I know exactly what you mean, Anton. When I think of Bin Laden too awful long I desire to see him placed in a small arena with many women who have been mutilated or abused by the Taliban and their ilk.
Sure, I do forgive him but that does not mean that he should not be punished for his crimes against humanity.
Rex
Rex B13
JoinedPosts by Rex B13
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20
Fundamentalists of a different flock
by Rex B13 inthis is a short article from breakpoint and i think that the writer explains the christian view on recent events.
i hope it reaches those who need it.. this shows why christians are different though being capable of some rather nasty acts.
to my usual detractors, save your bluster as i will not respond to anyone who hijacks this thread with personal attacks.
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Rex B13
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20
Fundamentalists of a different flock
by Rex B13 inthis is a short article from breakpoint and i think that the writer explains the christian view on recent events.
i hope it reaches those who need it.. this shows why christians are different though being capable of some rather nasty acts.
to my usual detractors, save your bluster as i will not respond to anyone who hijacks this thread with personal attacks.
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Rex B13
This is a short article from BREAKPOINT and I think that the writer explains the Christian view on recent events. I hope it reaches those who need it.
This shows why Christians are different though being capable of some rather nasty acts. to my usual detractors, save your bluster as I will not respond to anyone who hijacks this thread with personal attacks. I will, however, pray for you!
RexThe signs this fall are everywhere:
"God bless America."
"Pray for the victims and their families."
"Pray for our leaders."
"God bless our troops."
These are natural admonitions. Easy to say, easy to do. We flock to church services to pray. We ask God to comfort, protect, give wisdom. Our first and continuing cry over the victims in the towers and Pentagon, the victims in the airplanes, the firefighters and police officers, is "Oh, God!"What is difficult—extremely difficult—is this admonition Jesus Christ gave to his followers: "You have heard that they were told, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But what I tell you is this: Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors . . ." (Matthew 5:43-44).
Wow, Jesus. How can you say that? Are you crazy? Did you see what they did to us? Didn’t you see the people on fire jumping out the windows of the World Trade Center? Don’t you know about the firefighters who died trying to save people?
And that’s not all. He goes on to say, ". . . only so can you be children of your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:45).
You mean if I don’t love those terrorists I am not a child of God? That can’t be in the Bible. It can’t be.
It is. It is what makes Christianity different. It is what makes followers of Christ different than people like Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Atta and the Taliban. As a matter of fact, it is the only thing that distinguishes us. "If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Again, if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is there in that? Even sinners do as much," Jesus said (Luke 6:32-33).
Loving our enemies has the power to transform us to be like God. To form us into a whole different sort of human being than our enemies. This does not mean we excuse what they did. It does not mean we feel affection or fondness for them. It does not mean trying to think they are really not that bad, because they really are that bad.
C. S. Lewis struggled with this and came to think of it this way: "In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one." In looking at his enemies, Lewis writes, he remembered being taught to "love the sinner, hate the sin," and wondered how he could hate the sin without hating the man.
"But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life—namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself," Lewis writes. ". . . Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find I was the sort of man who did those things."
I may not be capable of killing 5,000 people with a jumbo jet, but I am capable of some really cruddy crappy things. Things I am ashamed to speak of. Things I do not like to admit. Things I hate.
And, as Lewis says, Jesus does not require us to reduce the hatred we feel for such cruel and inhuman acts. We are to hate them, "in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should have done such things, and hoping, if it is any way possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere, he can be cured and made human again."
Last night I found this prayer.
O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted on us; remember the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering—our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this, and when they come to judgement let all the fruits which we have borne be their forgiveness.
(Prayer written by an unknown prisoner in Ravensbruck concentration camp and left by the body of a dead child.)
Look at some good things, the fruits, that have come from the horrible events of September 11.We have discovered our true heroes are the firefighters and rescue workers who live next door, not drug-snorting, bed-hopping celebrities. We have discovered we can pray with our Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim neighbors. We have discovered our reason for living is not to get more stuff than our neighbors, but to love and get to know our neighbors. We have discovered we are capable of giving our hard-earned cash to someone who needs it more than we do. And on and on.
Christians have the opportunity to be transformed. God did not cause this horror: it is the work of evil incarnate. And God’s plan, always at work beneath the surface of human events, is redemption, always to transform evil into good. That’s what he did on the cross. That is the message of the cross.
