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I’d like your advice on an issue I’m facing. For most of my life I was involved with occult practices like tarot card reading and spell casting. As a nominal Christian at the time, I saw nothing wrong with this behavior. During that time frame when I was into the occult, I literally developed a talent for writing out of the blue. I became very prolific and often worked on three or four stories at one time. I wasn’t looking to become a writer or anything, it just happened.

Well, just over a year ago the Lord opened my eyes and I realized I had to stop all the tarot card readings and whatnot – it wasn’t pleasing to him. And only then did I notice – I mean, really, truly notice – that many occult and new age opinions, or practices, or just mentions of those things had been featured in some of my stories all along (I can be very dense at times).

So I’m no longer a ‘closet Wiccan’, but I would like to start writing again. But I can’t write anything! I’m not sure if it’s writer’s block or if it’s because demons had given me the ability to write. Or if it’s because I’m scared to open my mind up to imagination in case those pesky demons try to find a way in again. You know, the verse about the demons leaving and coming back with ones that are seven times worse plays a lot in my mind. I’m very frustrated. Any thoughts you have would be quite welcome! Thank you!!

I have a question about giving. A couple years ago, my wife and I prayed about an opportunity that would enable us to give more to the Lord. We looked into a small business opportunity that she could run while I maintained my full time job. We prayed about this endeavor and felt the green light to move forward. This was two years ago. Since that time, we haven’t made any money in the business. In church this morning, I felt the Lord tug at my heart and ask me to trust Him with the income from that small business even though it’s not making money. If I do this it will mean there will be some business bills I can’t pay right away. Do you think the Lord is waiting for me to start giving from the business revenue before the business prospers?

I am 71 years old, a Christian since age 10. I never asked to be born, I wish I hadn’t been born—having suffered from depression all my life. How can God condemn me or someone like me to hell. I don’t want to live—-I didn’t want to be born– yet here I am living and if I wasn’t a Christian I would be condemned to hell. If I had not had a Christian upbringing, I would commit suicide, but do not believe that is right. I have never understood why someone who doesn’t want to live has to live. I have prayed numerous times at night not to wake up, but I wake up and have to face a new day each day.

Do you think God sometimes wants His children to suffer? Does Love really want the object of Its love to suffer? A pastor I know believes that Jesus was “made perfect” through suffering, and so how much more do we need to be perfected by the same means. I mentioned to him that Jesus was perfect from his birth, God in the flesh from the get-go, and that suffering didn’t “improve” him, since if He were flawed at all, He wouldn’t have qualified as the savior. I told him that the verse he’s referring to is speaking of how Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for sin after suffering the cross. But he insists that God teaches us lessons by inflicting suffering. I told him that God gave us His Word to perfect us and His Spirit to guide us. Am I correct?

What is the comparison and contrast between victorious faith and overcomers faith that we find in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 and their applications for those who are represented in Hebrews 11 by the two groups of people known as the overcomers and the others?

I’ve heard of several variations and discrepancies in the NIV Bible. I haven’t studied them all in-depth, but there is one that has me greatly concerned. Romans 8:1 in the NIV states, “There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (Period). Yet, in the NKJV, it says no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, (Comma) who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. To me, this lays out an entirely different context of the same verse for each version you read. Please explain.

I understand that the first abomination of desolation rendered the temple unfit for used in about 167BC and that the altar to the pagan god Zeus Olympus was set up in about 168BC by Antiochus Epiphanes prefiguring a similar abomination that Jesus Christ predicted would be erected in Matthew 24:15. In Revelation 13:5-7, the antichrist is seen in the future to make war with the church! Before the rapture, will the present church undergo prosecution like in the days of the first abomination when worshipers in the temple in Jerusalem were falling by the sword, burned, captured, or plundered?

I just found this web site yesterday and was impressed with what I read. I will probably be asking several questions from time to time.

One question I have now concerns Ezekiel Chapter 37. In your opinion, what people is God talking about? Is he talking about all 12 tribes or is he just talking about Judah? If this prophecy is concerning all 12 tribes, where are they now? From the information I have read, the missing twelve tribes are all over the world. Some of Israel’s enemies today could be some of those tribes. The USA probably was founded by descendants of the missing tribes.

This is very confusing. Thanks in advance for your insights.

I know most of us nowadays have weakened the vocabulary and true meaning of the words we say. For instance, after watching a movie someone might say “How was the movie?” “It was awesome”. They should have said it was good or it was great.

When the Bible speaks of the Lord descending from Heaven with a Shout, is there anything in the Bible that can give us a clue as to what this shout will be like? Will we just fall like dead men because it’s horrifying or will it be soothing and pleasant? How loud will it be?

I just wanted to clear something up. You’ve stated that it was the Jews themselves who caused their own blindness. If that is so, then how come Paul writes in Romans 11:9-10, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears that they could not hear”?

Paul again writes in Romans 11:25-27. “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

Then explain to me what Paul meant in Romans 11:28-32, “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”