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Is this the same stuff that they put into the pain patches? Should a person be of concern if they have been prescribed patches to use?

Fentanyl's a bad one. Not only is it more potent than heroin, but it can be absorbed through the skin and airborne powder can be inhaled and absorbed. It's a big problem that many don't realize...

They can have their opinion...and I can have mine too. And my opinion is that this article sounds a lot like a person who doesn't like it when birds of a feather merely seek to flock together. You also just made my point with the above underlined portion of your sentence. If their experience was bad I won't discount it as something that really could have happened to them, but that does not mean that the whole SDA community needs to change just for them. That just means that they went through a lot of stuff that specifically made them feel closed in or closed out. To me this post sounds a lot like a person who is trying to make the SDA church seem extremely disconnected from "the outside world" and that is just not true or fair to assume. This entire article is one big assumption because its as if the person is claiming to know exactly how most, if not all, SDA families function from start to finish based on their personal past experience(s). The author has taken everything that SDAs have built up just to keep the community strong and turned it into something crafted to "manipulate" folks. I see nothing wrong about having your own businesses, hospitals, churches, schools/home schooling, after school programs, eateries, stores...or anything else that is made for and by SDAs. The only time its a problem is if someone is keeping you from walking in and out the door of those places at your own free will. And as far as I know, that doesn't seem to be the case in the community. I'm a newb to the community myself, and the way I see it, I feel free to join the church if I agree to their teachings and free to leave without fear of being pursued or harmed if I at some point do not agree with the church. Sure people will either approve if I join or disapprove if I leave. And it will also take me some time to get acquainted with the community or unlearn things if I were to leave. But that does not make the SDA unique in any way like this person is trying to imply. Just because some people in the church are immature does not be that all people are. And just because some people use the SDA resources to close themselves in and avoid interaction with non-SDAs that does not make those resources automatically bad or in need of a change. Someone I know who was brought up in a household of non-denominational Christians has now turned into a Muslim. And guess what... they had to go through some of the same readjustments within their new religious community as well as within their disapproving family. Nothing special, that's just how religion works. There's always going to be secret lingo, new terms, community specific events/places and mannerisms specific to the beliefs that one holds. If this person really wants to make an argument, they should make an article about how SOME PEOPLE in the church abuse the resources available to them by the church in order to remain distant from non-Adventists. But that's not how they typed their article. They typed it as though the resources themselves breed a particular kind of person.

I believe that some misread the reference in the OP to the "far right" as being about secular politics even though the context indicated it was talking about being conservative/fundamentalist in a religious sense. Stan was clear when he said to keep politics out of this. But some just kept forging ahead in that direction anyway. One way to get people to stop is to remove the political posts for others to comment on. Otherwise a topic just keeps getting further and further side-tracked. Once a topic gets mired in political comments the best thing to do is to dump it in the political forum where political sharks can enjoy a political feeding frenzy.

Or it could be that opportunists work within the framework of their chosen field. God is Love! Jesus saves!

