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Point of life: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)

I believe it to be very mean-spirited to try to force a business to cater to you if your request violates their religious beliefs. You may have the law, the media, and the ACLU on your side, but to refuse to respect someone's beliefs and characterize them as hateful bigots for some minor issue is vengeful and cruel. Of course, as the above video seems to indicate, Muslim bakeries can refuse to make wedding cakes with specific gay messages or pictures, but Muslim business are not being demonized like Christian business who do the very same thing. The wake-up call is coming when Islam takes over America and gays will be thrown from tall buildings or dragged in the streets tied behind cars. The gays might very well start praying that the Christian principle of respect for life return to the nation. We all know that Christians and Jews will be persecuted, jailed, and killed for their beliefs in the Last Days. The targeted intolerance these days towards Christians and Jews is just a practice run.

There is a poem at the end of Ecclesiastes that is the key to the book. I forgot the exact verses but basically chapter 12 and there is a chiastic structure where the two half's of the poem reflect each other and the most important point is in the middle. And basically the poem says that the book is a collection of heresies that the author is warning us about. Ecclesiastes was actually the last Old Testament book to be included in the canon because the Rabbis feared it being misunderstood. They knew the poem at the back but feared that some of the Greek readers wouldn't know it. So it was not until about the time that John was writing Revelation that it was finally accepted into the canon. The message of the book is the author is warning us of different beliefs and says that he will write them in an attractive manner. Now we frequently take verses out of context and because he wrote them in an attractive manner we can draw good lessons using passages in a homiletical sense. But the actual exegeses of these passages is not that good. For example, we often turn to Ecclesiastes 9:5 for the state of the dead. In the 1980s the White estate was making a concordance of Mrs. White's writings on lazier disk. It was not yet comprehensive but it was a very large amount. I looked up how Mrs. White used Ecclesiastes 9:5 and she uses it a lot. However, in quote after quote after quote, I did not find one time where she used Ecclesiastes 9:5 to PROVE the state of the dead. In all the passages I read, if she was going to build her argument she would build it from other passages. She would then (or not build a case) but just quote Ecclesiastes 9:5 using it's words as a summery of what the Bible teaches. If we were to use the quote in it's actual context it is saying that there is no after life. That this life is all there is. This concept that some religions were teaching was one of the heresies that he author of Ecclesiastes was warning us against. Getting to your original statement: A wise man once said that he observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. Ecc. 1:14 is again a philosophy that the author is warning us against accepting. He wants us to know that no matter what these philosophies around us are saying, that life really does have meaning, that there is indeed life after death and that we are to remember our creator in the days of our youth. And to realize that we have a very complicated and amazing world around us to love. When we love the world as Jesus has loved it, then for us his mission is accomplished; we are fitted for heaven for we have heaven in our heart.

Since it is seen as the same god, supposedly the same One worshiped, why do those of the Islamic faith use the Qur'an as their holy book when it gives the direct opposite instruction for their followers than Jesus gives His followers? …29"My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30"I and the Father are one."...John 10 …15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him....1 John 4 27"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.…Luke 6 God is Love! Jesus saves!

The wise man was looking in the wrong place. God created us because He saw that it was good to do so. We are here to bring glory to God. We can bring glory to God by trusting in Him with all our heart and by acknowledging Him in all our ways--He will direct our paths. Enjoy your life and thank God for it! He saw that it was good to create you. Be good.

"I don't understand why all these accusations of bigotry are being focused on Christians." It is because the religion displayed by these "Christians" is often hypocritical and self-serving. It's really about culture and politics rather than the Bible and Jesus. Do you really think half of these conservative politicians or pundits really believe in the sanctity of marriage. Many of them are divorced and remarried on non-Biblical grounds. Their Christian supporters are silent because they do not see it as an important enough issue. I wonder why? This is apostate protestantism at work. Here is an example: Texas lawmaker married five times files error-filled complaint against gay marriage http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Texas-lawmaker-and-five-time-groom-makes-6110172.php Christians targeted? LOL. They deserve it for their hypocrisy.

Wheelcat, in post # 29 said: I agree, you are not the Pope. However, you do sound like the Pope in that you sound like you had an infallible knowledge of what the Bible teaches and your pronouncement of that teaching is without error.

A few years ago I preached a sermon on the subject of dress, wearing a suit and with jeans and a t-shirt underneath. Half way through I took my suit off. I should have videoed the reactions. I guess some were worried about how much I was going to take off! It was fun to do and I think it made a point. I dress depending on the group and the setting. I spoke at a camp a couple of years ago. I wore shirt, dress pants and bow tie. I spoke at the same same camp the next year. I wore jeans and an Nigerian traditional shirt. Same setting two different groups. Once in a while I like to scare my congregation so I'll wear something many of them might feel is inappropriate just for the sake of it! It's good to make church folk uncomfortable sometimes. God is primarily concerned with the condition of the heart. Too often we are concerned with the condition of the clothing. In my few years in church work I have seen all too often the devil come to church in a nice suit.

Public humiliation teaching a lesson that lasts a long time.... Probably true. But what kind of lesson? And at what cost? Shaming a person, particularly a child or a teen may be effective to achieve some form of compliance or submission to authority. But is true willingness to do the right thing and a positve attitude about doing the right thing and respect for authority achieved? Based on my own experience and observation, leaves me with serious doubts that this will produce real positve results long term. In the short term, the embarrassment of humiliation can easily produce anger and resentment. Those emotions can indeed last a long time and seldom have long tem positve outcomes both in terms of relationships and behavior modification. It tends to produce fear of authority rather than respect and loyalty. And it does not produce internalization of respect for rules and treating others with respect or kindness or empathy IMHO. I think the end result is that people become stunted at an immature stage of moral and emotional development as a result.

A private lesson.