Posts by myelaine

2

The Great and Terrible Sea

by compound complex in

jw
friends

he floats upon the great and terrible sea,.

merciless waters that rise unabated till,.

at last, they cover over head and tail the.

Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by paul...so when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her drive...

love michelle

2

Knowing the limit of WHO and WHAT we are

by Terry in

we are each born different from others in many respects.

our human-ness is conceptually the same, however, as we age our differences become more and more apparent.

some kids hate vegetables.

myelaine

Thank you garyneal.

24

Chemical warfare in Syria-can man be saved?

by Monsieur in

the images on the news after the town in damascus was attached with a chemical weapon was incredibly disturbing.

babies dying, people suffocating, it was man at his worst.. can man be saved?

it seems the entire world is implicated in this conflict.

myelaine

I agree Glander.

The thing is that America should intervene in this battle at this point but then the German and Chinese would have to defend their allies the Assad regime thereby drawing world powers into the conflict.

I think the chemical weapons were used to deliberately force the Americans hand in this conflict. So far president Obama has found ways around not interfering. As a tactical manoeuvre it is as well conceived as it is evil...will president Obama reveal his impotence to the entire world or start WW III?

With western forces spread all over the globe...we're sitting ducks in any event

9

Who comes before the Messiah?

by label licker in

jw
friends

deuteronomy 18:15 talks of a prophet who would be raised up like me(moses);then, malachi 4:5 says look!

i am sending you elijah before the coming of the great day of jehovah and john 1:19 the people are asking john if he is the christ, or is he elijah, or is he the prophet.. we know christ is coming again.

but according to malachi, elijah has to come before the christ.

myelaine

dear label licker...

the bible reader finds BOTH elijah and moses appear to have their beginning in the OT...the bible states that until Jesus (being the firstborn of the resurrection) there wasn't anyone who ascended to heaven but Him that decended. reasonably then, that would indicate that elijah actually found his beginning after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perhaps that is why, unlike beloved moses, there is no biography of his "beginnings"...he just arises in the biblical account as a preacher Malachi states that the same will happen...elijah will arise to preach a message of repentance and a restoration of the faith preached by the fathers to the sons (Behold I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction).mal.4:5-6

at their return moses is the one to be resurrected because he died. elijah was translated to the heavenly realms... as both ARE messengers of God, it wouldn't be unusual that they are referred to as "angels"...rev.8:8 (moses)

love michelle

22

Fun Facts learned this week in my reading...

by Terry in

jw
friends

the temperature of the earth's core is as hot as the surface of the sun 9900 degrees farenheit.. .

below the amazon river lies another river called the rio hamza.

only 14% of the earth's species have been identified.. .

myelaine

in Canada, person can be given a sentence of up to 14 years in prison for startling the beloved Queen of England

xo

269

Why does god kill children?

by Comatose in

i was thinking about all the accounts in the bible that indicate god kills children as a punishment or teaching experience.

1. kills all of egypts firstborn sons, who were innocent kids who did nothing to him or his people, who had no control over the decisions pharoah made.

how many times have you read that account or thought about it without realizing the devastating pain dealt to all those parents, and remembered those were innocent kids?.

myelaine

dear AndDontCallMeShirley...

you said: "Michelle makes that claim, Comatose, but did you notice how many qualifiers, such as, 'could have', 'maybe' and "I think" that both she and tec/Tammy included in their replies? What it comes down to, especially with Michelle, is the Bible accounts as written make her so uncomfortable she's forced to make all kinds of assumptions, speculations, excuses and outright fantasizing in order to accept them. Taken as written, the accounts offend anyone with even a moderately developed sense of morals and are impossible to defend as-is."...

could have, maybe and I think are words one would use in trying to analyse something. The bible accounts don't make me uncomfortable. the accounts of the ancient hebrews were not unusual for their time. the bible makes it clear that the groups of people that moses and the hebrews encountered were not sweet and hospitable to them as they tried to make their way to the promised land.

