Micheal Vick "finds Jesus"

During his press conference he said he had found Jesus and given his life over to God.

I really pray this is so...and I know God will accept this man in a heartbeat, and fill him with the Holy Spirit and change him and use him mightily. I know this because I gave my life to God in a similiar situation, only my jail time was 25 to life and I was facing a double court martial. If God loves us and has appointed us to Sonship, He'll bring on the devastation to bring us to the window of grace.

Brother Paul

I also pray this is real, may God use this man to reach many for Christ.

If God loves us and has appointed us to Sonship, He'll bring on the devastation to bring us to the window of grace.

This is true, sometimes we are so stubborn and blind that it takes crushing disaster to get us to turn our eyes on Jesus. God loves us too much to withhold such disaster, if we will only look and live from the jaws of death then God will bring us to the jaws of death, so that He may raise us up again, and the valley of weeping becomes a well. This is what Israel discovered when the poisonous snakes came into the camp in the wilderness.

In Christ,

Ron

To KrispyKrittr:

:"I mentioned TD Jakes because of all his false teachings... WOF, denial of the trinity, etc etc"

I may need to make this comment in another post/topic, but to deny the "trinity"-is not a false teaching. The Holy Bible never teaches or even uses the word "trinity"-

The Word of God speaks of the Godhead, and the Godhead only. The trinity and Godhead are not the same in thought or essence.

Trinity says there are 3 IN 1, the Word never says there are 3 IN 1, the Word says and the three ARE 1.

1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three ARE (not in) one.

PS: I know the word "Rapture" is not in the Word of God either, but it's definition is. Rapture means to be caught up or caught away-to seize-and that is the very statement that Paul uses in 1 Thess 4:17. I bring that up, because everytime I bring up the fact that the word "trinity" is not in the Bible someone says the word "rapture" isn't either.

The word "rapture" is not in the scripture, but it's definition is-the word "trinity" is not in the scripture, but NEITHER is it's definition.

KrispyKrittr

John 1:1 IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD...3 All things were made BY HIM (not them);....

We know the Word is Jesus Christ-

Gen 1:1 IN THE BEGINNING GOD created the heaven and the earth.

Interpret John 1:1 as revealing JESUS Christ is God manifested in the Flesh, and revealed as the Word.

John 1:3 says the Word, which is God, that all things were made by him-Gen 1:1 says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth- God & the Word are NOT two separate personalities/entities,beings.

1 John 5:7 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the Holy Ghost: and THESE THREE ARE ONE. (Notice it never said "Son" as Matt 28:19)

Notice it listed the Father, and the Word....but wait, is not the Father God? Is not the Word God? Is not the Holy Ghost God?-This is why it says..."and these three ARE ONE

God has 7 Spirits- but He is still only One God. One Lord. Holy One of Israel

Simply put, I interpret John 1:1 as and with John 10:30 I and my Father ARE one.

God made man in his image. God gave man a Body, spirit & soul-3 components that make One Man

J

KrispyKrittr wrote:
.
How do you interpret John 1:1? Surely you are not suggesting that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are 3 different God's who are one in agreement with each other, are you?

Krispy

No, surely I am not suggesting the Father, Word, and the Holy Ghost are 3 different God's-

Of a surety I know there is only but 1 True & Living God.

Deut 6:4 Hear ye O Israel: the LORD our God is ONE LORD.

:-)

[b]Bro Krisp wrote (re: Vick finding Jesus);

Vick has lost everything.[/b] He lost a $130 million contract. The Falcons are preparing to sue him for the $22 million signing "bonus" they gave him. He's basically lost his career... [b]Talk about hero to zero... he went from everything to nothing in a matter of months."[/b]

--- Most folk believe Vick deserves to have lost everything, for all the obvious reasons ... But i have a few counter questions, that as a pro-active Christian, in light of the economically shaky times we're living in, i've been asking myself lately - particularly in tandem with a lot of thinking about "the great falling away" and the events that might prompt such ...

[b]Questions:

- What if you, in your mind a fine upstanding Bible abiding saint, because of economic collapse, suddenly found yourself (and your family if applicable) gone from everything to nothing? ...

- What if you lost job, income, savings, investments, pensions, home, car, etc., completely by no percievable fault of your own? ...

