Absolutely not.  i do not believe in anything that goes against the word of God legalizing abominations is always wrong. As far as denying them equality that is simply not true.  They have the civil union bill which gives them every single right that a married couple has.  To have this pass is to spit in the face of God almighty. God bless you!!! :):)

 “I am the way and the truth and the life” is one of the seven “I Am” statements of Jesus. On the last night before His betrayal and death, Jesus was preparing His disciples for the days ahead. For over three years, these men had been following Jesus and learning from His teaching and example. They had placed their hopes in Him as the Messiah, the promised deliverer, yet they still didn’t understand how He was going to accomplish that deliverance. After the Last Supper, Jesus began speaking about His departure, which led to questions from His disciples.

In John 13:33, Jesus said, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” This prompted Peter to ask where He was going (v. 36). Peter and the others did not understand that Jesus was speaking of His death and ascension to Heaven. Jesus’ response was “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter was still misunderstanding and declared that he would follow Jesus anywhere and even lay His life down if necessary. As Jesus patiently continued to teach His disciples, He began speaking more plainly about heaven, describing the place He was going to prepare for them (John 14:2-3). Then Jesus said “You know the way to the place where I am going” (v. 4). Speaking for the others, Thomas said they did not know where He was going, so how could they know how to follow Him there? It was to this question that Jesus uttered one of the seven famous “I am” statements. 

I am – In the Greek language, “I am” is a very intense way of referring to oneself. It would be comparable to saying, “I myself, and only I, am.” Several other times in the Gospels we find Jesus using these words. In Matthew 22:32 Jesus quotes Exodus 3:6, where God uses the same intensive form to say “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” In John 8:58, Jesus said “Truly, truly I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” The Jews clearly understood Jesus to be calling Himself God because they took up stones to stone Him for committing blasphemy in equating Himself with God. In Matthew 28:20, as Jesus gave the Great Commission, He gave it emphasis by saying “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” When the soldiers came seeking Jesus in the garden the night before His crucifixion, He told them “I am he” and His words were so powerful that the soldiers fell to the ground (John 18:4-6). These words reflect the very name of God in Hebrew, Yahweh, which means “to be” or “the self-existing one.” It is the name of power and authority, and Jesus claimed it as His own.

The way – Jesus used the definite article to distinguish Himself as “the only way.” A way is a path or route, and the disciples had expressed their confusion about where He was going, and how they could follow. As He had told them from the beginning, Jesus was again telling them (and us) “follow me.” There is no other path to Heaven, no other way to the Father. Peter reiterated this same truth years later to the rulers in Jerusalem, saying about Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The exclusive nature of the only path to salvation is expressed in the words “I am the way.”

The truth – Again Jesus used the definite article to emphasize Himself as “the only truth.” Psalm 119:142 says “Your law is the truth.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminded His listeners of several points of the Law, then said “but I say unto you…” (Matthew 5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44), thereby equating Himself with the Law of God as the authoritative standard of righteousness. In fact, Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17). Jesus, as the incarnate Word of God (John 1:1) is the source of all truth.

The life – Jesus had just been telling His disciples about His impending death, and now He was claiming to be the source of all life. In John 10:17-18, Jesus declared that He was going to lay down His life for His sheep, and then take it back again. He spoke of His authority over life and death as being granted to Him by the Father. In John 14:19, He gave the promise that “because I live, you also will live.” The deliverance He was about to provide was not a political or social deliverance (which most of the Jews were seeking), but a true deliverance from a life of bondage to sin and death to a life of freedom in eternity. 

In these words, Jesus was declaring Himself the great “I Am,” the only path to righteousness, the only true measure of righteousness, and the source of both physical and spiritual life. He was staking His claim as the very God of Creation, the Lord who blessed Abraham, and the Holy One who inhabits eternity. He did this so the disciples would be able to face the dark days ahead and carry on the mission of declaring the gospel to the world. Of course, we know from Scripture that they still didn’t understand, and it took several visits from their risen Lord to shake them out of their disbelief. Once they understood the truth of His words, they became changed people, and the world has never been the same. 

So how do we follow Him today? The same way the disciples did long ago. They heard the words of Jesus and believed them. They took His words and obeyed them. They confessed their sins to Jesus as their Lord and God. They believed that He died to take the punishment of their sins and rose from the dead to give them new life. They followed His example and command to tell others the truth about sin, righteousness, and judgment. When we follow Him in “the way,” we can be assured of following Him all the way to Heaven.

