Still Alive

Yeah. I think a lot of what Paul said was to make a point, but applying it to the current culture. I have what some would say is a "weird" perspective on his comments on women wearing long hair. This talks about it: https://drmsh.com/pre-scientific-worldview-problem-and-inerrancy/ And more to the core of that link, what precedes it is this PDF: https://drmsh.com/TheNakedBible/1 Cor11 head covering testicle.pdf

I was referring to this one part of your post: ...follow the law and the commandments of God. I think it is good to do that and we should "perfectly" do that. But since our flesh is weak, nobody can nor does. And I believe our salvation is not dependent on that. However, I DO believe our growth in the Lord depends on that. And I believe our quality of life in this phase of our existence depends on that. And if someone has a REALLY hard time with doing that, I see them as similar to this guy: "If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." -- 1 Cor 3:15 And I sometimes wonder if that "fire" is the misery they suffer in this life. I think there is some truth to the idea that we create our own "hell" in this life. But I'm only thinking out loud.

Yes. I think that is the part of Jesus' message a lot of people don't think very deeply about. That is, we all get the "he died for our sins" part. But we don't put together the "he's our dad, and he's giving us instruction on how to live our life the way he wants us to, not just for him, but for us. i.e. We will live a more joyful life if we follow his instruction. And my assumption is that most of us technically understand it in one way or another. But as Paul said, "I do the things I don't want to do" and "don't to the things I should". But we're still his kids, and as long as we see those things that way, I don't believe we've fallen away. But when you stop seeing it that way, you may need to re-evaluate who you are, and who you believe He is.

How much can you "not" follow the law and commandments of God before you've "fallen away"? I suppose I'm also wondering when one is or is not doing that. I'll be frank here: The way I'm interpreting that, I see it as legalism. But I might be misunderstanding what you meant when you posted that.

Define "fallen away". For me, it means falling away from the faith.

I look at it this way. All believers are God's children. So, now that you are His, are you going to be the kid he's proud of, or the one he's constantly having to bail out of jail? I prefer to be the former, but neither is gonna get you written out of the will.

I think this race will be a lot of fun. The parody ads in this video are hilarious:

For obama it was half.

He's making a joke of her playing her own race card.

Well, you can't do much when you are no longer president.

This is interesting. The R next to his name is the one thing I DON'T like about him. I've seen a lot of yellow dog democrats and republicans. But my circles talk more about the candidate than what party they are a member of. I think the R party hates Trump as much as the D party does. It's one of the things I like about him. He fights the uniparty. And that is a good thing. At least IMO. I lived in Seattle for 46 years and knew a lot of people that really hated the Republicans and would vote for the D candidate no matter what. It's one reason I left the area 13 years ago. It's a lot more even-handed here in Kentucky. Sure, there are still people that vote party line here as well, but not as many, IMO. At least in the area I live. OTOH, it seems that lately a lot of folks are proving they really would vote for Satan himself before they'd vote for Trump. It becomes apparent when you ask them why they would vote "for" Harris. It seems they just "hate Trump", and I think that is because they've been duped by the MSM. When you look at what he actually did as president, he can stand tall. But, of course, nobody is perfect.

I am also an ex-republican and an Independent. But I left them in Dubya's term when I realized we are dealing with a uniparty with two wings playing "good cop, bad cop" with us. But I didn't go to "moderate". I stayed on the conservative side and sort of say what Reagan said about the D party. i.e. I didn't leave them. They left me. And I judge him by what he actually did. And you probably don't know this, but a LOT of people agree with me. Just like a lot of people agree with me in our belief that the 2020 election was stolen in broad daylight. It's amazing that they were able to cancel all dissent, but a lot of cancelling was going on thanks to the Chinavirus.

I really liked his diplomacy in his first term. e.g. how did things go with North Korea. And some people just need to have their butts handed to them. I really liked the way he handled that one. He nailed them on their disingenuousness and attempt to set him up. But to re-iterate what I believe I've mentioned in the past, this is all entertainment for me. I think everything is going down very soon and am trying my best to watch it from afar. And it's been a long time coming. I nail the "beginning" on the 1960's, when we started taking kids seriously and even gave them the vote. And here we are. And technology is sealing the deal. I have little doubt they will try to off Trump again before the election. It's all they have. And the fact that their "plausible denial" seemed to work (at first) regarding the last attempt only empowers them. Fortunately for all of us, the Lord is in control.

I should throw this out too: During the 2020 election, one reason I knew he was going to win (and I believe he did) was that when I checked out CNN and MSNBC "talking heads shows", all they could really complain about was how he talked or what he said. They were pretty much silent on his track record as president. That spoke volumes to me. And then they thought the "grab 'em by the..." remark was going to sink him, until on a live mic on NPR, a woman was asked why she would vote for him considering the remark, and she said, "I'm voting for president, not husband." That says it all. Also, I'm shocked at how much Trump gets away with talking off the cuff without really stepping in it. ALL carreer politicians know you should NEVER go off script because you could destroy your career. Trump is not concerned about that. He's concerned about draining the swamp. And this time I think he'll do a much better job of it, now that he's gotten a taste of how expert the R party is at stabbing their own members in the back when they don't toe the uniparty line. No matter which side wins this election, we are in for some VERY interesting times. It's ok to enjoy it. The Lord is in control.:)

I saw that interview. I thought he handed her her butt. He was talking to a black audience. Illegals are taking all races jobs. Legals too, frankly. That's why I had to go from being a COBOL programmer to being a business analyst. The latter requires good verbal communication skills, the former really doesn't. But the billing rate for American contract programmers back in the early 90's was $75 an hour. For Indian ones it was $17.50.

It drives leftists crazy when they are all complaining about the way he speaks and I chime in and say that for decades I've ignored what politicians say and watch what they do, which is why I think he's the best president in over a century. And for the record, I was temp-banned twice by my favorite political forum during the 2016 election for complaining myself about him being a chameleon, and the way he spoke. But that was because at that time he was an unknown quantity and all I had to go by was what he said. That changed less than a month after he was sworn in.

That is exactly what was in the back of my mind when I first coined that phrase about 15 years ago (it was just before the 2008 election, also at the same time I bought my rural acreage in Kentucky, which I moved to from Seattle a couple years later). I'm not the worlds best decision maker, but time has proven that was the third best decision I made in my life. Second was choosing my wife. You know what the first one was. What I see as I look above my monitor right now (beats what I saw when I lived in Seattle):

It's important to remember, who wins any democratic election is not a reflection of the candidate. It is a reflection of the voters. And in a democracy, you not only get the government you want. You get the government you deserve.

I agree. But it's fun. And it gives you a sense of accomplishment, like acing a difficult video game.

None of it is known to man - yet. I completely agree with that first sentence. Regarding the "goal", we have lots of goals. The most important is, IMO acknowleging Jesus is Lord and he and the Father are one, and he created the heavens and the earth. i.e. the earth and it's atmosphere. And "as far as we are concerned" that is the universe. i.e. I believe God created everything, including the things we don't know. Another pursuit is to figure out how it all works. We exploit that knowledge pretty well.

I agree. But it also doesn't say not to. It leaves a lot of it up to us. I see it this way: The goal of the bible was not to impart 24th century knowledge on man. It was to let us know that He is our creator, and the creator of everything around us. For all we know, there are an infinite number of planets He created with sentient beings on them. But, "as far as we're concerned" this is the only one. It is the one he created us for.

Depends on what the bible means by "light". When you turn on the light in a completely dark room, the room is not really "without any light". And what if you really just opened the curtains? There is not enough info in those verses to hang your hat on any theory about exactly when the sun (or any star, for that matter) was "created". It's not important to Christian (or Jewish) theology. We know that at least the beginning of the age of man happened about 6,000 or so years ago, and that God is our creator. Everything else is wild speculation. At least, IMO.

It's kinda funny, people that use science as their religion claim that Christians, when they can't show evidence for how something happened, just say, "God did it", and they use that to accuse our position of being intellectually bankrupt. However, the same goes for the creation of life from non-life. They have no explanation, so they just say it evolved. This includes a lot of the phases of evolution as well. I stopped arguing it years ago. I leave it at this: I believe God, Yaweh, created everything. I don't know how he did it because I wasn't there. And the bible chooses not to get into the details, but I believe he did it. But, opinions vary.

I always find it fascinating when people ask you if you believe "in" something. e.g. Evolution. Do I believe evolution happens? Absolutely. I've watched, since I was a kid, and with fascination, the evolution of the Corvette. But I don't believe "in" the evolution of the Corvette. I just believe that, yeah, it evolved. I believe evolution of life forms happens, but only the evolution that we've witnessed. And that is a far cry from man (or anything else) being a product of evolution. So for me, the question makes no sense. The only thing I believe in is something that is a thinking personality, like a reliable local mechanic. And, of course, God.

Yeah. I agree. Think of it as a "rocky" honeymoon.