- First thought would be denial, but would it wig you out in second thought the belief that you don't deserve this, and third thought "how Lord could You allow this to happen to me?" ...

- Would such adversity bolster your faith to a hotter intensity, strain it to a colder complacency, or even break it to losing it and falling away? ...[/b]

i ponder how many of us will fall away when our economy hits the wall and their faith in the prosperity gospel is shot to smitterens, or those who might find ourselves ubable to cope with hardships we feel we don't deserve and surely God's not being fair in allowing us to have to endure trials we wern't prepared for, and i also wonder how many pre-tribbers would fall away if they found themselves in the Trib and Great Trib period ...

[b]PRE-TRIBBERS: Would You Fall Away if You Found Yourselves in the Trib Periods? ...SI Thread[/b]
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=18758&forum=36&3

As increasing bubbles gather in the pot i think about the "falling away" more and more, in relation to others, but i mainly do so in terms of myself, searching my own motivations and expectations in my integrity to Him, and pray to Him that i not be counted amongst such, and so i attempt to prepare myself for the worse, not allowing myself to think that my reasonable service may somehow make me exempt from any intense testings of my faith, because none of us (as with Job) know excatly what God will allow, or for that matter dictate, for our lives ...

It's pretty easy to look out and see the glaring faults of others, but for us saints who can't see that we are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked", and refuse to buy from Him what is needed, His "correction" comes as some totally undeserved occurence out of the blue, and God help us if we blame God as our abuser, instead of vice-versa ...

These perilous times don't scare me ... but the delusional self-righteousness of a blind (particularly here in America) Laodicean Church sure does ...

Chances are if we don't see the knock-out punch coming, once it connects (except but by His extreme and gracious grace) we'll get knocked out ...

There are so many faith shaking things happening in our world today i feel led of Holy Spirit to point out this faith inspiring sermon ...

[b]In One Hour Everything is Going to Change - Audio Sermon[/b]
http://64.34.176.235/sermons/SID16114.mp3

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, especially for the ones we don't see as such ...

[b]1John.5[/b]
[4] For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: [b]and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.[/b]

[b][color=3366CC]NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS SAINTS - LETS KEEP OUR FAITH![/color][/b]

Oppps ... OK ... sorry, let's talk about the other guy again ... :-P

The following is an article i came across this morning ...

[b]REV. JESSE LEE PETERSON ON MICHAEL VICK'S FINDING JESUS: He says the statement is laughable and hypocritical.

Conservative radio talk show host and media commentator Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson issued the following statement after listening to Michael
Vick's remarks that he has turned his life over to Jesus following his guilty plea in U.S. District Court to a dog fighting conspiracy charge:

"The statement that Michael Vick has found Jesus is laughable. Like other celebrities before him, Vick is evoking Jesus' name to stop the criticism and gain public sympathy. True believers recognize the
hypocrisy in what he's doing.

"'Jesus' is the most abused name in black America and Vick is following a long line of abusers. We can no longer allow celebrities and politicians to break laws and then use 'Jesus' as a get-out-of-jail free card. Most of these people go right back into their bad behavior and criminal activities as soon as the storm passes.

"Jesse Jackson evoked Jesus' name after he was discovered to have fathered a child in an extramarital affair. Thug rappers can't keep Jesus' name out of their mouths at award shows or when they get into
trouble. Even Bill Clinton (the first black president) started carrying the Bible after he was caught having an affair with Monica Lewinsky and perjuring himself. Michael Vick is using the same playbook to manipulate
the media and public.

"If Vick is truly contrite and has found God, he wouldn't have minimized his crime by describing it as a 'mistake' or as 'immature'. He would have confessed, assumed total responsibility, and then asked God
to give him the strength to endure his punishment. That would have been a great example for the youth."[/b]

--- i do hope Vick is sincere and will leave that judgment between he and Jesus, but as a Christian who also happens to be Af/Am i have to agree with Peterson's statement in the vein of "Jesus' is the most abused name in black America" ... This is straight up the truth, and a direct result of a weak, tepid, so called Black Church in America ... i'm always amazed at how dynamic and motivated Af/Am preachers and the so called Black Church was in the Civil Rights Movement, and how non-chalant and non-confrontive most are with the rampant sins and obvious spiritual decay in Black America, specifically when it comes to our thugged out, way past the line, hip-hopped youth ...

