4 Reasons to Pursue Humility

People like people to obey human teachings, this over spiritual teachings or those presented in the Bible. For that, people find it much more important to stick to what their church community teaches them. As a result, they do not have to take responsibility for choosing a particular doctrine themselves.

Many people forget that it takes a form of humility to accept Biblical Truth for what it is and to start living according to Biblical teachings instead of going along with the majority of people who have joined some majority church.

As believers in God, we should rather seek what we really want. Do we want to follow Christ or rather follow a church?

We should dare not to go for the easy answers, whereby church fathers say we do not have to think about it much, because we would not understand. For centuries many churches have presented their answers to take, without wanting to let you wonder and question them. Coming closer to important times it shall become even more important to question everything, and certainly the church and faith.

Coming to faith requires humility to admit scriptural knowledge and daring to set aside dogmas proposed by men.

Marcus Ampe

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Our culture constantly tells us to build our self-esteem and think highly of ourselves.

Yet the Bible urges us to do the opposite. To pursue humility. It’s actually a glorious pursuit. And we have plenty of reasons to be humble. Here are a few:

We can’t control anything. We like to think we are in control. We make plans, write out our lists, book our flights, mark our calendars. Yet we can’t control a single thing.

Come now, you who say,

“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”

— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say,

“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13–15

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know what the next hour will bring. Or the next 5 minutes for that matter. One little artery in our brain could burst. We could get a phone call with news that will alter our lives permanently. I don’t live in fear of the unknown, but it is humbling to contemplate our lack of control over our lives.

We are only here for a tiny blip of time.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

This is humbling. We are nothing great. In the blink of an eye we’ll be gone. We can’t keep our own hearts beating or maintain our breathing. We can’t keep ourselves alive. We can exercise and eat well, and that has some value, but it won’t add a single hour to our lives. God has determined the number of our days.

We are limited in our self-knowledge.

“Know thyself”

said a philosopher. We can know a lot about ourselves, yet there is much we don’t. We can’t fully know our own hearts and motives. We can’t fully know our own weaknesses and sins or see them as others can. Proverbs 12:15 says,

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

So often my first reaction to correction is to think the other person is wrong and that I’m right — right in my own eyes. That’s why we need brothers and sisters to help us, as it says in Psalm 141:5:

“Let a righteous man strike me — it is a kindness; let him rebuke me — it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.”

It is a kindness when a brother or sister points out a sin or weakness. In our pride we are tempted to “refuse it.” But a humble person receives correction because he knows he is limited in self-knowledge.

Pride has terrible consequences; humility brings blessing. Proverbs 18:12 says,

“Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”

I’d rather have honor than destruction. So I must guard against pride, which is always lurking in my heart.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (JA 4:6).

I don’t enjoy it when people oppose me, but definitely don’t want God opposing me. Really good reason to be humble.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (PR 11:2).

Destruction, the opposition of God, disgrace — pride has serious consequences.

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (LK 14:11).

Humility will keep us from sin. A humble person knows he has fallen in the past in many ways and is capable of any sin. A humble person knows that if God doesn’t deliver him from temptation and evil, he is helpless to stand against it. A humble person doesn’t think that he is strong enough to expose himself to sin and not be affected, so he flees temptation. A humble person knows that God is working in him, yet he isn’t perfected yet.

These are but a few of many reasons to pursue humility. May we all seek to be lowly in spirit, like the most humble man who ever walked the earth, our Savior.

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Mark Altrogge has been senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania, since 1982. He has written hundreds of songs for worship, including “I Stand in Awe” and “I’m Forever Grateful.” Mark and his wife, Kristi, have four sons and one daughter. Find out more on his blog, The Blazing Center.

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Preceding

Don’t Harden Your Heart

Willing to be little

Humility

I is for Incompleteness

Learning from ourselves

Your Life: Habit or Freedom?

The Grace of Humility

More on Grace and Spiritual Fruit – Abide in Me, and I in you

Spiritual growth expansion of self-awareness

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Additional reading

1. A Book to trust #8 Father of the universe wanting His creatures to know Him
2. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
3. Created in the image of the Elohim to use their likeness properly
4. Man enticed to long for more
5. the Bible – God’s guide for life #8 Looking to Jesus #1 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus
6. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
7. Do we know the right things
8. A heart full of love is a fundamental requirement
9. Matthew 7:1-11 – The Nazarene’s Commentary on Neighbor Love Continued 8: Matthew 7:6-11 Giving and neighbor love
10. Matthew 18:1-6 Reborn and pliable as a child
11. Matthew 23:1-12 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Prominence and Humility
12. Unless I wash you, you have no part with me
13. Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend
14. Today’s thought “He humbled himself by becoming …” (April 8)
15. An Appeal in Troubled Times
16. Failing Man to make free choice
17. Full text of Pope Francis’ Interview with ‘La Vanguardia’
18. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
19. There is no true and constant gentleness without humility
20. Humility and the Fear of the Lord
21. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
22. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience
23. A Living Faith #4 Effort
24. When a person looks for or has the need to Choose the Right Church
25. When seeing a biblically sound church

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Related

1. Bragging rights…or not
2. i believe – Christianity is not for the faint of heart.
3. i believe – beliefs that come from hours of conversations
4. Don’t Forget Humility
5. Humbled
6. C. S. Lewis on Humility
7. Of Humility & Humiliation
8. Humility and Faith
9. Apr 28 Teach me to be humble
10. Christians Behaving Badly and How to Change That
11. Be Humble Like A Little Child
12. I Want Jesus, Not Religion
13. Two Characteristics of Christian Identity
14. Practical Proverbial, from Matthew, 27 April 2023. Today’s topic: Bob Dole Humility
15. The Insignificance of Our “Grand” Existence
16. Be Careful How You Arrive
17. The Guy in the Back

A lack of responsibility for your life

A lack of responsibility for your life may show up in the following ways:
pessimistic thinking, a victimized mentality, frequent arguments, indecision, stagnancy, and codependency.

When we become responsible for our lives,
we notice more things going in our favor.
If you want to create a better quality of life,
filled with peace and joy,
then you should be mindful of how you approach the way you live your life.

~  Responsibilities – CWv

If I had grown up

Random Specific Thoughts

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
―C.S. Lewis

Tortured hollows, twisted, coloured and soaked –
Of fragrant laughing reveries, they speak,
Watching as ancestors’ advice is mocked,
And radiant long paths ahead seem bleak.

If I had grown up, certainly of this
Pure, barefaced joy – I would have no inkling
Wandering in societal norms’ abyss
Predestined to watch hopeful souls wrinkling.

Remorseless time must I hold in hard ice
To linger behind captive in this world
Where hearts’ choices – deep and true have no price
And remain young in memories unfurled.

Truly, if I had grown up, and age gained
My young heart of feathers must I have chained.

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the…

View original post 417 more words

Invitation to the news platform that brings a view of the world

Dear Reader,

There is so much news — and too many voices — competing for your attention today.

Do you know that we provide a site where we present news from all over the world and do not mind going deeper into certain facets of facts everyone should know or should receive attention (according to us) .

“Some view on the World”  does just that what the title of the website is called. It wishes to bring a view of world affairs. It wants to be a Journal for you and provides unbiased news and perspective to keep you well-informed and entertained.

In addition to general press reviews, you will be able to find articles that deal with environmental issues and take a closer look at how we, as human beings, must take responsibility, not only ethically and politically, but how we must behave towards other living beings and respect nature. Towards respecting other beings, racial discrimination comes to the fore, but also how we in the West sometimes look strangely at other cultures. We believe that getting to know other cultures and religions better can help to better understand and accept “that otherness of those people”. In today’s society, people do not like to talk about religion, but on “Some View on the World” we certainly do not shy away from that subject, and we even think it is important to talk about God and commandments.

As on this overview site, we believe it is important to let diverse voices have their say. Therefore, at that view of the world, you can find reports from several newspapers and writers from all kinds of directions or different political movements.

Today, we would like to invite you to feast your eyes on that website too, pay it a visit and (who knows) also subscribe to it to receive free daily news in your mailbox.

A warm welcome!

Vivamos Videre, the more we live, the more we are a witness to life

Kone, Krusos, Kronos

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision; But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”

Kalidasa

The more we grow old, the more things we experience in life, some of them a great surprise, and a thing that makes us ponder at life itself.

It’s meaning, and our lot in it.

And we talk, and feel according as to what we consider it was good, or bad, but we did gain anything on it?

I mean even…

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Freedom is unthinkable without responsibility

“Freedom is unthinkable without responsibility.
Personal freedom finds its limit in the freedom of one’s neighbour.
Responsible action is needed to protect our fellow human beings in this pandemic.
According to scientific findings, vaccination is an effective means of combating the Corona pandemic. We see it as an obligation to be vaccinated, provided there are no medical reasons against it,” emphasises Diocesan Council Rottenburg-Stuttgart spokesman Dr Johannes Warmbrunn.

Original: Freiheit ist ohne Verantwortung undenkbar

Earth’s pandemic and T-shirts for young people

We at the Belgian Christadelphian office have passed a certain age, so that it would not be appropriate to walk on the street with a T-shirt. As elders, we tell the visitors in our churches about the task we as human beings have when living on this planet. We talk about our responsibility and the task God has given us. But we do know the majority of inhabitants of this planet are not believing in God and are mostly concerned about gaining as much money as possible, whatever the cost may be.

The last few months, lots of people were very worried about the Covid-pandemic, but for years there has been another big virus circling around us, which most people seem to ignore. Though for more than a decade, several of the Boom generation with the millennials and the Generation Z have been writing essays, articles and making posters for awareness about global warming and cried out into the world to save our planet. Because that planet is getting very ill. People have used and wasted earthly resources, if nothing. In our so-called ‘civilised’ countries most citizens were and are not concerned about the pollution they cause.

For us the time of publicly protesting and going on the streets, protesting for this and that, may be gone or not so appropriate.
But for young people, we would like to introduce some very interesting clothing and tote bags with a different angle. We are namely very concerned about the world where we and our children and grandchildren but also next generations have to live in. Therefore, we do find it five past twelve to call on all the responsible people to use their senses and to do something against the horrible state we have brought our planet. We cannot sit still and do if global warming does not exist.

Everybody can use his own voice to bring awareness to others. A T-shirt is a wearable message board that can pull the attention to our planet and to what we have to do about it. The world needs to change as we are currently hurtling towards climatic changes that will alter the way the planet is configured. This will certainly be to the detriment of humanity if not cause its extinction. Crazy you may say but 99.99% of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct so just because we can walk and talk and use a smart phone does not mean that we will not go the same way.

Scientists and philosophers don’t in general want to be celebrities but it is important that we listen to what they have to say because they offer the only way out of this current crisis. So enjoy our range and change the world at least in one tiny way, an environmentally friendly piece of clothing. {Scientist and Philosopher}

It is not bad to have a look at their products to make others aware of this dramatic situation.

> A collection to highlight the need for us all to stop and think. > Think

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Find also to read

1. Weather, climate-change and man-made global-warmingGlobal WARming: An Overlooked Pandemic
2. Hot weather
3. Global Warming
4. Global Warming Was Explained in 1856. By a Woman
5. Environment
6. Climate explained: how the IPCC reaches scientific consensus on climate change
7. Rapid Climate Change Makes It Hard for Butterflies and Moths to Adjust
8. From CNN: Unprecedented heat, hundreds dead and a town destroyed. Climate change is frying the Northern Hemisphere
9. Time to write again, getting the word out, climate change is a reality
10. Too Dumb to SurviveThe Arctic’s last ice area
11. Last Ice…
12. Update on Climate Referendum in France
13. Julia Conley: ‘This Is Our Future’ Without Climate Action, Advocates Warn After Pipeline Causes Fire in Gulf of Mexico
14. IPBES/IPCC Report: Tackling the biodiversity and climate crises together
15. The Climate Crisis Is Accelerating – Now What?
16. An Actual Space Laser Shows How Devastating Sea Level Rise May Be
17. Climate Change & Joshua Tree National Park
18. Highest Ever Temperature Recorded In Finnish North
19. Why Polar Bears are on The Verge of Extinction
20. The monarch butterfly cab use our help to stay alive by Kalpana Sutaria, Austin American-Statesman
21. Seabird Salvation
22. Impeach Bolsonaro and Topic on Climate
23. global participation…

Going to sleep-away camp opened my eyes to the world around me

”Going to sleep-away camp opened my eyes to the world around me
and the person I aspire to be.”
~Yishama

 

For Yishama leaving home and going to camp helped him grow in his confidence and sense of responsibility. Coming into contact with all kinds of people and different ways of living helped Yishama open up. When he returned from a summer at Camp Stone he was transformed spiritually.

