FIND YOUR ANSWERS
Nancy asked, "Rev, if the 'life is in the blood' and a fetus doesn't have blood for a few weeks, is the morning after pill ok to take?"
Rev's response: Nancy, I have never forgotten your question about when life begins. I know I never answered it to your satisfaction, but I want another chance here. The portion of Psalm 139 below was written by King David. Please ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind and spirit to this truth.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 My substance (embryo) was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (This refers to the mother's womb.)
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect (undeveloped); and in thy book all my members (every bone, tissue, muscles, organs, etc...) were written, which in continuance were fashioned (As the pregnancy proceeded, he developed into a child.), when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139)
God has a purpose for every life, no matter the act that caused conception. From before we are formed in the womb, God has plans for us. To kill a baby cancels out all God had meant for him or her.
This is proved out by what God said to the prophet Jeremiah. God said:
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
Before you were born I set you apart
and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5)
Imagine the loss if Jeremiah had been aborted? What if Esther's parents had seen a doctor to scrape her out of her mother's womb. Or if David's parents had decided he was an inconvinience because they already had several children? Suppose Dr. Salk had been aborted, or Billy Graham. Most of all, suppose Joseph had insisted Mary abort her "fetus" that would develop into the Savior of the world! Where we would be without even one of these people?
Pastor Jack Graham said, "Baptists are all pro-life... until their daughter gets pregnant."
"Is the morning after pill ok to take?" In my opinion, no. It's never right to end a life no matter what phase of development it's in or how it came to be. I think the morning after pill is a liscence for adults and children to play around and never have to answer for their sin. Adultery in and outside of the church is rampant in this country, and around the world, because of these "quick fixes" that are available.
There are millions of women out int his world who suffer guilt, shame and regret for what they have done. Know and understand this. We at NBM are not in the business of condemning or judging people. It is our job to direct them to the cross, to the mercy seat of God to ask for and receive forgiveness. If you know anyone who has gone through abortion, please comfort them with the knowledge that it's a forgiving God we have and they need only ask Him and He will accept them and forgive them, for Jesus' sake.
GRAVEN IMAGES
God bless you Rev,
I was asked about the Second of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth..." Is it wrong to have a picture of Jesus or a cross in your home?
Jesus Love's You, and I Love you,
Earl Scoles Sr.
Assistant Administrator
HWC
Thank you for the opportunity to answer this question, Earl.
I believe the Bible to be accurate in what it teaches us. Pictures and statues of saints are wrong when they are being used as idols that people pray to. They bring our attention to man-made products that have no life and no power, no ability to answer prayer, and no direct connection to God the Father.
Many religions have this type of idol and teach their congregations to pray to them instead of to God through Jesus. That's absolutely heretical. (Heresy: 1. unorthodox religious opinion: an opinion or belief that contradicts established religious teaching, especially one that is officially condemned by a religious authority. Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.) The "religious authority" in this case being the Bible. If God's Spirit wrote it, mustn't it be the truth since God can't lie? (Number 23:19)
As for having a cross, again I site other religions who have crosses with Jesus still hanging on them. The Bible makes it clear Jesus was removed from the cross, buried in a clean tomb that had never been used, and was raised from the dead (resurrected). Jesus is by no means still hanging on the cross. To depict Him in such a way removes all His power and authority. If Jesus is still on the cross, man cannot be saved.
Owning a cross of wood, metal, or glass which represents our commitment to Christ is not a sin in itself. The sin would be praying to the cross instead of to God through Jesus. The empty cross and the empty tomb are representative of the work of salvation Jesus suffered severe torment to provide for us. To honor those items rather than the God/man who occupied them would be ridiculous.
"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor" (Romans 13:7). It's all due to Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: his praise endureth forever (Psalm 111:10).
Rev
HOW CAN I OVERCOME EVIL?
Evil is the antithesis of all that is good.
I would like to take you back to the beginning of this vast question. If you are asking this question, you probably also have questions about the origin of evil. I would like to help you put evil in its proper place.
Evil began with satan. Let's read what Isaiah said about him in Isaiah 14:12-14, "How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' "
Evil entered the world. In Romans 5:12, we read, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus spread to all men, because all have sinned..."
