{"id":33523,"date":"2012-06-28T21:25:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T02:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=33523"},"modified":"2021-03-22T21:30:09","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T02:30:09","slug":"the-web-site-has-influenced-me-to-leave-my-bad-habit-and-try-to-please-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-web-site-has-influenced-me-to-leave-my-bad-habit-and-try-to-please-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The web site has influenced me to leave my bad habit, and try to please God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hi Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n<p>I just want to say thank you to you and all the people behind the website. The website has influenced me to leave my bad habit, and try to please God. I wish you and the website team, all the best.<\/p>\n<p>God bless you all.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>I am thrilled to hear that the efforts here are helping you become a better Christian. But I always find it humorous that people think there is a large staff behind this site. There is just me. I do have a few friends who volunteer to answer some of the questions, I borrow articles from other preachers that I find particularly good, but outside of that, this is just the efforts of one preacher at a small congregation who is also working two part-time jobs to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hi Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n<p>I am really proud of you if it&#8217;s really just you and a couple of friends involved in such a big work. I really started to think about what can I do for my own people. Many people in my country don&#8217;t understand English, but I don&#8217;t have enough wisdom to make my own version of your site, while the material on your site is really powerful and life-changing. Even if I got your permission and tried to translate your website into my language, if you don&#8217;t understand my language fluently, there may be errors in the translation or meaning, and then who would correct me? So this website idea seems far beyond my abilities.<\/p>\n<p>I will tell you a little bit about myself. I grew up in a Protestant church. They teach us a lot of good value and life-changing things. But there are many differences from the principles on your site, such as our church requests tithes and it still believes in healing miracles.<\/p>\n<p>Because my church has a very large membership, there are meetings where smaller groups gather. In my group, there are just over a dozen people. I started to slowly use your site to influence them. I am starting with the small group first. I already see some differences in opinion. Some of them politely reject the ideas, but as long as I have a right to keep talking in the group, I have a chance to do something. I am slowly influencing them. If my brother and sister in Christ are one step closer to the truth, then I feel my life is quite useful. So that&#8217;s a little bit about myself.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any ideas or anything I can do, please let me know.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>I never approached this website with the intention of creating something big. When it started, I figured if a few hundred people read it each week, then it had a chance of spreading the Gospel in places I personally could not go. That it is read as heavily as it is with a worldwide audience continues to amaze me. I&#8217;m glad that it has been a good influence in your life.<\/p>\n<p>As you teach others, keep bringing them back to the word of God &#8212; that is what changes lives. People can argue with your opinions, but it is hard to argue with God when His words are written out in front of you. &#8220;<em>Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase<\/em>&#8221; (I Corinthians 3:5-7).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hi Mr. Hamilton, I just want to say thank you to you and all the people behind the website. The website has influenced me to leave my bad habit, and try to please God. I wish you and the website team, all the best. God bless you all. Answer: I am thrilled to hear&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-33523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40328,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thank-you-so-much-for-the-sermon-can-we-trust-the-text-of-the-bible-on-your-website\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":0},"title":"Thank you so much for the sermon &#8220;Can We Trust the Text of the Bible?&#8221; on your website","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much for the sermon \"Can We Trust the Text of the Bible?\" on your website. I am so blessed spiritually when I read this teaching. When I shared this teaching with our church many people were blessed and touched by this teaching. I really feel the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45912,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-site-was-the-only-one-with-a-detailed-explanation-of-i-corinthians-1541\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":1},"title":"Your site was the only one with a detailed explanation of I Corinthians 15:41","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Mr. Hamilton, Please extend my thank you to the wonderful person who answers questions on the website. I came across your website by total accident when doing my Bible study tonight. I had googled a passage from I Corinthians 15:41. Surprisingly, your website was the only one on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32292,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-sermon-was-a-blessing-to-me-and-my-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":2},"title":"Your sermon was a blessing to me and my church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much for the sermon \"The Lord is My Help and My Deliverer\" on your church's website. I am so blessed spiritually when I read this teaching. When I shared this teaching in our church many people were blessed and touched by this teaching. I really feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66909,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-topics-section-is-very-helpful\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":3},"title":"The new Topics section is very helpful","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Mr. Hamilton,I have been meaning to tell you that I really appreciate your efforts with the website. The new \"Topics\" category is very, very helpful.Sincerely. Answer: I'm glad you found the addition useful.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-love-this-website\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":4},"title":"I love this website","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I love this website. I am thankful to God for you. Please keep me in prayer, as I live daily with sin and striving to walk in God's way. It seems in life we are too comfortable with our sins. I want something more! God bless. Answer: I'm glad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39891,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-site-helped-convince-my-sister-that-jesus-is-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":5},"title":"Your site helped convince my sister that Jesus is God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Mr. Hamilton, I wanted to share one of the best moments in my life. I have a sister. She's really smart and well educated, but since her youth, she has always been suspicious about God and decided to believe that God did not exist. I told her about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}