Are Jesus and God the same person?

 Hello everyone, 

It is I, Lorena, back with another question that came to mind tonight. I was talking to some coworkers after work tonight about religion differences. Just for clarification, I was talking with two coworkers, a Morman and another Christian. I will refer to my Morman coworker as "B" and my other coworker as "W" for the remainder of this blog. W and I randomly wanted to ask B about his religion as we were curious of our different views. B explained that Morman's view God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as separate beings and that Jesus is not on the same level as God. W stated, "Well that sort of makes sense cause Jesus was put inside the belly of Mary. Otherwise did God put himself in Mary?" Although I responded, "God can do all things." I still wanted to find textual proof that backed what I was taught. 

At the time, I didn't know how to respond. I was always taught that the Holy Trinity were one, but I had never read for myself that it was stated to be so. After everyone decided to leave, I went straight home. I had to go to the one person who spends the most time with God, my grandmother. She would have the answers of course. After some difficulty trying to explain it, she did a quick search to find me the verse that states God and Jesus are one. 

The verse, John 10:30, was the first to appear in a quick google search which says, "The Father and I are one." (Fritz Chery) For me, that was all I needed to prove that they were on equal standing and not separate beings. Other quotes include:

* John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."

* John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

        * John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

These quotes from the Bible, and more, can be found from the website cited below. 

Sep 5, Fritz Chery, and 2024 Bible Verses About 45 comments. “25 Important Bible Verses That Say Jesus Is God.” Bible Reasons | Bible Verses About Various Topics, 5 Sept. 2024, https://biblereasons.com/jesus-is-god/   

How can Jesus be born of man yet pure of sin?

     My soon to be sister-in-law asked this exact question last Sunday. To understand, we must look back at where sin started, in the Garden of Eden. When God created Adam, he gave the command to never touch the fruit from one specific tree. 

Genesis 2:16-17, "And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

    Then God created Eve from Adam. Later, the serpent approached Eve and convinced her to take a bite of the forbidden fruit; and she shared it with her husband. Although Eve was the first to take a bite of the fruit, it was Adam who brought sin into the world as he was the one who God commanded. It was his job to lead Eve away from the serpent and follow the command, yet he gave into temptation. 

    Now, how does this have to do with the original question? Jesus was born from the Holy Spirit and Mary, no seed from Adam was present. Since sin comes from Adam, yet his seed had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, Jesus is pure of sin. 

    Any questions or comments you would like to add? comment them!

What does God say about ghosts?

This came up while playing Minecraft with friends. In the chat, my two friends brought up that they were alone, scared, and thought there was a ghost. I immediately responded that there is no such thing as ghosts which brought everyone else on saying yes there is, I have a friend who can see and talk to them, and I could talk to them when I was younger.... Then one of my friends who was alone wanted to call me. We talked and after a few times of me saying there is no such thing as ghosts, I looked it up. I got the perspective of God on ghosts. It said " if there are ghosts, they aren't the disembodied spirits of deceased human beings. The Bible teaches very clearly that there are indeed spirit beings who can connect with and appear in our world. They are identified as angels and demons." She then replied the Bible is lying! R u a Christian, I ask. She said yes, "then why do u say the bible is lying". "Bc it is" "no how can u say it's lying" "how do you know God wrote it" she replied. I wish I replied the words from here http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-true-is-it-really-the-word-of-god/

But instead of me saying anything bc I didn't have the answer I said I had to go and left the call. My friends are nice people but they get lost and I still got to push them back on track if it is what God wants from me. ~Lorena❤️

Family

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

     We all have those days where we curse at a family member or say I hate you to another. We might say it because we are mad at them or someone else and just taking it out on them. It might be that you don't want to do something or they won't give you what you want.  I hear this a lot, having a brother with a anger management problem is hard. He gets so easily mad and doesn't realize that he cussed because he's so used to doing it. When you do it and you know it, it stays there like a ghost haunting you until you have done it so much it's like a drug. In school we are learning how drugs are hard to quit because of a part in your brain that's like a sweet tooth. Now telling lies, hitting, or cursing at someone is hard to quit but there is one way that we are accepted. In some simple words that relation could be better. The person might still hurt but you at least said this "I'm sorry for what I have done. Will you please forgive me?" The only way that the person might forgive you is if you actually mean it. The person might forgive you anyway even if you don't ask for forgiveness but it still would hurt them that they forgave and think you aren't sorry for what you did.

https://youtu.be/c1BJa4kwWBw

You are strong even when your young

1st Timothy 4:12

12 Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Just because your young doesn't mean you can't change the world. Show them who you are in the eyes of God. Show them who you want to be as a child of God. In school i hear so much grown up talk that I didn't even know of until my brother came home asking questions of what kids in school were talking about? We are all so focused in having a BF or GF and having electronics that are cool instead of living life. Stop worrying, life doesn't get easier when your grown up too. Just look at your parents, they have a job, work long hours, and sometimes pay for stuff and not ask for money back because they like you having fun and doing fun things with them. We are so focused on ourselves and what's going to happen later that we don't realize until your asking for money they owe you when they don't take money that you owe them. Also when your a kid, you sometimes might want more friends or just to be popular. Being popular is hard. It puts you under peer pressure which can lead to things God doesn't want his child doing. Giving into this peer pressure can lead to your friends not liking this new person you have become. You might be trying to be popular to change them into nice people but it doesn't work. Satan will mess with you. It's easier for a bunch of kids to change one person than one person to change a bunch of kids. Be happy with your friends that you have. They obviously except you for who you are and not what the popular kids want you to be.

Chris Tomlin & Passion Band - All My Fountains

One of my FAVORITE songs! Great beat and I LOVE THE LYRICS!  God is my Living Water, my source of life!  Enjoy!  :D

How I became a Christian!

When I was born, my parents had me baptized as a symbol of their promise to raise me in the church and with Christian values.  According to my mom, I was four when I prayed to Jesus and ask him to forgive me. It was the night before Easter, and we were discussing the Easter story and why we celebrate.  I knew that it wasn't about the bunny or the eggs filled with candy.  I understood that I made mistakes; that I wasn't perfect. Mom said that is why we have Easter.  I told her that my preschool teacher had said Jesus died on the cross and then rose again to forgive me of my mistakes, and that I believed it was true.

As my faith grew, I said that being baptized was my parents' decision, and not mine.  I wanted to be baptized again; I wanted it to be a declaration of my faith.  Our church had a ceremony where people were being baptized. Most people had written a story of how they came to believe and why they were being baptized.  At the end of the ceremony, they had open invitation where anyone who wanted could still be baptized. I told mom that I really wanted to do this; she did too.  We were not planning on it, but we did. Mom went first and was baptized by a pastor friend, then it was my turn.  She stayed in and baptized me with my dad and poppy standing on the outside.

Many friends from church came to watch. It was a very awesome moment for me. This wasn't the start of my relationship with God, it has been a journey that started the Easter when I was 4 years-old. This isn't the end either - I hope to share my growth and walk with Christ here.

This is my personal journey.  Things I've learned from mistakes I've made, verses I've learned, and studies I've done.

Thank you for reading my GRACE & MERCY blog!  
~ Lorena