Do you think that God/Jesus would punish a person because they messed up

[Doug]

I know that people say that God knows that we are not perfect, but sometimes it feels like if something good comes into my life, and I am faithful with it for a while, and I mess up, then that wonderful thing stops happening.

Sometimes it is not even me messing up. Sometimes it feels like even when I talk about it with other people, then whatever is going on disappears.

I had something happen in my life that I have been waiting 37 years to happen and I finally feel like it will happen for real now. I am scared to talk about it because it seems like whenever I had talked about it before to anyone, it "jinxed" and didn't happen. I know I should accept it as just something random but sometimes I wonder,

[Textus Receptus]

I know there is a lot of churches that are primarly not SDA that teach that negative energy can precipatate into negative actions. They call this "speaking things into existence"; this teaching is against anything scriptual. In fact, it is down right satanic. The belief is that we are 'speaking spirits', as such we have the ability to control the world around us by simply wishing them so.

It is one of Lucifer's lies that we are gods and not mere mortals. the belief suggests that We have the ability to create rather than having a Lord that we have to be obedient to who is the finisher and author of our faith. Many charasmatic churches engage is this practice. In fact, its the basis of all prosperity gospels. research "The Secret" and you will find lots about the subject.

[Doug]

I am fimiliar with "The secret" and its concepts. When I first heard about it I thought it had to do with faith and God, but I have found out it has nothing to do with it.

But I wonder if things happen to us because of faith, do they disappear because lack of faith, or?

What is happening to me I have prayed for it to happen, and I think it is finally happening to me, but negative thoughts pop up once in a while. I also try not to visualize what could happen in fear that it won't happen.

[debbym]

what comes to mind is this, we are constantly adjusting to realiuty as it unfolds, we brace our selves for bad news, we rally ourselvbes to be ready for the good things,.

this dance of living as you might call it, we cannot help but do.

it can be as simple as getting ready to go to work, or to a dental appointment, or ready for a date.

it can be as complicated as receiving a phone call and we are told if we are standing to sit down to hear the news. Or hurricane warning, or announcement our mate is asking for a divorce.

we cannot control life as it comes, but we do have the responsibility to have our self control. and even in that as Christians we can bring ourselves to God and be under the control of the Holy Spirit. but even that is not robot control, we still have all of your reactions and thoughts, and hopes and fears. But His will can be brought about in us in our decisions and habits.

we can become superstitious if we find patterns correlating between what we think and how we think and then what actually happens. we can also end up with all kind of magical thinking, as we wonder why certain things happens when we think certain ways and not other times. we can needlessly focus on all the negative and bring ourselves down.

i just find that each day i am blessed to lay all my hopes and fears, and dreams, and desires at the throne of God, and let God guide me through the day with all that i am, and all the ways i am, and ask Him to keep me in Him will in everything, because it is not possible for me to keep myself there.

i want my life experience to be an experience of growing and reaching into the unknown with God holding my hand. Whatever happens however wonderful or however painful, it will all be fodder for my relationship with God.

[Ellen]

Good thoughts, Debbym. Those who do not know God don't have the comfort and peace we have in Jesus. We know He will lead us through thick and thin. We can sleep, we can carry on our work and worship without fear. Even go through experiences like they had in Boston or Texas this week.

If we live or die we are in Jesus care.

[Windsor]

[Read] Revelation 3:19. [God disciplines those he loves...]

[Stan]

Notice that it is God who does that? [Revelation 3:19.]

[Woody]

Good Point Stan.

So often we try to usurp the authority of God.

Folks we are not God.

(Not to mention that you don't have the authority to quote God in a No Quotes Forum. smile smile.)

(And let the record reflect, for the benefit of my critics, that I am an equal opportunity moderator that does not seek to selectively target, IRS-style, only those who are conservative in their POV! - TW).

[Ted Oplinger]

God does discipline us. If people continue to willfully mess up, God can - and has - removed His protection enough to add an exclamation point to the consequences of the errors people choose to continue in.

I see this in the fiery serpents episode Israel went through. It is also evident to me in the case of two men where God led Paul to use his given apostolic authority to hand these men over to Satan, so that these men would learn the hard way the results of the error of blasphemy.

When I find myself going through things just a bit tougher than I think they ought be, I look at those cases (and others) to see if I might be exasperating the situation to the point where God has simply turned up the heat on a learning point, or if it just the trial of the path needing to be walked, and circumstances are just added one atop another.

Sometimes, I think we attribute to God what really is a simple compounding of our own circumstance...in those cases, I am glad we have a God who walks the path with us.

Blessings,