[quote] Liquid Strobe said: I have a page on MySpace, and I don't see anything wrong with it. In fact, I think it has more benefits than a monitored site like MyPraize because I CHOOSE to put things on there that are good, instead of being forced to do so. This way it means more because it is done out of my free will. So if you want to talk to me or contact me, I will be on MySpace, as a testament to my convictions that I can stay on pages that are not sinful, and as a light to the rest of the world that I have a hope and a life in Jesus Christ. I am on MySpace so that Christ may show through my MySpace profile, and so that He may affect the lives around me, through me. [/quote] This post was placed in a different topic on this same forum, and they will be my guinea pig, if you will. All of these quotes come from this person and God's Holy Word. Please forgive me ahread of time if there is anything of the flesh in here. I am only human :) Now, I do not know this Liquid Strobe person, but I can see that his heart is hardened by the world. Yes, some of his points are true about how if the spiritual sit amongst the spiritual, they don't talk about their faith (half true, not all christians are so). Jesus did not come to bring peace into the world and he came to judge the righteous and offer hope to the sinner, which is ow we should be. [b]But, that doesn't mean that we must put ourselves in a situation where our purity will be choked out by so much darkness that we are suffocating. [/b] I used to have a myspace and I had no immodest pictures on it and I didn't cuss on my profile or anything, and never once did I have someone ask me why I am so happy, or why I have no nudie picturs on there (there ws the occasional pervert, but other than that, nothing). Then there is the whole debate of the "Amish Principle" as I like to call it. Where you raise someone in a completely sheltered lifestyle and then, when the time comes (in the amish case, 18) you send them out into the world to make them decide weather it is the life they want to persue to be Amish or in the world and 9 times out of 10, the Amish people turn towards sin and never go back. This is a dangerous thing that happens the opposite way in the "real world". Where if you are raised in the world with some christian morals, but you don't listen to christian music or go to chuch or really even pray, you're "okay" because you don't do anything wrong. A good example would be Apostle Paul. Paul wasn’t always so “close” to God. He actually was a Pharisee, and one of the highest multitudes, and probably killed many Christians (the bible never says weather he did or not). He persecuted those who weren’t in the Jewish faith and who weren’t “following the law”. The law that the Jews made were based on the scriptures (Old Testament) and some things that weren’t, so that it would be hard to break a commandment or a scripture. But, then he was known as Saul (which is the name of a wicked king in the Old Testament who did not obey God’s calling). Then, we see in the book of Acts 9, we see that Saul is on his way to Damascus to imprison people teaching “the Way”. While he was walking, a bright light shined into his eyes and blinded him and he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Then the bible says “ ‘who are you, Lord,’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go to the city, you will be told what you must do.’ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anything.”(Acts9:4-7) Then the Lord sent Ananias to see Saul and Ananias didn’t want to, but because the Lord commanded, he did (when God asks you to do something, you must do it otherwise you are disobeying the Lord our God). But the Lord says to Ananias in Acts 9:15+16 “ ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’” So, God changed his name to Paul and he went on to write 21 epistles in the new testament. Among these he wrote some very interesting scriptures that I'd like to share. I still struggle with living my life for God because I am still weak in many areas of my heart, but if I rely on God to make me pure and holy, he shall make me a new creation. But, getting back to the Corinthians, they had a man in their church that had married his father’s wife (Oedipus Complex, as Freud so nicely put it), or his mother. The Corinthians were proud to have this man in their congregation and Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter five, “Shouldn’t you have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?”(1Cor5:2) And later on, Paul says to “hand this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord” (1Cor5:5) That doesn’t sound very Christ like at first. When I first heard this, I was in disbelief. Why would you want to cast a man out of your church that is a sinner? I thought church was a place you went to be saved and made new in Christ. What’s this guy’s problem? But, we see later on in this chapter (before you throw this thing out completely) in 1Cor5:9-13- “I have written you in my letter to not associate with sexually immoral people (fornicators, pornographers)- not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that [b]you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business of mine is it to judge those outside of the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.[/b] ‘Expel the wicked man from among you’ (a quote from the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy).” Now, there are some chuches that are so big where you cannot possibly know the sins of everyone, but I urge you that if there is someone in your church who is any of the above, that you bring it up with your pastor or the leader of your church and show them that scripture and remember "A little leavening works its wy through the whole batch of dough." 1Cor. 5 Now, what does Jesus have to say about this? I know Paul was close to God, but what about the very Spirit in which we worship? Well, in Matthew7:21-23 “ ‘Not everyone who says to me “Lord! Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day “Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers!”’ So, just because you sit in a church (or are a member of a christian website), if you do all of these things (praying in the spirit/tongues, prophesying, drive out demons/ perform exorsisms) in vain or without the love if jesus in your heart (or following his teachings bout how we should live), then jesus does not know you or your heart and says "away from me you evildoers!" Now, what about the people who go to church and pray, but don't believe in hell or the bible. There's your answer. I worked with a girl (no names need be mentioned) who went to chuch, but said to me "I think in order to go to hell you have to believe in it... I don't think you should follow a book for your whole life." I saw no friut of the spirit in her life and the fruit of the spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23) And Jesus said to us about false prophets how they are wolves in sheeps clothing and this can be really for anybody who claims to be in the Spirit, but jesus said, "By their fuit you will recognise them" Mat. 7:16 I'm sorry for this being so long, but something HAS to be said about people in the church who are working their ways into the hearts of the pure. Would you let a prostitute (in the church) hve your daughter over for afternoon tea? How about a pornographer (not neccessarily xxx porn, but immodest women/men) have your son or daughter come over to spend the night? We need to start casting people who are unholy, but claim to be righteous out of the church again. [size=5][/size]

