On ESOC the only thing that matters are good postsAmsel_ wrote:Would you be friends with me?fightinfrenchman wrote:The point I was making is that a difference in politics can absolutely be a valid reason for not being friends with someone.
Lejend's little corner
- fightinfrenchman
- Ninja
- Posts: 23506
- Joined: Oct 17, 2015
- Location: Pennsylvania
Re: Lejend's little corner
Dromedary Scone Mix is not Alone Mix
Re: Lejend's little corner
Paul Takashi Nagai, Nagasaki’s Christian hero
Born in 1908 and raised in rural Japan in traditional Confucian and Shinto religion, Takashi imbibed the materialist assumptions of his professors while studying to be a physician. “I was so sure that there was no such thing as a soul,” he wrote. But when his mother died, “my mother’s eyes told me that the human spirit lives after death. I could not but believe this. All this was by way of an intuition, an intuition carrying conviction.”
He started medical school in Nagasaki in 1928. He found Christ through the Moriyamas, a family of Japan’s “Hidden Christians,” Catholics who had maintained the faith for two and a half centuries of persecution and isolation from the rest of the world.
On a trip home for Christmas, the Moriyamas’ daughter Mori invited him to the midnight service at the cathedral.
The priest talked about the Son of God’s humility in becoming man, and made him feel with shame the selfishness and materialism inside himself. “Here is the humility that our minds know is the truth to make us free. Here is the salvation for which our hearts yearn. How can we complain about hardships when the Holy Family accepted the darkness and pain of this night because it was the Father’s loving plan?”
------------------------
A few months later, he and Midori married. They had a son the next year and a daughter two years later. A pioneer in radiology and professor at Nagasaki Medical College, he poured his life out in service to the sick and to training young doctors, despite the known risks of exposure to gamma radiation. The equipment leaked radiation and radiologists died young.
In 1945, Takashi learned that, as a result of his work, he had incurable leukemia. He would soon leave his beloved Midori a young widow and mother. Her response: “We said before we were married … that if our lives are spent for the glory of God, then life and death are beautiful. You have given everything you had for work that was very, very important. It was for his glory.” He said, “Midori’s acceptance has freed me. I can now face death because Midori is beside me.”
------------------------
But she died first. Two months later she was gone, taken in the flash that leveled their city and marked the end of the Second World War. The hospital was only a few hundred yards from ground zero. Dr. Nagai was injured but survived — ironically, because the radiology department was the most strongly walled part of the hospital. He was wounded in the chest.
Later, he wrote: “Unless you have suffered and wept, you really don’t understand what compassion is, nor can you give comfort to someone who is suffering. If you haven’t cried, you can’t dry another’s eyes. Unless you’ve walked in darkness, you can’t help wanderers find the way. Unless you’ve looked into the eyes of menacing death and felt its hot breath, you can’t help another rise from the dead and taste anew the joy of being alive.”
------------------------
For the few years he had left, Takashi was an apostle of peace and reconciliation. Takashi spoke repeatedly against war, especially nuclear war.
On May 1st, 1951, at the age of only 43, he went to his reward and was laid to rest, his epitaph chosen from the Gospel of Luke, a fellow physician. “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
Born in 1908 and raised in rural Japan in traditional Confucian and Shinto religion, Takashi imbibed the materialist assumptions of his professors while studying to be a physician. “I was so sure that there was no such thing as a soul,” he wrote. But when his mother died, “my mother’s eyes told me that the human spirit lives after death. I could not but believe this. All this was by way of an intuition, an intuition carrying conviction.”
He started medical school in Nagasaki in 1928. He found Christ through the Moriyamas, a family of Japan’s “Hidden Christians,” Catholics who had maintained the faith for two and a half centuries of persecution and isolation from the rest of the world.
On a trip home for Christmas, the Moriyamas’ daughter Mori invited him to the midnight service at the cathedral.
