newton3005 said:

The road is long, and so is the future. Its actual length can vary from a second, to a multi-millennium, and to when God says ‘Last call,’ depending on who and what you are; be it a living being or earth’s ability to sustain life in general.

The future belongs to God. It may seem that we can control what will happen by the plans we make. If someone says, “I will go to the beach tomorrow,” and tomorrow they’re at the beach, one might say that person controlled the future. But the same person’s plans could be altered by an unforeseen event that prevents going to the beach as planned. The same person cannot prevent such things from happening that would interfere with the plans made. In that respect, only God has a handle on what happens next. People, like doctors, those in the military, those with families to look after, and those awaiting a verdict, to name a few, are aware of this. “It’s in God’s hands” is an ongoing refrain. James 4:13-15 says, “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.’”

As far as the future goes, we can only have faith that things will turn out good for us and our loved ones. But for those of us who love God, faith in Him is all the faith we need. And it should not be underestimated, since, as Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, if you have faith even as little as a grain of mustard seed you can move mountains. But as faith exists on a prism, on one end are its seeds; at the other end are seeds of doubt that can hamper our faith to the extent they are in us. At one end were Jesus’ first disciples; at the other end was Doubting Thomas who, after being told by the disciples after the Resurrection that Jesus was among them in John 20:25 when Thomas was away, responded in the same Verse that he had to see him to believe it.

As far as the future goes, faith stands as a confirmation of God’s control of the future. Whatever plans He makes are plans that are realized. There is a limit to our understanding of God’s Thoughts and His Ways, as Isaiah 55:8 tells us. His Ways are mysterious to us, but if we love Him, our faith in him is all we need.

And what of His Plans? God has Plans for everyone, before we enter our mother’s womb. He mase it clear He knew everyone before we entered our mother’s womb, when He spoke to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5. If God knows Jeremiah, He knows us all. If God has plans for Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:11 for a future and a hope, he has similar plans for all of us. Those plans bear fruit when we love Him, as it says in Romans 8:28.

There is nothing wrong with planning for the future. But we should be mindful that the future is in God’s Hands, and our faith and love in Him can make that future agreeable to us.

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I like this one. There are a few more verses that are relevant to your post, and discuss how we should not fear the future, as God is in control.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV): "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV): "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV): "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

NikkiMD said:

Found out I am going to be a first time grandmother today. My oldest son and his wife planned to have a kid and this will be their first child together. His wife has a 6 year old son from a previous relationship that my oldest son is a great step father to. I am excited and they told me today, found out on Wednesday.

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Congrats. It will also make you realize how much time has passed.

JohnB445 said:

If you read the book of Revelation, from what I am understanding

If anybody tries to make their own version of a Bible, change the words of scripture or remove some of it. That seems to be the unforgivable sin or is it not?

Cult leaders have done this, what if they knew what they were doing? Have they did the unforgivable sin if they have deceived many for money or power?

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Hey John.

The unforgivable sin is unbelief, pure and simple. And the kicker here is, we are all guilty of it since, by default, we all come into the world unbelievers, and remain unbelievers until we choose to believe.

In John 16:8-9, Jesus, who will have already died for the forgiveness of sins by the time the holy spirit comes, makes it clear that the only sin the spirit will convict anyone of, is the sin of unbelief. Unbelief is the only sin not forgiven at the cross, Matt 12:31. It is this sin we are asked to repent of for salvation. We are to turn from our unbelief and believe, since all other sins and blasphemes of man will have 'already' been forgiven. God tearing the temple curtain in two, at the moment of Christ's death, was a visual representation of this fact.

If you read Matt 12:31 believing that the forgiveness of your sins is only received at the moment of salvation, then there are only two possible conclusions we can make from what Jesus said. The first is that none of us are saved since Jesus tells us that our unbelief will not be forgiven, or Jesus lied and our unbelief was forgiven along with the rest of our sins. Since neither one is true, we are left to conclude that all sin was forgiven at the cross except the sin of unbelief, which is left up to us to repent of. Hence why we call it the unforgivable sin.

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This is a followup to my above response. It's something I realized after giving this some more thought. I hope it will shed some more light on your understanding of the unforgivable sin.

When most people hear the term 'unforgivable', or 'unpardonable' sin, they naturally assume that there is some sin so horrific and terrible that not even Jesus can for give it. It is this assumption that leads people to start throwing out their ideas of what this sin must be.

If we were to take a step back and look at who Jesus is, we realize that he was there in the beginning and is the creator of all things. With that in mind, what sin could one of his creations perform that he couldn't, or wouldn't be willing to forgive? Lets take it a step further.

If you could imagine the most horrific sin imaginable and you compared that sin to your entire lifespan of sins, collectively, which would be worse? You have a very powerful imagination you say? Okay, I'll give you that. It's a little scary, but I'll give you that. How about this, take every sin of the entire world, wait! Lets take every sin from Adam too the very last person to exist, since these are the sins Jesus died for. Lets compare your imaginatively worst sin to the whole of the human race collectively. I'm confident that you and I would both agree that your sin wouldn't even qualify as a drop in the bucket. Do you see where I'm going with this?