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” ⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second into their mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. John 3:3-6

If you want a new life in Christ Jesus, ask Him into your heart today.  Simply pray this:  Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you took the pain of the cross to give me new life. I ask you to come into my heart and to give me your peace and joy. I confess that I am a sinner that I have gone my own way and have done wrong. Please forgive me for my sins. I receive you now as my Lord and Savior. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me to follow you and to serve you all my life. Thank you, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.  If you prayed that prayer you are a new creature in Christ Jesus!  You are Born Again!

Next, as a new Christian it is so important that you be fed. The best way that you can get a strong bond with the Lord is to read the Bible.  Jesus is the Word made flesh, so it makes sense that if you want to get to know Him and have a closer walk with Him you need to get into the Bible.  Read it daily i have it e-mailed to me daily so that i can get into the habit of reading the Bible every day.  Go to:  http://bible.cbn.com/#!/nlt/John/1, They will e-mail you two scriptures one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.  Once you get in the habit of reading the Bible every single day, you will want to read more and more.  I also downloaded the app to my cell from Bible.is, I love listening to the Word when I am out and about or walking.  It is such a blessing.  When you are truly into the Word you will notice a huge difference in your walk with the Lord.  You will become stronger as a Christian and you will want less and less of the “world” in your life.  God bless you!!! :):)

In Revelation 3:14-21, the Lord is describing the “lukewarm” heart attitude of those in the Laodicean church, an attitude manifested by their deeds. They were neither cold nor hot in relation to God, just lukewarm. Beverages are better either cold or hot. Similarly, the Lord would rather that people be either hot (spiritually on fire for Him) or cold (rejecting Him outright). The Laodiceans understood the analogy because their city drinking water came from a spring six miles to the south over an aqueduct, and it arrived disgustingly lukewarm. It was not hot like the nearby hot springs that people bathed in, nor was it refreshingly cold for drinking. It was lukewarm, good for nothing. In fact, it was nauseating, and that was the Lord’s response to the Laodiceans—they sickened Him.

The letter to the church at Laodicea is the harshest of the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor. By His indictment against their “deeds,” Jesus makes it clear that this is a dead church. That is not to say that there were no true believers there, only that the church as a whole was spiritually uncommitted. Jesus frequently equates deeds, or works, with a person’s true spiritual state. He said, “By their fruit you will recognize them” and “Every good tree bears good fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17). Clearly, the deeds of the Laodiceans were not in keeping with true salvation because the deeds of the true believer will be “hot,” reflecting the spiritual passion of a life transformed. Such are easily recognizable by the world. The lukewarm deeds, however—those done without joy, without love and without the fire of the Spirit—do more harm to the watching world than the deeds done by those who are completely cold to the things of God. The lukewarm are those who claim to know God but live as though He doesn’t exist. They may go to church, but their religion is self-righteous complacency. They may claim to be Christians, but their hearts are unchanged, and their hypocrisy is sickening to God. 

The Lord rebukes and disciplines the true believers in the church of Laodicea, commanding them to repent. He sees their lukewarm attitudes as “shameful nakedness” that needs to be clothed in the white garments of true righteousness. He urges them to be earnest, or zealous, and commit themselves totally to Him, for He will reject their lukewarmness by spitting them out of His mouth. But our Lord is gracious and long-suffering. He will always receive to Himself even the most lukewarm Christian who comes to Him in repentance. 

The Laodiceans enjoyed material prosperity that led them to a false sense of security and independence. The expression “I am rich, and have become wealthy” is a literary device that inverts the natural sequence for emphasis. Here it stresses that the wealth attained came though self-exertion. Spiritually, they had great needs. This self-sufficient attitude is a constant danger when Christians live lives of ease and enjoy prosperity.  God bless you!!! :):)

Most Christians truly desire to understand God’s plan for their lives. Yet there are many questions: how do I discover God’s plan? How can I be sure? Fortunately, the Bible provides many important principles regarding the will of God. God is not trying to hide His will for our lives; He wants His children to know His will and follow it.