Peterson also said, "We can no longer allow celebrities and politicians to break laws and then use 'Jesus' as a get-out-of-jail free card." ... He forgot to also include the so called "religious leaders" ...

As far as i'm concerned the whole of America stinks to high heaven, and WE ALL have our own contributions (sins of ommision or commision) to the stink now filling God's nostrils ...

Oppps ... there i go pointing the finger back at us again ... bummer ... :-(

Blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord! ---

Hi Rahman,

- Would such adversity bolster your faith to a hotter intensity, strain it to a colder complacency, or even break it to losing it and falling away? ...

One of the aspects of faith that I think adversity will make us more sensitive to is switching from the individual grip on individual faith to the body's sharing of one faith. In my experience, you can always tell when someone has suffered...they always have time and concern for other people. I am looking forward to this development, when we are no longer 'holding on to Jesus' for our own sakes, but holding on to our brother as well.

Distributed support is a universal truth that has engineering application even in the Church. If I am my own support then I am vunerable...but if I share my weaknesses with those who are strong at some points, and my strength to those who are terrified or saddened...together we can endure great amounts of pressure with much reduced levels of stress.

For the past years much of Christian teaching is focused on the individual. (edit:Is this just another effect of the inherent societal fragmentation of western materialism?)We act like:"I got my Jesus supply, how 'bout you? No? Well you better get yours if you want to be healthy, wealthy and wise! See ya later, I have to go and enjoy Jesus" In an iPod age, we tend to think of individual supplies of the same but seperate resource, but in truth we share in one Spirit just as we are one body. It is not the individual, but the Church that is the 'iPod'.

Because so much teaching is focused on individual progress, we often think of our access to the Holy Spirit as a stovepipe to heaven...the Church being a million stovepipes spread out over the landscape. True, the bible talks about the virgins keeping their own lamps filled with oil...but it also tells us to go and buy. So I believe our collective life in the Holy Spirit more closely resembles an economy, a supply chain, or a distribution network...that is we can, for even resources such as comfort, hope, wisdom, and even faith, share horizontally in the 'distribution' of spiritual virtue.

I see this spiritual economy at work in my own family. My little children more often times believe the Lord through me, then on their own---I am the D.C. and the store shelf and they are the consumer---I do not chide them for keeping such a small storehouse themselves. I was called to be their supply, just as the Lord and several brothers are my supply. For now, my children need my confidence in the Lord on their behalf, though I see they are achieving more inward relationship and faith as they get older. In the meatime, I would no longer tell them to go and seek God on their own for their cuts and bruises without my stock of comfort and faith, then I would expect a more mature brother to simply hand me a book instead of mentoring me.

There is no need for any of us to fall away because of excessive pressure that comes through financial failure, or desease, or war----looking on pitifully as the enemy picks off idividuals while we nervously thank God for our better circumstances. If you feel you must fall away...then fall into the arms of some stronger brother or sister and let Jesus carry your fears.

None of us are microcosms of the Body...even the greatest prophets are only shards and fragments in themselves. This is more then allegory...it is a literal spiritual economy. A child can have more faith supply then a pastor...and a granmother can have more courage manufacturing then a veteran soldier. Isolationism and protectionism hurts the economy of even a spiritual nation. We need individuals who carry spiritual freight. Even in a heavenly kingdom, there are giant container ships steaming across oceans, and speedy intermodal transportation criss-crossing on roads and rails, all supplying cargo or goods and services to the economy, not only materially but spiritually, given to one another by the Lord. We learn to share without condemnation the strength that we are supplied with, and not to despise weaknesses,... always preserving the total economy by not withholding the Spirit's interest free credit from even the poorest person in our fellowships. This is the same credit we had access to not only when we knew we were poor and bankrupt, but also continually even if we think we are rich and without further need ourselves in the Spirit.

Blessings bro! I know you know these things. May we keep our faith together. To me this means, no matter what happens, let's keep each other. The Lord's supply chain is not just air shipments, or drop shipping direct from heaven, but there is also ground shipping, constant just-in-time inventory shipments by the Spirit who dwells in each of us...

