Christian Chat

Praying @DownMoreThanUp 💚

Hi @heartathome , @DownMoreThanUp , @Appleblossom , @ENKELI , @tyme , @MissGremlin , @REDLINEZ750 , @Shaz51 ,

II Corinthians 11 (and II Corinthians 12 and 13 following)

- Paul is fearful the Corinthians have listened to false teachers.

- Paul jealous for them with the jealousy of God - has betrothed them to one Man in order to present them as a pure virgin to Christ.

- Paul not a polished speaker - but has knowledge.

- Did Paul make a mistake preaching to them free of charge?

- False apostles is not surprising - Satan himself changes himself into an angel of light.

- Paul boasts of his work and standing in the Lord - a Hebrew, more labours, more imprisonments, more beatings, a stoning, a shipwreck, a day and a night in the open sea, more dangers everywhere, toils, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, inadequate clothing, a daily concern for the churches.

- Paul will boast about his weaknesses.

II Corinthians 12

- Paul talks about visions and revelations of the Lord.

- Fourteen years ago caught in the third heaven, into paradise.

- Because of these extraordinary revelations Paul also given a thorn in the flesh - a messenger of Satan to torment him.

- Paul pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave him.

- God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness."

- Therefore Paul will boast about his weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in him.

- "So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

- Paul defends his ministry including signs and wonders and miracles.

- Paul about to visit the third time - concerned about people who have not repented of sexual immorality - doesn't want to reprimand them in person or for the visit to have fightings, envyings, angry outbursts, slanders, gossip, arrogance and disorder.

II Corinthians 13

- Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

- Paul will not be lenient if people found to be sinning (from previous chapter not repenting of sexual immorality) - Christ is not weak in dealing with you.

- For Christ was crucified in weakness but He lives by the power of God.

- Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Jesus Christ is in you.

- Paul doesn't want to deal harshly with them - the authority the Lord gave him is for building up, not for tearing down.

- Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Be mature, of the same mind, at peace.

- And the God of love and peace will be with you.

- The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

In II Corinthians 12 Paul talks about having a "thorn in the flesh - a messenger of Satan to torment him." Three times Paul pleads for it to go away. God responds, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness." When we are weak, we are strong. Power perfected in weakness. It is when we are weak that we cry out to God the most.

That's always been so so powerful for me when God responds, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness." When we are weak, we are strong. Power perfected in weakness. It is when we are weak that we cry out to God the most."

This has helped me through the hardest of times @Realness @heartathome @DownMoreThanUp @Appleblossom

Thinking of you @DownMoreThanUp - sounds so hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sE5kEnitqE

@DownMoreThanUp Blame in family is hard. It happens all over.

@heartathome @Realness @tyme @AuntGlow @REDLINEZ750 @ENKELI

I burst into tears listening to this hymn this morning. I dont cry often in church.There had been a beautiful preaching and talk about being in defence forces and ANZAC day. It was the sequence of events and the beauty and simplicity of the words. I have had a hard week. My son went to ED yesterday. I saw him today in the ward. My hip is bad, and I am in pain with it. Am finding it hard to move. But there have been good moments. Grateful. Liquorice Allsorts.

@Appleblossom @tyme @Realness @heartathome @AuntGlow

Saw my wife today we had a wonderful time having lunch together. Had my blood works done and hope to see a doctor in May about my issues for the one i saw yesterday was totally useless. A doctor we knew from elsewhere, but we are both very disappointed, in after he set up his own practise. Possibly because he does not want us as his patients we felt, for before he was really good, and thorough. Now he does not take us serious even about quiet serious issues we are now finding out without down syndrome daughter who we also took to him. And he dismissed out of hand, without even checking, but now we are finding out it is something we are going to have to look into much more seriously than he made us believe.

i have added something (two things) to my supplements and to my surprise have had 3 days without any depression. To be honest i have never in my whole life experienced my inner reality as stable mood wise as i do now. Especially considering i have had a really hard time, bottom of the barrel stuff even and still no depression. Even telling you i shake my head in wonder. How can this even be?

you know what i added? iodised salt and quercetin, i have used quercetin before but have not noticed any dramatic effects then.

AI believes that it has to do with the salt and my body chemistry, to do with hydration and other things that could all have contributed to the increasing depression i had been suffering from especially since my nausea began peaking two-three years ago. And it does seem to fit the pattern of slowly but rapidly increasing cycling and mood swings even far more pools apart.

My wife and me are looking on in disbelief. i have had good turns before which later would go away again. However they have never ever been this dramatic or stable. All day level i do not think my life has ever been like that before. Like some kind of 'rebirth' psychologically - i can really feel like this normally? That would mean depression is gone for good. Doubt it but yet i hope of course. This is really nice finding myself back even keeled.

keeping an eye out!

(did some work on an old poem)

Darkness Reigning

When wicked voices gather near,
then darkness has me by the ear.
“Where is truth?” they mock and sneer,
casting nets of doubt and fear.

Isolation is their prison cell,
where weakness serves their kingdom well.
They feast upon my slips and falls,
for broken ground best hides their walls.

They build within my mind their throne,
until their thoughts feel like my own.
Depression makes its daily claim,
and life grows dim beneath their reign.

See how they fight to keep their place,
pushing back all love and grace.
Dragging me through poisoned lies,
down into pits where hope nearly dies.

