Hello folks. Are there any Korean Christians here on the forum? One of my friends is half-Korean, and he is a Christian, but is super busy with life. His name is Ezra. What is it like to be Korean, and Christian in 2024? For reference, I am adopted from Europe, and am Romani.

My older sister loves the Lord and has been a christian for a long time.

However, she is abusive to me and has been like this since I was a child

It's like a cycle of violence(not physical violence) but she will treat me very poorly,
bully me, put me down, raise her voice at me. It may come with an apology if she sees
it upsets me
and then she will shower me with gifts or send cards and notes to encourage me as a christian.

I am confused.

When I have tried to approach her about it, she says, 'that I frustrate her"
that I make a lot of mistakes(May not always listen to what she says) or not comprehend
what she is saying.

She came to stay with me(we live 10 hours away from each other).

She stayed a short while back in February.
She got frustrated with the way I placed my cups in my cupboard
or the way I had my mat displayed in my bathroom, and then got very upset with me
about a meal we were having.
I dropped sauce on myself, while I was eating and she got frustrated with me

When I was washing the dishes, I missed a spot on the spoon and she threw it back in the water.
She criticised me for so many things and I told her I had to get out of the house eand go for a walk.
It was nighttime.
She knew how dangerous it would be for me to walk out, but she didn't stop me.

She didn't apologise when she got back.

When I have addresssed the issue, she 'gaslight's me " and has said there is something wrong with me.



I love my sister so very much and time and time again I forgive her for her behaviour.

She is married to a controlling man who doesn't like me so I don't think this helps

I am praying about it and find I have to put up boundaries with her and not share about my life.

Any other suggestions?

I am confused; she loves the Lord but doesn't see a problem with her behaviour.
Thank you

Hey guys. Me and my gf of over a decade broke up a few weeks ago and im riddled with guilt,regret,major anxiety,panic attacks,nervousness, u name it. I didnt put a ring on her finger is the primary reason she left me. At this point im questioning why i was unable to commit, feeling the guilt, the pain of seeing her with another guy is insane. People in my circle say things like “trust God, let go” etc. and things like “yall werent meant to be, we all saw it”. But in my mind i feel like i just screwed up. Im 43. I feel likethat was my one chance at love and i blew it. Anyone have any helpful advice?

Here's a new podcast on the subject of eschatology for anyone who's interested.

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You can discuss here, but the podcast welcomes your questions as well, to be answered on the next episode. It focuses on the subject of Christ's future kingdom from Genesis to Revelation.

2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit unto faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

The Memorials of God exist to perpetuate the memory of His intent and purpose.
A faithful man understands that his commitment is not only to learn and live in
the Remembrance of the Lord, but also to discipleship and the passing on of the
doctrine of Christ to faithful men. This is what brought about the calling of Abraham.

To Command your Children and your Household
Genesis 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him,
and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring
upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

This testimony of God concerning Abraham is echoed in the testimony of Cornelius.
Acts 10:2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house,
which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.

A righteous man instructs others in the way of the Lord to keep right judgment.
Psalm 106:3 Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that does righteousness at all times.

To Love what He Loves
Psalm 33:4, 5 For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in the Spirit of Truth.
He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

To love righteousness and judgment is to abide in His presence by the Spirit of Truth.
A Righteous Nation under God

Jeremiah 22:3 Thus saith the Lord; Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver
the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger,
the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

We stir up our hearts by the Remembrance of His compassion for those who are afflicted.
Psalm 103:6 The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

Genuine conversion is only accomplished by the righteousness from above.
Isaiah 1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

Born from Above
1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous,
you know that every one that does righteousness is born of him.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit through faithful men.
John 16:8 And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.

The Greek words logos and rhema are often translated as word. Their meanings overlap.

Luke 5:

1 So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word <logos> of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret

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Strong's Greek: 3056. λόγος (logos) — 331 Occurrences

Matthew 4:

4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word <rhema> that comes from the mouth of God.’”

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Romans 10:

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word <rhema> of Christ.

