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I'm speaking mainly from experience on this one, is what makes me uncomfortable as an audience member and as a fellow believer who is worshiping the same God. I believe we are all destined to walk worthy of the calling and gift we have as a member of the church and as someone who have gone up to speak and teach in a church setting. We can all learn a little from this, as we grow as a community and member of the Church of God.
5. Don't use the audience members as your personal tool for sermons. I understand the pastors need to rebuke and encourage the congregation in his sermon, but to do that in a subtle way without putting specifics out there can lead the ones who need to hear the gospel away from the church. My advice to the pastor is to please rebuke in private, bring two or more witnesses when there is still no repentance, and when that fails, rebuke with a council of elders. Be sure that people are on a need to know basis with these heavy issues that require excommunication. When the council of elders still does not convince them to repent then treat then revoke their membership from the church in a respectable way and still in a private setting. Not every church member should be granted authority to deal with others sin and your primary sermon topic should come from the word of God. 4. Head to Correction! Don't speak arrogantly or ignorantly If a church member rebukes you, it is important to take what they are saying into consideration when presented with a theology and a way of going about practices that are different than yours. I understand the need not to correct the entire congregations ways out of forming a habit and a likeness to them. I understand that as a church we do things primarily based upon scripture. When ever a pastor presented with a congregant rebuking or correction, I believe it primarily up to the pastor to represent the image of the good shepherd and move forward with correction in conversation when that correction applies to them and the church or when the correction needs to be established. Being a pastor doesn't make you right, and criticism is necessary when dealing with something as fragile as the word of God as one of the misused subjects as the Bible seems to be. We are to model Christ correctly in and out of service and according to God's Word not our own, a pastor must be humble. 3. Don't speak hypocritically. I had a professor at the college I was attending in 2021, tell the class about people who look at Christianity from the outside as hypocritical. His response to people who tell him that the church is filled with hypocritical people is, "That's us!" I don't understand this as Christians are called out of darkness to walk in the newness of life not according to the rest of the world. Being a Christian does not mean you are exempt from making mistakes and sinning intentionally, in fact I would say that sin is more than a mistake we make but it's something intentional we do. Why a Christian cannot be known as hypocrite is because it damages our witness to others as well as your soul. 2. Be patient. Please be patient in building your congregations and in the spiritual lives of your congregation. There's a point to the time that you put in with your congregation, anger and aggression does not help. In everything in life I have only most recently learned and am still learning we must be contempt in every situation given to us. We should not head to prosperity and we should not cut discipling short in order to bring about a larger congregation, we should promote Christ and His name above materialism which covers the sons and daughters of the faith as well as the church building itself. Preach Christ no matter how many people are in the door, preach Christ no matter how many people get offended, preach Christ no matter how big or small the church doors get. 1. Stay away from false teachings! There is no honor, in not studying scripture for yourself. There is no honor when you go to your congregation and don't even know the historic, theological, philosophical explanations to what the scripture is. It's more than a motivational speech. The gospel is more than a political message. The Gospel is not a guide to receive physical blessings in the name of our LORD, God damn the prosperity Gospel. The Gospel is not a means to an end, the Gospel is the message that proclaims who redeemed us from sin. There's one God and there's one way to get this out there, you may think of it as condemning to call out someone who is a sinner. I think of it as condemning that God sent His one and only Son to die because I was so wretched of a man that i couldn't see the light while I was nailing His hands to a a wooden plank. We preach Christ crucified above all things.
