Coliseum

"The Great Commission was originally given to those with Jesus before He ascended to heaven, but applies to all believers. It teaches that we are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… (Matthew 28:19). In this broad context, any Christian who leads another person to faith in Christ could potentially baptize someone." "Interestingly, Scripture does not focus very much on the person who baptizes Christians. John 4:2 teaches, "Although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples." Jesus had His disciples baptize His followers rather than doing it Himself. Apparently Paul did not personally baptize many people either. In 1 Corinthians 1:14-16 we read, "I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)" It appears Paul allowed other believers to baptize people as part of their service to the church." Thirdly, we are designated priests. "In his baptism, God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit to carry out his threefold office of prophet, priest, and king (Luke 3:1–21; Matt. 3:1–17; Mark 1:1–11). Likewise, we who are in union with Christ share in this same anointing through Christ’s outpouring of the Spirit upon the church (Acts 2:1–41, esp. 33, 38."

One thing is certain. He is dead. If he was not a Christian, his life was snuffed out of him before there was any hope he could have been. That is what is truly sad. Some on Death Row have at least that opportunity to receive Christ before they die. Paul killed Christians; was this man any less able to receive Christ than Paul? Of course no one knows whether, in his suffocation, he may have asked anything of the Lord. Jesus does not waver in saying to those who are alive, without Christ. "Today is the day..." It is urgent---and this could not have been a greater illustration why. All of these arguments whether what happened was right or wrong pale into insignificance when we are talking about a man's eternal destiny.

My favorite was Jethro Tull. The song leader, Ian Anderson, played eleven different musical instruments. He was positively brilliant and no one ever matched his flute-playing skills. I was at a concert he once did. Everyone was high, passing joints around. The place was packed. But then he said something truly awe-inspiring. He said, "I wished everyone had dressed in suits and ties, who came not to get high, but to listen the words of the songs." And boy what words. "It was a new day yesterday, but it's an old day now!" Have you ever heard it phrased that way? Normally one might say, "It was an old day yesterday, but it's a new day now." His words were what made him so spectacular. He was completely out of the box---a style of genius no one ever duplicated---either in musical talent or lyrics. Here he plays a Flute Duet - Astronaut Cady Coleman and Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull---Ian Anderson composed the song.

"James A. Garfield was the twentieth president of the United States. Because he was president of the United States, the people were very conscious of his presence when he came to church. Especially was the pastor proud of him. He would refer to him from the pulpit as “President James A. Garfield.” One day the president came to see his pastor and said, “Pastor, I know on the outside and before the world I am the president of the United States. But in the church I am just plain James A. Garfield.” This is a beautiful story of humility! It illustrates the New Testament definition of greatness in a simple way. The humility of this famous and powerful man is a tribute not only to him, but also to his Savior." ...Pastor Criswell "And He sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mark 9:35

Talk is cheap. We do whatever it takes to be exactly like we are. Matthew 21:28-32 (NIV) 28 "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' 29 "'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30 "Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. 31 "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

One very discerning Pastor told me that such a gift, after an action, can with some believers come even before the action is completed; for some it requires a moment, and for others, it takes more time to put into one's memory all of the pieces of an entire event. You may be right to say that the Christian has an uncanny ability to look into one's eyes and detect good or evil. I seem to have that sense. But for some, it is more difficult as in the case of a young, 18 year-old girl who was dying of cancer. On her deathbed, she was afraid, and and it seemed normal because she had virtually no life to look back upon. She was sitting, and then fell backward onto the bed as if dead. Then, shockingly, shot back up with her arms extended, and from her lips shouting, "No....No...., and then fell backward once again, dead. We want to jump to the conclusion that seems inevitable, but we can't. Any of an infinite number of things might have been in her thoughts. She gave no impression during her life that she was evil. Nothing in her eyes that indicated it. Would you say Judas was evil before Satan entered him? When Satan was created perfectly, without sin, was he evil before he became prideful because of his beauty? Is a man evil before God gives him faith to turn to Him? You said, "I have heard of people seeing demonic things but most of them aren't saved." That is a judgment call that is hard to make in my opinion. I watched a TV movie that was certainly evil, but that does not automatically quality me as evil, or unsaved. In fact, I have not watched any TV for over ten years. Would you not agree that every person tends to see things through the lens of his past that are not pure---only filtered? We even sin in our prayer life. Jesus would not snuff out a smoldering wick---even with Judas, who He called "friend" up until the very second before Jesus was betrayed. Even Satan Jesus said, Thou wast perfect (tāmîm, "sound, unimpaired, innocent")...Ezekiel 28:15 (KJV) till iniquity was found in thee. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary. This of course has nothing to do with you dear sister. I just wanted to make my case that many of our preconceived notions are sometimes just that. We have heard it said---and probably more than once---that some we never thought we would see in heaven will be there; and some we believed would be, might not. God bless.

