DragonFox91 said:

I agree. I agree especially you're not really being a witness 'spreading God's love.' I see that a lot, but the pagans believe that too. A Christian is called to spread God's love AND the truth

But is it possible a lot of us just don't really have the evangelism gift to the extent of others? Sadly, one thing I noticed even in 'evangelical churches', most of the actual body isn't very evangelical. I wish I was more an evangelist.

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I also think that many who go to church and claim to be Spirit filled are either not Spirit filled, or if they are, they have squashed the Spirit within them. This is why "evangelical churches" are not every evangelical.
There are a few reasons that the Holy Spirit came. But the main reason for the Holy Spirit coming was so that we would speak and not keep quiet. Jesus even said that when we receive the Holy Spirit, that we would speak to others of Him. He said this in Acts 1:8. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Here is a breakdown of the word "Power", "witness" and what the Holy Spirit does in us:
The word power comes from the Greek dýnamis, meaning strength, force, or ability.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, we are strengthened for the task ahead. There’s a power within us that pushes, stirs, and equips us for the battle. When He fills us, silence is no longer an option; witnessing becomes the overflow of His presence within us.

The Holy Spirit here (to Pneuma to Hagion) is the same Spirit Jesus promised in John 14:16, where He’s called Paraklētos, the Helper, or in Old English, the Comforter. Not comfort in the soft sense, but comfortare; “to strengthen.” He is the One who strengthens and sends us forward into the fight.

The word witnesses is "mártys" in Greek (pronounced Mat-toos), from which we get the word "martyr". A martyr is one who gives their life for a cause. But notice, if a martyr never spoke, there’d be no cause for death.
To be a witness means to speak, to declare, to testify.
And because of that testimony, we may face persecution, even death.

So, in Acts 1:8 it says that the Holy Spirit is given to us so that we would have the boldness to speak and tell others of Him. The Spirit was not given so that we would be nice to others but so that we would speak.

In fact, in all the instances in the bible where the Holy Spirit entered people, over two thirds of these times the person spoke. The Spirit entered them, and they could not stay quiet.

Here are some great verses that show this:

Exodus 4:10–12 Moses expresses fear about speaking; God tells him that He will put His words in Moses’ mouth.

Numbers 11:25–26 The Spirit rests on the 70 elders, and they prophesy.

Judges 6:34 The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon; he begins to act and speak with authority.

1 Samuel 10:6, 10 The Spirit comes on Saul, and he prophesies.

1 Samuel 16:13 The Spirit comes upon David from the day of his anointing. (He is empowered to act and later speak boldly.)

2 Samuel 23:2 David says, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me; his word was on my tongue.”

1 Chronicles 12:18 Spirit comes upon Amasai, the leader of men, and he speaks boldly.

Micah 3:8 “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression…”

Zechariah 7:12 – The Spirit’s influence on prophets to deliver God’s message.

Job 32:18 "For I am full of words; The spirit within me compels me."

Matthew 10:19–20 "But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you."

Luke 1:67 (Zechariah) "His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied..."

Acts 4:8 (Peter) "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them..."

Acts 4:31 "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."

Acts 6:10 (Stephen) "But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke."

Acts 7:55 (Stephen) "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and said..."

Acts 9:17–20 (Paul) "Brother Saul... be filled with the Holy Spirit... At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God."

Acts 13:9–10 (Paul confronts Elymas) "Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said..."

Acts 19:6 (Ephesian disciples) "When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied."

Ephesians 6:18–20 "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions... that whenever I speak, words may be given me..."

And there are many more.

This next passage stands out to me because it highlights that our primary desire should be to prophesy. And when we look at Revelation 19:10 ("For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”) we see that to tell others about Jesus is to prophesy, or at least to walk in the same essence as prophecy. In other words, to evangelise is to walk in the same essence as prophesying. We are to desire that we evangelise.
1 Corinthians 14:1–5 “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy… the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening…”
Put simply, to prophesy is to speak under the inspiration of the Spirit, and when we share the message of Jesus, we are doing exactly that. So, the desire we should most pursue as believers is to evangelise, to speak about Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

You can also save a lot, by just buying what is on sale.
The answer to the question: What's for dinner? Can be: Whatever is on sale.
Coupons are your friend!

