creativemechanic

truth  about slavery is this......... it has always been a part of human history-( read references of it in exodus )and it never ended.  People like to think it ended with the abolition in America in thw 1800s but slavery has been ongoing in different ways in different countries non stop throughout history. There are apparently more now than back then in the 19th century as well.

Here's one that I think is very important

Givers, set boundaries because takers won't.

As Christians, we may feel obligated to give and be sacrificial in our help of others, eg as Jesus told us to go the other mile when asked to do things but (to me at least) it's important to decide and let people know how much you will help them because some people don't seem to care how much their demands affect who help them, they only care that they get what they want.

So you may end up doing much  more than needed and seriously affecting yourself to mildly  convenience someone who doesn't want to compromise.

A good example is this- my mother began giving a ride to a lady to her home as it was on her route. Eventually it evolved into going  far off route and waiting in the parking lot as the lady went shopping at a supermarket. When my mother suggested going to a supermarket right by her house, the woman refused to. Gradually it devolved into the woman stopping on route to talk to friends, leaving my mother  parked in busy traffic, leaving when she wanted to leave etc. When confronted, she got an attitude 

On 6/13/2023 at 10:13 PM, George said:

The Lord helps those who help themselves ... is a common saying.  The thought comes in ... a farmer can't expect to receive a harvest if he doesn't plant seed in his field! 

This is a tricky one.

Yes, it's good to take the initiative in things but sometimes "helping yourself" may make you end up doing something God didn't want you to do but you thought it was a good idea. Sometimes we need to wait for God's guidance.

8 hours ago, The_Patriot21 said:

People do that all the time. The successful ones are the ones who are trained and properly equipped to do so.

But it still doesn't make it wise

On 6/13/2023 at 10:19 PM, The_Patriot21 said:

Actually some of my best conversations about Jesus took place in bars. Just saying.

I could find a treasure in shark infested waters, it still doesn't mean it's wise to swim there 

When people tell you who they are the first time....BELIEVE THEM.

Bible parallel:

Luke 6:45

45 tThe good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces uevil, vfor out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

 I had a rude awakening that taught me this.  I had an attractive coworker and was smitten. She casually admitted to  lying to a family friend who was a customs officer to get some items in through the port. I was troubled at first, but stupidly blew it off because she was attractive. Within a few months of working together, we were mortal enemies. Part of the problem was she repeatedly lied over casual, petty things, even after she was told the truth about issues, she would retell  the lies to people. Looking back, I realised, the fact that she casually admitted to lying, shows that it was no big deal to her and thus a fundamental part of her character.

You may be the sweetest peach on the tree, but some people dont like peaches. You may be the most rotten peach on the ground and there are people who are into that.

This helped because Id try really hard to win over  people who didnt like me by being nice, helpful  and was unsuccessful. And then be puzzled when such people would just  want to be best of buds to the rudest, most inconsiderate people whod treat them like dirt. Learning this made me realise , dont strive to win over people. Be myself and youll naturally gravitate to people and not to waste my energy on people who dont appreciate me.

Have you ever heard a saying which while not in the bible, still makes alot of sense and you ascribe to? Let's share-

 Nothing positive happens in a bar (taken from a Christian book on proverbs) Meaning, some places have nothing good going on there, so no sense bothering to go. This is helpful when Im invited out places by  unsaved friends that christians generally dont go.

Not my circus , not my monkeys- Some issues while  you may not agree with, in the end arent yout business. Eg a fellow christian sinning should be in love confronted, but if its a certain choice which doesnt break the bibles rules , just not something you think you should do, I may not be worth raising a big stink o- eg music choices in churches. Alot of christians could learn from that imo.

D o you want to learn or do you want to be right- Sometimes we want to argue issues often spewing nonsense , blocking a chance to learn something new and develop, just because we cant swallow our pride and concede being wrong.Something I picked up that has helped in discussing issues

Any more

I r beens saying so. All it does is foster division 

21 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

I think it to be an informative response, that this was likely not a real situation, but is  instead just as you posed it a post by someone, somewhere.

Not everything is equally "worthy"of consideration just because it is presented to us as though we should do so. The world is full of ministers of distraction that love to provide distractions from the mission of the elect of God away from being witnesses set about and sent about to be  sharing testimony of Yeshua being Lord God and personal savior.  

One family's social interaction, even if real, is something for them to work out without any opinion needed from others. There just is no right nor wrong in such situations, in all situations the Christian is to do all that they do to the glory of God, loving God and being kind to one another.

Hope that helps you.

Actually. No. Theres a response and  Bible verse that can be applied to our lives even as christians in our interactions with  each other and the unsaved. So I'd not be as dismissive of something like that. Theyre all opportunities to learn

10 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Might have been an actual post, but I do not think it to be an actual situation. Seems contrived to me. If it were real I would not have any opinion  regarding it as it would be none of my business. 

Then why bother commenting that you wouldnnt comment? Kinda pointless dont you think?

This was  based on an actual post I saw a man make.whay do you think ?

4 hours ago, FJK said:

Lotta things need to be supported in this post, so that it doesn't seem like unsupported conjecture.

how so

Theres a saying- when we look back at things with roses tinted glasses of nostalgia, we tend not to see the red flags.