Probably the most frightening movie I ever saw was in 1990 called, "You Broke Your Vow." Today, I relate the movie to something I never thought about relating to God when we break our vows to Him. In this movie, the gargoyle was intelligent who showed no mercy to the artist who broke his promise never to reveal what he knew and saw about the gargoyle. Thank God Jesus is merciful. As I look back on this movie, I now realize from all of the things that have happened to me, that it is not a game to break one's vow! Our words and actions are written into eternity, and they will go ahead of us to be our witnesses, either for or against us at the time we stand before Jesus. I experienced something else too: that God will use whatever means He must to get our attention---even something terrifying. I had always been very fearful after i saw that movie and did not understand why. Sometimes, even though something may never happen to you, your envisioning what could happen is sufficient to prevent it. I now realize why God permitted me to see it.

"To know the God of revelation is necessary. If we are to know God, it must come from a divine self-disclosure. No one by searching the Scriptures can find God. Mankind in his genius and with his telescope and all his mathematical formulas can do many things, but he cannot find God. In the National Geographic magazine there was a magnificent article on what our giant telescopes have discovered. We can now see the infinitude of the universe, the Milky Way, the multitude of galaxies out in space. We can see all of this, and we can make a deduction that whoever created it was omnipotent, but we could never find out who He is or what His name is. Or we can look at the beautiful sunset, the glorious kaleidoscope of colors when God makes the heavens show His glory. Or we can look at a graceful rainbow, or at the perfectly formed flowers. From these we can deduce that whoever made them loved beautiful things, but we could never know Him or His name. We can look at ourselves and see that we are intelligent and morally sensitive. So, we could deduce that whoever created us was someone of intelligence and personality and moral sensitivity. But who is He? We can never know except by a divine disclosure." ...Pastor Criswell "And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables." Mark 4:11

Sometimes, it is good to know the person you are answering. I got to know her. She trusted me. She sent me many texts concerned whether one thing was right over another, good or should be left alone, etc. She was searching. I must add that she was perhaps the sweetest young woman who loves God that i have ever met on a forum. She was as straight as a piano wire. She was extremely shy, very delicate, her feelings easily hurt. Many could not have known why she left; she did not know what to say. She did not see the bickering, the judgment, the blame. It was not in her. She was extremely quiet, and her ability to socialize was unlike a people who seem to know it all. Her questions were pure. She just wanted people's opinions and thoughts. Everyone of us comes here for whatever their own personal reasons and biases. I am so sad to see her go. I even asked one Christian lady here if she would not mind befriending her so that she could have some kind of mentor who might come along side her. This Christian lady tried, but it may have been too late. I cannot stress enough how our words to others matter. They matter to you, they matter to me, and they certainly mattered to her. Some here have already shared they are backing away from all the arguing and know-it-all attitudes---and frankly, I do not blame them. We do not have what Jesus had who said that he knew what is in a man's heart. We must be even more careful, and I appreciate all of us who are.

Regret is no place for a Christian. A Pastor told me that if you have ever been with people who are in their last moments of life, you will see something very common. It is as if one is on a boat going out to sea. The harbor is well lit, but as the boat journeys further out, the lights dim and eventually they fade into the remaining darkness until only one or two remain. Then only one light is left. That light is the light of regret---the very last thing a person remembers before he dies---the things he wished he would have done, but now it is too late. I grew up despising my mother for how i was emotionally treated growing up. She was dying. My sister, who is not a Christian, told me I must go to the hospital and tell my mother that i loved her. I would not go. My sister pleaded with me two more times. Then she asked me, "Aren't you a Christian"? So I went with her and saw my mom lying there. She was in a different world. On my fourth and final visit before she died, I told her I loved her. I am so glad now that i will not experience that last light of regret regarding my mother when the Lord calls me home.

