our attempt to achieve living a sinless life is far different from those who, at some point in their “walk” have decided that it’s “okay” to willfully live in perversion.

Biblical warnings against apostasy are real and believers maintain the freedom to potentially reject the salvation they once accepted. They weren’t forced to accept and are not forced to stay.

In Ezekiel 47:3-5 are the water depths symbolic/prophetic or were listing the ankles, knees, loins, and unfordable simply a standard of measure? I don’t know why but somehow as I read it I got an image of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Any help is always appreciated. God bless.

What can you tell me about the Allos Parakleto?