> Read the full story: My Defining Moment

Redeeming Our World

Man, created in the image of God, received the world to use it for the best and not the worst. The man had to take care of it, but has proven to make a mess of it.

All problems that come over man are created by man himself, him polluting his own living quarters and not respecting that what he has received in loan from His Creator, the God of heaven and earth.

Mother Earth cries for distress and signals that it is high time to do something to get better. Each individual has to take his or her own responsibility.

Let us not wait but take this pandemic to make a turnover and start to find a more respectful way of living for each living being.

Wouldn’t it be great if, along with learning from this world crisis how to take better care of ourselves, we also learned how to take better care of our world? {Earth Day Lockdown}

Mitch Teemley

“Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and watch over it.” ~Genesis 2:15

As we return, post-lockdown, to the world around us, so does the pollution we create. If it is true, as some have said, that we ourselves are the disease (and there is truth in that), it’s also true that we hold the cure. But it seems those who focus habitually on what’s wrong with the world take little action to make things right with it, whether the world without or the world within, our souls. Yes, by all means, let us remove the toxins from the garden. But then let us go on to re-plant the garden.

“Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.” ~Henry David…

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Vote!

To safeguard democracy certain countries, like Belgium demand all people to come to vote when there are elections. In Belgium voting is compulsory and one is expected to bring in your thoughts on how the country or the European Union is run.

It is easy to complain that things are not going like you would love to see them going. But when giving your opinion the governement can take your voice into account and can have an idea what the people really want. Voting is the way to give your opinion and to give a signal to the ones governing if they are doing their job all-right or doing it wrongly.

It is up to each citizen to take his or her responsibility and to contribute to the working of the state- or political system. Not fulfilling your citizens duties is showing discontent for those in charge and not willing to take up a voice for those in need and for those who can’t speak for themselves (illiterate, poor, to young people but also plants and animals).

For years lots of people have fought to get a fair vote. Many have offered their life in name of democracy, freedom, equality and liberty, all matters we should protect and give highly esteem.

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To remember

Between 23th and 26th of May 2019 European Parliament newly elected.

• Every single vote contributes to the outcome.
• Politics = enormous impact on our lives > influence every aspect of our life
• co-determine + co-decide => co-choose the politicians > possibility to control future of politics

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Preceding

You Are Called To Stand Up, Even If You Are Standing Alone

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Read also

A Voice to give in May 2019

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Related

1. INEC releases photo samples of ballot boxes for 2019 elections
2. On Voting
3. Stolen Elections
4. Time for Annie to Get her Gun: The Winds of Change Are Not Carrying Democracy
5. Here Are the Alt-Right Figures Trump Thinks Are the Innocent Victims of Censorship
6. Everything on Muskegon County’s ballot for next week’s Election Day
7. Europeans 2019, in France, a poll on crisis background of yellow vests

Fake News Goes Back to the Garden of Eden says Pope Francis I

On this day of “News and communication” we can’t escape to ponder on the last two years where we got bombarded with continuous streams of fake news and attacks on people and organisations.

All people who write on the internet should be aware of their social function and be conscious of their responsibility and impact on others. The last few months social media also showed its bad and dangerous side in being a weapon of opponents and misleader of the people. When you look at the fake news that could be spread  in one week it should really alarm us.

Today the Roman Catholic Church Father Francis I looked at what is going on in this world and said

Made in the image and likeness of our Creator, we are able to express and share all that is true, good, and beautiful. We are able to describe our own experiences and the world around us, and thus to create historical memory and the understanding of events.

He is also aware and tells about what happened very early in the history of man, what too many have forgotten. We should remember that there was the inner thought of the mannin or first woman who doubted the sincerity and honesty of her Creator. Pope Francis has denounced fake news as evil, comparing it to the snake in the Garden of Eden, and urged journalists to make it their mission to search for the truth.

In his annual social communications message, Francis said fake news played on stereotypes and prejudices, and praised efforts to make social media users aware of false reports. Question hereby can bye how we ourselves want to see the world around us and how we want to be honest to others. Lots of our way of reaction against others has to do with our background, attitude of life and our pride.

The pope opened his sermon today with a warning.

But when we yield to our own pride and selfishness, we can also distort the way we use our ability to communicate. This can be seen from the earliest times, in the biblical stories of Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 4:4-16; 11:1-9). The capacity to twist the truth is symptomatic of our condition, both as individuals and communities. On the other hand, when we are faithful to God’s plan, communication becomes an effective expression of our responsible search for truth and our pursuit of goodness.

In 1972 Pope Paul VI already for the World Communications Day had its theme: “Social Communications at the Service of Truth”. The present pope want also to contribute to our shared commitment to stemming the spread of fake news and to rediscovering the dignity of journalism and the personal responsibility of journalists to communicate the truth. for this pope it is not the first time he has scolded those who spread false news reports. He called it a “very serious sin” that not only hurts those who have been slandered but also hurts journalism itself.

We have come into a time when it looks like a sport or competition to bring the most deceiving and manipulating messages to the reader. Clearly the spreading of fake news can serve to advance specific goals, influence political decisions, and serve economic interests, and is as such used.

The effectiveness of fake news is primarily due to its ability to mimic real news, to seem plausible. Secondly, this false but believable news is “captious”, inasmuch as it grasps people’s attention by appealing to stereotypes and common social prejudices, and exploiting instantaneous emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration. The ability to spread such fake news often relies on a manipulative use of the social networks and the way they function. Untrue stories can spread so quickly that even authoritative denials fail to contain the damage.

In Christendom we can see that lots of people are so caught by the arrangement between the clergy and the Roman emperor Constantine. Their agreement to equal the Roman gods with the Christian figures (or better the other way around) made that the Trinity was born and fostered.

The difficulty of unmasking and eliminating fake news is due also to the fact that many people interact in homogeneous digital environments impervious to differing perspectives and opinions. Disinformation thus thrives on the absence of healthy confrontation with other sources of information that could effectively challenge prejudices and generate constructive dialogue; instead, it risks turning people into unwilling accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas. The tragedy of disinformation is that it discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict. Fake news is a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes, and leads only to the spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.

In Facebook Groups lots of people go very hard against people who have an other opinion than they or than mainstream groups. Many want others to believe as them and when they do not do that they come to abuse them and call them names.

It is not an easy task to get people to see what really happened and to get rid of the false information Awful is it when such false news is to blacken people or organisations. Since disinformation is often based on deliberately evasive and subtly misleading rhetoric and at times the use of sophisticated psychological mechanisms, plus when it gets multiplied or shared via social media it starts running its own life and often turns up a few years later when people have forgotten about the matter and do not recollect that it was classified as fake news.

The Pope finds it good that

praiseworthy efforts are being made to create educational programmes aimed at helping people to interpret and assess information provided by the media, and teaching them to take an active part in unmasking falsehoods, rather than unwittingly contributing to the spread of disinformation. Praiseworthy too are those institutional and legal initiatives aimed at developing regulations for curbing the phenomenon, to say nothing of the work being done by tech and media companies in coming up with new criteria for verifying the personal identities concealed behind millions of digital profiles.

Yet preventing and identifying the way disinformation works also calls for a profound and careful process of discernment. We need to unmask what could be called the “snake-tactics” used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place. This was the strategy employed by the “crafty serpent” in the Book of Genesis, who, at the dawn of humanity, created the first fake news (cf. Gen 3:1-15), which began the tragic history of human sin, beginning with the first fratricide (cf. Gen 4) and issuing in the countless other evils committed against God, neighbour, society and creation. The strategy of this skilled “Father of Lies” (Jn 8:44) is precisely mimicry, that sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments.

The world is taken by its greed. So many people do want it all for themselves. Politicians do whatever they can to degrade their opponents and to let themselves look the better one.

What is at stake is our greed. Fake news often goes viral, spreading so fast that it is hard to stop, not because of the sense of sharing that inspires the social media, but because it appeals to the insatiable greed so easily aroused in human beings. The economic and manipulative aims that feed disinformation are rooted in a thirst for power, a desire to possess and enjoy, which ultimately makes us victims of something much more tragic: the deceptive power of evil that moves from one lie to another in order to rob us of our interior freedom. That is why education for truth means teaching people how to discern, evaluate and understand our deepest desires and inclinations, lest we lose sight of what is good and yield to every temptation.

At Facebook Groups we often find people, claiming to be Christian, using words unworthy for a lover of God and for a follower of Christ, calling those who are not in line with their thinking all sorts of names. By bringing all sorts of false ‘news’ they also try to bring others in discredit. In many of those groups we can see a constant contamination by deceptive language which can end up darkening our interior life.

Dostoevsky’s observation is illuminating:

“People who lie to themselves and listen to their own lie come to such a pass that they cannot distinguish the truth within them, or around them, and so lose all respect for themselves and for others. And having no respect, they cease to love, and in order to occupy and distract themselves without love they give way to passions and to coarse pleasures, and sink to bestiality in their vices, all from continual lying to others and to themselves.” (The Brothers Karamazov, II, 2).

Many people are thrown form one side to the other and become so confused, not able to see what is true , half-true and what is false. Lots of false messages look so engrossing that one can not resit the excitement and love to share it on social media which makes the ball rolling.

So how do we defend ourselves?

The most radical antidote to the virus of falsehood is purification by the truth.

In Christianity, truth is not just a conceptual reality that regards how we judge things, defining them as true or false. The truth is not just bringing to light things that are concealed, “revealing reality”, as the ancient Greek term aletheia (from a-lethès, “not hidden”) might lead us to believe. Truth involves our whole life. In the Bible, it carries with it the sense of support, solidity, and trust, as implied by the root ‘aman, the source of our liturgical expression Amen.

Those who call themselves Christian should have the aim in them to purify their body and spirit and to share the love of Christ with others, not wanting to hurt them by false sayings or awful words. they should work on their character, trying to become like Christ. By their daily meditations and reading of the Word of God they should discover and rediscover the truth when they experience it within themselves in the loyalty and trustworthiness of the One who loves them.

every person should know that the truth will set them free (Jn 8:32).

Freedom from falsehood and the search for relationship: these two ingredients cannot be lacking if our words and gestures are to be true, authentic, and trustworthy. To discern the truth, we need to discern everything that encourages communion and promotes goodness from whatever instead tends to isolate, divide, and oppose. Truth, therefore, is not really grasped when it is imposed from without as something impersonal, but only when it flows from free relationships between persons, from listening to one another. Nor can we ever stop seeking the truth, because falsehood can always creep in, even when we state things that are true. An impeccable argument can indeed rest on undeniable facts, but if it is used to hurt another and to discredit that person in the eyes of others, however correct it may appear, it is not truthful. We can recognize the truth of statements from their fruits: whether they provoke quarrels, foment division, encourage resignation; or, on the other hand, they promote informed and mature reflection leading to constructive dialogue and fruitful results.

When looking at news channels, social media (tweets and Facebook messages) we always should use our common sense and examine the truth as well as the value of the message.

