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Excellent points.

Tyranny in the name of love has been a major ploy of the enemy.

It happens in families, couples, work, all kinds of relationships . . . and certainly in government.

!!!!CONTROL!!!! has been called . . . essentially . . .

manipulation and = witchcraft.

HE LOVES ME by Wayne Jacobsen is right . . . and a good one for me to keep in mind . . . on p 170:

Finally, by looking to God as the resource for our needs, we will find ourselves not overloading our friendships with expectations that are easily disappointed. By vesting all of our hope in God's ability to meet our needs, we will not need to force our friends to do it. I know God will often use other believers to extend His gifts and graces to me, but now I also know I don't get to choose the vessel He uses. . . .
Disappointed expectations destroy relationships because we look to others in ways God wants us to look to Him. Such expectations set us up for enduring frustration. However, when we give up our expectations of people, we'll find God uses some of the most unlikely people to lend us a hand. . . .
Instead of trying to fix people in crisis, love will call us to graciously lend them our support. We will be able to offer insights as fellow strugglers, not experts with pat answers. Then we will be safe places for people to be encouraged in their trials, to discover what it means to rely on God in the midst of it.

And on pp 171 & 172

"Back then you were not a safe person for people who were hurting. You had an answer for everything, and it usually added to people's feelings of condemnation and inadequacy. But the difficulties you experienced in the last few years have changed you. People sense your compassion and your trust that the Father will sort it all out with them in His time."
. . .
Recently I met a woman from the Midwest who had been divorced when her ex-husband told her he was gay, and that he had AIDS, and that he wanted to live with his partner. A few years later as the disease progressed, she felt compassion for her former husband and felt God wanted her to help care for him as the disease worsened.
She did just that. With her husband's permission she moved back in, not as wife but as nurse, and cared for him as the disease progressed. I can't imagine what it took for her to give of herself in this way. I don't think her obedience should become a standard for others, but she talked about it as one of the greatest experiences of her life. Before he died, her husband and his partner came to repentance and faith. What's more, after her former husband's death, she stayed on to take care of his former partner as he died. While she was doing that, other AIDS patients came to the door and asked for help. During the next decade she cared for more than sixty other patients and watched them all come to faith. Today she's converting an abandoned hospital to extend that care and travels the world helping people with AIDS and those who seek to care for them.
Love will take you further than law ever will.

All that, to note that I don't know how much good our pontificating does hereon regarding the lost OR other Believers.

I believe there is some value in it as Holy Spirit has proven in my life over the decades His capacity to take our words shared in Love and sometimes even out of our junk and 'haunt' folks with them redemptively over long periods.

And, certainly St Paul on Mars hills and Peter's instruction to always have for every man an answer are fitting Biblical exhortations.

Yet, most redemptiveness occurs in RELATIONSHIPS close at hand--wherein Christ's Love is tangibly evident.

I think we do share a LOT of His Love hereon as well--both firm and warm fuzzy kinds . . . and that SAID LOVE DOES bear fruit for The Kingdom.

And as one of the strident ones . . . I think it's a mixed bag. The world has lots of loud voices. Sometimes one needs to be loud and startling to even get a hearing in all the noise of modern life.

On the other hand, soft and understated is such a rarity, that can also be loudER in terms of effectiveness than conventional loudness can be in some situations, on some issues.

Then there's the issue of who is one called to say something to in a given situation. Some are called more to Believers' exhortations and some more to the lost. Certainly we are all challenged of The Lord to reach out to the lost. Yet, some have more of an emphasis than others toward certain groups etc.

I don't know how big a percentage I get it right hereon or elsewhere. I know I try to provide for every man an answer as well as I can discern and care enough to do such.

I often suspect, however, that the 100's of hours and mostly FREEPMAILED counseling lines of text I've shared on here over the years will likely turn out to have done as much or more good for The Kingdom than my many more thousands of lines of pontificating strident assertions in various back and forth exchanges on a list of topics.

