JTC

There was a time when I thought Christmas was bad but no more. I came to realize that the Christmas season is a time of year when even some of the meanest people around get a little nicer. So I see God uses this season for His purposes which makes it a good thing. Merry Christmas to everyone .

Quite simply, to be holy means to not sin. Granted, that may be an oversimplification but Holy means no sins.

I am so happy I never learned any of this stuff. I learned that we are to live by obeying God. Don't worry about theological theories. I was simply taught that I wasn't supposed to commit sins. I actually see that my being raised like this serves me better as an adult than knowing all the theories many of you argue about.

I expect all of us will always commit some sins. But we should all commit less & less as we grow closer to God. This is what our lives should be. I believe this is the way we will get to be in heaven.

10 minutes ago, other one said:

hould we discuss it....    I would not decide for others, but I would suggest if so it's done very carefully.  The dark ones perk up and pay attention when you talk about them.  JTC has a point.   I'm not sure I would use the phrase give them glory, but certainly would be giving them our attention.   And I can tell you from personal experience that they relish that.

Thank you OO, I know you and I know you know what you are saying and why you know.

When I see threads like this one I have to wonder about the motivations of who made it. Too many people just enjoy discussing evil. To be more godly rather than ask this, ask "why does God love Holiness?" If we discuss this topic we won't be giving the devils any attention. Remember, our time and attention is what our lives consist of. Life is time. God wants all our time to be focused on HIM. I have found as I've gotten older and closer to death that I want to give my time to God because I may be leaving here very soon. I know it's hard to understand this when you're young and death seems far off. But this is why we ought not to spend much time learning about the evil.

I realize this topic has to keep coming up because there's always new believers. But this shouldn't be a troublesome issue except some people make it that way. I say God is clear that we are to always try to obey Him in whatever we do and say. The key words here are always try, and as we live as a Christian we keep getting better & better at this. So it should be obvious that a babe in Christ won't behave as righteously as a man who's been a believer for 20 yrs will. This is normal. What is not okay is the idea that we don't have to even try to behave righteously because God only sees the righteousness of His Son Jesus and HE attributes it to us. The people who preach this are wrong. Either they simply never learned the truth or they like doing what's wrong, and they hate doing what is right. I've known people like that. They call themselves Christians but obeying God, that means trying to behave as righteously as possible, is the furthest thing from their minds. They aren't interested in the things of God, so they concocted a theology that makes them seem righteous without having to so anything righteous. These people are out there and in the churches which is why this topic is so popular. These people hate those of us who strive to obey God so they constantly tell new believers they can live anyway they please. This is not true. We have to try to obey God which is why we must read the entire Bible. I found Proverbs tells us things God loves & hates very directly, and we need to know these things. Obviously, we can't obey God if we don't know much about HIM.

On 5/12/2020 at 8:54 PM, Michael37 said:

Firstly can I establish whether we should discuss the hatred Satan has for all things holy, because I have known people to become uncomfortable discussing this topic.

You see, by discussing this topic we are (almost) giving glory to satan rather than God. I know most of you don't see it like this, but you're wrong. Any time or attention spent on Satan would be better spent on God.

This is so true. God wants us to always be thankful for HIS love. Whatever else may go wrong, and there's always something, God loves us and HE'S here for us if only we allow HIM to be there.

One way to do this is by singing praises to the Lord. Psalm 134:

1. Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
    who minister by night in the house of the Lord.
² Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
    and praise the Lord.

My downstairs neighbor wanted to be my home health care aide, so I allowed her. I had already tried getting an aide from an aide agency 2 yrs ago and it failed. (I had a hunch allowing a neighbor to be my aide was a bad idea, but I got sicker in Sept. and I really need help lately)

So this past Wednesday someone came into my apt. and stole 12 of my opiate pain pills. Other than me, only the aide and her husband have access to a key because they are also the building superintendents. But it gets worse. Last Wed. I gave the aide my keys to use, while I was in the supermarket. I noticed the pills missing on Thursday. I told the aide on Friday, and of course she denies anything about it. I expected that. However, I know she also takes pain pills daily and I suppose she's seriously addicted to them. I really don't know if her husband is also addicted, he may or may not be. One of them took my pills. The problem now is what to do? The aide is saying I misplaced the pills, but she's lying. I did not.

  I am thinking I should call the landlord and report this to him. He should know someone got in here.

  Then I'm wondering if I should call the police and report it as a robbery? I want opinions? Bear in mind these people are not Christians, in fact they had been in jail when they were younger. Now the aide is 60 and her husband is 50.

