21 Questions I Want to Ask God

By Carl B. Jones

Have you ever had a question that no one seems to have the answer too? The more you asked the more it was shrouded with opinions rather than fact. 21 Questions I Want to Ask God deals with some of the most controversial and taboo subjects and deals with them head-on. We can no longer sit back and wait for someone else to ask the difficult question but rather embrace the truth of what God has to say about the questions we have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499066234

Carl B. Jones

Pastor Carl Jones serves as the senior Pastor of The Lord’s Church Worship Center in Southeast Raleigh. He was born in Washington DC and later migrated to Raleigh NC where he has lived most of his life. While in Raleigh he attended Trinity Bible College where he studied theology and obtained his degree. Later he also pursued a degree in network security at ECPI. He excelled in this field and now works in the banking industry as a senior support specialist. Pastor Jones met and married Lady Tracy Jones. As a devout husband and father of Nakia Jones, he is also a devoted pastor who believes in building up the people of God. He is a leader and a visionary who is committed to developing men women and youth and teaching the word of God.

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Copyright © 2014 by Carl B. Jones.

ISBN:           eBook           978-1-4990-6623-4

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Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Rev. date: 08/25/2014

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

1.   Do Christians Fornicate?

2.   Is Thinking About Sex Wrong?

3.   Can A Homosexual/Lesbian Make It Into Heaven?

4.   Should Christians Masturbate?

5.   Is Oral Sex Wrong?

6.   Is It A Sin To Watch Pornography?

7.   Why Don’t You Tithe?

8.   Should I Pay My Tithes Or My Bills?

9.   Why So Many Sacrificial Offerings?

10. Should The Preacher Be Paid?

11. Is It A Sin To Play The Lottery?

12. Can A Woman Preach?

13. Can A Woman Be An Apostle/Bishop?

14. Should A Woman Dress Sexy In Church?

15. Does A Virtuous Woman Only Exist In The Church?

16. Should Women Be Discriminated Against For Having A Baby Out Of Wedlock?

17. Is There An Age Limit To Becoming A Bishop?

18. Does Size Matter?

19. Pastor Do You Practice What You Preach?

20. Why Are Titles Important?

21. Prophet How Do You Know My Name?

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my mother, Garnette T. Jones.

Thank you for all of your love and support

with the creation of this book.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F irst, I would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for saving me and putting this book in my spirit.

To my lovely wife and best friend, Tracy W. Jones, you are the driving force behind my success. Words can’t describe how much you really mean to me.

To my daughter, Nakia R. Jones, you are the inspiration behind all that I do.

To the greatest church on this side of heaven, The Lord’s Church Worship Center, thank you for your support.

I would also like to thank all my friends who gave their insight to some of the questions in this book: Apostle James L. Spence, Bishop Corletta Vaughn, Apostle T.L. Penny, Bishop Demetrius Sinegal, Pastor Ronzel Pretlow, Pastor Anthony Knotts and Pastor Tonya Mitchell.

FOREWORD

I n the third chapter of Ezekiel, God gave the Prophet Ezekiel an unusual assignment. He chose him to speak a word to a group of people that God told him would reject him. Ezekiel obediently submitted to this unpopular assignment to speak what God instructed to him.

In his first book, "Twenty-One Questions I Want to Ask God," my friend and brother, Overseer Carl Jones, answered his assignment from God to use social media as an avenue to challenge and respond to questions that people needed answers to but have been afraid to ask. In the beginning, I was a skeptic. But upon reviewing the response of other followers, I quickly realized that this was much needed conversation about things that the Body of Christ really needed to confront.

I have known Overseer Jones for over 5 years and have come to genuinely respect him as person and as a true prophet of God. It is my prayer for every reader that your heart and mind are open to the uniqueness of the questions and answers but also to celebrate the courage of a man moved by the assignment of God and not the response of people.

Brother, Lady Knotts and I are extremely proud of you and celebrate your courage and confidence to step out of the box with the content of this book. May God bless you, your family and the success of the book.

Pastor Anthony Q. Knotts, Senior Pastor

The Embassy Church International

QUESTION ONE

DO CHRISTIANS FORNICATE?

P remarital sex is a major issue that Christians deal with on a daily basis. When reviewing the national statistics in Relevant Christian magazine, it was reported that 80% of Christians indulge in some form of sex before marriage. The bible makes it clear that fornication is a sin and is referenced 54 times in the bible. Currently the population is waiting to get married at a much older age than in the past. With television and the internet perpetuating sexuality in commercials, advertisements, and other forms of sexual images; it gets harder to resist the urge to participate in some form of sex.

When doing research, I found that within the 80% who indulged in sex before marriage, 64% have done so within the last year and 42% are in a current sexual relationship. When I analyzed the study further, which did not look into religious people specifically, I found that the initial age of those having sex was between the ages of 13-25 years of age.

When you are involved in some relationships there can be constant pressure from the intimate partner and friends to participate in some form of sex before marriage. Some people will even break up a committed relationship because their partners will not indulge in sex because of religious beliefs. We are bombarded with images of sex on television where Christians receive pressure from other people to participate in sex before marriage and where abstinence and celibacy are frowned upon.

Sex before marriage is something that most churches and Christians are faced with. It is an issue that can have serious consequences such as unwanted pregnancies, STD’s and broken hearts. Premarital sex is a sin and according to the Bible, it can cause you to miss heaven and eternal life. So what do you think about this taboo subject?

An older preacher friend told me several years ago that fornication was the most often committed sin and I am inclined to agree. When I recently ministered at a church in my area, I gave an appeal to the people who were struggling with fornication to come to the altar. With my eyes closed while praying, I opened them and was caught off guard because the whole church was filled with worshippers, young and old that had come to the altar. After the service was over, the pastor called me to say he had no idea that so many of his parishioners were dealing with this sin.

We cannot be naïve to the fact that people, unmarried Christians, are having sex. God has made us to be sexual beings but somehow the environment that we live in has altered His original plan for our lives. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:18, Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body.

Pastor Tonya Mitchell wrote a book entitled, "Why Do I Keep Falling? which reminds us that the mind is the place where all decisions are made. Everything that we do, we always think about doing it first. When we get caught in sexual immorality, we like to say, It just happened," but in most cases that simply is not true. We often stay too long or entertain the desires of our flesh. Flee from sin! To flee means to run away from a place or situation of danger. Sexual immorality is dangerous!

Many men and women say that they are tempted by their flesh even though they profess to be saved. They have an I just can’t help it mentality. We often use the scape goat that God knows my heart but we have to also realize that God knows His word. The bible states in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And god is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

I recently posed the do Christians fornicate question on Facebook where I received a variety of responses. Some of the user’s responses were:

How effective is this dialogue? Any