WayneS

I’ve often wondered when in an abusive relationships, what’s the greater sin? Is a divorcing the abuser? Or is it the abuser’s actions? Is it a Christians duty to endure the evil of abuse for years? Or is it forgivable to divorce an evil person and move on?

What Bible translation are you using?

That’s a great way to put it and agree totally. Here, I want to be His, therefore I will obey Jeremiah 7:23 NLT [23] This is what I told them: 'Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!' Commands in the NT are similar to what is in the OT: Luke 6:38 NLT [a command from Jesus][38] Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full-pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." Note how the NT has close ties into the OT. The NT is not a start over, but draws from the OT and adds more. 1 Peter 3:9-12 NLT [9] Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. [10] For the Scriptures say, "If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. [11] Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it. [12] The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil."

We get frustrated by praying for someone and often prayers go unanswered. There are lots of discussions and songs about unanswered prayers but when praying for someone who is not obedient or who is not a believer is praying for them best approach? I have a daughter who “believes“, but never goes to church and I suspect doesn’t read scripture. She’s now having some medical issues and I wrote her this morning saying she should pray about it and I would pray for her, but then a thought popped in my mind and I wrote up a paragraph on obedience and living a Christian life in order to receive in God’s grace. Should we as Christians maybe spend more time with others in difficult circumstances getting the gospel to them versus praying for them? Or is too easy and, without the gospel, I suspect not effective. Would love to get others opinions on this.

Little man, first , congratulations on your first novel!!! I wish you much success. And the world needs MORE Christian novels. Society is so mired in worldly muck. I hope it sells phenomenally!

Also, 1 John 2:3-5 NLT [3] And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. [4] If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. [5] But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.

I keep lists of bible verses. This is going in my blessing list. Appreciate your posts!

The first truth we must learn is the greatest commandment, and with this there is no controversy. From Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” If someone has fully embraced these 2 commandments, then their view on creation or pre or a millenniumism is interesting for further understanding scripture and God’s plan. Too many want to first get the details right and miss the main thing. (look at the many mean-spirited posts on this forum!). If you love others and God and don’t speak in tongues, you’re on the right path. If you love God and others and believe evolution or not, you’re on the right path. When I taught soccer to kids, they all wanted to do the Pele soccer moves, but couldn’t run the field with good control and simple passes. Basics first! Let’s love God and one another (even when posting )

The Illinois constitution has a provision in it that the taxes must be flat. Therefore, after deductions, everybody pays the same rate, currently 5% (ouch!). The politicians want to do, wink wink, raise the taxes on the top 3% and they promise cross their hearts, Boy Scouts honor that they would never go lower than that. It required a vote to pass a resolution in order to change the constitution.

If I don’t pay taxes I’ll either get a huge fine or go to jail. So I pay my taxes. No matter who is in office. Illinois has been overspending for decades, and this year they asked the voters to raise taxes via a progressive tax (currently flat tax by constitution) in order to fix the problem because more money always fixes the problem for government. We voted no. There’s not a revenue problem in government, there’s a spending problem.

My daughter sometimes sells handicraft on Etsy.

I would like to maybe change the focus of your response. It doesn’t address the fundamental issue, tens of thousands are dying every year and the government has a choice to either put more driving restrictions in to save lives but drive businesses and people out of work OR continue with the current way of doing things and let people die. Just like with Covid pandemic. If you are young and healthy the probability is very low you’ll even go to the hospital, not zero but very low. Therefore, do you prefer a society where the government dictates everything to us? Or do you prefer to live in a free society? Covid is testing that line now. If I lived with my elderly parents, I may very well choose to not go out to dinner, not go to the health club, etc. But I don’t, so I do these things, it is my choice and it is not the governments heavy handedness to make the decision for me. It really comes down to a fundamental issue of people that want to live in a government controlled society versus people that want to live in a free society. Covid is pushing the line on this and it’s interesting to see what powers society is willing to give up to the government. Good discussion.

