Leaving (the) Church

Today I had a look at the cathedral of the Reigning King Christ at La Spezia, in Liguria, Italy. An awful huge round building only build in 2015, but already showing signs of being in ‘decay’, materially but probably also spiritually, not receiving many congregants anymore.

It is something we can see all over Europe, churches running empty. Some may find it just a sign of the present modern times, others consider it as normal, people being fed up by the false stories of those churches.

Dan Foster last month asked

Is It Time To Leave Your Church?

Image by Thidarii on Shutterstock

He compares leaving a church as kind of like walking away from a long-term girlfriend or boyfriend. In a way he has good reasons to compare it to that, because often people have grown up with a church or have been affiliated for many years with a certain denomination.

Lots of time people have a history with a certain church and have shared memories — many of them good. Foster writes

You may have raised children together. You might have decades-long friendships attached to your church as well. And there is so much comfort in the familiar.

Though for some there is some awkward feeling. The fire seems to gone out. Previously everything seemed to go nicely and you felt you could even be active in that church.

Yet, at the same time, you just know it’s not working anymore. You have grown apart. Things are not what they once were. There might be conflict — words and deeds that leave you feeling detached a cold towards your former love. You are left with a lingering question,

“Is it time to leave my church?”

This was the situation that Dan Foster with his wife faced. He writes

We walked away from the church that had been my wife’s spiritual home for over thirty years. Imagine that! It was not an easy thing to do. However, we realized in the end that we could not remain in an environment that had, for the most part, turned toxic. {Is It Time To Leave Your Church?}

And for him it was not as such a matter of teachings, though people should better think more about what their church teaches and what is really written in the Bible. But when they come to see there is something not right or not conform of what is written in the Bible, lots of people do not dare to step away from their church … though they better should.

Dan Foster gives eight questions one should pose:

1. Does your church use guilt, shame, or fear to motivate you?
2. Does the church act like it has a monopoly on the truth?
3. Does the church speak at you or listen to you?
4. Does the church discourage you from asking questions?
5. Does the church try to isolate you from your non-believing friends?
6. Does the church preference certain kinds of people over others?
7. Does the church care most about maintaining the system?
8. Does the church berate other people who have left?

Strangely enough he forgets the 2 most important questions:

1. Does the teaching of your church follows the teachings of Jesus Christ?
2. Does your church worship the same God as Christ?

Because in Christianity we find lots of churches where there is worshipped another God than the God of Christ. That God of that Nazarene master teacher is a singular eternal Spirit Being. In such churches often there exist the idea that only clerics (priest or ministers) can bring and explain the Word of God.

Foster warns people

Often in churches, the pastor, priest, or minister does our spiritual homework for us. We come to rely on them to read, interpret and deliver the word of God to us in a form that is both palatable and entertaining each week. They do this with varying degrees of success.

However, if Christ came to be the one and only mediator between God and us, enabling us to have complete, unfettered access to the divine, then that ought to change the pastor-parishioner relationship from that of teacher-student to one where both parties have equal access to the revelation of God. {Is It Time To Leave Your Church?}

Each person can learn from reading the Scriptures and can help others to read it as well. As such a church should promote dialogue and joint learning. For centuries dialogue was already gone in the Catholic churches, but for several decades it has also dispeared in many protestant churches.

In several churches the leaders do not want to hear questions and tell their flock when they have such difficult questions their faith is weak.

If your pastor bristles when you ask him a difficult question, that ought to set off alarm bells. Mention that you support gay marriage and observe the reaction. Suggest that the earth might not be only 6000 years old and see what kind of reception you get.

Some churches have convinced themselves that discussing difficult questions like these is unhealthy. It is almost as if they worry that their faith will fade away when exposed to the light. If it’s tested, it may just shatter.

The reality is that if our faith is that fragile, it probably was never true. If our God is so easily defeated, he is probably not really the true God. Whether we have built castles of doctrine on flimsy foundations or have metaphorically curled ourselves up into a ball around the fundamentals of the gospel, avoiding the tough questions will never lead to any real answers.