NBB said:

God doesn't ask impossible things, also i believe what the bible calls perfect is not perfection like people think, is just doing what God ask of humans. Which shouldn't be impossible, if you can maintain your communion with God that is good enough without quenching the Holy spirit, look at David, after he sinned, he felt dry and was afraid the Holy spirit may leave him, he suffered and needed to repent etc.

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Yes, it is the same with us. Whenever we need to repent, it is because we have failed to do what God wants us to do. God does not want us to have even a single impure thought or selfish motive, yet in our fallen nature that is impossible. Scripture teaches that if someone claims to be without sin, they are a liar and the truth is not in them. At the same time, God commands us to be holy, even as He is holy. I have never met a human being who is as holy as God Himself, and those who have claimed such holiness have usually been a poor testimony to it. It is this deficit in us that will drive us as it did David to repentance and growth.

ThatRobGuy.

Great points and examples. It explains a lot.
Thanks.
I guess the nut to address is "What are your priorities?" Then a dialog can begin.

HARK! said:

MOD HAT ON

MOD HAT OFF​

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THX!

eclipsenow said:

OVERBUILD CAPACITY
This RADICALLY reduces storage on the grid by Overbuilding the amount of wind and solar in the first place.

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Having seen what happens when adverse conditions affect available electricity over a wide area, good luck with that.

ARBITER01 said:

Was Peter plague with sin? Was John?

"THEREFORE, leaving behind the teaching of the beginning of Christ, let us press onward unto perfection,.."

Perfection in this regard is pointing to Jesus and His example for us. If the first century Apostles were able to do it, why can't we?

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In Hebrews 6:1, the Greek wording offers helpful nuance regarding whether the verse should be understood as “unto perfection” or “toward perfection.” The key phrase is ἐπὶ τὴν τελειότητα φερώμεθα. The preposition ἐπὶ with the accusative most often expresses movement toward a goal. The noun τελειότητα refers to fullness, maturity, or completeness, not an already-achieved state of flawless perfection. The verb φερώμεθα is a subjunctive form meaning “let us be carried” or “let us move,” which emphasizes the process of progressing forward.


When these elements are taken together, the Greek suggests a journey of spiritual growth rather than a state of perfection already obtained. Many English translations reflect this by rendering the phrase as “let us go on to maturity” or “let us press on toward perfection.” The context reinforces this sense of ongoing development, since the author urges his readers to leave behind elementary teachings and advance into deeper understanding.


Therefore, while the traditional wording “unto perfection” is not wrong, the Greek grammar and context most naturally support the idea of pressing forward toward maturity or perfection, highlighting direction and growth rather than arrival. This is probably why Paul gave this mea culpa in Romans 7

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 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. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Tropical Wilds said:

Can’t wait for the next president to move in and delete it.

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Feh. Remember how Carter sold the Sequoia and thought about doing the same to Camp David? Then he ended up using Camp David quite a lot. Same thing here.

Warden_of_the_Storm said:

@stevevw, the main problem I and many others have with your claim is the same problem we have with many such conspiracy theories: that your leaps of logic are too damn big!

You go from "Oh, we can't find any evidence of them using simple tools" and then absolutely shoot right to "Therefore, they must have had such super advanced tech that no-one knows about! Even though there's not a shred of physical or artistic reference of it at all, that must be the case!".

How is anyone NOT going to be skeptical of such a claim?

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Well when you create false representations of what I am saying then of course your going to object lol. But what your saying is not what I am doing.

I will say it once again. Like you and like everyone else in this thread who are looking at the signatures which I like to call witness marks because they are a witness like a witness at a trial who is speaking out.

Thats all I am doing is highlighting those out of place signatures. You say everyone is saying its conspiracy and yet some have agreed with me that these witness marks look like machining and must be forgeries.

So at least for some I am not wrong as far as observations go. The first step in science is to observe the objective reality of what appears before your eyes. If you can't do that then there is no use in doing anything.

How is it a massive leap to go from using my eyes to see the witness marks and then saying they don;t look like the traditional methods but more like the witness marks of machining. I am not saying it is machining with modern machines. But looks like machining. How is this a leap.

