• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin feared dead after Russia plane crash


Anyone else catch whiff of foul play here?

DNC set to troll Republican Debate

DNC to troll GOP debate by flying anti-MAGA banner


The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has plans to troll the Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday by flying a plane pulling a banner that knocks the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement around the venue.​
The banner is set to read “GOP 2024: A Race for the Extreme MAGA Base,” a DNC spokesperson confirmed to The Hill.​
The plane and banner, set to take flight Wednesday night, come as part of an aggressive media blitz from the DNC and the Biden campaign as Republican White House hopefuls gather in Milwaukee to take the debate stage.​
There is no truth to the report that the plane is zero emissions, nor is it accurate that the pilot shout nanny nanny boo boo out the window.

Donald Trump to turn himself in at Fulton county jail

Trump had lawyers negotiate booking to take place during prime viewing hours on Thursday to get maximum television ratings.
Guardian 23.08.2023

How come a suspect gets a say in when he turns up for trial? The judge should be saying "Turn up at my court when you are told. Or you will be brought."

Is everybody scared of Trump?

Does God test/tempt people?

The Evolving Concept of Testing/Tempting

English Standard Version, Malachi 3:

10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test [H974, G1980], says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
Strong's Hebrew: 974. בָּחַן (bachan) — 29 Occurrences

Brown-Driver-Briggs:

  1. examine, scrutinize, try
  2. prove, test, try.
There is another Hebrew word for the idea of testing that is a bit more ambiguous. Genesis 22:

1 Some time later God tested [H5254, LXX G3985] Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
Deuteronomy 13:

3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing [H5254] you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
H5254 appears 36 times.

Brown-Driver-Briggs:

  1. test
  2. attempt, assay, try to do a thing
  3. test, try, prove, tempt [but not in modern sense of the word: see Deuteronomy 6:16; Psalms 453, 483]
This Hebrew word did not carry the full English sense of "temptation". It meant testing or trying.

The Greek word G3985 is different. As Satan went rogue, the negative concept of temptation emerged from G3985. By the time of the NT, James 1:

3 because you know that the testing [G1383] of your faith produces perseverance.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted [G3985 πειραζόμενος], “I am being tempted [H3985 πειράζομαι] by God,” for God cannot be tempted [G551 ἀπείραστός adjective] with evil, and he himself tempts [G3985 πειράζει] no one.
Matthew 6:

13 And lead us not into temptation [G3986], but deliver us from the evil one.’
G3985 is ambiguous. It could mean testing in the OT or tempting in the NT.

BDAG πειράζω:
① to make an effort to do someth., try, attempt at times in a context indicating futility
② to endeavor to discover the nature or character of someth. by testing, try, make trial of, put to the test
ⓑ of God or Christ, who put people to the test, in a favorable sense (Abraham, as Gen 22:1). Also of painful trials sent by God (Ex 20:20; Dt 8:2 v.l.; Judg 2:22; Wsd 3:5; 11:9; Jdth 8:25f) 1 Cor 10:13; Hb 2:18ab; 4:15 ③ to attempt to entrap through a process of inquiry, test.
④ to entice to improper behavior, tempt

God tests people in the ancient Hebrew sense of the word [H5254]. God does not tempt people in the Greek sense of the word [G3985] to entrap. Satan does. In the beginning, Satan was given the job of testing people. He gradually changed from the testing to tempting to downright entrapment.

ESV Deuteronomy 6:

16 You shall not put the LORD your God to the test [H5254], as you tested [H5254] him at Massah.
People can H974-try or H5254-test God, but God cannot be G3985-tempted.
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The Unity of the Spirit

Ephesians 4:1-7 ESV

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.”

Walking Worthy of God

As followers of Jesus Christ we are to walk (in conduct, in practice) in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. So this means we are to walk, in conduct and in practice, in a way that is fitting, suitable, appropriate, compatible and becoming to the calling of God on our lives. And what is his calling on our lives? We are to live holy lives which are separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are to be being conformed, by God, to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, as we cooperate with God.

Walk worthy; calling of God: [Matthew 10:37-38; Luke 9:62; Philippians 1:27; Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; Psalms 139:13-16; Romans 1:6-7; Romans 8:28-29; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 1:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3]

And this is to be with all humility, which is lowliness of mind, having a humble but honest opinion of oneself, i.e. being willing to see ourselves realistically from God’s perspective and not in the flesh with a vaunted opinion of oneself. For we are not to be self-exalting nor self-inflated in pride, thinking more of ourselves than is warranted. But we are to be those who know that we are only able to live lives worthy of the calling of God on our lives because of God’s grace to us, and not of ourselves.