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take a look at some images I'll be adapting to my next bumper video! Should be good! Why time travel is not possible:
An argument my philosophy friends and I have is if time travel is possible, if so how would it be possible. My guess is that it's not and I have a few different reasons why based on observational science. #1 Time is physical. Time is just a physicality, based on the earths movement in rotation around a star at a certain distance away just perfect enough to give us warmth and comfort we need to grow trees, melt ice, warm us up in seasons and cool us down in the coldest days of the year..............I hate the ice. #2 What we created We created watches, sun dials, clocks, cell phones in order to read what position the sun is in the sky. So I want to clarify, turning clock forward or backward won't change what position the earth is in relation to the sun. #3 What if we could stop the Earth If we stop the earths rotation around the sun, we would still keep moving, I'm sure of it. The earth standing still wont change the fact of whether or not you'll go to work or not, clocks will keep moving, wind currents may still be active, but one side of the earth will be super heated and the other side of the earth will be Hell frozen over. There may be flooding, but as far as I'm concerned will still be alive just panicked, same if the earth moves backwards. That may have an affect on the human body but not always to the point of death, movement and kinetic energy can weigh a person down and tire them out. #4 WhaT AbOut GoD Can'T HE tRavEl tHroUgH tiMe? I'm going to say this, "Not that I know of., but it is possible." From what I see, God has the ability to predict the future based on what he sees, he's able to speak things into existence and change the heart of a Man. He's able to give you visions that work as analogies for your life, but the entire definition for a prophet is not to tell the future, no no no, that's an oracle. A prophet declares what God has told them, and usually it's about what will happen when His people will not repent. He does live out side of time space and matter, so I will continue to say that is where is eternal kingdom is, but he himself does not submit to what he has established in the solar system. #5 My friend's argument for time travel. ..... lol .What friend's.... So they say that Time travel is possible but only to move forward in time...…..did anyone else catch what was said? It is possible to travel forward in time because we do that every day, not necessarily by choice, but by existence that God has established in the universe, there's no where you can go here on earth to move faster of time, that would require a working fore knowledge of what 10 billion people in the world would do and what would happen next, but just like a man can't predict a lightning strike, we can't predict whether or not things will get better or worse. Only God can and He has told us in the Bible what we are to expect as Christians living in an unhinged society built off power and the decline human freedom. I don't believe there's such a thing as timeline, it's just a tool, that tells us what happened and where, if you want to get into a physicality of that then watch the Loki show on Disney plus, it's a fairy tale. So where ever you go I encourage you to let God order your steps, things don't always happen for a reason, but there is someone who is sovereign over all things in life and death. Whelp, I had a perfectly good blog post for your about truth honor, bravery and sacrifice, I will have to rewrite it as it didn't get saved due to my wifey issues on the computer. So until then here's some AI generated art of Cyborg Spider-Man, a character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko . I love putting quotation marks around the word black, in this case. To quote Morgan Freeman, "Black history is American History." I'm honored to call myself a black man, it's not who i am but it's a pigmentation of my skin. Now a days black has become I character in which you play into the world rather than a statement that describes your body. Habits and cultures do bleed into who we as Americans are and what we as Americans do. Lately with these lines we have segregated ourselves not in order to racially define us but to make us feel like we need to privileged after all the pain that other people have gone through for freedoms we have today. What I have seen from the news and the cultures in todays world, i have not seen in the past. The past had much worse treatment than todays world. At least here in America, in other countries that's a debate for another time. We live in a time when only a few people are outed for being racist, and the ones who are outed hold their opinion to there own belief system. Only a few of those people do decide to force these ideologies on other people. What I see today is a mistreatment of police officers on a wide scale. Black men who are in power are called traitors. These people who abide by the laws of freedoms and truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. They are treated wrongly for doing what is right. Freedom is a powerful thing, we have freedom of speech, freedom to work for ourselves, freedom to fight and believe in what we want. When those freedoms get tested by others around us who decide to treat us wrongly simply for a state of being, I encourage you not to be suspicious until you know for sure what the said persons motives and intentions are. I also encourage you to continue to do your job despite the opposition, not just in the work place, but in other areas of your life as well. This encouragement, is for both the authorities and the citizens, I soulfully believe the world would be better if we took some advice from the good book.
