We did a Question and Answer night at Crossfire and didn't get close to answering all of the questions. I am pretty swamped right now so turned this over to Web Monkey. What are the "saints"? (Not the football team) I know this can be confusing since some religious traditions use the term saint as some kind of super or elevated Christian. But actually the saints referred to in the Bible are actually followers of God. So if you have chosen to have Jesus as the Lord of your life then you too are a saint. And I don't know about you but that is the best thing I have been called this week! Why does God allow us to sin? Good question and it can be put in with a number of other questions like 'Why did God permit other religions?" and "Why didn't God make us all follow Him automatically?" and "Why do we have 'free will"?" The answer is that God created us (who He refers to as His Masterpiece!) to be in fellowship with Him. In other words He wants us to have a real relationship with Him. To actually love Him. Yes he could have made us to automatically be in love with Him but that would meaningless. We would be like robots and our emotions would mean nothing. He values our love and wants it given to Him freely. How was God created? If I am timid about sharing Christ or my belief with my friends what can I do? Or what can I tell them?
Hi Web Monkey, Dear "Dork", Dear Web Monkey Dear Invisible, Hi Web Monkey, Dear Confused, Dear Monkey, Hi Mr. Web Monkey, Matthew 5: 7-12 Now go do what you know you must—you will be blessed for it! Dear Web Monkey, Dear Eye Guy, Hi Web Monkey, I am in a pickle. (No I mean literally) My friends are in a big disaster. One is kind of “popular” and my other friend, well I don’t know what to call her. They seriously don’t agree at all. I have heard both sides of the story so here it goes. My nameless friend says that the other has a “posse” and is a popular person who does’t talk to me at school. That may be true, but she is my neighbor and she hangs out with me all the time. My nameless friend does’t know what we do at home and tells me she is not a good friend and tries to convince me to not be her friend. When she talks to me about that, she asks me how many times she hangs out with her during the week. When I say a lot, she says that she is mean. It is driving me insane!!! My other friend, she is scared that my nameless friend will hog me and leave her out. Last year, she didn't go to Crossfire Camp (bummer, family in town) and I am trying to convince her to go. Here’s the problem. 1) She gets a little homesick 2) She is afraid that my nameless friend will leave her out and have no one to play with. What do I do to get them back together? It is killing me!!! X-( Signed, Pickled Dear Pickled, Well I must say that this type of problem would never happen in the jungle canopy where I come from. Everyone pretty much got along all the time and we would spend hour picking fleas off of our friends. The only thing you had to worry about was getting eaten by a leopard. So I think humans might be better off worrying about not being eaten by a leopard but since that will probably not happen soon let me see if I can use my huge brain to help you out. It looks like you have been given the opportunity to be a peacemaker and that my human friend is a great thing since Jesus said that peacemakers would be blessed! I think that you might be wise to make sure that both your friends know that you love them for who they are and not for who do or do not hang with. And also that you have plenty of love to go around (humans use less than 12% of their love on average). Make sure that they know that your friendship is not a competition! And explain to the friend that has the trouble with the other that even if you and she run in different circles you still enjoy each other and she could too. As far as CF camp goes Scott tells me that he can't remember even one student dying of homesickness. In fact he tells me that there is so much going on that most students forget to be homesick as soon as they get on the bus! Also assure her that all the CF leaders make curing homesickness AND making sure everyone gets connected priority number one! Signed, Web Monkey Hi Web Monkey, Dear web monkey Dear Fan, Dear Web Monkey, That is a tough one even for such a brilliant primate as myself. We all make mistakes and God expects us to. We are very blessed to worship a God who actually wants to forgive us! How great is that? As you have learned, (the hard way) people need to know about their eternal path but it is usually not very helpful to say things like, "Oh by the way Betty you are going to burn in hell please pass me the catsup?". Our job is to share Jesus with them not to condemn them. People need to know that we love them and want the best for them before they really care what we have to say to them. So what to do now? I would go to your friend and tell her how much she means to you and that you messed up and would she forgive you? And because you care so much about her you can't bear the thought of not having her chillin in heaven with you. Tell her that God wants that even more than you do! (John 3:16) And if she ever has any questions about heaven, Jesus, sin, or whatever that you know lots of CF leaders who would be thrilled to get her some answers. Dear Web Monkey, Dear Fruit Lover, Hey web monkey! I have a question about my friend. A while back my friends mom died, ever since we have pulled further and further away. I still like her a lot but it is hard for me to go to her house but i love hanging out with her. It just feels kinda un-comfortable when I am there? What should I do to be a good friend? Signed, Lost in friendship blues Dear Lost, Why does the monkey look like Scott Thompson? Is the monkey actually his brother? Dear No Name, Dear Mr. web monkey, Dear N&C: Many humans are confused about the differences in the various types of Christianity (called denominations). Basically all of the types of Christianity came out of the church that the first followers of Christ started in about AD 33. It didn't’t have a name or denomination. The people who attended the church called themselves Christians, plain and simple. Since then Christians came up with different ways of doing certain "churchy" things and different ways of viewing various aspects of their faith. Sometimes these were very slight differences and sometimes they were more significant. Over hundreds and hundreds of years these caused people to form different denominations. Crossfire’s home is at Duvall Church, which is part of the denomination called Evangelical Methodist. Your parents associate themselves with the denomination officially called the Roman Catholic Church. Its roots can be traced back to the original church formed in the first century. There are some significant differences between those two denominations to be sure. However the most important part is the same, they both call Jesus Christ the only Son of God. That is whom they worship and that is whom their faith relies upon. Now as far as your parents go. Even I, the great Web Monkey, have to admit you know more about them that I do. But perhaps you can consider the following ways to address your problem. In any case I recommend that you ask you God for guidance and that you also confide in a Crossfire leader who will also pray with you. If you don't want to ask them in person you can contact them on the "Contacts" section of the website. Hello web monkey! Dear Wondering: Dear Web Monkey, Dear Curious: Dear Web Monkey, Dear Curious: Dear Web Monkey, Dear Curious: But Jesus told Peter, after he cut off the ear of the guard, to put his sword away . I think that was because Jesus knew that he must be arrested and didn't want Peter hindering this for no reason. Jesus lived with Peter for 3 years! Don't you think Jesus would have known if he carried a sword before than night? |