And this is to be with gentleness, which is the same as meekness, which is gentle strength which expresses power with reserve. For the believer in Christ, meekness (gentle-force) begins with the Lord’s inspiration and finishes by His direction and empowerment. It is a divinely-balanced virtue that can only operate through faith (cf. 1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:22-25) (source: biblehub.com interlinear).

So, this is not about making compromises with the truth of the gospel or refusing to speak the truth in love to others so that we don’t offend them. Remember that Jesus Christ was meek, but he was not weak, and he definitely was not soft on sin nor afraid to speak the truth in love to his listeners. He never went soft on sin. He never compromised truth and righteousness in order to not offend others. For this is about living godly and holy lives and following the example of Christ in how we ought to live.

Thus, bearing with one another in love is not about being soft on sin and refusing to confront others who profess the name of Jesus with their sins. So it is not about coddling those who are living ungodly lives in their sins so that they don’t feel bad for deliberately and habitually sinning against God and against those they are supposed to be loving. And the unity and the bond of peace we are to have with one another is to be of the Spirit of God, not of human flesh, so it does not involve compromise of truth and holiness.

One Body, One Membership

And the church we all belong to – that is we who belong to Christ, by God-given faith in him – is not anything built by human hands. So it is not a physical building, but it is a spiritual building made up of human stones, with Christ Jesus as our chief cornerstone. And there is only one membership in this church, which is a membership with the body of Christ by genuine God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ via dying with Christ to sin and being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness (Romans 6:1-23).

And we are all members of that one body, yet we may live in many different places, and so we may gather together in various places, but we are still one church, one body, with only one membership. And each of us is gifted by God with Spiritual gifts and we are given our assignments within the body of Christ by God, which is to be for the good of the body of Christ. So, this requires that we follow the Lord Jesus Christ with our lives, that we are students of the Scriptures, that we are listening to our Lord, and that we are following him wherever he leads us in being who he has called us to be.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84


Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

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Ticket to Hell...

Psalms 16:9-10 MSG
I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed. You canceled my ticket to hell— that's not my destination!

I need more faith, wisdom, knowledge, and insight. I need BELIEF. I want to believe that I am going home...and that God cancelled my ticket to hell. But I have doubt (kind of) ... I know I am not supposed to. I just feel like this verse is too good to be true.

So mainly I am looking for wisdom and insight, from God. I need PROOF that I am going home :


Proverbs 14:15
Only a simpleton believes everything he’s told! A prudent man understands the need for proof.

I need proof! Other than that, I am fairly happy. God speaks to me...and I love him. I just want to have a SOLID and STEADY faith, and like I said, I need belief. I'll keep praying for that, but I hope in the meantime some of you guys can give me feedback.

Thanks!

Those Who Work Evil

Psalms 94:1-7

“O Lord, God of vengeance,
O God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
repay to the proud what they deserve!
O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked exult?
They pour out their arrogant words;
all the evildoers boast.
They crush your people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
They kill the widow and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless;
and they say, ‘The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.’”

Who are the wicked? They are all those who practice evil and wickedness, and for whom wickedness is their habit, their lifestyle, what they keep going to and obeying and yielding to over again, deliberately and habitually, and usually without conscience, compassion, or true remorse. And many of them, sadly so, are also professers of faith in Jesus Christ, who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of their lives and heaven as their eternal destiny, but regardless of how they live their lives on this earth.

So, they can be those who give off an image of being children of God, and followers of Christ, but truly they are the spiritually dead who are outside of genuine faith in Jesus Christ. For God is not their Father, but the flesh is still reigning in their bodies. They claim the grace of God over their lives but they are not living under the true grace of God, but they are being guided still by their flesh. For they are the sexually immoral and those who are angry at God and who curse God by how they live their lives.

