Posted on 08/28/2016 2:41:41 PM PDT by Salvation
Husband: "Rosalee, I'm not going to your church. It's full of hypocrites!" Wife: "You know, Fred, there's always room for one more."
Total agreement.
I go to Mass secondarily to hear the Word. Primarily, because it presents the intersection of Heaven with earth, in the form of the Eucharist and the liturgy that executes it.
After years of being Catholic, it’s only recently becoming apparent to me.
There is no way to participate in that, alone. Must be Mass, in a church, with others and a priest. No other way.
We’re with you all the way, Binger. We go to the cathedral for midnight mass on occasion, but haven’t been back to our parish since my wife died, ten years now.
I spend more time on FR than I did on satellite tv, which I dropped years back, and at two bucks a day, FR is not only cheaper, it’s much more fulfilling.
I prefer your cathedral any day. Thanks for welcoming my family to your beautiful area. (BTW, are those govt robot horses still roaming the pasture across the way?)
Money & politics.
It is all churches want to have and talk about.
If you don't want to do it in the Religion Forum for fear of flaming, you could ask by Private Message if you like.
All churches??
I think you are wrong in categorizing ALL churches that way.
Those very words --- those very words saved me from suicide once, and that's the God's-honest-truth.
“I think you are wrong in categorizing ALL churches that way.”
Well, gosh, I guess we need to ban the “all” from the English language because there is always some kind of exception.
It means pertaining to the whole Church, where there is "no longer "Gentile or Jew," no longer "slave or freeman," no longer "male or female", but all are one in Christ.
My church does have a rather conservative message considering the liberal area we live in. The people that come to our church come from varied backgrounds. Most are broken people, lonely and seeking help.
If I could change my church, I would have them look at preparing all members for mission work, even if that mission work is just spreading the gospel to their neighbors at home. Then I would try to mix up the music.
This was because the Lord rose from the dead on the First Day, and that changed everything.
In other words, Jesus rested on the Sabbath day. Jesus kept the Sabbath day throughout His life and death. There is no justification for us to do otherwise.
Different perspective...
Our church started it's life 30 years ago as a conservative faith, where men wore suits to church.
A few years into things, one of the elders read that only 65% of American men owned a suit. The pastoral staff and elder board took time to discuss whether they wanted to start by giving up on the souls of 35% of men who didn't own a suit.
They decided to get rid of suits. It was a transition. They went to leisure suits, then sweaters, then left that behind.
Today, we are informal. We do not want barriers to leading people to Christ. Every time we hold our quarterly baptism, there are typically 200 or so people who were formerly unchurched, who have come to Christ for eternal life and are publicly following Him in obedience. We just passed 14,000 members, divided out in 8 congregations in our area.
I've never seen anything like it. I've come to believe people need Christ as much as always and they know it. When you teach truth in a culturally relevant way, you grow. If you are culturally irrelevant, you alienate those in the culture. If you give up truth, you are a social club. You need both.
I wasn't suggesting that a building is necessary. Consistent regular fellowship is necessary for true spiritual growth. I believe that is the point of the author of the Book to the Hebrews. As long as fellowship is regularly occurring and some accountability (even informal) is present, I wouldn't have too much of an issue with the idea of small groups or home churches fulfilling Hebrews 10:25.
I missed the part where any of this is “surprising.”
Not in the Atlanta area. All of them participated in the destruction of my Board of Elders.
Was great having you here. The ponies are still posing for all the tourists. Miss that great bacon that Pete-R-Bilt brought. We’re building new restrooms on the property and several RV hook-ups so Jim can stay for a bit longer. Course the shooting range will have to be farther back.
Matthew 16:19
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven."
Talk about authority!
Ask, I teach Catechism and I’m a convert. I’ve taught every grade from 1st to Confirmation class. There are no dumb questions. You could just message me.
“This Commandment was written in stone and proclaimed the Law for believers. Nowhere in Acts does Paul claim to nullify the law.”
“3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” - Galatians 3
“7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” - Acts 15
“28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” - Acts 15
“2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” - Romans 14
“16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” - Colossians 2
That is wonderful and all the great contributions and love that you have given back to HIM.
Just so you know, this came from Catholic answers. They say it so well.
http://www.catholic.com/documents/pillar-of-fire-pillar-of-truth
God Bless you.
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