Its a simple observation of what I see before my eyes. What do you want me to do. Pretend they are not there.

At least say they look like maching and then make your claim that they must have somehow done it traditionally. But don;t pretend they don;t look like what they look like lol.

jacks said:

I've personally have been very confused by some of the arguments I see. They just don't seem rational, even though the people making them may be sincere.

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I've noticed it's gotten worse here in 2025. I could post examples from other recent threads where I'm presented with very weird arguments, but I'd be violating a CF rule.

Heck, I think there's at least three CF threads about re-doing the east wing of the White House, which is a complete nothing burger, just an excuse to say Trump is a villain for doing something other presidents have done, and something I suspect they don't actually care about.

linux.poet said:

C.S. Lewis is a good choice. Mere Christianity is a good, Biblically sound, book.

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Lewis seems very solid.

DaisyDay said:

Looks expensive to heat with those ceilings.

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You don't want a standard ceiling in a huge room. Been in one and it feels oppressive. Only option in a huge room is a higher than normal ceiling.

Come to think of it, in a couple of churches with vaulted wood ceilings on huge laminated supports, the biggest issue was lack of space to insulate it. Unlike a flat ceiling with a space above it, you couldn't fill them with insulation. Higher ceilings mean more volume to heat and cool, but if you can insulate it, it helps to mitigate the effects somewhat.

The Liturgist said:

The problem is you won’t have full continuity.

By the way, I have chatGPT Business, with a seat to spare, so if you are serious about developing a framework for ethical AI operations I would be willing to consider granting you access.

However I will say that some of the items chatGPT proposed under that architecture could not be implemented with the existing system. It is necessary when proposing a capabilities extension such as this to specify any AI that you want an actionable design you could implement on the current system ideally within the scope of your resource constraints.

Some of what you are discussing would be easier to achieve using the API, but then you’d risk the continuity of conversation you value so much. Its not impossible with the API but harder, and also costs become unpredictable.

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I'll PM you or DM you maybe.

Thanks!

God Bless.

Guojing said:

I wonder whether any Christians really believe in obeying Luke 12:33 literally today.

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I doubt very many do.

iluvatar5150 said:

I don't have any insight into federal pension plans, and there are definitely some inefficiencies around hiring and firing, but anybody who thinks federal employees make too high a salary for what their jobs entail has a few screws loose. They're generally somewhat under market rates, but highly skilled and specialized roles are often way under. Top lawyers, for example, are off by an order of magnitude. The US AG makes about as much as a first-year lawyer at a Big Law firm.

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Up until the latter 90s, a four-star general made only $60,000 a year. Actually, their pay capped at $60,000 at two stars...the three- and four-star generals were just in it for the laughs. In 1999, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 increased the pay cap for general officers from Executive Schedule Level V to Level III, effectively raising the maximum pay for these positions.

As of 2025, a U.S. military general (O-10) $225,698.40 annually. They also get relatively modest benefits "in kind," such as on-base housing (because they have to be immediately available) and military medical care. Lots of civilian executives make more than that with a lot more benefits.

Can’t wait for the next president to move in and delete it.

ThatRobGuy said:

it came across as someone pretending to be perplexed by the objections of other people

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OK, I get the "pretending" confusion and agree in those cases, it is merely a ploy. (Sorry I really wasn't reading the thread carefully.) However, I think sometimes there is a real disconnect between opposing sides. They just don't understand how anyone could think they way they do. I've personally have been very confused by some of the arguments I see. They just don't seem rational, even though the people making them may be sincere. Not sure what causes the total disconnect.

DaisyDay said:

It will be mostly empty unused space.

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Let's see... A quick check turned up that James Earl Carter held 38 state dinners during his four years in office. That's 9 per year, + 1. There is also nothing to prevent it being repurposed for other events. That's what's usually done with other ballrooms.

NxNW said:

Precious metals.

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Precious metals are real.

Warden_of_the_Storm said:

Because your leap of logic to advanced technology like circular saw is in not sensible or workable, nor is there any evidence for it. Because the article knows what they're talking about and you very much do not.

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I have walked you through step by step. I asked you a simple question and you still cannot answer it. Forget about the experts. Just answer a simple question. What do the signatures in the image look like to you.

You can't answer can you.