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Strong's Greek: 4487. ῥῆμα (rhéma) — 70 Occurrences

BDAG, ῥῆμα
① that which is said, word, saying, expression, or statement of any kind
② an event that can be spoken about, thing, object, matter, event

Both could be utterances that are heard. Logos was used in 316 verses while rhema was used in 67 verses in the New Testament.

What is the difference then?

Logos can mean divine expression or divine reason in the general sense, John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word <logos>, and the Word <logos> was with God, and the Word <logos> was God.

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BDAG, λόγος
① a communication whereby the mind finds expression, word
② computation, reckoning
ⓐ a formal accounting
ⓑ settlement (of an account)
ⓒ reflection, respect
ⓓ reason for or cause of someth
③ the independent personified expression of God, the Logos.

A rhema word is often more definite, particular and situational, Ephesians 6:

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word <rhema> of God.

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Compared to a rhema-word, a logos-word could carry a more abstract quality.

Hey you might want to have a look at this! There was a baptist church that was never water baptized or Spirit-filled and suddenly God just shows up and they all were water baptized and received the Holy Spirit en-masse! This is amazing!

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To start off I want to say I do believe in the Trinity. This thread is not here to prove the Trinity right or wrong, which I believe is against the rules of the forum anyway. The question is if we need to believe in the Trinity to be saved?

If a person trusts in Jesus for his salvation, believes Jesus paid the price for his sins on the cross, believes Jesus is God's only son, but doesn't believe Jesus was God incarnate, on what basis can we say he isn't saved?

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Thought this would be good to discuss our love of old skool games.

The accused killer illegally crossed into the US in February 2023 after he vicously murdered another young woman.
Martinez-Hernandez was in the US for six months before he allegedly targeted Morin while she was walking alone on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.

How sad and tragic. So many American deaths that would not have happened but for the Biden administration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) named two controversial members to the House Intelligence Committee — Reps. Scott Perry (Pa.) and Ronny Jackson (Tex.) — sparking concerns about politicizing a crucial committee. He did so partially because Donald Trump wanted him to.

[Perry is still (AFAIK) under investigation for his role in Jan 6/overturning the election]

The moves were especially surprising because [former Speaker] McCarthy had worked in tandem with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and top leaders of the Intelligence Committee — Chairman Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) and ranking Democrat Jim Himes (Conn.) — to depoliticize the panel after members of both parties contributed to increased partisanship over the years.

In calls with McCarthy and other Republicans last week, Johnson justified his decision by saying he appointed Perry and Jackson partly because former president Donald Trump urged him to do so, according to two other people with direct knowledge of the matter.

“[Johnson] has reversed course on this committee, and has now made it political again. He has reversed all the advances, which could harm America’s preparedness,” one high-ranking Republican said. “This is not a place to play games. This is not a place to appease somebody. This is where you got to do the real work.”

“I think we’re letting the executive branch, in this case, compel the speaker of the House and legislative branch to fill two critical spots that we have, frankly, more qualified people for,” one House Republican on the intelligence panel said.

While the speaker has the ultimate say over who gets appointed to a special or select committee, a decision is often made in consultation with the chairman or ranking minority-party member. Members are assigned to permanent committees based on each party’s steering committee, often filled with allies of leadership.
Reps. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) are said to have sought an appointment to the committee after GOP Reps. Chris Stewart (Utah) and Mike Gallagher (Wis.) retired.

Perry, a former chairman of the Freedom Caucus and a chief Trump loyalist, has drawn the most fire from colleagues for his appointment. He was one of about 20 House Republicans who last year refused to support McCarthy for speaker in an effort to extract concessions from him.

But the Intelligence appointments, and the naming of Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), a Freedom Caucus member, to the House Armed Services Committee, have greatly rankled the faction of Republicans who want the House to function better, known as the governing wing.

New House GOP slogan: "Less governing the nation, more appeasing MAGA"

Netanyahu dissolves War Cabinet that was steering war in Gaza, Israeli officials say​

Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza.

