Anyway welcome to LYN Christian Fellowship v8.

We have quite a number of Christians in this thread from various denomination.

Don't get offended if any of us differ in understanding of scripture.

Just need to take a step back and smile.  Trust me, there will be differences and sometime we cannot reconcile to what we understand.

Can't stop arguments either. What's important is that we stay united and relax.

that's good to hear! You might want to get involved in a Cell Group in one of the churches there. I personally know one of the pastors at PJEFC too, so try go find a community that you can fit with.

Hi Tinar,

Glad that you know God loves you but I also hope you know that you can't earn God's Salvation.
He gives it to you out of his love for you by grace. Grace in lay term means receiving something you didn't earn or work for.

It's in Ephesians 2:8-9.

Thank GOD. Consider it's a joy ... you learn different people, you learn different organization, you learn to put distance with people, you learn a lot !

try this:
www.chc.org.my

not a perfect church, speak in tongue which maybe "weird" for you, yeah no church perfect... go try lah, if not "click" with yourself then somebody will recommend another church... consider restaurant tina ... when you find "your soulmate church" forgive my language... then start open urself slowly-slowly...

This is ngaisteve1 church:
http://www.malaysiachurch.org/

hopefully can find the "click"... "click" is important... teaching ? youtube can, internet can replace teachings... but "click" cannot get from internet

maybe you would like to try DUMC? or maybe PJ EFC

Everyone is still learning. We all progress daily when we spend time with God.

Actually God never mention just good works, it's also anything from ourselves as mentioned here below,
The meaning of works is like "effort". Can be anything.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

What we should do is just receive it by Faith (believe).  From there the Holy Spirit will take over and guide you.
The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Who else is better to guide you other than the Holy Spirit?  He's the best. Better than any theologians with master degree even.

I trust in the HS to guide me better than any theologian.

Enjoy this material about listening GOD. You need to know what to do with your talent GOD's way, not your way

http://www.cwgministries.org/Four-Keys-to-Hearing-Gods-Voice

So that now you know what the word of God says, you won't be easily shaken. 

I'll leave you with one more verse so that you can use it to strengthen your faith if you're down.

Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV) - For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

God understands and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.
Never let anyone scares you with Christian legalism or theology like the Pharisees.

Pastors are suppose to feed his sheep not beat his sheep with guilt and condemnation.

I'm sure Pastor Marvin (it was Marvin from PBC right?) didn't say that we ought to "earn" our salvation though, he probably meant that not everyone will be saved.
But yes,
Martin Luther had this to say during the reformation:"Christ loves us not because we are lovely, but we are lovely because Christ loves us"

A good place to start would be to learn more about God, what He has done in history and what He is doing for us now and what He will be doing in the future.

I spoke to Marvin before (pastor at PBC), and I'd wholeheartedly recommend his series on "Bible overview" to start things off if you prefer listening over reading (he's really easy to understand with all his illustrations and stuff too). And if you want to start finding out about this "Charismatic vs non charismatic" thing, check out his series on the Holy Spirit as well. He's extremely delicate with the topic but still very easy to understand- the best part is that he never preaches about things he "dreams" about or had a "vision" about, but about what God's word says.

Here's the link to the sermon archives: http://www.pbc.my/index.php?option=com_eve...id=124&choose=4

although I don't attend PBC, I definitely benefited alot from his sermons.

If you're going to PJEFC, go talk to Ps. Alexa and tell her you want to be in a community where your faith can be built up and where you can learn how to read your Bible to understand God better.

If you've any questions, don't be afraid to PM me if you don't get a chance to talk to either of them! (I definitely recommend talking to either pastors vs talking to people like us online though, they'll be able to be more relational)

Just pray and leave it in the hands of God.

For finding the right church and soulmate.

You can pray for practically anything that worries your heart.
You know why?

Because God loves you so much so that he doesn't want you to worried about your Life.

mine is pj too if you wanna drop by. seksyen19/1

Everybody is a sinner tina, as you said, you know it's wrong.
Just move on with your life and forget about the past.

What I normally do is acknowledge to God that I'm weak in the flesh (everyone is), and  pray that he'll hold my hand and lead me in his divine strength that I may walk in his peace. You can try this prayer for yourself.

Bible say that when you acknowledge that you are weak, God strength and grace will come in to strengthen you.

Most people have this idea that you must be strong but God says leave your own strength behind, His strength is more than sufficient to help you in your walk with him. The idea is this: The more you acknowledge that, the more you will depend on Him.

In due time you might not even realize it but when your eyes are constantly focus on Jesus Christ believing that He loves you and his atonement work at the cross is complete for you rather than you focusing on yourself whether you have done enough or have obeyed enough,  all these temptations and lust will be remove by the power of the HS.

And it only work in this principal of grace. Receiving Salvation even though you don't deserve it and believing that you are Righteous by Faith even though you don't deserve it.

Hope you get it.

Short answer: It's a sin just like any other sin.

Long answer: As a uni student, I must admit that this is one sin that turns off uni students the most. People my age would reason that God is unfair for not letting us express our love to someone we love or that "marriage is just a paper" or that christianity sexually oppresses people.

I can confess that the church has far too long been trying to avoid the topic by making sex a taboo topic; but in reality, the bible talks about sex as if it's a gift from God, and it is! Except like all the gifts of God, the abuse of it (i.e. orgies, pornography etc.) is what the sin is. So the issue isn't sex being evil, but pre-marital sex being wrong.

But then you have the other problem of us living in a sexualized culture: the pressure from the media + our hormones makes remaining pure in thought extremely hard. I used to think that women didn't struggle with sexual temptation but only men; I was wrong.

But if anyone tries to imply that you're a bigger sinner than them for being involved in such things before (just speaking hypothetically here), I bet you that if you had a tape recording of their thoughts in the past few weeks, you'll see that they're not that big of a difference than you are. There are those who have fought temptation and conquered it, but these are the people who can empathize with you best and would care for you the most because they know just how hard it is to fight sin. Only someone who has fought temptation and overcome it would admit to it being hard to overcome. Hence, the best place to go to seek the most loving advice is to another person in the church of the same gender that is older and wiser than you are: 1 to 1 sessions will help.

Of course, that's where finding a good church is important: many of the churches I've been to tend to sweep issues like these under the carpet: because to us asians it seems like a terrible topic to talk about. But this is dangerous because the power of sin is in it's secrecy. A church who thinks that sexual temptation is not an issue, who gossips about people who DO fall into such sin without loving them by trying to help is a unhealthy church.

I admit at youth church, raging hormones are a big problem. Thats why youth leaders and pastors take great pains to put everything under contol. Including abusing the innocent people. That Cheras church that sits atop a hill opposite Tesco. They are a bunch of idiots.

There was one time I was invited to join some youths to a visit to an exhibition. As I was newbie, I was in the car with 4 other people, youth pastor, his wife, two other guys and me. Then the youth pastor had the audacity to say lah "hey you two guys have been at the church since baby, there are a lot of nice girls at church, why don't you approach them". The two guys answered "haha, we blushing la, we not really in a rush". Then the youth pastor go and say "You two guys should go after the girls first, don't let new guys who just joined a few months to grab all the girls at the church". It was then I interjected to say "Not all the new guys (outsiders and strangers) join your church to go after your attitude problem girls".

They ignored me and continued to talk to each other.

I think politics is a greater sin.

As if I want to go after their girls, the heart like crap. *Ptooi*. The girls of that cheras church that sit atop a hill, the girls are worst than the secular unbeliving sacriliges girls out there.

I am a man of honor, I will not soil not as much as even breath the air of those filthy slimes.

I actually already got a soulmate, she is a christian but I didn't meet her at church. She's from another church. I just kept quiet because I am humble.

This goes to show even pastors can fumble. But I have forgiven them, I moved on. Just that I want to raise awareness and let others know, please if you want your growth and maturity, don't join the youth and young adult of that church, its not fulfilling. Their cell groups are too huge, the edification and fellowship is lacking. There's too much control that turn into politics and favortism for the inner circle.

I've seen one member who has been a member of that church since baby, until 26 years old and he doesn't even know what John 3:16 is about !!! Yet the church young adult conducts so many courses but nobody seem to be able to absorb.

The cg has over 70 members, every meeting the attendance drops to 10 active ones. How to grow la brother? I suggested to the leader to break down the cell groups into smaller groups but no no, he wants to maintain control. After what I said, I sort of felt i been labeled as a trouble maker. Gosh, suggest also means I am a rebel meh?

Crazy one. The leader some more tell me cg is not a social club... omg I just suggested to him to break down into smaller groups, what is the justification to say I wanted a social club?

Yup Peace can be felt, one of the sign that God is present in your life.

I think what is important now for you is to get familiar with God's word as much as you can.

Many Christians are destroyed from lack of the knowledge of God's word.

God's word can be offensive and defensive against spiritual enemies. It's spirit and alive. Sharper than any double edge sword.
The words in the Bible is actually God* himself. If you can began to understand that*, you need it everyday. It is food to feed your inner spirit person for without, like body that is malnutrition, your spirit person will be weak.

That is how most Christian give up and fall away.

Signs & Visions will come when God wants you to see something. So don't worry about that.

And yes, as in John 10:27, you will recognize the voice of God when you hear it, because the Holy Spirit dwell in you testifying to your spirit of the truth of God's word. He will make you understand difficult passages when you ask him. Try to pray asking the HS to guide you and give you understanding before you read the Bible. Don't read it just like that. 
Sometime God can use situations & people to speak to you,  But always fall back and confirm it with the Bible because God will never contradict his word.

Hope this helps you.

Nope. I not heard about Faith Methodist Church. But that church spells like CHAXXX.

Can hardly call it bible study. They just buy some revision books and try to finish the book by end of the year. Its dry and zero fellowship. They appoint 12 jokers who represent like the 12 apostles. But in truth, they just nothing but part time policemen, to only provide favortism to those they like, and then boycott n sideline those they don't like.

The youths there don't talk to "outsiders". But they do talk about "outsiders" when they back stab others behind their backs.

I would say any cell group without fellowship, there is no growth in there. Don't bother to bring your bible to that church.

Oh I thought u r a guy.

Yeah that church something like that. Crappy people, they practice double standards. Their own cronies can dress up how they want but the "outsiders" sure kena lambasted for their dressing code.

not at all la come on ... its proper if you wear dress over knee thats enough ! anyway yo i am CALEB

Actually they are everywhere.

But at this stinking CHAXXX church, there are more.

Even at my current church there are leaders who practice dogmatic double standard leadership.

They lack empathy. For eg, one bald leader at my current church, he criticize a couple who unable to have baby for leaving his cell group. He claims that they left because they blame God for it. He was quite angry about that. But yeah between the angst and the outburst, I notice zero sympathy he has for the couple. Some more, he is a mid 30s single guy, what does he understand about their pain?