Luke 6:31 Treat others just as you want to be treated. or Matthew 5:38-40 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. This comes in handy when your realize who has the power over wicked people, remember Romans 12:19, "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord." I've been working on this logo for Parker's Auto Service's. I'm proud of it... sort of, I'm just looking for a positive response after this. The cow skull looks like a Cthulhu. I'm almost done, the guy paid a good price for it. So far I believe it's been a 3 week process and he's been able to deliver on everything and then some, the only reason, I'm not planning on signing royalties as of now, is because that it's a logo, if this perhaps was a T-Shirt design that would, blow up in an instant I would charge royalties as long as it has expected income. I still have to fix a few more things but that's just apart of the process. Once, you get an idea going, you find out what your client wants, what they don't want, then you continue pushing through until you get to a soft spot. That's how you finish a logo it's always through a process. I'll update this and post final results soon. I'm writing this post to explain that with confidence and faith, a Christian can say, the Bible is written by men and interpreted by men, but there is no wiggle room to add or take away from these historical documents. The bottom line is the Bible has been translated, written and copied from time to time by stronger men then us, showing a defiance against the corrections of men seeking to destroy truth. Men were maundered, if Jesus in His time was just speaking a love and acceptance speech to everyone as the people of this generation are saying, he would've been regarded and written down in history as a wise sage just as Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and even buddha. I would say it is the fact that He has been regarded as God in, a bump in the that rewrites what History teaches today. there has been none like Him, even His disciples were prime warriors in the Faith, dying for what is true and whole. So let's answer a few questions.
How can we trust the Word's on the page? In the Old Testament, we can trust the scribes, they were like the Jewish librarian. The kept all the scrolls, while writing and reproducing all the scroll, sending them in the synagogue, they counted every letter, word, and number. They memorized every prophecy, doctrine, counted every word and letter. As long as the Jews cling to the truth, so will I. How can we know the New Testament is True? The writings across the world, that approve and affirm the word's of Jesus and why they killed Him, for that I recommend watching A bit of Frank Turek videos and Genesis Apologetics. Both of these channels go into reasons why the Bible can held to be scientifically accurate and philosophically Sound. The basis for why these words can be held as true is that we treat these words, like the declaration of independence, the epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey as they are words that have been passes down to us by men confirming supernatural experiences. These supernatural experience in the Bible I believe are still happening today, God is still speaking to people condemning, I've seen it in my life and others. These stories are out their you just have to look for the right ones based on discernment, not just excepting things based on what you feel. That brings me to my next point, the reason why I believe people do not believe the Bible isn't because the Bible is untrue out of years of study and depth I believe it is possible to believe the Bible is true. It is because they equate themselves to God by defining what they think is Moral. Frank Turek always makes a point in His videos, that if we define what is moral for ourselves then everything is permissible. The idea that there is no basis for being moral when all we have is a flawed human understanding of things. The examples are through out history, tyranny slavery, baby sacrifice, homosexuality, lying, killing and mockery. we've turned this earth into a playground for war and sinfulness while the Bible has gotten all things right even till the end of time. The proof is out there, now a days it seems that people don't have the ability to look for it and come to the realization that truth is not dependent on their own perception of reality. I believe this also pairs with the idea that people believe they can discredit the Bible because of people who came before them, teaching and practicing tyranny in the name of Christ. On the other hand those people would also need to explain why others who believed in the name of Christ died as marauder stand against the tyranny of other civilizations and cultures. Jesus warned of this saying that many false teachers will come in His name. it's so easy for a person to be persuaded by the teaching of these false men. It is very easy to take the Word of God out of context. I heard this argument about the subject, when someone sings a song wrong do you blame the person who wrote it or do you blame the person who sung the song. In the end the truth will come out, in the end questions will be answered and I believe that unjust people will either be given grace or destroyed. The truth is what stands in the way of disproving the Bible scientifically and historically, It is up to us to humble ourselves before truth. Helpful links! Frank Turek: https://www.youtube.com/@CrossExamined Genesis Apologetics: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=genesis+apologetics If you are wondering why there was no post recently, this past Monday. I posted twice last week and was looking forward to a moment I won't have to worry about the site. As for next Monday, on the 16th I'll be posting twice, one in remembrance, for MLK and another to answer a question, "How do we know that Jesus said what has been written down in scriptures?" I think it's important to Look at the historical evidence that the Bible hasn't been tampered with as well as address the hypocrisy of people as the Bible has been translated over the years.