The three-person War Cabinet was dissolved a week after Benny Gantz, a popular opposition lawmaker and former military chief, quit Netanyahu’s governing coalition in frustration over how the war was being handled. In the early days of the war, Gantz demanded a small Cabinet with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be formed as a way to sideline far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu’s government.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change with the media, said Monday that going forward Netanyahu would hold smaller forums with some of his government members for sensitive issues.

Critics say Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making has been influenced by ultranationalists in his government who oppose a deal with Hamas for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages. Those hard-line politicians have voiced support for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of Gaza, currently home to some 2.3 million people, and a return to military occupation over the territory.

Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.

Should we keep the weekly Sabbaths?

I don't think anyone, including Abraham, was commanded to keep the Sabbath until Exodus 31:

13 You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.

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Sabbath was a special sign of the covenant between God and the Israelites after exiting Egypt.

In the NT, Jesus healed on a Sabbath in John 5:

8 Jesus said to him [P1], “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

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According to the Jewish authority, Jesus broke the Sabbath and Jesus told P1 to break the Sabbath. The Pharisees saw sins as external behaviors. See e.g., The 39 Categories of Sabbath Work Prohibited By Law. Jesus shifted the focus to the heart where sin originated (Matthew 5:28).

Paul had this to say in Romans 14:

5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6a The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

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Should we keep the Sabbaths?

According to Paul, it is up to the individual believers. Further, we should not judge others about Sabbath, Colossians 2:

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

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Similarly, Jesus warned in Matthew 7:

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

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I will not judge anyone for keeping the weekly Sabbaths or not.

If you keep the Sabbaths, are you going to keep the punishment?

Numbers 15:

32 While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.

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The weekly Sabbath is only a shadow of the true Sabbath rest. Once we have the true reality, chasing after the shadows is unnecessary.

Republicans embrace a Confederate symbol, after years of unease​

The House vote to restore the Confederate Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery failed, but not before it got a lot more GOP support — about 89 percent — than similar recent votes.

The House voted Thursday on a Republican amendment to restore Arlington National Cemetery’s Confederate Memorial. The century-old monument, which was removed in December, features [among other figures] an enslaved Black “mammy” holding the infant child of a White officer, as an enslaved Black man follows the officer off to war. The monument references the “Lost Cause,” a mythology about the Civil War era favored by apologists for the Confederacy.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), did not pass, but it got very strong support in the House GOP conference. While 24 Republicans voted against restoring the monument, 192 voted in favor — nearly 89 percent of voting Republicans.

That’s significantly more GOP support for a Confederate symbol than we’ve seen over the last decade.

In 2016, 84 House Republicans voted in favor of the proposal [to remove the Confederate flag from cemeteries]

[Proposal to remove Confederate statues and Justice Taney from the Capitol] got the support of 72 House Republicans in 2020 and 67 in 2021.

McCarthy and Scalise also voted in favor of removing the Confederate statues from the Capitol after Floyd’s murder, with McCarthy spinning the move thusly: “All of the statues being removed by this bill are statues of Democrats.” (The South was dominated by Democrats during Civil War times; it’s now overwhelmingly Republican.)

But on Thursday, among those voting in favor of restoring the Confederate Memorial at Arlington were every single top House GOP leader, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Scalise, who is now House majority leader.

--

background from last December

Confederate Memorial at Arlington will be removed despite GOP opposition​

Though dozens of congressional Republicans protested the move, the Army says it will begin work in coming days [to comply with law].

The U.S. Army intends to remove a Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery next week as part of its ongoing work to rid Defense Department property of divisive rebel imagery, defying dozens of congressional Republicans who have vociferously protested the move.

A woman representing the American South, standing atop a 32-foot pedestal, lords above most other monuments within America’s most revered resting place. It portrays, according to the cemetery’s website, a “mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”

The Army, which operates Arlington Cemetery, informed lawmakers Friday that it would proceed with the monument’s removal, officials told The Washington Post, because it was required by the end of the year to comply with a law to identify and remove assets that commemorate the Confederacy.