The priest talked about the Son of God’s humility in becoming man, and made him feel with shame the selfishness and materialism inside himself. “Here is the humility that our minds know is the truth to make us free. Here is the salvation for which our hearts yearn. How can we complain about hardships when the Holy Family accepted the darkness and pain of this night because it was the Father’s loving plan?”
------------------------
A few months later, he and Midori married. They had a son the next year and a daughter two years later. A pioneer in radiology and professor at Nagasaki Medical College, he poured his life out in service to the sick and to training young doctors, despite the known risks of exposure to gamma radiation. The equipment leaked radiation and radiologists died young.
In 1945, Takashi learned that, as a result of his work, he had incurable leukemia. He would soon leave his beloved Midori a young widow and mother. Her response: “We said before we were married … that if our lives are spent for the glory of God, then life and death are beautiful. You have given everything you had for work that was very, very important. It was for his glory.” He said, “Midori’s acceptance has freed me. I can now face death because Midori is beside me.”
------------------------
But she died first. Two months later she was gone, taken in the flash that leveled their city and marked the end of the Second World War. The hospital was only a few hundred yards from ground zero. Dr. Nagai was injured but survived — ironically, because the radiology department was the most strongly walled part of the hospital. He was wounded in the chest.
Later, he wrote: “Unless you have suffered and wept, you really don’t understand what compassion is, nor can you give comfort to someone who is suffering. If you haven’t cried, you can’t dry another’s eyes. Unless you’ve walked in darkness, you can’t help wanderers find the way. Unless you’ve looked into the eyes of menacing death and felt its hot breath, you can’t help another rise from the dead and taste anew the joy of being alive.”
------------------------
For the few years he had left, Takashi was an apostle of peace and reconciliation. Takashi spoke repeatedly against war, especially nuclear war.
On May 1st, 1951, at the age of only 43, he went to his reward and was laid to rest, his epitaph chosen from the Gospel of Luke, a fellow physician. “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
Re: Lejend's little corner
The Way of Love
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
------------
Kierkegaard: Love Believes All Things
In his brilliant book Works of Love, Søren Kierkegaard lays out a concept that would absolutely revolutionize our lives, our churches, and our society. It’s simple, but the impact would be profound. And it’s simply this:
LOVE BELIEVES ALL THINGS
That’s it, just a phrase from 1 Corinthians 13:7. But if we actually took it seriously, life would never be the same.
It’s common for us to be afraid of getting someone wrong. We hesitate with our love. It takes us a while to warm up to someone, we try not to really invest in a person until we know they’re not going to let us down. I know this reality very well. I’m pretty gregarious in general, but I’m suspicious of a lot of people. I’m afraid to think too highly of a person until I have a reason to raise my view of him or her.
Kierkegaard affirms that we’re right to be afraid of getting someone wrong, but he says we’re fearful in the wrong direction. We shouldn’t be afraid of thinking too highly of a person. We should be terrified of thinking too little of them. If you think too highly of a person and treat them well, then you find out they’re actually a jerk, then you’re likely to get hurt. But if you think too little of someone, then find out they’re an amazing, loving person—what then? You’ve sidelined someone unnecessarily. You’ve limited their potential. You’ve robbed yourself of an opportunity and you’ve diminished that person.
Maybe you’re not convinced yet. If this doesn’t sound right to you, it’s probably because you, like me, have a jacked up view of love.
Kierkegaard urges us to see it like this: It’s impossible for someone to steal something you’re trying to gift to them. If you’re trying to put money in someone’s pocket, and that person grabs the money and walks away with it, have you been robbed? They may feel like they’re making off with your money, but you’ve accomplished your purpose. You wanted to give them something, and they took it.
This is not how we tend to think about love.
We often love because we want to be loved in return. When we love someone and that love is not reciprocated, we feel like it was a waste, or that we’ve been taken advantage of, or that we made a mistake. But for Kierkegaard, love is something we owe to the people around us (Rom. 13:8). It’s something we are called to give at every opportunity, and the goal of love is blessing the neighbor standing before us, not receiving back what is being given away.