Then there's the whole issue of SOME 'debates' are merely useful ways to present things for lurkers without much expectation that the other contenders will ever gain anything from the exchanges.

However, I think that thousands of lines of such exchanges on FR are out of psychodynamic ATTACHMENT DISORDER ego needs of the contenders vs any genuine heart-felt desire out of Love to help enlighten anyone. And, I'm sure I've had too many such lines from my fingers appear hereon out of such needs far more than I'd have thought at the time. I like to think such have diminished greatly over time--in no small part due to your great example and exhortations.

So much heat and too little light is far too often the case.

Certainly the world is Anti-God and particularly Anti-Christ. And only what's done for Christ will last.

Yet, I'm increasingly convinced that if it's not done out of Love, it's probably not done truly FOR Christ. And probably only what's done FOR CHRIST out of HIS LOVE IN OUR HEARTS will truly last eternally.

The rest will be chaff or, worse, an indictment against us on judgment day.

Thanks tons for your continued minsitries hereon. LUB.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights and testimony, dear brother in Christ, and thank you for the wonderful excerpts!

And as one of the strident ones . . . I think it's a mixed bag. The world has lots of loud voices. Sometimes one needs to be loud and startling to even get a hearing in all the noise of modern life.
On the other hand, soft and understated is such a rarity, that can also be loudER in terms of effectiveness than conventional loudness can be in some situations, on some issues.

Truly, a Christian must offer the words of God and his own testimony according to God’s leading and not what seems right to himself. God gives each of us physical and spiritual gifts according to His own will. If God has gifted a person for teaching, he should not try to be an evangelist.

For an example we could look to the Apostles who were quite different and individually chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was profoundly educated, intelligent, had a strong personality and was uniquely prepared by Christ to confront the intelligentsia of the day – the Jews first and then the Greeks and then the Romans. His life was full of contention and difficulty and much fruit.

John, on the other hand, was a living testimony – he was specially loving and gentle. He was chosen to care for Mary, receive prophecy and reveal deep Spiritual truths. His long life was not as difficult as Paul’s but his ministry was every bit as important. And, like Paul's, fruitful to this very day.

And the testimony of the two was identical in declaring Who God “is,” i.e. revealing that Jesus is God, The Creator (John 1, Col 1 etc.), the ministry of the indwelling Spirit (John 15, Romans 8, etc.), the unfailing love of our Father (John 17, Romans 8:38-39, etc.) and so forth.

Or to put it another way, without Him we can do nothing and with Him, nothing is impossible. If He calls a man to tangle with intellectuals or rabid atheists then that is what he must do. And if He calls a man to spiritually nurture a particular someone then that is what he must do. And if He calls a man to suffer the “stings and arrows of outrageous fortune” that is what he must do … without the whiney “oh, woe is me!” because, as with John, our life is also a testimony.

In sum, a Christian must realize that his life is not his own, that worldy “possessions” are just an illusion, it is always “about” Christ. And our first and most important priority is to love God surpassingly above all else. That is the one and only Great Commandment! (Matt 22:37-38)

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. - John 15:4-5

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:9

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:3

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

The earth [is] the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. - Psalms 24:1

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? - I Corinthians 6:19

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? – Matt 16:24-26

I thank God for the body of Christian witnesses we have here on Free Republic. There is a great diversity of Christians specially gifted for different ministries.

Look at your own education both formal and in the school of life – and that of everyone on this ping list and elsewhere on this forum. Who is better gifted to engage atheist philosopher-scientists than betty boop?

It is worse than that.

Having excellent doctrines, being intolerant of evil, doing good works, contending for the faith and so on are not enough when a Christian has lost his first love. Christ may remove his candlestick, i.e. the Light of God may no longer shine through him into the darkness of this world.

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. – Revelation 2:1-5

Truly, there is only One Great Commandment.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment. – Matthew 22:37-38

God’s Name is I AM.