“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance.

“Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.

...Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, And a nation which knows you not will run to you, Because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.”

MC

Bro Mike ...

Amen to all that you've posted! ... Man, do i love your analogies! ... For someone like myself with a vivid imagination i can see the pictures!

That why i always use the analogy of a single hot coal (which burns out pretty quickly), and a bed or furnace of hot coals that lasts long, and produces heat and light ...

You wrote;
"Blessings bro! I know you know these things."

The blessing bro is that you too know these things! ...

Holy Spirit told me a while back He'd not brought me to SI to teach anybody anything, but for me to be taught, and one of the things He's taught me is that i'm not alone in my hearing what He is saying ... SI is full of saints who know the same things so the true beauty and utility of this fellowship for me is in that realization, and from all over the world is what really blesses me ...

That Acts 2 type Church must have been something else, a something else that i believe we here in America will SOON get to experience in our lifetime ... Bottom line is we do need one another, circumstances aren't as yet such as to prove just how much ...

Blessing in Him who is able to keep us from falling, even in doing so via His help thru one another ...

Rahman,

What a blessing my brother. What a joy to share in His Spirit together...knowing we are not united only in convictions and idealologies, but ultimately in His Holy Spirit.

This camaraderie and indivisibility is the burden in my own heart. I sometimes feel bruised by so much warning and foreboding against one another...but this is just my nature. I realize my burden if just a tiny piece of the Lord's complete burden...and that I cannot suppress other expressions of the Lord's heart. Indeed, perhaps many of us cannot even begin to understand the different expressions of the Lord's heart they feel. Some hurt from past dissapointment in the Church, while others dare to prepare for revival; and the Lord has a place for all these seemingly loose threads in the wedding gown fabric.

Speaking of analogies, there is this clever German tele-advertisement that illustrates (to me) how the Lord can use even the most unlikely saint for the benifit of his body. The commercial depicts this odd tall man dressed in black telling how lonely he was because no one seemed to like having him around. While he was describing how rejected he felt, there were scenes of him deliberately annoying people. Sometimes he would walk right up behind a women on the street and tussle her hair with his hands. Another time he snatched an umbrella from a man and broke it. Other scenes showed him throwing sand in a little girls' face, tipping over someone's cart, and banging a window shutter annoyingly. He really seemed like a nuiscance! Then he described how one day he met a man who wasn't annoyed by his behavior. He walked up to this business man who was reading a newspaper on a park bench, and started rattling his newspaper. The business man wasn't irritated but instead invited him to sit next to him on the bench. The tall sad giant smiled and said this business man made him feel understood and even gave him a job to do! At the end of the commerical you find that you were watching a type of allegory...the business man pulled out a business card revealing he was with Epuron, a developer of renewable energy technologies such as windmill power generators, and the tall sad man was really a personification of wind, and the irritating things he did had a purpose afterall! It is a great concept to show how windmill technology can harnass for good, a force that seems unwelcome or disruptive to everyone else.

This is why we trust the Lord, not because he'll hurt us if we don't, but because he is kind and wastes none of our sorrows. We shouldn't judge these things before their time, but we know there will be both processes and events that will flow living water forth from these hard hearts of ours. (Yet the Lord requires a rock be struck only once...it is our anger that wants to see it struck twice.)

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; I am glad to acknowledge my clayness...for the day will come when strong and powerful men will faint with fear, and will need little jars (like me) who have been storing from a fountain of hope. Like clay jars, or rocks, we cannot easily reveal all that the Lord has placed in us. But there are unseen reservoirs, deep wells hidden in our hearts, safe and cool beneath the raging fires of hatred and fear that will one day cover the Earth. We will surprise even ourselves as we draw up the love of God in small but precious cups of kindness to everyone who fears God has abandoned mankind. We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.

I mentioned I am not a powerful type of person. Any manifestation of Jesus in me, any living water that flows from me is just a small stream. It's true. I'm not being faithless or pious in saying so. It's taken me most of my life, and many terrible failings of character unto heart-piercing grief before I finally appreciated the quiet but persistent gentle stream running through me. I was so envious of earth-shaking rivers, who could sweep people away, alter whole landscapes, and move about ships and supplies, but this is not how the Lord has made me. I believe I am a simple drink of water, and perhaps even a footwashing. Yet I thank God for breaking my selfish heart in order to open a way for his gentle contentment to flow through me. And if fearful storm clouds burst overhead, their downpours only serve to fill my banks with more water.