So, if you find that your church shuts down, shames or freezes out people who ask tough questions and openly verbalize their reasonably held doubts, then you are not in a place that fosters and promotes the thinking that is needed for growth. {Is It Time To Leave Your Church?}

The false prophets in the present world

When Marcus Ampe received (a few weeks ago) some e-mails from worried brethren living in Israel, fearing attacks from evangelist preachers he on the request of his brethren and in Jesus interested Jews, took away the mentioned articles on his blog “Our World“. Though nothing should have worried sincere people, because in the article was mentioned the good work done by and between Israelis and Palestinians who wanted to opt for peace and a way of living together.

Certain Zionist groups with fundamental christians oppose such a world were Jews, Muslims and Christians would live together in peace. In Israel, the Netherlands, as well as in the United States of America we can hear lots of voices who shout for the return of the Jews to Israel, but this at the cost of other people.

What people should notice by such preachers and by the mega churches which seem to pull more and more people to their church, is what those preachers say in their sermon often goes far away from the Biblical text.

 

Hannes Zegement Grove of Matthew101:disciples for Christ also questions

Did you ever watch some celebrity preacher on tv and thought by yourself, is this guy speaking truth or not? {False Prophets and their empty words}

also here in Belgium we can find on several tv-channels, mostly from the Netherlands, several preachers who are very capable to speak with fire  and with drama. We can not resist to think they are very good performers. But God does not require a priest, pastor or minister to be an actor. Everything what is said about God and His commandments should come out of the heart.

We can not ignore that the last few decades we have seen coming up many more preachers we would consider to be false preachers and even false prophets.

False prophets are becoming more prominent in today’s age of tolerance and rebellion against God. Not many people are interested in God, and the majority who feel something for a god or God love to see a god who fits most their idea of a god or does the best for them. In our days we find the majority of people who want to be religious, looking for an easy religion. They prefer that the religion fits their way of life and would not require to much effort and would offer no consequences. This generation more than any other wants to live however they’d like, without boundaries or authority. Unfortunately, there are plenty of teachers and preachers eager to give the people what they want to hear.

In this world full of adulterers we can say it is like in the ancient times at certain moments, when there was the force of man which was not right. In the past, even God could find profane priests their wickedness.

“11 “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in My house have I found their wickedness,” saith the LORD. 12 “Therefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation,” saith the LORD.” (Jer 23:11-12 KJ21)

Also in the Messianic writings people are warned for the time that would come when people will not endure sound teaching, but would prefer to hear that what they would love to hear and what sounds good in their ears, suiting their own passions.

“3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but having itching ears, they shall heap to themselves teachers in accordance with their own lusts. 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned toward fables.” (2Ti 4:3-4 KJ21)

For many the Truth is something very hard to grasp or is something what takes away all their lovely myths and breaks with all their heathen traditions. that is why so many churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, always have adapted their rites to the common traditions of the regions where they tried to convert people to their faith. The Roman Catholic Church is one of the religious groups which succeeded most successfully to adapt their teachings to the wants of the people and providing them enough power to have everyone in their hold.

This culture is eager for an easy religion – one that requires no effort and offers no consequences.For them several protestant groups do have a solution. In the protestant churches of today there are plenty of teachers and preachers eager to give the people what they want to hear — and usually, they end up making a large sum of money off it.

In the last book of the bible (the most difficult one to fully understand), is given a picture of the dangerous evil coming into the time closer to the end of everything. We are told that at the time of the end the evil or the rebellious figure against God (satan) shall become stronger. From that book of revelation, we can learn that in a certain way it shall be those who are against God (the satans) shall have dominion over the earth, and a religious personality will arise and deceive the whole world by means of miraculous signs. This individual is referred to as “another beast” (Revelation 13:11), as well as “the false prophet” (Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10).

