Neighbor

Dave Ramsey brags that his own credit score is zero! Think he is short of money, or in debt up to his eyeballs?

Hmm, to bring it up to date- for myself anyway: I find I too have no endorsement of the very customs I tended to and promoted for a few decades (As an Embalmer, Funeral Director, and Cemeterian; an employee of a large Mortuary - Cemetery combine) other than to know that death demands it's acknowledgement. It cannot be successfully ignored. There is no real ignoring it, grief requires it's customs, to put it to rest. Yet, I am so weary of the happy talk funerals now called life celebrations or life memorials that I do not attend nor participate in any, not even of family anymore. To think that the pace of deaths will become even more rapid that most will be in the same state as myself is in of itself a wearying thought. Cherish the fleeting vapor that is time of life in these corruptible bodies, acknowledge the deep loss that is the death of them, but enjoy not in a happy talk lifestyle memorial as though in a death there is no loss at all. For denying the pain of loss allows that pain to live on and grow and become debilitating.

Or that God has created beforehand, some things including some humans, for the very purpose of showing His Glory, His power, His wrath.

...“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ ".... Elsewhere: ..."What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"....

Happy Mother's Day. Tis but one day corporately acknowledged, at the USA anyway, but most every day individually appreciated world round (Perhaps it should be corporately acknowledged daily). At any rate may many that are moms be blessed by praise from their offspring especially this day.

Interesting; Though I do think God hears the first time, the second time, and the third, and so on; plus He is faithful to answer prayers "rightly" asked. He may do so in timing not of our understanding, but He is faithful to His word. He hears the petitions brought through the Holy Spirit in the name of our Lord Yeshua; the Holy Spirit even praying in our behalf when our own words fail us. What is prayer rightly asked? James 4 shares of that. I will share the highest example that I know of personally - my own salvation experience. It came about in answer to prayers rightly asked by others to God. It took years, even decades, for the answer to be fulfilled. Those that prayed being long deceased in the fleshly body by the time of the actual occurrence manifesting, within me by God's will alone. But it was the direct answer to those prayers. I share in confidence that God is faithful to hear and answer our prayers. That it is done from the time, and maybe even from before the time, we first request- God having foreknowledge of our desires.

And yet to me it depicts someone who's uncaring about all that is around 'em, long as he personally is comfy. Seems to me that Paul for example was never pictured as being serene and uninvolved in the plight of all that was around him. Romans 9 "I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." I just don't see that in a depiction of a man seeming to be uncaring about what is befalling others while he naps away. Truth is Christians much as anyone feel the plight that is not only around us, but also affecting us, our friends, families, strangers, and even our enemies. Better IMO for Christians to be in action amongst the chaos, than it is to be above it all serenely unaffected by what is unfolding at this the time of the signs all around. It is a time to be confident in prayer in the name of our Lord and savior for sure, it is a time of physical sacrifical involvement too; but laid back while "Rome burns"? I didn't get the warm fuzzies when I saw that particular depiction of what someone thinks Christians are like, even it it were so that no troubles befall a Christian it would be a really bad reality, if it were real. And so I simply share that perhaps it will be received in the same way by the very individuals one prays about reaching with the gospel of Jesus. But then it has been my own experience for some 40 plus years that there is no hammock sitting for Christians; that it as Matthew 5 the beatitudes highlights for understanding ..."For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."... Christians are not going to nap in a hammock while earth and all of creation faces the time of the signs. Better to have camel knees than rump sores. Sorry that I see it differently than those that see the imagery as confidence, but I do think many will not see Christians in a very kindly or inviting light if they see Christians portraying themselves as thinking of themselves to be above the fray all around them, relaxing while earth burns.

You won't have to do it but once! After that those that like to see if they can get you to join in disparaging others will never approach with that gambit again.

Fault? Your fault? Hmmm, be glad perhaps not to have to be walking a mile in his shoes.or then yet to go a second mile. My own wonderful grandfather, actually step-grand, adopted my mother, her sisters and brothers, six in all when his wife was killed in an auto accident while "out" with with my grandfather. He stepped in and married her, raised the six kids plus the child of one of them too when she was killed. Then late in life my grandmother suffered stroke after stroke, 11 serious ones and was a bit of a heavy weight vegetable for 11 years. And he my step grandfather stayed on year after year to care for her. Tending her every need. He did meet a lady his age that also had a hard life. They became very close while my grandmother was still alive. When she died they married and lived happily for some time long into a late life. The details of the lives of other individuals may not be what others may think they know it is. I cherish the memory of my step grandfather, think him to have been a most honorable man, as did everyone that ever got to know of him. Yet a few just would not accept that he was allowed of God to have a friend, a very close companion, and yes even a "new" wife into his last years. I am glad I didn't have to walk in his shoes, but I am also glad to have been around him to learn how to handle such serious adversity as that which comes in life.