I had an amusing  example of this recently.

Married people have been seen disparaging the practice of dating , saying it wasnt in biblical times. Peoples parents chose the spouse for them and they acted as if that was a better option. To back this up, they said Muslims do it still and they say that - you learn to love them eventually. As nice as it sounds, they  left out some key parts.

1)  They dated their spouses that they are so happy with, noone chose them for them. So why do they think arranged marriages are better now that theyre out of the dating game?

2)In Biblical times, as with Muslims today, men could and would divorce quickly for frivolous reasons- eg meeting a prettier woman, wife burned the food. Thats probably why Jesus set up the principles in Matthew 7.

3) Many of the girls as with Muslims today were  often married very would, early to later teens. Sometimes. to much older men. Would you want that done to you or your kids?

4) Throughtout history many arranged marriages were done for parents political or material gain, not because of the kids loving each other or being compatible. Would you want that done to you or your kids?

It was a hilarious moment. People often forget that not everything mentioned in the bible was an exact principle that  were to be followed. sometimes the bible mentioned events as they happened whether good or bad.

This is a Polish proverb  basically saying to keep myself out of business that's not ours. It can also have relevance to us as christians. As shown by the (fictional but based on a real life story), alot of conflicts that can rise up within churches can be due to people wanting to take action against other Christians for making decisions that arent actually wrong or sinful, just things they disagree with.  While we should point out and deal with sin in the camp, as the verse shows there is a relevance to learning to mind your own business when the issue isnt of spiritual relevance

Something to remember. Especially when one of our brothers or sister in Christ does something that angers ,disgusts or hurts us.

Often times, I find people who take this stance against the rule are people who are dating or considering dating unsaved people so they attack the verse to ease their conscience. Then later they learn that God gives us rules for a reason

A friend I have was once in this situation, despite having sworn off of dating unsaved men. She met one and fell in love, I warned her and she told me the man lives better than most christians she knew. She even insulted me.

Time passed and same friend married guy and began griping about how he wont stop doing this and wont stop doing that

2 minutes ago, R. Hartono said:

Rebuke God and Hosea.

That's not a sensical response.The unequally yoked rule was established AFTER Hosea. Centuries after.

This pretty much sums up why unequally yoked is generally a bad idea for marriage....

What do you say the christian perspective of this statement should be?

because its their money and they can spend what they want on it

Also- Joseph never speaks  by himself throughout the whole bible. Check and see

Maybe he got saved  or maybe he was just  religious.  Religion is very dangerous because it gives people a false sense of security  for following certain man made rules eg catholic dogma and creeds while not actually caring about what God would have them do (as shown in the bible)

One of the reasons its important not too judge in the sense that Jesus warns against ie hypocritically condemning, is that we never know what events shape peoples characters. Case in point

I had a friend who grew up in our youth group with me, although he was quite a bit younger. He was hot tempered and getting into alot of fights. As he grew and with guidance, he matured out of it. His mother attends the same church and she told of her days raising him and his older sisters, before she got saved basically saying she was pretty violent even going so far as chasing  them with a machete. Horrifying as it is, it shows- no wonder how he ened up with that temper and violent tendencies. Thats what he saw growing up.

Alot of people we see with serious personal issues may have the same thing due to their upbringing and dont know better and theyre often passed down, so we sometimes have to have patience and compassion.

Eg I

Something interesting I saw recently on youtube. People were asking about what things did you have to unlearn that you were taught by your parents.  Sad fact is, many people arent trained how to be parents, they just default to how their parents raised them, for good or for bad. So then we have generations of people passing down  bad practices with noone stopping and realizing how toxic they were. What in your opinion are some of these bad ideas/ practices that get passed down?

1) Dont talk to strangers- Im not saying trust strangers. But 99.9% of people kids will and have to interact with will be strangers WHO ARENT  paedophiles or kidnappers. eg if they get lost, they may have to ask a stranger for help. Often most kids will be  harmed by people they are familiar with or would trust. Rather, kids need to be taught how to interact with people in general and what  is or is not safe behaviour from anyone- eg- dont go certain places with strangers,  its not appropriate for ANY adult to touch you  here there etc.

2) Blood is thicker than water- We often  led to believe we're to tolerate  or cover up relatives bad behaviour to us or others (that we wouldn't tolerate from anyone else) because theyre family. Cheaters and abusers can get away with this because of it.

3) Dont do x or y because  youre in church or its sunday.  Our behaviour should be consistent regardless.

4* CONTROVERSIAL *  A man shouldnt hit a woman. Im not endorsing abuse but rather it should be- Nobody should hit anybody.  There are actual women who believe that they have free reign to get violent with men for whatever reason they please (ive literally heard on brag about slapping her boyfriend because he didnt listen) because he cant hit her back. People reinforce it too. Ive seen videos of women attacking men and noone in the crowd reacts. The second the man fights back to defend himself , people in the crowd dogpile him and begin to attack him.

they didnt know it was negative then, but apparently they discovered it years later. Maybe you read it back then???

1 hour ago, missmuffet said:

Now why would I read something so negative?