Amen!

Im reading The Purpose driven Life by Rick Warren, I highly recommend it to anyone who is unsure of their direction.

I have actually apologised twice, this will be the 3rd time, not much more I can say.

Hi, yes its an English term, I forget there can sometime be a language barrier, and no you havent offended me so please dont worry, it can be difficult when its all just in written form and nothing else (ie body language or tone) cant it.

Again, please accept my apologies, I guess I misunderstood this forum and subsequent conversations. Like I said my intention was not to insult or upset anyone here, I was just merely joining in with a conversation my intentions were certianly not to uspet anyone.

Thanks

Thanks, I wasnt aware I was arguing, trying to Ram anything down anyones throat or trying to take anyone's FAITH away, that was certainly not my intention and I stand corrected, spologies if I have caused any offense to anyone.

'Micky' is short for Micheal, taking the Micheal out of someone, which is a nicer way of saying 'Taking the Piss' out of someone, mugging them off etc etc

I think i'll leave you all do it, its been nice chatting, but I dont think this is for me.

Firstly, to take the micky out of people really isnt very nice, also if you were in a relationship with God you would know the answer.
I pray you get to to know him and how amazing having him in your life is.
God bless

AMEN

Bit confused by your question, but yes the simple answer is yes, anyone who seeks and asks for God to come into their life God ill come in. Its as simple as that, I know someone who I beleive never picks up a bible and has an amazing relationship with God.

No I dont

Not to mention Id rather believe there is a reason to my existance and that when I die its only my body that dies and not my soul which will in fact live for eternity, rather than believe I am here by just a random event caused by 2 atoms knocking together and that existance that will only last for 80 odd years (if I am lucky.

Just curious about how you feel about your "chosen" status. Do you think you are in someway more special or more deserving than other people?

No, we are all equal in Gods eyes

What do you think makes you the honored recipient of so many privileges that others are denied?

No-one is denied the love of God, he gave us free will to make the choose whether to believe or not.

Do you think you have nothing to do with the transformations in you life? What role do you think you have played, if any, in all your healing processes?

I believed and trusted him

Was that role due to inner strength forces or strictly from forces outside yourself?

?

Do you ever look around and wonder why you are so blessed when others are not?

I know why I am so blessed, anyone who opens their heart to Jesus and lets him in will be blessed the same way too.

Do you ever fear a day when you wake up and your blessings have been denied for apparently no reason at all?

I never fear that happening.

I totally agree with what you say, not one system has it right & God is everywhere, which is why I call myself a follwer (as opposed to a Christian) and I have faith rather than I am religious, perhaps I should clarify what I was trying to say about the Bible,

Yes the Bible was written by men, but some of these men knew JC personally, and a lot of the books have been inspired by God, I do bleive when It was first put together by 'The Church' there is the possibility some of it COULD have been manipulated and left out. I also believe it shouldnt be taken literally as 2 people can be give the same scripture and it will mean completely different things depending on what is going on in their lives. I believe if you are given scripture then you seek further clarification from God as to what it means and what it relates to in your life which can come in many ways.

Not to mention, he healed me from smoking & drug taking one weekend, depression another day, my damaged vertebra last week, I hope you get to experience his love one day

Of course there are the conversations with God and the things he tells me and the healing he has done twice on me.

Hi, I am visiting both places mid/end May and looking for Evangelical churches to go to in each city. I will be staying in fishermans wharf area of SF and downtown Seattle, if anyone can help wigth a good church or know of any chrstian/worship events going on during this time please can you let me know. Thanks

The purpose driven life by Rick Warren will answer most questions...

Because we are created by God it is in our DNA/Genetic make up to search for the truth.

Personally I dont need religion, as to me religion is mans made up truth and consists of rules and regulations. I am a child of God and I belong to him and follow his word from the Bible on how to live my life.

One of the best books I have ever read is 90 mins in Heaven, it answers a lotof questions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90_Minutes_in_Heaven

On March 4th 2011 I was vacuuming my house and I felt a pain at the bottom of my spine, I didn’t think much of it and lay down on the sofa thinking it would go a in a few hours, each hour the pain got steadily worse, I lay on the sofa most the day and started taking some ibuphrophen, by Sunday it had got worse, I didn’t feel able to go to church and stayed most of the day horizontal watching films.
By Monday I could barely stand up, the pain had spread up my back, all the muscles in my back had gone into spasm, I could not stand for more than about 2 minutes max, I could barely walk the length of my house, and the pain was unbearable. I managed to get the Dr who said I had most likely pulled a muscle and to keep moving as much as possible to prevent further spasm, (some weeks later I found this out to actually be detrimental and it caused further problems).

A week later it was a lot better, I went back to work to find that I could only actually sit there for 5 hours, that and the walk there and back knocked me back again, I had a horrendous burning at the bottom of my spine, worse than before which was to stay with me now for some weeks, and pain also went up my back and down my buttocks in the top of my legs and I needed a further week off work.
A week later I tried going back to work again and lasted 2.5 days, I had physio on the 3rd day and the Physio sent me straight home and said I needed to rest not keep active as it was clearly causing further problems although he wasn’t able to offer a diagnoses other than a spinal issue which was effecting the muscles surrounding the spine as they were enflamed and trying to protect it.
Three sessions later and another week off work the physio after finding ultrasound massage not to be effective referred me back to the Dr’s who told me it was likely to be a sacroiliac joint sprain (A joint in the pelvis) and sent me back to the physio and signed me off for another 2 weeks, this time the physio said as there is no improvement its more likely to be a problem with the L5 & L6 area at the bottom of the spine, which I understand to be the vertebra, the sacroiliac joint sprain was likely to be a secondary injury, he also mentioned a twisted pelvis this time and he would request a referral to the physio centre in Bognor where I would have a scan done and most likely need to have Steroid injections. In the meantime I was to do as little as possible, which is very difficult when you live alone and still have to cook for yourself, do your shopping and clean etc, although I have been lucky to have fantastic family and friends who have helped me out with a lot of these tasks, big thanks to all of them.

From day 1 I had been taking painkillers, Declophenic & codydromol mainly, this only actually took about half the pain away, I was eventually prescribed a morphine based one, which I decided I wouldn’t take, I was having enough problems with forgetting things and having some bizarre (sometimes amusing) conversations with people.

Since starting my walk with God some 4 years ago, I have never doubted God heals people. About 18 months ago I was suffering with Depression for about a week and I was lying on my sofa on a Saturday night feeling very down & had a banging headache, when suddenly God spoke to me, he said ‘I am going to heal you, you have work to do tomorrow, get up and drink loads of water’ I did just that, he kept telling me to drink, so I did and about 4 pints of water and an hour later the depression & headache had gone and I was sitting on my floor giggling and couldn’t stop smiling The next day I felt on top of the world and was able to go and do my volunteering. It turns out one of the volunteers I worked with really needed me there and would have struggled without me and was actually praying for me to be better at that moment when God spoke to me.

These last 5 weeks have been on an emotional rollercoaster, sometimes I was so high spirated and at peace knowing it was only a matter of time before I was better and I just had to ride it out, at and at other times felt I was living a nightmare, waking up day after day in pain, then having nightmares so I wasn’t even able to get any peace whilst asleep. On many occasions I shouted at God and asked why I this was happening to me and why wasn’t he talking to me and helping me, other times, I felt so loved and so close to him, even a friend walked into my lounge one day and went ‘wow’ she could really feel his presence too.

I have had so many people praying for me I feel so blessed to have so many kind friends and eventually last week I had a phone call from a church where I have a friend on the Ministry team asking if I was going to their prophetic conference. I thought, you have got to be kidding, I cannot drive all that way and sit in a church all day and evening. The more I thought about it the more it felt like I was supposed to go, although I was really questioning it and felt God say ‘do you think I would ask you to go all this way if I knew it wouldn’t help or you wouldn’t be able to sit there or dive back?’ So I did some research on the internet, found a carpark very close by and set off.

When I got to the church I found there to be blankets and pillows all around the edge, so I found a chair close by to one so I could take advantage if I wanted. As the day went on I found I spent more time lying on the floor and was more in pain as the day went on. Over lunch I got chatting to a lady who was friends with a man who had a healing ministry and she said she’d introduce me later.
When we met I said I had a problem with my back and asked if he wanted to know what I had been told by the physio and the Dr’s, he said no and said God would tell him, he got a few other people around and they all started praying, God told him I had a slight curvature of the spine, a twisted pelvis and damaged vertebra and he would be healing it all. Suddenly I felt a hot fire up my spine and an incredible shaking where the Holy Spirit was being sent from God into the areas to be healed. The shirt I was wearing had a label saying ‘Inspire’. I was told God wanted me to use this healing to go and inspire others hence me writing this and standing up in Church and telling the story on Sunday.

I ended up having prayer about 3 times over 6 hours and each time the burning was there as I was being healed. God spoke to me and said ‘Now hasn’t this been worth it’. Oh yes I said, I haven’t stopped smiling since!

The pain hasn’t totally gone, however it is a lot less severe, but I am still having to be very careful I don’t damage myself again. I am however taking only a fraction of the painkillers I was, I am a work in progress, just like God didn’t make the world in one day. I will get a little bit better each day now providing I don’t do anything silly and take it easy, I am still too scared to vaccum though!

I truely hope this will be an inspiration to all who read it, because he loves you too and wants a relationship with those of you who don’t already know how great his love is. You don’t need to go to church to have this, just ask him to come into your life and prove himself to you, he doesn’t need asking twice, he’s waiting for you.
Love is ......God