When Peter inquired of the Lord how often he should forgive his brother Jesus said 77 times, not 7. In this culture, 7 was a number of completion. Obviously Peter was inferring a limit to forgiveness whereas Jesus was teaching infinite.
This German politician would like to put a limit or perhaps eliminate marriage altogether. Should we marry for 7 years or 77? I wonder why she chose 7? Was it because neither of her marriages lasted past 7 years or does she have any kind of real evidence showing marriages don't last past 7 years?
This politician brought up some interesting perspectives on marriage. She was quoted as saying ""The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe,". First of all she's probably basing this comment on personal experience rather than actual knowledge on the topic. It's always interesting to note what others believe and why. In this particular instance I would guess she's projecting. When I say projecting I'm referring to our tendency to take our experiences and project them onto everyone. "My marriage didn't work out, so no one's will or ever has." "It's natural to look upon a woman with lust, so therefore it's right."
We, as Christians, need to understand why we pursue relationships, specifically marriage. Do we desire marriage because it's expected, because of societies pressures, because of selfish desires or because we're lonely? Does Jesus Christ play any role at all in our decision making or are we following the path this German politician is following? If we aren't pursuing holiness in everything we do, every decision we make, then how can the unbelieving world distinguish between their world and ours, our beliefs and theirs, our God and theirs? Is there any truth in us? Are we taking 1 Corinthians 13 (concerning love) into our hearts when we make relationship oriented decisions or are we looking to Hollywood to define what love is? Honestly, I believe we look to Hollywood to define love more than anything else far more often than we care to admit. How does anything that community does or say reflect biblical values and principles? I say their definition of love can be defined not through the bible, but through sin and or immaturity or ignorance. By Hollywood's definition of love we should only get involved with people who do something for us. That is we should date or marry people who do things for us or make us feel a certain way. Now how does this match up with the Bible? (This is the part where you need to actually start reading the bible, front to back.
Oh... a brief note on romance... my definition of romance is tied up with the biblical definition of love. I believe romance is something initiated by the man which is then reciprocated by the woman. I believe it involves each person putting the other person before themselves. "I want her to feel good today, so I'll send her flowers or a poem or make her dinner or etc..." My cynical side tells me Hollywood depicts romance as nothing more than a doorway to sex.
How does John 14:15-18 (concerning the promise of the Holy Spirit & Christ's return) impact our desire or desperation for companionship? How can we find victory over our sin and insecurities? We find our identity defined through Jesus Christ as found in Matthew 3:16-17. Believing Jesus Christ died for our sins means He stands in our place and these verses depict how God now looks upon us. When considering our sin He takes into account the act of Jesus Christ upon the cross.
More verses to reference with regards to love:
1 John 4:10 and 1 John 5:3
So when asked: "Should we limit marriages to 7 years?" We should be able to then be ready to in some way or shape convey the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no point in arguing the stupidity of this topic. This would be a distraction and a waste of time. The person asking this type of question is either completly ignorant, hard hearted or in denial and pain over past mistakes. This type of person doesn't need to be argued with, they need to be loved on and have Christ preached to them. This is why we need to know what we believe and why we need to get this distracting Hollywood crap out of our heads.
You want to be loved and desired? Look to Jesus Christ. You want to have romance in a relationship? Take the confidence He offers you through Christ to be vulnerable enough to either receive or initiate this.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Christians’ wake up!: A tale of the hoodwinking of the church and the avalanche towards destruction of a once great God centered country.
Been a while since I've posted on here. The following rant is at least 1 month old, probably closer to 2. I've been a traveling man. OR, CO, IL, IN, FL, NC.
Anyway, I feel I must continually remind anyone who may stumble onto this (as I'm sure any regular followers have since dissappeared due to the lack of posts) of the title of my blog. I must also bring to rememberance that this is definitely a ranting blog. I'm blowing off steam or venting or whatever you want to call it. I'm a frustrated white man and a sinner, surrounded by sinners.
You know you gotta admit satan’s done a pretty good job of checking off a lot of his boxes for this country. I can say with 100% assurance that if the founding fathers were still alive they’d be planning another revolution or civil war or at least pushing very hard for a complete separation from the USA we live in today. There’s no way our current culture in this country comes even close to being the society so many brave souls died for so many years ago. Heck I don’t believe it’s the country our brave soldiers fight for today in foreign lands. We’ve all been distracted so long by radio, TV, movies, pornography and other vices that we haven’t noticed that our very way of life has been undermined. It’s so insidious that even most folks in the church have been fooled, especially our so called leaders. What am I referring to? How is this all possible? Is there any hope in all this?
