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I have been a believer for 27 years. Something has been on my mind for a long time and have never had the guts to ask. But here goes. In the case of rape, murder, abuse, etc. it seems God sometimes intervenes and sometimes He doesn’t. I know God loves both the victim and the criminal with a love we can never understand this side of eternity. Can you please help me understand why it’s OK for Him to stop attacks like this sometimes and not others?

My question is related to eternal security. In one of your responses, I read that when we are saved, it’s for eternity and there is no way we can be “unsaved”. However, several passages in the Bible warn against falling off or having to “work out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12), or “save ourselves through continuing in the doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:16), or loosing the reward (2 John 1:8), even the book of Revelations mentions “taking away the part from the book of life” (Revelations 22:19).

These passages and many others show that one may loose his reward if he falls off. As a saved person, I will still sin because of my human nature. However in 1 John 3:9, the apostle says that whoever is born of God does not sin and cannot sin. This is a bit confusing too. Suppose after I am saved, I sin and die before confessing my sins committed before I die, what will happen? Will I loose my reward?

Thank you so very much for your wonderful bible teachings. I have been extremely blessed by them. I have found in my own bible studies and extra biblical books a very distressing interpretation of judgment about crowns/rewards at The Bema seat of Christ. One book by a popular writer quotes 2 John 8 “Watch yourselves that you do not lose what you have accomplished.” It goes on to explain that many Christians who have served the Lord for many years, will lose their rewards and crowns which they have already earned if they backslide into temptations of carnality, sensuality, or other temptations of the flesh.

Am I wrong in understanding every time we sin, we are forgiven but our rewards are taken away? I am heartsick to think anything I might have earned in the way of rewards was lost because of a sin (no matter how big or small) even though the sin was confessed.

Please help me to understand this because I want to serve the Lord in Heaven based on my rewards, and I want to please him, but if every time I get angry at my husband or adult children, or think a bad thought or bad attitude (though confessed and forgiven) I have to start all over again and that takes the joy out of serving the Lord. Is there something wrong with my thought process?

Thank you for your awesome website. I have recently been baptized, when I was prayed for the lady praying for me had a prophetic word. She said I would stand tall like the trees of Lebanon. I’m not really sure what that means. Is there any scripture in the Bible about this topic?

I am having hard time getting perspective on the death of my mom. I had become her care giver and we fought a good fight together. She overcame much and was a best friend and guide. She was not perfect and there were still issues between us, but she was a deep part of my life. I took care of her for the last 15 years. I even saved her life on many occasions.

In October, she suddenly fell very ill- i had a bad feeling about it. She became confused, weak and had to go on oxygen. I then spent 3 months and innumerable visits to doctors, specialists and the nursing home to try to get answers as to what was wrong with my mom. I never did get that answer, in fact the week before she died, the doctor told me that she was fine and why did our family insist on getting her into the hospital.

The nursing was as good as possible, but they kept calling me telling me something was bad wrong and the doc was not doing anything. I did not know who to believe. Mom kept failing. It was horrible.

Finally after being told she was in congestive heart failure after those 3 months, mom lasted another week and after a good visit having no idea she was dying, she peacefully went on a few days later, but i did not get to see her or be with her again. I am having a hard time forgiving the horror of these last months and the pain the docs put me through. Can you help me with some perspective?

I am struggling very much with the concept of forgiveness and anger. This ongoing struggle has caused me great pain for several years. I know that God commands us to forgive others as we have been forgiven. Even so, I am having a hard time forgiving a family member who betrayed my trust and stole a large sum of money that she’s unable to pay back. I am unsure how to reconcile my emotional response of anger vs. my logical desire to forgive. Is it possible to forgive her while remaining angry?

Other than Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:9-10) Can you give me scriptural evidence of anyone in the Word of God asking for financial prosperity? Is it not God who chooses to bless us as long as we remain in Him and and seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. I believe prosperity is a by-product or benefit of a relationship with God not the center piece of it. I believe God wants us to ask Him for a humble heart. Look at King Solomon. He asked for wisdom! Every time we see someone getting blessed it is because God did the blessing out of His Love, not because the “blessee” asked for it.

I am very concerned that getting angry at God, telling Him off, and tearing the Bible means God will never forgive me. I have since seen the error of my way and even when I thought I had been doing God’s will before this incident, I was wrong. I had been baptized before all this happened. Will God forgive me now?

Could you clarify for me the difference between the Roman Centurion who asks Jesus once to heal his servant, and why we are told to pray unceasingly as the widow petitioned the judge? I believe that I only need to ask God once for something, then I can leave the matter with him. Am I taking the easy way out?

