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Good point, Phanny, good point.
Faith
- Thread starter Mason Melchizedek
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Good point, Phanny, good point.
There are many paths....but only ONE that leads to a truthful relationship with the God of Creation. "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate broad is way that leads to destruction, and there be many that who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there be few that find it." -- Matthew 7:13-14
No one is allowed to DO THEIR OWN THING nor SEEK OUT THEIR OWN PATH...the scriptures admonish all Christians to speak the same thing, to act the same way....this is accomplished by following the righteous doctrine delivered once for all time (Jude 3). There are no new revelations.......Jesus the Christ appointed the Apostles to deliver what was necessary....today the words of the Apostles...i.e., the WORDS OF THE CHRIST were recorded but once. For all Christians to be as one as instructed.....they all must use the same Doctrine in its entirety (not cherry picked phrases twisted to fit any individual ideology....as the scriptures are not for private interpretation, The saints ...ie.., delivered and interpreted the Word of God for everyone.
We are all to speak with one voice, "Now I plead with you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement." -- 1 Cor. 1:10
Private interpretation? "....knowing this first, that no word of prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but by holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." -- 2 Peter 1:20-21
Anyone that claims they are in direct communication with God today...are liars or insane. If indeed God is playing favorites (which He claims He does not, Romans 2:11) among men.....all these supposed modern communications should be put to script and used as Books of the Holy Scriptures.....of course after they are confirmed in the same manner as was the scriptures confirmed in the 1st century by the Apostles of Christ...with miraculous signs and wonders......raising the dead, healing the sick, curing the crippled, giving sight to the blind....with no failures BECAUSE THE INFIRMED LACKED FAITH.
Signs and Wonders....THE MIRACULOUS was used to confirm the fact that the Apostles were delivering the Word of God (Acts 2:22, Hebrews 2:4, 2 Cor. 12:12)
Consider the words of Paul the Apostle as to the purpose of the miraculous signs and wonders, "Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in sings and wonders and mighty deeds." -- 2 Cor. 12:12
Who had access to these signs and wonders besides those appointed by God in the 1st century? What happened with Simon the sorcerer (male witch) witnessed the miraculous event through the laying on of hands by those appointed by an Apostle. Peter when asked by this sorcerer to give him the gift of the Holy Spirit if he gave the apostle money in exchange for that gift,.........Peter told him, You have neither part portion in this matter....may your money perish with you. (Acts 8:17-20)
The Apostles told us these signs and wonders would fade away when the perfect law of liberty was recorded once for all time....there would be no need to act like children playing church any longer......we were to be mature once all the truth was delivered, to put away childish play acting. (1 Cor. 13)
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Thank you for another fine post, Ralph.
jacksonsprat22
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Good. Or God is a narcissist like Mr Trump.
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When engaging in a battle of wits with the Holy Spirit of God its best not to engage God with an empty chamber. God pays no attention to supposed GOTCHA accusations. The first misrepresentation of scripture is the attempt to define WORSHIP in a secular fashion. Worship as defined by Jesus the Christ is not the bowing down to some powerful, all knowing, all powerful person (like one's mother is to a son).....worship must be demonstrated in respectful truth......coming from one's heart, not because of fear...but because of love.
God is a spirit and must be worshiped IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH (indicating what? one can worship in spirit without worshiping in truth...this type of worship is useless because its not based upon a strong foundation of truth....faith must have a strong foundation....the more you worship in spirit and truth the greater your personal faith becomes).
When the Christ was addressing the Samaritan Woman at the well He declared, "..believe Me a time is coming when you will worship the Father (God) neither on the mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know, for salvation is from the Jews. (Worshiping only by the supposed letter of the law, ignoring the spirit by which God intended the law to be used to teach righteousness) Yet a time is coming, and has come now when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in Spirit and truth." -- John 4:21-24
Personally, I simply cannot understand any son that does not worship (symbolically as only God is to be worshiped) his MOTHER in love, as she is the reason for his very being (existence). What son would not lay down his own life to save his mother? That is true worship. That relationship that a loving son has with his mother is the type of Worship that the Father seeks from those who believe....any type of worship that does not come from LOVE is useless worship.
There is a distinction between worship and service. Worship is giving God honor and praise....(just as you would do you give to your mother). One does not worship the Father because He is all powerful, all knowing....One worships (gives honor and praise) because of a Love for that Father. On the other hand SERVICE to the Father is simply being obedient.