The best antidotes to falsehoods are not strategies, but people: people who are not greedy but ready to listen, people who make the effort to engage in sincere dialogue so that the truth can emerge; people who are attracted by goodness and take responsibility for how they use language. If responsibility is the answer to the spread of fake news, then a weighty responsibility rests on the shoulders of those whose job is to provide information, namely, journalists, the protectorsof news. In today’s world, theirs is, in every sense, not just a job; it is a mission. Amid feeding frenzies and the mad rush for a scoop, they must remember that the heart of information is not the speed with which it is reported or its audience impact, but persons. Informing others means forming others; it means being in touch with people’s lives. That is why ensuring the accuracy of sources and protecting communication are real means of promoting goodness, generating trust, and opening the way to communion and peace.

The pontiff wants to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace. He said

By that, I do not mean the saccharine kind of journalism that refuses to acknowledge the existence of serious problems or smacks of sentimentalism. On the contrary, I mean a journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines. A journalism created by people for people, one that is at the service of all, especially those – and they are the majority in our world – who have no voice. A journalism less concentrated on breaking news than on exploring the underlying causes of conflicts, in order to promote deeper understanding and contribute to their resolution by setting in place virtuous processes. A journalism committed to pointing out alternatives to the escalation of shouting matches and verbal violence.

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Preceding articles

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #1 Abrahamic religions

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #2 War on God’s Plan, Name and title

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #3 Cyberwars and prophesy

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Additional reading

1. An openingschapter explaining why things are like they are and why we may have hope for better things
2. The figure of Eve
3. Bereshith 3 Fall of man
4. Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy
5. Messianic prophesies 2 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy
6. Delph Radio – Spreading God’s Word to All Nations

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Related

1. Opinion Journalism
2. Why Journalism?
3. So What Happened to the Journalism?
4. Dumb journalism makes for a dumb nation
5. The problem with modern “journalism” summed up in one story
6. Crossed Lines
7. Sturgeon sets media and Tories straight after latest round of fake news
8. JT Blog: Examiner analysis
9. Content analysis of the Huddersfield Examiner
10. What a ______ time it is to be a journalist
11. Can you trust social media?
12. Fake News and the Good News
13. Politicians Intermix Cyberwar, Information Warfare, And Fake News
14. Pope condemns ‘evil’ of fake news and its use for political gain
15. Pope: ‘Fake news’ is evil, journalists must search for truth
16. Be more responsible journalists, Pope Francis says…
17. Pope Francis weighs in on fake-news – a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes pope decries unthinkable barbaric treatment of Yezidis audience cate
18. Pope Francis Denounces Fake News
19. Pope Warns Against ‘Fake News,’ Likens It To ‘Crafty Serpent’ In Genesis
20. Pope Blames Eve for Listening to “Fake News” Serpent
21. Pope condemns ‘evil’ of fake news and its use for political gain
22. Be more responsible journalists, Pope Francis says…
23. Edelman Trust Barometer 2018 – Redefines Media & Gives Journalism Hope
24. BuzzFeed: This Is Facebook’s News Survey

you can’t wake a person that is pretending to be asleep

To remember

• Learning to love parts of me that no one claps for. (Rudy Francisco)
• Listening to myself > carrying a lot of unspoken stress.
• Environment allowed to silence inner voice.
• Want to feel that I am living the best life possible.
• Did not give appropriate attention to blind spots in my life =>area where a person’s view is obstructed.
• re-examine my life … again …
• We think we are safe in the bubble => we actually put ourselves in danger by becoming powerless.
• group mentality doesn’t really offer fertile ground for creativity.
• responsible for own moral + ethical landscape.
• search for your blind spots
• Examine your environment + ask hard questions
• Freedom comes when we speak the truth. Even if our voices shake.
• When truth revealed >  blind spot = weak spot.

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Related articles

• What Does ‘Community’ Mean?
• Wednesday, 5 July 2017 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

heartprints

I am still learning to love the parts of me that no one claps for.
(Rudy Francisco)

I was listening to myself speak lately and I realised that I was carrying a lot of unspoken stress. The emotions that I felt caught me completely off guard and I wondered why I allowed my environment to silence my inner voice.
I want to feel that I am living the best life possible.
I want to think that I am comfortable with my choices and that they are intentional.
I want to believe that I learned from previous mistakes and experiences.
I want people to experience me as a free spirit with an eclectic view on life.
Newsflash …!
I am so comfortable inside my own identity that I did not give appropriate attention to the blind spots in my life.

Blind spot: an area where a person’s view is obstructed.
“the…

View original post 1,154 more words

Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters

At Stepping Toes we got a reaction from kriztle34, a girl who has always seen herself as an oddball, though how older she gets, the more she came to find that she is just ordinary. She reacted to one of our postings about the position of Jesus and his God.

She is worried about our position before God concerning our writing “Application of old pagan concept of trinity“.

She reacts:

Be careful what you put up on the internet! God is taking record of everything we do including the things we say on the internet. If you put something on the internet you should ask yourself: am I prepared for the eternal consequences that will result from my actions; because your actions don’t just effect your eternity but it can effect the eternity of every person who reads your heretical doctrine and that’s something that God does not take lightly.

She has good reason to be worried about the souls of those who write on the internet. Those writing things the whole world can read, have a big responsibility, (to themselves, to others, to protect others, to God, and for their resurrection and ability to enter the Kingdom of God), and when they write about God their responsibility is even bigger than those who talk about worldly matters.

When talking about God we should first of all be aware that we are talking about the Most High Divine Creator, Who is the Highest Lord of Lord of lords and Host of hosts. His Name may not be defiled, so those talking about Him should be very careful how they use that Holy Name.

We are fully aware of the seriousness when preaching and know that often we may be put in very difficult positions, not coming to twist the Words of God. That Word of God is set apart or holy and should be kept precious.

Those who call themselves Christian should be followers of Christ Jesus and should keep to the doctrines of that Jewish rabbi. As a Jew and descendant form the tribe of King David Jesus only worshipped a singular God, the God of Israel Who is One. Jesus also asked his followers to worship and to pray to that God like he prayed to that God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Every person writing on the net about Jesus and God should be fully aware of the danger of telling the wrong things about those Biblical characters. They also should know the importance of the task the master teacher Jeshua (Jesus Christ) has given his followers.

We as followers of Christ Jesus have the task to preach the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God but also to show the people the Way to God. Jesus, the sent one from God is the one people should come to believe.

When writing about God, our heart should be close to Him and not close to the world. Jesus asks us to take distance from the world, though it might not always easy. So many people are caught up in the many false teachings and human doctrines so many churches present them.

It is so easy to be caught by those human doctrines and to step into the world with those many human or pagan rites and festivals. But we have to be stronger than many in the world and go for the Biblical Truth and  not human doctrines. We should not believe all those false human doctrines, but should keep to the Biblical doctrines and accept Jesus, the son of man and son of God, being the authorised one from God, who is our Messiah or the Kristos (Christ) and the only one by whom we received the grace of salvation and can find the way to the small gate to the Kingdom of God. In him people should come to believe. About him sincere lovers of God should preach and show the world that Jesus is the Way to God and that Jesus is not God himself, who faked his temptation and death and told lies when He as omniscient God would not have known who would be seated next to Christ or when Jesus would return to earth. That are all matters Jesus did not know but the Only One True God really did know and knows also today and tomorrow, Him always being the Eternal Omniscient Omnipresent Being.

Those writing about The Eternal God should not have any other gods besides Him. When writing on the internet about religious matters the writer should do his or her utmost best always to be determined to stick with the Biblical Truth.

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The article she reacted to: Application of old pagan concept of trinity

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Preceding articles

To find ways of Godly understanding

First man’s task still counting today

About a human being or not and life

Responsibilities of Parenthood for sharing the Word of God

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Helping each other with prayer to start the new academic year

Witnessing because we love

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Additional reading

1. A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made
2. Mean voices on the Internet and free speech
3. We are ourselves responsible
4. If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority
5. Determined To Stick With Truth.
6. Atonement And Fellowship 7/8
7. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
8. Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
9. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
10. No time like the present
11. Teach children the Bible
12. Being in isolation #7 Mission work
13. Training for the kingdom
14. Resurrectional Responsibility
15. Rapture articles
16. Denominationalism exists because?
17. God’s wrath and sanctification
18. God is One
19. With the gift of Jesus comes an awesome responsibility
20. Oratory Style
21. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
22. 138) Cheap Grace
23. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
24. Life is too precious

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Further reading

1. Responsibility
2. Courageous people…
3. Our Choices are Lessons
4. Taking Responsibility by Anne Beaulieu
5. Awake! Part 1
6. The God We Choose
7. Faith that does not result in good deeds is useless
8. Spiritual Weight Watchers
9. Pococurante
10. Carrying that Heavy Luggage Called Responsibility
11. Assuming the responsibility
12. Slogan 34: Don’t Pass the Buck
13. Protect your players
14. Responsibility Clause
15. Authority laughs the last
16. The Most Valuable Lesson I Ever Learned
17. Freedom and responsibility
18. You Are Who You Weren’t
19. Why We Fail
20. The scapegoat reply
21. Blessings
22. Domestic Factors which Impact a Lived Calling
23. How to be ethical when Blogging

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Related articles

• What Exactly Is Written About You?
• Expectations of the Christian Life
• Sanballat Lives
• Israel: outrage over move to “silence mosques’ call to prayer”
• Diana’s Testimony
• I’m a White Christian Man and I’m Acknowledging My Privilege for Lent
• 20.4 John – Making the Intangible Tangible
• Look into the Mirror
• Scripture Verse Of The Week ‘Philipians4 Verse 4’
• You are God’s Royalty

Save

Save

Witnessing because we love

Yesterday we saw how Jesus spoke about God His second commandment and how Jesus ordered us to keep to a Royal Law.

In the readings of this week we can find an other work than the brotherly love we have to do. Though that work should be part of brotherly love. Out of love to others we should go out into the world and proclaim the Good News. Witnessing to others is a way of showing our love to them, because we want them also to be saved.

God’s abundance is for the furthering of His will here on earth. God wants all people to know Him and to worship Him. We, when we are thankful for what God provided for us, will love to serve our God and shall do our best to be workers in the name of Jesus, following his orders to preach.

The Lord Jesus stripped himself of everything save love, that he might more readily meet each human soul on its own level. Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, only wanted to do the will of God, his heavenly Father and asked us also to put our own selfish will aside. That will demand some work. Like Jesus became obedient unto death, even the death at the stake, for our sakes, we should offer our selves, working hard to bring others also into the knowledge of God.

Jesus was set on proclaiming the Gospel so that even the dying thief might enter Paradise, and that not one prodigal in all the human family should think that he had sunk too low or gone so far as to be excluded from the hope of salvation.

One of the duties of friendship is just to lend an ear to others and our second duty is to try to give them right answers. Those answers are given by God in His Book of books, the Bible, which we should carry in our heart. To keep it only for ourself is selfish. We should share it with others around us.

The first followers of Christ Jesus were very well aware of their responsibility. They also knew it was God Who had given Jesus authority and also given them responsibility of serving His church by proclaiming the word of God in its fullness. Paul wrote.

Colossians 1:21-29 The Scriptures 1998+  (21)  And you, who once were estranged and enemies in the mind by wicked works, but now He has completely restored to favour  (22)  in the body of His flesh through death, to present you set-apart, and blameless, and unreprovable before Him,  (23)  if indeed you continue in the belief, founded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the expectation of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed to every creature under the heaven, of which I, Sha’ul, became a servant,  (24)  who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in Messiah’s afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the assembly,  (25)  of which I became a servant according to the administration of Elohim which was given to me for you, to fill the word of Elohim,  (26)  the secret which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His set-apart ones,  (27)  to whom Elohim desired to make known what are the riches of the esteem of this secret among the gentiles: which is Messiah in you,1 the expectancy of esteem, Footnote: 1See Messiah in you in the Explanatory Notes.  (28)  whom we announce, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order to present every man perfect in Messiah יהושע {Jehsua},  (29)  for which I also labour, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power.

Even when the mystery may have been hid from ages and from generations, now for us it should be clear, having been made manifest to the Elohim His saints. When having received the blessings of the offering of Jeshua we, out of thankfulness should be pleased that we got to know what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the non believers. Having Christ in us we do have the hope of glory and should be so overtaken by joy that we shout it out and call others to become partakers of the same joy.