Evil comes from man's heart. Matthew 15:18,19 tells us, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemes."
Evil is inflamed by lust. James 1:14 says, "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed."
You and I can overcome evil. Jesus, the Mighty One, prayed, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). This demonstrates that Jesus Himself prays and intercedes for those who belong to Him.
I feel I can't go any further with aswering this question unless you have asked Jesus into your heart, and made Him Lord of your life. Please go to Rev. Suzanne's salvation prayer on the Salvation page for help with this.
Now back to the exciting "good news" of being an overcomer! There's so much to say. "...let us draw near with a true heart in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hopes without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:22,23).
When I first asked Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior, I did not know any of the Bible. I found out that our minds can be the greatest battle ground, and our hearts can flip-flop because we are unsure of things.The first mind-changing encounter I had that helped me with overcoming evil was when I read in the Bible, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things" (Philippians 4:8).
How does anyone overcome evil? Romans 12:9-21 is a good place to search out that answer. Look especially at verse 21, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
The above quoted Scriptures are awesome, and can become the life-lines we need in our day-to-day living.
Please know that if you are asking about overcoming evil in your life, it means their is an enemy, an evil one. This enemy is satan. As I stated before, evil is from this enemy. He works through very basic means like deception, temptation, and accusation. He is also called the tempter, the father of lies, the angel of light, the separator, the murderer, and the old serpent. What is important to know is that each of these names reveals a fact about his nature and his destructive purpose.
Jesus defeated evil on the cross and, because of this, we can, and we should pursue overcoming evil in our lives. Because we are saved and filled with God's Spirit, we can live up to the words Jesus spoke in Luke 10:19, "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (satan), and nothing by any means shall hurt you."
Now, in closing, I would like you to take a blank sheet of paper and write the following Scripture using your own name: "Lord, please give grace and strength so that (write your name here), can overcome the accuser of the brethren by the blood of the Lamb and by my testimony, and may I not love my life unto death." This prayer is from Revelation 12:11.
Pastor Sandy Ephrussi
Harmony, Maine
IS IT WRONG TO WEAR JEANS TO CHURCH?
It's my opinion that it really does not matter what you wear, as long as you are decently covered! That's it. The Bible tells women to be modest in the apparel (I Timothy 2:9).
There is no problem with jeans. Older Christians were taught that a woman must not wear men's clothing (Deuteronomy 22:5), and it's in the Bible, but the way this Scripture is translated by pastors of certain denominations is wrong. The wearing of each others' clothing had to do with worshipping Venus. Woman came dressed as men in suits of armor carrying swords, and men came dressed as women. No matter how we dress, we are to keep the line of distinction between men and women. If you wear jeans, cut your hair like a man's, and wear a man's shirt, and walk like a man, you look like a man, and this is what that verse forbids. Again, read above in I Timothy. Women are to maintain their femininity no matter what we wear, and men their masculinity. God created man and woman (Genesis 5:2), and each one has a particular role. We are not to confuse our appearance, or our roles for which we have been created.
Now let's look at some Scriptures in the New Testament. What verse 1 of James 2 is saying is that Jesus is for all men and women. Holding fast to what we just saw about keeping the distinction between men and women, now understand that as we maintain this demarcation, Jesus tells us that in His eyes and in His ministry there is no male or female (Galatians 5:28). In other words, we should look and act like who we are, but to Jesus we are all precious and hold the same importance
The men of the churches James was speaking to were born again Christians, yet they let their eyes judge the value of the people entering in by what they wore. Did the sun glint off their large gold rings? Were they wearing $500.00 tunics? If so, they led to the front of the sanctuary so that the people could see what a prosperous church they had.
When the poor came in, most likely dirty and smelly, wearing worn out clothes, the people immediately turned up their noses and judged them to be less valuable to the ministry. They would be the ones to give this church a bad reputation. The judgments and evil thoughts they displayed in their actions and attitudes were the sins of pride and greed.
