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USER COMMENTS BY “ DOUGLAS FIR ” |
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| Page 1 | Page 20 · Found: 500 user comments posted recently. |
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 8/26/19 1:11 PM |
| Douglas Fir | | Zones Four to Six | |  |  | |  |
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What does it mean to say 'church' today? In this article, it seems to be the buildings where people meet, and the people who gather there.
But the Bible does not envision such a thing, but talks about people raising families and being the body of Christ.
In fact, it gives many guidelines and rules for families that also relate to the church. That's why I like to bring up I Timothy 5, which we could subtitle, "God's Will for the Older Christian Woman."
First, she is a widow, (even today 96 percent of all people get married), and should be taken care of by her own family. If they cannot do so, then she should be taken care of by the church, provided she meets certain 'work requirements' like doing good deeds, 'washing the feet of the saints' (which we can extend to today as doing very humble tasks). If she is younger, she should marry and raise children.
Other areas in the Bible have verses that talk about the care of widows, such as James saying real religion is to take care of widows in their distress. |
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| 8/25/19 11:33 AM |
| Douglas Fir | | Zones Four to Six | | | | | |
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Proverbs 1:8 "Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother"But what do we see today: parents try to find a 'good church' that has Sunday School and youth programs that their kids will like--if they are dull and boring, they will not take them there. Vacation Bible School is used as a tool to get parents into a church for this reason.
And, we see parents moving to areas where the (govt) schools are highly rated. And this illustrates the strong 'Focus on the Family' that the Bible has, which can be seen in the chapter I cite here often, 1 Timothy 5, where we find there, 'God's Will for the Older Christian Woman.'
It is all part of a system; even James wrote that 'true religion consists of...helping the widow in her distress' But what have we done? Isolated individuals who think they are part of the Body of Christ (the church) because they can espouse 'correct' beliefs, whether here or to someone in a coffee shop, or just to themselves while they are brushing and flossing their teeth. |
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| 8/24/19 11:23 AM |
| Douglas Fir | | Zones Four to Six | | | | | |
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Yes, Frank, you have pointed out what many many churches seem to forget--God's plan is for women to be in family, and Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 5, talks about God's Plan for the Older Christian Woman. First, we note that she is a widow, meaning she was married at some point and her husband died. I don't see any room given for single women here, and if we think of today's society, I've read that 96 percent of people get married. Second, Paul tells Timothy that the widow's family should take care of her. If they cannot, then the church should help her, provided she has met certain 'work requirements' like doing good works, washing the feet of the saints. Younger widows should get married and raise children.
It is amazing how many problems in today's society can be solved by having these guidelines followed. |
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| 8/23/19 11:44 AM |
| Douglas Fir | | Zones Four to Six | | | | | |
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Certain Supreme Court Justices, and other liberals, like to talk about other countries' laws. Well, in this case, you will find it hard to find a country anywhere in the world with such a policy that the US has.
Take Japan, for instance. Here's a country in dire need of workers for all kinds of jobs, residents to live in its small towns, yet they persist in having one of the most strict immigration laws in the world. Recently, changes were proposed to those laws, to give workers a 5-yr permit, and they were faced with public opposition, especially from intellectuals. The NHK story I saw on this did not go into details of why they were opposed to it. They are a very strange people, very smart but very separate; I think they believe they are superior to any other Asian people. And very few of them are Christians; most are not religious but do follow some strange ritual practices, kinda like what baseball players do in the US (very superstitious, I don't know if a Christian could be a baseball player surrounded by such strange rituals) |
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| 8/21/19 10:22 AM |
| Douglas Fir | | Zones Four to Six | | | | | |
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Purim is a Jewish festival that celebrates Esther's role in standing up for Jews. Check out the book in your Old Testament and note that God is not mentioned. Maybe for that reason, today's Jews like the book so much, because many of them do not believe in God. I have read surveys that show about one-third do not believe in God, which seems incredible to me since they are 'God's Chosen People' and much of the Bible is about them. Some time ago, something in archaeology was found that proved something in the Old Testament, maybe even something as basic as King David's existence, and many Jews scoffed at the reliability of the evidence.
Now, if Christians think they are going to gain Jewish converts, they should think twice. The roots of Jewish suspicion of Christians go way back, and the Holocaust only deepens them. In fact, you could say that only 2/3 of the Jews believe in God, but 99 percent believe in the Holocaust, which they do annually commemorate, especially if you watch PBS.
Many times, I think the promotion of 'visit the land of the Bible' to evangelical Christians has more to do with salesmanship than with a desire to deepen someone's understanding of the Bible. In fact, shouldn't they visit Turkey and Greece, where many of the churches of the New Testament were? |
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