moses was responsible for taking a rag tag complaining bunch out of egypt and within the span of forty years all that had left egypt were dead. the group that were poised to enter the promised land didn't resemble the group that left egypt. moses had built up a disciplined and cohesive army a diciplined and cohesive religious system and they likely respected the sometimes harsh hand of moses that had brought them this far. moses was harsh. he loved God and he was hurt when the hebrews did turn from the way of pure worship that God required...because he felt responsible for them and their behaviour. at one time he felt so overwhelmed with the responsibility that he asked God to kill him right then.

yes God required a pure worship and He wanted discipline too...because He wasn't just babysitting, He was building a nation for HIS name. any nation that thrives has laws and something that brings them together. that something for the hebrews was their "set apart" religion. in order to keep the participants set apart leaders did have to rout out and destroy from their midst those who would induce them to practice forms of false worship. there is nothing wrong with making the decision to protect the majority. that is why only the virgins were spared in the war with midian...the virgins hadn't participated in the worship practices that were thought to be religious sex rituals. these virgins were set apart and likely became the wives of the hebrew men as the hebrews were "very fruitful". why did moses make the decision to kill the little boys?...I don't know but he knew and he had his good reason. I don't plan to excuse his decision or deny it or defend it it just is that way. I trust that God had a plan for them that I am not aware of and I'll leave it in His hands. I can speculate that they may be being resurrected to be given the chance to turn to the living God because God does show mercy on whoever He wants to. the most merciful thing He can do is give a person a second chance to turn to Him.

I'm neither uncomfortable nor offended by the measures taken by moses and his loyalists in their effort to built a strong nation serving their God. neither am I uncomfortable or offended by efforts of the church today to take an uncompromising stand against the false worship that has crept into the congregations...it's the same type of situation that was faced by moses and his congregation...the situation is also similar to the problem in the apostle pauls day...he didn't have any problem keeping the majority from being "defiled" by false worship either. God still wants a people for HIS name. No paul didn't want to kill people that were a threat to the purity of the congregation anymore than the church today wants to kill its members that depart from the way. in pauls day the threat wasn't about the preservation of the nation that God was building but the life and continuation of the purity of the religious worship afforded God from the begining of the nation, in that the nation of israel grew and thrived. http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/holy-holiness.html

I believe the entire bible IS useful for doctrine, rebuke and teaching in righteousness. these OT scriptures though by todays "standards" are brutal, they are relative to a completely different time in the history of the world. I wouldn't remove any of it to suit my "theology", if anything I would move to adopt the books that were included in the ethiopian bible as they serve to give a more detailed picture than what we have now as to THE FAITH.

How do any of the episodes of war while nation building point to the idea of a God of love?...to me, a God who is dedicated to building and preserving a people who are free from subjection to the thinking that comes along with no just dicipline is a God of love. but God is not just "love"...scripture says that He also hates and He does and has poured out His wrath on that which He hates and He does and has removed His protection from those who "stray"...because it is HIS perogative to do what He says He's going to do, then I simply can't dismiss the fact that He is also a holy God who , from the beginning of the nation of israel, requires much from those who have received much. ezekiel 16:1-63

love michelle

269

Why does god kill children?

by Comatose in

i was thinking about all the accounts in the bible that indicate god kills children as a punishment or teaching experience.

1. kills all of egypts firstborn sons, who were innocent kids who did nothing to him or his people, who had no control over the decisions pharoah made.

how many times have you read that account or thought about it without realizing the devastating pain dealt to all those parents, and remembered those were innocent kids?.

myelaine

dear comatose...

I'm sorry I haven't responded to your question. I'm sure I haven't got a suitable response though because I haven't even taken the time to consider that text to find any teaching, rebuke or doctrine in it. Maybe since the episode is proven to be something you are given to consider, you can inform us of anything you've come up with.

I look forward to your thorough analysis :)

love michelle

269

Why does god kill children?

by Comatose in

i was thinking about all the accounts in the bible that indicate god kills children as a punishment or teaching experience.