  I really don't know what to do because I don't have a criminal mentality and obviously these people do. If I could move away I would, but I'm stuck here.

Yeah, but we wear seat belts, use air-bags, and we keep both eyes open while driving. What I've said all along is to take every precaution possible.

The moral of this post is that both, children and other adults, learn from what they see us do, not just what we say. Sure our words are important but are actions are just as important.

1 hour ago, Daily verse and quote said:

“If someone mistreats you because you are a Christian,

don’t curse him; pray that God will bless him.”

Romans 12:14

 

“Persecution increases faith”.

[Persecuted Christian in India]

Naturally, God Speaks

Yes, of course this is true. One big problem today is we aren't very loving towards our fellow humans but God told us to love everyone as HE loved us. We usually fail to do this. We, the true people of God, have to work on this.

Wow, I posted this a long time ago and I forgot why. But I can see no one really knows the answer.

17 minutes ago, David1701 said:

We have been in the New Covenant since the day of Pentecost.

   We all know this.

   But what do you think this means, that we ought not to know what the OT says. How do you think you can understand the NT correctly if  you don't understand the OT correctly also. Do you not know the NT is built upon the OT.

   Now I understand where you're coming from David.

14 hours ago, David1701 said:

I know that part of the problem, in Britain and Europe, was seeing professing Christians killing each other, in two world wars, and churches praying for their country to defeat the other. 

Odd, that makes it sound like even back then the average Christian didn't read the OT very much. If you read the OT you will see God's people always pray for His help before a battle.

   I read the OT a lot lately. I suppose I spent my first 30 yrs as a believer almost always reading the NT. Then 1 day it dawned on me that I knew next to nothing of the OT. I decided to change that. However, based on many posts I've read here on Worthy, the average believer doesn't read the OT almost at all.

15 hours ago, Michael37 said:

Hi JTC, Thanks for your comments. Just to clarify, my wife doesn't run her group but they do benefit from her many years of experience and service.

   Sorry I misunderstood you.

Before I learned the Bible better, I used to wonder if these Scriptures meant women who wore slacks or jeans to church were sinning. I don't think so. "Deuteronomy 22:5 A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God."  Actually, when you think about it, in the days the Bible was written in men wore Robes. I assume women wore robes as well. So I'm not sure what this verse is driving at. I have to think a woman's robe was quite different from a man's, and maybe there already was a problem of some people wanting to be the opposite of gender than what they were born as. Maybe it was a bigger problem, even back then, than we used to think. Or maybe because God is all knowing He saw this would lead to people mutilating their genitals with surgery in the 20th Century. I think God tried to save us from the horrors of genital mutilation. I've heard many stories of people who had genital surgery being very sorry when they got older. But I've never heard even 1 story of a 60 yr old person say he/she was happy they did it.

On 10/28/2020 at 12:31 PM, FluffyBunny. said:

how do you feel about the decrease in Christianity and the increase in atheism in the US? Do you think society will become worse, better or stay around the same?

I think society will get worse. Although, for awhile it appeared to stay the same. Then came the coronavirus and the pandemic.

I've always thought this virus has 2 main purposes. 1. it's meant to turn certain people back to God, and other people to seek God, maybe for the 1st time. What I mean is, I remember when I wasn't a believer but I felt like I was supposed to be. I needed something to pull me over to God's side. Luckily it wasn't a virus. But since we have free will, suppose this doesn't happen.  Then 2. I think this virus is meant to punish mankind. So the whole world will get much worse. God has always done things like this. I usually think of Babylon conquering Israel because they forgot Him. That resulted in 70 yrs of punishment, at least.

   So I think if enough people call out to God, or maybe if Christians stop becoming atheists a vaccine will suddenly be found, these lock-downs will end, and society will suddenly get back to normal. But if mankind doesn't start to call out to God we might have to contend with this virus until everyone who is currently an adult dies, from either sickness or natural causes. I mean we can't know for sure. In Genesis Israel roamed in the desert 40 yrs because of their disrespect for God. Then the next time God did a major punishment it lasted 70 yrs.

   I wish I could say I see the world turning to God but I don't.

5 hours ago, WayneS said:

Hi LadyKay,

that passage doesn’t have a lot of sins in it. While it is good advice for the sins listed, I don’t think it should be used as complete list of sins.