Jesus said that we are to be treated equally, no matter what our station in life. The Bible says, "For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always" (Matthew 26:11). The reason we will always have poor people is the attitudes of the rich people. They feel that the poor should get a job, get a life, and quit begging or living off the state. I agree to those things, however, the way to bring them about is for those who can to help those who have not been able to. But the wealthy covet their wealth, and seek their own kind. (Please know this is not an across the board accusation against people with money. Many are benefactors to the poor and should be praised for this.)
Do you realize there are churches in this country that deny entrance to people who are dressed casually? If you are not suited up and sparkling, they don't want you. This is sinful behavior. What they should do, rather, is receive these people as gifts from God on whom they can bestow blessings that are from God. No man owns anything that did not come from God! He just thinks he is self-made. These actions and attitudes are against the Word of God that teaches to love your God first, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). These are sins against God and man.
Rev. Suzanne
WHEN DO WE RECEIVE SALVATION?
Last night I couldn’t sleep so I prayed. After praying I still couldn’t sleep so I listened. I didn’t hear a deep roaring voice like the Creator of all things should have. I did feel a sweet and soft presents in my heart though and it told me, like other times, what I will write in the following paragraphs. As usual I laid there and listened and later, while He was talking to me, thought that I should be writing this down. This was a strong feeling and I felt so blessed to receive it.
When do we receive Salvation?
So many times Christian people say “We aren’t worthy” and believe it. So many times The Holy Spirit has told me “You are worthy.” “The one and only Son of God died on the cross to make you worthy. I have been told by the Holy Spirit that we are worth more than all the riches of Heaven.
Jesus’ death on the cross didn’t give us salvation. His death on the cross made it possible for us to receive salvation. He bought and paid for us on the cross but He can’t take us home till we ask Him to. We don’t receive salvation until we first ask Jesus to forgive us of all of our sins and then accept Him as the Lord and Savior of our lives. If Jesus’ death on the cross gave us salvation we would all receive it at birth and would be assured of our place in Heaven. Yes He died to pay for our sins and give us salvation if we ask but we must ask.
Free will enters into it as well. If we received salvation because He died on the cross we would have no choice but to go to Heaven when we pass on from this life but it doesn’t work that way. We have free will so we have to make the choice of going to heaven by asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins and promise to serve Him forever. Just before He died on the cross Jesus said “It is finished.” That didn’t mean that we were ready to go to Heaven. It meant that our sins had been paid for and all we had to do was believe in Him and ask Him to forgive us of our sins and be the Lord of our lives then we would be ready to go to Heaven.
His death on the cross just set the whole plan in motion. It wasn’t a done deal till He ascended into Heaven to be with the Father. If He hadn’t ascended into heaven He wouldn’t have been the true Messiah and couldn’t have had our sins forgiven. So when He ascended in to Heaven He sealed the deal.
So as Christians we should never say we aren’t worthy. We have been worthy since the time we asked Jesus to forgive us and accepted Him as the Lord of our lives. After that there are only rewards for our deeds but no punishment if we live as the Holy Spirit directs us to.
Who receives the Holy Spirit?
Glory to God all that accept Jesus have the Holy Spirit. The minute you ask Jesus to forgive you and accept Him you also receive the Holy Spirit. Some people disagree on this and say you have to ask for the Holy Spirit but you don’t have to ask. Jesus is but one of the Trinity and when you accept one of them , the Son, you get The Father and The Holy Spirit as well.
Many born again Christians don’t believe they have the Holy Spirit because they haven’t learned how to listen to Him. They think He isn’t with them but He is, they just need to learn what He does for them. They need more mature Christians to guide them and help them understand or they may go cold and backslide.
He is that warm feeling you get in your heart when you see someone you love or that fleeting thought that comes to you about something or someone. It may be a feeling you get that tells you what you did was good or what you did was wrong. When you get the feeling that it was good you should thank Him or when you get the feeling it was wrong you should apologize and ask Him to forgive you. This is one way of learning how to communicate with the Holy Spirit. I have never heard an audible voice, although some have, but I have had that warm joyful feeling many times and also the feeling of sorrow for a wrongful deed or thought.
