Posted on 11/05/2014 5:18:11 PM PST by Gamecock
Prosperity is totally of this world; you can’t take it with you. The Kingdom of God is not of this world.
What gives the Roman Catholic church the right to purloin from the Jews the Jewish religion's Bible? Your religion added books (the Apocrypha) to that Bible and called them inspired and canonical even though they were written originally in Greek (never Hebrew) and were thought of as "historical" and not Divinely-inspired. In fact, the Apostle Paul says that to the Jews were given "the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2).
Instead of leaving these extra-biblical books in a separate section as Jerome did back in the fifth century when he translated them into Latin (the Vulgate), the Council of Trent decided they had to be mixed in with the books of the Old Testament and considered as "inspired" in order to dispute the Reformations correct claim that they were not canonical and should not be used to establish doctrines. Something even Jerome stated a thousand years prior.
What is ironical to me about this is the Roman Catholic church now claims that it doesn't really NEED the Bible to base her doctrines on, that she has authority OVER Scripture itself and has the power to decide what is the truth of the Christian faith and everyone who claims to be a Christian MUST be in obedience and subjection to her. Funny thing for "stewards of the Bible" to say, don't you think?
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him —
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2)
One of my best and fondest memories of learning to really trust God - and which carried me through the rest of my time there (though there WERE many, many more miraculous ways God helped me), was one week in my freshman year before I got a car, I had $2.00 left in my pocket and two more days until I got paid. It was a Tuesday, and that was always the day we had a collection for the college during chapel. I felt this sense of peace come over me and I remember praying, "I know I can't out give you, Lord. I'm just going to trust you will provide.". Then I dropped one of those dollar bills in the offering plate. That left me with $1.00. I spent 80 cents on lunch which left 20 cents for bus fare TO work, but none for the return trip. After lunch, I went to my room to change for work. As I was walking out the front door to catch the bus, I noticed the mail had come early that day. I had a few minutes to spare so I went and checked to see if I had anything. There was a card addressed to me from my Mom. It wasn't any holiday or my birthday, just a nice card telling me how much she loved me and inside she had tucked a twenty!
That was GOD! Mom had sent that card a week before I was even in that situation, but the Lord already had it in the works so that I could learn to trust Him with the little things as well as the big things, like my salvation. There have been many other times where money was involved and plenty where money was not the point, but in every situation my faith grew because it was tested by trial and was refined. I don't believe God wastes our pain - no matter how serious or minor. He is refining and growing our faith through it all so that we may understand that even when something doesn't work out the way we think or want it to, we STILL trust Him to work all things for our good - no matter what. He is SO good!
Once again; where is the RULE?
MormonISM: the gift that keeps on giving...
Churchill summed it up nicely during WWII by stating just 3 words: "But if not..."
Unlike Lucy; they needed no 'splainin' to the listeners of that day just what he meant.
Job had many 'friends'...
Whatcha gonna believe?
Today's press releases or yesterdays historical facts?
One day while I was praying about this health issue I've been dealing with, I was thinking and said to God that this all seemed so pointless.
I was very rebuked when He spoke to me and said *Nothing I do is pointless*.
And I still need to remind myself of that.
Dust in the wind.
The Kingdom of God is not of this world.
True which is why we store spiritual treasures in heaven where she will not perish.
I'm in a situation in life I have no doubt whatsoever GOD was preparing me for since my birth. To many twist, turns, experiences lead up to it. As The Lord let me know 29 years ago "It's going to be OK" and it is. Things will and still must happen but He is there.
GOD uses us in our time here on earth even in ways we can't grasp. A mothers nightmare in the middle of the night yelling for her son to jump is instantly heard thousands of miles away as an accident that could have been fatal was escaped or rather the injury from it was. A miracle I wasn't aware of till a few months later when questioned by my dad.
Why persons are born unable to walk or become so later often perplexes all including preachers. I know three in my family. I saw how their lives touched others even some celebrities in one case with a cousin who was mentored by a once famous country music group as well as their battle hardened grandfather. I know how my wife changed my life for the better. I've seen the persons she interacts with.
GOD knew many things. I was born with a condition that would require intervention as in being placed in a special ED school for physically disabled kids for a few years. There I saw kids overcoming adversity. Years later I met the love of my life. Three years after marriage it ended in death. Three months later I was meeting a woman quite GOD fearing and GOD Loving who would bring radical change in my life much of it for the better. We look for miracles, prosperity, magic wands, but often miss the small details GOD for years is putting together in our lives. How we we respond to that is up to us.
A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place or thing. Proper nouns are always capitalized. That is the rule. There is no exception for God or the Bible.
To treat a proper noun as a common noun is a sign of disrespect. I do that with words like muslim, islam, or obama; sometimes even at the beginning of a sentence, just to make it clear the disrespect is intentional.
I’m no expert in grammar. If someone who is wants to pick my posts apart, they could have a field day. Proper nouns are a pretty simple concept though. The rule of capitalizing proper nouns used to be known to all children by the time they finished elementary school. I don’t know what they’re learning these days, but I’m sure proper nouns are still to be capitalized, whether the children know it or not.
Nail, meet hammer. Reminds me of how Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal when they could not invoke him to their sacrifice. (Maybe he fell asleep. Maybe he's in the bathroom.")
Blithe dismissal of the first 1500 years after our Lord walked this earth must accept that God was stymied by men in carrying out His program.
And, why He promised to send the Holy Spirit (to lead into all truth) instead of a book; which promise was fulfilled fifty days after His Ascension.
But, none are as blind as those who refuse to look.
Let’s return this thread to its full and upright Prosperity Preaching position.
Excellent article. Joel Osteen is in it for his own “prosperity” and comes across as a con man/slick charlatan.
Matthew 19:24
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
That pretty much sums it up! All we actually require is our “daily bread.”
Loathe Osteen
MRD: Nail, meet hammer. Reminds me of how Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal when they could not invoke him to their sacrifice. (Maybe he fell asleep. Maybe he's in the bathroom.")
Blithe dismissal of the first 1500 years after our Lord walked this earth must accept that God was stymied by men in carrying out His program.
And, why He promised to send the Holy Spirit (to lead into all truth) instead of a book; which promise was fulfilled fifty days after His Ascension.
But, none are as blind as those who refuse to look.
We haven't refused to look, and we are not "blithely dismissing" anything, but have such a different view of what the Ecclesia IS, that we cannot help but to view the history of it in an entirely different way than you do. That is not dismissal. That is acceptance of the teaching of Jesus. We make a different set of assumptions about the scope and nature of the Ecclesia BECAUSE Jesus invites us to look not at superficialities like geography or outward appearances, but inwardly, to the spirit, and to truth, as the grounds of proper worship of God. As a result, we understand that our parochial views of history do not validate Scripture, but Scripture validates (or fails to validate) those views of history. As the Scripture says, let God be true, and every man a liar. There are many human institutions which claim divine authority, and give formal assent to many things that are true, and yet they are not the Ecclesia. This is the threshold we look to, the single, narrow passage into the spiritual building, the true Ecclesia, to which we seek admittance: "Ye must be born again."
Peace,
SR
How much more prosperous could fella be if he could afford a bunch of wives?
;^)
I know of a certain institution that seems to take great pride in pointing out how prosperous it's members are; and what great business successes are being run and what...
Oh; let me stop now before I begin again.
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