For some people it may be strange to hear a person could sound like a dragon when he speaks, but that is what we do hear when those fiery preachers raise their voices and try to draw everyone into their story. Their mouths are like the mouths of a Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet the apostle John  could see.

It also might surprise us that the False Prophet is given supernatural power to do things like calling fire down from heaven (Revelation 13:13), and the signs he performs, combined with the demonic words he speaks (Revelation 16:13-14), will cause people to give their allegiance to — and even worship — the Beast. We can find lots of handy word-players and illusionists, using the magic they get from their inner powers in the aim to dupe earth dwellers, getting them to make an image of what they want to believe to be equal with their god and suitable for their way of life and worship. (Revelation 13:14)

From the very beginning the entire world and its cultures came in disobedience to God because of the influence of their own false thinking (evil way of thinking or being the satan). We should know that the world is in deadly antagonism against God, against the way of God, and the people of God because the spirit generated by the unseen prince of this world. It is essential that we stay awake and keep our guard up. Certainly coming closer to the end-times, a time were those who oppose God shall be in the majority, and seemingly stronger. Though we may not be mistaken. The true lovers of God shall recognise their seductive tricks and by keeping to the Biblical Truth shall find enough strength to resist their tempting talk. Even at times that those false preachers or false prophets will wield tremendous religious influence, and will successfully convince most of the world to commit idolatry (Revelation 13:12). Those false preachers shall manage to get enough people to worship the wrong god, also partly because partly people prefer to keep to human doctrines and partly because those preacher can come up with bigger churches and as such seem to be more credible.

The course of this world is combined with the “prince of the power of the air”, and these people who are caught by the attractive words of those false teachers, are seen as being disobedient to God’s Word, though often they think they know some verses and use them as the truth. And so it is gradually, slowly but surely, as we narrow it down, beginning to indicate more and more an evil system that is opposed to God. It is in this sense that it is used in those very famous scriptures there in I John 2:15-17.

“15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1Jo 2:15-17 KJ21)

Those who love God should be joining hands with others who also do not love the world’s ways. They know that love of the world squeezes out love for the Father and that is what we can see all over the world happening. At many places we also see preachers who strongly want to convince people that the Father and the son would be one and the same, so that their followers would worship an other god than the God of Jesus Christ and his pupils, who worshipped the God of Abraham, the God of Israel Who is Only One True God. Practically everything that goes on in the world, what we can see, is that most people are wanting it their own way, wanting everything for themself, wanting to appear important. This way we can see that several evangelist teachers are able to isolate people from God the Father and minimise the acts of Jesus, because they tell people no man would ever be able to do such thing as Christ did.

Too many people do forget that God spoke several times to the world by way of true prophets, who told there was going to come a sent one from God, a saviour out of the seed of David (so still had to be born or had to come into existence when they wrote down the Words from God). From the ancient Scriptures we can read there has also been a time that there were shepherds who deceived the flock of Israel and that God His wrath came upon them and the anger of God was not to return until He has executed the thoughts of His heart.

“1  “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” saith the LORD. 2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people: “Ye have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings,” saith the LORD. 3 “And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking,” saith the LORD. 5 “Behold, the days come,” saith the LORD, “that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch; and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7 “Therefore, behold, the days come,” saith the LORD, “that they shall no more say, ‘The LORD liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘the LORD liveth who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.”” (Jer 23:1-8 KJ21)

“The anger of the LORD shall not return, until He has executed, and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.” (Jer 23:20 KJ21)

We should take that text from the Old Testament serious. It is also something we should remember in these days. Today we can see many preachers who claim to be workers for God, though present to the people another god than the God of the Bible, the One God of Moses, Who is the God of gods. The God of the Scriptures, Israel’s God, also speaks to those so called ‘shepherd-leaders’ who misled and still mislead His creatures. They should know that God not only keeps an eye on His people, but He is keeping His eye also on those who so called speak in His Name. We are told and they are warned, that God keeps track of their criminal behaviour.

