25 Jan 15
Originally posted by FMFI am on the couldn't give a monkeys side of the debate.
Me defensive? Not at all. Forthright and tenacious if anything. Not defensive at all. Evasive, waffling, or pompous purveyors of half-baked ideas might feel a bit 'interrogated' from time to time.
Are you on the 'Christianity is NOT a Religion' side or 'Christianity IS a Religion' side?
26 Jan 15
1 edit
Originally posted by Grampy Bobby"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Postscript-2)
"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Postscript)
"153 Responses to “Why Christianity is NOT a Religion”
"Marion Says: July 1, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Read some of your why Christianity is not a religion. God wants us to have a relationship with him ????? It takes at least two to have a relationship. Both parts need to put in. After four y ...[text shortened]... (to be continued)
-Te Deum Laudamus -Jake McWhirter" http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/
"Here are some excerpts from a great book, “Victory Over the Darkness”, by Neil Anderson:
“God does not want us to be “imitators” of Jesus. God has made us partakers of His nature so we will actually BE like Him. You don’t become a Christian by “acting” like one. You are not on a performance basis with God. He doesn’t say, “Here are my standards, now you measure up”. He knows you can’t solve the problem of your own sinful self by simply improving your behavior. He must change your nature, give you an entirely new self—the life of Christ in you—which is the grace you need to measure up to His standards . . . Only after He changes who you are and makes you a partaker of his divine nature will you be able to change your behavior.”
If this weren’t the case then Paul couldn’t say in Romans 8:1-2:
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”
It is the Holy Spirit that enables a Christian to become like Jesus Christ. As we trust in, seek, and rely on God in every aspect of our lives, the Spirit begins to change who we are. As we change, we desire to sin less and desire to serve God more, because we love Him, and not because we have to or because he demands it from us."
"Neil Anderson gives a great example: “For instance, as mortals we can’t fly in our own strength, but we can fly in an airplane because the airplane has a greater power than the law of gravity.”
It is the airplane that has a greater power than gravity and allows the person to accomplish their desire to fly. Similarly, it is the Holy Spirit that has greater power than the temptations and desires of this world that enables a believer to actually accomplish their desire of living according to God’s design and not caving in to the desires of the sinful nature
“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.” (Galatians 5:16)
When we place our whole trust in Jesus, He puts the desires in our heart to obey Him. It is no longer something we do out of obligation.
“I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” (Hebrews 10:16)
That doesn’t mean you, or anyone, will be perfect. This is a gradual change and it doesn’t happen over night. The bible says in 1 Timothy 4:15:
“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.”
It doesn’t say let everyone see your perfection! Thank God for that! As we give more and more of our desires and our control over to Jesus, He will change us and our progress will be evident, obvious, to all who look at us.
I praise God that anyone around me can tell you that I am not at all the same person I was even a year ago. But it has been the Holy Spirit’s gradual change in my life, not my effort to “be a better person”. All I have tried to do is focus on Him. He has showed me sin in my life and I have repented of it and gradually given it over to Him. I have, one by one, started to give up my own desires and received from Him a fresh new set of desires. They bring me so much more joy and satisfaction than my own interests, desires, and plans ever did! Jesus’ “burden” and “yoke” really ARE light!
“Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (Galatians 3:2-3)
We can’t earn God’s favor by our own human effort. It says it right there in His Word. We must BELIEVE the message, that is, we must BELIEVE in the truth of who Jesus Christ is (God, who choose to come to the earth as a man) and what He did (paid the debt of our sins by living a perfect life, dieing on the cross, and conquering death). If we believe this message, we already have favor, good standing, in the eyes of God. It is a done deal!
Unless this issue is firmly, once and for all, settled in your mind and heart, you can’t and won’t experience the transformation that I talked about above. And, God WILL seem distant, unreachable, and like he isn’t there."
-Jake McWhirter http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/ (to be continued)
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27 Jan 15
4 edits
Originally posted by KazetNagorraMaybe some more time in study of the New Testament would persuade more women in the Neatherlands to leave off selling their bodies in brothels or reduce the hordes of prostitutes bringing a world wide reputation for promiscuity in such a beautiful city as Amsterdam.
I find it fascinating how someone can spend so much time writing about something which is at best pointless semantics and at worst clearly absurd. It's even more fascinating how someone can read such drivel (not that I will bother to read any of it) and take it seriously.
Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated. Operating a brothel is also legal. In the last few years, a significant number of brothels and "windows" have been closed because of suspected criminal activity. De Wallen, the largest and best-known red-light district in Amsterdam, is a destination for international sex tourism.- Wiki
27 Jan 15
Originally posted by sonshipHow is prostitution in the Netherlands related to whether or not Christianity is a religion?
Maybe some more time in study of the New Testament would persuade more women in the Neatherlands to leave off selling their bodies in brothels or reduce the hordes of prostitutes bringing a world wide reputation for promiscuity in such a beautiful city as Amsterdam.
Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated. Operating a brothel i ...[text shortened]... ed-light district in Amsterdam, is a destination for international sex tourism.- Wiki
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27 Jan 15
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Originally posted by KazetNagorraMy comment was related to you not being able to fathom study of the Bible to be anything but a waste of time. No, study of the word of God is not a waste of time.