So, their worship of “God” is false worship, for what they truly worship is a false god of the flesh, which is made to look similar to the One and Only True God but is a distortion of who God truly is. It is a man-created god which appeases human flesh and who does not put sin to death in the life of the “believer,” but who allows sin to still reign in the “believer’s” life. So they who worship this false god of the flesh end up mocking, insulting, and belittling the One and Only True God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As well, their Father is not the God of the Scriptures, but their father is pleasure, enjoyment, fun, entertainment, sinful pleasures, immorality, lying, trickery, deception, and dishonesty, for that is what they truly worship and give their time and devotion to instead of to God. So they are wanderers who claim faith in the One True God but whose lifestyles are the opposite of what they profess. And they are those who use the grace of God as a coverup for evil, more often now the evil of sexual immorality and adultery.

Although they claim to call on and to pray to the one true God, they do not, for they are living the opposite of what God has called them to live. For they are not serving the Lord Jesus at his altar of sacrifice with their lives, but they are serving the flesh. They are not seated at the table of God, but they are seated in their filth – in what is dishonorable, corrupt, vile, immoral, wicked, and dishonest. So their “altar of sacrifice” to God is artificial, and they are being fed distortions and alterations of truth, but not the truth.

For they have people now in charge who are telling them that they are allowed to make alterations and adjustments to God’s dwelling place, and to the gospel of our salvation. And so they are now blocking out the light of the truth of the gospel from entering into their lives and into their gatherings, and they have turned the light into darkness. And so pleasure-seeking and entertainment and wandering minds and hearts are what are replacing true worship of God and the truth of the gospel of our salvation.

[Jn 3:19-20; 2 Thes 2:9-10; 2 Thes 3:1-2; Jas 1:19-21; 3 Jn 1:10; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 15:18-20; Mk 7:20-22; Lu 6:45; Lu 13:26-28; Jn 5:28-29; Rom 1:29-32; Rom 2:6-10; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-11; Heb 3:12; 1 Pet 3:12; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Psalms 94:16-23 ESV

“Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the Lord has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will wipe them out.”

Jesus Christ, when he walked this earth, told us that if we follow him with our lives that we are going to be hated, rejected, mistreated, and persecuted as he was. So, a walk of faith in Jesus Christ is not “easy street.” It is not all fun and games and entertainment and self-pleasure. It is a hard life, and it is a life of suffering, but it is a good life, and a life of peace and true joy in the Lord. For we are at peace with God by God-given faith in Jesus Christ who are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness, all to the glory and praise of God, in his power.

But we are not to fear those who rise up against us and who persecute us without cause and who do evil against us. For the Lord is our helper. He is our support if we are walking in righteousness and in obedience to him and not in sin. He is our encourager and the one who lifts our spirits. Even though our enemies, who are the Lord’s enemies, band together against the lives of us who are righteous in the eyes of the Lord because we are walking in righteousness, by his grace, and not in sin, we are not to fear them or what they might do to us or say about us. But we are to let the Lord be our stronghold and our rock of refuge in whom we place our trust.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84


Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

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What does it say? what does it mean?

Reading scripture in an English translation can be quite an ordeal because some translations are very "literal" and some are not.

The very literal translations are said to be "formally equivalent", and those that are not are said to be "functionally equivalent". The former are often hard to understand when the wording is odd. I have an example. It's from the KJV but the NASB carries on the literal tradition so the verse is difficult in the NASB too.
Psalms 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. [KJV]​
Psalms 110:3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. [NASB]​
The same verse in a functionally equivalent English translation looks like this,
Psalms 110:3 On the day you fight your enemies, your people will volunteer. Like the dew of early morning your young men will come to you on the sacred hills. [GNB]​
Psalms 110:3 Royal dignity has been yours from the day of your birth, sacred honour from the womb, from the dawn of your youth. [NJB]​
The passage in its immediate context reads thus, in the KJV
Psalms 110:1-7 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. 4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. 5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. 6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. 7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.​
and like this in the Geed News Bible,
Psalms 110:1-7 The LORD said to my lord, "Sit here at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet." 2 From Zion the LORD will extend your royal power. "Rule over your enemies," he says. 3 On the day you fight your enemies, your people will volunteer. Like the dew of early morning your young men will come to you on the sacred hills. 4 The LORD made a solemn promise and will not take it back: "You will be a priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek." 5 The Lord is at your right side; when he becomes angry, he will defeat kings. 6 He will pass judgment on the nations and fill the battlefield with corpses; he will defeat kings all over the earth. 7 The king will drink from the stream by the road, and strengthened, he will stand victorious.​
As a reader can see, the way to interpret the passage is not as obvious as first appearances suggest.

When we read our English bibles it is worth while for us to consider the extend to which the translation we are reading is influencing what we see. The bible is a complicated and large body of literature. Interpreting it is no easy task.

