Who me

So amid all the pagan feasting and commercialism you are going to do nothing that shows that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of their Saviour. You are not going to explain what peace on earth means, what the good news is. There are plenty of gifts that benefit the poor and persecuted around the world and a card from you saying that the 20-50 dollars you would have spent on them has gone to buy bibles, pay for an education, medical fees etc etc. Your light display on your house can include a manger scene or don't have one and give to your favourite charity, ditto Christmas cards. Christmas is a time when we can celebrate if we want to, but also a great time for evangelism.

We do not judge the genuineness or the level of commitment or theological correctness of other Christians. God will do that and reward those deserving a reward. No we become something far better, members of God's family. Ultimately there are no Jews, no gentiles, no civilised, no barbarian only Christian and non Christian. We are All judged by our relationship to Jesus and all other distinction are valueless.

Your starting point has to be the ten commandments. I found this:-https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/why-bible-say-do-not-bear-false-witness.html A commentary on bearing walked witness.

I agree with you, you are able to give honest and biblically based answers unlike the poster.

Let me get this straight. You think it is more important that we All marry someone from the same tribe we belong to and that idolatry is immaterial. Because that is what the scriptures you quoted literally teach.

God is very gracious, he has promised to never quench the smoking flax or break a bruised reed! He knows our weaknesses, only the Christian worries about committing sins, so take heart you are not abandoned by God. You are incredibly precious to God, his Son suffered unbelievably inorder to save you, so do you really think he is going to let you slip away? You have to make the effort to praise God, to read and pray about your Bible readings, to regularly attend church, to be involved in church life, to live as a Christian and yes it can be very hard. Look at the alternatives, they all lead to an eternity without any experience of any of God's good gifts and worse no experience of God, that is literally He'll.

Who is Israel? Who is a jew? Through out the bible God decries those who merely go through the motions, who have no belief. Romans 2:28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. Israel is those who believe in Jesus.

For the ancient world Christianity presented many problems as detailed here:- http://www.tektonics.org/lp/nowayjose.php#one We are today in an age where Christianity presents many problems to the non Christian in terms of what they consider believable, challenges to behaviour and ways of thinking. U fortunately it is often the poor standard of Christian living that presents the biggest challenge.

Interestingly Simeon was just and devout, alert to the prompting of the Spirit. Those are characteristics of someone who is disciplined and educated in what and why he believed. Being ignorance of the bible, lax in attending church does not lead to being Spiritual.

Could please explain the relevance of tribal intermarriage to us today? I can see that in Israel it always led to idolatry, but just who or what are you trying to warn against.

Phil2:2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. It is not so much a case of seeing others as less fortunate, but rather a case of how can I be of practice help to others. How many elderly or disabled people attend your church? Ho w do they get there? How many people live on there own and would value a shared meal on Sunday? Are your churches activities being strangled due to lack of helpers? Even more challenging how many struggling churches do you pass inorder to attend your church. How is your attendance at church an encouragement to others?

Two options. You live in two separate accommodations until legally married or You have a quite marriage locally and live together as husband and wife until on your return home where you have the big family service blessing your marriage.

Just as God is no longer recognised as being God, so the morality associated with God and the consequential recognition of what sin is.

By educating ourselves in both philosophy and theology. The easiest way of doing this is to know what the bible actually says and not what we think it says.

You could try https://www.st-helens.org.uk/live/ Or for recordings the https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/

Tristan,s reply points the poster back yet again to answers in genesis who have a great many articles on these subjects. Just because people have an illogical dislike of those who believe the bible is the authoritative word of God, should not stop one from reading the results of there studies. Take a look at AiG use the search function and read what they have to say about caring for animals on the Ark.

The question has to be asked and answered. Why can you not be legally married according to the laws of your country? Those laws are there for a practical reason, e ample brother and sister cannot marry, as has been said someone who is already legally married cannot marry while that marriage exists. We here cannot advise you, you need to talk to a lawyer and to the pastor of the church you attend.

May I suggest that you do not need to " sense " or " feel " God's presence. It like your current earthly citizenship, do you ' feel ' that, or your re.ationship with your parents, do you ' feel ' or sense their love for you all the time. We are Christians not because we ' feel ' or sense something, but because of facts. Historical fact, Jesus lived, died and rose again. Spiritual fact, God gave you the gift of faith to believe in Jesus. May I make another suggestion. When you ' feel ' that God isn't there start thanking him and praising him for what he has done for you at calvary, for his promises ever to leave us or to abandon us. He is the Shepherd who left 99 sheep to there own devices, while he searched the wilderness es for One lost sheep. A Shepherd like this will not abandon a struggling sheep. What do you trust God's word or your fickle feelings.

By jkv I assume you mean the King James version of the bible. That what you have posted about the douray-rhiems bible is total nonsense as shown by this quote:- . It was completed in 1609, making it older than the KJV, which was not published until 1611. The fact that the Rheims New Testament was published in 1582 meant that it appeared almost thirty years before the KJV New Testament.from https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4300

If asked that sort of question respond with, ' As you are asking g about Noahs Ark, I take it you believe there is a God? Then move on to talk about Jesus. If they confirm they are an atheist, ask them why? And what evidence do they have for not believing in God? Take a look at the arguments for God at the bottom of this article:-https://winteryknight.com/2023/11/09/atheist-gets-her-phd-in-astronomy-and-astrophysics-and-finds-evidence-for-god-8/ Your tactics are. They ca believe anything, so long as they have a rational reason for that believe. As answersingenesis shows there is a rational argument for a global flood and for an Ark etc so move the conversation on to why they don't believe.

God is a spirit, not just invisible, so men is created in God's characteristics in that just as God is rational moral, spiritual, loving, merciful and creative so is mankind. That God loves mankind is seen in many ways, as his creativeness can be seen in creation, his provision of laws to guide us, in his sending of prophets and selecting a nation to show the World how to live and ultimately in the sending of his Son to save us.

Never understood this. Christians are accused of being narrow minded because one has to be a Christian to be saved! Unfortunately Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormons, JW, etc etc etc all believe that only there followers will be saved. The nonsense that all roads lead to God is shown to be false as Islam and the Christian sects have one God, Hinduism and mormons has a multitude of gods while Buddhism has no god. The wonder of Christianity is that God is concerned for us, he is active in saving us, so much so that unlike all other religions in Christianity the work of salvation is done for one and it has just to be accepted.

Yes and no, most denominations formed because of politics or basic theological disagreements, but now we have the corruption of Liberal theology that actually denies the basic foundational doctrines.

Or as Philipians says '2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others' So many petty incidents would be dealt with in church life if we All followed this.

It is a prayer that addresses the real needs of a person or situation, something other than " God bless those in need! "