It is that Messiah, given to us, without us having to do something for it, that now our turn has come to do something in return. The Grace is given for free, but now we have to act when we have come into the faith and want to make the faith alive. It is the Messiah whom we should preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto the apostles also laboured, striving according to his working, which works in believers of Christ mightily.

The message kept secret for centuries and generations past has been revealed to God’s people. And the secret “Christ in you is the hope of glory!’”  should be sounding all over the earth.

Our task is to get this hope of glory with Christ in us. Having his presence and power in our life, because it is the only way we will ever become all that God has created us to be. That is the great secret that is now made known to all! And this is why we we have to do the work of faith proclaiming Jesus, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully grown, mature and complete in Christ. It is to this end we like the apostle Paul have to labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in the followers of Christ.

Like it was the great Life Lesson Philemon learned from Paul, and how it has made all the difference for him in everything he did, we too should be inspired by Jesus’ teachings and by the power of God’s Spirit should inspire others as well.

We were made for a purpose; one that will never be realized apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. Once Christ puts his presence and power into our lives – then we can do whatever Christ can do through us if we are opening ourselves to him! Paul’s timeless words should become our very own,  so that we too can say

‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!’

This is our hope of glory!

In Christ – the defeated become victorious; the weak become strong; the poor become rich! In Christ – the lame are made to leap and dance; the blind are made to see; the enslaved are set free and rejoice!

In Christ – the lowly are raised up; the brokenhearted are healed; sinners are forgiven, and backsliders are restored! In Christ –dreamers are envisioned; builders are empowered; and all are strengthened with might in their inner man!

To become in Christ we should give ourselves to him, which demands works.

To bring others to Christ also demands works. Though we do have to show others others that Christ is the Way.

We do have to open our ears so that others can open their hearts. We then should try to show them the answers God provides. Like David did not brood on his problems in solitary bitterness we with those around us should bring them before God.

We ourselves must not be ‘puffed up’ because of the way our careful reading of God’s word has led us to increasingly comprehend the ‘big picture’ of the meaning of life and the spirit of genuine love for God that must be part of this.

Let us be like the scribe who knew that there is only one God; and there is none other but He and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength. To love God demands action or work. But when we do love we first of all have to love His creations as well because when we do not love our neighbour as ourself, we do not show appreciation for the creation of God, because each person is a created being, allowed to live here on earth by God.

Mark 12:26-33 The Scriptures 1998+  (26)  “And concerning the dead, that they rise – have you not read in the book of Mosheh, at the bush, how Elohim spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the Elohim of Aḇraham, and the Elohim of Yitsḥaq, and the Elohim of Yaʽaqoḇ’? (27)  “He is not the Elohim of the dead, but Elohim of the living. You, then, go greatly astray.”  (28)  And one of the scribes coming near, hearing them reasoning together, knowing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first command of all?”  (29)  And יהושע  {Jeshua} answered him, “The first of all the commands is, ‘Hear, O Yisra’ĕl, יהוה {Jehovah} our Elohim, יהוה {Jehovah} is one.  (30)  ‘And you shall love יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first command.  (31)  “And the second, like it, is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other command greater than these.”  (32)  And the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one Elohim, and there is no other besides Him.  (33)  “And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the being, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is more than all the burnt offerings and offerings.”

We should clearly understand what is being said here. There is only One True God the Elohim Hashem יהוה {Jehovah} and this we should believe and practice with all our heart, offering our love for God to others.

Do we feel as thankful as we should for the wondrous blessing of being spiritual children of God – in this godless world? Let us make sure that we do – and then – how soon will we see and experience – for ever – “the salvation of God”.

Paul challenges us when he looks at the call of Christ to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. He expresses this responsibility in the bluntest terms,

1 Corinthians 9:16 The Scriptures 1998+  (16)  For if I bring the Good News, it is no boasting for me, for necessity is laid on me, and it is woe to me if I do not bring the Good News!

Youngsters listening to a preacher

Let us not overlook that it is for necessity is laid on us as well.  ‘A necessity’, etc.: i.e. having no choice. The compelling force was twofold, love of god and love of Christ plus fear of being held responsible for the loss of souls. Woe: calamity, in this case, eternal death. So explicit and solemn was Christ’s commission that Paul could not retain his favour if he refused to obey it. 1 Corinthians 9:17 shows how this impending woe, and the necessity it laid on Paul, make the mere fact of his preaching no ground of exultation. For if we do this of our own will, we shall have a reward. But if not of our own will, we will have a stewardship entrusted to us.

1 Corinthians 9:17 The Scriptures 1998+  (17)  For if I do this voluntarily I have a reward, but if not voluntarily, I am entrusted with a management.

Stewardship “stresses obligation, responsibility, and faithfulness of the servant to his master in carrying out the entrusted task” (Rienecker and Rogers, p. 415). In other places such as Luke 16:2-4 this same term is used to describe the management of property.
We have to do the preaching or witnessing as a matter of duty, because God has entrusted us with this task.  And this is something too many Christians forget or do not want to see.

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Preceding

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

A Royal Rule given to followers of Christ

First man’s task still counting today

He who knows himself, is kind to others

Luther’s misunderstanding

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

Our life depending on faith

Romans 4 and the Sacraments

Is Justification a process?

Letter to the Romans, chapter 3

Letter to the Romans, chapter 4

Additional comments to the 3rd Letter to the Romans

Additional comments to the Letter to the Romans 4

Comments to James remarks, about Faith and works

Which is worse–works without faith, or faith without works?

Leading people astray!

Crisis man needed in this world

Preaching Christ Is Not Enough

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Preaching by example

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

What Should I Preach ?

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Additional reading

1. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
2. Bible in the first place #2/3
3. Hope by faith and free gift
4. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian
5. The Right One to follow and to worship
6. Illuminating our minds and watching out
7. Those who love Jesus
8. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
9. Paulus to Philemon
10. Bringing Good News into the world
11. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
12. First Century of Christianity
13. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
14. Let us make sure we are not stiff-necked
15. Priest, scribes and others with authority
16. Breathing to teach
17. Witnessing
18. How should we preach?
19. Showing by the scriptures that …
20. Necessary to be known all over the earth
21. Church sent into the world
22. How do I know if I’m called to ministry?
23. Not all ability to preach
24. A Synod to speak freely and to listen without reservations
25. Preachers should know and continue the task Jesus has given his followers
26. Necessity of a revelation of creation 10 Instructions for insight and wisdom
27. Risen With Him
28. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
29. Missionary action paradigm for all endeavours of the church
30. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel
31. Counting sands and stars
32. The Big Conversation
33. The Big Conversation – Christadelphians in the United Kingdom
34. The Big conversation – Antagonists
35. What Should I Preach ?
36. How to Choose a Bible for Preaching
37. Positive Preaching Day 2015
38. Soviet Witnesses
39. Using the name Jehovah but not a witness of that name
40. Why we do not have our worship-services in a church building
41. Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #5 Not law binding
42. Sunday 7 September service: Imitate prophets and Paul
43. Begin by carrying away small stones to remove a mountain
44. Signs of the Last Days

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Further related articles

1. The Sum of our Stories
2. The Gospel Addresses the Culture
3. Baptism and Temptation
4. Are You Ready For Jesus’ Return?
5. Can you be faithful?
6. Learn It, Do It, Teach It …Preach it?
7. Preaching on the Subject of Heaven
8. John Newton on the Practical Effects of Faith
9. “forgiveness is not a legal action”
10. Into the Wilderness
11. 1 Peter 2:1-3, What about Milk?
12. Preaching
13. The Power of Place and Story in Preaching
14. Consecutive Expository Preaching
15. Stop Teaching
16. What’s red and furry and climbs trees? (avoiding the Sunday School answer)
17. Train of Thanks 14-15
18. ‘Body Language’ in 1 Corinthians
19. Sound Bytes or Substance? (Part 2)
20. The Essential Element to Church Health and Success
21. Sermon in a Sentence
22. What’s Pastor Kevin Reading: Will Willimon’s “How Odd of God”
23. Dulcis Loquela, Dulcis Oratio, or Un-Umming Your Speech
24. Preaching – Prof K J Mathew – Shalom Night Vigil – February 2016
25. Preaching – Fr. Roy Palatty – Shalom Night Vigil – February 2016
26. “Today You Will Be With Me” – A Sermon Starter
27. “Where is the promise of His coming?” (part 2)…
28. Expository Preaching
29. New Network Show; Preachers of Infernum
30. Dressing for Church: Which Way Does One Go?
31. How Will You Listen to Your Pastor This Weekend?
32. 3 Essentials of A Good Sermon
33. QotD – Speaking from the Heart – 2.11.2016
34. Almost Spiritual, Almost Revived
35. My Library // Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry
36. One Anothering – The Ministry of Mutuality
37. “Powerful Preacher”
38. 6 Ways Bible Reading Enhances Your Church Experience
39. One wild preacher!
40. The Dilemma of Balance in Preaching
41. Unlawful Arrest for Preaching Gospel
42. Post-Preaching Inscape
43. Benefits of Expository Preaching
44. 4 “Non-Sin” Sermon Practices
45. Are Red Letters More Important than Black Letters?
46. Preacher, Do You Tremble before the Word You Preach?
47. A Christ-Centred Life And A Christ-Centred Ministry
48. The Ministry of Reconciliation
49. Acts 4
50. Acts 10
51. Challenge: Find Somebody to Love
52. Time for a Great Poem (evangelism)
53. Don’t just give up, give out! #Lent
54. Faith’s Checkbook: A Constant Witness
55. Simon Peter
56. When We Struggle
57. February 8th-Love your neighbor as yourself. And, our unruly society has about as much difficulty with that as did His chosen people back then. Yet, as His children, we are required to be different.
58. Leading Souls to Christ, Part 6 (Onward Christian Soldiers #116)
59. Are You Sitting?
60. We Are The Body!
61. Equipping the Saints (Part 2)
62. Life Expectations
63. Rude Witnessing
64. Feb 4 – That’s What Friends Are For
65. Thankful
66. How evangelism rests on trust and what you possess
67. Eleven Trust in Jesus
68. So, What Is Good News?
69. Parking Lot Salvation
70. My Utmost For His Highest: The Key To The Missionary’s Message
71. Friendship Born By God
72. He Died For Us Let’s Live For Him
73. Is being a humanitarian enough to convey the full love of Christ?
74. Go Ye!
75. Let’s Proclaim The Gospel to The World
76. 1 John 1:3 What To Proclaim
77. 2016- A year to teach the masses about our Lord!
78. Rejoice, Not Criticize
79. εὐαγγέλιον – And God Ordained Encounters
80. The Work of God
81. #AdventWord #Proclaim
82. Get The Word Out
83. Joy Never Goes Silent
84. Good News From The Bad News
85. Walk before many people with good tidings and the gospel of peace
86. There Is A Fire
87. God Energizes Our Efforts August 27
88. Refusing to Be Silent
89. How Beautiful
90. A Passion To Proclaim Him

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Related articles

• LISTEN: Peyton Manning: ‘My Faith in Christ has Been #1 in My Life Since I Was 13-Years-Old’ (Gospel Light Minute with Daniel Whyte III)
• Scripture Verse of The Week ‘Romans 5 Verse 1’
• Revelation 2:1-7 Keeping Christ As My First Love
• Overwhelming Joy
• Does The King James Bible Reveal The Identity Of The Author Of The Book Of Hebrews?
• To die is gain, no. 1
• Which is worse – works without faith, or faith without works?
• the Bible – God’s guide for life #8 Looking to Jesus #1 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus
• Judge every preacher by his preaching the gospel of your salvation
• Not everyone in the churches of Christ are “ungodly”

What climate activists can learn from Sunday School leaders

Preaching is not so easy as many think. Trying to convince people of certain matters is even more difficult.

Those who believe God created the world do know that they have to take responsibility in a wise way for the creation of the Most High, which we only have in loan. Christians do have no excuse, the should all they can to keep our universe as best as possible, taking care not polluting it and not wasting the precious material we our given by the Most High.