Agreed. I was going to post something like this. Actually, there's no one place in the Bible where every sin there is can be found listed. Maybe God wanted to give us a good reason to read His entire Word, or maybe what's listed in any one spot had to do with what sins were too common at that time.

22 hours ago, existential mabel said:

https://www.chick.com/battle-cry/article?id=Whats-Wrong-With-the-New-King-James

Question: What is wrong with the New King James Version (NKJV)? All it does is modernize the words of the King James Bible, right? Why should I read the King James and not the helpful New King James?

Hi Mabel,

   I don't agree with what was said in the chick.com article you left a link to. I read enough of it to know I disagree. The Bible I read from cover to cover was the NIV, and it was the NIV that was printed before Zondervan took over. So granted that a modernized translation has different words from the KJV. But if you can't understand the old English that the KJV is written in then what good is it to read that? Besides that, what makes you think the KJV is correct and every other version is wrong? I agree with the person who said you have to rely on the Holy Spirit to tell you the truth of any given verse. And if you don't feel confident that you always know how to hear the Holy Spirit then compare as many translations as you can. (Not the ones that are very different from all the others. So not the amplified versions or dramatized versions.) At least nowadays you can easily compare all these versions online. When I became a Christian you had to either buy a Bible you wanted to read or find a library that had it, and sit there and read it. That was very hard.

   Now I must tell you this. Since it's a fact that almost any modern translation changes certain words every 5 to 10 yrs, when you find a translation you believe is correct, Buy It. Because in 20 yrs the ones online will most likely be different. Hopefully nothing vital will be changed, but somethings will get changed.

   As I said, I read the NIV from before Zondervan owned the rights to the NIV and I'm glad I own that, because from time to time I notice where a few words are different. But so far it's nothing too different. Now what do I mean by too different? For example, if you find a Bible that doesn't say homosexuality is wrong, or that marriage is between 1 man & 1 woman, that's too different. I remember reading, several years ago, that someone published a Bible that says homosexuality in not sin. So there already is a version like that.

   Or certain things may be changed, like they do in Catholic Bibles. I was shocked when I heard this. I checked it and it's true. Do you know Catholic churches are full of statues? You might say, how can they do that when 1 of the 10 Commandments says You shall not make any images. Simple answer. The Catholics did away with that commandment. They split another commandment into 2 commandments so they still have 10. The average Catholic doesn't know this because most of them never read the Bible. Considering their Pope has recently made gay marriages acceptable, I imagine in 10 to 50 years the Catholic Bible will not have the verses that make homosexuality a sin.

    And since Obama legalized gay marriage, probably even some of our Bibles will be changed also. So find a version you can understand and that long term Christians say is correct and trustworthy, and buy it, on paper. And do yourself a favor buy a large print edition. You may live to 80 and you won't be able read the size print you can read now.

  I consider NIV, NKJV, ESV, and KJV all safe. There are other safe ones too, but I'm not certain which ones they are.

3 hours ago, Justin Adams said:

Study well and generally ignore commentaries that do not incorporate the masses of information we later gathered from the Cylinder Seals.

Justin,

    what are the Cylinder Seals? I never heard of these, unless maybe they are known by other names?

I don't disagree with you, but for me this is more than just an academic question. I have a fairly good friend, who's also my pharmacist, who was born Jewish. He's not an Orthodox Jew, but he thinks the NT is nonsense. He's not even wild about the whole OT, the way he speaks he only considers the Torah to be reliable. Maybe the Psalms too. But he never reads any of it. Did you know the one thing most Jews have in common with most Catholics is they never read their Bibles because their Rabbis & Priests discourage them from doing so? I never knew that. I always thought the average Jew reads the OT as part of their life. Boy, was I ever wrong. So my buddy insults the NT but he doesn't know what the OT says neither. My buddy has a brother who converted from being a Jew/Catholic to a Christian. So maybe his brother was shoving Jesus and the NT in his face the day he insulted the NT. I never shove anything in anyone's face. I don't think that's how you get someone saved. I just tell people what I believe and then try to mirror Jesus with my behavior. Maybe that's a bad strategy.

   So the problem with my Jewish buddy is that if I want to quote scripture to him I have to try and quote the Torah. If anyone has advice on verses from the Torah to use while trying to evangelize a Jew, please tell me? I'm not the only Christian working on this man, there's his brother, whom I already mentioned, and he has a business partner who's a Hindu that converted to Christianity. I hope these 2 guys aren't turning my buddy off to Jesus by hitting him over the head with the Lord. That never worked on me when I went through my atheist stage.

