Consistency and Single-Mindedness
James 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
The best results in anything is when there is consistency and single-mindedness of purpose. There can be situations where two objectives are working against each other and the question is, will this produce the best results?
The anti-semitism of the Nazis was decried as evil in WWII. A war was fought to defeat Nazism. And like the Flood at the time of Noah, which cleansed the earth of overwhelming evil for a season, Nazism was removed from public view for a while, only to resurface. There are anti-Jewish riots on college campuses.
The church is sending in evangelists to address that situation because it is only with a change of heart through the new birth that there can be real change.
And those efforts are good and necessary.
At the same time, money is being sent to Ukraine to fund neo-Nazis. Putin/Russia has said that neo-Nazism is an element of this war. Nazi symbols have been found.
This is not something the fake news will talk about, but there is a lot they don’t talk about, like the stolen 2020 election. So silence on the part of the fake news should come as no surprise.
Can the best results be expected when there is a dichotomy between the church standing against anti-semitism through evangelism, but not standing against the funding of Ukraine and the neo-Nazism and corruption there?
Added to that is the consideration that at a national level, if there is a sowing into neo-Nazism by backing the war in Ukraine, should we be surprised at an increase of anti-Semitism on our college campuses? If we preach and believe in sowing and reaping, then we have to look at how it might be operating at a national level.
Along the same lines, there are efforts for evangelism at the southern border. That is good. But when those of the illegal invasion are converted, they need to go back to the nation they came from. Conversion into the kingdom of God does not change the status of illegal immigration. And if you allow 22 million illegals, (which is the last figure I read or heard somewhere), into the nation to vote illegally, and overturn the Constitution, then you permit the overturn of religious freedom. That has the domino effect of working against or stopping the spreading of the gospel, at least in the free flow measure it has occurred under the protection of the Bill of Rights.
Daniel 2:34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
In the vision Daniel interpreted, of which the above scripture is only a small part, the vision dealt with physical kingdoms and empires, not spiritual only. The message may have been given in spiritual symbols, but those symbols represented concrete physical kingdoms.
We cannot spiritually deal with Nazism though gospel evangelism, while funding Neo-Nazis in the Ukraine.
We cannot spiritually deal with the illegal invasion at the border only through evangelism, without insisting that those who are illegal return home and attempt to come back through a legal process if they so desire. To flood the nation with illegals who will be permitted to vote due to lax voting laws and rampant election theft is to allow the destruction of religious freedom.
James 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
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Half-Baked
Hosea 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not….
There is a saying “a half-baked idea”. It implies that the idea is not fully developed, that something is lacking.
It should be obvious that the illegal invasion at the southern border is part of the strategy to steal the 2024 elections. No ID laws for voting and lax voting requirements make a theft exceedingly possible even though “the other guy” is way more popular. Popularity has nothing to do with outcomes in the case of stolen elections.
While from an evangelistic point of view, there are those who are coming to the border and getting born again, from a scriptural and Constitutional view, if they repent and are converted and want to be obedient to the scripture to obey the laws of government (Romans 13), in which case is the Constitution, not the illegal unelected government currently occupying Washington D.C. and which stole the 2020 election, then those who are born again need to return home to their nations rather than enter the land illegally.
Any law contrary to the Constitution is no law.
Because if they enter the land illegally, and are able to help keep in power the current unelected government that is illegally occupying Washington D.C., then the next phase of destruction to the United States will involved the removal of religious freedom.
There has been way too much reliance on a hope that Jesus will return and solve the problem before it becomes unmanageable. It is a half-baked idea of prophecy. Hosea 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
It has led to this in Hosea. Hosea 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not….
Jesus will return, but that should not be considered a strategy to maintain religious freedom.
Dr. Robert Schuller, Sr., used to say, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”
President Lincoln said something similar. He did not throw the responsibility upon Jesus. Neither did the Founding Fathers, nor what was referred to as the Black-Robed Regiment, who wore black clerical robes over their army uniforms and who participated in the fight for freedom. Related, also Related
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
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Repost from TheGatewayPundit re: Trade Schools vs Liberal Colleges
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The Venn Diagram
Addemf, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Like a Venn diagram, it is quite possible for different individuals or groups to agree on some points, but not all points. It is what allows people of certain opposing views to work together, at least at those points where they are in agreement.
4.21.24
It is important to recognize where we are fighting similar battles and join together where possible rather than attempt to separate on doctrinal and other points.
Romans 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
The Pharisees were particularly focused on the minutiae. They complained when Jesus healed on the sabbath rather than being glad that someone got healed (Luke 13:11-17). They focused on the details of the law and traditions they had built up and missed the fact that their Messiah, that they had waited for, longed for, and their own prophets had said was coming, was standing in front of them. Jesus basically told them that, but he spoke in parables.
Matthew 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
For those who are unfamiliar the story of Jonas (Jonah), it was a type and shadow of the three days during which Jesus finished up what was necessary to be accomplished in the legal steps of redemption, taking the keys of death and hell (Revelation 1:18), taking his blood shed as an atonement for sin to the mercy seat in heaven (Hebrews 9), and resurrecting on the third day (Matthew 28:5-7). Jesus basically told them why he was there and they missed the point and actually were part of scenario bringing about his crucifixion.
Recognizing that there are eschatalogical differences and belief systems, can we simplify things down to “thy kingdom come, thy will be done”? As the angels said, God’s kingdom is “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14) There are some things we know are not part of kingdom activity such as abuse of children, transgenderism, pedophilia, blackmail, bribery, corruption, covenantbreaking and more. Can we oppose that which we understand and know and seek to bring in a cleaner world?
James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
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