Ray12614

It is a true saying pertaining to people being in power. I agree with the post about the 3 pronged government. Of course God is all powerful, yet He remains un-corrupted. For people in power, it depends on if they will conform to the scriptures or not. Obviously most do not. Even those who call themselves Christians many times are ignorant of scripture principals, must less try to live them out.

The 'beauty' of concealed carry is that: 1. we don't freak-out some people around us, and 2. Should there be some bad actors hurting people around us we have the element of surprise to help us quickly stop innocent people from being hurt. Be safe my friends . . . Ray . . .

Good post. To most of what you have listed, I would say yes to in context of the short time following for sure. Not sure what the long term effects will be. I suppose like 911, this country will be changed going forward. I am most interested in how this affects the church as a whole. I can say this for sure: Being under 'house quarantine' has made me more sympathetic towards my brothers & sisters who cannot attend church meetings regularly. Sure, I can listen to my church's live streams, but I sure miss face-to-face interaction with the people God has put me with. Caring for the hurting has been difficult as we have been separated from each other. Getting encouragement online is ok, but, pales in comparison to having people look me in the eyes and encourage me with a hand shake / hug and praying in person for each other. Honestly, I don't know how those who cannot attend adapt to not having that in their lives. My heart goes out to them, and yes, I am learning to adapt. I definitely have learned compassion for those who 'cannot' attend for various reasons. So, yes, I have been changed. I hope it is for the better. Anyway, that is my take on what you mentioned above . . . Grace and Peace . . . Ray . . .

I remember the 'blizzard of 78'. People were snowed in and for several weeks nobody could get out to their normal day-to-day activities. Interestingly enough, 9 months later there was an baby boom of babies conceived during those weeks of 'house-arrest'. LOL I like that your post says that we should be people of Prayer, bible study & worship. Certainly this 'down-time' can be used for refocusing and reinvigorating ourselves in Jesus our Lord by the Holy Spirit. Then when we return to our day to day activities, we should be more focused on what matters. Who knows what the Holy Spirit will 'conceive' in our hearts, and what new ministries will be born or refocused after this is all over? Ray . . .

Amen!!!

Yes, Amen!!! I agree whole heartedly! The implication here in the preceding verses before verse 15 is what we should be doing to let the Peace of God rule in our hearts. Hummmm . . . does that explain why we see so much complaining about other Christians and ministries in many posts? If we don't have the Peace of God reigning/ruling in our hearts, could that lead us into bickering posts about others?' I suppose that there are Christians who want to prove their points at any cost, so we just ignore that part and concentrate on what is good. Also, I believe that there is a distinct difference between 'Peace WITH God' which we have through Jesus's sacrifice for our sins, AND the 'Peace OF God' which the verses you posted above are talking about. Thank you for posting this. I for one am grateful for your posting of scriptures so we all can have a check-up from the neck-up. Grace & Peace . . . Ray . . .

You are right, I guess I see now how to properly reply to individual posts now. (quote then remove all the other stuff). Still getting use to this format of posting/quoting. Thanks for hearing me out. Hope all here have a great day!

This chat is somewhat clumsy to use, so I guess I will just add my 2 cents here, LOL If we only trust healing storys from those who have no money, that would dis-qualify Jesus. Jesus had a treasurer, and evidently there was enough in Jesus treasury that nobody (other than Jesus) missed it when Judas (the keeper of the bag) was stealing from it. Interestingly enough, Jesus did not kick Judas out of His ministry, but, allowed him to stay and take part of Jesus' ministry which included healing. Certainly there are some fakes, and scoundrels out there, but many are not. Once we go down the road of deciding 'who' can be used by Jesus, and who cannot based on their bank accounts, it is a slippery slope to walk on. I have heard it said 'eat the hay, and spit out the straw'. Yes, we should be discerning, but we really should be careful about accusing another servant to our Master. But, that is probably just my attitude because a lot of Christians have no problem acusing ministers. BUT I will not join in. I suggest those who hate the tele evangelists put your stones down and let some fruit of love show . . . Just saying . . . . hummmm . . . .

I think just 'where' the tele-evangelists are is really none of my concern. Not sure why you posted this, but, as for me I will let God deal with His ministers. Basic principle I have picked up over the years: God does the calling and hiring, and God does the rebuking and firing. He does not need my help at all. I am reminded how many times God's people encountered obstacles and problems under Moses's leadership, and the first knee-jerk reaction the people had was to turn against Moses (visible leadership) instead of trusting the Lord their God to help them through crisis. My advice during all of this virus calamity is to encourage believers, read and believe scriptures that promise us healing and deliverance, and walk in love and forgiveness with all our brothers and sisters (including all leaders). Certainly we should focus on what is good, lovely, of good report etc. At least that is what I am doing. And yes, I too am a cancer survivor, solely because of the mercy and grace of Jesus who bought me my healing on the cross. Thank you Jesus!!! Grace & Peace . . .

Actually, Leviticus has a lot to say about quarantining God's people so they are not exposed to infectious diseases. Good advice . . .

Interesting topic. I have been pondering it since I read it yesterday. Honestly, I have no clues of what it might mean, but, over the years having had dreams myself (some of God, others not) I have picked up some guide lines that I use to judge my dreams: 1. First the NT is plain, that God has given us scriptures and the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. So dreams are not to be relied upon for that purpose. 2. Dreams/visions are valid experiences - Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. I have had dreams that 'confirm' scriptures I have read, or, give me more insight into the scriptures as to what I could to to 'walk-out' those scriptures in my day to day walk with the Lord. I have had dreams given to me as a warning to myself, and my church. For instance I had a dream that one of our church members would encounter a child molester, and that they were to be aware of what their children were doing and where they were. so I informed our church, and let it drop. 2 weeks later, one of our children was almost kidnapped by a stranger, but the father being vigilant stopped it. So dreams can warn of events yet to come so that tragic results can be avoided. 3. I am convinced that dreams/visions can also be an result of what we have been experiencing or watching around us. For instance, I like star trek (put your stones down please LOL), and so I have had dreams that include 'spacey' illustrations. They were not from God, but, a result of what I have watched during the day when awake. Also, I have been assaulted by the enemy while I have been sleeping through dreams that generated fear of what is to come. So, another guide line I use is 'did the dream generate fear inside me'? If so, probably it was not from the Holy Spirit. The Holy spirit can show us things to come, not freak us out with fear. Again, we are lead by the Holy Spirit, not by dreams/visions. Also, if the Holy Spirit chooses to do so, he can give is dreams/visions for varying purposes. Let the peace of God reign in your heart, and be final authority in validating your dreams. Hope this helped in some way . . . Peace to you and yours . . . Ray . . .

Thanks PassingThru. Its awfully nice of you to say that. I look forward to getting to know you . . . Ray . . .

I agree with you mostly, yes, we serve an Awesome God. Certainly we as Christians should comfort the broken-hearted and the hurting for sure. By the way that continues long after the loved-ones pass on from this world. People are different in how they handle the grieving process. Thessalonians declares that we as Christians should not grieve with a hopelessness that the world exhibits, but with hope and confidence that we will see our loved-ones who are saved. That is our great hope in Christ, the hope of the resurrection and eternal life with Jesus together with our saved loved ones. Thank you Jesus! What I respectfully disagree with is the 'secret Christians' outlook, where we cannot tell any difference between believers in Jesus, and non-believers. From what I read in the NT, early church Christians were not secretive concerning their faith. Many suffered hardships and death for their confession of Jesus as Lord of their lives. In fact, today, we have many martyrs giving their lives because they will not renounce their faith in Jesus. Only in the western world do we see people living secret lives for Jesus, or not living at all their Christian values, and then when they die, people try to rationalize that somehow they will be with Jesus. It just does not make any sense to me other than trying to be sensitive to their family who has suffered loss. Certainly, I would never ask the family of someone who passed-on if their loved one was saved. That is cruel and heartless. Jesus will sort all that out. He is the Lord, not us. However, I pray that my life will reflect the love of Jesus, and the certainty that when I die I will be with Jesus. It will give my family and friends a confidence that they will see me again, and hopefully inspire them to outwardly live their days for Jesus the King. As for Kenny: I am glad he was a Christian, thanks to all for affirming that. I have a hope to see him again someday. Blessings to all here . . . Ray . . .

Thanks BeauJangles!

Certainly we cannot Judge the person in place of God having final judgement (only God knows his heart), however scripture does give us permission to judge the actions and life styles of people (fruit), as to whether they know Jesus our Lord. In fact, Jesus gave the world permission to judge us, and the dividing line is that they see our love for one another. Authentic Christianity is one of community, and publicly professing Jesus as Lord and Savior. I was just wondering about Kenny, since normal Christian family obituaries include things like 'his love for his family and love for God, how he served in the community, church, etc.' , and since I did not see that in the public announcements, I was wondering. I am not pointing an accusing finger at Kenny, just wondering if anybody was aware of any outward actions that indicate what his inward spiritual state was. Thanks for the reply . . . Ray . .

I read this am that Kenny Rogers has died. Does anybody know if he was a Christian? Honestly, from the new feed I cannot tell. Ray . .. .

it just proves that the virus is female . . .

YES!!! Exactly correct. Thank you for saying that, I was beginning to think that I was the only one in these forums that took Corinthians teaching on the Body of Christ seriously. Jesus designed the Body to come together, assemble together, for the purpose of edification, exhortation, and teaching and learning the scriptures, showing love to each other, and more. Jesus knew that when we separate ourselves from the rest of the Body, we get weird, making ourselves our own personal ministry gifts to our selves. And of course, when we do that we get really strange. We should assemble to give into other brother and sisters lives, and be a part of each other as the Church was intended to be. Do not forsake the assembling together. Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some; but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Thank you for posting that!

Jesus . . . Don't leave earth without him . . .

Well, I see in Eph 4 that they are one of the gifts Jesus gave to the body of Christ, Pastors and Teachers. Grahm/Sharp rules of interpretation say pastor and teachers are in fact 'one' gift: Feeding Shepard's. Either way, they are very important gifts otherwise Jesus would not have given them. Certainly there are pitfalls that pastors can fall into, that is why they should be mature Christians so they will be less likely to fall into those traps. My 2 cents . . . Ray . . .

Understand completely and sympathize with your situation. My church is somewhat out of ordinary as we bring our shutins if at all possible. other options are visiting them and I have fallen short on that solution. Thanks for reminding me not to get lazy and minister to shutins. I need what they have to offer. I hope maybe in the time ahead I might somehow get to know you a little better? Ray

Maybe this is a little off topic, but, I cannot help but note the similarity between this scripture and Hebrews that says: Hebrews 10:25 King James Version (KJV) 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. This site is more international in nature, so many have a different slant of how we as Christians obey this command from the Apostle, but, in America, much of the Body of Christ choose to ignore the assembling together, and therefore cannot fullfill their places in assemblies doing what NT tells us we should be doing. Encouraging, edifying, building up etc. Yes, some of that can be done online, but, there is no substitute for face-to-face ministry. I realize that there are situations whereby Christians are unable to attend due to sickness, travel and distance issues etc. but America seems to be 'lazy' prefering to stay at home and watch 2nd hand services, or substitute internet sites saying it meets their needs, but, forget that they are also to minister to others. Anyway, those are my thoughts this Sunday morning. Time to get ready for Church! Grace and Peace . . . Ray . .

George: I 100% agree with your statement of faith. Regarding dissent in the body of Christ, and your forums, I have found over the years that those who persist in name calling, in-house fighting, and quibbling over minor issues tend to be self centered and selfish. In fact, that is one of the central themes in the garden of Eden when the devil persuaded Adam and Eve to sin. First the devil questioned the Word of God, then the devil questioned the character of God by appealing to the 'self' of man suggesting that God was withholding something from them (selfishness). I have been saved since 1978, and have witnessed many schisms over the years. Almost ALL of them happened because of immaturity, and selfishness of brothers and sisters insisting on their own desires, instead of the good of the Church that Jesus loves, and died for. I wish it were not so, but, I am confident of that conclusion. Selfishness seeks the good and promotion/preservation of self before the rest of the body of Christ. It prevents people from attending local church, being instructed in ways of righteousness (Bible doctrine), serving the body of Christ, edifying and building up the body of Christ (Corinthians) by allowing all the gifts and fruit of the Spirit to help our brothers and sisters. Selfishness always manifests itself in self centered speech and actions designed to tear apart Jesus's church, and eventually spiritually kill the self centered person. Jesus's own disciples once were debating who amoung them should be the greatest, and he set the record straight. Then His disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest. Luke 9:46 But Jesus knew their thoughts, so He brought a little child to His side. Luke 9:47 Then He said to them, "Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on My behalf welcomes Me, and anyone who welcomes Me also welcomes My Father who sent Me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest." Luke 9:48 Replying to this forum has given me a chance to put into words what I have thought for many years. I have known selfish christians, and I have known Christians who exude the Fruit of the Spirit and Gifts of the Spirit for the benefit of the Body. Speaking of which . . . It is time for me to go to church this morning . . . I pray that God uses his people to edify and build each of us up in ways that only Jesus can do . . . Grace and Peace . . . Ray . . .