There is no sin that Jesus can't forgive. The reason why 'unbelief' is termed an unforgivable sin is because it would be a violation of our free will if Jesus outright went and forgave it. Our unbelief is a position we have chosen to remain in of our own freewill. A persons choice to remain in unbelief is them simply saying they don't want anything to do with God. They are happy with who they are without him. Our freewill was given to us by God. He has given us the freedom to deny him and to remain in denial of him should we choose so. For Jesus to forgive this position that someone has chosen to remain in would be in essence Jesus saying, "Nah, even though you don't want to spend eternity with me, I don't care. You will spend eternity with me anyways." I believe we would call that an abuse of power. Not something Jesus was ever know to do.

So in summation, the unforgivable sin isn't a sin that Jesus is unable or unwilling to forgive. It is unforgivable because it would be in violation of our freewill. We must make the choice.

Dale said:

Your first mistake was listening to Tucker Carlson.

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The thing is, I don’t. I’m posting an article for discussion for those who do.

BPPLEE said:

You're just not seeing the stories of rape and murder on mainstream media. It's happening and it will get worse.
It may be true that the majority are law abiding people who just want to work but there are others who are gang members, criminals, human traffickers, etc

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As in any group. And I'm glad that you agree that 'the majority are law abiding people'.

Bro.T said:

From Genesis to Revelation the Bible as and Instruction manual, studying from the prophets an apostles. The Bible instructs us on how to get eternal life, not to brush our teeth, or ride a motorcycle, etc. The bible says, we must not only be a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word also (James 1:21-22). Even a child will obey a parent, by getting good grades in school, for the reward of a new bicycle. The child cannot earn money for the bicycle, but instead must act upon their faith to receive the free gift. We must do the same to receive eternal life. "FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD” (James 2:20).

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Is everything in the Bible instruction, is it a command?
Is everything that is a command, to me?

If the answer to these questions is no, then the Bible is not an instruction manual. It is God's word, which contains instruction, among other things.

-CryptoLutheran

dlamberth said:

I've learned a lot from this discussion.
I Thank You so very much.

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Um ... you're welcome?

Thanks for the reply. I Agree with your view on Luther. Without a doubt he and his writings were so instrumental in my joining the LCMS

MassimoTheChristian said:

Why does God even need human emotions ?

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We have human emotions because God is a person and have emotions the same like us, that is part of the reason why it says we were created in his image.

So following the war in Burma or Myanmar in a youtube documentary, to give some background info first, the military polictical party (the Junta) lost the election by large margin, the Junta couped the election, did want to accept their election loss, the genZ in Myanmar are against that the military couped the election, so they decided to fight back in a war, they joined a rebel group soldier army, the war is still going on, it has already 3 years. A few genz said why they joined to fight back in the war, it is for freedom democracy, even if they lost genZ comrades in the war and give up life of comfort, one genZ soldier rebel said, he lost his hand in the war, and the journalist asked him if he regretted his choice to fight , he said "no ! sometimes you have to make choice and stick to your choice". That kinda inspired me, we have chosen to follow Christ, so we should stick to our choice, no matter how hard life gets, I know it is sometimes easier said than done, but somehow we got to stick to our choice, sticking to our choice means even if life gets tough we dont think bad things about God and blame God and get grumpy against God or something. Thing is, we know there will be a heaven afte this life, in the end we will win.

I am trying to find that part of the interview, don't know exactly where the interview is, there are a view interviews in youtube.
Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media

I'm getting back into trying to learn to draw and sketch. I'm still terrible, but I'm trying, and it's fun and relaxing way of some self improvement.

God is a just God and for all people and He would not put obstacles for people being saved to judge people for following Jesus who is the truth when a person has never been proven He is not the truth. The fact He never proved it is false proves other religions such as judaism is wrong to teach God would judge them but then would be unjust as He never proved by any for them to know for sure and the bible says any can be saved in the old testament also so if it needed study to see the truth that not everyone would have heard their preaching it would not be just to judge and I know their arguments to say God promised a third temple and a priesthood yet bible also had prophecies about christ as redeemer.

For there is not proof prophesies they say about temple and priesthood were not referring to second temple and would and also it is not proof as that could be fulfilled when christ comes back or before for those who are redeemed that the temple is just memorial as God always intended burned sacrifices but never required that can be for some to be born when He comes back to help prepare them to receive christ sacrifice when they see christ required blood to forgive sin or to allow temple to show that God presence would not come as they suppose and the sacrifce may not be received by fire or one can not know for sure it is not a false sign not having further proof God presence is there to prove to them for sure and all nations.

Jesse Dornfeld said:

Well, that was a lot easier than I was anticipating. Thanks! I was honestly expecting some pushback in some way.

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I could always repent and give you a hard time.

(Just kidding! )

Astrophile said:

The second sentence of the paragraph that begins 'With the events that occurred on July 13th, 2024' is ungrammatical. I suggest that you should change it to something like 'all posts that wish death on someone are forbidden, and they will be actioned appropriately by CF staff.'