How do you feel about your own competence to interpret it from your reading of an English translation knowing that each translation can bias what you see?

Catholics Only: Are all the fires the First of the Horsemen?

Revelation 8:6-13: - The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth.

A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

With the latest massive fires now occurring in the Canary Islands off Africa, as well as in Greece where charred bodies are being found, does any one now ponder if we are dealing with the first of the horsemen?

Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flips after changing lawyers

Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers

A Trump employee who monitored security cameras at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate abruptly retracted his earlier grand jury testimony and implicated Trump and others in obstruction of justice just after switching from an attorney paid for by a Trump political action committee to a lawyer from the federal defender’s office in Washington, prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday.

The aide — described as “Trump Employee 4” in public court filings but identified elsewhere as Yuscil Taveras — held the title of director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago. He initially testified to a grand jury in Washington, D.C., that he was unaware of any effort to erase the videos, but after getting the new attorney “immediately … retracted his prior false testimony” and detailed the alleged effort to tamper with evidence related to the investigation of the handling of classified information stored at Trump’s Florida home, the new submission said.

Taveras’ reversal led directly to new charges against Trump that Smith’s prosecutors included in a superseding indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Miami last month, detailing alleged efforts to erase the security camera recordings, prosecutors said. Nauta had been charged in the initial indictment, but de Oliveira was added as a defendant only in the revised indictment.

In an apparent bid to assuage any continuing concerns by Cannon about a grand jury hundred of miles away working on matters related to the case she is handling, Smith’s team informed her that the D.C. grand jury officially completed its work Aug. 17.

To Halt Ibis Extinction Austrian Man Shows Birds a New Migration Route With His UltraLight–And it’s Working

An Austrian ornithologist has pioneered an incredible way of wildlife rehabilitation by fostering chicks of an endangered species before re-instituting their migratory practice by leading them along their natural migration route with an ultralight aircraft.

The method was developed to help reconnect the northern bald ibis, a bird that was extirpated in Europe 400 years ago, with its summer-winter migration pattern from northern Europe to its sunny southern climes.

The history of these ibises is long, and by the time the Pilgrims sighted land on Plymouth Rock, Europeans had eaten probably all of them. Fortunately, other colonies survived in West and East Africa, and some in the Fertile Crescent.

Continued below.
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New Member-- maybe?

Hello all.... I think I may have been a member here before, but have lost track and couldn't find a profile. I think I was even a site supporter (?) but I'm happy to join or rejoin, as the case may be. I'm also on another one of Doughty's sites (christianity board).

This site seems to have greater traffic and perhaps an improved platform (with options for site supporters).

Looking forward to interacting here.

A biblical argument against Friendship Evangelism

Here is something I have been thinking about for some time now. Let me know your thoughts on it. First, I should probably say what I believe are the different types of evangelism that I am going to speak about.

Definitions:
Open Evangelism: When the Gospel is said within the first encounter. Often used in street evangelism, or in one-to-one evangelism in parks.
Friendship Evangelism: Where you create a relationship with the goal of eventually telling the Gospel to the person.
Relational Evangelism: Where you make a friend in your everyday life with no ulterior motive of sharing the Gospel. Such as meeting someone at work or school, and you become friends. Then, when the time is right, you tell them the Gospel.

Now onto the topic:
Sharing the Gospel can be a scary thing. The reason for this is, before you give the Good News, you should give the bad news first. So, show the sinner that they have broken Gods law. They have lied, stolen, blasphemed and done many other things that are against God. Show them that they are guilty and need a saviour. If we don't show them that they are guilty, then they will not see their need for a saviour. Then after we have shown them, we should tell them the Good News. So, show them the symptoms first of their illness, their condemnation, and then show them the cure. Then they should then run for the cure. By doing this you are being straight up and honest.
Open evangelism does this straight up. It is not hidden. It does not beat around the bush. And it is putting faith in the Gospel, that it has the power to bring people to salvation.

In friendship evangelism, our goal is to share the Gospel, but we do not want to let the unsaved person know that they are a sinner straight away. That would be offensive to show that they are a bad person, and it would not be conducive towards making a friend. So, we want to get alongside them and create a relationship. We get closer and closer to the person until we finally feel comfortable enough to say the Gospel. This, in a way, is deceptive friendship as your main goal is not to be the persons friend but to tell them the Gospel. The motive of the friendship is not straight up and true. It is hidden.

