Clipper Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 10 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 168 Content Per Day: 0.07 Reputation: 165 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/12/2017 Status: Offline Birthday: 11/18/2000 Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Gershom_young said: Then imagine that this same government starting banning cars in case people used them to cross this pupportedly dangerous bridge, and confining people to their homes in case they might try to cross the bridge on foot, and started banning churches in case people had to cross the bridge to get to church, and started banning international travel in case foreigners who hadn't heard of the dangerous bridge might try to cross it. Hasn't this dull government heard of signposts? That's a better comparison to this cold epidemic. Imagine people didn't know about the bridge, or simply didn't care about it. Some people called the dangerous bridge a hoax. The government decided to do nothing and let people cross this bridge anyways. The bridge is approaching collapse. Sure, there are other routes to get around the river but those can take a much longer time, and even more people are going to miss work or church. Things could have gone much smoother if the government heeded the warnings given to them by their civil engineers and closed down the bridge temporarily to reinforce it, but instead they opted to ignore it so people wouldn't miss work or church. Now that the bridge is approaching the point of collapse, it's going to have to take even longer to reinforce and repair than before, and people are going to miss work or church for an even longer period of time. Making references to banning cars or confining people to their homes is irrelevant to a bridge analogy as home confinement is specific to the virus and you can use cars to just not go over the bridge. What's the best way to avoid contact with a virus that's spread all over the world and has already infected over 880,000 people with many more to come? Social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face. Edited April 1, 2020 by Clipper 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jostler Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Mars Hill Followers: 25 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 2,679 Content Per Day: 1.38 Reputation: 3 Days Won: 16 Joined: 01/19/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) man the twisting of statistics to match a preferred conclusion at this late stage when so much data is available simply boggles my mind.  We are supposed to be lovers of truth, not seekers of propagandistic memes that support what we want to believe. Edited April 1, 2020 by Jostler 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladypeartree Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Royal Member Followers: 37 Topic Count: 540 Topics Per Day: 0.08 Content Count: 32,938 Content Per Day: 5.04 Reputation: 23,690 Days Won: 232 Joined: 06/21/2006 Status: Online Birthday: 02/23/1953 Share Posted April 1, 2020 yummmy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustPassingThru Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 8 Topic Count: 14 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,979 Content Per Day: 0.98 Reputation: 2,112 Days Won: 1 Joined: 10/23/2018 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 Dear brother, do you "believe" John 3:16?   If so, why not "believe" what God is saying to you in Psalms 91?  "Believing," trusting, having faith in, confidence in, ...GOD's Word is the "key" to your problem with/of fear! Very important to not only learn, but to appropriate into your life, your walk of faith in/with your Lord is; ...faith and fear can not cooexist together, ...period!!!                                                  Fear will always destroy faith an make it useless, but on the other hand, faith will always "overcome" fear and rend it impotent. Read Psalms 91 and make it your own, "own" it like you "own" the Truth that Jesus is God, no one can take that from you can they, no amount of teaching, convincing talk, ...nothing can take that away from you can it, ...why, ...because you "own" it, it's a Biblical Truth and fundamental principle. Read the last three verses of the Psalm, it's Father talking to you, ...be honest with Him, cry out to Him, ...Father I believe, ...help me with my unbelief, ...He won't leave you helpless, ...He will come to your aid and He will give you His peace that goes way beyond our human understanding, ...brother, there are multitudes of His children all over this planet that are believing in His promise to them in Psalms 91, ...and there are some that do not and are living in the "snare" of the devil, ...why not come and join us who are at home, hidden in His "secret" place covered with/by His Loving protection. Lord bless 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jostler Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Mars Hill Followers: 25 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 2,679 Content Per Day: 1.38 Reputation: 3 Days Won: 16 Joined: 01/19/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 5 minutes ago, JustPassingThru said: Dear brother, do you "believe" John 3:16?   If so, why not "believe" what God is saying to you in Psalms 91?  "Believing," trusting, having faith in, confidence in, ...GOD's Word is the "key" to your problem with/of fear! Very important to not only learn, but to appropriate into your life, your walk of faith in/with your Lord is; ...faith and fear can not cooexist together, ...period!!!                                                  Fear will always destroy faith an make it useless, but on the other hand, faith will always "overcome" fear and rend it impotent. Read Psalms 91 and make it your own, "own" it like you "own" the Truth that Jesus is God, no one can take that from you can they, no amount of teaching, convincing talk, ...nothing can take that away from you can it, ...why, ...because you "own" it, it's a Biblical Truth and fundamental principle. Read the last three verses of the Psalm, it's Father talking to you, ...be honest with Him, cry out to Him, ...Father I believe, ...help me with my unbelief, ...He won't leave you helpless, ...He will come to your aid and He will give you His peace that goes way beyond our human understanding, ...brother, there are multitudes of His children all over this planet that are believing in His promise to them in Psalms 91, ...and there are some that do not and are living in the "snare" of the devil, ...why not come and join us who are at home, hidden in His "secret" place covered with/by His Loving protection. Lord bless the fact you think fear is on display because someone is trying to point to the truth, and the necessity of being aware of and guided by it (Him), that alone is an indicator of a fear issue. And it isn't mine. We have a job to do, and understanding the terrain of the battlefield is part of any soldier's job. Pretending you are walking a level plain when the fight is in mountainous terrain will just get you killed. If the facts cause anxiety, the facts are not the problem. Denying the facts doesn't change them. It just makes sure you won't be prepared for reality as it manifests. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jostler Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Mars Hill Followers: 25 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 2,679 Content Per Day: 1.38 Reputation: 3 Days Won: 16 Joined: 01/19/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) Fear is definitely something that needs addressing if it tries to crowd in on any believer. Perfect love casts out fear. These events are prophesied and we are warned, exhorted, to watch for them. They tell us something about the day we live in and the nearing return of our King. Anxiety is countered by knowing how much we are loved by Him....no matter what the natural circumstances look like.  