(08/31/2018) Serving In Christian Relationships

Today, reply is on serving as a Christian within personal, romantic, and sexual relationships.  A writer in the "Yahoo! Answers" Religion and Spirituality forum using the ID "amber" (Level 1 with 4 points; a member since January 23, 2014) posted the following:


Is it a sin for a Christian to get annoyed in a situation like this?

My boyfriend is 22, has no drivers license, he doesn’t have a car, claims he can’t afford his license but yet has had money for weed , booze, etc. his family constantly wants money from him. He doesn’t have much ambition but he did get saved recently but still lacks ambition. I am 24 and I got saved a little over a month ago. I am annoyed and wonder if it is sinning. Like if I’m late taking him to work he will text me and say “I told you to be here at 8:15am” . I am tired of him depending on me. I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to dump him about 4 weeks ago but I didn’t listen and now I am anxious, stressed, and annoyed. 

THE GOLDEN ARROW:  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:  for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.  (Romans 8:  5-9, King James Version, KJV)

THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  Completeness, Integrity and Wholeness? (06/21/2018); Bible Language About Spirit? (06/13/2018); Why Spirit Displays Personhood (06/06/2018); Sacred Ministry or Parenting? (05/10/2018); The Gift(s) From GOD (04/08/2018); The Meaning of "Faith" (03/28/2018); The Spirit of Meekness (12/15/2017)

"amber", here are some points Christian believers should not be ashamed to share.  Those who are "born again" must also "grow up again" by discovery, gradual growth, fellowship, service, study, and suffering; becoming mature as the "new creation" of Jesus Christ may take a life time.  While a Christian believer is challenged to continually make Jesus Christ visible to others through their every-day lifestyle and daily routine, there is a great difference between a genuine ministry of sacred service wherein we manifest divine forbearance, forgiveness, and redeeming love as opposed to our ongoing carnal, emotional, material, and psychological commitments to family, friends and others.  Just as all healthy human interpersonal relationships and sincere love are different from infatuation and "puppy love" because they require all parties involved to share accountability, display commitment, promote stability, and provide communication that is clear and complete, correct relationship with the Creator requires acknowledgment, praise, prayer, and unselfish service.  By revealing that the gifts of the Holy Ghost could not be received until after he would leave the earth, the Savior also revealed that we may not receive the last, great, gifts of life from our parents, grandparents, and other loved ones until they are taken away from us.  Many make idols and possessions of others by creating and continuing false relationships of dependence.  Through the operations of GOD we may become bereaved of our parents, teachers, and others we admire who unknowingly serve as "a crutch;" they must go to allow the challenges, duties, and problems that will call forth and make possible our new levels of growth, independence, maturity, and wholeness that otherwise would be denied to us.  Consider again the following that uses language from the Bible:

1.  Ecclesiastes 5:  1-7, King James Version (KJV):  1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools:  for they consider not that they do evil.  2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God:  for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:  therefore let thy words be few.  3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.  4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools:  pay that which thou hast vowed.  5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.  6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error:  wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?  7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities:  but fear thou God.

2.  Ephesians 4:  10-15, KJV:  10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:  13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:  14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;  15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

3.  Ephesians 4:  26-30, KJV:  Be angry, and sin not:  let not the sun go down upon your wrath:  27 Neither give place to the devil.  28 Let him that stole steal no more:  but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

There is far more to be acknowledged and received as part of ones own spiritual fullness.  (For example (4.)  Galatians 5:  19-26, KJV:  19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:  of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  23 Meekness, temperance:  against such there is no law.  24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.)  Even so, to the rebuke of the Adversary and the furtherance of the faithful in Jesus Christ, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.

THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20180831135212AAqcpUp

(08/15/2018) Sabbath Now and Then?

A depiction of David receiving shewbread from the High Priest.

Today, reply is on the spiritual meaning and value of keeping the ancient Sabbath laws recorded throughout the Bible.  The fighter using the ID "Violation Nation" (Level 5 with 8, 833 points; a member since November 08, 2014) in the "Yahoo! Answers" Religion and Spirituality forum posted the following:


Why can't atheists admit when God was telling us to stone people who work on the sabbath to death, he only meant in the past?

It was moral then and served His divine plan that doesn't mean we have to do it today but I gotta admit it really makes me angry to see people working all the same?