1. kills all of egypts firstborn sons, who were innocent kids who did nothing to him or his people, who had no control over the decisions pharoah made.

how many times have you read that account or thought about it without realizing the devastating pain dealt to all those parents, and remembered those were innocent kids?.

myelaine

being willing to do something is not the same as being ready to do something. abraham could be of the right heart (willing) to do the command of God but not have a conscience (ready) to accept that what God commanded was what he wanted. I don"t think that God commanded abraham to sacrifice issac as a test of loyalty. I think because God asked abraham to move away from the surrounding nations after the incedent it was more of a teaching episode that we can learn from as well. It is within us to "go along to get along" even if it is against our own conscience. But abraham trusted in God's promise and that overrode his own conscience. that is a pattern that the army of israel followed. I don't think they were full of bloodlust and casually slaughtered anyone. (we do see bloodlust today in islam which has no connection to a conscience being overridden by the command of God...what we see there is a debased conscience similar, I guess, to what may have been going on in the ancient nations surrounding abraham with parents WILLING to sacrifice their children etc.)

dear AndDontCallMeShirley...

I'm not assuming...actually not knowing fully the dynamics of the situation back then, I'm trying to analyze the possible motivations of God; taking into account all the different aspects given of God's character and His stated purpose of ridding the world of evil instead of narrow-mindedly jumping to conclusions or seeking to dismiss facts as the lying pen of the scribes. bottom line, I'm not quite as confident in my knowledge as you seem to be as to the grand scheme of the seen and the unseen that I would boldly assume and declare that I am more moral than God based on a few texts that seek to explain the course of God's interaction with man over thousands of years.

love michelle

269

Why does god kill children?

by Comatose in

i was thinking about all the accounts in the bible that indicate god kills children as a punishment or teaching experience.

1. kills all of egypts firstborn sons, who were innocent kids who did nothing to him or his people, who had no control over the decisions pharoah made.

how many times have you read that account or thought about it without realizing the devastating pain dealt to all those parents, and remembered those were innocent kids?.

myelaine

I don't know why God asked that the livestock be killed too but He did want all traces of groups removed and all traces would mean livestock. It would also mean don't take any of their possessions for yourself either. He was serious about that too.

Isn't it possible that if the infant children were spared that they might have turned on the Israelites when they were adult? If they didn't understand God's justification in destroying their group, loyalty to their family might be reason enough for revenge, even given that their family might have sacrificed them.

Abraham is one person that was willing to "do it" because everyone else was. It makes sense that child sacrifice was common among other people groups and that is why he went so far as to try to sacrifice issac. He was ready to go along with what everyone else was doing. Did God see that unlike others his heart wasn't conditioned to do it willingly? Maybe and that is why God told him to go away from the people he resided by. Abraham wasn't like everyone else...he didn't have "bloodlust" I don't think God does either, He can see the heart of a people and what they are destined to do...He wanted to prevent harm by having the Israelites be proactive. He wants nothing less now...the gospel is proactive, He knows who the enemy is and He wants to gather to Himself those who will " believe the report".

I wonder if any of you would stand up and DO something proactive to stave off foreseeable horrors or would you "tolerate" it?

love michelle

269

Why does god kill children?

by Comatose in

i was thinking about all the accounts in the bible that indicate god kills children as a punishment or teaching experience.

1. kills all of egypts firstborn sons, who were innocent kids who did nothing to him or his people, who had no control over the decisions pharoah made.

how many times have you read that account or thought about it without realizing the devastating pain dealt to all those parents, and remembered those were innocent kids?.

myelaine

God commanded the Israelites to kill specific groups of people. He saw that these people were debased and that allowed to live their children would be the same...learning from their familial environment. What reason would any of you have for "tolerating" a group of people that would give their children to the fire?

there are groups of people today that do horrendous things to their own people and to others...to "tolerate" these groups is to completely lack mercy for those who are the victims. I can see God feeling the same way...He felt mercy for those who might have come into contact with them.

if you think that God was being "unfair" then I'll suggest a video that I've been told about on youtube, it shows a bishop who was beheaded by Syrian rebels...slowly and painfully with a small knife they sawed off his head while a small boy stands front and centre to take it all in because he is the next generation called upon to carry out the same sort of acts. This could have been the types of people that God sent the Israelite army out to destroy, because clearly if it could happen in 2013 it could happen then.

It is said that God sees the heart of people even from generation to generation...human "toleration" can't even "see" tomorrow. Romans 3:1-6

love michelle