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GreyDestiny

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Posts posted by GreyDestiny

  1. Exodus 22:21

    "You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt."

    I agree that the situation is terrible, but I certainly don't agree that the solution lies within the dissolution of our border(s) as many seem to think. The children should be kept with their parents, outside of our border, as the law is the law and one cannot be here through illegal means. However, as I said, I don't support any kind of hateful or malicious edge to this barring. I have always thought that a good home is a happy home. If one has a good and happy home, what is the point in seeking out someplace else?

    Many Central and South Americans are very hard working and family-oriented people. Many of them would be more welcome here than certain other undesirables already within our borders, ones who do nothing but contribute to chaos and disorder. That is (or at least should be) the point of the legalizing process; to ensure that good people may enter, while barring those who would only cause issue.

    All the same, as for my idea of a happy home, I believe a solution lies in assisting and encouraging these people to improve their own native soil. They come here seeking a better life, so I would think that they would have no need to come here if their homes were good. This way, we don't have as many people wishing to come here, and they can live peacefully and happily in their own land. Things are a bit more complex than that, unfortunately... Like how that should really fall on the various governmental bodies down south. Much less the situation with Cuba; we really need to resolve that because it's an old wound and it needs to be bandaged. It isn't going to heal itself, which ignoring the problem seems to be the government's priority at the moment.

    All in all, it's a difficult situation that I really think would be rather more easily solved if everyone went about things differently. As you say, though, these things are likely simply meant to happen. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be; no use fighting it.

  2. This is a topic that seems to be a mixed bag.

    Many people advise that a person should turn away from anything that has nothing to do with Christianity. No TV, no books beyong the Bible, only Christian music and even being selective when it comes to that, etc. But what of things that do not contain any complicit material? Say... Someone enjoys jazz music. Would the person need to toss aside jazz music, or is it a grey area?

    On one hand, I do see the point of putting things aside. You are what you focus on, so having more Christian things in your life certainly makes sense. On the other hand, you still have stuff that isn't expressly anti-Christian. What do you guys think?

  3. 4 hours ago, Neighbor said:

    Yep, it is not like all the generations before, when  everyone waited until they had all their ducks in a row,  a little pink three bedroom house paid for, and vast savings established before engaging in intimacy, and then solely for the purpose of procreation.

    I get that life isn't quite nearly so perfect. I just think the irresponsibility and hypersexuality have spiked dramatically over time.

    4 hours ago, Neighbor said:

    Seems to me if one's dad whack a kid,  it must have been the kid was acting up, just like they do today, except today the dad will be challenged and even arrested for punishing a child in public. Why the family will end up with the Salvation Army  Contractor State Children's Representative  pounding on their home door. They will find themselves in countless hearings, and will have  visits again and again by the State. All because they struck a child and someone thought, oh the poor child is being abused.

    Parents have good reason to  be fearful and to be slack in disciplining  their children.

    This is also true. There is a fine line between discipline and abuse. I mean, what do you do to a kid if you can't punish them? Just tell them? Hey Billy, you shouldn't punch Jimmy? Like that will do much of anything. People are far too sensitive anymore.

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  4. One could certainly see it that way. Problem is, vast majority of people becoming parents are becoming parents because they gave provision to their lustful flesh without regard to the consequences, not because they were ready or planned to. Couple that irresponsiblity with the growth of technology, and you've got tons of careless adults with immature minds who let their children be raised by media that endlessly blabbers on about negative news topics, drugs, sex, and so forth. 

    When I was a young lad, you wouldn't catch me acting up in public. If I misbehaved, my dad would whack my patoot right there in front of everyone. I didn't cry out, I didn't run about, and I certainly didn't cause trouble much after those incidents. If an adult said hello, I would respond, "good morning, sir/ma'am". These kids, you could be minding your own business, and out of nowhere, some 5 to 6 year old girl calls you a derogatory term for a homosexual. Her parents laugh about it. If you say nothing, you permit such behavior. If you say something, you're intruding on their right to raise their own children and are considered poorly. Then when these kids grow up to be common criminals, it's the same tune from the parents "my child would never do that, my child is innocent, they did nothing wrong." 

    We just have far too many people who are irresponsible, inconsiderate, and have no interest beyond themselves.