Obedient to what? We are created in the image of God.....yet we all are different in a physical sense, there are genders, races, different heights, different weights...etc., thus we are created in the Spiritual Image of God as God is a spirit ...meaning that we are like God in spirit....we as humans are the only animals ever created that knows the difference between right and wrong, the only creature that was created on earth that plans for his/her own mortality. When this physical body dies.....our spirit that animates the flesh goes back to the creating force.
How do we know this spiritual force comes from a supernatural source? Because no natural force on earth can reproduce that gift of life. Science can take a living being and disassemble it down to a cellular level........but science cannot put that puzzle back together and animate that pile of flesh.
On earth in this realm of reality LIFE begets LIFE.....within species, life cannot be reproduced void of pre-existing life. Science (man's limited knowledge) cannot create life. That fact alone makes it obvious that something SUPER (ior) to Nature .....Supernatural must have accounted for that first sample of life. There has never been an example of any type of Spontaneous Generation of life...never. Life can only be reproduced through existing life.
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Nice post, Ralph, nice post. Thank you.
No, it's all due to natural processes, either alone or as modified by man. There's zero indication of any supernatural Being.
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Much of the Bible is spent demonstrating God's narcissism.
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You missed my pointing out how (you are) controlled in every regard.
The only input (you) bring to the workings is desires.
What to speak of losing 1/3rd of life in sleeping.
Yes, you have 5 senses, as do all species of life, and, all species seek the same goals "eat, sleep, mate, defend".
Beasts see humans as strangers to approach or flee from.
We humans exhibit faith throughout the day ---In good Faith--- we bestow upon so many others around us BUT don't consider it acts of faith, ie:
The cop will be fair.
The judge will be fair,
The price will be reasonable.
The fire brigade will save the day.
The taxi driver wont crash.
The Airplane pilot wont crash.
The sandwich is devoid of ecoli.
The doctor rids the needle of air before injecting you.
The post office will deliver the mail.
The credit card scanner is not spammed.
The prostitute wont rob you at gun point nor turn out to be a cop.
The weather if fine.
The toilet flushes fine, and there's plenty of TP.
Yep. But's lots of guys are always trying to out do him.
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Nice post, thank you.
Of course, none of that is actually "faith". It's all based on actual experience, not fairytales.
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When the Captain tells the soldier to charge, the soldier charges. ---The soldier has faith.
Even if during a life's tour they are un-aware of the ancient maxim:
"Happy are the soldiers to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought,
opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets." -Bg 2:32
Beware the path of crabs with samurai faces
Heikegani. Heikegani (平家蟹, ヘイケガニ, Heikeopsis japonica) is a species of crab native to Japan,
with a shell that bears a pattern resembling a human face which many believed
to be the face of an angry samurai hence the nickname Samurai Crab.
Heikegani - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Heike
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When the Captain tells the soldier to charge, the soldier charges. ---The soldier has faith.
Even if during a life's tour they are un-aware of the ancient maxim:
"Happy are the soldiers to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought,
opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets." -Bg 2:32
Beware the path of crabs with samurai faces
Heikegani. Heikegani (平家蟹, ヘイケガニ, Heikeopsis japonica) is a species of crab native to Japan,
with a shell that bears a pattern resembling a human face which many believed
to be the face of an angry samurai hence the nickname Samurai Crab.
Heikegani - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Heike
Nice post, thanks.
Nothing but diversion.When the Captain tells the soldier to charge, the soldier charges. ---The soldier has faith.
Even if during a life's tour they are un-aware of the ancient maxim:
"Happy are the soldiers to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought,
opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets." -Bg 2:32
Beware the path of crabs with samurai faces
Heikegani. Heikegani (平家蟹, ヘイケガニ, Heikeopsis japonica) is a species of crab native to Japan,
with a shell that bears a pattern resembling a human face which many believed
to be the face of an angry samurai hence the nickname Samurai Crab.
Heikegani - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Heike
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
What some call NARCISSISM.......God calls JUSTICE and true justice can only be produced in an equal manner to everyone. The Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike....God plays no favorites, Christians are promised nothing extra in this life, they live by the same natural laws that God created (physical laws of nature..i.e., physics) as does everyone on earth. A Christians reward comes after this race called life is over.....its an eternal SABBATH for everyone that obeys the righteous laws that God has provided to live a long and healthy life while treating everyone they encounter with the same respect they themselves would expect. You live and die by the judgements you make everyday.......its in this image we are like God, as we direct our own fate by those same judgements.