    I think the pandemic has been exceptionally hard on my buddy because he's always in a bad mood since it started. Before the pandemic I used to send him an email everyday that I called "Daily Manna". It was a few verses of scripture from the OT. I started doing that after I found out Jews don't read the Bible at all. I figured a few verses of scriptures everyday is better than none. I to rely on the Holy Spirit as to which verses to send him. For some reason I stopped feeling lead to send certain scriptures. Maybe the pandemic has gotten to me as well.

   But the problem remains, how do you preach Jesus to a 50 yr old man who has heard all his life that the NT is nonsense? I think it would easier if he was an atheist.

On 10/28/2020 at 6:17 PM, Michael37 said:

My wife has to stand up to her on occasions.

Bravo to your wife. Not just for standing up to that one woman, but for running the group that reaches out to those who are sick, unfortunate, or who made many mistakes when they were young and have changed and now need companionship. Jesus did in fact call us to do this. We have to be different from the world. If anyone disagrees ask yourself if you consider the average person to be like salt, or like light of the world, because Jesus said we have to be like that. So bravo to your wife.

Listen everybody. I know all this. I think the idea that you need 2 or 3 scriptures to say the same thing before you can make a doctrine out of it comes from Jesus saying, in Matthew, that all issues must be established by 2 or 3 witnesses. I heard it from a favorite preacher I once knew. Since most of the scriptures that talk about the Lord's supper say we should do it in memory of Him, to change that as the CC has they need 2 or 3 scriptures. Unless there's a few more I don't remember I don't think there are any. That was the question. I admit my memory isn't what it once was.

   There are actually several scriptures that are only in John's Gospel that the CC uses to justify some of their questionable practices. Some yrs ago I gave this a great deal of thought. It's such a convenient coincidence that I   don't doubt that the very early CC changed the Bible. I know we like to think that's not possible, but isn't it still happening. I thought I heard there's a new Bible that came out, that we don't accept, because it makes homosexuality not a sin along with adultery. Both are acceptable to God in this unacceptable Bible. I don't think we can prevent it from being printed because we have freedom of the press, and no one wants to give that freedom up.

23 minutes ago, other one said:

However how do we really deal with the things that go on Halloween night....    there is very very little darkness that is involved with the season in public...   and very few here understand what goes on within the darkness....      but the question is do we condemn the funny things and the jokes that deal with it....

I'm glad you believe Halloween is a night that evil, and those who accept it, are more active.

There are several reasons we ought not to take part in the funny parts of Halloween. First is because we are supposed to be emulating Jesus. If Halloween had existed in His day I think He would have done His best to ignore it. That's what I do. Second by posting jokes about Halloween it's like you are condoning it. Most Christians are weak willed. Remember what Paul said about eating meat that had been sacrificed to an idol? (actually I often wonder if Paul realized there were real demons behind those idols) Paul said since those idols meant nothing to him he could eat that meat. To Paul it was simply food and food was rare in Paul's day. But if a weak willed believer saw Paul eat the meat sacrificed to the idol that could stumble that believer, so Paul wouldn't do it. I doubt that many people here don't think you are a Christian. You are one of the long time members and new believers probably look to you for what a Christian should behave like. I think I'm now in this category too. Haven't you noticed how many newer members don't even know what a sin is. I'm aghast by this. I'm going to say an odd thing but think about it awhile before you respond. I was raised RC but I left them 51 yrs ago. Today many Protestants are joining them. One reason, I was told, is because they agree on what things are. One good thing is they always taught their kids what sins are. If  I asked a Christian 18 yr old to name some sins he'd be hard pressed to answer. But if I ask an 18 yr old Catholic he'd probably have a list of 20 to 40 and then he'd tell me which are the most serious in the eyes of God. So even though the CC did nothing to feed me, I'm glad I grew up in the CC. I never thought I'd say that.

  I'm not saying we should condemn anyone who celebrates Halloween, I'm saying we shouldn't take part in it. One of my neighbors likes Halloween and she got excited about it one day, but she's not a believer. All I said to her was I don't like Halloween. She caught on.

23 minutes ago, Starise said:

There are plenty of saved Catholics who will be in the kingdom. There are many more who think they are ok and are being misled by their church

This is also true in Protestant churches.

I'm not trying to change what they believed all their lives because they were Protestant most of their lives. One person switched to the CC because he was disgusted with our fighting and how we disrespect each other. Right now Christianity is in trouble, almost as much trouble as the CC was in Luther's day. But you didn't answer the question at all.