  5. My new job would be fine. I don't mind the work... But there are a few coworkers I take issue with.

    As if the work itself isn't hard enough, stupid pettiness (on all of our ends, myself included) gets in the way. As much as I realize one must love their enemies as well, I can't seem to break away from the irritation and anger I feel. They do something to bother me, and I return it in turn. Bad part is, i'm outnumbered; I really don't want these guys to take it up with the boss and see me off simply because we don't click. They like to dilly-dally about because "we get paid by the hour," and all they want to do is sit around and talk about drugs and sex. We worked just fine until they found out I was a "straight edge" who's never been arrested and could easily pass any drug test. I'm the odd man out and it's lead me down a very dark path, one that I don't want to go on but one I find myself on more often than not.

    So, I ask you, how do you overcome not hating those who hate you? How do you work with people who you don't click with? Bad part is, i've tried being helpful or offering kindness, but they just don't like me. It can't really be salvaged, near as I can tell, but I just don't want to sink to their level.

  6. To tack on to the previous answers, in my experience, such evolutionists often have a narrow and basic understanding of the theory and science itself. Time is such a complex measurement that no clock within existence is accurate. It goes on and on and on like:

    00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00, etc. It's an endless sequence of factors that lead up to what we understand to be an hour, many of those factors can be drastically effected by even the smallest disturbance. The fact that planets aren't zipping and zooping and falling out of the space-time continuum is a testament to the fact of the existence of God. It is far beyond our understanding, and always will be.

  7. Many people detest the idea of having children someday. Many of these people, regardless of their desire to not have children, go out and about and engage in funny business anyway.

    However, there is a growing movement (or movements) where people are basically celibate. No funny business, no dating, no holding hands, no marriage, you name it. The reasons are many. Some are caught up in the divisiveness between the sexes, some claim it as independence and freedom, some claiming to have no sexual desire whatsoever, the list goes on. 

    What I am asking you is, do you think it's acceptable for a Christian to be the same way? Does a person have to get married and have children?

  8. I always figured that was part of why the rent is so high there. Not only the "prestige" of living in LA, but because so much tax goes towards the homeless. You'd think they would realize that taking the price that high only adds to the problem, especially when the places don't get bought and they aren't getting the money that they're looking for. Less money is better than no money, as they say.

    I live in what I would call a moderately sized town but what most others would call a small town. I don't call it small because i've been in much smaller towns, towns with slightly over 70 people to just slightly over 500 people. Tack a couple thousand onto the latter and you've got a "moderate" town here in the midwest. 

    We really only get the rare homeless person wandering through town every great while. Like, i've only ever seen 2 or 3. However, there's also a larger city nearby that's been growing much lately. Not only has crime spiked up in that town, but near as i've heard, there are more homeless as well. I grow worried because it's only a matter of time before that nonsense spreads to this somewhat quiet and peaceful town. If towns keep growing, where is a small town guy like myself supposed to live? Even the town with a population of 70 won't be safe, given time.

  9. I will be certain to pray.

    Also, when I had back issues when I was younger, the physical therapist instructed that I should lay flat on my back on a hard surface (the floor) for around 15 minutes at least 3 times a day. Be sure to put your shoulders back so that you are flat against the surface. If the issue was rough, I would roll up a towel into a sort of cylindrical shape and lay on that, with the towel under my spine. Physical exercise of the back muscles and hot showers help as well.

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  10. While people can be too harsh, one really shouldn't be too soft, either. 

    When you are too harsh, you not only scare off newcomers, but you make people more likely to not listen to your own point of view. When you are too soft, any particular view (no matter how bad or relevant) becomes acceptable, and so no opinion has any value and thus there are no opinions, no direction. It's a lose-lose situation either which way.

    To quote Sun Tzu, a great leader leads by example, not by force. We must not strongarm other people into our own views, but we shouldn't just simply allow any or all views. It's a difficult and blurry line one has to walk. 

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  11. It's pretty much the church. They created and morphed Christian holidays to include paganistic practices in order to try and convince pagans to come to Christianity, and yes, this includes Christmas.

    It comes down to the individual. Many people celebrate Easter/Passover and Christmas whilst avoiding said practices and instead focusing wholly on the Christian concept. Others like myself don't see such holidays in scripture (aimed at Christians, at least), and for us, there isn't a day more special than the other, a day set aside for prayer, for every day is prayer. So long as one avoids those pagan practices that have been intertwined, I think it should be fine.

  12. Well, one has to realize that everyone makes mistakes, and quite often, you've got a lot of malicious folks, both on and off the streets, who take pleasure in dealing death to people. They care not for a person's health, but rather the steady income that comes with dependency (and yes, many in the medical field fall under this category). Then you look at the health services and it's like 2k for an ambulance pick-up, 2k for a night in the hospital, 13k for treatment, if you wish to go to rehab that's going to be 20k... If they cared about helping people, they would make their services more affordable. They'd rather just spit on a person and laugh at them for either having no insurance or "bad" insurance. That's not to say there's a complete lack of care from the medical staff, it's just more of the ones behind the desks, the ones who get the payment. So you've got practitioners and drug dealers alike who deal death, and you've got people who sorely lack the means to treatment and assistance. There's also a lack of room for people seeking treatment. So many of the sick, but not nearly enough beds.

    Then, you DO have some addicts who use rehab and other such services merely as a means of skirting prison time. They claim to want help, but in reality, they have no intention of stopping, and they can take up that room that was intended for people truly wishing to receive assistance. However, I like to think of it this way; By helping the growth of assistance programs/availability, you can hopefully extend the reach of said services to the people who truly need it and desire it. Hopefully cut down the cost of it at that. All the while dealing with the insincere folks, cause as walla229 stated, they will more than likely meet that "rock bottom" stage at some point.

    So, in a nutshell, the only reason ambulances would have to prioritize like that is due to a lack of ambulances. There's no reason why the addict nor the baby should not receive help.

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  13. I'm quite new myself, but my advise would be to take your time. It does no good to freak out and rush things. Take it slow. Pause. Reflect. Pray. Mistakes come with the territory, but there's no reason why one should try to avoid them if possible.

    Not only that, but change is never immediate. I've tried forcing change so much, quite often through willpower and discipline as Gandalf stated, and I ended up just stressing out or burning out. Not that one should be too lax about things, of course, but again, just try and remain calm and take it slow.

  14. When I was a kid, there was a spot of drama in the church over our preacher. He had made a mistake about 15 years prior and the congregation was voting to have him replaced... Except my own family. We liked the pastor and my parents reasoned that everyone makes mistakes. Thus, we were invited to never return. To this day, my parents haven't been to another church. It has taken me quite some time to come back around to Christianity, as with that time, I came to realize that there's a difference between the word and the people. We all fall short, and I know I certainly can't claim to be perfect.

    The most you can do is just lay it down on the table and see what they do with it. You can open doors, but if they aren't willing to cross that threshold, there isn't much that can be done.

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  15. I don't think that picture there is a good example. You say it includes bible verses, but I see none. Not only that, but it advertises the Catholic church.

    The issue, it would seem to me, is that a tract is a lot like a postcard. You try to sound articulate on the postcard, but due to lack of space, it's just like, "The food here is good. I like pie and pizza." A tract, you are trying to simplify things that really aren't quite so simple, stuff that can have lots of intricate details. In fact, I think for just one topic, you'd need at least a small booklet to cover everything.

    I get the idea of simplifying things, as most people aren't willing to take the time to read things. However, in my opinion, if that's their initial disposition, I don't think they'd be much interested in reading the bible, much less reading anything that they don't find relevant. They may be able to have a small effect among a small amount of the population, but you'd have to have a good balance (not too simple but not too complex) and really hit the nail on the head as far as the target audience goes.

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  16. On the one hand, i'd be willing to try it. On the other hand, i'm deathly afraid of arachnids, lol. I have already eaten crickets and grasshoppers before as snacks and they weren't that bad. They tasted like chicken but with a different texture. So I can't imagine it tasting too different, and that chili sauce would really add to it.

    Also, a bit unrelated, but Japan's McDonalds carries squid ink burgers. It's a regular burger (pretty much a double quarter pounder here in the US), but the buns are dyed black with squid ink.

  17. We had ice cube trays, and my brother and I would put things other than water in the trays to freeze into cubes. Like lemonade, Fanta, or Dr Pepper.

    You could either pop these non-water ice cubes into your mouth as a snack (what we normally did), or you can put it into a drink. Lemonade cubes in lemonade to avoid it watering down, that kind of thing.

    I've heard about people mixing different drinks with different ice cubes before in order to create a mixed taste in the drink, but I don't know much about that.

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  18. That's going under the assumption that all of those here in the West are Christians, much less that everyone in the middle east who greets the West with violence is a muslim.

    Many in the middle east simply don't want anything to do with the US, Russia, or the UN. Because what happens is that we waddle on in, set our own businesses that pay them very little, and largely stomp on the pre-existing cultures and values. There's just a majority of those who are muslims and calling every one of them a muslim makes things simpler.

    I don't know about you, but a lot of what the US stands for isn't exactly underpinned by Christian values. I can't really think of a way to explain that because the proof is in the pudding, you know?

    In any case, I feel that if something happens, it happens for a reason. This conflict between all three Abrahamic religions will play a part in the coming end of days. I don't necessarily think that it is a form of punishment necessarily, as all those things mentioned are more in the OT, whereas the NT speaks more of forgiveness and second chances.

  19. The thing with sexual immorality is that it can change the mind. We can see this in science where there is proof that, in people who are addicted to such things, they have dulled activity when it comes to the 4 chemicals that affect joy in a person (dopamine, seratonin, endorphins, and oxytocin). A more normal person goes bowling and it makes them happy because of the chemical release. Someone addicted also goes bowling but walks away from it feeling slightly dissatisfied because their brain isn't able to release as much of said chemicals. That is how a person becomes ensnared by it; the only way they can experience relief and joy is by engaging in it.

    However, I would argue that the change can also come from the practice. It starts out rather innocently enough, but as sure as the sky is blue, someone gets bored of the same adult material over and over. In time, the viewer starts to look elsewhere, perhaps starts to look at... The weird stuff. It is a slippery slope, and I feel as though many people end up where they'd really rather not be. The only way to cure it is pretty much "cold turkey". Given enough time, your brain will adjust to the lack to stimulation and will reform itself.

    Yes, I am speaking from personal experience. I made the mistake of trying to apply psychological ideas to my own self-treatment; namely, that by punishing yourself, you can teach yourself not to do something. My way to do this was to induce vomit. I had a system in place. If I engaged myself in an inappropriate way that day, I would shove my fingers down my throat. If I had far too many sexual thoughts (initial limit set at 15) and I exceeded my limit, vomit would be induced. In the end, all I did was stress myself out and become even more entwined by my vices.

    The other posters are correct; you must pray for the strength to fight it, and repent when you are unable to. The change is never immediate, and it will not be easy. Baby step by baby step, with time and effort, you will find yourself changing. I can't make any claims to be free of my own immorality, but i'm certainly not near where I used to be. You merely have to make the choice and follow through with it. Uphold your decision and do not give up.

    I wish you the best of luck, God bless.

  20. One has the choice to either do good or to do evil.

    Think of it like the 'many worlds" idea. You wake up one morning and have a choice: do I want pancakes, or would I rather eat French toast? If you make the choice to eat pancakes, that opens up a new world where you eventually end up being an accountant that wears silly ties to work. If you choose French toast, you open up a world where you end up in jail for assault. Thus, many worlds, butterfly effect kind of thing.

    To many, the thought of them having an evil opposing self is unthinkable. I like to try and think back to where, if I hadn't made the choice to try and change, where would I be right now? All I can think of is that i'd still be way, way down deep in sin and i'd probably either be dead or in prison, maybe even taking my own life. 

    So, this picture speaks to me of the good half and the evil half of this woman. If she chooses to do good, she is a modest dresser, doesn't drink, and avidly attends church. If she chooses to do evil, she wears revealing tops, likely drinks profusely, and gets a thrill out of meaningless... Casual encounters.

  21. As HisFirst said, I always pictured him being around 12 to 15 when he first meets Samuel, and then maybe 16 to 19 when he takes on Goliath. I'd think that any and all ideas of him being younger than that comes from far too much focus on the "youth" mentioned. The use of the word "man" is subjective, as the age someone was considered a man was much lower at the time.

    He worked his father's farm, so i'd think "ruddy" would mean that he was perhaps slightly sunburned.

    Also, I'd like to point out that verse mentioning that God sees not as man sees. For me, that clued me in that I think David wasn't the tallest guy. Maybe not by any means short, but not near Saul's stature. 

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