I think you were right the first time.
This bears repeating:
“whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” Matthew 25:45
His4ever - you really need to re-examine your Christianity. You are not remaking yourself in Jesus’ image - you are remaking him in your image.
One of these days you will be before the Lord to answer for your sins. And he will say to you:
I told you to “Judge not lest you be judged”. I told you "Let he who is without sins throw the first stone. "** I told you “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”***
Just how many times did I have to tell you to work on your own sins and leave the sins of others to me? And you have committed sins - there is no one who does not sin.
I told you to treat others as you want to be treated. Now you will be treated by me the way you have treated the least of these brothers of mine. *
His4ever meditate on this - when the time comes that your actions are weighed, and your fate is determined, do you really want to be treated the way you have treated people? Because all I see from your behavior is that you abuse people by hating and reviling them for their sins. And to spend the rest of eternity being hated and reviled for the sins that you have commited sounds like Hell to me.
- Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37
** John 8:7
*** Matthew 7:5, Luke 6:42****
**** Obviously the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Okay, I’ll bite, which humans are worthy to act as God in order to judge others of sin?
Are you talking about trials and juries and such? That isn’t convicting people of SIN that’s convicting people of breaking the LAW.
Our country has a system of laws for its citizens which do not necessarily reflect the various sins of the religious represented by its citizens, they are two different things.
Being “convicted” of sin is fundamentalist jargon. It means a sort of a personal realization that something you are doing is sinful and it is often seen as a necessary step to coming out of that sin and recieving forgiveness from Christ for it. It has nothing to do with being caught and tried for a legal transgression.
I don’t think His4Ever actaully wrote this (if I’m wrong, I apologize), I think it was forwarded to her and she thought it was nice (somehow) and decided that some other people would like to see it, so instead of sending it to people on her email list she posted it here. More people would see it and she would feel she has spread the word.
I truly hope she misunderstood the devotional and did not pick up on the sympathy passage.
I could be wrong of course, but I’m hoping for the best until His4Ever chooses to explain what she thought we would get out of this.
The OP strongly implies that she didn’t write it. And the cynical side of me says that she posted it as support for her sit-and-judge style of Christianity. While undoubtedly there are many out there who, like her, feel it is their mandate to call out all the specks in all the eyes they can, it still doesn’t make it right.
I agree with what your saying, but I still have to believe that she’s not intentionally pushing the issue; bringing it up in someone else’s debate, to show what she believes is one thing, but starting a post condemning people for sympathizing is, IMHO, another thing entirely (it makes me think she intentionally likes to judge people-gets off on it in a way). I think I want to have faith that she misread or misinterpreted the letter/email/electronic junk.
This is about the closest I can come at the moment.
2 Timothy 3:16 - All scipture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Ezekiel 3:18-19 could probably be applied also.
Concerning the issue of pity and sympathy, I didn’t take the devotional to mean that Oswald Chambers (the man who wrote it) meant to never show any sympathy to anyone. I took it to be saying that people that are caught up in lives of sin don’t need our pity and sympathy, they need to have their need of Christ held up to them and be told the truth about what they’re doing.
Wow. There’s a lot that one could say about this satanic devotional. Sadly, most of it would require moving this thread to the pits. Which is where it belongs anyway.
I don’t recall seeing much of His4ever in the past few days. I suspect she has taken some of what she has been told on this board to her spiritual advisors, and this is the result. A reiteration of shallow, judgemental, vicious and mean-spirited Christianity.
This board isn’t the center of my life, you know. I have other things to do and don’t always post a lot which, and other boards that I go to.
I’d still like to read more about what you think about this devotional and how you respond to some of the points which have been raised in this thread.
CJ
Fine job of finger-pointing merciless judging there, babe.
The mind boggles. Did you hear anything Jesus said?
And…
Your particular tree is bringing forth nothing but self-righteous judgemental snootiness. Pretty rotten fruit, IMO.
Meatros: I don’t think she thought it through at all. I think the OP and her second post probably describe exactly what [little] went through her head:
In other words, she was forwarding her Christian e-mail Inboxer Rebellion-type glurge to us, the same way she’d forward it to anybody else–with scarcely a thought and only a couple of mouse clicks.
And allow me to say that I feel privileged to receive it the same way I feel privileged to receive any of the other Christian e-mail Inboxer Rebellion-type glurge people forward to me … —> " :rolleyes: "
**Please, by all means, go and haunt some other unfortunate message board with your totally unwelcome, completely un-Christian smugness.
I think I shall go back to the polycarp thread. Much more of Gods love evident there.
Contrary to popular opinion, I feel no smugness or superiority or whatever. I just decided to share something with other Christians on the board. You’re free to think of it however you wish.
CJ I’ve already said what I believe Mr. Chambers meant by his remarks on pity and sympathy. I’m not attempting to judge anyone, though you won’t believe that, of course. Here’s a couple of sentences that come right after the one on pity and sympathy. They’re from my personal devotional and are worded slightly different than the one I got in the e mail.
“You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way–not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.”
Oswald Chambers.
That’s kind of how it is, heaven forbid thay we should offend anyone so let’s not tell the whole truth or lets’ water it down a bit, etc. etc. Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say right now. Have a nice evening and Merry Christmas to all. <>< †
Link to the original devotional.
http://www.myutmost.org/12/1220.html
BTW, babe, it’s copyrighted. From the website’s home page.
http://www.myutmost.org/index.html
You’ll notice that your glurge version has been rewritten slightly, the old “word substitution” game familiar to every schoolkid who’s had to crib a term paper from the World Book Encyclopedia. I suppose that whoever put it out on the Internet forwarding circuit thought that this was a way to get around the copyright violation thing.
However, IMO they’re wrong.
Therefore, I am duly reporting your OP to a moderator as being in violation of this message board’s copyright policy.
Poor His4evr.
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
But, really H4e, you will not win over any one to the Christ by acting so judgemental and self righteous. Or by posting something that seems to foster and suport such a viewpoint. Remember the warning: “Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees.”
The Bible, should anyone choose to accept it, teaches that Man is imperfect and needs God. But, it also teaches love.
1 John 4:7-10
In science debates, a point is often worthless without a referenced cite. In a Biblical debate, the Bible must be used. Somewhere.
What kind of response did you think you would get by posting something that Christians and non Christians may find offensive or, at least debatable?
Well, on preview I saw the reply to cjhoworth, but I’m posting these points anyways.
I had no idea I was violating any copyright laws by copying and pasting an e mail that was sent to me. If it’s in violation, my apologies. I thought that I’d included Oswald Chambers’ name in the post, I see that I didn’t. My mistake. Once again, apologies for any violations.
[Moderator Hat: ON]
His4Ever: Is copyright violation a sin? On this website, the answer is an emphatic yes. Before forwarding something on in the future, please make sure it’s not copyrighted material.
David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator
[Moderator Hat: OFF]
Excellent advice, David B. Is it okay to post something if you include the author’s name?