But Christians also do have the task to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to try this world in the meantime a nice good place to live in peace. For that reason they should try to convince others also to take care of this planet.

When we see how our world is evolving it is high time Christians do something for the environment and get as many people involved in the protection of the weaker and those who have no voice humans listen to (animals and plants)

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To remember

Robert White = development economics and planning consultant based in London = considers need for increased public support of emissions mitigation policies + encourages everyone to play their part.

• We can’t all be ‘young heroes’ => everybody can inspire change
• To make a difference =/= need to fly to Paris, work for a green start-up, or get teargassed by the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité.
• Charles De Gaulle airport Terminal 2E seems incredibly mundane compared to the energy of the COP21 centre at Le Bourget.
• influence country’s leader as a voting citizen
• learned in Copenhagen > leaders may need assistance in details > need to balance ambitious climate policies with citizens’ other demands
• what is at stake with climate change = much bigger problem > leaders < If short term economy = top of peoples’ priority lists => leaders’ hands are tied.
• 15% of people think climate change = one of top three issues facing UK in the next twenty years
• 34% included the economy
• To seriously mitigate emissions = people to shift from green consumption to less consumption + accept trade-offs => Higher taxes  to discourage high carbon consumption + pay for green infrastructure
• need to increase public support of emissions reducing policies if we want to see change
• achieve increased support for low emissions policies = couple of transferable ideas from old Sunday School teachings
• climate change mitigation.
• 1: need to get out there + engage.
  Evangelising =/= insular group.
  Church goers + environmental movements > become comfortable > attendance being more about socialising than sharing faith
• 2:  engaging often better at personal level than a preachy one
  Demonstrations + Facebook posts = not good enough
• 3: practice what we preach + demonstrate our conviction through our day to day actions
  People more inspired to act <= see similar person to themselves actually living out what they say
  Take the plank out your own eye
• Winning voters’ minds = difficult = important area that we can all make a difference

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Preceding

The natural beauties of life

First man’s task still counting today

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Senator Loren Legarda says climate change not impossible to address

Away with it oh no! – Weg er mee, oh neen

God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace

 

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Additional reading

1. Taking care of mother earth
2. Facing disaster fatigue
3. Self inflicted misery #1 The root by man
4. Time to consider how to care for our common home
5. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
6. First man’s task still counting today
7. Being fit to take care of a garden
8. Three pillars of sustainable development, young people and their rights
9. Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church
10. Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you

+++

Related articles

• Coursera Welcomes First African Partner: The University of Cape Town
• BCCI-K on U.K.’s Climate Change Act
• The Paris Deal Will Need Climate QE
• Equity doubted in REDD+ programmes
• RALLY FOR THE PLANET > Post-climate-conference event draws upward of 1,000 to Chico City Plaza.
• Breakthrough as climate change accord adopted
• Liberia gets EU support for climate change mitigation
• The catwalk calls on world leaders to make paris work
• Enhanced rock weathering could counter fossil-fuel emissions and protect our oceans
• From lab bench to green bench

You might be an extrimist if …

Each person is responsible for his or her own choice. We all have to check how we and others behave and relate it to the reality of life.

We all should allow others the same freedom we want ourselves, this in the understanding that the freedom is respecting the freedom of the other.

In life we always shall encounter others with a different idea than ours. We always shall meet others who have other opinions, other tastes, other lifestyle, and we should respect their way of living like they also should accept our way of living, as long as that way of living does not disturb the other.

Somehow we always shall have to find a consensus in life, trying to reach to an agreement so that each person can have his or her relative freedom outdoors in public, but full freedom in their own home, between the four walls of the living quarters.

What do Religious fundamentalists (Islamic, Christian, etc.), White Nationalists (or Black Nationalists, or Hispanic Nationalists, etc.), Sovereign Citizens, Anarchists, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and “Conspiracy Theorists” all have in common?

They all have strong ideologies or opinions that in some form or fashion create competition and opposition to the dominant power structure and the elite that control it. These are ideologies that supersede the allegiance to the State in the minds and hearts of those individuals who subscribe to them. These are ideologies that if left alone, threaten the power monopoly of the State, which is why the State will either seek to infiltrate and “co-opt” them, so as to use them for its own purposes, or it will seek to destroy them.

*

To remember

• Religious fundamentalism = strict adherence to particular religion + its doctrine
• violent Islamic extremism (typically government enabled and funded) = used to de-stabilize various regions resistant to Globalism => goal = to be absorbed into a Corporate Global Monoculture based in consumerism + debt slavery.
• Nationalism, gaining steam in Europe = belief that state, acting as an extension of a particular culture, tribe, folk, or race needs to remain sovereign + maintain ability for self-determination, free of influence or pressure from outside nations or groups.
• Factions of Power Elite used Nationalism to their advantage in the past
• Sovereign Citizens or “Freeman” essentially reject notion that State has any legitimate authority over their lives.
• Anarchists = similar ideology to Sovereign Citizens = do not believe in the legitimacy of the State or government at all whatsoever + not believe that any group or individual has the right do declare itself as an authority over another.
• Anarchists believe = any imposition upon an individual’s free will (including taxation and imprisonment) that isn’t self-defense is immoral and illegitimate.
• Anarchy =/= “without rules”=> = “without rulers”
• Libertarianism ~=~ “Anarchy Lite”.
• Libertarians = many of same beliefs as Anarchists + believe in some form of severely limited representative government + anti-imperialism.
• Libertarians often identify as “fiscally conservative” but “socially liberal” + “pro-choice”
• Constitutionalists = similar to Libertarians in ideology +> specifically hold allegiance to Bill of Rights + (U.S.) Constitution. >>> many Constitutionalists = conservative Christian + “pro-life”
• Constitutionalists reject idea that Constitution is a “living document” open to free interpretation that changes with the times.
• “Conspiracy Theorists” = blanket term used to apply to pretty much anyone that believes that governments lie or that small groups of people meet in secret + make plans.
• “Conspiracy Theorists” run gamut as far as areas of focus, from false-flag terrorism to U.F.O. cover-ups, nearly all of them point to secrecy, deception + outright lawless actions being perpetrated by the State in the past or in the present.
• “Conspiracy Theorists”=~=  “belief in a New World Order conspiracy” = nothing more + nothing less than logical end-result of Trans-National Corporate Globalism.
• “feudal lords” sit in offshore tax havens + fortified compounds = sit atop this “pyramid”
• Judeo-Zionist, Anglo-American + European elites primarily drive New World Order = comprehensive system of dominance in financial, corporate, and government spheres where the most ruthless rise to the top => system tailor-made for psychopaths = cooperation in the manner of a group of cartels.
• “New World Order” = Global Corporate Mega-State.
• => governments aren’t afraid of terrorism = Governments have used terrorism for quite some time to advance their own power.
• State seeks to establish itself as God (although it will never say that) + wants you to look to it for life + sustenance + safety + security => State = provider, parent + master.
• State wants “poor and oppressed” to look to it for hope, opportunity, + charity = will give in exchange for loyalty + elimination of its enemies. The State must crush any + all competition + must silence any + all dissent or ridicule + will choose what words + language is appropriate + will decide what technology you can + can’t have.
• State wants you to consume more and more + to be self-absorbed + apathetic +wants you to care about frivolous things + obsess over mindless entertainment + wants you to believe you can only be what it says you can be.
• State wants you to believe everything its “experts” + media pundits tell you = State dictate your reality.

 

• At the end of the day > “extremist” = anyone who does not agree with legitimacy of the power monopoly of the State + its attempt to dictate reality.
• Humanity = at a fork in the road => time coming where we will all have to make “hard choice” = Honest, sincere, conscious action will be required of us.

Related articles

• Pope Francis Nails Conservatives By Shaming Religious Extremism In Speech To Congress
• The Age of Enlightenment, Religious Cowardice and Religious Ignorance
• Pope Francis to Congress: act with hope, healing, peace and justice
• Religious fundamentalism keeping God away from people, says Pope Francis
• The Pope Stays Understated
• Pope Francis Stresses Immigration, Climate Change in Address to Congress
• Carson’s Constitution: The candidate has a basic misunderstanding
• Muslims on Shariah Law and the Constitution
• Pope Francis: We Must Combat All Types Of Religious ‘Fundamentalism’
• Bangladesh’s imperilled writers

LIGHTNING WARRIORS

Ex·trem·ist (n):
Somebody who holds extreme or radical political or religious beliefs;
(adj): involving, typical of, or motivated by extreme opinions, especially in politics or religion.

Rad·i·cal (adj):
Favoring or making economic, political, or social changes of a sweeping or extreme nature.

Ter·ror·ist (n):
Somebody who uses violence or the threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, to intimidate, often for political purposes.

The above listed terms and their definitions are ones that we as Americans, as well as people in Western nations in general, have become all too familiar with. Here in the States, the “War on Terror” has officially gone on for over 14 years now, and shows no sign of stopping. As myself and many others have previously stated, it is not something that is ever meant to end, as it enriches the Military Industrial Complex both in military operations abroad, as well as…

View original post 4,296 more words

About a human being or not and life

For many the argument against abortion may be in the answer to the question

“Is the foetus a human being or not?”

Rev. Richard C. Eyer, D.Min., who spent twenty years as hospital chaplain counselling, Concordia University Wisconsin, wrote  in his reading for the Lutheran Conference about abortion and the Gospel in 2000

Of all the women I counseled who were considering abortion I never had one tell me she did not believe the foetus within her was a human being. In fact, she would have thought it naive of me that I would even press the point. She would have said, “Of course, it is human, but I don’t want to be pregnant.” {Abortion and the Gospel, 2000}

too many people overlook that those women considering abortion are usually in crisis and that in first instance the crisis needs to be addressed with attempts at healing.

If addressed with compassion and truth spoken gently in the name of Christ who gave himself for desperate sinful men and women, the heart might be won over. Even if not, the path has at least been prepared a way for repentance to follow later. The Church needs to speak boldly against abortion, but more boldly still about the love of Christ for sinners considering and perhaps even participating in abortion. {Abortion and the Gospel, 2000}

writes Rev. Richard C. Eyer.

Not all those who look for abortion are people with a faith life. Lots of them are not having an active religious life, but that does not mean they will not be able to come to such a position that they would like to enjoy worship of God with many others. For them the church has to be ready to receive them with open arms.

Anti-abortion demonstrators taking part in the 5th Paris March for Life (Marche pour la Vie) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God’s temporary permission of evil has afforded all of us the opportunity to show him what is truly in our hearts. We may see lots of evil in this world and we may encounter lots of things we personally do not like. How we cope with them is very important. Concerning abortion we do see in certain countries pro-life groups which manifest such a lot of hate against those people who want to visit or work in an abortion clinic that we can not call that an exemplary Christian attitude.

It is great to see that there are such people who have their mouth full of Jesus, but we would like to see them also taking on the same attitude as Jesus did. They should better know that Jesus is the Way to life and the Way to God and the way to salvation and God’s Kingdom. Jesus did not come for the good ones in this world alone. He came to bring salvation for all people and certainly was there and is there for those in big need.

Jesus was fully aware that he cannot do anything without his heavenly Father, the Only True God, Who is the One Who decides about the giving and taking of life. We do agree that it is not up to man to decide about life. But man is weak and has a spot on him that makes him fallible.
The God who made the world and all the things in it, being, as He is, Lord of heaven and earth, Lord above all lords, He is the Greatest and Most Almighty of all. Jesus who knew very well that this God is much grater than him and does not dwell in handmade temples, wanted all people come to know his heavenly Father, the God of Abraham. It is He himself Who gives to all people life and breath {+} and all things. This God made out of one every nation of men to live all over the face of the earth, determined their appointed seasons, ordaining prescribed epochs and the limitations of their residence. {Acts 17:26}

Instead of condemning those who are questioning themselves what to do with  that they  feel in their body, the pro-life groups better would talk to them lovingly and show them how God is the Source of life. {Psalm 36:9}

(Psalms 36:9 [CPDV]):  (35:10) For with you is the fountain of life; and within your light, we will see the light.

