November 4, 2005

Tying up ends, or attempting to...
Farlas

YAY! We are not alone! I was getting saddened at the thought! When I read "The Screwtape Letters" I about banged my head against a wall. It is amazing all of the subtle things the Devil uses and we do not think about!!! A real eye opener that was!

Presbyterian eh? Spiffy! In D.C. no less! I have been there! Once... last spring! It was awesome!

By some odd chance... Has anyone ever read the book "Flabbergasted"? The church in it was North Hills Presbyterian. Twas a funny book! Lem's comment just brought that to mind...

Anywho! Okay, now you are arguing over words Annatar! What I mean when I say prayer in this particular little debate is speaking to God. I do understand that prayer can have several meanings. My point about it all is this, Where in scripture does it say to pray to saints? In the Lord's prayer Jesus prayers to His father in heaven. I have yet to see any place where it says we should pray to dead people. I mean, you can pray to them all day long, but who says something is going to happen?

The trickyness comes in this phrase, "It is no different to me asking you to pray to God for me, yet no one would say I'm Worshipping you." To explain my stance on this let me say this. I can pray for you, as can all of the (living) saints of God. I know that you are not worshipping me, nor I you, or any such thing. There is praying "for" people and praying "to" people. I suppose I can vaguely understand your thinking, but we don't KNOW that they hear us. Besides, why should we need Peter to pray to God for us when we can pray to Him ourselves?

No, I am not saying Jesus was the Devil! LOL! But, if people get distracted by images of saints, and only pray because of the image of saints, then God does not want that. God wants the focus to be on him, not Mary, not Peter, not Paul, not St. Christopher.

I acknowledge that the dead have interacted with the Living, but note, they were ALL old Testament people that most of them (I don't remember Samuel) were buried or taken by God. And, in Revelation when it speaks about the two prophets, it is believed to be Moses and Elijah. Again, Old Testament. Also note, NO ONE shall ever find Moses' body. We simply have to be sure that the appearence of the deseased is not a distraction towards our worship of God. They should not be the object of our adoration and worship, God should be.

Mary WAS a devout young women whom God thought worthy to bear His Son, but God did chose to have him born of a woman, not a "goddess" (I am not saying she was goddess or that is what you think!) or something like, so he could be all God and Man. How can a perfect and unhuman being suffer and be tempted? Do you not recall that when she reprimanded Jesus when he was a child, that He had to reprimand her? Even though she knew He was the Son of God, she still was quite human and fearful when she realized she was not there. If Mary was perfect, she would have to have been born into perfection. We as humans are born into sin. She was not created to be the mother of God (ie Eve) she was born into this world as a sinner as the rest of us are. She was simply the chosen vessel and a willing servant. She was a women of great faith and to be admired, but no where do I see evidence of her being perfect. She was godly, but not perfect. She is a wonderful example of one who is willing to be used of God. And as far as Jesus having brothers and sisters... God did sanction marriage. He called it holy and deemed it good, so why would he forbid her to have a physical relationship with Joseph AFTER she had Jesus if He already pronounced such a thing good? That just does not make sense to me.

And that is all I have to say on that subject. Moving on! XD

Ah, but a common council of churches does not allow for the Holy Spirit to move. A large church polity is not as sensitive to what God wants an individual church to do than an individual church does. Even if it is secular politics or in the church, whenever a great deal of power is awarded to a few people, it tends to lead to corruption. Even when it starts with the best of intentions and by the most godly of people. Plus, there is always a lack of accountability to they that are in charge. Look at the U.N., it is representitive of all sorts of countries and look how corrupt it is! (LOL!) That and, people in power tend to get methods to solve problems instead of turning to God's councel. They just make rules. It all turns political in the end.

Whenever the Baptists try to get a church polity going, it splits. Two Baptists can't agree. But that's okay, cuz then we turn to God for direction.

In our church, if we have a big decision comming up (actually, we are praying aobut a new building) we pray about the details. Now, am I false in assuming that the heirarchy in the Catholic church decides these things and not the church itself? How much is from God's leading or a matter of looking at it from a practical point of view? We must be very sure we are doing things because it is God's will, not because it "seems" practical. We must depend on God, not a hierarchy.

Nope, never did. Umm... the Muslims do not have the same faith. They have a drastically different view of God than the other two. It was started by Mohammad, not God, and because that guy liked certain aspects of Christanity. If they did worship the same God we do, they would be either Jewish or Christian. Jews use Old Testament, we use both, but they use the Koran which doesn't stand up against either! Have you ever studied Islam at all? For if you did, would see in a heart beat that they are DRASTICALLY different than we and the Jews are.

Here's a random question for the fun of it, When does time end, and does the Bible endure past it? Some girl in my class brought it up today, and want to see what y'all think.

Yes, you were thought provoking, which was the intent of the assignment, but you gave it more of a practical purpose.

Congratulations, you make my brain sweat!

Ack! I think I have just written a Baptist sermon. I hope you enjoyed it! LOL! :O))))

Random: My brother thinks your a leprechaun! He's only ten and rather silly, so ignore him. I just had to add that, for I am sitting here typing and asking my mother about something and suddenly my brother blurts this out. *makes confused face and shrugs*

I may never understand the mind of ten year old boys...

Do little Irish boys have dillusions about all American boys being cowboys? Or something like that...

Farewell!
-Farlas Ava

P.S. This is quite a straaange forum, if you think about it...