How is prostitution in the Netherlands related to whether or not Christianity is a religion?
May delving into the Holy Bible again have the effect on the Neatherlands and on many other lands, that it did in the Welsh Revival of 1904.
Whole communities were turned upside down, and were radically changed from depravity to glorious goodness. The crime rate dropped, often to nothing. The police force reported that they had little more to do than supervise the coming and going of the people to the chapel prayer meetings, while magistrates turned up at courts to discover no cases to try. The alcohol trade was decimated, as people were caught up more by what happened in the local chapels than the local public houses and bars. Families experienced amazing renewal, where the money earning husband and father, the bread winner, had wasted away the income and sowed discord, but now under the moving power of the Holy Spirit, following the conversion to be a follower of Jesus Christ, he not only provided correctly for family needs, but was now with the family, rather than wasting his time, and wages, in the public houses of the village or town. Souls were saved, individual lives were changed and Society itself was changed. Countless numbers were converted to Christ.
There are men and women still in churches today whose parents or grandparents' testimonies were that they were converted in the Revival in 1904 or 1905. Not only were individual lives changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, but whole communities were changed, indeed society itself was changed. Wales again was a God-fearing
nation! Public houses were now almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money getting drunk were saving it, giving it to help their churches, buying clothes and food for their families. And not only drunkenness, but stealing and other offences grew less and less, so that often a magistrate came to court, and found there were no cases for him.
Men whose language had been filthy before, learnt to talk purely. It is related that not only did the colliers put in a better day's work, but also that the pit ponies were so used to being cursed and sworn at, that they just couldn't understand orders being given in kind, clean words! Yet, still the work output increased. The dark tunnels underground in the mines echoed with the sounds of prayer and hymns, instead of oaths and nasty jokes and gossip.
People who had been careless about paying their bills, or paying back money they had borrowed, paid up all they owed. People who had fallen out became friends again.
From The Welsh Revival of 1904 - 1905
http://truthinhistory.org/the-welsh-revival-of-1904-1905.html
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27 Jan 15
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The post that was quoted here has been removed
Sonship might enjoy watching the 1982 film 'The Missionary'.
In order to save his mission in London from closing, the Anglican clergyman
Charles Fortesque encourages members of his flock, the East End's 'fallen women',
to keep plying their trade of prostitution to help raise money for the church.
I don't know why you think I would "enjoy" this, whether fact or fiction.
I would submit that there's no contradiction between being (or having been)
a prostitute--which often is more a matter of circumstance than of choice--
and being a 'good Christian woman'.
Of course prostitution stems from poverty, since history began.
Trust in the trustworthy and faithful God is learned by the man or woman who turns now to Jesus Christ.
Being a "good Christian woman" sounds like some rhetoric.
He doesn't want "good" people. He wants "God people".
You have there too many os.
Whether fact of fiction, encouraging the women to practice prostitution for any reason was no favor to the women. And that some Anglican clergyman of encouraged it means nothing.
Prostitution ordained by a man in a weird collar doesn't sanctify it. Nor was it any favor to the women.
Some devout Christian women have
concealed 'pasts' that could shock their apparently sanctimonious critics.
I haven't met any believer in Christ whose washed and cleansed sins, forgiven by God and purged away by Christ's redemption, included a lot of things they were proud of.
English Standard Version
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:11)
Concerning our past as believers in Christ, the signal thing is that we are now washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus. He gets the glory. God has forgotten their past sins. There is no reason for the redeemed to think about them any longer.
And there certainly is no place for the Christian to boast about what he or she did by their own power.
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28 Jan 15
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The post that was quoted here has been removed
My usage of 'enjoy' as applied to Sonship's taste in film was rather sarcastic.
Okay. On a serious note. I assume that was a documentary or docu-drama about someone's actual life? It could be interesting and rather sad.
I don't know what Sonship would really enjoy or admit in public to enjoying.
Along the lines of what I imagine that film is about, ie. the turmoils of clergyman. I found interesting the story of one Bishop Pike. I found interesting "The Hoodlum Priest".
I liked the movie "Babette's Feast" which had a religious cult leader under current in it.
Last week though I listened again to the piece of music about a walk through the woods of a pregnant woman and the man (not the father of the child) who deeply loves her.
Ever hear of Verklarte Nacht ( Transfigured Night) by Arnold Schoenberg. It is a touching musical portrait about the confessions in the moonlight of a guilt ridden young woman and the love and forgiveness of a good man.
The music is very very touching. Ever hear it?
There is another piece of music written by Albert Roussel based on a novel by Tolstoy called "Resurrection". The music actually caused me to go out and read the book.
In Czarist Russia a rich guy seduces a poor house maid.
Years latter he is serving on jury duty and the woman now a grown adult comes before the court guilty of prostitution. He does everything he can, yet largly in vain, to free her.
He follows her to Siberia where she is to go to prison, vainly trying to make amends for how he derailed her life.
A beautiful story and a beautiful musical version of it.
Resurrection - A Symphonic Prelude After Tolstoy
You asked about what I enjoyed in the realm of art.