Not always we do know the reason why those women are faced for such a difficult decision. We do not have to judge them but should have to give them an ear and let them know that there are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us, but that we still can try to come into contact with the Only One Who has all the answers. We can show them some answers and guidance God has given mankind to cope with the difficult situations.

Even those with a broken heart shall have to know that there will come a time that the tears they have will dry up and that they shall be able to rejoice again.

(Revelation 7:17 [CPDV]): For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will rule over them, and he will lead them to the fountains of the waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

All should know that Jehovah views the life of a child as precious even during the very early stages of development after conception.

Psalms 139:13-16 (CPDV): 13  (138:13) For you have possessed my temperament. You have supported me from the womb of my mother. 14  (138:14) I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well. 15  (138:15) My bone, which you have made in secret, has not been hidden from you, and my substance is in accord with the lower parts of the earth. 16  (138:16) Your eyes saw my imperfection, and all this shall be written in your book. Days will be formed, and no one shall be in them.

Not only sees God the imperfection of the unborn baby but also of the bearer of the child. God also sees the heart of the woman with lots of questions and doubts. For her He is there to help if she wants and loves to hear His Voice. God has given man also brains and has also given talents to people. Those talents should be used rightly and in honour of God His creation.

The Pro-life or anti abortionists the same as the one arguing for abortion should also listen to those skilled in the medical field. But we also should know that not always medical opinions are right. It is not bad sometimes to ask an other opinion. We also should question if it would be right to kill a fellow human because that one might harm his fellowman? If at the time of childbirth a choice must be made between the life of the mother and that of the child, it is up to the individuals concerned to make that choice and not to outsiders who often do not know the situation. However, advances in medical procedures in many lands have made this situation very rare.

When ending the presence of the foetus in the mothers womb it is as ending a human life and taking part of God’s creation in own hands. Every human being should be fully aware that anyone taking life a way from a human being could be considered shedding man’s blood.

(Genesis 9:6 [CPDV]): Whoever will shed human blood, his blood will be poured out. For man was indeed made to the image of God.

It is true that the Bible says that every fatal striker of a soul should be slain as a murderer, but it also presents circumstances where there may not take place a killing of that person who took life from somebody else.

Numbers 35:11-15 (CPDV): 11 discern which cities ought to be for the protection of fugitives who have shed blood unwillingly. 12 And when a fugitive is in these, the kinsman of the deceased shall not be able to kill him, until he stands in the sight of the multitude and his case is judged. 13 Then, among those cities which are separated for relief to fugitives, 14 three shall be across the Jordan, and three in the land of Canaan, 15 as much for the sons of Israel as for newcomers and sojourners, so that anyone who has shed blood unwillingly may flee to these places.

Every person is responsible for his or her own body and for those around them. So often today our rights are trampled on by others; many just don’t care what happens to other people or they are very quick to judge the other person and do not mind condemning him or her. Only Jesus has received the authority to judge the living and the dead concerning life. The others who may judge in this world are the judges, which is a profession also instituted by God. As long as Jesus did not return it is their right to bring civil judgement.

People should trust the decisions made by judges who are given latitude to investigate and consider motives and attitude of violators, along with the circumstances surrounding the violation and who are not to oppress the people placed under them, nor widows and orphans, who seem to have no protector, for Jehovah is their fatherly Judge and Protector. (Le 19:33, 34; Ex 22:21; 23:9; De 10:18; 24:17, 18; 27:19; Ps 68:5)

It is good to know for us and for the one who has questions concerning life and abortion that the Bible provides guidelines that can protect us. To receive the benefits, though, we must also accept the responsibilities.’

In the past many mothers have been abandoned by the men who fathered their children. Throughout history we also find many cases of women who were the victim of sexual violence, got pregnant but did not want to loose that life which they felt in them. In the end we also can find women who decided not to have an abortion and were very happy they did make that decision. Others who got an abortion regretted it afterwards.

We always best avoid to have people brought in front of this terrible choice. The best way to do that is by creating an environment where many love the Word of God and are willing to live by Bible standards. In such places we can see that children will have respect for others and that people shall not use their sexual lusts to harm somebody else. In such places where from young age people grow up with the Word of God as guide we shall find more people with respect and genuine love for others. In such communities the husband will really love his wife and children and loyally stay with them and provide for them. (1 Tim. 5:8; Eph. 5:28-31)

 

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Preceding articles:

1. Fruitage of the womb
2. Abortion: The expulsion of an embryo or foetus before it can live on its own
3. The Risk Factors Associated with Abortions
4. Should I Have An Abortion
5. My Choice (by Jezabel Jonson)
6. The Real ‘Choice’
7. “They Told Me What I Wanted To Hear” – Real Abortion Stories
8. The Things We Carry, by Penny
9. Not an easy decision to make
10. Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion
11. Stop Burning Rape Survivors at the Stake
12. How to heal after childhood sexual abuse
13. “Til It Happens To You” by Lady Gaga
14. Abortion — Not a Trouble-Free Solution

Next: The Catholic synod on the family and abortion

 

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Additional reading:

1. Youngsters, parents and the search to root in life
2. About lions and babies
3. Westboro Baptist Church and Catholic Truth against Nelson Mandela
4. Always a choice
5. A philosophical error which rejects the body as part of the human person

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 Further reading:

1. The Church of the Inappropriate
2. Watch “The Silent Scream (Full Length)” on YouTube
3. Dr. Ben Carson Opposes Abortions In Cases Of Rape Or Incest
4. Ben Carson compares abortion to slavery
5. Ben Carson Misogynist
6. Ben Carson says women who have had abortions are like “slave owners”
7. Desperate Ben Carson Resorts To Tired Abortion & Slavery Argument In Grab For Votes On Religious Right
8. “Ben Carson: I would ‘love’ to see abortion ruling overturned”
9. Richard Corriere’s “In Their Own Words.” FBI director clashes with Obama
10. Putting on Monday Morning Combat Boots
11. Homo-Lobby comes out in support of child butchering
12. Heaven & Miscarried (+Aborted) Babies Part I
13. Responsibility
14. Lady Bits episode 35: Feminism is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
15. Abortion, Homosexuality, Prostitution: Amnesty International Loses its Way
16. Freakonomics Abortion Chapter
17. He Told Me I Needed To “Get Rid of It” – Real Abortion Stories
18. Hot Topic #3, Abortion!!
19. Ways To Stop Abortion!
20. Random Headlines — 10/25/15
21. Random Headlines — 10/16/15
22. GOP Inbreeding
23. If you want to know what’s ahead for America, look north to Canada
24. trajectories and closed loops
25. “21 Thoughts” by Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the father of modern genetics
26. How America Is Inured to Violence and Immorality
27. The Tree of Life
28. We Need To Change The Way We Deal With Abortion
29. The Problem with Pro-life Politics
31. Mis-shaped fruit is just as good for you
32. Will America listen to this baby’s story?
33. Abortion Rants From A Pro-Abortionist
34. Why I’m Pro-Abortion
35. #ShoutYourAdoption! Pro-lifers fight back against repulsive pro-abort hashtag [pics]
36. How do Pro-Lifers care for the born? Let me count the ways….
37. Abortion Advocacy Is Extremisim
38. The #StandWithPP Roundup: Shutdown Narrowly Averted
39. Court Rules to Keep Clinic Open
40. When Choice Is Not An Option
41. Anti-Abortion Attackers & Protesters of Planned Parenthood Exposed (Resources)
42. I agree with Karl du Fresne… but not in the way you think
43. Forensic Analysis Shows the Real Planned Parenthood Scandal Is the Videos Themselves | The Nation
44. Rep. Elijah Cummings is Ready to FIght for Women
45. Media Release: Politicians Must Act Now
46. Why We Need to Talk About Later Term Abortions
47. 4 November 2014. This Is Why I Oppose ALL “Personhood” Amendments Absolutely and Without Question

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Related articles

• Unreal: Pelosi promotes abortion and gushes over popes in same interview
• Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
• Psalm 24 version C21st
• Invented Traditions: No, Christianity doesn’t forbid Abortion
• Abortion and forgiveness: what is the Pope really saying?
• Sunday Reflections, Sept. 20: Delight of the World
• Catholic Clerics, Knights Warn Youths Against Abortion
• Peace for Your Soul
• The viability myth
• Joe Biden says ‘life begins at the moment of conception’ – won’t stand up for that life, though

First man’s task still counting today

Today many people do forget their role to play in our society and which position of responsibility they have to take in this universe of living creatures. Too many years human beings have found themselves superior to all other beings and did not have much interest for their well being, neither for the safeguarding of the environment.

Today we are faced with the consequences of human beings their selfish attitude and have to find a solution for the global warming of which we are a victim because of our “own stupidity”.

oil on wood panel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We may not forget that when this universe was created the Maker of it had a purpose for the created elements. At that time of the beginning the first man and mannin (Adam and Eve) received a task. Though they went into rebellion against their Maker and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, their given task still counts for us. Our job and our identity as human beings is still to make sense of the world around us.

It is interesting to realize that in so many ways we are still striving to create a language to make order of the chaos of our experience of the world. {Naming the Naming Project: A Deep Look at Adam and the Human Project}

For centuries man has been looking for his purpose and for more insight in all the things around him. Several ideas were uttered and many sciences found their light.

It seems Adam’s job is hard-wired into who we are as human beings. We just need to name it that in a very deep way Adam is who we are striving to become. {Naming the Naming Project: A Deep Look at Adam and the Human Project}

writes Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow who wants to make the world a better place.

In arts and science man has always looked at man’s surroundings and the existence of things.

Children have the delight of discovery. As adults, we acquire a more organized way of learning and studying, but also lose the feel of the freshness of things. Because of that, most adults are – almost by definition – slightly dull. Creative ability is only found in those who retain a part of their childhood. The artist and the scientist both have this freshness of view. An apple falls from a tree: the child asks – why does it fall and not fly? –and such questions are the beginning of science. {What is the Purpose of Childhood}

Growing older lots of people do loose the innocence of the child and also loose the interest to ‘look beyond’. those who call themselves Christian should remember the one who they say they are following, rabbi Jeshua, and should also to take on that innocence that man had as an unselfish attitude. He went even so far that he gave up his only life for the betterment of all people. All people can learn a lot from him, who did not want to do his own will but always did the Will of his heavenly Father, the Only One true God, Hashem Jehovah.

Most of us should get red cheeks and be ashamed that they often do not manage to take on such an attitude as their master teacher. But every day we should work on it and go for it. Not one moment should be lost by not trying. As long as we do our best, it is not bad.

Lots of people do place themselves in the centre of the universe. Part of growing up and becoming older is that we should become wiser and be able to set ourselves more at the site and be forgiving for bad things that happened in the past. We can always look back at one of the best examples in the Holy Scriptures, though having had to face several bad years he opened his heart for his brothers and welcomed them again.

Yosef has matured. Looking into the pit Yosef sees how far he has come in his life. He no longer sees himself at the center of the universe. Yosef responds:Have no fear! Am I a substitute for God? Besides, although you intended me harm, God intended it for good, so as to bring about the present result–the survival of many people. (50:19-20) {What, Too Soon?}

Every day in our life we have to learn and to grow further. Some may think that learning is difficult or that

Learning should be hard, but not to hard and definitely not out of reach. {Getting Past the “How” of Torah: For the Love of Learning}

Being made in the image of God, we all inherited from the Source of Life, the inability to think and to use our brains and limbs to act and to create in the right way. There are people living in regions were it is also very easy to get a good education. Others live in regions where not such ideal conditions exist and where not many are helping others to get the right and good education.

In a certain way god provided enough material to get the right ideas and to make the best out of life. It is all there for everybody everywhere in the world. But many do not see it or want to be blind for it.

We can read about the reception of the Torah.

For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’ (Deuteronomy 30:11–13)

For rabbi Avi Katz Orlow learning should not to hard and definitely not out of reach.

