Riverwalker

Well since Angels are spiritual beings and not at all subject to natural law....I think, thinking outside the box is a good thing Other note what John describes is from the reference point of a 1st century man......how would he describe a helicopter

It was the blood of the lamb that provided a yearly stopgap atonement.....until the Lamb Of God who takes away the sin of the world came about

oF all the evil.....causing the suffering of innocents for your own greedy ambition

By the grace and strength of God...amen. The greatest part of the steadfastness of my heart, is the foundation it has in Christ Matthew 10:22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. Lord grant us the peace and strength and ability to withstand the tests to come

There are a lot of things to unpack here but mostly what is being referred in a negative way from the first few examples is the Harlot, the prostitute which as the oldest profession as they say (the woman who chooses to be evil and tempt men for money)- it is not smearing women as a whole here. So the advice is sound. For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; Also you must take into consideration who the writer of proverbs is. As the book of Psalms is flavored and conformed to the faith and fight of David. So to is proverbs shaped and formed to Solomon, that while very wise did have a slight problem in that in reign as king brought him 700 wives and 300 concubines, mostly from political connections. But this slanted his thinking a bit. He found the women among his "flock" who were wise to be great treasures (referring to wisdom as a woman) and those who were problematical to be great pains You must not let the social tendencies of this day get in the way appreciating the wisdom In the end men and women are different (yet equal) and compliment each other, one being strong where the other is weak and visa versa And "Vive le difference" I seriously think it does a disservice to women to try and make them be (compete with or whatever with) men, they should be strong women Oh and anyone who would refer to a woman as the "weaker" sex has never been married

I think a formula can be helpful....it is a frame work that wee then fill with wisdom and experience and learning When I first was Christian I learned the "Roman's Road" a series of scriptures through Romans explaining the need for, the process of and attaining Salvation. As I went on I augmented it with other scriptures and the idea was sounds. But what people need to hear is not so much scripture repeated to the by rote, but rather the Holy Ghost Revealed word of God spoken by a believer Romans 10: 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So it is essentially correct that a formula is not enough...it is a beginning, and as by Bible college teachers liked to say..don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Both foreknowledge and predestination are in the bible.... R0mans 8:. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. So the process to my mind is this God knows who will choose Him (Foreknowledge) So God orders our life to bring us to the point of that choice (predestines) And then He Calls Us ( Calls) And here is the moment of Our choice, where we freely and without coercion choose God And if we do that (which He already knows we will) He forgives us, gives us a new life and we are born again And in the end when we have lived our life for him, daily making the same choice to follow Him we move on to glory (Glorified

But the stubborn ones STILL won't drink, just to spite you

I am reminded of the old adage " You can bring a horse to water ,but you cannot make him drink"

I recently posted a prayer request and was reminded (shame on me) the prayer request site that worthy has and going though and praying for some of all those prayer requests, (I will return) I was struck by how many people are asking for prayer lost love ones How do you go about praying for someone's salvation To my understanding, Salvation is a issue that is strictly determined by the will of the person to be saved, and God will not violate that free will to cause a person to believe (obviously I do not hold to Calvinistic thinking but lets please not turn this into THAT discussion) To my mind we can pray for the person's environment To pray for the person to be surrounded by Godly conditions To pray for the person to have good and Godly people come into the their life For God to shape their course to bring them to the point of decision (predestination) Such as putting stumbling blocks down the wrong path, and making straight the path to the Lord But in the end the person will choose to follow God or not....and there is nothing we can do, or God will do to change that moment of decision, for it it is the act of reaching out in faith our choice that brings the moment of salvation I am interested in your take on this issue that effects SO many. If you are of a Calvin mindset feel free to say so , lets just please not turn this into an Armenism Calvinism Hamster wheel argument (lots of action going no where)

As he began as the promise of man, so he ended as the promised fulfilled....and rose to fulfill another Nice catch....decades as a Christian and I never saw that I am gonna have to stew on that for any implications

