FJK

God doesn't owe the world anything. He owns the world and all things within it, the world doesn't own him. The world lives by his terms, he doesn't live by ours.

I guess I'm just getting old and out of the loop, but what is an Arlo account?

That alone could be the subject of a very, very long discussion about how we are to live as Christians in a practical manner, how we interact with the world around us.

Yes because they are of your own creation, you are the one that put them there, but that doesn't mean you can't seek gods guidance in doing so.

Prayer might bring you the answer, I'm not the one to ask.

When you're looking for something and having trouble finding it there are two very important things you must do. First know exactly what you are looking for, you only find that which you seek. Secondly, get rid of the obstacles that are standing in your way, remember that they are there because you have created them and only you can remove them. You have to do this yourself, no one else can do it for you.

What do you think Jesus meant when he instructed us to pray that way?

In the Lord's prayer, we pray to god to be forgiven of our sins against him as we (in the manner that) we forgive others sins against us.

I've always thought of it as obeying your parents even when they're not around to know you aren't just because you love them and want your life to bring honor to them. This is obeying out of love, obeying out of fear is different and leads to disobedience anytime you feel safe from being caught. Kind of funny, but I'm well into my 70's and my parents are dead and gone for decades but I still find myself obeying them, doing or not doing things because they to do or not do them in my early years. Not theology here, just my personal experience of living life.

And far fewer thieves.

Would you give me some scriptures to study, not open to other understandings, that will help me understand that?

Just my thoughts: God wouldn't have created the mortal body if it wasn't important, he wouldn't have created it in the first place if he didn't consider it that way. Jesus resurrected Lazarus knowing he would die soon as well. There is a purpose to things that we don't always understand but shouldn't discount because we don't.

Oh, I fully agree with that. But that doesn't mean a one world religion won't develop that almost everyone in the world, even many of those calling themselves Christians, will not be deceived into becoming a part of. What I'm thinking of now is how to recognize it before it happens, as it is in the developmental stage, so as to avoid being deceived by it (and I'm expecting some really mind boggling things to arrive soon that will make that very difficult to avoid it). (As always, I'm not a prophet or anything even vaguely close to it and may be wrong.)

That's true in itself, but knowing what is wrong and why it is wrong is a step towards knowing what is right and why it is right. To get the right answer, you have to ask the right questions, and the right question isn't the one that is "maybe it's this" or "Maybe it's that" as an answer but the one that has "This is it!" as the answer with no further questions left to be asked. (FWIW, consider the answer "42" and the question that was asked to arrive at it.)

Like the blind men and the elephant maybe? Sometimes seemingly conflicting views can all be correct and just need to be put together to see the larger picture.

OK

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. That approach to life can lead you into a very dark place, one that is very hard to escape from because it self justifies itself while you are there. I know this because I spent many years there, returning to Christ is the only thing that saved me from it. Again, what we find in life is what we look for (Seek and you will find) and where our life is now, what we are today, is the result of what we have looked for in the past. This is the way God designed it to be, we decide our lives from the choices he gives us to decide from.

I'm more inclined to think of it as being coerced in the extreme more than forced. We will still be given a choice decide to follow the Lord and experience extreme hardship or accept the Mark -saying OK instead of NO to those trying to male us accept it- where our life will be made easy as a reward. We already see this beginning with anti-Christian forces taking all sorts of hostile actions in an attempt to force Christians to violate their religion (i.e. .Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission among others). Life as a Christian -no Mark- will still be possible, but it will be very, very difficult and unpleasant to remain faithful and refuse to take it. Keep in mind that torture is a form of coercion that is intended to make the one being tortured to break down and do what is demanded of them. That's my current opinion, I may be wrong.

Didn't Adam give them to him back in the Garden? Every person that has been born, every nation that has developed, every Kingdom that has been created since thin has come out of of man's inherited sinful nature from Adam.

"War crimes" are prosecuted against the loser by the winner, and the wheel's still in spin so no one knows which will be which.

What you find is what you look for.

That is where God's guidance becomes involved, it may depend on where you are in understanding what you study and where God wants to lead you. God designed each of us and knows exactly how we work, no one can better understand how to teach us than him.

Eventually, all governments go after the practice of Christianity. They don't like competition for first place in the peoples lives.

For me, it was when everything else I tried to believe failed. Or, as I onceheard someone say, "I gain faith by getting results". All you have to do is give God a chance and he'll take over from there in a manner he knows will work for you.

When we get caught up in the frenzy and the turmoil of daily life, sometimes finding ourselves at our wits end and almost ready to start pulling hair out or breaking things, how do we cope with it? How would God have us cope with it? Time to stop, look at what we are doing that has gotten us this way, and simply ask "How important is this?". Are we doing something that is actually important, or is it something we have just persuaded ourselves is? How long will it make any difference if it is done or isn't done at all? I tell you truly, everyday each one of us has the opportunity to do something that will actually still be important a hundred years from now, maybe more than just one thing but always at least one. Are we wasting that God given chance because we are too busy doing something that won't be important, or even be remembered, a hundred minutes from now? God gives us many choices, we decide which of them we take. Asking how important something is is one way we can open ourselves to letting God guide our priorities, when you find yourself in a tizzy try doing it.