Choosing to hide in beautiful lies will NOT work....knowing and loving the truth will. Those who are struggling with anxiety need to be immersed in the Word that proves His love for us. Learning to see all this from His perspective, and rest in the peace that surpasses all understanding. All of that....every bit of it, has to be walked out and worked out in the context of reality, as it is, as defined by TRUTH....no matter how dire the natural circumstances look to the flesh. Edited April 1, 2020 by Jostler 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debp Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 52 Topic Count: 1,025 Topics Per Day: 0.15 Content Count: 12,351 Content Per Day: 1.80 Reputation: 16,384 Days Won: 92 Joined: 07/19/2005 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 On 3/31/2020 at 12:37 PM, worthlessness1979 said: I am terrified. All I can think about is this virus that's going around. It is in my town right now and so far 4 people have found to be positive with this virus. I am afraid to go shopping. I won't even spend time with my family. My mom has invited me to go and spend time with her, and she is a widow. But I won't do it. I won't let anyone touch me. I am obsessed with washing my hands every second of the day. My hands are starting to crack. I am healthy physically right now. But mentally I think I'm going to have a breakdown. I keep getting news about so many people dying and how the death toll is increasing. I took the trash out and some stuff flew in my face. That freaks me out. I washed my face but I know that if I end up with a virus, washing it won't stop it. I don't know what advice you can give me. But any encouraging or advice will be helpful. Thank you very much. Friend, most of all, trust in the Lord.  Read some of the comforting Psalms or other Scripture that will help you to trust God's promises.  This will help your peace as you get God's word on your mind and heart.  Also important:    Keep six feet away from others.  Don't touch your nose, mouth or eyes with unwashed hands. You only need to wash your hands after touching items that might be infected with the germs.  Plus, of course, wash hands before eating, etc, as you do normally.  The virus is spread via droplets.  After a person coughs or sneezes, the droplets will eventually drop to surfaces, or you might inhale them.  So that is why you need to stay six feet away from others.  1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigger56 Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 3 Topic Count: 679 Topics Per Day: 0.36 Content Count: 1,327 Content Per Day: 0.70 Reputation: 992 Days Won: 0 Joined: 03/04/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 8 hours ago, ReneeIW said: This is a major false equivalency. A better comparison would be if a local government notified us that a highly used bridge could collapse  at any moment and would kill 50 people instantly and injure hundreds of others; and then pleaded with us to  avoid the bridge. Would you take that seriously and experience fear if you believed that your loved ones weren’t heeding the warning and still driving over the bridge, or would you start quoting statistics about many more people dying daily on highways that don’t have bridges? Actually not a very good comparison. The coronavirus has like a 98 percent recovery rate. Falling from a bridge.... well probably not as good of a statistic. No proof given that the virus is fatal to all as a bridge collapse would likely be, yet so much fear, irrational fear. The bridge would just have me travel another road, but never to hide in my home and have my freedoms taken away. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReneeIW Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Senior Member Followers: 8 Topic Count: 42 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 944 Content Per Day: 0.53 Reputation: 780 Days Won: 0 Joined: 07/06/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 25 minutes ago, Tigger56 said: Actually not a very good comparison. The coronavirus has like a 98 percent recovery rate. Falling from a bridge.... well probably not as good of a statistic. No proof given that the virus is fatal to all as a bridge collapse would likely be, yet so much fear, irrational fear. The bridge would just have me travel another road, but never to hide in my home and have my freedoms taken away. I don’t know if it’s a good comparison or not. It’s hard to come up with good examples for something that should be so straightforward. It’s like arguing with a kid about why they shouldn’t play with matches and then having someone step forward with statistics of how many people actually die from playing with matches. Or when parents teach their kids about the dangers of vaping and the kids argue  that lots of kids vape without an issue. The hospitals can’t handle the number of people coming in for treatment. Have you ever heard them say that regarding car accidents? I believe that’s what you compared this too.  We got news of another Christian death today, an elder in a church of a close family friend.  Perhaps I should quote statistics to comfort them. God bless you brother. I was just meditating on 1 Corinthians 13 and having patience so I’m going to get off the Internet before I mess up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gershom_young Posted April 2, 2020 Group: Junior Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 109 Content Per Day: 0.07 Reputation: 54 Days Won: 0 Joined: 03/28/2020 Status: Offline Share Posted April 2, 2020 (edited) 21 hours ago, Clipper said: Imagine people didn't know about the bridge, or simply didn't care about it. Some people called the dangerous bridge a hoax. The government decided to do nothing and let people cross this bridge anyways. The bridge is approaching collapse. Sure, there are other routes to get around the river but those can take a much longer time, and even more people are going to miss work or church. Things could have gone much smoother if the government heeded the warnings given to them by their civil engineers and closed down the bridge temporarily to reinforce it, but instead they opted to ignore it so people wouldn't miss work or church. Now that the bridge is approaching the point of collapse, it's going to have to take even longer to reinforce and repair than before, and people are going to miss work or church for an even longer period of time. Making references to banning cars or confining people to their homes is irrelevant to a bridge analogy as home confinement is specific to the virus and you can use cars to just not go over the bridge. What's the best way to avoid contact with a virus that's spread all over the world and has already infected over 880,000 people with many more to come? Social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face. People just have to toughen up. If I call the coronavirus a hoax and I die because I believe it's a hoax and it's really not, well, that's survival of the fittest. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. And my engineer says your bridge is okay, too. Just don't drive too many trucks over it at once! ;-) Edited April 2, 2020 by Gershom_young Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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