So if you love someone, and they take your love and only hurt you in return, has your love not done what it set out to do? You can’t be robbed if you’re trying to give it away. You can only be duped in loving someone if you were expecting something in return.
This is easy enough to do with the people we are naturally inclined to love. Kierkegaard calls this preferential love, and at its worst, it’s just a form of self-love (meaning that we’re doing it for the benefit we receive). It’s much more difficult to love a stranger or enemy without expecting anything in return. But is this not Jesus’ message in the parable of the Good Samaritan? Don’t forget that Jesus told this parable in response to the question: “And who is my neighbor?” And don’t forget that would-be Jesus-followers asked him THAT question in response to his command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
If your goal is to love the person who stands before you, then you won’t stop loving them because they mistreat you in return.
That’s powerful. And it would change everything. Think of that in terms of the people living in your own house. But don’t stop there. Think of in terms of the people living on your street.
Now think of it in terms of the people you meet in the midst of theology debates, Facebook quarrels, and Twitter threads. Think of it with regard to the people you consider theological off base. (Do you love someone because you think you can convince them to change their view, or do you love them regardless of their theological views?) Think of it with regard to people living in the U.S. illegally. Think of it in terms of people you dislike. Do you love liberals AND conservatives? Calvinists AND Arminians? Baptists AND Methodists? Evangelicals AND Atheists? Donald Trump AND Barak Obama? The conservative community AND the LGBT community?
Love believes all things. It’s not suspicious of everyone. It’s not assuming the worst of everyone. It’s not looking for ways that everyone else can serve its interests. It simply believes that each person is worthy of love. And it believes that each person is capable of love. It’s not afraid of being duped, because its only goal is to give itself away.
Imagine how this one simple concept could transform all of our interactions.
-
- Retired Contributor
- Posts: 1650
- Joined: Aug 28, 2016
- Location: Netherlands
Re: Lejend's little corner
Matthew 5:44
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
Oh how I struggle with this as someone who romanticizes vigilantism and engages in it myself. What a hypocrite am I. What a moral conundrum - feeling good about bringing about justice yet also feeling empathy and love towards those who were wrong.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
Oh how I struggle with this as someone who romanticizes vigilantism and engages in it myself. What a hypocrite am I. What a moral conundrum - feeling good about bringing about justice yet also feeling empathy and love towards those who were wrong.
Time is wise and our wounds seem to heal to the rhythm of aging,
But our past is a ghost fading out that at night it’s still haunting.
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
But our past is a ghost fading out that at night it’s still haunting.
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
Re: Lejend's little corner
“Father Forgets” by W. Livingston Larned (1927)
Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.
There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.
At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, “Goodbye, Daddy!” and I frowned, and said in reply,
“Hold your shoulders back!”
Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive‐and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!
Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I snapped. You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither.
And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs. Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me?
The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding‐this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.
And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!
It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy‐a little boy!”
I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.
Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.
There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.
At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, “Goodbye, Daddy!” and I frowned, and said in reply,
“Hold your shoulders back!”
Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive‐and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!
Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I snapped. You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither.
And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs. Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me?
The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding‐this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.
And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!
It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy‐a little boy!”
I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.
Re: Lejend's little corner
The Wife of Noble Character
Proverbs 31
10 An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
13 She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.
14 She is like merchant ships;
She brings her food from afar.
15 She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength
And makes her arms strong.
18 She senses that her gain is good;
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hands grasp the spindle.
20 She extends her hand to the poor,
And she stretches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
26 She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
29 “Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31
10 An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
13 She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.
14 She is like merchant ships;
She brings her food from afar.
15 She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength
And makes her arms strong.
18 She senses that her gain is good;
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hands grasp the spindle.
20 She extends her hand to the poor,
And she stretches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
26 She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
29 “Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.