If you eat like a hog, smoke, and then find out you have a life threatening disease....is God responsible for the judgements/decisions that you have made all your life? If you build on the coast and a storm destroys your property and perhaps the life of your loved one.....is God responsible because you wanted to keep up with the Jones' and build on snobs knob? God is not responsible because you chose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.....no more than He is responsible that some disease might overtake you because of a familiar genealogy history because someone in your family history exposed themselves to some pathogen through ignorance.
The Son of God (God incarnate) came to earth to fulfill one mission.......to present and standby the truth as was delivered from Heaven, He did not come to earth to feed, house, cure, anyone....to stop poverty from existing, He came to earth to save our Eternal Spirit from an eternal separation away from the Father in Heaven.....as God cannot look upon sin. Its grace that saves through works. One cannot (faith) exist without the other (works)....alone they mean nothing.....together they have the capacity to change lives for the better.
Jesus directly said, "The poor among you, You will have forever." --John 12:8 No amount of legislation by man can stop people from being poor. Poverty exists because some people choose to be poor....some are poor due to accident or disease. Yet the left attempts to stop poverty as a political statement.....they take away the rights of the many in an attempt to produce a utopia that is impossible to find. And that is not freedom or liberty.......that is totalitarian despotism. Socialism and Liberty mix like oil and water. If you steal through over taxation its no different that holding someone at gun point. God says 10% enough, if 10% is good enough for God it should satisfy any liberal.........but they are always standing with their hat in their hands saying, More Soup Please......after some 22 trillion spent of the taxpayers money.......poverty still exists with side effects from generational welfare........fatherless families, generational crimes because the Family has all but been eliminated......there is no one to teach the majority of the Children....expect the Government, we all see how that ends........riots, murders, lies, deceit, sexual perversion...etc.
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What some call NARCISSISM.......God calls JUSTICE and true justice can only be produced in an equal manner to everyone. The Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike....God plays no favorites, Christians are promised nothing extra in this life, they live by the same natural laws that God created (physical laws of nature..i.e., physics) as does everyone on earth. A Christians reward comes after this race called life is over.....its an eternal SABBATH for everyone that obeys the righteous laws that God has provided to live a long and healthy life while treating everyone they encounter with the same respect they themselves would expect. You live and die by the judgements you make everyday.......its in this image we are like God, as we direct our own fate by those same judgements.
If you eat like a hog, smoke, and then find out you have a life threatening disease....is God responsible for the judgements/decisions that you have made all your life? If you build on the coast and a storm destroys your property and perhaps the life of your loved one.....is God responsible because you wanted to keep up with the Jones' and build on snobs knob? God is not responsible because you chose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.....no more than He is responsible that some disease might overtake you because of a familiar genealogy history because someone in your family history exposed themselves to some pathogen through ignorance.
The Son of God (God incarnate) came to earth to fulfill one mission.......to present and standby the truth as was delivered from Heaven, He did not come to earth to feed, house, cure, anyone....to stop poverty from existing, He came to earth to save our Eternal Spirit from an eternal separation away from the Father in Heaven.....as God cannot look upon sin. Its grace that saves through works. One cannot (faith) exist without the other (works)....alone they mean nothing.....together they have the capacity to change lives for the better.
Jesus directly said, "The poor among you, You will have forever." --John 12:8 No amount of legislation by man can stop people from being poor. Poverty exists because some people choose to be poor....some are poor due to accident or disease. Yet the left attempts to stop poverty as a political statement.....they take away the rights of the many in an attempt to produce a utopia that is impossible to find. And that is not freedom or liberty.......that is totalitarian despotism. Socialism and Liberty mix like oil and water. If you steal through over taxation its no different that holding someone at gun point. God says 10% enough, if 10% is good enough for God it should satisfy any liberal.........but they are always standing with their hat in their hands saying, More Soup Please......after some 22 trillion spent of the taxpayers money.......poverty still exists with side effects from generational welfare........fatherless families, generational crimes because the Family has all but been eliminated......there is no one to teach the majority of the Children....expect the Government, we all see how that ends........riots, murders, lies, deceit, sexual perversion...etc.
Fantastic post, Ralph. Thank you.
Don't be silly. Parts of the Bible were dictated to text by God, but most was the musings of philosophers.