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Dear Web Monkey: Dear Free: Here is the deal; the knowledge of men changes but the word of God does not. So for the past several hundred years men who are referred to as scientists have come up with the idea that humans must have evolved from monkeys. This is a guess on their part since nobody has ever witnessed this change and there isn’t evidence to support it. It is just the best theory that scientists can come up with that fits their current knowledge. Other conflicts between what men believe and what the word of God says have come up in the past. You probably heard that for thousands of years scientists believed that the earth was flat. But ISAIAH 40:22 says, “God sits high above the round ball of earth”. (The Message) Remember that this is in the Old Testament, recorded hundreds of years before Jesus was born. So scientists discovered that the earth wasn’t flat hundreds and hundreds of years after the word of God already declared that it was round. Here is the bottom line. Can we prove, with the current evidence, that humans evolved from monkeys? Nope. Can we prove, with the current evidence that humans came from one man and one woman, Adam and Eve? Nope. God is in the miracle business and He could have created the universe from a jar of peanut butter. I think what it comes down to is that a lot of you humans don’t want to accept the fact that God exists. Because if God exists the next question is “What does he want from me?” Signed, |
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Dear Web Monkey, Dear Questioning, Your questions are similar I think and could also be asked “Why do bad things happen to the innocent?” Or "Why do nice people suffer?" The sad fact is that the world is under God’s curse because of man’s sin. (Genesis 3). Romans 8 talks about the earth being “in bondage to decay”. Basically God made the earth wonderful but it got screwed up because we rebelled against God. If we are talking about Christians in particular we have another possibility. The Bible tells us, in Hebrews 12 for instance, that God disciplines us just as any father would children. If your little sister starts to run out into a busy street your father would discipline her right? Your sister might think that “dad is being mean” because she can’t see the big picture. Your father loves his daughter and wants to make sure that she doesn't make that mistake again because he knows how serious it is. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT ALL BAD SITUATIONS THAT CHRISTIANS FIND THEMSELVES IN ARE CAUSED BY SIN. But sometimes God can use trials in our lives to teach us and to help us grow. Also, the Bible doesn’t promise our lives to be without trouble once we accept Christ as our savior. Just the opposite in fact. 1 Peter 4:12,13 “do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” The Bible is filled with stories of strong Christians having bad stuff happen to them. So we should’t be too surprised when stuff like this happen to us. If we ask Him, God will give us strength to deal with these situations. HERE IS THE GREAT NEWS to both of your questions, in the end, all of those who have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will have their sufferings taken away. Revelations 4 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Signed, |
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Dear Web Monkey, Dear Mystified, Even I, the Web Monkey, have trouble putting it into words but here goes. The Bible teaches that there is only one God. (Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 44:6-8, Isaiah 45:22) The Bibles teaches that there is one who is called the Father and is identified as being God. (1 Peter 1:2) The Bible teaches that there is one who is called Jesus and is identified as being God. (John 1:1-3&14-18, John 20:28-29, 1 John 1:1-4&5:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Revelation 1:17-18, Revelation 22:12-20) The Bible teaches that there is one who is called the Holy Spirit and is identified as being God. (John 14:16-17, John 15:26, John 16:7-15, Acts 5:3-4, Acts 13:2, 1 Corinthians 12:4-18, Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 10:15-18) |
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These and many more passages prove that God is three persons in one but that doesn’t make the concept any easier for most us to understand. Some people have tried to compare it to things that we know of, like water.
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| I have a pet goldfish here in the studio. His name is Bob. Now Bob has lived a pretty sheltered life. He lived in a small tank in the pet shop for a while, got to ride home in a little plastic bag in Scott's car, and then has spent the last 2 years in a glass bowl in the studio. Let’s say that one day Bob was transformed into being able to understand English. (It could happen) And Bob asked me to explain to him how a car engine worked. Now I could tell him about how we put a liquid that looks a lot like water into a tank and it goes into this metal thing and a series of small expositions are harnessed by a bunch of metal parts that are attached to a transmission and by this time Bob’s poor little head would explode. I can’t expect Bob to understand an internal combustion engine. He has never seen anything even remotely like it. Bob could still believe that such inventions exist since he was told that is how he got home from the pet shop, but it is silly for me to expect him to understand how an engine works. It is simply beyond his comprehension. |
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That is how God being 3 in 1 is to us I think. We can know it’s true but can’t understand it how it really works. The good news is that in heaven we will be clued in to it. I for one, can't wait! Signed, |
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Dear Web Monkey, Dear Desperate: Dear Web Monkey, Dear Bookworm: Dear Mr. Web Monkey, Dear Clueless: Dear Web Monkey, Dear Out of Ideas, Dear Web Monkey, Dear Avenger, |
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