Question: Any Christians here who does/practice incense 'offering/sticking' to ancestors?

First of all it's not character assassination or slandering because I don't know who you are, neither did I pull you in here to slander you.
You came in here on your own initiative and started to propagate and blast away all your negativity.
The evidence can be seen in the way you portray yourself. How is it character assassination and slandering when you're the one who is doing all this thing?
I'm just pointing out the obvious. That is call slandering you? You're the one who are accusing Christians doing this and that, remember? Are you Confuse?

Because really, If someone really wants to help a Church, they won't resort to the things that you do.
What you are doing is really slandering Christians and pastor. They may have their good side which you didn't bring out, instead you keep on harping on the bad side and for all we know it could be a one sided story.

Why I say it's a cowardice? Take my Church for example, it has it's problem. But I don't resort to the way you do, all you do is talk and back biting, asking people to leave Church.
I stay and serve and pray and I do see changes, I do see Improvement. Yes my leader still has flaws but I don't ask the members to leave because of that.
I believe God can use me together with all my other brothers and sisters in Christ with the same like minded Goal, to bring up the Church, our goal is to serve and not to be served. That is what God wants. Unity. I stayed on not because of any person I like or don't like. because if my staying on has to do with that, then I guess I would have to Church hop every now and then when somebody conflicts against me, no? I look from a bigger point of view or long term perspective. If somebody does something wrong in the Church then perhaps it's my responsibility to do what is right the same place to set as an example. That way at least I don't have it on my conscious that I have wrong motive for going to Church.

Running away and blabbing away complaining non stop and asking others to join in the same puddle of mud you're in is cowardice to me.

Nope.........

That would be categorized as idolatory........

Hmm, ancestors/parents' incense topic is a bit of a headache for me. Wife giving birth soon and she expect the child to offer incense to the grandmother/ancestors. I on the other hand, not keen but she argues that this is just tradition/respect and not idolizing the ancestors. Not sure what's the best way to resolve.

Pray that God will soften her heart with regards to this.

Keep on praying everyday, consistently and aggressively if you will. Don't agitate or go aggressive in the natural. Be at peace.

You will see the change.

Someone I know in my family had a strong stance against my Faith but today.....very open and almost coming to accept Christ.
Different situation but same principal apply.

God can move mountains for you. Just believe my brother.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jun 6 2014, 05:21 PM

Aye, prays every single night but I am just worried that by the time comes, I still have not convinced my wife on this. She's a fine wife/MTB but she's also a Chinese who believes that incense to an elder is just paying respect/being filial and not idolizing one. I respect elders too but I am not sure if letting my child in sticking in a burning joss stick for the dead grandmother is a sin or not. In my case, I didn't do it but child-wise, it has to be a mutually-agreed move which makes my head spins.

Really hope a way opens up soon cause I don't wanna face the wrath of my wife again

After prayer, you should learn not to worry, once it's in God's hand, leave it as that.

Try not to imagine whatever the outcome. Because it will not give you much rest.

In my opinion, worrying may hinder prayers. Whatever the outcome, learn to let go and rest in the Lord.

God looks at the Heart, he knows your desire for your child.

I will explain more after this, got to go. See you later at night.

Wah the posts.

By the way I just feel like I should say this. Not sure if it's somethinig for prayer.

Whenever I sleep on my back I feel really sesak nafas. Very hard to wake up also. Feels like choking yet somehow nice at the same time. It's quite freaky.

You can stand on this promise.

1 Corinthians 7:14 - For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Learn to confess what God has provided, not what you think happened. (example, your child holding josstick, etc)

It's a Grace provision for unbelieving wife and in this context, unbelieving actually denotes act of sin. And also in this context, notice the word there "otherwise"?, It means that despite of your unbelieving wife, yes even though they should be unclean but God calls your children Holy, clean.

God is not blind, He knows what is going on in the everyday life of the unbelieving partner. And God wants you to live in peace with your family.

Our Job as Christian is to pray and believe in God's word until the situation comes in line with what God says. And remember God's word about household? Believe in the Lord and you and your household will be.....Saved?

It may be a tough struggle but persistence is a must.

Shalom.

Could you elaborate on this please?

Thanks for the insight. Will pray and believe, truly do not want to argue with my wife bout it

hi all, it's been some time i did not reply in here. unknown warrior, i had a suggestion for u to create an automated "LYN Christ Followers List:". u can use google doc and create a form for them to fill in and put a link to view. a lot easier that u don't have to update so many time. all u need it's to monitor it.

So sorry that I'm able to help because my internet connection is are too expensive and too slow for me to make the form for u. I'm sure there is always someone in here to help u with it.

nowdays i only can online and download few page in my offline pocket and read some discussion in here.

alright guys, time to offline now. God bless everybody (^o^)

Heiii brothers and sisters in christ. I am a christian here. I have seen this thread lying around many times already , but i dont have a chance to drop by. But today there are reasons that make me to seek for helpers and guidance on my problems which has been bothering me years.

To be quick and straight i have been diagnosed with a problem which it is called OCD( obsessive compulsive disorder). It is the worst thing that could have happen in one person. It drives me crazy all year long because of this problem laying around inside my head. What it really does is controls one's mind and may make you go crazy because of what it tells you to do,but when you try to neglect the thoughts your mind will tell you that something bad will happen. So this hasn't end just like this yet,if you do what it says then there will be like a compulsion or repetition that will force you to do stuff over and over again.

This OCD some of you may heard of it already but still if anyone wants to know more about this 'OCD' you can google it and you may have a clearer view on what I'm suffering right now.

So guys... The 2nd problem is the main problem that leads me to this thread. To be honest with you guys this might be very difficult for me to share it out but in the end i still have to face the problem. Oh right...sooo yea guys i think im addicted to pronography...i have tried so many times to stop going back to it already but in the end i still fell into temptation. I dont know what to do guys. Whenever i watched it later on i will feel so regret and so ashamed so i always pray to God and ask Him for forgiveness and ask Him to help me to overcome the temptation. But the very next day i have the feeling to watch it again and you know what...ended up watching that stupid stuff again.

I want my life to be change and i want to be christ like so that i can reflect to others how good God is. But these problems are blocking my path to the christian's life styles.

So fellow bros and sis in christ i hope you can at least pray for me to being able to overcome the anxiety and temptation through my life. And i hope that my life will be drawn towards Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for lending me your eyes haha and may the good Lord bless you all.

This post has been edited by funny duck: Jun 8 2014, 09:16 PM

GOD DESIRING THAT MAN BE TRANSFORMED IN LIFE INWARDLY

Christianity today exhorts people to improve their outward behavior, but what God pays attention to is far higher than this. God is not after a mere change in man’s outward behavior; rather, He desires man to have an inward transformation in life. He does not want us to merely change our outward living. He wants us to be broken in our inward disposition. The outward change of behavior gains the praises of man, but it cannot please God. What God desires and what pleases Him is not the improvement of our outward behavior but the transformation in life and the breaking of our inward disposition. Mere behavior improvement makes us good persons but not spiritual persons. In order to be spiritual, we need to be broken inwardly. Without being broken, without suffering any blows, and without passing through death, we can be persons who are whole but not persons who are full of life.

What others see in your outward behavior improvement is your morality but not your spirituality. Many times, just as your immorality can become your covering, so your morality can also become your covering. The unbelievers require us to have a high morality, which is reasonable and right. Yet God’s requirement in us is much higher than this. God requires that we be broken and crushed so that the Christ within us-the glorious Christ, the Christ of holiness-may be lived out through us.

GOD DESIRING THAT CHRIST BE LIVED OUT FROM WITHIN US

There are a few kinds of Christians. One kind is the degraded Christian. From the human perspective, Christians of this kind do not look like Christians at all because they live and walk just like the unbelievers. Such Christians are degraded Christians. Another kind are the well-behaved Christians. Formerly such ones were loose, but now they behave properly; formerly they did evil, but now they do good. In man’s eyes, these Christians are above the standard. In God’s eyes, however, they are still below the standard, because what God is after is neither degraded Christians nor Christians who are above the standard.

What God desires is not just that we would be delivered from sins but that Christ would be lived out from within us. This is not a matter of being good or evil, proper or improper, or moral or immoral. Rather, it is a matter of Christ being lived out from within us. We all know that after we are saved, we have God in us as our life. However, is it we who live, or is it God who lives? Is it we who are lived out, or is it God who is lived out? The crux of the matter is whether or not we are willing to be broken and to pass through death. If we are not willing to be broken or to pass through death, God will have no way to live out from within us. However, if we are willing to be broken and to die, God will be able to live out from within us. According to the Bible, to deny the self is to pass through death and the breaking.

We should not merely take care of our human needs; we should also take care of God’s need. When the Lord Jesus was incarnated, He was restricted, constrained, and unable to be released from His human body. However, through His death He was released. The shell of His human body was broken through death so that the divinity within Him, the Christ within Him, could be released. The issue of this release was that God’s life could enter into many people and into us as well. However, immediately after His life came into us, He was confined and constrained in us.

hi guys, anyone here done watching movie "Son of God" yet?
it's true story of Jesus accordingly or ?

i'm muslim by the way

Hi ik3da,

Personally I don't think it's categorized as idolatry depending on your intentions. By offering, do you mean your wife has a stone tablet in your home where she offers incense/offerings on a daily basis?

I understand your dilemma, and I had a hard time dealing with this at one point of time as well. While I don't practice daily offerings, etc., I still do visit my dead ancestors gravesite during Cheng Beng to clean up. I just help to clean the place and offer a joss stick as a sign of respect to my grandfather, not forgetting to mention, it's a Chinese culture thing (Westerners offer flowers/candles, we Chinese offer joss sticks). Either way, it's just a sign of respect. And that's it! Anything else other than that(listed below) I don't do:
1) Asking for lottery numbers
2) Asking for blessings and protection, etc.
3) Tossing the coins to "ask" if the spirit is done eating
4) Eating/Using the offers (food, etc.)
5) Offer meals for the spirit
6) Burn paper offerings (Well I do throw stuff in the fire but........my intentions are not too offer, I just do this to play with fire )
7) Stick a joss stick at the "Earth God's/Hades and all other deities" altar for my relatives "protection/blessing wtv"

But this is just me, you are free to make a choice of your own just as long as your intentions are clear. It helps if you pray and ask for guidance. If you did it and feel that it is seriously wrong, ask for forgiveness from God and speak to your wife about how you are not comfortable with it. Pretty sure things will work out eventually.

Wow ... your first post here as a new user?

Punkolyte,

You are Christian?

Yes. I opened up an account just to reply to some queries here. Hoping to help out some freshies....also...slacking off at work

Dude,

Regarding your OCD, I've got no say in that. Pray for a miracle cure? Anywaay, your addiction to porno.....I'm glad you actually brought up this topic because every single freaking church will just say that it's a sin and one ought to stop and pray yadee yadaaa blablabla...and yet, never have I come across a pastor/elder/leader who actually gave a effect-on-life point of view or rather a rational/mental ways to stop, only spiritual and by that it means "you go to hell because you watch porn, so STOP. Just pray and case closed". So really, thanks for your honesty.

While I can't really help you out here, I suppose I can help you pinpoint a few things that could help you with your bad habits. First of all, I am guessing you are in between 16-23 years old dude and still a student. I would say it's quite normal especially when you're at that age......and single.


Of course I have more to say but first let me ask you these few questions:
1) What is YOUR OWN personal opinion of sex before marriage? Is it okay to have one night stands? What about couples who are madly in love? (I don't want to hear repeated stuff from your pastor or stuff you have read, I want YOUR VERY OWN opinion)
2) Do you approve of it especially with all your friends and everyone else you know doing it? It is so normal and a huge achievement that you're a sad pathetic loser if you're still virgin? Would you be like everyone else, just for the sake of not being called a loser?
3) Do you intend to get married some day?

Anybody have experiences with sleep paralysis?