{"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,"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_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45210,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-one-else-has-so-detailed-clear-answers\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":0},"title":"No one else has so detailed, clear answers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have found your site and answers really helpful. Every other church of Christ website I have been to, no one was so detailed and clear about anything. They would either say the answer in the Bible and not explain it or they would just say stuff that is\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":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":2},"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":32292,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-sermon-was-a-blessing-to-me-and-my-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":3},"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":40886,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-am-heartened-to-read-your-sermons\/","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":4},"title":"I am heartened to read your sermons","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, I feel I must send you an email to thank you for your website. I have spent the last several evenings reading your sermons and your answers to other questions and issues and am deeply and spiritually moved by them. In contemporary society when so many are\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":[]}],"_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}]}}