Re: Lejend's little corner
Rev. John Leland, Baptist preacher, outspoken abolitionist, and the most prominent religious figure of the Founding era to champion universal religious liberty, died on January 14, 1841.
Leland was involved in the push for ratification of the First Amendment. He was friends with Founders George Mason, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, whom he persuaded to adopt the first ten Amendments to the Constitution.
A well-known incident in Leland's life was the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese. Leland delivered the cheese to President Thomas Jefferson on New Year's Day 1802.
Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Cheese
Some quotes by Leland:The colossal cheese was made by the staunchly Republican, Baptist citizens of Cheshire, a small farming community in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The religious dissenters created the cheese to commemorate Jefferson’s long-standing devotion to religious liberty and to celebrate his recent electoral victory over Federalist rival John Adams.
At the time, the Federalist party dominated New England politics, and the Congregationalist church was legally established in Massachusetts. The cheese-makers were, thus, both a religious and a political minority subject to legal discrimination in Massachusetts.
The idea to make a giant cheese to celebrate Jefferson’s election was announced from the pulpit by Leland and was enthusiastically endorsed by his congregation. Much preparation and material were required for such a monumental project.
“Every man must give an account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in a way that he can best reconcile to his conscience.” - Rights of Conscience Inalienable (1791)
“Truth disdains the aid of law for its defence—it will stand upon its own merits... It is error, and error alone, that needs human support; and whenever men fly to the law or sword to protect their system of religion and force it upon others, it is evident that they have something in their system that will not bear the light and stand upon the basis of truth.” - Rights of Conscience Inalienable
“Resolved, that slavery is a violent deprivation of rights of nature and inconsistent with a republican government, and therefore, recommend it to our brethren to make use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrid evil from the land; and pray Almighty God that our honorable legislature may have it in their power to proclaim the great jubilee, consistent with the principles of good policy.” - Resolution for the General Committee of Virginia Baptists meeting in Richmond, Virginia in 1789.
“The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever...Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians.” - A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia.
Re: Lejend's little corner
Oath of poverty, yeah that's for meDolan wrote:
But how do I explain ridin' in luxury?
You see this car's not for me.
I take it to the food pantry and drive the elderly, free
Got myself a ride rivalin' the Holy See
Tired of transubstantiation, got myself a transmission
Burns rubber like hell, but it flies like an angel.
Makes a right turn in a 90 degree angle
I was lost. I was found. Then I heard that engine sound.
Now I drive way to fast, but praise God, thou art the first and last.
Re: Lejend's little corner
I like the idea of Christian denominations as street gangs.
Priest: Psst. Hey kid, wanna buy eternal salvation?
Kid: How much?
Priest: First one's on the house. All you've gotta do is accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and recognize that he came to earth and was crucified to free you of your sins.
Priest: Psst. Hey kid, wanna buy eternal salvation?
Kid: How much?
Priest: First one's on the house. All you've gotta do is accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and recognize that he came to earth and was crucified to free you of your sins.
Re: Lejend's little corner
Yes, we can't buy our salvation, we can only accept it. It's a free gift, not something we earn.
Isaiah 64
How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Romans 3
10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
This is one of the main differences between Christianity and other religions. Other religions are about man seeking God; Christianity is about God seeking man. God entered creation as a man himself, and bore the punishment of our sins so that he might remove them, all with the aim of rescuing each one of his lost children and uniting us back to him.Ephesians 2
3 Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
Luke 15
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
You see, God doesn't put anyone in Hell. Hell is the default state of humanity, and God is trying to rescue us out of it. The story of Christianity, from creation down to the resurrection and ultimately Heaven, is the story of one grand rescue operation undertaken by God for the sake of humanity.The Parable of the Lost Son
Luke 15
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
John 3
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
- fightinfrenchman
- Ninja
- Posts: 23506
- Joined: Oct 17, 2015
- Location: Pennsylvania
Re: Lejend's little corner
@lejend That's not true, I successfully bought salvation
Dromedary Scone Mix is not Alone Mix
- fightinfrenchman
- Ninja
- Posts: 23506
- Joined: Oct 17, 2015
- Location: Pennsylvania
Re: Lejend's little corner
I love knowing that other people's brains are fucked up specifically due to my influence on them
Dromedary Scone Mix is not Alone Mix
Re: Lejend's little corner
so much good shit in this bread
Re: Lejend's little corner
You'll need a box of tissues on hand for these
Re: Lejend's little corner
Some quotes from the Founding Fathers on slavery:
Re: Lejend's little corner
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, so I'll be making a few posts about that.
