Do you associate with sinners? You could argue this point both ways from scriptures, and many positions in between. Come out from among them and be ye separate. But you are also to let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify me. Paul taught to make a distinction between those who identified as believers and those who did not. So is there a tension between maintaining purity in association and coming into contact with those who need the message you have? What example do you see in my life? Did I avoid contact with outsiders?

Do you think of me as a father? This image was common even during my time when my disciples asked me to show them the Father. This could be a favorable image for you or not depending on the relationship you had with your own father. I told my disciples that if they had seen me they had seen the Father, but I went beyond the conventional understanding of this concept by introducing the word Abba. This term for father elevated the concept to a higher level of intimacy. Have you heard me described in terms that are distant, austere, harsh, judgmental, and indifferent?

Do you like the liberty to choose the practice of your faith? Do you exercise it carefully, in the faith tradition you choose and the denomination and church within that tradition? Do you see this as being your choice? Does your history of liberty make it hard for you to address the question of whether you chose me or were chosen by me? This is something that could be argued either way from the scriptures. What is your perception of the practice of your faith on a daily basis? Are you choosing it, making the path as you walk it, or are you being led by a power greater than yourself?

Answer: When God speaks to us, through two-way journaling or any other way, He is offering us His potential blessing for our lives which we can receive if we embrace it, believe, speak and wait patiently for it, while following His instructions. It seems that the biggest battle we all fight is that these rhema words get attacked through the reasoning of our minds. The accuser comes through with the thought, "Did God really say...?" So when reason attacks faith, what am I to do? Which is to be allowed to rule in my heart? What does the Bible declare we receive through faith? What does the Bible declare we receive through reason? Let's see...

Faith is acting like it is so

When it doesn’t appear to be so

So that it will be so

Because it is so

(Mk. 11:22,23)