In one of your commentaries on the Psalms you wrote this about the Jews: “Much of this will come from the realization that God will have just intervened in a battle where they were on the brink of defeat and given them a resounding victory.” My first question is : could this statement become a truth, a reality in a Christian believer’s life too? I mean, when we face seemingly insolvable problems, troubles and hardships. And what can we do? Only asking the Lord to intervene in the mentioned way is enough or there are conditions?

I have read here and there in a few of your answers (the most recent is: Am I wrong to be angry?) that we can ask God to forgive another’s sin. Could you tell me where that is in the Bible? I find it hard to comprehend that I can ask God and He will forgive another’s sin even though that person has not repented. What if they are not a believer? Can I still ask and how does that work?

I recently received a Daily Devotion from a Christian website, which began as follows: “Do we fully understand what it costs the kingdom of God when we live with a restricted commitment to Christ? Countless souls may never hear the good news, much-needed Christian workers may never put feet to their faith, and prayers that would have been answered are never uttered.”

This statement disturbed me, because it seems to imply that our shortcomings can somehow prevent God’s Will from being done in the lives of others. I can understand how our decisions directly effect our own lives, but if we fail to witness to someone, for example, does this mean that they will never hear the Good News and in effect, we are hindering their salvation? Thank you for bringing clarity to issues like this that are not always so easy to understand.

I was attending a church in my small town and really enjoyed it at first. But the longer I attended I noticed that there were quite a few people (the more well to do) that felt they owned the church as well as the pastor of the church. One of the ladies even asked the pastor if she was still the one that gave the most money to the church. One elderly couple in the church are not happy unless they are running the financial end of the church and when the pastor disagreed with this man on an issue, the man decided to have his tithe designated to a certain thing in the church and convinced others also to do the same thing. That way there would not be enough money in the fund to pay the pastor his wages. This is only a small amount of what this church has done. I felt angry every time I attended so I quit!

I read my Bible daily and I pray throughout the day. Am I wrong for quitting and for feeling angry at these people? Our pastor was a genuine God loving, Bible preaching pastor. If God put him in that church what right did they have running him off? This is not the first time this has happened. Our church is still without a pastor. I pray for the church but sometimes I don’t mean what I pray. Honestly, I would love to see some of these people fall flat on their faces. I know that is not a christian attitude but they are just wrong. I thought God owned the church and we were to depend on him to lead us. I refuse to follow any man. I guess I just don’t belong there. What is your opinion?

I recently found the following definition for repentance. It’s different from others I’ve seen. Can you tell me if it’s correct?

The word in the New Testament usually translated “repent” is the Greek word “metanoeo”. It means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently.” Granted, if a person changes his mind (repents) toward certain sins in his life, he may become very sorrowful and may even stop committing those sins, but this would be a result of repenting, not repentance itself.

When God tells an unsaved man to repent, He means for that man to change his mind about how to reach God and accept His way of salvation. The person must change his mind from any idea of saving himself through religion or good works, and trust Christ’s death as payment for everything he has done wrong.

How do Christians not live in the world? What does not living in the world mean exactly?

In today’s world and in my opinion, it seems as though the word disciple is being flaunted as a bait word to attract a lot of fish. And yet my conclusion of what I see is that a lot of churches consider going to church, taking discipleship classes, maybe doing some community service, etc. as a way to become a disciple. It’s almost like to become a disciple, it’s okay to have your cake and eat it too. It’s like they’re all saying, Luke 14:33 doesn’t really mean what it says.

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

Is this to be taken literally or spiritually? For many years now I’ve long desired (spiritually) to be a “true disciple” but don’t consider myself one because I have not denounced all that I have (physically). And I get so frustrated when I hear Pastors, in particular, saying that “we will make disciples out of you” and yet, the church goes on as it always has. Please help as my prayer is to be able to really share the real Truth in this matter with others.

Thank you for your wonderful ministry! I have always been confused by the Beatitude which states, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. What exactly does “poor in spirit” mean? I have been told it stands for the righteous, but I would like your clarifying interpretation.

What do I say to a believer who doesn’t believe that God speaks to men today?

Can you please elaborate the terminology of the Father, Son relationship as indicated in Hebrews 1 verse 5. “You are my son; today I have become your Father.” As I understand it the Trinity always existed.

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Every time I post a study on the completed work of the Lord who took away all the sins of the world, and how all that’s left for us to do is believe, I get a number of questions from people. These questions are always about others who don’t seem to have been changed at all by their salvation experience.

Last Sunday at my church, our pastor talked about the refiners fire’s process and he said that God wants us to suffer so he can cleanse us. He used 1 Peter 1:6-7 to support his position. Is this true?

The Bible refers to Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man. Would you tell me why both terms are used, and is there a reason one term is used in a particular verse instead of the other?

I read in Matthew 24:36 that not even the son knows the day that he will return. Only god the father knows. If Jesus is God how can this be? Also when Jesus went off to pray who was he praying to if he is God?