This rare footage shows a mobile killing unit during a massacre in Liepaja, Latvia. The film was taken, contrary to orders, by a German soldier. Before the war, the Jewish population of Liepaja stood at more than 7,000 residents. German mobile killing squads shot almost the entire Jewish population of the town. When the city was liberated in 1945, just 20 to 30 Jews remained.
This rare footage shows a mobile killing unit during a massacre in Liepaja, Latvia. The film was taken, contrary to orders, by a German soldier. Before the war, the Jewish population of Liepaja stood at more than 7,000 residents. German mobile killing squads shot almost the entire Jewish population of the town. When the city was liberated in 1945, just 20 to 30 Jews remained.
Re: Lejend's little corner
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, a young British stockbroker named Nicholas Winton did something truly incredible. He risked his life to successfully save 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust by ensuring their safe passage to Britain. Nearly all the saved children were orphans by war’s end, their parents killed at Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen or Theresienstadt.
Winton never spoke of the children’s rescue, not even to his wife, Grete Gjelstrup, until 50 years later she found a scrapbook in the attic of their home that contained the names, pictures and documents of the children that he saved.
Dubbed the “British Schindler” by the British press, he appeared on a UK television programme called That’s Life! in 1988. He was invited as a member of the audience, totally unaware that the people sitting around him were only alive because of his bravery and selflessness. Watch the video below to see the moment he finally realized.
Winton never spoke of the children’s rescue, not even to his wife, Grete Gjelstrup, until 50 years later she found a scrapbook in the attic of their home that contained the names, pictures and documents of the children that he saved.
Dubbed the “British Schindler” by the British press, he appeared on a UK television programme called That’s Life! in 1988. He was invited as a member of the audience, totally unaware that the people sitting around him were only alive because of his bravery and selflessness. Watch the video below to see the moment he finally realized.
Re: Lejend's little corner
On April 18, 2007, in a ceremony held in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, President George W. Bush delivered an address:
President Ronald Reagan speaks to Jewish Holocaust survivors in 1983 commemorating Holocaust Memorial DayThis is a place devoted to memory. Inside this building are etched the words of the Prophet Isaiah: "You are my witness." As part of this witness, these walls show how one of the world's most advanced nations embraced a policy aimed at the annihilation of the Jewish people. These walls help restore the humanity of the millions who were loaded into trains and murdered by men who considered themselves cultured. And these walls remind us that the Holocaust was not inevitable; it was allowed to gather strength and force only because of the world's weakness and appeasement in the face of evil.
Today, we call what happened "genocide", but when the Holocaust started, this word did not yet exist. In a 1941 radio address, Churchill spoke of the horrors the Nazis were visiting on innocent civilians in Russia. He said, "We are in the presence of a crime without a name." It is an apt description of the evil that followed the swastika. Mankind had long experience with savagery and slaughter before. Yet in places such as Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald, the world saw something new and terrible: the state-sanctioned extermination of a people, carried out with the chilling industrial efficiency of a so-called modern nation.
Some may be tempted to ask: Why have a museum dedicated to such a dark subject? The men and women who built this museum will tell you: Because evil is not just a chapter in history; it is a reality in the human heart. So this museum serves as a living reminder of what happens when good and decent people avert their eyes from hatred and murder. It honors those who died by serving as the conscience for those who live. And it reminds us that the words "never again" do not refer to the past; they refer to the future.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests