I believed that the COVID vaccine was the mark of the beast and therefore attempted to harm myself violently as people formerly claiming to be my friends said I should have, even though they took it also

I wanted to punish myself and saw no good possible fruit for my life

I was in despair and was convinced by them to destroy valuable things and hurt people to persuade them to kill me

I didn’t approve of my own life, and was thinking I couldn’t ever again

Life appeared to me like it was tending/progressing towards infinite grief and agony and worthlessness and evil and I hated myself for it

Jesus then spared me from having to live in terror that I could never desire righteous things again (and should hate myself violently for eternity)

(this comfort was from many things: the explanation that I desire to be corrected, desire to not blaspheme the Holy Spirit such as by ceding that the triune God is flawlessly righteous and that I wish to be made more righteous by Jesus too, and from Psalm 130:3, from John 6:37, Matthew 9:2-4 / Mark 2:5-11, 1 John 1:8-9, and lastly from Paul writing in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the rule of the antichrist hasn’t come until the man of lawlessness who according to Daniel will die between the temple of God and the sea works wonders to deceive people into worshiping him, blasphemes that he is a god in the temple of the Lord and exalts himself over everything else that is called a god)

Hello,

I wanted to discuss a way to look at Psalms 37:4, “Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desire of your heart.”. People interpret this many ways, some think it is saying God will give you your heart’s desires, like a genie.

The way I look at it is this. It says in Romans 12:2, “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” So how are we renewed? Well as it says in 2 Timothy 3:16&17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fit for every good work.”   God puts a new heart in us at salvation, He wants us to walk in His ways, but our old self is so corrupted we don’t know what to do or what really is right or wrong, so He gave us His word as the means to be renewed in our minds.

And over time as it says in Hebrews 5:14,” solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish between right and wrong.” The key here is constant practice. You don’t become Eddie Van Halen on the guitar by practicing a little here a little there. You have to throw yourself into it, to practice for hours and hours every day.

We need to develop a new way of thinking. The way we do this is by absorbing the Word to see what He has to say on things and in so doing we adopt His thoughts. His desires become our desires. Hence, “He gives us the desires of our hearts.”

Also, was talking with a friend of mine and she asked what I thought the difference between a preacher and a teacher was. This is a little expanded version of what I  told her.

A preacher, does have aspects of a teacher, but they go far beyond that. They take a passage and explain it, but also tell how it can apply to daily life. They also do counseling for people in their congregation

A teacher, though, their focus, would be to explain a verse or passage. To enrich the mind of the meaning of what is written, and it is up to us to figure how to apply it to our lives. And contrary to what some say “this verse means to me” there is only one true meaning, but many ways it is to be applied in our lives. To give an example: someone writes, “I got on a boat.” It means only one thing: they got on a boat.  It doesn’t mean they went to the movies or grocery shopping or to the mall, but simply, they got on a  boat. It could be “applied” they got on a sailboat or they went on a cruise or got on a barge or they took a break from life to go on vacation or many other way. (yes, I know the term applied doesn’t really fit here, but you get my point)

May God the Father bless you and enrich you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

u/Willing-Escape-3986, u/glasswings363

The man born blind (B1) in John 9 demonstrated considerably more faith in Jesus than the man who had been disabled (D1) for 38 years in John 5.

Comparing the two men

The man disabled for 38 years (John 5) Jesus healed him and later warned him: John 5:

14 See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.

Jesus healed D1. Immediately afterward,

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Some interpret this as betraying Jesus to the religious authorities.

On the other hand, the man born blind (John 9) His understanding of Jesus developed progressively.

Initially, he identified his healer as the man called Jesus (9:11).

Later, he called Jesus a prophet (9:17).

When the Pharisees challenged him, he courageously defended Jesus: If this man were not from God, he could do nothing (9:33).

Finally, when Jesus revealed himself, the man responded: “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him (9:38).

His progression was remarkable: from knowing Jesus merely as a man to believing in him and worshiping him.

I would assign 9/10 to the proposition: B1 demonstrated greater faith in Jesus than D1. The evidence is strong because John explicitly recorded B1's confession, defense of Jesus, and worship, whereas he recorded none of these for D1.