"Once I heard a mountain preacher in Kentucky make an appeal that we be kind and generous to those around us now, because tomorrow may be too late. He described a farmer who had a loyal wife. They both worked long and hard, with the result that within a few years they prospered greatly. The husband took all the money they made and bought more land and more stock, year after year going through the ceaseless rounds of acquiring more fields to raise more corn, to feed more hogs, to make more money, to do the same thing again. Each year the faithful wife would ask for a new silk dress, only to be refused by the miserly husband who spent nothing on her, but everything on the stock and the farms. Finally, overworked and heartbroken, the faithful wife died prematurely and was laid to rest in the cemetery on the side of the hill. The tragedy of what he had done came with such crushing force to the soul of the husband that something snapped in his reason. One day he was found wrapping yards and yards of the finest silks and satins around the headstone of his poor wife’s grave. “But,” said the mountain preacher, “it was too late.” It is not tomorrow that the recording angel begins to write God’s book of remembrance. He is writing now. It is not tomorrow that we should begin the gracious, sweet, humble ministries that so richly bless the lives of others. Let us do them now." ...Pastor Criswell "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40 This really hits home and causes me to look into the yesterdays of my life and wonder what i can do....right now.

"So deadly and so merciless was the poison of rationalism in the schools, in the universities, in the seminaries, and in the pulpits, that it seemed the prophecy of the atheist Voltaire might come to pass. Voltaire said, “One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” It has sometimes looked as though what the infidel Hume envisioned might come to pass: “I see the twilight of Christianity,” he said. Yet one hundred years from the time of Voltaire’s prediction, a first edition of Voltaire’s work sold in the market in Paris for eleven cents. And on that identical day, the British government paid to the Czar of Russia five hundred thousand dollars for the Codex Sinaiticus, a copy of the Word of God discovered by Count Tischendorf in a monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. When Hume talked about the twilight of Christianity he was much confused. He could not tell sunrise from sunset." "Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime; Then looking in, I saw upon the floor Old hammers, worn with beating years of time. “How many anvils have you had,” said I, “To wear and batter all these hammers so?” “Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye, “The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.” And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word For ages skeptic blows have beat upon; Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard, The anvil is unworn--the hammers gone!" --John Clifford ...Pastor Criswell "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matthew 24:35

She never committed adultery. Her husband simply left her. She was betrayed, yet neither committed any sexual sins. She was left abandoned with six children, but remained in prayer for 14 years. How many would do that. I knew her. She strengthened many who watched in real time how she survived day by day. When she was sick, some of us came and helped with food. But what was beautiful is that she once shared with me that though she was waiting for her husband to return, her real Husband never abandoned her!

I must respectfully disagree. If the trust is dependent upon God, it not only can be restored, but ultimately flourish. I have witnessed this on three occasions. If our trusting in someone is based upon our own standards, it will fail. But "Love never fails" if it is based upon God's. The wounds that Jesus' body bore were there as scars when he returned. Thomas touched them and believed. Those scars were left on his perfect body for all to see. His scars represent what our scars look like when we overcome the deep wounds in our lives. Jesus uses everyone of them to bring us closer to him and into the kingdom of heaven. Many people have been afflicted in order to make them more fully dependent upon Jesus, and in their own weakness made stronger and complete in Him.

When Pastor Richard Wurmbrand was in Communist prisons, he was faced with being forced to reveal information about other Christians. Would he lie to keep them from being beaten or possibly killed, manipulate the conversation away from revealing the truth, or take their punishment upon himself? He did all three, saying he never once gave away harmful information, and said his conscience was clean in every case. Many times he was tortured as a result. The consequences for his lying were great enough. God imposed nothing more. When Rehab lied to protect the spies, she was learning that there was the God of Israel that she did not know. God did not reward her for lying, but for choosing Him by faith over all the other pagan gods that she was used to. God understands our intentions and motives of the heart. Would I shoot an intruder if there was imminent, life-threatening danger to my family? Yes, I believe so, because it involves more than me? Would I shoot an intruder to protect only myself? The grace that God gives me in the moment would provide my answer.

