Jesus very simply handled this "hurdle" in the gospel about the women caught in adultery. He step in to "save" her life...LOVE. When done, He told her to go and SIN no more...truth. Not affirming her sin but loving her despite the sin! Of course the "jerks" with the stones didn't do the same to the "guy" she was having sex with. Anyway, love your "stuff" but retired and living on fixed income so I can't prescribe to everything. But praying because the Lord is using your voice to reach many!
One of your greatest gifts, Peter, is guiding us through the gobbledegook. (Ironically, I had to write that sentence a few times to make sure it wasn't implying that YOU are the one gobbledegooking!) How many times do we see or hear something that at its exposure appears to be logical, loving, altruistic; one of those "What reasonable person could possibly argue with that?" statements. "Learn to discern" shall be my new mantra.
Kudos, by the way, on your journey through new technology. Nice. And I'm grateful to know that if all else fails you could indeed be a weatherman if needed.
I heard a speaker say once that - though the drumbeat against the sin of homosexuality is loud in our culture - it may only be the 4th or 5th thing God wants to work on in a lost person. Thus, as you said, we lead people to Jesus and let HIM transform them. Too many planks in our eyes to be fixing people….
I think we need to start with what this statement means, “ when I embraced Christian faith.” It’s one thing to ascribe to a set of beliefs because they seem to loosely fit with what one believes himself. It’s entirely different to say “I have accepted Jesus as my lord and savior and asked Him to forgive me of my sins and change my heart.” There’s a fundamental difference in that and simply embracing a faith / system of beliefs. The latter is fluid. It can and will change as soon as the system is at odds with something else that seems right. But if our faith is in the Jesus, who created that system, then we will inevitably grow to a better understanding of His “system.” When Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in paradise” He knew full well that the thief didn’t have time to “embrace” a system of beliefs. He only had time to put his faith in the only One who could save him. But by contrast we see the example of Paul, who persecuted Jesus’s followers until he was saved. Then we see through his writing how he grew in his faith.
We should pray for this author, and others like him, that he would have a right understanding of accepting Jesus, versus simply embracing a faith, and that through God’s word, and interaction with fellow believers, he will find the right answers to his questions.
I will miss the sounds and smells of the Heck Hole on the vidcasts.
Jesus very simply handled this "hurdle" in the gospel about the women caught in adultery. He step in to "save" her life...LOVE. When done, He told her to go and SIN no more...truth. Not affirming her sin but loving her despite the sin! Of course the "jerks" with the stones didn't do the same to the "guy" she was having sex with. Anyway, love your "stuff" but retired and living on fixed income so I can't prescribe to everything. But praying because the Lord is using your voice to reach many!
One of your greatest gifts, Peter, is guiding us through the gobbledegook. (Ironically, I had to write that sentence a few times to make sure it wasn't implying that YOU are the one gobbledegooking!) How many times do we see or hear something that at its exposure appears to be logical, loving, altruistic; one of those "What reasonable person could possibly argue with that?" statements. "Learn to discern" shall be my new mantra.
Kudos, by the way, on your journey through new technology. Nice. And I'm grateful to know that if all else fails you could indeed be a weatherman if needed.
I heard a speaker say once that - though the drumbeat against the sin of homosexuality is loud in our culture - it may only be the 4th or 5th thing God wants to work on in a lost person. Thus, as you said, we lead people to Jesus and let HIM transform them. Too many planks in our eyes to be fixing people….
I think we need to start with what this statement means, “ when I embraced Christian faith.” It’s one thing to ascribe to a set of beliefs because they seem to loosely fit with what one believes himself. It’s entirely different to say “I have accepted Jesus as my lord and savior and asked Him to forgive me of my sins and change my heart.” There’s a fundamental difference in that and simply embracing a faith / system of beliefs. The latter is fluid. It can and will change as soon as the system is at odds with something else that seems right. But if our faith is in the Jesus, who created that system, then we will inevitably grow to a better understanding of His “system.” When Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in paradise” He knew full well that the thief didn’t have time to “embrace” a system of beliefs. He only had time to put his faith in the only One who could save him. But by contrast we see the example of Paul, who persecuted Jesus’s followers until he was saved. Then we see through his writing how he grew in his faith.
We should pray for this author, and others like him, that he would have a right understanding of accepting Jesus, versus simply embracing a faith, and that through God’s word, and interaction with fellow believers, he will find the right answers to his questions.
“But when I embraced Christian faith, it seemed like the church was telling me to love less.”
The church was teaching to love *sin* less.
Thank you Derek Zitko! Very nice of you...
Excellent analysis, and on point.