I recently read Proverbs 27:5 which pretty much says that we should be straight up. Here is the verse. "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed."
So, my question is, is friendship evangelism being like love carefully concealed? Is it better to be honest and straight up?

I do realise that in life we do make friends, and often we do not tell them the Gospel straight away. But this is quite normal in life, and this is fine. In many instances, it is silly to say the Gospel straight away when you meet someone. I would hate to tell the Gospel at a job interview. So, in life we make friends naturally and then over time, we may get to tell the Gospel. This is real friendship, and it is real relational evangelism. So, no hidden agenda. But many churches have specialised in making friends with the hope that there will be a time to say the Gospel. They put this above saying the Gospel openly. Many churches even say that society has changed and so we need to do friendship evangelism now. They say that one to one in the parks does not work. It scares people away.

So, once again, is friendship evangelism being like love carefully concealed? Is it better to be honest and straight up? Are churches that are teaching friendship evangelism wrong for not putting enough faith in the power of the Gospel?
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Excluding Farmer's Market Vendor for Refusing to Host Same-Sex Weddings

...
The City of East Lansing requires vendors for its Farmer's Market to comply with the City's public policy against discrimination. Country Mill Farms offers to rent a portion of its property [which is not connected with the Farmer's Market] for weddings. Country Mill Farms, however, will not rent the property for same-sex weddings...
...
The court noted that "Defendant's 2017 decision to deny Plaintiffs' application substantially burdened Plaintiffs' free exercise of religion":
...
The court acknowledged that "neutral and generally applicable" policies don't violate the Free Exercise Clause, but held that the City's policy wasn't neutral and generally applicable because it contained discretionary exemptions:
...
The court also concluded that the policy wasn't neutral or generally applicable because it included exemptions for certain secular reasons:



I believe that more and more the courts are once again recognizing that religious rights are just as important as other life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness rights of living free. They are recognizing that religious liberty is just as important to some people as the freedom to follow no religion is to others. The answer is not to force Christians to live as non-Christians or the other way around.

Biden taps new White House counsel to thwart GOP probes as legal pressure mounts

President Biden on Tuesday said he has chosen Ed Siskel, who shielded President Obama from House Republican probes, to serve as his next White House counsel amid a slew of judicial and congressional investigations.

Mr. Siskel’s appointment comes as Mr. Biden faces a special counsel investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified government documents, a special counsel probing his son Hunter Biden and House Republicans press forward with investigations into the president and his family’s business dealings.

Some Republican lawmakers even have talked about impeaching Mr. Biden, complicating what is already a critical stage in the president’s reelection campaign.

Is it possible not to sin anymore?

Matthew 5:
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

1 Corinthians 10:
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Theoretically, it is possible to live a sinless life. In practice, Romans 7:
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
By the grace of God, when we fail, we confess and repent. God will forgive. We can only take it one day at a time. Hopefully, our spiritual condition next year will be better this year.

1 John 3:
9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

We are encouraged in Genesis 5:
24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

We have been given the Paraclete. Walk in the Spirit with God.

See also Whosoever is born of God DOTH NOT COMMIT sin. Really?.

How Would Our Ancestors View the 21st Century?

The best article I've read in a long time.

There's nothing we can do to turn this whole thing around, of course; Western Civilization is going to self-destruct, completely implode, and evaporate from relevance in the world, and all that any of us who see it coming can do is to order our own lives rightly and stay as uncorrupted as possible.

Creating trust in a source

Have you wondered why people who are Jehovah's witnesses or Christadelphians or Mormons stick with their religion despite the many flaws in those religions?

Is it because the members have been trained to trust the religion as the source of truth about God and heaven and salvation?

I think it might be. I have had experience with former Jehovah's witnesses in the days and years immediately following their escape from the false religion that they had been following. And one thing was clear, despite knowing how deceived they had been and knowing the many poison chalices they had been given from which to drink, they nevertheless still trusted "the organisation" TO PRODUCE RELIABLE AND TRUE BIBLE TEACHING.. They still used the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures to check claims about the bible's teaching. They had acquired a habit of reading the NWT and relying upon it that was too strong for them to easily abandon.

If you have a NWT take some time to read it, especially the passages you rely upon for the doctrines that are most dear to you. Seen what slant that mistranslation produces on the verses you know so well.
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