About time Stop fishing for compliments from the people around you. You are Aaron, a son of the Almighty who said you are OKAY. Our identity is in Christ, make that your own. ----- Something else, quite funny, it's about what I remember you said a couple of years back about your TV going on and off and on. A couple of months ago I had a kind of similar experience with my stereo. I have a network music player plugged into my amplifier, it's great for listening music via Deezer (sort of Spotify) with headphones on. And sometimes (much to my dislike) the music stops in the middle of a song due to a WIFI hiccup. Most of the time these hiccups lasts very shortly and by pressing PLAY the song starts again. But sometimes the WIFI completely fails and connection is lost for minutes, sometimes even hours. And the latter was the case a couple of months ago. The cure is to just wait till the provider fixed the problem. And then it happened, after a break of hours, during early night time the player turned itself on, apparently found the right menu by itself and logged onto my Deezer account, picked a playlist by itself and started to play a Gospel song by itself and left me flabbergasted. Impossible.... Seems to me that all that electronics we have in our houses sometimes respond to whatever goes through the air, radio signals, waves of particles, remains of solar flames etc. I have heard these stories of cars that spontaneously start driving. Thought you would like the story but maybe I am just fishing for a tap on my shoulder
Good place to begin, and great point. Reading the testimony of what seems like thousands of disillusioned believers anymore, one wonders if that is even being taught these days. While salvation is, of course, a free gift, provided by Christ's death and resurrection, discipleship, spiritual growth and personal sanctification can and will be difficult. Will be back 8)
When seen through the retro-lens of NT teaching, I have for a long time appreciated the exodus of the children of Israel, as recorded in Exodus, Numbers and the opening chapters of Joshua as a very helpful analogy for the believer's walk, particularly where it concern's trials, suffering and the testing of faith, and when approached from this perspective: "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." Jude 5 The Apostle Paul, also, places complete NT relevance on these passages, not only for the church at large, but for the individual believer: "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Co 10:11 NOTE: Working from a tablet, I will likely post then add or edit. But from this analogy, it all boils down to faith. True faith will endure testing while unbelief will be made manifest through those same testings. "And to whom did He swear that they shall not enter into His rest, if not to those having disobeyed? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief." He 3:18,19
Ok, but what is "unbelief?" Is it having questions? Is it having fears? Is it having frustrations? In other words, I'm not always pleased with the Christian walk. It is hard. I don't always have a smile on my face. I don't always want to encourage others in their walk, especially when I struggle so much in my own. I don't always like what God has done, is doing, or will do in my life. I concede that He is God and He is not obligated to do things how I want Him to. He is all powerful. I'm nothing. I can't exactly bend God to do my will. But, that doesn't necessarily mean I like everything that He does or everything that He wants me to do. Does that make me an "unbeliever?"
The Apostle's analogy of the testing of faith as recorded in the exodus and as seen, especially in 1Co 10, goes even deeper, however, in detailing the repeated failures of the children of Israel as 40 years of laps through the wilderness, the implication being that unbelief can lead to a veritable lifetime of wandering, never actually arriving at that place of promise, which in Exodus is not Heaven, but is a place here on Earth that is abundantly blessed by God. For the Christian, the implication is that a trial, which is often unpleasant, will present the individual with a choice to act in faith or to succumb to unbelief, which, in turn, can initiate another lap through the wilderness, provided he has been granted the time. I will pretty much stick to 1Co 10, which lists the falures of the Israelites, which in turn, list many of the attributes of unbelief. per one example: "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." 1Co 10:10 Certainly, murmuring is a forgiveable offense for the believer, but it is not acted out of faith. The bottom line for the believer in Christ is that salvation is by grace through faith - a gift. And testing will either purge and strengthen our faith, or it will cause us to act In unbelief. As the believer progresses in his/her walk, his faith is constantly tested and tried for the purpose of strengthening that faith. To act in trusting faith while under duress and testing is superior to believing when things are peachy. To continously react to trials and hardships in unbelief shows us where our faith is lacking, and, for some, unfortunately, it can prove that what we thought was faith was not.
I don't think so, Aaron. You, like the rest of us, will choose to meet trials with increasing faith. 8)
What really gets to me is this meme-centered Christianity that permeates social-media, like my family members seem to be so into. Seems the idea is to glean the Bible for uplifting, encouraging verses while ignoring the bulk of essential truths - even salvation appears as a quaint yet vague after-thought. And while holiness might be highly taunted it needs not be necessarily applied from what i always witness.
Well, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what "holiness" even is. What all do you believe it entails?
Adequately covered in the other thread, but on the meme issue; one posts a glorious God-centered image and text followed by one filled with reckless cynicism and filthy language.
I'm fine with cynicism. There's much to be cynical about in this life. Not sure how that isn't obvious to you. As far as filthy language, are you seriously saying Christians post memes with cussing and swear words? I have a hard time believing that...
If you're referring to me, most certainly. I'm an honest person. I think most people would agree with that. In fact, I'm so honest that I tend to be brutally, unpleasantly, and, for some, uncomfortably honest. So, with that said, I think the root of my sarcasm is that I'm a bitter and cynical person. Which tends to happen after you get kicked in the gonads by life just about every time you turn around. If I actually make it to Heaven that will be great, but, in the meantime, here I am stuck on this giant turd called earth. Yay.