Let’s not blow it.
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Luanne Austin is religion editor for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Her weekly column, "Rural Pen," appears there each Friday.
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Best Excuses for Getting out of Meetings
by Xena inbeing pregnant worked really well for me!
lol i milked that puppy for all it was worth!
got to sit in the back room and nap with my feet up!
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Rex B13
Hi Gang,
Like you, I also had my ways of getting out of meetings. Back in the old days of the early eighties, I had the excuse of 'working over' whenever the need would suffice. Thursdays and Tuesdays always seemed to have O.T. My wife had been attending much more than me at the time before our DF in '86. By the time of our reinstatement in '97 plus one year we needed no excuses after finding out the truth about the 'troof'........
Now I cannot wait to be at our church. Every time the doors are open we are there and it feels so good because it is something that we want to do. We believe that God has called us out of darkness and into the light.
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The real facts about Islam
by Rex B13 inthis is a link to an article by salmon rushdie, who knows more about islam than all of us put together.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1634000/1634755.stm.
discussion?.
rex
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Rex B13
The ignorance of Norm:
>The occupying force in Palestine, do however kill Palestinian civilians, including children, every day. Somehow those civilian Palestinian lives seem to be far less worth that those civilian Jews and Americans that were killed. Can you explain why?
Why? How about the palestinian cowards intentionally hiding behind civilians, sending out children to attack Israeli soldiers? You ignore that fact which is all too frequent an occurance.
Then they place their military in residential surroundings to make it sure that civilians will die when they get retalitated for car/truck bombs that maim and kill. The Taliban do the same thing with their own people being the victims. Osama would rather hide in a cave than fight like a man. He'd rather see EVERYONE in the country dead than go out and fight for his alleged, 'just cause'.
He is also NOT an extremist in one sense, he is simply following the Koran to the literal letter of it's teachings. He can justify his actions, the other Muslims know this and that is a big reason they are so quiet.It's time for you to awaken from your socialist and anti-semite rhetoric. BTW, I also so not support the Jews with a blind eye. We should not refrain from condemnation of their acts of cruelty. At the same time, we do not live with the day to day chance of us or our families getting maimed or killed when we are just going about our daily lives.
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The real facts about Islam
by Rex B13 inthis is a link to an article by salmon rushdie, who knows more about islam than all of us put together.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1634000/1634755.stm.
discussion?.
rex
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Rex B13
I see you bros are sticking together on this one, eh Cygnus?
>Is it just me or has WW gone absolutely completely loopy?
That is about the best comment that can come out of you. It shows your true character.
Cheers,
Rex -
24
The real facts about Islam
by Rex B13 inthis is a link to an article by salmon rushdie, who knows more about islam than all of us put together.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1634000/1634755.stm.
discussion?.
rex
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Rex B13
Forget it Seeker,
You seem intent on critisizing me personally instead of taking the article and discussing Islam and Rushdie's slant. I've already exposed your ignorance and intentional slander of Christianity numerous times yet you continue to compare apples and oranges. People like you and Norm are on my case, personally, no matter what I post.
I'm done with you both.Thanks for recognizing my post for what it is, Bridgette.
As you can see, I have some detractors who will not relent from berating me personally.
Take a look at the results of history. Islam has always been about conquest by war. The crusades (that our religion haters here whine about) was partly a response against this. You too have noticed the lack of condemnation against terrorism by muslim countries. If you hear the average moderate muslim condemn the attacks by terrorists they always temper it with critisism of the U.S., Israel (which have both been bending over backwards to Palestinian desires).
Their belief system is nothing like the Christian one. They have a corrupted version of Arabic Kingdom law made into a religion, which is itself modelled after a corrupted version of the Law Covenant.
some of the bozos here continue to ignore the fact that Islam embraces destruction of all who stand against it, for whatever reason.
Their religious clergy are threatened by several factors, Christian conversions are on the rise, modern influences are a big reason they hate us: it loosens the grip they have on the people. We (the U.S. & Christianity) are the biggest obstacle to their desire to convert the world to Islam and they know it.