Well I believe this great country of ours started down this slippery slope a long time ago. Slavery, the westward expansion, the gold fever, the industrial age, unions, dirty politics, the various mafia’s or organized crime syndicates of other cultures, all the vices I mentioned above and the free love rebellious movement of the 1960’s. All these events have culminated to give birth to the country we live in today.
Who was it that said “those who don’t learn about history are doomed to repeat it”? I wonder if this person was a prophet? Do you want to know where this country is headed? History repeats itself. Human beings are far too predictable and far too wicked to not repeat history. Just open up your bible and start reading it, particularly the OT. What are the differences and similarities between this culture (ancient Israel) and our own? You’d be very surprised to see the similarities. Why do we expect that God won’t do to us what He did to His own chosen people? We’ve turned aside from God. We sacrifice our children to the gods of pleasure, comfort and convenience (abortion), much as the ancient Israelites did. Men and women perform abominable acts before God, much as the ancient Israelites. As a country we choose to believe all our actions are condoned by God while we blatantly and openly disobey Him and piss all over what Jesus Christ did for us, very similar to the ancient Israelites. Also like the ancient Israelites we continue in our disobedience, dismiss or silence anyone who would say “everything’s not going to be alright” with regards to comfort and material wealth. This is the very thing the false prophets in ancient Israel were saying to the populace.
Now let’s take a look at our churches. Segmented and broken. Believing in the prosperity gospel, whether said with the lips or simply with actions. Black churches, Korean churches, Hispanic churches and the innumerable denominations. A church to suit anyone’s comfort level because isn’t this how you choose a church? Instead of the church at Charleston, SC, we have a bazillion different churches to chose from, all with slightly different beliefs. What chance is there the church we ever unite again this side of heaven? None, until Christ returns and this is yet another reason to say “come Lord Jesus come!”.
Anyway, I feel I must continually remind anyone who may stumble onto this (as I'm sure any regular followers have since dissappeared due to the lack of posts) of the title of my blog. I must also bring to rememberance that this is definitely a ranting blog. I'm blowing off steam or venting or whatever you want to call it. I'm a frustrated white man and a sinner, surrounded by sinners.
You know you gotta admit satan’s done a pretty good job of checking off a lot of his boxes for this country. I can say with 100% assurance that if the founding fathers were still alive they’d be planning another revolution or civil war or at least pushing very hard for a complete separation from the USA we live in today. There’s no way our current culture in this country comes even close to being the society so many brave souls died for so many years ago. Heck I don’t believe it’s the country our brave soldiers fight for today in foreign lands. We’ve all been distracted so long by radio, TV, movies, pornography and other vices that we haven’t noticed that our very way of life has been undermined. It’s so insidious that even most folks in the church have been fooled, especially our so called leaders. What am I referring to? How is this all possible? Is there any hope in all this?
Well I believe this great country of ours started down this slippery slope a long time ago. Slavery, the westward expansion, the gold fever, the industrial age, unions, dirty politics, the various mafia’s or organized crime syndicates of other cultures, all the vices I mentioned above and the free love rebellious movement of the 1960’s. All these events have culminated to give birth to the country we live in today.
Who was it that said “those who don’t learn about history are doomed to repeat it”? I wonder if this person was a prophet? Do you want to know where this country is headed? History repeats itself. Human beings are far too predictable and far too wicked to not repeat history. Just open up your bible and start reading it, particularly the OT. What are the differences and similarities between this culture (ancient Israel) and our own? You’d be very surprised to see the similarities. Why do we expect that God won’t do to us what He did to His own chosen people? We’ve turned aside from God. We sacrifice our children to the gods of pleasure, comfort and convenience (abortion), much as the ancient Israelites did. Men and women perform abominable acts before God, much as the ancient Israelites. As a country we choose to believe all our actions are condoned by God while we blatantly and openly disobey Him and piss all over what Jesus Christ did for us, very similar to the ancient Israelites. Also like the ancient Israelites we continue in our disobedience, dismiss or silence anyone who would say “everything’s not going to be alright” with regards to comfort and material wealth. This is the very thing the false prophets in ancient Israel were saying to the populace.
Now let’s take a look at our churches. Segmented and broken. Believing in the prosperity gospel, whether said with the lips or simply with actions. Black churches, Korean churches, Hispanic churches and the innumerable denominations. A church to suit anyone’s comfort level because isn’t this how you choose a church? Instead of the church at Charleston, SC, we have a bazillion different churches to chose from, all with slightly different beliefs. What chance is there the church we ever unite again this side of heaven? None, until Christ returns and this is yet another reason to say “come Lord Jesus come!”.
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