God always wants to restore and not destroy whenever it is possible. In another incident in a church I attended, a man decided he could not continue with his wife. He simply told her he was leaving her---with six children. During her time without him, she was in prayer for his return. A few times she struggled with wanting to date other men, but she remained faithful. Fourteen years later, he walked into the church, knelt down in front of her and asked if she would forgive him for the terrible mistake he pursued. It is now eight years later and they couldn't be happier. She was a very strong woman in the Lord without a shred of bitterness. She underwent terrible times keeping two jobs and finding ways to manage her six children alone. She honored God, and God blessed her. Please do not be afraid of being judged. No one has it all together. No one has it together at all. No one is free from struggling in this life. I encourage you to keep a head held high in Christ and keep sharing. And btw---and i have echoed this before: we all wear masks, and to the extent that we do, we can neither give love nor receive it. Only the mask gets the credit. It is only when we are brave enough to lower it that we can truly love others, and receive it. :)

There needs to be unity in the church. The willing adulteress/adulterer is usually counseled by the elders/Pastor of the church, and then the words of Jesus usually follow: 15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Matthew 18:15-17 (NIV) This very thing happened in a church I attended. A wife was seeing another man in the church. She was counseled, but refused to stop seeing him, and said she loved the man. The woman was no less the Pastor's daughter. The Pastor, after much tender counseling, chose to listen to the Word of God and told her both she and the man must leave the church. It was heartbreaking for her father, but he knew that unity and faithfulness needed to be preserved. They continued their relationship. The husband divorced her and remained in the church.

Appy, if this is what you believe you are hearing, then i believe you are misinterpreting. Once a sinner is saved, his life should be illustrating a changed life. What OSAS is saying is that it is no longer under compulsion that we change. It is no longer that we have to change or else. It is an inward willingness and desire to change because we understand the cost Jesus paid, out of his love to save us. Jesus is not interested in our outward compliance. He is not interested in the number of sins we check off in a checkbox---and btw, we couldn't reduce the number of sins in us even if we wanted to. Many believe that Jesus is way over there someplace, and we are separated from him because of the uncountable number of sins we have. Many think, "Gee, if I could remove half those sins, that distance between us and God will diminish." We do not realize that tomorrow, 35 more wheelbarrows of sins are dumped right back into our laps. God is not interested in numbers. He wants our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the man saved by his grace grasps how much Christ loves us because of the cross. Paul said, "Boast in the cross." He did not say we couldn't boast. We can boast. Boast in the Cross; and to the extent that we do, we want all the more to follow him, to love him, to be obedient with our entire being. No longer because there will be Hell to pay, but because there will be eternity with Him to gain. We no longer think according to the old flesh, but we become a whole other person that longs to be in our Father's lap out of joy, not fear!

Let's face it. "Everything I say is right, and everything I believe is true, and if you don't agree with me, you are wrong." There is a measure we all embrace this false, unspoken notion. But almost the entire chapter of Romans 14 dispels that idea. Paul again speaks about it in 1 Cor 8. Judging with condemnation about non-essentials. Is it Saturday or Sunday? Meat or no meat every Friday? Tattoos: heaven, or Hell? Suits and ties, or shorts and shirts in church"? And the list goes on. On matters unacceptable to some are not for others, and visa versa. On such matters, we stand before God, not men. Personally, I adopt what Paul said, paraphrasing: "I don't care what you believe about me. I don't even care what I believe about myself. It is the Lord who judges me." That's the mindset. That's the ticket. Be there for your brothers and sisters regardless of what they say and demonstrate tolerance when they don't concern the major tenets of the faith. Tolerance must start...with me. If i want fellowship, I go and get fellowship; if love, then love; if prayer, then prayer; if encouragement, then encouragement. Where there are two people apart, one must go to the other first and shake their hand. Don't wait for them; one pursues peace---the other waits for it. Be the one who pursues it. Psalm 34:14. ❤️