Here we see learning Torah depicted as some elaborate scavenger hunt. What zeal would we bring to trying to learn Torah if it was in fact hidden in the heaven or on the other side of the ocean? {Getting Past the “How” of Torah: For the Love of Learning}In our community there are many efforts to make Torah more accessible, but still people feel alienated. What are we missing? Perhaps we have made Torah too accessible? We have lost our zeal. Would we try harder if it was in heaven or across the sea? But I do not think that is all of it.We fail because we have not done a good job expressing the “why”? Yes I am Hassid of Simon Sinek.  And if you have not seen this TED talk please stop everything and watch it now. {Getting Past the “How” of Torah: For the Love of Learning}

***

Simon Sinek discusses the principal behind every successful person and business. A simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?”

***

Why is learning valuable? I have my thoughts on this, but for now I just want to put the question out there. In Sinek’s words,

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.

As we prepare for the High Holidays it is interesting to think about your own “why”. And once we figure out our “why” it will not matter if learning Torah is in heaven or across the sea, that is just a “how”. {Getting Past the “How” of Torah: For the Love of Learning}

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Preceding article: A little ray of sunshine.

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Additional reading:

1. Necessary to be known all over the earth
2. Christian values, traditions, real or false stories, pure and upright belief
3. Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
4. An unbridgeable gap
5. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
6. Atonement And Fellowship 7/8
7. Shared inheritance plus integral and integrating vision
8. Not many coming out with their community name
9. To find ways of Godly understanding
10. We are ourselves responsible
11. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
12. What part of the Body am I?
13. If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority
14. With the gift of Jesus comes an awesome responsibility
15. Training for the kingdom
16. From pain to purpose
17. My 2 Words
18. Teach children the Bible
19. Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news
20. The Greatest of These is Love

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Related articles

• Was Adam in the Garden of Eden?
• The differing origins of humankind
• The Future of Work: But What Will Humans Do?
• Human Beings: The Omnicidal Species. There is Nothing They Won’t Kill
• When does human life begin?
• Creation
• How to become successful in my life
• The Unnatural Being
• The Future of Work: But What Will Humans Do?
• {Faith} Keeping Boundaries.

Helping each other with prayer to start the new academic year

It is a tragedy, as we will read tomorrow, that

“the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel …” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

We have no other choice than to live in this world where so many are blinded. We also do have to do with the many pains we may have to endure. Though we should know many pains and discomforts could be helped to be lessened or being softened by others.
Each of us is here in this world to help the other. Though not many are interested in doing that.

2014 – 2015 school year opening ceremony at Hanoi – Amsterdam High School

Once again a new academic year has started and we are off again on the roads, having the children back to school, having the parents back to work after their Summer holiday.

How many of them can see which wondrous blessings we have that

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’,

has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? (verse 6).

2 Corinthians 4:5-10 UKJV  (5)  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.  (6)  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  (7)  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.  (8)  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  (9)  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;  (10)  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Our world was created out of the void when there was only darkness, but God called for light. That ‘light’ shone physically as creation began so long ago, but the wondrous fact for us is, as we will read in chapter 5,

“if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (verse 17).

The apostle Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians makes so many points which also requires our attention in this 21st century. He shows the interaction of events and the great value of prayers in all the difficulties they and he are experiencing.

All the kids who went back, or for the first time to a ‘new’ school’ shall have to learn to face different situations which are not always pleasant. Even for those who became a Christian there is no escape, they too shall have to share abundantly in Christ’s suffering. But we can give our kids some hope because we also do know that through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too.

2 Corinthians 1:2-5 UKJV  (2)  Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  (3)  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;  (4)  Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.  (5)  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ.

It is, writes Paul,

“the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction …” (verses 3,4).

This is a comfort we have a responsibility to pass on to others.

This passing on to others is too much and too often forgotten. Many do want to have the blessings, but do not want to do anything in return. They want the grace but do not ask them to tell others about it.

To find people who are willing to preach is very difficult. To find people who are willing to share their knowledge about certain things of this world, like geography, history, ways of constructing a house, or how to keep a healthy family seems to be very difficult. For some time we have been looking for some extra writers on this website, though nobody seems to be interested to join us and to share his or her knowledge for free.

Let us meditate and reflect on the interaction of events we have personally experienced. It seems when we start talking about God and about his son and show others our love for them, we seem to get a negative response and to be kept aside. Suddenly co-operation or interest seems to stop at all sides.
The more we have been active in the service of Christ, the more clearly we will perceive this.

In Paul, the Corinthians saw the most outstanding example of service.

“The afflictions we experienced”,

writes Paul, was such that they were so utterly burdened beyond their strength that they despaired of life itself. We in our regions do not have to be worried so much about that, but several people in several countries, like Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and many African countries are facing prosecution. We may not be unaware of the affliction many experienced in Asia and Africa.

2 Corinthians 1:6-8 UKJV  (6)  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.  (7)  And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as all of you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall all of you be also of the consolation.  (8)  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

We, in our safer regions also have to undergo problems, shunning and are not always facing a nice life. But we have set our hope that Jesus will return and that he and his God, Who is also our God (the God of Abraham), will deliver us again. Though we have to remember that like at the time of the apostles,  they had to be helped by prayer, so that many will give thanks on their behalf for the blessing granted them through the prayers of many, we too need such help.

2 Corinthians 1:9-10 UKJV  (9)  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead:  (10)  Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

We cannot just rely on people. We like Paul have to realize that we must rely not on ourselves but on God (verse 9).

2 Corinthians 1:9-11 UKJV  (9)  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead:  (10)  Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;  (11)  All of you also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

Having set our hope that he will deliver us again, (verse 10), does not mean that we do not need each other, and that we should not help each other. We still have to be loving for each other and helping each other.

Paul makes an appeal that we should specially take notice of. He tells the Corinthians,

2 Corinthians 1:11-12 UKJV  (11)  All of you also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.  (12)  For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

Other apostles came with similar requests to their flock.

Romans 15:30-32 UKJV  Now I plead to you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love (o. agape) of the Spirit, (o. pneuma) that all of you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;  (31)  That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;  (32)  That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

As in the early centuries of this common era there was a need of preaching, the apostles going around in the region to tell the Good News, we too today need some people full of hope who are willing to go into the ‘fields’ and to let others know about that Good News. We do want to tell others the Gospel of the Good News, but we too need help from others. We can use some backing.
Not only could we use some additional authors willing to share writings with people from all over the world. We, like the apostles need also your help with prayer.

As the apostles asked for help we also dare to say like the apostle Paul did:

“You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us by the prayers of many” (verse 11).

Many are aware today through the almost instant communication the internet provides of the desperate situations some Iranian believers have experienced. There are also Pakistani believers who are experiencing persecution, and a few truth seekers who have felt it wise to return to Afghanistan. Let us help them by prayer.

Also, may we, as Paul writes in chapter 2, spread

“the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved …” (verses 14,15).

We may be unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish, but should we also not show that we are willing to step in the footsteps of that masterful rabbi?

As of God, in the sight of God we should not hesitate to speak in Christ and to show others the Way to God.

It is not because we can see so much tragedy, having so many people living in a way God would turn His eyes away, that we can not live according to His ordinances and want to show others there is a different way than the way this world has chosen.

On this platform we do want to show others this different way. To do it just on our own is not so easy. We could do with some extra hands.

Everybody has some field in which he or she is good. So everybody should be able to find something to write about which could be enlightening and educating for the others.

Having a new academic year, would this not be a good start to provide your input?

From your professionalism is there nothing you can contribute to our community and to bring some more knowledge to others, believers and non-believers in God?

Is the time not ripe to take up the pen and to join those who believe we should share more with others? It is out of love that we should share more with others. And believe it, there is lots to share about, and it has not all to do with religion.

In case you are not good at writing, you too can help, by praying for us and by letting others know our site. Promotion is always something that can help as well and motivate to continue our work. (Be sure it does not harm to motivate others now and a while.)

We do hope we can go into a fruitful new academic year in which we shall find some interested souls to join us and to share with us the love for this globe where we may reside in peace.

Please do pray for all those in need and also pray for our work, that we also may reach people in need and help them.

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You may find about prayer:

Praying and thinking positively

Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything

God, my father, my closest friend

Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?

What moves mountains?

 Trust!

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Additional readings:

1. Walking alone?7000 to 20000 words spoken each day
2. Natural inclinations and Praying and asking
3. Praying and acts of meditation without ceasing
4. Praying is surrendering in all circumstances
5. Be sound in mind and be vigilant with a view to prayers
6. Be vigilant with a view to prayers
7. Looking for True Spirituality 6 Spirituality and Prayer
8. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
9. Do You Expect God’s Answer
10. Being sure of their deliverance
11. Old Man of Prayer
12. Biblical Prayer at Tabernacle Site Shilo
13. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
14. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #16 Benefits of praying
15. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #17 Sorts of prayers
16. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
17. Praise Jehovah
18. Always rejoicing
19. Praying constantly Giving thanks for everything

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Further reading of interest:

• School’s out for summer
• ::Summer’s Over & The “Routine” is Back::
• Twas the night before school starts…
• Keeping Things on Track: Organize for Success
• New leaf
• Keep Your Momentum
• Back to School
• Already, school year?
• School’s back…Here’s some tips for this year!
• Bring on the Bouquets of Sharpened Pencils!
• What is the most effective way of preparing young children for primary school and beyond?
• And So It Begins, Again
• Another Beginning
• On top of things …
• It’s Time for College: How to Make the Grade You Want
• Some Minnesota Students Head Back To School
• Should Wilmington Start School Before or After Labor Day?
• Opening academic year Wageningen University
• Upon Graduating: When the World Goes Back to School (and I Don’t)
• #Sameface-Much More Than Just a Game
• #10Highlights as a Deputy Headteacher by @TeacherToolkit
• How to improve your grade in your least favourite subject
• Keep the High Road and Say Good Bye!
• Charging Up in June? Say It’s Not So!
• The Road to 65, Miles 173 and 174: Preparations
• It’s that time of the year …
• Happiness in the Midst of Falling
• Love At First Site 27 – From blue to red
• Winter Break!
• Autumn days when the grass is jewelled…
• NWCCI 2014-2015: Highs, Lows, and New Beginnings
• Do You Know Which New Parents will become Great Prospects?
• Kindergarten Quips
• There Will Always Be Lions…
• Standards and Values
• Proclaim Jesus with Loving Hearts this School Year #CISVA
• A Bright Journey – on the First Day of School
• Best-Laid Plans for This School Year: Only Slightly Awry (So Far)
• What this is all about, or my journal and I
• Have A “Wand”erfully Magical Year!
• Our First “School Year” at Daycare!
• Back-to-School Tips for Parents!
• Driving in America
• Teaching: Year Two
• I Want More Time
• 15 Ways to Get and Keep Your Life Together
• Our Year-Round Homeschool Plan
• Small Groups to Kick-Off in September
• School districts get jump on school year

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Related articles

• What’s So Amazing About Grace? (lifevesting.com)
• Don’t let inner fear interfere with you . . . enjoy the ice cream! (stevesimms.wordpress.com)
• The Truth And Nothing But The Truth… (thetruelight2014.wordpress.com)
• Beware September 2015! A Great Deception is Brewing! I Know What is Going to Happen and it is Not What You Think! (libertybalance2014.blogspot.com)
• Wednesday, 2 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading) (petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com)
• The Daily Gospel and Readings 2 September 2015 (prayersandmeditations.com)
• P2R | 1 Peter 1:1-5 (Week 1) (timmybrister.com)

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Rom 10:13-15 MKJV  For everyone, “whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (14)  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching?  (15)  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!”

For they who do not believe should come to hear and should receive an opportunity to get to know the grace given to all people. People can only call on the Name of God when they do believe. Only then when we call onto God’s Name, Jehovah, shall we be saved. This is a condition to become saved which too many do forget. Also they who do not believe the Gospel as the record which God has given of his Son are missing a lot, and those who do believe are responsible for that, when they do not make the effort of preaching. But those who go out into the world to tell the Good News are recognised as people doing beautiful work, because how can others hear without preaching? Naturally there can only be preached rightly by those who believe and by those who are sent, showing others their faith and gladly willing to share the Good News they themselves heard and got convinced of.