In my nearly 40 years as a Christian....I have said and and offered many kind of prayers Whether it has been writing an epic in a thousand words of prayer or squeaking out a simple plea for help But what are we really doing in prayer except acknowledging our need for God? Matthew 6: 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. God knows our hearts, our needs and our wants and He knows what is best for us. We don't have to construct a huge monstrous prayer. But a prayer in which we acknowledge God's presence and care in our lives, casting our cares upon Him....and receiving His peace. Jesus gave us an outline of prayer, a model prayer than shows us how we should approach God 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. [d]For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Simple yet complete. Now if you feel the need to fill out that outline with a prosperity of verbosity....go right ahead...but remember God knows what we want and need and what is best for us. I suggest that prayer is less of us telling God what we want and need and more of receiving peace and assurance that He is with us. We do want to use prayer to unburden ourselves when we are anxious....but when we have shed that burden, let us not pick it up again Philippians 4: 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Meditate on These Things 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Give it to God, thank Him for taking care of it, and take the peace and move on. The bible tells us that: James 5:16 The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Effective: to pray in the will of God. Fervent: to be prayed in faith in full believe that it will be heard- Measured in the strength of the faith not the abundance of words Righteous : Of course this is for people who bow before the Lord Some times my most effective and fervent prayer can be captured in one word. "Help!" The purpose of prayer is not to tell God what we need, He knows that...it is to connect with God, receive His peace and strength so that we can soldier on

the only people I ignore are those who have the regrettable skill of easily triggering me. My weakness

Ah yes....there is a fine line between iron sharpening iron and iron dulling iron....and its all in the angle

Dey got an ignore button?

I do not have to tell anyone here that there are some doctrines held by people that are devisive, strife causing and unresolvable. We have seen posts go on for hundreds of reply and achieve nothing I am of two minds on how to respond to them 1. stay out of the mud pit because all you are going to do is get dirty. AKA Stay out of the discussion as there is little gain and much to lose 2. Make your input because (assuming) it needs to be heard and included in the conversation. But even in these situations I rarely stay around for the ensuing arguments So what are your thoughts on getting involved in these kind of questions and debates that never seem to end, that no one's mind is changed and the debate can easily become "uncharitable"?

In my limited experience with the rodentia, I have found most of them are too smart to fall for traps.....the dumb ones do, that just improves the breed. I went with an exterminator...problem solved

There is no doubt Satan is roaming about....the question is about the third that fell with him

Okay then I have a question about Jude I have no problem that 1/3 of the angels fell, I am just not sure they are free to mess with men, as Satan is Jude seem to suggest they are not Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;

Because it refers to death an hades.... I seems to be what we call Hell

I Agree the commercials were just too edgy this year, even the Budweiser Clydesdale ad was not as nice I did like the one with the computer game football players popping out of the screen

Never saw anything to this effect in the bible and no other source matters

We all have the same Holy Spirit in us leading us into truth, And yet you can get scholars lined up on opposite sides of the chess board, ready to attack. Why is this? Because we are all still men and women, subject to be flawed and prideful, and none more so than people with letters after their name. John 14: 25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. The minute we think we have a complete picture...is the minute we lose focus. And we all fall off the edge of the road at some point And it always has to do about pride. There are many things that are etched like rock in me, that the bible has not at all been ambiguous about...there are some things I firmly believe that are supported in the bible....there are somethings I am of a mind to accept and somethings I am not sure of But If I were to start defending these, assuming I am an expert, scholar et al....I find myself taking the place of the Holy Spirit Some of this disparity is because we all have different life experience, different perceptions. There is a Volcano here in California and sticks up 14,000ft and is visible a hundred miles away. If you were to come at the mountain from the North South East Or West, you would see a completely different mountain than someone coming at it from another direction. If we can share our perceptions we will gain a better understanding of the mountain, but if we, in our pride say only our view is the complete view, then understanding fails. Finally I think we are wrong to claim to be scholars, or experts, or have some special insight into the bible. I went to bible college and it has provided wonderful insight into the literature, the language and backroad of the bible, but the word of God is more than just a book to be parsed...it is the word of God spoken to us where we are, it is a living breathing word, and in my 36+ years of Christianity.....my understanding of it has grown and expanded....but there is no way I would ever claim to be an expert. Let the word of God speak, let the Holy Spirit teach, and let us be humble. I would rather know one scripture with full understanding, than all scriptures with none We should ever be on the journey to understand and realize there is no destination...just rest stops

If preterism is true, then I am either in hell or heaven because Christ has returned and the world has ened If this is heaven....I've been robbed

Us being coming up on thirty trillion dollars of debt with no way to repay it....is soon going to seem very unprofitable for those who lent us the money