For true lovers of God there is the hope and assurance that God shall take over and gather what’s left of His sheep, gather them in from all the lands where God has driven them and He shall bring them back where they belong, and they shall recover and flourish.

The world shall have to come to see that how closer we come to the end times, how more the world shall come to hear real lovers of God telling about the Biblical Truth and the coming Kingdom of God. Though there may be a growing number of false prophets, the Most High Elohim, Jehovah God, shall provide shepherd-leaders to protect His flock and to take good care of them. The world may do a lot for making them afraid, but those who are against such witnesses for Jehovah should know that they won’t live in fear or panic any-more.

God has established a truly righteous David-Branch, a ruler who knows how to rule justly. The followers of that sent one from God, can count on it that their master shall bring justice and keep people united and that in his time Judah will be secure again and Israel will live in safety. And many people shall not fall for those false teachers but dare to tell to the world

“Jehovah our righteousness.  {Or Jehovah is our righteousness } (Jer 23:6 ASV)

Therefore many false prophets will be angry against them, but true lovers of God and true followers of Christ Jesus shall keep telling the world that it is Jehovah

 ‘GOD-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.’

So the world has to watch for this. The time’s coming “GOD’s Decree”. and people shall come to see that God really did not sent those coaxers and prophets of deceit.

“ How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?” (Jer 23:26 ASV)

How fearful it must be to fall in the hands of an angry God and this is what is happening, if God is against you, no one on earth and heaven can save you! therefore we should give heed. We should be very careful that we come to know the Biblical truth and are not carried away by the many false teachings and doctrines this world presents to us, and may look very attractive.

God will bring will bring upon those false teachers and their followers everlasting disgrace – everlasting shame that will not be forgotten. We must know that they even shall not be there to go in the promised Land when the Kingdom shall be restored.

“How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,” (Jer 23:26 KJ21)

“therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of My presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten.”” (Jer 23:39-40 KJ21)

We must open our eyes and see what is going on in this world and how false prophets are becoming more agitated when they hear biblical truth around them. It even brings them so far they want to attack people (like we could see and feel in Israel).

There are even churches who plays the roll of these prophets and like Jeremiah 23v1-8 will conclude that there are shepherds who destroy the flock of Israel and scatter them. The very same is happening in our day, there are false preachers and churches, missions, and teachers who is destroying the flock of Christ and who deceives the nation and whom is wicked. {False Prophets and their empty words}

If you are in doubt about certain preachers, please look at their way of life and check their words with those of the Bible. You may wonder why so many want to believe the words of man above the words of God

– God is truth man is not, but we reject the word of God and we believe the lying false messengers who proclaim falsely “I have dreamed” or “God came to me and said to me” {False Prophets and their empty words}

Or “I had a vision”. We rather want to believe every person’s vision and not the BIBLE. {False Prophets and their empty words}

What we encounter most in these days is that people do not want to take time to see what is really written in the Bible.

The most common and logical reason for persons to believe any new intriguing message especially if it is a vision etc. is because we do not study the Bible. We do not read it every single day. If we knew God and if we knew what the word of God is saying, we will not be so easily deceived. but our country is and there is one main reason: they do not study the word of God. if they did, they would not be deceived. {False Prophets and their empty words}

There is the big need to study and to listen to the Words of God.

we must observe the scripture and know the content, so we can discern about these things, that we can spot false teachings. That we must repent from our own ways.

We must test the spirit, not just believe anyone but compare them to the word of God. {False Prophets and their empty words}

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1Jo 4:1 KJ21)

The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. (1Jo 2:15-17)