First, the Bible is filled with clear statements regarding God’s will that apply to all believers. For example, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 teaches, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” These three activities—being joyful, praying, and giving thanks—are God’s will for all believers, regardless of other circumstances.

We can understand God’s will through His Word. God’s Word is perfect, and we can discover God’s desires for our lives through our study of it. Second Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Second, we can better understand God’s plan for our lives by closely following Him. Romans 12:1-2 promises, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” When we dedicate our lives to God and turn away from the principles of this world, we prepare our hearts to hear from God (also see 1 Peter 4:2).

First Thessalonians 4:3-7 confirms the necessity of being a “living sacrifice” and gives more detail about God’s will: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

Third, we can discover God’s will through prayer. Colossians 4:12 notes that a believer named Epaphras was “always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” The Colossian believers needed to know and do the will of God, and so Epaphras prayed for them. We can grow in our understanding of God’s will through prayer. We can also pray for God to reveal His plan to others.

Fourth, God sometimes reveals or confirms His plans for us through other means, including personal circumstances, relationships, or even dreams. However, these areas are often more subjective, and we must carefully evaluate such signs by what God has clearly said in Scripture.

We can rest assured of God’s promise: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). As we pray, study Scripture, and seek to live holily before the Lord, He will reveal His plan for us in His perfect time and in a way we can understand.

If this is truly God’s will for your life, then He will open every door for you.  If He does not, then  He has something else in mind.  God bless you brother!!! <3

This is one of the most important questions in the Christian life. Many believers doubt their salvation because they don’t see signs of genuine faith in their lives. There are those who say we should never doubt our decision to follow Christ, but the Bible encourages us to examine ourselves to see if we are truly “in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Thankfully, God has given us ample instruction for how we can know for sure that we have eternal life. The first epistle of John was actually written for that purpose, as it states in 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 

There are a series of tests in 1 John that we can use to examine ourselves and our faith. As we look at them, remember that no one will perfectly fulfill all of them all the time, but they should reveal a consistent trend that characterizes our lives as we grow in grace.

1. Do you enjoy having fellowship with Christ and His redeemed people? (1 John 1:3)

2. Would people say you walk in the light, or walk in the darkness? (1 John 1:6-7)

3. Do you admit and confess your sin? (1 John 1:8)

4. Are you obedient to God’s Word? (1 John 2:3-5)

5. Does your life indicate you love God rather than the world? (1 John 2:15)

6. Is your life characterized by “doing what is right”? (1 John 2:29)

7. Do you seek to maintain a pure life? (1 John 3:3)

8. Do you see a decreasing pattern of sin in your life? (1 John 3:5-6) [Note: this refers to not continuing in sin as a way of life, not a total absence of sin.]

9. Do you demonstrate love for other Christians? (1 John 3:14)

10. Do you “walk the walk,” versus just “talking the talk”? (1 John 3:18-19)

11. Do you maintain a clear conscience? (1 John 3:21)

12. Do you experience victory in your Christian walk? (1 John 5:4)

If you are able to truthfully answer “Yes” to these questions (or a majority of them, and are working on the others), then your life is bearing the fruit of true salvation. Jesus said that it is by our fruits that we are known as His disciples (Matthew 7:20). Fruitless branches—professing believers who do not display the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) are cut off and thrown into the fire (John 15:2). A genuine faith is one that not only believes in God (the devils themselves do that - James 2:19), but leads to open confession of sin and obedience to Christ’s commands. Remember, we are saved by grace through faith, not by our works (Ephesians 2:8-9), but our works should display the reality of our salvation (James 2:17-18). Genuine saving faith will always produce works; a faith that is perpetually without works is no faith at all and saves no one.

In addition to these confirmations, we need to remember God’s promises and the reality of the war we are in. Satan is just as real as Jesus Christ, and he is a formidable enemy of our souls. When we turn to Christ, Satan will look for every opportunity to deceive and defeat us. He will try to convince us that we are unworthy failures or that God has given up on us. When we are in Christ, we have the assurance that we are kept by Him. Jesus Himself prayed for us in John 17:11 that the Father would “protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” Again in verse 15, He prayed, “keep them from the evil one.” In John 10:27-29, Jesus said “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” If you hear and obey the voice of Jesus, then you are one of His sheep, and He will never let you go. Jesus gave a wonderful word picture here of Christians securely held within His loving hands and the Father’s almighty hands wrapping themselves around His, giving us a double assurance of eternal security.  God bless you!!! :):)