You must be a practicing Christian to learn how to hear Him. If you just get saved and think that is it and go on your way without another thought about it you won’t learn how to listen and He won’t be able to communicate with you. He must be able to communicate with you because there are many times that He prays to the Father in your place,by giving you the words you need or by praying for you Himself. The Holy Spirit is the best way for God to know your heart. He lives there and knows what you are feeling.
Who receives the Holy Spirit? All who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Glory to God the Holy Spirit is with me. Thank You Father for the Greatest Plan of all, Salvation.
Ast. Op. Earl
Love Question?
I became a Christian at the ripe old age of twenty-one. It was the year 1973 right in the middle of what has become known as the “Jesus Movement.” I wasn’t raised to read the Bible or to know certain scriptures. What I knew of church was the traditional special services of Christmas and Easter. My fondest memory of church was my dad passing out the hard candies and my mom giving the “keep it down” signal as we loudly unwrapped our candies.
I write this to say to you, who wonder if there is a God, that there is in fact a God of love. I had these very questions and in fact I was just starting my journey with the God of Love when I needed to know.
I used my concordance so much in the early days because I didn’t have childhood Sunday school lessons to rely on. I prayed and asked simply: “What is love?” I looked in my concordance in the back of the Bible and looked up the different verses on love. I would try my best to look up scripture and verse and it was difficult not knowing what was the Old Testament and New Testament. I found these verses and I will never forget how my whole being seemed like it was immersed in the most luxurious and soothing oil. I read the Love chapter 1 Corinthians 13 for the first time.
It was absolutely complete! As the last words of this scripture reads: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
I truly wanted to believe all of what was written in these verses. I would read this over and over again and I thought I would almost wear this out! The words were so pure.
“Dear Lord," I prayed, "I understand now there is love, how do I know that I actually have love, because I don’t always feel like loving?”
Umm, I thought this was a pretty tall order for the Lord. I was kind of stuck. I was like a yoyo, on the mountain top one day in the valley the next. I couldn’t understand why 1 Corinthians 13 could be so real and I just didn’t feel it. There was such a struggle going on inside of me. I had genuine agony over this.
One day, when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore my friends came over. They were new Christians also; they had been reading and just wanted to come over with a verse that they had been reading. The verse was Romans 5:5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
What a REVELATION! Thank God, I really began to see and understand that even if I didn’t feel love, the Bible’s words said that love is never ending in my heart. There is abundance of love being poured out.
These scriptures were like walking on a soft woodsy path during a perfect summer day only to come to a remote crystal clear lake. It was like I had been the only one to ever make this discovery. The Lord was revealing His heart to me.
So, as I went on with my daily living these words were life lines to me. I came to a point however where I still had some questions about: “this thing called LOVE.” I knew now what the description of love was and I knew I could have love in a never ending supply. There was a question on how to love. I would be in turmoil over my feelings toward some people. I had some people in my life who I just didn’t like. My turmoil was that I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I had to be a super smiley person all the time, I thought that If my car was rear ended (for example) I had to be happy about this. Yes, I am stretching this some. The point is, I just COULDN’T do it.
My future husband Steve and I went to the third Jesus festival in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1975. He just became a Christian. We were sitting on a hill at the festival praying and I started to cry and said to him; “I might as well quit this walk because I am a failure as a believer in Christ.” I just couldn’t like all the people and the different situations they were in.
Steve in his young faith said, “Sandi, look at your favorite preachers. Do you think they feel like always preaching or listening to everyone’s problems?”
I said, “Of course not!”
It’s not our FEELINGS that dictate to us; it’s the living word of God! So my future husband and I looked in the concordance again. We found another scripture of “love.” Matthew 5:43-48. It tied all these words on love together, this really lifted such a burden off of me, and it makes perfect sense. These scriptures in Matthew 5 speak that love is not only loving those that love you and are kind to you, the greater love is reaching out to the unlovable, not with FEELINGS, but WITH THE WORD OF God to back you up and give you the strength to do this. By doing this God is pleased. He blesses you even more. Every time God blesses you he lifts another cry of your heart off of you and makes you more free and thus happier!