THE GOLDEN ARROW:  Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:  And by him all that believer are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.  (Acts 13:  38-39, King James Version, KJV)


THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  Did The Prophets Know? (05/23/2018); Sabbath Acknowledges Divine Personhood (05/14/2018); We Establish Covenant Relationship (05/01/2018); Being A Holy Nation (02/20/2018); Sacred Law and Practice (02/12/2018); Conditions Set By Covenant? (09/13/2017); Deeds Of The Law? (09/10/2017)


"Violation Nation", among the many Christian believers who realize the ancient promises and prophecies provided through Israel are continued through the revelation of Jesus Christ, the divine law speaking to the Sabbath is increasingly acknowledged as forward-looking, and a vital tool to correctly prepare men for the Second Coming of Jesus as the King of Glory.  The character and nature of divine fullness (we also say, the GODhead; the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit) is not fully revealed focusing only on punishment and wrath against sin.  Included also must be completeness, holiness, longsuffering, lovingkindness, mercy, personhood, righteousness, and wisdom.  Communication between the Creator and the created requires a peculiar vocabulary that embraces spiritual events and sacred substance.  Aspects of the sacred operations and eternal purposes of GOD may not be communicated without using the clear features of birth, death, existence, resurrection, and the second death.  

The sacred requirements for judgment make it that, among believers, accountability and duty extend beyond simple obedience.  The Ten Commandments (we also say, the Covenant) were provided to accomplish more than simply the transformation of twelve tribes and a mixed multitude (Gentiles) from Egypt into a divinely ruled sovereign nation by focusing on specific behaviors and conduct.  The Decalogue continues to clarify and crystallize the perpetual relationship between mankind and divinity that became corrupted through the disobedience of Adam.  Given the law is an expression of sacred intent and divine will, the law is to be embodied within conscience and self-will of the living as divine content and "life essence" (i.e., breath; spirit; word).  Consider the following that uses language from the Bible:

(1.)  Exodus 23:  10-12, King James Version (KJV):  10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:  11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat:  and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy olive yard.  12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest:  that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. 

(2.)  Isaiah 58:  13-14, KJV:  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:  14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:  for the mouth of the Lord Hath spoken it.

(3.)  Matthew 12:  1-8, KJV:  1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.  2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. 3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;  4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?  5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?  6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.  7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.  8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

There is far more to be acknowledged and received as part of ones own spiritual fullness.  (For example (4.)  Luke 14:  1-6,KJV:  1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.  2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.  3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?  4 And they held their peace.  And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;  5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?  6 And they could not answer him again to these things.)  Even so, to the rebuke of the Adversary and the furtherance of the faithful in Jesus Christ, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.

THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20180815113447AAYHUm9

(08/01/2018) Judgment Against The Canaanites

GOD created the army of Israel led by Joshua having more than 1/2 million men.

Today, reply addresses the revelation of GOD through continued ongoing judgment.   One of the fighters in the “Yahoo! Answers” Religion and Spirituality forum using the ID “Anonymous” (no profile data appears) posted the following:



Why did the God of the Bible wage war against the Canaanites?



THE GOLDEN ARROW:  And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.  And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.  Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan.  (Joshua 3:  9-11, King James Version, KJV)



THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  The First "Chosen" People (05/03/2018); A Holy Nation (02/20/2018); On Recognizing Divine Judgment (01/24/2018); Of War and Judgment (10/08/2013); Heart, Brain or Spirit? (10/09/2013); Moses Killed? (09/23/2013); Salted with Fire? (09/24/2013); What is Worship? (10/18/2010)



“Anonymous”, here are some points that many mature Christian believers are careful to consider:

(1.)  The Creator who uses divine law and judgment to establish mankind and the earth also has used condemnation and widespread destruction to express wrath against sin (e.g., Sodom and the cities of the plains).   Along with displays of awesome authority and power against defiance and rebellion, through such men as Noah, GOD has revealed divinity is forbearing, forgiving, longsuffering, patient, and willing to bestow divine grace.

(2.)  GOD first revealed himself to Moses in a way that indicated his dominion over the natural earth, and used the form of a burning bush whose flaming branches gave off no smoke and left no trace of ashes.  Moses was instructed to acknowledge that he was on ground made holy by the divine presence.  When Moses later asked to physically see the true image of divine fullness (we say, the GODhead; the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit), GOD passed before Moses once the prophet was placed within a cleft of the rock.  Displaying his deeds and the train that followed himself, GOD proclaimed that he is to be known, spoken of, and understood as a GOD of covenant, law, and judgment, who will punish the guilty, yet, will display mercy.

(3.)  The ten plagues brought against Egypt were not mere demonstrations to intimidate the Egyptians, the surrounding nations, or the 12 tribes of Jacob.  While the plagues were unleashed as an aspect of the deliverance of the twelve tribes, they were sacred events performed as judgments against Pharaoh, the Egyptian people, and the gods of Egypt.

(4.) The invasion by Jacob and plagues that accompanied them were fulfilling GOD's word of promise and prophecy to Abram, that he would judge against the seven tribes of Canaan who were in covenant with GOD, yet, continued to practice idolatry and sin.  GOD would use his son (the tribes of Jacob) and the mixed multitude that left Egypt to remove the seven covenant-breaking tribes.

There is far more that should be said, correctly examined, and spiritually apprehended.  (For example, (5.)  Deuteronomy 7:  1-8, King James Version (KJV):  1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;  2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:  3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.  4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods:  so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.  5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.  6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God:  the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.  7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:  8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.)  Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.

THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC