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Young man in the video makes excellent points that I agree with but God most certainly sees color. He created them all. Diversity is beautiful and should be celebrated. Being color blind is a disability and makes it hard for you to see reality. If you simply ignore a persons color you are ignoring a part of who they are.

Cheers, https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153225648080763&set=vb.80429805762&type=2&theater

Diakonos is most frequently translated in the NT as "minister", particularly in reference to men. Yes, it is the Greek word that is transliterated into English as "deacon". ("Deaconess", or a Greek feminine equivalent, is not used in the NT, but is a modern invention.) But it has been historically a ministerial or clergy position, and still is in some denominations. Before you discuss this further please read the article from Ministry Magazine regarding Phoebe - https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2013/04/phoebe-was-she-an-early-church-leader Phoebe has been discussed at length here in other topics. There is much about Phoebe in those two verses in Romans 16 that affirm women in ministry and leadership. Lest anyone is tempted to dismiss the scholarship of the article as some modern notion, understand that this understanding of the original Greek was understood by the founders of Adventism. An article about Phoebe as a minister and NT church leader was published in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald in the mid 1800's. Uriah Smith, the editor at that time introduced it as affirmation for the women in ministry in the early Adventism. Please take the time to look through the many topics here with ample resources noted and linked.

. . . War Hero Who Refused to Carry Weapon This year marks the 70th anniver­sary of the Bat­tle of Oki­nawa, and direc­tor and actor Mel Gib­son is work­ing on mak­ing a film based on the life of one of the sol­diers, Seventh-day Adven­tist con­sci­en­tious objec­tor, Desmond T. Doss, who won a Con­gres­sional Medal of Honor for sav­ing dozens of lives in the bat­tle even though he refused to carry a weapon as a mat­ter of reli­gious conviction. Read more:http://religiousliberty.tv/gibson-filming-project-based-on-war-hero-who-refused-to-carry-weapon.html ps:See if you can pick out a familiar name in the article? Other than Mel Gibson!!

I have a question, for everyone....what if the God we believe in cut off services for our deviant lifestyle? No food, no rain, no sun, no open lines of communication? What makes us better than God in making such decisions?

This was a great testimony by the young driver. We should have more like him in this world.

When I was younger, growing up in rural Minnesota, the motels would ask for IDs and if a man and a woman were sharing a room had different last names they were asked for an explanation which was noted in the motel's record. So the question is, does a motel owner have the right to do that?

Thanks Yentyl, I like this.

JimTN said in post # !2: Well you are partially correct. During the life of Ellen White there were many licensed females doing exactly the same work as the licensed males--going from place to place and raising up new congregations of Adventists. God is demonstrating today in China that he is suing females as congregational pastors, evangelists and supervisors over congregations and males. They are ordained. The fundamental Biblical issue is NOT ordination, it is the role that women should have in spiritual nurture to include the congregational level. Ordination only is a public statement that the organization recognizes that God has called a person to ministry. It is nothing more in SDA theology. We already give women that role. So, why do we limit God by saying that we will only acknowledge that God has called males.

The supposed "husband of one wife" qualification of the bishops and elders was also stated with regard to deacons, diakonos, by Paul. Yet Paul, in Romans 16 also called Phoebe a "diakonos" of the church at Cenchrea. If it was a designation that created a male only role/office in the church Paul is speaking inconsistently with himself. A better interpretive perspective is to take a close look at the phrase in question in the original Greek. A literal translation is "one woman man". A very similar phrase is used by Paul in describing the necessary qualification for the older widows that were to teach and serve in the church, that they should have been a "one man woman". This appears to bea Greek idiomatic phrase that simply means monogamous. (Word origin of "monogamous" is quite similar). With that understanding Paul is not speaking inconsistently about Phoebe or the widows to say they as well as others leading and serving the church should be faithful in all things, including their marriage. I would urge you to read the article reference in the thread about Phoebe.

Christians dominated political sphere in America since inceptions of this nation. In fact, gays have been fired, castrated, jailed, ostracized, subjected to forceful "conversion therapies".... and now that they finally gather some political recognition they retaliate legally in light of the history of their past and present treatment in this country by the "righteous ones"... all of a sudden that's an example of a view being crammed down someone's throat? Gimme a break

She was anointed as well, but Moses wife was she spoke out against. She was a racist and that was not going to happen in ELOHIM'S camp. Blessings!

Good to see you back! It is a pretty sobering thought, that our actions result in people's opinion of our Master. But it is true, that to some we are the only Bible they ever have. And many times we just don't rightly represent Jesus in our lives. I don't know what I can say. I know that what I know about Christ from the Bible makes me hungry for more. He was radical then and He is radical now. I wish that His compassion and merciful attitude would be more shown by the lives of His followers than it is. Not to say that those aren't there at all. It's just that it takes 10 positives to every negative to make a balance.

Nice Stan could put a word in on this. Doss remarried after his first wife died, and his second wife Fran was a friend and former coworker of mine at Wildwood. Doss was unassuming and, at least in his later years, had a hearing impediment. I remember reading that when Truman gave him the medal he told Doss "You really deserve this. I consider this a greater honor than being President."

When I was young and we planned to go visit my grandparents, obviously I was excited about seeing them, but one of the things that I looked forward to was being with other family members my age and going exploring with them. We would love to see what Grandpa had out in the shed and in the backyard. I remember finding an old piece of equipment (a tool actually) once that I did not know what it was or how it was used. I pondered what it might be used for and eventually I found out what it was. That piece of equipment told me a little bit of what life was like on the farm for my Grandpa. As a kid we moved a lot too. And that ALWAYS brought out the explorer in me. I did not stop with just the first week either, it was a never-ending quest. What I am getting at is that even though our greatest desire is to see Jesus, our actions may not always be just looking into His face. We may want to go exploring to see what He has out in the "backyard" that we have never seen. We WILL find something out there that we have never seen of course and we will learn even more about our AMAZING GOD and come back praising Him even MORE! What we are doing here right now on this forum is dreaming about our visit and the move. None of us have ever seen photos of this new home and so our imaginations are running wild in expectation. What we are dreaming of is all based on what we have learned from "letters from home" found in the Bible, but we will never be able to imagine the beauties of our new home. (Even trying to write to someone about where we live right now cannot tell the real story, right?) Dream BIG my friends! We are moving to a NEW home!

* * * I talked with a Seventh-day Baptist about beliefs. They don't believe in the prophetic gift in Ellen White. This alone removes them from the latter group...