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Preceding

Ideas about Religiosity

Numbers 10:10 Make Your Rejoicing Heard

For Jews wanting to learn more about Jeshua and of other Jews following Jeshua

Need to reject an archaic, racist inspired interpretation of the Bible and animosity against other believers

a Call to stop the growing anti-Semitism

Do those who want to follow Christ to be Jews

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Additional reading

1. Position and power
2. Depression, Anxiety, Pressure and megachurches
3. MegaChurch
4. When there is secrecy involved
5. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel
6. Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church
7. Germinating small seeds, pebble-stones, small and mega churches and faith
8. Place for a fifth and sixth house in Christendom
9. Displeasures and Actions of the Almighty God
10. Shariah and child abuse – Is there a connection?
11. Souls and Religions with Nirvana and light
12. Matthew 7:15-20 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The True Disciple #2 False prophets and fruitage
13. Matthew 7:13-23 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The True Disciple #3 Matthew 7:21-23 The ones Jesus never knew
14. Signs of the Last Days
15. Signs of the the last days when difficult times will come
16. Teachings, prophets, wolves in sheep’s covering and a narrow gate
17. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
18. The Way of the LORD
19. Memorizing wonderfully 30 False prophets and false teachers

In Defense of the truth

Like the former Christian minister, writer, musician says “You can lead a horse to water, but sometimes you just have to drown them.” (or something like that) we should remember that it is important how we want to use our mind and find or bring logic and reason to the forefront of the place where we live and in our conversations with those around us.

Facing the difficulties in life we are always surrounded with many questions and most of us are looking for what we call”the Truth“.

In that quest for Truth most people are also confronted with religions and with ministers who work for certain denominations. Their attitude, their response to the many questions, often shall take the questioning person to take his or her next steps and shall bring on an attitude for the future.

We can not deny that probably “every single pastor (and pastor’s wife), every evangelist, every church planter and self described theologian” that has come certain persons their way over the past few years may have “slithered away like a de-fanged, de-rattled snake, back into the night where they came from.” Is that not a shame?

Have those ministers or priests had to go in the darkness again because they could not explain what really happened in the garden of Eden? Was it not because they could not show the writer of this reblogged text that there is not such thing as “a child murdering, rape endorsing, slavery promoting deity”?

God is a god of love. Out of love He has given the right for the people who took adversary on Him to rule the world and to arrange the things themselves. Though now they want to blame Him because He does not play the dictator and interferes, making everything like He wants it to be.

We may not forget that it is not God who is the cause of all those diseases and disasters which hit the world. He is not ruling this world. It are the adversaries of God (Satan) who are ruling this world now.

We just have to be patient enough until the third World War and the thousand years afterwards. Only then, after Jesus his return and the fulfilment of the promise of the Great Reality of the renewed Israel and the handing over by Jesus of the Kingdom of God to God, those who had their faith in this hope of Unity and Peace and did everything to live according to the Laws of Christ and the Law of God, shall be able to enter that Kingdom of God and enjoy a world without pain and without difficulties.

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Preceding: Cancerous Black Holes

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Please do find also to read:

1. Our way of life
2. Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional
3. From pain to purpose
4. The blessing of a broken leg
5. Partakers of the sufferings
6. Foreword to Suffering
7. Suffering (Cd art)
8. Suffering – through the apparent silence of God
9. Suffering continues
10. Suffering leading to joy
11. Seems no future in suffering
12. Learning from suffering
13. Facing disaster fatigue
14. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
15. Character is built
16. Your struggles develop your strengths
17. Reacting to Disasters
18. Dying or not
19. Frank risks taking
20. Remember there’s a light in the next day
21. If your difficulties are longstanding, try kneeling
22. Even in tough times remembering the blessings
23. Words from God about suffering
24. Self inflicted misery #1 The root by man
25. Self inflicted misery #2 Weakness of human race
26. Self inflicted misery #7 Good news to our suffering
27. Self inflicted misery #9 Subject to worldly things
28. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #3 Right to Human dignity
29. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
30. Faith and trial
31. A Living Faith #4 Effort
32. Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
33. Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20
34. Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
35. Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
36. Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37
37. Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42
38. Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue
39. Bad things no punishment from God
40. Profitable disasters
41. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #1 Suffering covered by Peace Offering
42. Miracles in our time of suffering
43. Offer in our suffering
44. Patient waiting (Cd art)
45. Be like a tree planted by streams of water
46. Suffering produces perseverance
47. Moving mountains
48. Rejoice even though bound to grieve
49. Suffering redemptive because Jesus redeemed us from sin
50. Surprised by joy
51. Surprised by time in joys & sufferings
52. Destination of the earth
53. Expiatory sacrifice
54. Crucifixion for suffering
55. From pain to purpose
56. Old age
57. Temptation and its conquest
58. Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional
59. Light within
60. To be chained by love for another one
61. When the wind blows hard on a tree
62. Your struggles develop your strengths
63. The inspiring divine spark
64. Disappointed with God
65. Not sure there exist a God
66. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
67. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
68. God’s Comfort
69. Only one God
70. Some one or something to fear #6 Faith in the Most High
71. Commit your self to the trustworthy creator
72. Getting out of the dark corners of this world
73. God should be your hope
74. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
75. Nuturing a close relationship with God
76. Give your worries to God
77. Let us recognise how great God is
78. God is the strength of my heart
79. God Helper and Deliverer
80. God is positive
81. God’s design in the creation of the world
82. God’s instruction about joy and suffering
83. God’s promises
84. God His measure not our measure
85. God’s non answer
86. God’s promises to us in our suffering
87. Gods hope and our hope
88. God’s salvation (Cd art)
89. You God hold the future
90. Hope (Cd art)
91. Hope for the future
92. Importuning for suffering hearts
93. Incomplete without the mind of God
94. Is God hiding His face when He is seemingly silent
95. Jehovah my strenght
96. Kingdom of God what will it be like
97. God His reward
98. Chrystalised harmonious thinking
99. Epitome of the one faith
100. Life with God
101. Meaning of life
102. Some important differences
103. True hope
104. Working of the hope (Cd art)
105. A love not exempting us from trials
106. Songs in the night Worship God only
107. Gospel = Good tidings, good news, a good message
108. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
109. Preaching to an unbelieving world
110. To Live Gratitude
111. For those who make other choices
112. A concrete picture of what is to come in the future
113. Greatest single cause of atheism
114. Change

