There is some confusion among my husband and me and some of our close friends over the meaning of 2 Cor 9:8-9. All of us believe in tithing and practice it, plus we all give above the tithe to other ministries. Some of us believe it says we should give to everyone who ask us for money no matter what. Others say we should try to be discerning in who we give money to. We all want to be generous. If we do not give to everyone who ask us for money or financial support, are we being disobedient to this scripture?

Something has been weighing heavy on my mind for some time now. It seems that no one is preaching ‘preparation’. I believe there will be a rapture of the Church soon. As things are winding down and we see prophecy coming to fruition it is time for true women and men of God, I believe, to focus on being prepared for His coming. What are your thoughts on this?

Hi, great site and may the Lord provide for you. My faith and my walk with God has been good. I just got saved this year and I am very thankful for that. Praise our Lord.

What do you think about lifting weights? Do you think that if I focus too much on sculpting and chiseling my body, I am not glorifying the Lord, but instead I am glorifying my flesh? I’ve been struggling with this. I believe the Lord has already given me an answer to this, but being human, I can be stubborn and need second opinions from brothers and sisters in Christ. Am I serving two masters? When one decides to work out and get in shape, it becomes a lifestyle. There is much needed dedication as far as diet, sleep schedule, and physics that go into building new muscles. Can it be possible to work out and serve the Lord at the same time? Thanks.

During recent discussions with members of the Church regarding the end-times events which are unfolding on the world scene, I have been surprised by the negative comments regarding the rapidly approaching return of Jesus. Several professing Christians have expressed their desire that there be enough time remaining which would allow them to “experience a full life.” Some of the most common comments are as follow:

“I want to see my kids grow up.” “I have some things that I want to do first.” “I want to serve God longer.”

Most of these people would agree that they are tired of the evil we face every day and that things are getting worse. I am baffled by their desire to remain in our current state of existence. Do their reasons for wanting to continue in this life conflict with the sentiment of 1 John 2:15-17?

You have stated the Rev. 7 martyrs are saints who die after the Seal judgments. Have you ever tried to figure out how the four horses line up chapter-wise with the whole book of Revelation? Or does it overlap too much to do that?

My sister is reading a book in which the author speaks of the angel in Revelation 8:3-7 as being Jesus. The author also says that the prayers of the saints which are being offered with the incense upon the golden altar are the prayers of the raptured church for those ‘christians’ who missed the rapture and are now enduring the tribulation. To settle a disagreement about these verses, my sister would like you to explain who the angel and the saints are.

Re: Rev. 11:19 The Ark of the Covenant was seen by John, as related in Revelation, in Heaven in the future. Now if the Ark of the Covenant is there then is it not likely that it is there presently?

And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

My question has to do with what the Bible refers to as “hardening of hearts”. There are many examples in the Bible of people hardening their hearts toward God. For instance Ephesians 4:17-18 (NLT) states, “Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him”. My understanding of verses like these are that our hearts are hardened toward God and accepting Jesus as our savior because of our sinful and ungodly behavior.

Other verses state that God hardened someone’s heart. For example, in God’s dealing with Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus 4:21 God stated, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” My understanding of this is that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that pharaoh would, “see His power and that His fame might spread throughout the earth,” (Exodus 9:16). Am I correct in saying that God, who knows the end from the beginning, knew that Pharaoh would never turn to Him so God used Pharaoh for this purpose?

I have been a Christian for a long time and have always believed in Jesus Christ, however, as of late, I realized that I didn’t understand why I believed what I believed, so I set out on a quest. I wanted to understand why others from different faiths believed what they believed about God. This quest brought me to a finding that I have a question about. It would appear that Hinduism predates Judaism. I also found that Krishna has a very similar story as Jesus. Now please don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in Jesus, I was just hoping for an explanation for my findings. Again, I am a firm believer, but I guess I am on a quest of reassurance. I wish I had more faith so I didn’t doubt all the time. It really isn’t that I doubt what I believe, I just want answers to back it up. Do you think this is wrong to have a lack of faith like this? To question things all the time like I do?

I always thought Hell was forever, but I recently read another view called the conditional view. It teaches that the unrighteous will be resurrected, judged, punished in Hell for a period of time proportional to their sins, and then suffer destruction (both body and soul). The author mentions several points against eternal punishment but he states “the most convincing of all arguments against the traditional viewpoint relates to what Jesus Himself suffered on the cross. What was that punishment? It was extreme punishment followed by death. If Jesus did not suffer the full penalty for our sin, our debt has not been paid. But the Scriptures say that He paid the full debt and it was not eternal torment.” What do you think of that argument?