Add to that the hatred between muslims who are shiite (Iran is a big example) and the sunnis (Iraq, Saudi Arabia) with the wannabi sect being the most vicious and it is responsible for the virulent hatred of all things western, the cruelties against women. This cult is financed by the Saudis!!! Our supposed allies! Did you know that Kuwait kicked the wannabis out? Did you also know that in Iran there have been PRO-AMERICAN demonstrations by the younger adults and teens who are tired of the religious hegemony practiced by their own Mullahs?
My detractors here refuse to recognize the very different teachings that our Lord left us with. They slander anyone who takes a firm, Biblical stand and for whatever reason it infuriates them. Keep your own viewpoint, whatever it may be and don't be a 'follower' like so many are.
Take care,
Rex -
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Ephesians 4:1-3
by YoYoMama in*** rbi8 ephesians 4:1-3 ***.
4 i, therefore, the prisoner in [the] lord, entreat you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, 2 with complete lowliness of mind and mildness, with long-suffering, putting up with one another in love, 3 earnestly endeavoring to observe the oneness of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
jehovahs witnesses are a united people.
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Rex B13
Hi YoYo,
Don't you realize that the N.T. does not apply to you, except in the crumbs that are tossed your way by your masters in Brooklyn? You simply refuse to accept the fact that divergence from others in the gray areas of the Bible has always been the norm. Salvation is based on following Christ, recognizing His deity and that His work on the cross provides such. Catholics are more works oriented and Protestants recognize works as evidence of faith but not grace.
Eph. 2.8,9
Try actually reading the whole context, which may take the whole book or several related verses to discern. While your at it, get a real Bible instead of the NWT.
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The real facts about Islam
by Rex B13 inthis is a link to an article by salmon rushdie, who knows more about islam than all of us put together.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1634000/1634755.stm.
discussion?.
rex
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Rex B13
Hi Seeker,
So I am not allowed to post an article that says some things contrary to my previous statements? That's kind of odd coming from such a 'free speech' advocate. I now and forever have to post only articles that I completely agree with? I DID read the article.
It is you who cannot seperate yourself from constant erroneous comparisons between Islam and Christainity. BTW, did you look into the section of the Koran that details the personal and public jihad?
If you did, you will see that it varies greatly from, "love thy neighbor as thyself".
Islam is just another cult, only bigger than most. If you would take off your 'politically correct' goggles and remove your own blinders of liberalism you might begin to see what this war is all about. I repeat, Islam has as a central doctrine the forced conversion (by the followers, not God) of all humanity. They butchered millions of the original Parsi religious prophet, Zoaraster. They are FOLLOWING THEIR TEACHINGS FROM THEIR BOOK when they do so!
Look it up and do some of the 'research' you claim to base your ideas on. Sheesh, you plit hairs over the title of my post? Give me a break.Norm,
I am all for any moderating influence (no matter what form it takes), on those who practice extremism. You are a jew-hating bigot by the casual observance of your posts, make that a Judeo=Christian hating bigot. Isn't that following in the footsteps of the Nazi collaborators in your own country during WW2? Perhaps you carry on a "fanmily tradition"?
Cheers,
RexP.S. Why not just discuss the article instead of hijacking the thread?
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I'm Screwed Up, You're Screwed Up
by Farkel ini have not followed very many threads of late, so if someone has already made the same observations i'm about to make, i apologize for my redundancy.. .
i admit it: i'm part of a highly secretive, highly elite group.
(we have to drink two quarts of fresh yak blood and get a tattoo of a pentagram on our butts as part of of the initiation.
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Rex B13
There itis Shelby. I had said that it is God's province to judge the hearts of man, then you replied:
>Uh, not quite, Rexie. He has COMMITTED such judging... to our Lord. Yes? The One of whom it is said, "he well knows what is IN man"? And THAT One DID tell US that 'by their fruits'... we would know the 'children of the Devil'... yes?
You don't even realize that Jesus IS God and you call yourself a 'Chrsitian'? BTW, the above reference to scripture needs to be quoted to discern the context. Your simpering false humility will not do here. Some of us see through it.
>Is KNOWING... the same as JUDGING? I think not.
So now Shelby has a little of God's own sovereignty?
>For my Father shows mercy to whomever HE wishes to show it, yes?
Yes? NO? Quote the scripture and relate the context please.
>But, did not Paul expose Peter... face to face... as a hypocrite? Was that 'judging'?