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The grammar (syntax) is okay but as you are pointing out, the semantics gives the reader no context. Your recommendation seems an improvement to me.

Colin Gray, father of Colt Gray has been charged in the Apalachee High School mass shooting. | Barrow County Sheriff’s Office

Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old Colt Gray charged in the Apalachee High School shooting, has been arrested and charged in connection with the actions of his son.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced at a press conference Thursday that Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

"These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon," GBI Director Chris Hosey said.

Continued below.

Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, attend a demonstration by the families of the hostages taken captive in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Palestinian militants calling for the hostages' release, near Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel by the border with Gaza on August 29, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. | Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists and whose body was recovered from Gaza last week, approved the publication of footage filmed by Hamas as part of its psychological terror campaign.

“This must serve as an immediate wake-up call to the world, to act today to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages before it is too late. No other family should go through what our family went through,” Goldberg-Polin's parents, Jon and Rachel, told the media.

They are currently still observing the traditional Jewish mourning period after the death of a family member called shiva, which immediately follows the funeral.

Continued below.

..
prayer to God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to release multitudes of Heavenly Angels with the Holy Spirit, and to slow down the war against Jesus and his followers
+
begging for forgiveness for the sins of people in the world

Multifavs said:

I've been told that I should ignore people online who are mean, rude, disrespectful, etc. I try, but it's so hard for me...why, I wonder? Could it have something to do with being bullied for much of my life? I don't expect everyone to be nice to me all the time, nor do I think highly of myself. Is there a way to avoid letting things bother you?

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I've been told that I should ignore people online who are mean, rude, disrespectful, etc.

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I usually just respond to these folks with "nice talk" followed with a laughing emoji.

You can't let something one says bother you ... pray for them. Many times I just pray for them and give it to the Lord ... that removes the bothering part.

Screengrab/Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube

I appreciate the many secular, even atheistic and non-Christian voices that have pushed back against radical trans-activism. They spoke loudly and clearly and boldly and fearlessly. Good for them! But if America is to be changed in a lasting, positive way, we cannot only push back against what is wrong. We must also present what is right, namely, that human beings are created in the image of God, thereby endowed with morality and purpose and significance, and that He created us male and female. That’s why those of us with a biblically based faith must lead the way.

To be sure, we will not fight this battle alone, and that’s why I’m appreciative of all those who have taken a stand against radical transgender activism, in some cases, at real personal cost. At the same time, we cannot fully align ourselves with trans-opposing atheists who mock the Bible or gay and lesbian activists who embrace same-sex “marriage” while rejecting the transgender grooming of children.

Continued below.

You can look at 1 Timothy 3:1-10 > this shows the qualifications of a pastor or deacon. Even though someone is a Christian, still the person must meet these qualifications in order to be trusted to lead God's people.

Likewise, you can expect to be tested before you are trusted to lead the church with piano or song.

Your past before becoming a Christian, though, should not be considered . . . if you are clearly changing out of that bad behavior and other wrong things of personality - - - and learning how to relate in love and how God's love has us becoming emotionally >

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:31-32)

"Do all things without complaining and disputing," (Philippians 2:14)

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." (Romans 13:14)

So, I say you should encourage him to examine you. And you, too, be sure to evaluate if and who you trust and how you trust each person. But I would say, that in examining someone, you do not evaluate only by what a person looks like!!

"'Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.'" (John 7:24)

I have seen how someone can be absolutely charming, intelligent, talk Jesus, be talented and beautiful. But then she might run through a string of men in bars, looking for a husband, be intoxicated at a church event, then marry someone and want a divorce within months. That is not a role model person who should be appearing in front of a church and managing ministries. Ones like this need to get with Jesus and learn how to be and how to love, how to do things in Jesus Christ's rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30, Colossians 3:15), and how to test reliably about who they trust and for what they are trusting each person . . . not just praising everyone for being so great, without evaluation.

So, not only should you be evaluated, but you need to learn how to evaluate. And learn to live in Jesus Christ's way of loving with rest for your soul >

"'Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'" (Matthew 11:29)

And yes there will be people who do not know how to evaluate you and ones can be even abusive. You need to be ready to love them and forgive them, and do not automatically trust them just because you forgave them, but test >

"Test all things; hold fast what is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

How we are spiritually and emotionally can be what we are spreading to help others to become the same way. This includes during your prayer, not only in public in church. So, maybe we could say, never mind if you are up front ministering, because also you are ministering while you are alone and praying or doing other things.

So, how to be is important > this is what can spread >

"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4)

God sees deeper than you eyes!! And He will make sure you do what He really wants you to do.

I remember dreaming once that the tomb was found with Jesus’ bones in it. I quickly woke up at the thought because immediately even in a dream I knew it was not true. I posted all the info on what a farce this was. This should not concern you in the least.

Some bread options to learn to prepare.

-flatbreads
-water rolls
- sourdough bread (just flour, water, starter -which can be made from flour & water), & salt) and time and ...patience.