To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

I should reap the whirlwind, but in Christ I inherit a blessing. So be it for all my brothers and sisters in Christ, to both the mighty rivers and the small streams!

MC

Man brother Mike ... i'm hearing you loud and clear! ...

Our beloved Apostle Paul said it this way ... gives me chills everytime i read this! ...

[b]1Cor.12[/b]
[1] Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
[4] Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
[5] And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
[6] And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
[7] But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
[8] For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
[9] To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
[10] To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
[11] But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
[12] For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
[13] For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
[14] For the body is not one member, but many.
[15] If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
[16] And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
[17] If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
[18] But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
[19] And if they were all one member, where were the body?
[20] But now are they many members, yet but one body.
[21] And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
[22] Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
[23] And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
[24] For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
[25] That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
[26] And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
[27] Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
[28] And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
[29] Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
[30] Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
[31] But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

In reading about the commercial you posted i kept getting glimpses of Holy Spirit, how He strives with us in attempts of getting our attention toward and fixated on the things of Christ and what He's hearing from heaven that God wants from us in His ability to work thru us, to our own benefit yes, but moreso the the benefit of the Church, and this lost and dying world ... When i read this, "and the tall sad man was really a personification of wind, and the irritating things he did had a purpose afterall", i instantly thought of Holy Spirit's grief in the things He does in trying to get our attention towards the things of Christ, but we're way to busy being wrapped up in our own personal quests, the things of the world, and the devils programs, to ever be bothered with God's agenda, and so we find Holy Spirit's attempts at getting our attention annoying ... There were times in my life when i knew God was bugging me, and i'd say to Him why don't you just leave me alone and get someone else to do it ...

It's taken a good while for me to become that business man on the bench, with this one twist to the end of your commercial ... i was sitting watching the History channel the other day and they we're showing scenes from Star Wars, and this (i believe Spirit inspired) thought came into my mind ... "Do you know what the difference is between a Jedi knight, and a soldier for Christ? ... The Jedi knight uses the force, but a soldier for Christ let's the Force use him" ... See i'm not interested at all in using The Wind, but in The Wind using me/us ... All i seem to see is men attempting to use The Wind and we've made a mess of it ... i long to be "purely" as the following scripture ...

[b]John.3[/b]
[8] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Bro Mike you wrote;
"I mentioned I am not a powerful type of person. Any manifestation of Jesus in me, any living water that flows from me is just a small stream. It's true. I'm not being faithless or pious in saying so. It's taken me most of my life, and many terrible failings of character unto heart-piercing grief before I finally appreciated the quiet but persistent gentle stream running through me. I was so envious of earth-shaking rivers, who could sweep people away, alter whole landscapes, and move about ships and supplies, but this is not how the Lord has made me. I believe I am a simple drink of water, and perhaps even a footwashing. Yet I thank God for breaking my selfish heart in order to open a way for his gentle contentment to flow through me. And if fearful storm clouds burst overhead, their downpours only serve to fill my banks with more water. "

--- Praise the Lord bro you know where you're at in Him to this extent of rest, i on the other hand often feel like that earth shaking river you spoke of, so far still dammed up and contained by Holy Spirit to a work already prepared for, but still not yet realeased ...

[b]Learning to "Rest in the Lord" or "The Waiting Room" experience ...[/b]
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=10395&forum=35#82415

i pray it's Him, and not some unconscious weirdness of my self that spiritually seems to have me coloring so far out of the lines of comfortable Christianity... i'm just praising God that i believe He's told me that before this year is past i'll know if it's live (Him), or memorex (me) ... In the meanwhile may we ALL become ever more susceptible to being borne aloft, or landed on the ground, by God the rushing mighty Wind, to His biding, and His biding only ! ...

[b]Acts.2[/b]
[2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
[3] And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
[4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost ...

The very thought of this makes me want to shout!
:knockedout: :knockedout: :knockedout: :knockedout: :knockedout: :knockedout: :knockedout: