Ask the Pastor
This is the portion of our website where you can submit any question you have about your Christian faith to us. Our pastor will respond to you. If you wish, the question and answer can be published (anonymously) on this page to let others benefit from the information. If you prefer, the response remains confidential.
Follow this link to the Ask the Pastor Form to submit any question you have about your faith.
Below are a few of the questions and answers submitted before.
Question: My husband and I married young in 1965. We were married many years, had two children and then divorced in 1980. We both remarried eventually and both divorced again. Now in our older years the Lord has brought us back together. We haven't remarried legally because of health issues involving federal insurance and income. We have been back together more than 10 years and feel we should renew our vows before the Lord. But then I read the first few verses of Deut 24 and I am so confused I don't know what to think.
I believe and The United Methodist Church teaches that God does NOT “foreknow” which individuals will accept God’s gift of salvation.
The word that Paul uses for “Foreknow” in Romans 8:29 is used 5 times in the New Testament. 2 of these uses (Act 26 and 2 Peter 3) are referring to people knowing something before now. These 2 uses are not in reference to God. They don’t help us here. One is used (1 Peter 1) for God foreknowing Christ. This seems to be a special case that doesn’t effect us.
Some drunks can walk away from the bottle and never look back. For others it is a daily struggle that they never feel like they have a victory.
So it is with my sin nature. There are some sins that I can walk away from without looking back. There are other sins that I have to guard against all day every day.
It seems to me that the question isn’t “Shouldn’t I be a better person?” The question is, “Are you a better person than you would have been without Jesus in your life?”
Question:
Pastor Rick: I have a question. My friend that lives in Texas and I have been wondering where the cave men fit into the Bible. This may be a strange question but in reading the Bible we both get the feeling that the people mentioned in there are educated men of a sort at least but when did the cave men exist? We cannot fit them in the history of the Bible.
Help!
Thanks, WT
Answer:
I think that it is not our thinking about the time that cavemen lived that needs to be adjusted, but our image of what a caveperson was.
Answer:
Yes.
There is much about what happens in the next life that is a mystery to us. God has chosen to not reveal too many details of the other side. The few hints that we have are not overly clear.
I think that when we die we go into a state of sleep waiting for the end of the world to catch up with us so that the Great Judgment can begin.
But, for us, it will feel like we stepped from one life into the next.
It might be 1,000 years from the time we die until the time that we are in eternity. It will feel like we walked from one world into the next.
Once a person has given their life to Christ, is there anything they can do to lose their salvation?
Answer:
There is much we can do to not take full advantage of our salvation. There is much we can do to embarrass God that we have salvation. There is plenty we can to ignore our salvation.
The only way we can lose our salvation is to walk away from it. We must give our salvation away. It cannot be taken from us.
We give it away by not taking the time to build a relationship with God. We give it away by living for our own glory and not for God’s glory. We trade it in for the stuff of this world.
Answer: The cross is life to me. The cross reminds me that I can’t do much that is considered “good” on my own. It is only through God’s works of grace that I can do anything.
The cross reminds me of God’s mighty sacrifice for me. What offering of thankfulness can I offer back for God’s work on the cross?
Answer: Philippians!
How can you not love: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (3:12-14).
Or “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:4-7).
Or “But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me” (2:17-18).
Paul is real in Philippians. There are some excellent quotes for life in Philippians.
Answer: Forget the guilt of losing the past. Remember the good relationship. Start with short, regular prayer times. Spend the time meditating of the person and attributes of God. When the time is right God will move you from that to a prayer time of requests and other business.