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Related articles

• Labor Pains of Human Life (prayersofmysoul.wordpress.com)
  Nothing can permanently interfere with God’s plans and purposes. The delay in putting an end to our grief is not proof that destructive forces are conquering God. Nor is it due to an uncaring attitude of God. He uses it all – the good and the bad, the angels and the demons, the easy-going days and the hard times – to bring salvation to untold numbers of people.
• *The purpose of our lives of faith* (correctunderstandingofshinchonji.wordpress.com)
  The world is full of religious scholars, but what do they study? Supposedly, they are studying the true will of God and the true meaning of the Bible. Which of them, then, knows the true will of God? The truth is that none of them know it. They study the Bible because they do not know. Only God knows his true will, and God does not reveal this mystery until the time he has appointed arrives (Eccl 3:1; Dn 12:8-9; Jn 16:25).
• On Hope (storiedwithgrace.com)
  how we can’t hope in ourselves or in anything in this world, only in Jesus, His Word, His Kingdom Everlasting. The pastor said if I hope in “having it all together” here on earth—a life of total freedom, without trouble or persecution or any harm, then I’m hoping in the wrong thing. That hope is not possible, for as the pastor pointed out, as a Christian, I am bound to suffer, in some measure as Christ suffered.
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  What is the proper attitude to have, then, in whatever caliber of suffering I endure? It’s to be totally optimistic. Totally hopeful. Always thinking good thoughts. Maintaining ultimate self-control. Embracing the ones who hurt you. Enjoying the experience. Being patient when there is no way out, when you are truly doomed. Believing in the unseen, no matter how impossible. Having faith that you’ll breathe again, even when blood is clotting in your lungs. Loving. Simply loving. Jesus revealed all of these traits while suffering on the cross. He did so at so great a cost. He wagered Himself, and all His character, for His enemies, who had none. It is sobering to consider my Savior’s attitude when He held His arms out for me as I butchered Him.
• Reflecting on Suffering (barefootpreachr.org)
  Did you hear the story of the little boy that wanted to share in Christ’s suffering? One Sunday he heard the preacher talking about Jesus’ walk to Golgotha. And he heard how Jesus’ walked the streets of stone. And he heard about the man who helped Jesus. Then the little boy went home and began to think. The next morning he picked up a small pebble (he WAS a small boy) and he put it in his shoe so that he too could walk with Jesus. Well, that story ends something like this: “And little Johnny walked for miles that day with that pebble in his shoe and he did it for God.”
• “Sanctify them in Truth” (disciplesforlife.wordpress.com)
  Christians are to be in the world (vs. 18) yet not of the world (vs. 16). In this way our mission is like Christ’s (vs. 18) who was sent into the world by the Father.
• 400 people in a plane – how many will enter the Kingdom of Heaven? (allanblog.me)
  I wondered, how many of these people would actually be interested in knowing how someone can get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Especially if I told them the truth. You know, the price they need to pay. Dying to themselves, and allowing Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Master of their lives. No longer doing what they want to do, but what He wants to do in them and through them.
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  400 people on the plane. How will I go about trying to get them to listen, to what most people would say is, ridiculous, fanatical, asking too much?
• Religulous Freaks (venitism.blogspot.com)
  Every week, Ulster Christians flock from across the province to the 3,000-seater auditorium, there to hear Pastor James McConnell preach his Christian message. Not the Christian message of the BBC’s Thought For The Day, however; you may hear Beatitudes at Whitewell, but it’s not a place for platitudes. This is the real deal, fire and brimstone; damnation and salvation. If you’re not going to Whitewell, you’re going to Hell.
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  In an interview with the BBC’s Stephen Nolan, McConnell refused to back down, claiming that all Muslims had a duty to impose Sharia law on the world, and suggesting they were all merely waiting for a signal to go to Holy War. A subtle examination of modern Islamist and jihadist politics this was not.
• Towards a Safer and a More Secure World (politicsfromthemiddle.com)
  The truth is that not all problems in the world can be solved. A requirement for peace is to have at least two willing parties who are willing to talk when a conflict is pending or when two parties are in active combat.
• The Beginning of Truth…. Chandler’s Story (branditrent3.wordpress.com)
  There have been times that we felt like we could not get up and go on. And, yes. I have been rescued. In fact, I am rescued every, single day. I have had to learn to rely on God. I have had to set my hope in Him. And, you have played a significant role in this for us. Your prayers. They have protected us. The prayers have led us to put our trust in God and His ways. Not our own.
• Twelve Leadership Lessons from a Hike with a Fellow Leader (Part IV) (hikerdude.wordpress.com)
  As Pastor Todd and I talked while we walked along the trail, he shared some of the things that had greeted him at the threshold of his 50th birthday: the sickness and death of his father, his mother’s brain cancer and recent death, and diagnosis of his executive pastor with stage 4 lung cancer. And just a few years earlier he had lost much of his retirement savings during the “economic downturn,” even though he had invested heavily in bank stocks, which had been thought to be one of the safest, most secure investments. Then, both is daughters had gotten married within six months of each other (joyous, yet stressful events). All of this was going on as he was leading one of the largest churches in West Georgia. It would have made him want to pull his hair out, if he had any left to do so.

Center For Reason

I like to argue. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I will debate anyone but what I really enjoy is a good argument where I don’t have to be polite or patient and I especially enjoy arguing with pious self righteous bigots who have made a career of selling heaven for profit like monopoly real estate.

So I woke up this morning like usual around 5 am. And like usual I reached for my phone to check my Facebook and Twitter accounts for comments.

I saw a couple of posts from friends a few conversations were going on about science and reason but today there were no heated arguments or comments from professional fucktardery profiteers offering prayers for my soul or proposing to change my mind about evolution or show me the error of my apostate heart and being me back to the feet of jesus at the…

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