Well I think that is an overreach when used as a blanket statement. For not all exposure of a weakness is there for the purpose of elevating ones self by comparison. While it may be deliberately so, I don't think it is automatically the case. Again the lessons of Matthew 18 provide example and guidance for being properly involved, never a gossiper, for the glory of our creator and the gentler guidance of friend, and perhaps even foe alike, within the local church body. Great way, perhaps the best way, to stop gossip among the church body is to say to any gossiper as they star tup their accusation; "Wait while I call the person you are speaking of over right now this minute and be witness as you address them directly." Do that once to a gossiper and they will never come to engage you in their sin again.

Hi, Really, kinda a "drive by" gossip? ??? Seems to me there are Biblical principles within Matthew 18 for handling perceived faults one sees or thinks they see in others. Plus a grand example within the accounts of David including the encounter and conversation between David and Nathan; "You are the man!"

Hi, I am sure that you do, otherwise you would not have posted it. But what it depicts to my eyes is a man laying back while others are suffering chaos. I understand the absolute security in the hope certain of our Lord being upon us. I just do not see that manifesting in any Christian laying back serenely. Instead it seems to me there is call to be going about in all that we do in a manner that glorifies our creator. If I missed that in the picture then yes I missed it for sure. As being secure absolutely secure just doesn't seem to me to be a ticket to lay back. To my way of understanding I am in the world though not of it. I am not led to lay back, though I have a smile on my face or at least in my heart as I am led each day as God wills.

Wow I do think that to be a very poor representation of Christianity; basking uncaringly at the plight of others? Really? Gee I don't think so. He who did not spare His own Son I suspect did not do so that I might lay in a hammock while Rome burns. Instead I am to be about His father's business in the Son's name for His glory, during the days granted for me to endure in the flesh amongst the signs in the time of the signs. I do rest assured, but not to rest in a hammock. Sure can't identify with that imagery pictured above, as it depicts to me an uncaring self absorbed soul ,one with no feeling for the suffering that affects everyone, the saved and the lost. Nope that is not Christian image that I wish to be identified with come time to meet my Lord face to face.

The will of the majority being the tyranny of it over minorities. And the reason for a representative form of organization to provide attempt at a balance of power not simply a majority rule. But as to the mindset of the greatest number of people Trump lost to Rodham-Clinton, or more individuals disliked him more than they disliked Rodham-Clinton. The power of the dualipoly (Rep/Dem) that exists today is what needs be upset, and why a third, or even fourth, or fifth candidate need be on EVERY ballot at every State and Wdc.. There was a time that there were real battles within the two parties to see who would represent them, but no more as the selection process has been broken at each party.

I don't. But as to the subject at hand; I don't know that I am especially aware there either. Seems to me when the cloud(s) covered Mt. Sinai it was to hide God from the people. Why? Evidently they not being able to withstand His Holy presence. He had just led them out of four hundred years of their predestined captivity through Moses whom He, God, rose up to that task; yet even as they fled they doubted more and more. Was it not Moses alone that was allowed by God to come up His mount and be in His immediate presence? All the chosen by God people that He had set free were denied His direct presence. And they sinned against Him rather quickly, fearing their new freedom even more than their previous captivity, seeking to be captives to something once again by forming idols to worship, rather than trusting that God was indeed right at His Mount, in the clouds with only Moses enabled to be the "high priest/prphet" in his presence in the clouds. The people did not, would not, await God's chosen representative Moses, even from that early moment of time. Seems to me that God will not, perhaps cannot, abide sin against Him. He has put a cloud between him and mankind a separation because man of this fallen creation cannot withstand His Holiness. So what has happened and is to happen that will make it possible for fellowship between Holy God and fallen creation? Seems He is coming, the reconciler of the impossible to reconcile, and suddenly too, hidden in the clouds, the cloud of protection for fallen creation as it cannot withstand God's direct presence. Even Moses was physically altered by His exposure to God. God will come again, in wrath yet there will be a bow in the clouds that covers his presence too. His mercy will be served,- from ever lasting to everlasting, through His son, as will be his just wrath.