The [Congressional] commission found about 1,100 assets that commemorate the Confederacy, including base names and street signs, and advised the Pentagon on what should be removed or changed. The memorial at Arlington was the last significant item on that list, Army officials said

LINK

Sarah Beth Clendaniel was a radical looking for a target when, authorities say, she plotted with Brandon Russell — a white supremacist who belongs to an organization known as Atomwaffen Division — to destroy the power grid around Baltimore. Clendaniel dressed in camouflage fatigues. Russell went by the alias “Raccoon” and, according to federal agents, kept a framed picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on his dresser.

They communicated through encrypted messages, but the mission was foiled by authorities. Clendaniel pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to damage or destroy electrical stations in Maryland. Russell, who was charged earlier for possessing explosives, is awaiting trial. The case did not attract much attention outside Baltimore, [CF Thread] but it was another reminder of the danger of terrorism in an unsettled nation.

“The threat’s not more potent than it was around 9/11, but it’s certainly more diverse and difficult to counter,” said Colin P. Clarke, the director of research at the Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consulting firm in New York City. “We’re dealing with a more aggressive far-right, left-wing and what we call ‘salad bar people,’ who take a little bit of each ideology and thread them together. Incels. █████. The range of actors at play now is a lot broader than what we’re used to.”

Many of the threats these days come from varied agendas, including Payton Gendron, who wrote a 180-page racist screed before killing 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2022, and James Hodgkinson, a left-wing radical who in 2017 shot and wounded at least four people at a softball practice for Republican congressmen in Alexandria, Va.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray recently told cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that his agency was concerned about “a rogues’ gallery” of foreign organizations calling for violence against Americans. But he suggested that the more pressing danger comes from individuals and small groups in the U.S. who “draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.” The agency, he said, has been “running down thousands of reported threats.”

The radicalization of the young is rooted in the generation that came of age during the isolation of the pandemic and has since seen governments as either powerless or indifferent to climate change, wealth gaps and stopping wars in Ukraine and Gaza. “They’re looking to be entertained and stimulated rather than informed and confident that they’re getting accurate information. TikTok is feeding them what they want.”

Now, that is the best idea that I have heard in the last year!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump on Saturday night suggested President Joe Biden “should have to take a cognitive test,” only to confuse who administered the test to him in the next sentence.

The former president and presumptive Republican nominee referred to Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was the White House physician for part of his presidency, as “Ronny Johnson.” The moment came as Trump was questioning Biden’s mental acuity, something he often does on the campaign trail and social media.

What are the mobs in Washington defiling iconic federal statues with impunity and pelting policemen really protesting? What are the throngs in London brazenly swarming parks and rampaging in the streets really angry about?

Occupations?
They could care less that the Islamist Turkish government still stations 40,000 troops in occupied Cyprus. No one is protesting against the Chinese takeover of a once-independent Tibet or the threatened absorption of an autonomous Taiwan.

Refugees?
None of these mobs are agitating on behalf of the nearly 1 million Jews ethnically cleansed since 1947 from the major capitals of the Middle East. Some 200,000 Cypriots displaced by Turks earn not a murmur. Nor does the ethnic cleansing of 99% of Nagorno-Karabakh's ancient Armenian population just last year.

Civilian casualties?
The global protestors are not furious over the 1 million Uighurs brutalized by the communist Chinese government. Neither are they concerned about the Turkish government's indiscriminate war against the Kurds or its serial threats to attack Armenians and Greeks.

The new woke jihadist movement is instead focused only on Israel and "Palestine." It is oblivious to the modern gruesome Muslim-on-Muslim exterminations of Bashar al-Assad and Saddam Hussein, the Black September massacres of Palestinians by Jordanian forces, and the 1982 erasure of thousands in Hama, Syria.

Since 2001, the Church has lost a million believers, and according to the data, the majority of the population in Scotland is currently unaffiliated.

Why did God command that Israel not eat blood?