Reverend Sandra J. Ephrussi
Anonymous Quote—
“Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken. But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever.”
Where is My Healing?
Dear heavenly Father,
I come to You in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Father I am in need of healing. I have been in so much pain and have been asking for a healing but the pain is still there. Please make it stop. Father I know You can heal me but You haven't yet. What do I need to do to receive this from You? Father I will continue to thank You for this healing and I am praying that it happens soon. I don't know how much longer I can go on like this. Please heal me. In Jesus name, Amen.
This is a typical prayer many of us have said at some point in our lives. We were persistent because we knew that Jesus could heal us, but we felt that He hadn't healed us yet. We make declarations like, "My back hasn't been healed because it still hurts," or, "I know my leg was healed because I can now walk on it, but I know that it is going to get worse again because it is hurting again." On and on we go. Prayers of faith watered by doubt. It's like planting carrot seeds and watering them wit acid then expecting them to grow.
Many of us know that once our Lord heals us we are totally healed. Sometimes we find it difficult to believe He has healed us when we continue to experience the same symptoms. We must come to understand that symptoms are not the sickness and that symptoms don't kill.
We were already healed before we ever asked. Jesus took care of that when He took our stripes over 2000 years ago and it can't be changed by us, satan or anybody else. Jesus declared the work of the cross, including healing, finished and it is. It is done and what He calls done is done. Since we were healed then, we need to act like we are healed now and not act as though we are still sick.
Our words and actions are what keeps the healing from manifesting in us. Oftentimes we don't receive our healing because we keep moving our faith from "healed" to "it still hurts so I am not healed yet."
What this boils down to is faith. We have the faith to know that we are healed but our faith moves over and lets doubt rule us when we feel the symptoms. The symptoms are satan's way of stealing our peace about the healing Jesus did in us, Neither satan, nor symptoms, can do anything to us but ruin our faith and stop the healing.
When the demon of doubt niggles at your mind, don't ask where is my healing? Ask where is my faith? Quit working on the symptoms and work on the faith end of it. Just know that you know and don't give in to the lies of satan (the symptoms).
Matthew 8:5-8 tells us of the centurion who came to Jesus on behalf of his servant. He wanted his servant healed and knew that all Jesus had to do was speak it and his servant would be healed. Jesus didn't have to go lay hands on the servant because His faith in the Father was so strong that all He had to do was speak it and it would be done. He didn't say that the servant was still in pain and probably would have to be prayed over again. He knew when He rebuked sickness and disease that the Father would honor it and it was done. It is the same for us. When we rebuke sickness or pain and believe, it is done. We should give thanks to the Lord for what He has done for us, not words of doubt. The symptoms can be healed also if they are rebuked and that is what we should pray about next, the symptoms.
Satan brings the symptoms back to us trying to ruin our faith and make us believe we are not healed. He is a liar, a thief and a murderer. He will do anything to make us doubt our healing, but he can not give us a sickness that Jesus has healed. It just can't be done. Jesus is Lord and His commands are the final word in all things.
Acts 3:1-8. Proves that we don't have to be Jesus to get healed. We just need to know that Jesus is Lord and accept Him. We can be healed by using his name just like Peter and John did in Acts. They didn't heal the lame but the name of Jesus did. They knew if they spoke it in Jesus name that Jesus would be true to His word and the man would be healed. That is His promise to all of us.
We must stand still in our faith so we can be healed. Rather than acting like children with cuts who keeps moving around so God can't apply the salve or place the bandage on our "wound," we must be still. If our faith keeps moving to doubt, we can't be healed. If one minute we believe the healing and the next we believe the the symptoms, we show God that we don't believe, and it binds His hands. Do you want to be truly, completely healed? Stand still (like a rock) in your faith to believe for and receive healing.
Children who come home covered in pickies are told, "Don't go through the briers again." Stay away from the briers and stand on the word of God and be in His Will. Don't let the symptoms take you back through the brier patch where you became sick or hurt in the first place. Jesus pulled you out and made you whole. Why let symptoms, a trick of the devil, take you back to the symptoms so you will go through it again? You are healed, act like it.