Hypocrite is a strong word in referring to an apostle. YOU are not an apostle no matter how much you want to be.
>And did not the apostles call Paul to task for HIS erroneous judging? And did Paul not 'repent' of it?
Scripture, verse, context?
quote:
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and we are viewing only the rough surface that is yet coal but may some day be a diamond.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->Absolutely. And it is my SINCEREST hope that ALL are found to be 'diamonds'. Otherwise, why bother speaking at all? Why not just write everyone off? Because my Lord didn't, my Father didn't... and neither do I.
Then why do you keep, "playing to the crowd" and pretending to be God's channel, just like the Borg that you left?
quote:
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Your own words condemn you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->I am not aware of anything against myself in this matter, Rex. If I were, I would state it, here, publicly. And apologize. Publicly.
And please know that I am not 'angry' at Julie. By NO means. She made a statement that we are 'all God's children'. But if that were true, then SOMEBODY'S lying... because my Lord called SOME... 'offspring of vipers'. Yes? And our brother John intimated to us how we could the 'children of the Devil'. Tell me... are the children of the Devil... the children of God?Are you yourself not an 'object of wrath' since you deny the deity of Christ? BTW, again, you need scripture, verse and context....
>quote:
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The Law Covenant is fullfilled in Christ HE died for all of the sins of the world. Israel was to be the 'light of the world', but failed. Those who belong to Christ are in the world yet because God desires all to be saved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->Absolutely. God desires all to be saved. Unfortunately, like Israel, however... not all DESIRE to be saved. Many feel no NEED to be saved, yes? However, 'for as many as DID receive him'... there is salvation. Yes? What salvation is there for those who do not WANT... or think they NEED... to be saved?
Scripture, verse, context.
>And THEN you quote:
quote:
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41 "Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->... and ask ME does that make ME pause "just a little". Tell me, doesn't it make YOU pause? Just a little?
Are you going to answer the question or not?
You go on to say:
>quote:
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8 He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am he,' and, `The time is near.' Do not follow them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------... and ask "Does that sound just a little like some self-proclaimed prophets?"
>Absolutely. It does. But surely you are not applying those words to me? I have made NO such statements... implied or otherwise. I am NOT 'he'... and I have NO idea when 'the time' is. I am not even CONCERNED with the time, for my 'commission' is not BASED on timeframes. I don't have a set number of years given me. I hear; I go; I speak. If it comes soon... great. If it doesn't... not even in my lifetime... so what? Are we TRULY to be concerned with doing our Lord's will within a certain timeframe? 1914... 1975... 2000... 3000... means nothing to me, Rex. Truly. I've been promised NOTHING in this sytem of things... and EVERYTHING in that one... and I will get it... when I get it. And if I don't... I still will not consider my time 'wasted' or lost. I do not DO it for want of a reward. I do it... out of love... for my Father... my Lord... and those they love and that love them. Period. I have NO other 'motivation'... not even fear. For love... casts fear OUTSIDE.
I hit you right in your achilles heel. Isn't it time for you to confess your deceit right here and now. We have all seen quotes from you aluding to; hinting at; claiming to be a 'channel of God'. confession is good for the soul.
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What amazing arrogance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->If you think me arrogant, please, let me say two things:
First, I apologize, for that was not my intention at all... nor my desire. Second, my Lord was thought arrogant... as were those prior to me. Truly, nothing new under the sun. Question is: who was it, truly, that THOUGHT them 'arrogant'?You have NO business comparing yourself to our Lord. You have no authority and this is another example of your arrogance. I am trying to get through to you.
>quote:
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Do not judge, lest you be judged.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->I will 'hear' your counsel, Rex... and consider it. I WILL 'examine' my heart... and if I find you to be 'in the right', I WILL repent... in sackcloth and ashes... and state so, publicly.
Again, peace to you... and no, my words are not 'empty'.AMEN.
Rex -
10
Jack Van Impe
by Dan B inanybody ever see this guy on tv?
was he ever a jw?
i've heard that he was, but that might just be rumor.. dan
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Rex B13
Hey Dan,
There are real preachers out there: Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers, Michael Yousef, David Jeremiah, Chuck Swindoll to name a few. Most ahve daily programs on Christian radio.
Rex