This is completely different to taking a passage and reading another meaning into it. Ananais and Sapphira are not about covenant. They sold a field, they gave money to the Apostles and lied that the money they gave was all they had received. They both died because they had lied against God.
Where does it say anywhere in Scripture that that incident was about the covenant?
Would you blindly sign a contract giving you great benefits if there was a cost? I don't think so. You would do due diligence, check the terms and conditions before signing. Most people have been fed a Gospel of no conditions, ignoring the passages that teach about costs, ignoring the fact that many people rejected the offer.
The cost is that the signee must stop serving the interests of self for gains that perish and start serving the interests of God for gains that lasts. Ananias and Sapphira knew the cost, they thought they could pay the cost when God's voice called for it, unlike those who disbelieved, of whom it was said God swore they would never enter His Rest.
Acts of the Apostles 5:13But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.
Violent conflicts may be harmful.
But have you never heard of a conflict of interests - like if politicians are on a panel to oppose something, while being paid by another company to promote it?
Or a conflict in personalities - where two people may rub each other up the wrong way?
In cookery programmes, they sometimes talk about a dish having conflicting flavours - two strong flavours competing against one another and clashing.
A person can send out conflicting messages - they may say one thing, but their body language and behaviour may say something else.
Read some of those definitions, they talk about situations involving impending change, the sudden worsening of an illness, and so on.
You are making a distinction where none exists. Crisis/conflicts harm. “sudden worsening of illness”=crisis.
Don't be so thick. Do you think Her Majesty would accept it if you tell her that the words “crisis/conflict” in her language does not have the implication of the parties involved being in harm’s way?
They didn't have the concept, or teaching, in the OT about being born again.
They should have learnt from the past, remembered what God had done for them already and trusted him; certainly.
That's the definition of being born again.
Numbers 14:22“Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24“But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.
Why?
Jesus who was the Christ - God's chosen one - did far more than that. He taught, healed, performed miracles, drove demons out of people, was kind to the poor and those in need while rebuking the religious leaders and those who were judgemental and imposed burdens on others. He taught us to call God Abba, taught us to pray and about the role of the Holy Spirit. He also taught about the destruction of the temple, said that he would return one day and spoke of judgement at the end of the world.
Jesus was angry that the Jews thought He had come to give them physical food, heal physical sicknesses, when they followed Him after seeing Him multiply loaves of bread. He told them men didn't live by bread alone, but by every Word/Christ/resurrection that came out of the mouth of God. He advised them to eat His flesh, drink His blood (remember God's great works) and be like Him, believe, trust only in God, and enter the Kingdom.
John 6:26Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27“Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” 30So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? 31“Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’” 32Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33“For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36“But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
That proves my point exactly - context.
As I am British, the date 9/11 is the 9th of November - that is how we write our dates over here.
I would not think of planes crashing into buildings unless I was reading an article about what happened on that date, or the sentence said something like "we all know that 9/11 was a catastrophe", or "9/11 was handled badly", or something similar.
In the same way you cannot say that the word "Christ" is ALWAYS about picking up your cross - it depends on the context of the passage.
Sure, you want fish and chips, you won´t eat the local food, you only speak English, you won´t learn other languages. You Brits think the world revolves around you. That's not how normal people think. Everyone else connects 9/11 links to the terrible incidents of 11th September, unless they lived under a rock.
No.
God told Joseph in a dream that he was going to be someone important.
Joseph was in Egypt because his wicked brothers sold him into slavery; once he was in Egypt, he was falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison. God rescued Joseph from prison, after 2 years, by giving him the interpretation of various dreams - the butler, the baker and then Pharaoh. Pharaoh was so pleased to have had his dreams interpreted that he made Joseph the equivalent of Prime Minister, or Governor. God then told Joseph to store food because there would soon be a famine. There was, and Joseph's family went to Egypt to try to buy food. Once there, they were obviously reunited with Joseph, they settled down, married and had families and it was THEN that they became numerous and a large nation.
Well, the Bible says God placed different people in different situations in different parts of the world, hoping they would grope around for Him. People don't think about God until they are in trouble. Israel was already in trouble in Isaac’s nomadic camp in the desert, serving the interests of self for gains that perish. God put them in Egypt, an extreme version of serving interests of self, just to highlight her problem.
Acts of the Apostles 17:26From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
So you believe that God who is perfect, Matthew 5:48, light, 1 John 1:5 and love 1 John 4:8, is capable of creating evil, harmful problems and conflicting situations?
Thank God I don't believe in a God like that.
God gave the dream. God caused the famine.
Isaiah 45:7I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the Lord, do all these things.
If Joseph's family hadn't gone to Egypt, they would have died in the famine, with only Joseph left.
If Pharaoh hadn't been so grateful to Joseph he wouldn't have welcomed his family and they wouldn't have settled in Egypt.
If successive Pharaoh's had heard the story of Joseph, they may not have turned on the Hebrew people and chosen to use them as slaves; a cheap workforce.
If Pharaoh had been willing to listen to Moses, and God, he would not have suffered so many plagues.
You're making it sound as though God said, "I'm going to send people to Egypt to be badly treated as slaves, just so that I can rescue them again." That he created problems, conflicts and suffering because he needed to be able to solve them.
God is light with NO darkness in him at all, he is love and he is perfect.
God made a man blind from birth, so that He could rescue Him, so that bread could be fed to the children.
John 9:3Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.[/QUOTE]
