[Volina]

>am just tired of volina hitting my in box dollar moja pia and
>all you other guys compalaining what did i say to anyone of
>you .apart from sanaa for that post . yani what the heck. i
>need a new handle

You have issues ma friend, who are you to condemn or even judge. u better change that damn handle before u start getting people's speck on the eye while u are blind urself. Have a wondeful day.


The world is still beautiful.

[Volina]

>Why do i get this weird feeling that the 'Prince' was
>Volina's ex-boyfriend?

who exactly is the prince if i should know? just curious.

The world is still beautiful.

[nyawera_1]

>You have issues ma friend, who are you to condemn or even
>judge. u better change that damn handle before u start getting
>people's speck on the eye while u are blind urself. Have a
>wondeful day.

Now you are advocating for him to go deeper into the abyss of hypocracy?
I'm just curious, how come you are so quick to anger and then in the next breath so ready with an apology cloaked in religion? Don't you tire? ever tried meditation?

[jarabuon]

>I'm just curious, how come you are so quick to anger and then
>in the next breath so ready with an apology cloaked in
>religion?

that is the anguish experienced by every savedee, day in day out


>Don't you tire?

u got tired didn't you.....


>ever tried meditation?

is it better than the guilt trips?

[ATLian]

>Generally, do you thing that someone who continuously keepings
>on sinning can at the same time believe that God is both
>omnipresent and Holy? How would you reconcile the two

TM,

I got peeps here in ATL who are staunch believers. They pray daily, they go to church every Sunday, they are always blasting me for my atheism, and some of them are even seriously saved. Of course they believe in all of god's attributes, including the fact that he is holy and omnipresent. Still, enough of these chaps will be with me in the club on Sato catching pints, they still have sex despite not being married, etc. I always ask them how they reconcile the two, and their standard answer is that their god is a forgiving god. So as long as they pray and go to church on Sunday, they have a clean page to begin the next week.

I think it's a load of hypocrisy, a perfect case of having their cake and eating it too.

[martin77]

is this the end of the Mashada crusaders? you flee at the words of Nyawera and co. yet those who came before you had to face lions, and did.

Sure, I admit people have said things they shouldn't have said but I guess its to God we look up to, not Voillina or me or the rest of the salvation crew.

[joeNM]

keep looking to God. i personally have not run away .

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” II Cor. 10:4, 5.

Though you have been tormented, defeated and cast down, if you will heed this message, God will give you light as to the way to victory in your present state, and also help you win every battle in the future.

[martin77]

thats the spirit pal, dont let yourself get browbeaten. it cements the unbelievers further in their folly because they think that just because they have found fault with one of us it makes them ok.

[joeNM]

The Lord Jesus placed heavy emphasis on the deceitful nature of the devil. In a confrontation with the Pharisees, He declared that their inability to recognize the truth was due to the fact that they were allied with the devil.

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44, NIV).
Dr. William Hendriksen made this comment:
The devil, then, is the very wellspring of lies, the creator of falsehoods . . . . When he lies, he is the original. When he does not lie (Acts 16:16,17), he quotes or even plagiarizes; but even then he gives the borrowed words a false setting in order to create an illusion. He ever strives to lie and to deceive, and this he does in order to murder (The Gospel of John, Baker, p.61).
It is the devil's very nature to lie because he began his career in an act of self-delusion. "You have said in your heart: . . . I will exalt my throne above the stars of God . . . I will be like the Most High" (Is. 14:13,14).

By deluding himself into believing that he could claim a position of equality with the Most High, Satan fell from his position of high honor. He became the "father of lies," depending on a web of self-deceit and illusion to maintain his fantasy of equality with God.

By claiming equality with God, the devil is forced to lie to himself about every aspect of reality. His rebellion has locked him into an irrational posture in which he desperately denies the evidence of his own hopelessness and meaninglessness.

The devil's position is the same as that of an extremely self-centered person who clings to an unrealistic view of himself. For example, a self-centered person who thinks he is a great singer will not accept any criticism that implies the contrary. Rather than admitting the possibility that he might be wrong in his estimate of himself, he will associate only with people who encourage him in his self-delusion. He may continue to believe that he is a wonderful singer even if he can find no one else who agrees.

The psychological term for such irrational willfulness is narcissism, and we are all aware of people who to a greater or lesser degree exhibit this tendency. Such people eventually accept reality (however painful it may be) or they defy it by either withdrawing into their own inner world or attempting to reconstruct reality so that it fits their false ideas. (Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are two individuals who took the second approach.) The devil is the ultimate narcissist. He is powerful and willful enough to attempt to restructure all of God's created reality in order to keep his false sense of self-importance.

Satan does not deceive others in the manner of one who knows the truth and merely seeks to mislead. Satan lies because his own intelligence has been darkened by his perverted will. He is the "father of lies" because he has deluded himself and willfully persists in his self-delusion.

Let's take a look at how the self-deceived one has been aggressively deceiving mankind from the very beginning of human history.

The Elements of Satan's Lie. The basic elements of Satan's lie are recorded in Genesis 3:1-8. His words seem to have been chosen carefully to cause Eve to question God's trustworthiness: "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the Garden'?" He wanted Eve to perceive God from his own diabolic perspective, questioning God's motives and intentions. He wanted her to fear that God's plans for her would violate her individuality and run contrary to her deepest needs and desires.

The devil next denied the truth of God's warning. He said, "You will not surely die." Having planted doubt in Eve's mind concerning God's goodness, he wanted her to believe that no consequences would result from her disobedience.

He continued: "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (v.5). These words were a direct attack on God's goodness and an appeal to Eve's pride. Satan portrayed the Lord as denying Adam and Eve the one thing that would bring them ultimate fulfillment--equality with God. These perverse words came straight from the devil's heart, reflecting his own view of God.

When Adam and Eve acted in accordance with the lie, they became the helpless pawns of Satan's rebellion. His lie remains unchanged today.

The Results of Believing Satan's Lie. The story of the fall shows us that when people believe Satan's lie that God cannot be fully trusted, they fall into the fear of self-exposure. After Adam and Eve had eaten from the forbidden tree, they became conscious of their nakedness, made a feeble attempt to cover their shame with fig leaves, and tried to hide from God (Gen. 3:7-10).

Christian psychologist Larry Crabb says that the primary motivation for all of our social behavior is a fear that if others really knew us as we are, they would reject us in disgust. This fear of exposure is rooted in our sense of the ugliness of our fallen natures as they have been perverted and corrupted by sin. Satan delights in inflaming this fear until we, like the Pharisees, transform ourselves into "whitewashed tombs" (Matt 23:27) of self-deceit and self-righteousness.

M. Scott Peck has observed that the central defect of evil people lies not in the fact that they sin but in the fact "that they refuse to acknowledge [their sin]" (People of the Lie, p.69). He also points out that evil people are the people of the lie, "deceiving others as they also build layer upon layer of self-deception" (p.66).

This fear of self-exposure drives people into relativism, mysticism, and legalism. Often they find themselves confronted with intense experiences and "counterfeit gods" so compelling that they become convinced that they are on the right track. When this happens, they fall helplessly into the clutches of that self-deluded serpent who is masquerading as the source of truth.

Satan's Disguise. Paul warns us that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). This is necessarily so, since anyone would flee from him if they sensed his true nature. A master of disguise, Satan appears in many forms to conceal the truth of the incarnation.

The New Age movement gives us many examples of how this happens. While it denies the reality of a separate creator and claims a form of deity for man, this current cosmic charade is replete with accounts of encounters with "guides," "spirits," "entities," and figures from pagan mythology. Carlos Castenada's books on Yacqui Sorcery contain hair-raising accounts of his meetings with demonic figures. Shirley MacLaine's popularization of the practices of "channeling" and "astral projection" is just a resurfacing of occultic practices that have long been widespread. Carl Jung, the brilliant founder of the Jungian School of Psychology, was noted for his occult interests. While he vehemently denied the truth of the incarnation, he embraced the theory of reincarnation on the authority of figures who spoke to him in his visions and dreams.

Satan's kingdom works through sinister figures like the Nazi leaders (all of whom were deeply involved with occultism). But he also deceives people through innocent-appearing means. Reports that the wife of an American president relied on astrology for advice on important decisions are deeply disturbing. The kingdom of darkness also tempts us with many things that are not evil in themselves. Wealth, property, fame, power, family, friends, science, art, and even religion can become false gods if they distract us from an understanding of our loving Creator as He has revealed Himself in Christ.