Does this include driven millions out of business and financially wrecking them? This is the reality for many many people. If we live in a free country, guidelines should be put in. My wife and I find restaurants that are still seating people against the governors rules, but follow all other guidelines. This is their choice and our choice. If you invested your savings and 10 years into a business, would you be ok with the government rules driving you bankrupt? BTW, many here believe in science as if it were some sort of mini-god. Scientists predictions are wrong ALOT! Here is 50 years of being wrong and people are still gullible enough to "believe in science" https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/ Scientists are terrible at predicting outcomes. They are better at experiments that are reproducible and independently verifiable.

36,000 people die each year in the USA due to car accidents. There is no vaccine for this and will continue every year. The government ought to impose driving restrictions on everyone to reduce this. Everyone to walk or ride a bike. And if car manufacturers go out of business and lay off millions, that’s ok. We’re saving lives.

Occasionally I actually believe that I’m doing pretty well as far as not sinning goes, the changes it me due to the Holy Spirit are just amazing. But then I realize how short the target I really am. Recently I realized my lack of generosity. A year ago I would not have thought about this. But now I realize how tight fisted I’ve been for most of my life. I am sooooo short of the target, and often I don’t even realize it. So I’ve begun to practice generosity (initially I didn’t like it!). But over time it has become much more of a habit for me and it just feels good. Often I am sinning, falling short of the target, and don’t even know it. To answer you specifically, when I first came to faith my sinful thoughts were quite often, but over time they have diminished, and I believe this is all due to the Holy Spirit working in me.

Just a note for those going through tough times. When I was weak in my faith decades ago, I had a desire to seek him because a lot of things in my life were not going that great. I went through a period of years of both trials and blessing. I can look back on it now and see how it strengthened my faith. And the further I went with it, the greater my faith grew. Right now life is good, my faith is much stronger than what it was years ago and I have been blessed. It was a difficult and long period of my life and I am grateful for both faith and the blessings.

And a related passage. This is a difficult passage for many. The underlined sentence below I believe means those who continue to habitually sin. 1 John 3:6-10 NLT [6] Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. [7] Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. [8] But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. [9] Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God. [10] So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers b does not belong to God. …

In our Christian humility, it is our role to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. Parenting taught me a lot about giving of myself for someone else, my time, my patience, and my money. I didn’t realize how self-centered I was until we had kids.

Well said.

Therefore, believing in Jesus is not sufficient to save us? Is Paul here using “a wicked person“ to separate those that are particularly evil on the average person?

I’ll admit that praying for her enemies it’s probably one of the more difficult things we are supposed to do. I would be a probably be the one to do it to be able to heap more calls on their heads. I would think there are some that have no interest in religion or morality, it is very hard to pray for those people e.g. Gang leaders. Others "enemies" would be those who believe but live in worldly ways, as they do not follow the waves of Scripture, there are many people in this category.

Mine is simpler than most. My wife and I want to go out and see many areas of the USA that we didn’t get a chance when we’re raising our four kids. We did see a lot of the country with them, but still want to go to Maine, Oregon, many parts of Tennessee, Idaho, etc.

I had to retire this year due to lack of work at the company I was at, but it worked out very well and financially I’m OK to be able to get through, and I love retirement. I’ve been able to volunteer church more, be over at my adult children’s homes for doing projects, and take care of my grandson on Fridays. These are all blessings from God, life is good!

It is not valid to say that one person got something and recovered. A “population“ of one is not statistically significant. The statistics in the area that I live clearly show that those over 60 are much more likely to die from the virus. See https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID-19-Cases-by-Age-Group.aspx I agree however that there’s been talk of many deaths by Covid and maybe other reasons for the death. It is hard to parse through to get a clear understanding if Covid was really the cause of death or other symptoms.

Sun Tsu was clearly of this world. I read his book many years ago and could see the rationale of it. Now that my Faith overrides much of my thoughts, you’re right, the world view doesn’t hold up for Christians. It may be could for those taking the worldly route to their life. But there is a better way.