Under their influence, bruised and blind,
they crashed the daylight in my mind.
Yet wicked rule is never long
my light will rise where it belongs.

i do not like many songs of this person but this is an awesome one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGKu5MkyWsc&list=RDPzaTmXSIKpk&index=2

Good morning @DownMoreThanUp

@heartathome Good Morning how has your sleep been? i hope well?

@Appleblossom @tyme @Realness @AuntGlow

Ancient Garments.

Faith can quickly become the driest ink of pen,
God’s living truths half-grasped by fallen men.

Still dressing believers in clothes centuries-old ,
stitch their naked fear and plight into a static mould.

Forgetting Christ before the world was stripped bare
naked hung in love’s revealing light true life to share.

For our Lord Jesus is not truth dressed in our history,
nor must He be buried underneath religious tyranny.

Christ's truth is God’s fierce love descending from On high
from every untruth where death and darkness hide the lie
So please let any ancient garments fall into the dust
His love clothes us His righteousness not moth or rust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFLvSD-iApc&list=RDtFLvSD-iApc&start_radio=1

Romans 3:23–24 (NLT)

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.”

Who wrote it

This letter was written by the apostle Paul, a follower of Jesus, to the believers in Rome.

What was happening at the time

Paul was writing to a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. There was confusion and tension about how someone becomes “right with God”—whether it was through religious law, personal effort, or something else. Paul is making it clear that everyone stands in the same place before God, and that being made right with Him comes through Jesus and His grace, not human performance.

Key Greek words and meaning

ἥμαρτον (hēmarton) — “have sinned”

Literally “to miss the mark,” like an arrow missing its target. It points to falling short of God’s intended design for human life.

ὑστεροῦνται (hysterountai) — “fall short”

Means to lack, be behind, or come up short. It describes not being able to reach something important by your own effort.

δικαιούμενοι (dikaioumenoi) — “made right / justified”

A legal term meaning declared righteous in a courtroom. It’s not self-improvement, but a changed status—guilty to accepted and right with God.

χάριτι (chariti) — “grace”

Means undeserved favour. A gift of kindness that is not earned, not owed, and not based on performance.

ἀπολύτρωσις (apolytrōsis) — “redemption / set free”

Comes from the idea of paying a price to release someone from bondage. It means being liberated or brought back at a cost paid by another.

Short summary

We all fall short—but God doesn’t leave us there. Through Jesus, He freely forgives, restores, and makes us right with Him by grace. 🙏

@DownMoreThanUp @Appleblossom @Realness @ENKELI @tyme

Hi @heartathome , @DownMoreThanUp , @Appleblossom , @ENKELI , @tyme , @MissGremlin , @REDLINEZ750 , @Shaz51 ,

Galatians

Galatians 1

- From Paul, an apostle.

- Grace and peace.

- Paul is a amazed that the Galatian churches are turning away from the gospel of Christ.

- Some are distorting the gospel of Christ.

- Woe to anyone who preaches a different gospel.

- Paul talks about his own ministry. Being a servant of Christ does not please people. Outlines his contact with the Jerusalem church.

Galatians 2

- Fourteen years later went to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus.

- Titus, a Greek, was not forced to be circumcised.

- False brothers trying to take away our freedom in Christ.

- I have been entrusted with the gospel to those not circumcised, as Peter to the circumcised.

- Peter was a hypocrite when he came to Antioch. He stopped eating with Gentiles after men came from James. All the Jews followed him - even Barnabas.

- We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law.

- I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 3

- Foolish Galatians! Why are you returning to the Law?

- Abraham's sons are those who live by faith.

- To live by the Law you must do everything written in the book of the Law.

- Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

- The promises to Abraham and to his seed (Christ) were given 430 years before the establishment of the Law.

- The Law was given to help guide the Israelites until the promise to Abraham was fulfilled.

- But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

- Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.

- For those baptised into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

Galatians 4

- Under tutors until the time of completion came when God sent His Son to redeem those under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

- Because you are children, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!"

- Also an heir of God through Christ.

- Why go back to observing days, months, seasons and years?

- Paul recalls the care of the Galatians when he originally preached the gospel due to an ailment.

- Tell me, you who want to be under the Law, don't you hear the Law?

- Paul recalls the difference between the child (Ismael) of the slave Hagar, and the promised child (Isaac) of Sarah. We are children of the free woman.

Galatians 5

For freedom Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don't submit to a yoke of slavery.

- If you get circumcised Christ will not profit you - you are obligated to keep the whole Law.

- What matters is faith working through love.

- Called to be free - but don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

- Serve one another through love.

- Walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.

- But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

- God's Spirit - the fruit of the Spirit - is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

- No laws against these things.

- Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh and its passions and desires.

Galatians 6

- Restore a person overtaken in any wrongdoing - considering yourself lest you be tempted.

- Carry one another's burdens.

- Examine your own work.

- For each person will have to carry his own load.

- Share all good things with the one who teaches the Word.

- What a person sows, that they will reap.

- Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don't give up.

- As we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially those who belong to the household of faith.

- Paul's handwritten ending:

• the ones wanting you be be circumcised want to avoid persecution and look good in the flesh.
• But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.
• Both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.
• Brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Paul is writing at a time when many confused circumcision and the Law with being God's chosen people. They wanted to add Christianity to these. But Christ brought in a new covenant. It is now about following Christ's Holy Spirit - not about keeping rules. The fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Rather than being about rule-keeping it is about how we spread God's love to other people.