[quote]We need to start casting people who are unholy, but claim to be righteous out of the church again.[/quote] Well, getting the sin out of camp is a good thing, but there is a procedure. You're supposed to go up to the person in sin and talk to them about it and if they are unrepentant, then you go up to them again with two witnesses, and if they still won't repent, then you bring the issue before the whole church. Also, this should only be done if the sin is causing someone to stumble. But, yeah, I see what you're saying. Three cheers!

[b]MisterNathan wrote:[/b] [quote][quote]We need to start casting people who are unholy, but claim to be righteous out of the church again.[/quote] Also, this should only be done if the sin is causing someone to stumble. But, yeah, I see what you're saying. Three cheers![/quote] I'm glad you see my perspective in a lot of areas (a bunch of people probably would hate me for this), but did paul say that the man in the corinthian church was causing people to stumble? It's a matter of protecting yourself from being corrupted. And I know everyone has sin in their lives, and that is where you are right in saying that you should bring it to their attention and have witnesses. But if the person is not seeking the Lord for true repentance and they say that they are and everything, then that is not the fruit of the spirit (truth) ["by their fruits you will recognise them"] For example, you have someone in your church who lisens to a lot of worldly bands known to have many sinful things in their songs (for example: nine inch nails, tori amos, peaches, or anything of the world), if the person continues to listen to these things, then they are not seeking the Lord for true repentance. It is one thing to be in the world, but another thing to be of it and if someone listens to or entertains themselves with the things of this world, then they are a part of it, end of story. So, it is very hard to decide what things you should cast people out for, but one thing that I have a big concern about is MODESTY. Women in the church (especially) need to own up and start dressing like women and not like prostitutes looking for salvation (I know it is a bit harsh, but have you seen these outfits?!). I had to leave a few churches because of the way women dressed (yes I am married, but I used to be tempted by the bodies of women before I repented of it before the Lord). It's horrible that I can't go to a church, which is supposed to be a safehaven for me to be closer to God, but then have a woman up front dancing and jumping around in a flowy miniskirt and a tank top. We should bring that sort of thing to the attention of people as brothers and sisters in christ. Would you let your little sister walk out of the house wearing something provocative? I think NOT.

Bravisimo, bravisimo Rachel721!!! Well spoken!! Actually, Paul spoke about this in 1 Corinthians 5! I am in total agreement with you! The church needs to become pure again! In Rev 19 it says that the Bride of Christ is dressed in a white gown. The white represents the righteous acts of the saints! We need to be righteous! I will explain more in the A.M..-- I get to go to church tonight! GOD BLESS

Acts 3 and 4 are a type and shadow of getting purity back into the church. Check it: Peter and John are going to the temple(church) to pray. At the temple gate (called Beautiful) they meet a lame man who has always layed there to beg for alms. Peter and John heal him with the power of GOD and the x-lame man gets up jumping and shouting that he has been healed. Then they go inside the church....not in the streets, but INSIDE the church to show the people what GOD has done!! Then Peter directs a sermon to the congregation, the church leaders and the Pharisees and tells them that they need to get right with GOD. the parallel is this: The lame man is the every day christian who is begging for help, seeking GOD the best he know how. Life is not what every one makes it to be. But he is lame from the teaching of religion and not relationship. Peter and John are messangers sent by GOD. They heal the lame man and goes INTO the church. They preach a message of Righteousness to the church. A message of purity and opf relationship. This message was a message of humility. So what I believe GOD is saying is that it is time for the church to turn bakc to righteousness, purity and humility because all it has produced was lame christians who fellowship with each other and not with JESUS!!! Notice, this was the first miracle after the HOLY SPIRIT rushed into the upper room!! The first shall be last! I believe this is the last move that GOD wants to take place on this earth. A move toward righteousness!