Yet you choose not to comment on my examples---even those that are not "stretching" it. So you are suggesting that if I die for even one sin not repented for, I'm over? You do not see how utterly ridiculous that sounds? Jesus is not about the letter of the law. Behold is right; you are preaching legalism and you are doing a real disservice to those unsure, or who are new. I will not argue with you. If that is what you believe, you go right on believing it. btw, you can copy/paste all the Scripture you want and think others are impressed by it, but it is merely a mask for what you appear to lack wisdom in. Go learn what Rev 3:19 really means! He is not speaking about one's sins. He is talking about those refusing to turn to Christ. Lukewarmness was a state of the church. Their relationship was not right with God. It was not about people repenting of their individual sins. There will be people on Death Row entering heaven just as the thief on the Cross who, after they were saved, had no more opportunity to repent of any future sins, nor could they leave the cross or get out of prison to repent of their past sins. I won't add anything more; I have made my point.

What if you are in a coma and can't repent because of the car accident you just got involved in? What if you were on your way to return the money you stole from a man who died the week before? What if you can't recall the other 10,000 things you did, the animal you teased when you were five, or the lustful thought you had six years ago? Praise God that Jesus took those sins---past, present, and future---and drank the full cup of God's wrath for them so that we could spend our time loving others like He is constantly loving us. If we spent our time thinking about Jesus instead of thinking about our sins, we would be able to live for him instead of ourselves.

Most of what you said has merit, but to place the word "Christians" in quotes as if to suggest others are not as genuine is not my business. It is God's. What you know in Scripture will differ from what I and everyone else knows. That is what is beautiful about God's Word. I cannot, nor would not ever want to think that I must check boxes to be as "good" as someone else in order to qualify to be a Christian. Those who are saved are saved by faith whether they have the faith of a mustard seed or someone with a more valiant one. So I am happy for you that you infer possessing greater knowledge, who excels "Sunday spoon feeding," who apparently does not make "knee jerk recitations," who understands the "number of layers" in the Word of God. This is a wonderful gift---one that I might choose to keep to myself. God bless.

“For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption” (Gal. 6:8). When a person gives himself to the world and sows for worldly gain, his harvest can be money, affluence, success, pleasure, and freedom from hunger, from cold, and from heat. In many ways he can find a harvest that is seemingly grand. But Paul says that there is also another harvest in it, and that harvest is corruption, decay, and loss. The apostle says that there are no spiritual rewards or harvests when a person sows just for the world. For example, money can buy a bed, but not sleep. Money can buy food, but not appetite. Money can buy a house, but not a home. Money can buy medicine, but not health. Money can buy amusement and pleasure, but not happiness. Money can buy gifts, but not love. Money can buy a crucifix, but not a Savior. When we sow for worldly gain, then the harvest is corruption, loss, and decay. Two men were driving through a beautiful estate crowned by a lovely mansion, with fertile fields all around it. The man asked his companion, “What is the value of this great estate?” His friend replied, “I cannot tell you the value of it, but I can tell you what it cost the owner.” The other fellow said, “What?” And he replied, “It cost him everything he had. It cost him his soul.” ...Pastor Criswell "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul"? Matthew 16:26

You are right. Why did you pick a thread written six months ago? You throw lots of darts, and then say, "Except that this is not a thread about judging others..." Why?

I feel like the little boy jumping up and down in the back of the class to get recognized by the teacher. "Hey. Hey! I have a landline. I have one." I have a dumb phone, and an old refrigerator. But you are right Addy. We cannot get away from it unless we live in the woods, and some even I know are doomsday 'preppers'. Sadly, you are right. Imperceptibly---little by little---unawarely---we have been taken for a long ride for a long time. We are all being lined up against the wall, tagged, identified, labelled, recorded, and "hidden" away in the memory banks underneath the bunkers on a hill for further notice. Did you know that 50 years ago the very clothes we wore were threaded with recording devices in the very strands of the fabric, transmitting data. I know that for a fact. So if you were ever afraid of being bugged, you better get out of the building; and if you are really worried, you'd better change your clothes. None of this is new. It has long-time been in the making, but thank you for bringing it up. We need to be aware. No general goes out to fight a war without knowing the deepest aspects of his enemy well. But we cannot be afraid either. The world will say, "If you don't want to be seen, stay out of the world's spotlight." Jesus says, put it under the blistering light of truth and expose it! And when a person does that, he submits to the cross to be crucified.