Was it because the author of the commandment thought that eating or drinking blood was kind of disgusting?
Was it because people often get sick from drinking or eating blood?
Was it because, "the life of the flesh is in the blood", as the scripture says?
And if the latter is the main reason, then why blood instead of brains, for example, because modern medical books suggest that the person's personality, maybe his soul, is in the brain? Is blood special, and if it is then why is it special?

timewerx said:

Anyway, it doesn't make sense either that no harm will come to USA. The citizens no longer heed the Word of God. When Israel is acting in disobedience against the Lord, the Lord sends them destruction. The only reason God would spare USA is that Gentiles are exempt from punishment when they're acting in disobedience against God. However, the USA as a nation is drowning in massive debt. USA may no longer be a sovereign nation in reality and now owned by somebody else (who definitely isn't the Lord with the country's values being taken apart).

If USA has provided for your needs, don't fear your needs will no longer be provided for if USA falls into chaos or even if the world economy collapses.

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I'm sorry to say that this is not Christ like. Whatever happened to this nation it was God's wisdom to expose all kinds of devils in this world.

I didn't say no harm will come but in a moment God is going to turn everything upside down. It's how God works.

The days are coming again when all nations will be humbled and no one will dare say anything against USA and Israel.

Please don't ever talk to me like this about a nation who has fathered many nations and peoples.

I know many of it's own citizens are cursing it and seeking to escape from there when it is in need of help.

I agree there are deep issues within but if we as God's people are not helping them then we are in no position to talk about it.

I'm not concerned about my own needs. I'm concerned about the needs of USA as someone who love this country and born of it's spirit.

Whatever little I can do for this nation, i'm going to do it. I will remain loyal inspite of their unfaithfulness and rejection.

It only takes one righteous Esther to reverse everything and I will lay down my life to put God's Spirit back in the roots of this nation.

Kindly do not say anything if you have nothing to encourage me on this journey to help this nation. Your calling is different than mine.

The Lord God is The Shepherd of this nation and it will ever be a city on a hill to which all nations will stream to.

"In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains". Isaiah 2.

Shalom.

Basically, small time Dem candidate in Texas got a certain amount of hype and buzz by playing the victim of racism....and it turned out he was behind the racist statements and attacks against himself online.

While simultaneously pathetic and hilarious, I get it. It's like being one of these rappers who was never in a gang, never arrested, and did time. He's running as a victim of the evil racist right...but was never a victim of the evil racist right. Like Smollett...he fabricated his victimhood for personal gain.

At the same time one wonders just how quickly racism in the US might die down if the left ran on issues and not grievances and victimhood.

Thoughts?

New data shows that Democrats' longtime advantage with Black, Latino and Asian American voters has shrunk to its lowest point in more than 60 years — creating a massive vulnerability for President Biden and congressional Democrats.
Why it matters: One of the most loyal parts of the Democratic coalition is suddenly in danger. Black and Hispanic men could vote Republican in numbers not seen since President Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected in the 1950s.

The big picture: Latinos, the nation's largest non-white group, still lean Democratic. But they've been shifting Republican over the last two decades, and are no longer the slam-dunk Democrats they were in 1960 when JFK ran for president.

By the numbers: Democrats' advantage among Black, Latino and Asian voters is at its lowest since 1960, Financial Times columnist and chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch found by analyzing a massive set of polling data.

Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Quasi-Confesses to Molesting 12-Year-Old Girl

The pastor of one of the country’s largest churches—and who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser—has admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a woman who says he sexually abused her when she was just 12 years old.


Published Jun. 16, 2024 11:13AM EDT

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters​

On Friday, Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, that Robert Morris, the pastor of Texas’ Gateway Church, asked her to come into his room when he stayed with her family for Christmas in 1982. She was 12 and he was 20 at the time. She said Morris molested her and then ordered her not to say anything about his behavior “because it will ruin everything.” The abuse continued for years before Clemishire confided in a close friend, prompting Morris’ wife to find out and Morris to step down from the ministry, according to the report.

Maybe Trump got a little too much advice from this pastor?