If they repent of their sin before the Lord comes Jesus will forgive them.  If not I believe that Jesus said He would vomit them out of His mouth.The letter to the church at Laodicea is the harshest of the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor. By His indictment against their “deeds,” Jesus makes it clear that this is a dead church. That is not to say that there were no true believers there, only that the church as a whole was spiritually uncommitted. Jesus frequently equates deeds, or works, with a person’s true spiritual state. He said, “By their fruit you will recognize them” and “Every good tree bears good fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17). Clearly, the deeds of the Laodiceans were not in keeping with true salvation because the deeds of the true believer will be “hot,” reflecting the spiritual passion of a life transformed. Such are easily recognizable by the world. The lukewarm deeds, however—those done without joy, without love and without the fire of the Spirit—do more harm to the watching world than the deeds done by those who are completely cold to the things of God. The lukewarm are those who claim to know God but live as though He doesn’t exist. They may go to church, but their religion is self-righteous complacency. They may claim to be Christians, but their hearts are unchanged, and their hypocrisy is sickening to God. 

The Lord rebukes and disciplines the true believers in the church of Laodicea, commanding them to repent. He sees their lukewarm attitudes as “shameful nakedness” that needs to be clothed in the white garments of true righteousness. He urges them to be earnest, or zealous, and commit themselves totally to Him, for He will reject their lukewarmness by spitting them out of His mouth. But our Lord is gracious and long-suffering. He will always receive to Himself even the most lukewarm Christian who comes to Him in repentance.   God bless you!!! :):)

Some people imagine God as a cruel task master opposed to all fun or pleasure. To them, He is the God of all-seriousness or the God of rules. But this is not an accurate, biblical picture of God.

God created us with the ability to experience pleasure. Several Scriptures speak of our delight and pleasure (for example, Psalm 16; Proverbs 17:22; and Proverbs 15:13). The beauty of creation and the diversity of humanity show us God’s creative palette. Many people find pleasure in spending time out of doors or in relating with those of different personalities. This is good and proper. God wants His creation to be enjoyed.

In the Bible, we see God Himself take pleasure in things. Zephaniah 3:17, for example, says that God delights in us and sings over us. God also instituted multiple celebrations and festivals in the Old Testament. To be sure, these feasts had a didactic element, but they were also celebrations in their own right. Scripture speaks of having joy – Philippians and the Psalms are two places where we see plenty of it. Jesus declares, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). Life “to the full” sounds like a pleasurable experience.

God’s design of the human body reveals that pleasure is part of His plan. Taste buds and other sensory organs are proof that God is not opposed to pleasure. Why does a hamburger taste so good? Why is the scent of roses pleasing? Why is a back massage enjoyable? Because God wanted it that way. Pleasure was God’s idea.

Sometimes we think that when Christians talk about pleasure or joy, they mean being joyful in reading their Bibles, meditating, or serving. We certainly do take pleasure in those things but not to the exclusion of other activities. God also created us for fellowship with others and for recreation. We were made to delight in being His children, in using the talents He bestows and in participating in the pleasures He offers.

It is also wise to distinguish between the different types of “pleasure” in this world. We live in a fallen world where God’s best for us is often perverted. Just because society deems an activity pleasurable does not mean it is pleasing to God (see Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-10; and 1 Corinthians 6:12-17). When we consider these “pleasures” of the world, we find that they are not in fact healthy for us or conducive to long-term pleasure. The prodigal son reveled in sin until the money ran out; then he found that the pleasures of sin are fleeting (Luke 15:11-17). They are false friends that leave us empty and longing.

It is also important to realize that the purpose of our lives is not pleasure. Hedonism is a false philosophy. We were created to delight in God (Psalm 37:4) and accept with gratitude the good things He provides. More importantly, we were created to have a relationship with God.

No, God is not opposed to pleasure. He is opposed to pleasure usurping His place in our lives. Sometimes we are called to forgo the pleasure of the moment in order to invest in the greater pleasure of God’s kingdom. We won’t be disappointed. For those who seek Him and His righteousness, God has “eternal pleasures” in store (Psalm 16:11).  God bless you!!! :):)