The purpose of this blog post is to answer what religion is according to the scripture. Religion can be sighted as something that the world offers us in the midst of confusion in your life. People will tell you religion is bad, some will say it's good. Some will say it's a money making scheme that has been made up or corrupted by men from long ago. If religion has anything to do with a Holy text people will say it's empty and meaningless. People with their Holy Texts and supernatural experiences will also call religion empty. My goal is to defeat through those senseless discussions of and senseless Ideology. Most of what you hear about religion is wrong and have been words passed on to them by someone else. Everyone is too afraid to speak on this because, they believe wise arrogant men have it right. I'm sure you've seen them. Let's cut through all of that, starting off with the question of: "What is religion?"
Religion, described in scripture is defined in James chapter 1: 26-27 where James writes: "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." It's from James words that we learn that true religion affects the inward as well as what you do for others outward not just as a means to earn something, but you are doing these things because you love god and you love men and women. Take Jesus' words in Matthew 22:37-40, "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” We are to fulfill that as followers of Christ, as we are called Christian. People, I've noticed, in today's world are uncomfortable with calling themselves anything that has to do with Christianity or even the name because almost as if they offended to be related to any wisdom the scriptures have to offer. Christianity is coming to be redefined, as homophobic, racist, and all thing the religious Pharisees stood for, while the name of Jesus is being defined as Isosteric, pagan, and all things good that humanity can agree with. There is no truth in separating the teacher, from the teachings because a person is offended. Whether or not the teacher said the words that were written is a blog post for another time. We cannot have Jesus Himself separated from the teaching just because we want to appeal to the worldly beliefs and teachings All I've heard from the churches and the world that I've grown up in is that religion is mind without heart. It's the action and practices without the heart. The result of this is an entire generation calling themselves spiritual but not religious for the need to draw difference, between themselves and the religious leaders of Jesus' age. My belief is that this is all based off of clichés of modern day Christianity. Jesus does not hate religion, he hated the religious leaders in his time period. he calls them vipers, he calls them bowls that are clean on the outside but on the inside are filled with greed and self indulgence. Jesus calls the Pharisees Hypocrites for putting on the robes, following the rituals, praying to Yahweh without the heart to help others. Jesus does not ever define what religion is what the Pharisees are practicing, but James clarifies what the definition of religion is in His letter. It is belief that is defined by lifestyle. Put simply it is how we love God according to God and how we love others according to God. If we loved Him we would obey His commandments, not just practicing what the Pharisees practiced, but going the extra mile and letter, how we talk, how we walk, how we dress be defined by the inside of ourselves that is to be Christ. Your righteousness is supposed to surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees. As in this world, it is not just about what you do for God and for others but what you believe. It is not just about what you believe but what you do in response to the grace that has been received. I have a confession, I'm not a Christian. As a child I went up to the alter and prayed a prayer for Jesus Christ to come into my heart and into my life. The people at the church told me that if I wanted to be saved all I needed to do was to pray that prayer. From then on I believed I was a Christian, I went to church attended bible study and went to a Christian University by one of the most Godliest people I've ever seen, he healed the sick and he gave money to many missionaries. As I grew up I began to work and read my Bible, I was guided by my church that taught me to give ten percent of my money to the Church. I grew up a God fearing young man, my mother told me I was to become a pastor. So I went to a Christian University and decided to give my life to Christ again, my goal was to become a minister of the Lord. I told myself, "This is great, I will prophesy, I will heal the sick, I will give ten percent as long as all this meant I will live a good life." As long as I worshiped God, no harm would come to me and because I believed myself to be good, and that as long as I was doing what my church told me to do I would be successful in my mission for God.
It took a long time for me to learn this was not the case, The Gospel of Jesus Christ is this. I'm not a good person, my intentions were wicked and evil. That's the Truth, Christ died on the cross, not to give me what I wanted, but to give me what I needed. He gave me eternal life, which does not mean to live my best life now, but because it is entirely based on Grace, I will fall one-hundred million times before I get back up again. It is the old rugged cross that is sanctifying me daily that I might not lean to the left of to the right but that I might be united with Christ. Not with prosperity, if there is any prosperity in this world, it is by God's grace and if there is any turmoil, iniquity, and transgression it is by God's Grace that my hope is not on Earth. |
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