The apostle turns from the responsibility of the seeker after salvation to emphasize the role that believers are intended to have in God’s plan for preaching the gospel. Calling on the Lord is meaningless apart from some assurance that He is worthy of confidence and trust, that He has something to offer that guilty sinners need. Calling on Him and trust in Him are two sides of the same coin. The verse suggests that calling on the Lord continues to be a mark of the believer, not simply the first step in the direction of establishing relationship to him.

1Co 1:2 MKJV  to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called out with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

One must hear the gospel before a person can be expected either to receive it or reject it. Without people preaching there can be no hearing. Without witnessing there can be no thought or consideration about what could be true or not, or people would not get to know. Certain King James Versions have “without a preacher” – which may be misleading, in that it implies (or it may be inferred there-from) that there is a special office of preacher. This is of course not the case at all: all God’s children are (or should be) preachers!

People do need to hear about Jesus, the son of God. They should come to know what that Nazarene man has done and who his heavenly Father is and for what that eternal Spirit is so important for mankind. Those who do believe should know the importance of their knowledge and out of love for the others they should want others to know that truth as well. When a person believes unto righteousness with the heart he shall be glad to be able to confess with with the mouth unto salvation not being put to shame knowing that when he calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Saint Peter preaching the Gospel in the Catacombs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The apostle Paul rightly observes that it all goes back to the preaching of the gospel, and preachers, those who profess the Word of God, must be sent – both by God and the Christian community at large. It does not have to be special university people, but men and women willing to share the Gospel in Jesus’ name. God’s “normal” way of bringing people to Jesus Christ is through the preaching of the gospel, which has to happen through faithful people who follow the example of Christ Jesus and do what he had demanded his disciples.

God’s cursing or blessing is upon us, also according to our faithfulness in preaching the Word. God has committed unto us, in our ministry, the word of His reconciliation.

2Co 5:17-21 KJV  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (18)  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;  (19)  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  (20)  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  (21)  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

When we choose to become baptised in the name of Jesus we wanted to become in Messiah reborn, becoming a new creation. From then onwards our shyness in the world should be gone having the old things having passed away. Shyness refers to passivity, emotional arousal, and excessive self-focus in the presence of other people ( Jones, Cheek, and Briggs 1986). It also frequently involves negative self-evaluations, social avoidance, and withdrawal. (International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, 2003). Being reborn we have received a new soul (being) not focusing as such on the self, but on the totality of union in Christ. Arousal and heightened self-consciousness in response to social threat can be put aside when one is confirmed about the truth and its value. The experiences of shyness are often sufficiently unpleasant to lead to withdrawal from or avoidance of many social situations, but they also compound the distress of shyness by distracting from skilled and self-confident social interactions. When a person his faith sits deep in him it will give him enough assurance to conquer that shyness to witness for Christ Jesus and for his heavenly Father, the only One God.

Facing all those new things which are from God we want to share with others that in Jesus Christ the Messiah Jehovah God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them; and He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.  We are by the baptism in spirit taken away from the doubt and fear from man and therefore should want to be ambassadors for Messiah, as though God were making His appeal through us.

The apostles and members of the first communities begged the community members on behalf of Messiah, to be reconciled to God and to share the Good News with others.  Though it was not easy, because many had seen what had happened to Christ Jesus, and knew that there were fierce opponents of the teachings of this master teacher. It was the Most High Almighty Elohim Who made the Sent One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. By his offering we are bought and are now facing freedom, if we want. It is not by deeds of righteousness which we had done ourselves, but because of God His mercy. It is by the blessing of Jesus his offering that we can become saved through the mikveh of rebirth and renewing of the Ruach ha-Kodesh,  whom Jehovah abundantly poured out on us through Messiah Jeshua our Saviour, so that being set right by his grace, we might become heirs with the confident hope of eternal life!

Tit 3:5-7 MKJV  not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  (6)  whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  (7)  that being justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The Messiah or Christ was a man who did not want to do his own will but preferred to do only the will of his heavenly Father. He love God’s ecclesia and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. (Ephesians 5:25-26). Like Jesus took care that the dirt of the earth was washed away by the Word of God we also should where we come try to wash away the dirt of this contemporary world.

At baptism the believer becomes a part of Christ’s new “creation” (Ephesians 2:10;  4:23-24; Collosians 3:10). That new creation is so incredible and presents such a magic future we do not want to keep it for ourselves alone. Real believers in Christ do want to become like Christ sharers of the Good News. Being washed… sanctified, we are prepared to do the work for God. It is the will to get to know the Word of God better which should bring us to read it more and to share it with others. It is not be going to a special college reading lots of human writings and philosophies that we shall get more knowledge to bring people to God. God has given everything we need in His Word. All is there in that Book of books, the Bible, God His infallible Word which says all.

Without the faith in Jesus we shall not be able to succeed. We need to have faith in Jesus so that we can call on Jesus. And we need to call on Jesus because calling on Jesus, searching for Jesus, crying out for Jesus is what brings us salvation. Through calling on Jesus, we are saved.
So why do we preach?
So that we may be saved.

We need to be saved from our own captivity. We all need to be set free from something that may keep us away from our loving heavenly Father, the Divine Creator.

The world has to know what God provided. they should come to know that there is a possibility of real peace. But they also should get to know that it will be God Who rules.

Isa 52:7-10 MKJV  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, making peace heard; who brings good news, making salvation heard; who says to Zion, Your God reigns!  (8)  The voice of Your watchmen shall lift up! They lift up the voice together; they sing aloud. For they shall see eye to eye, when Jehovah shall bring again Zion.  (9)  Break out, sing together, waste places of Jerusalem; for Jehovah has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.  (10)  Jehovah has bared His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

As in the time before Christ Jesus it was nice to see the messengers of God bringing good tidings. Now it is our time to bring such good tidings. We have hear them and we should be convinced of the importance of them.

4 days of Evangelism Training in Southern California provided by LivingWaters Ministry. Obeying the great commission of Jesus Christ. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone” Mark 16:15 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Good Tidings publishes peace and brings confirmation about the sent one from God, who is the Messiah and fulfilled his duties here on earth. God reigns and has given Jeshua the authority to prepare His Kingdom and to reign on earth. We are looking for that Kingdom of God and belief that it is a reality which can be there for much more people than it is at the moment. Therefore we should be willing to show the way to Jerusalem, the physical but even more the spiritual Jerusalem. More and more we can see how the Plan of God gets shape and how we come closer to the execution of that Plan.

The freedom that awaits us has to be spoken off. But first we need to liberate us from our own weaknesses, bad things we are burdened with. We must see that we can make ourselves free from the bad things of this world first. There  may be things which are holding us captive. There  may be many things holding onto us.

Andy Burns, who believes the goal of life is to get so close to that light that we are breathing in the light and exhaling it out into the world, writes:

Maybe you’re dealing with a very real kind of captivity like addiction. Maybe you have an addiction to a physical substance-alcohol, drugs, those kinds of things-or maybe you’re addicted to something more abstract-your work, money, maybe you’re addicted to other people’s approval of you. And this addiction controls when you wake up, when you go to sleep, when you eat, where you work, where you go after work, how hard you work. You’re not free.

Or maybe you deal with an intensely personal problem like low self-esteem or self-doubt or depression. And maybe this controls you in ways that surprise you-you want a certain job but you don’t believe you can do it. You want to speak up but you don’t believe in yourself in enough to find the words. You want to get to know someone, but you don’t believe they could ever like you. You’re not free.

Or maybe you deal with some pain in your past. Maybe you’ve been seriously hurt-either physically or emotionally by their words or both. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a spouse, a child. And maybe this old would is holding you captive, keeping you from enjoying life, making you avoid certain situations and people. You’re not free.

See, I think all need to be freed from something. We all need freedom and transformation in our lives. And according to Paul in our passage, this is the message that preachers are entrusted with. This is the reason we preach here. Preachers preach so that people can hear about Jesus. People need to hear about Jesus so that we may have faith in Jesus. People need to have faith in Jesus so that they can call on Jesus. And people need to call on Jesus so that we may be set free by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the message that we proclaim every week. This is what we all need to hear and what we all need to be reminded of, week in and week out. You can be free in Jesus Christ. {Stuff My Church Does I: Preaching}

People do have to hear about Jesus and each believer in Christ should take care of that. We do have to go out into the world and tell about the marvellous gift we received. We do have to invite others to share with us the grace which has been given to us.

What would it look like if we invited others here to hear the freedom of God proclaimed in the Word of God? What would it look like if we all brought this Word out into our community and saw it as our job to proclaim this freedom that everyone needs to those around us? Just think of the transformation that would happen. I think it would look pretty amazing. {Stuff My Church Does I: Preaching}

Let us all joining and be workers for the Lord, going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to everyone. (Mark 16:15 )

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Preceding articles:

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

It takes years to learn

Believe today and now!

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

What’s inside matters..

Not making yourselves abominable

Where are the female writers

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Preaching by example

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

What Should I Preach ?

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Additional reading:

1. Where is the edge
2. Remember the day
3. Gospel = Good tidings, good news, a good message
4. Counterfeit Gospels
5. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
6. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
7. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
8. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
9. Hearing words to accept
10. Atonement And Fellowship 2/8
11. Missional hermeneutics 4/5
12. Missional hermeneutics 5/5
13. The Right One to follow and to worship
14. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
15. Hope by faith and free gift
16. Showing by the scriptures that …
17. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian
18. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
19. Establish your hearts blameless in holiness
20. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
21. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
22. Breathing to teach
23. 2013 Lifestyle, religiously and spiritually
24. Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review
25. Stepping Toes 2014 in review
26. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
27. A prophet to restore
28. Imitate prophets and Paul
29. Oratory Style
30. Counting sands and stars
31. Which Christians Actually Evangelize
32. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
33. Bringing Good News into the world
34. Intentions of an Ecclesia
35. Holland Week of billing
36. Faith and trial
37. Faith a commitment to the promises of Christ and to to the demands of Christ
38. How should we preach?
39. The Rapture Wars
40. Not many coming out with their community name
41. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
42. Jehovah can make him stand
43. Our openness to being approachable
44. Different approach in organisation of services #3
45. Glory of God appearing in our character
46. A Society pleading poverty
47. Good or bad preacher
48. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray
49. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
50. Rebirth and belonging to a church
51. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
52. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships

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Also of interest

• 90 Days With Yeshua- Day 66: Reconciling the Banished Heart
• His name…
• Why I Don’t Celebrate Easter (and still love God… and still believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah)
• The Lie That Made God Nameless
• Don’t Be Ashamed
• God Demands a Response to Jesus
• May 1: Does Your Life Bring Glory to God?
• Past, Present and Future of Salvation, Today’s Study of Romans 5
• Make your faith work
• “I Bring You Good Tidings Of Great Joy!”
• Trying to Make the Good News Better
• Romans 1:9-14 Questions (Good News Study)
• A Story for the Ages
• Romans 8:28
• A Personal Example Of Hope Fulfilled
• Praise and Worship to God Almighty in Any Language
•  Do You Who You Are? It is Based on the Word of God and Nothing Else.
•  Forget Public Opinion…Keep Your Eyes on God’s Opinion of You.
• The Only Place to Go When Life Gets Tough
• SOM: Blessed are the Pure in Heart
• So, You Think You Can Preach? Sigh . . .
• Jack Hyles Sermon: Fighting the Wrong War
• Preachers are held to a higher standard
• The time for delay is over
• A Better Message; A Better Messenger
• Acts 24 Reading Through the NT 2015
• What Do We Have To Sing About?
• Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?
• The Spread of the Gospel
• Is Evangelism Dead?
• The Good News Message Of Jesus Christ
• If you got fuel, and you got fire, something’s gotta happen!
• The Smallest of All

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