Home About Contact Us How to Leave » Articles About SDA » Adventist Exclusivness – Don’t Shun, but Avoid Non-Members Home → Uncategorized → Adventist Exclusivness – Don’t Shun, but Avoid Non-Members Well-known Adventist children stories This article explains how Seventh Day Adventists have an exclusive culture, and it is one of the most important articles on the website. This is a topic for which I cannot find much discussion, but it is extremely important when understanding the Seventh Day Adventist church. This slips through the cracks to outside members, and it is very well hidden. Adventists are not barred from talking to non-Adventists, and the mainstream church does not engage in shunning. But just because it does not shun non-members, does not mean the church is not exclusive and insular. How the church became insular The SDA church has silently created a system by-which its members do not need to interact in any meaningful way with non-Adventists. This is something very unique to Adventist churches- they have removed the need to engage with non-Adventist. Below is a typical example of many mainstream members lives, from start-to-finish: They are born in a Seventh Day Adventist hospital to Seventh Day Adventist parents. They then go to an Adventist preschool and make Adventist-only friends. They then head to an Adventist grade school and make Adventist-only friends. Alternatively if they belong to very exclusive parents they are homeschooled, and their only contact with other children is at their church. They then go to an Adventist high school. They then go to an Adventist university and college (and while there, most likely study to become either a nurse, a teacher of a pastor). They then get a job in an Adventist business/institution. These are particularly appealing from a practical perspective, because these businesses will forcibly be closed during Sabbath hours (or if they are a hospital, it is OK because they can work during Sabbath). They will then get married to an Adventist spouse, as an SDA pastor is not allowed to marry an SDA to a non-SDA. They then will eventually retire in an Adventist rest home, where they will live out the rest of their days. Not only is this a common course of life, but it is greatly encouraged. The prestigious Adventist families live their lives in this way. From personal experience, if you don’t engage in this exclusive world you will feel left out at Adventist meeting grounds such as church, as most Adventists get to know each other at school/work. All of these places/steps (school, work, partner) are where we usually come to meet our friends and form close relationships. If you are only surrounded by Adventists, then you will inevitably just become friends with them. Article published in Adventist Review 07/26/12 - the flagship, official Seventh Day Adventist publication/magazine Granted, at these institutions they will encounter non-Adventists. But their relationships with these individuals tend to be very fleeting. For example, an Adventist teen might become friends with a non-Adventist teen at their high school. But inevitably their relationship is doomed to be less meaningful from the start, because not only are they discouraged to become good friends with them, but they will spend less time with them than they will with their SDA peers. This is because in their spare time, they will engage in church activities and the Adventist kids will be forced together for large periods of time on Sabbath. Because the Adventist kids spend extra time outside of them and are apart of a unique culture, they will draw closer together. The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later. Pathfinders in the SDA version of boy scouts/girl scouts.Look at the final message taught to the kids. And this is how it happens; all of this is relatively innocent, but the consequences are obviously huge. And this is all incredibly mainstream, and occurs just as regularly in progressive churches as it does in conservative churches. Adventists do not shun others As mentioned earlier, Adventists will happily interact with non-Adventists. Nothing about the theology/beliefs require you shun someone, unlike Jehovah Witnesses, which SDA’s are unfairly compared to on a regular basis. In fact, the official church manual specifically notes that this is not to occur: “When a person has been removed from church membership, the church should, where possible, maintain contact and manifest the spirit of friendship and love, endeavouring to win him/her back to the fold.” – Offical SDA Church Manual (p199, 17th edition) But, just because the church does not go to such extreme lengths as shunning, does not mean the church does not purposely exclude other members in a way that is very negative and destructive. I would also like to note that the “endeavouring to win him/her back to the fold” can become very frustrating as a non-member, as all/most of your conversation with your family/friends still in the church becomes laced with pressure to return. In part 2 of this article I will go into the two major reasons that Adventists choose to avoid non-members, but for now I will go into another major part of their insular/exclusive culture; the fact that they internally de-humanize non-members. Many SDA's will only donate to ADRA Adventists don’t just avoid non-members, they remove their unique identities To the SDA church, nothing is more important than being a church member. This is because they believe the church is “chosen” and that it has “the truth”. They claim that they do not believe that SDA’s will exclusively go to heaven. This is only partially true and it is basically a white lie. They believe that, if you have not heard the SDA “truth” that you will only be judged on what you did know. Once you hear “the truth”, you are then required to follow it. If you choose to not follow it – for whatever reason – then you are seen to be rejecting God. There are a lot of rules, and to be baptised you need to follow all of them. If you publicly break a rule, you won’t be baptised in a conservative church and if you break them while a member, many people will not consider you a “real” Adventist. Because of their strict views on who will be saved and who will not be, it has resulted in them considering everyone but other Seventh Day Adventists as part of “The World”. They believe that “The World” is being lead by Satan. And so really – if you aren’t an Adventist, then it doesn’t really matter what your achievements are, it doesn’t matter what your personality is. Because the most important thing about you, is that you are not an Adventist, and you are going to experience an eternal death. Everyone in “The World” loses their unique identity and simply gets lumped into this group. So not only do Adventists avoid people outside their faith, they also mentally devalue their worth. Their worth is no longer based on their achievements or their actions or their personalities, because they are simply part of “The World”. This lessens any incentive for an Adventist to get to know a non-member, because they are inherently wary of them (after all, they are under the influence of Satan). Now I will go into the two major reasons that they exclude non-members from their lives in any meaningful way. Reason #1 – A Unique Social Culture As I have mentioned, Adventists have a lot of rules, many of which greatly impact on the practicalities of their lives. I cannot begin to explain how keeping the Jewish Sabbath greatly influences your week-to-week life. And practically, not drinking an alcohol limits where you can go and it means that Adventists find ways to amuse themselves compared to the rest of the population. They also are encouraged to engage in church activities throughout the daily week, taking up a lot of their free time. So Adventists do a lot of things together, and they have their own jokes, their own favourite activities and know each other in ways that outsiders would never understand. There are other major factors that add to this culture too. A major one is the idea of secret knowledge and a secret Adventist-only vocabulary. Take for instance the health message. While the health food laws state that you can eat certain types of meat, bringing meat to a church lunch would not be considered socially OK and people would judge you very harshly for doing so. Since most people like to include meat in their dishes, a non-Adventist attending a church lunch would not know this. A new member might also not know this. But long-standing members know this social rule, and they also know that non-members don’t know this rule. They have secret, unspoken social rules amoungst themselves that binds them together over other people. And if someone brought meat to a church lunch, then it would become obvious that they weren’t a “good” SDA. The members would whisper to each other about the dish, and avoid talking to the person that brought it. As already mentioned, they have a special, unique vocabulary. Take the health message again. While many Adventists eat meat, they know to not include it in their dishes for church, or to serve it to other members they invite home. Consequently, they have developed a lot of tasty vegetarian recipes that have unique ways of getting around the non-meat rule. These recipes are shared amongst Adventists and, while an Adventist would immediately recognise a particular vegetarian recipe, a non-Adventist would not. Adventist companies also produce meat substitutes that very few non-SDA’s purchase, and so these have become symbols of the SDA culture. Take this video for instance: The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later. A non-member could enjoy this video for its surface joke about husbands liking disgusting/simple food, while their wives put a lot of effort into creating nice, complex meals. But what you would miss is that it is laden with SDA jokes. It references creative vegetarian recipes that only SDA members would know such as special-K loaf and it references meat substitutes, a call-out to the SDA health message. I found this youtube comment very amusing: The poor person noticed that grape juice was mentioned, and realised that it was deliberate, but they misinterpreted the reason it was included. It had nothing to do with communion at all; the reference to pouring grape juice is supposed to be a play on the fact that Adventists have grape juice instead of wine, which is also made of grapes, but is fermented. In reality Adventists would not usually drink grape juice at a meal (it is quite bitter) but it was included as a reference to the fact that they don’t drink alcohol. Even as an ex-Adventist, I still watch this video and smile. I still feel that special, warm connection to Adventists; because only we get these references to the unique things that only Adventists do. For cultural reasons, Adventists stick to other Adventists, because they do the same things, have shared experiences, understand the same jokes and have their own unique vocabulary. The more you are engaged in the Adventist bubble the more unique inside-jokes you know and the harder it will be to relate to people outside of your bubble. As Adventists say, they are “in” the world but not “of” it. In effect, when an Adventist decides to deconvert and leave, they are removing themselves from this culture. SDA members will struggle to relate to them. Since the SDA members life is the church, they can no longer share this with their friend/family member. A lot of the secret social norms are built on the basis of their unique theological beliefs too. When someone deconverts and rejects these, to the SDA member it almost acts as a rejection of their cultural and social identity. Naturally, SDA members will disconnect with non-members. Reason #2 – Theological conflicts While the above is incredibly unfortunate and sad, it is not overtly malicious. Unfortunately, this reason is more directly offensive and insulting to non-believers. It should be noted that this is a lot less common among progressive circles. In most progressive churches, they practice the rules because it is apart of their social culture, and the basis for their social norms. But to a conservative member, they truly believe in following the rules and studying the Adventist literature. This is what happens as a consequence. While Adventists do not theologically promote shunning, they do theologically encourage separating themselves from non-believers on purpose. If you sit in on a conservative Adventist youth group, you will quickly become familiar with this Bible verse: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? - 2 Corinthians 6:14 What fellowship can light have with darkness is a very big point here. To a lot of Adventists, they see a theological reason to not have close relationships with non-members. Now, a lot of denominations use this verse to great effect – so what makes Adventists unique? The uniqueness comes from their strict view of what darkness is. For plenty of other reasons, most other churches have a less narrow view of what constitutes “darkness”. To Adventists, darkness is quite simply “The World”. It is anyone who is not an Adventist. Adventists pastors will marry two non-Adventists, or two Adventists. But they will not mix the two, because it goes against SDA theology to do so. SDA’s are only allowed to marry other SDA’s. This idea is also theologically applied to a lot of other relationships too. It is applied to close friendships, and close business relationships. For a fascinating insight into regular SDA’s discussing the issue of marrying a non-SDA to an SDA, click here. You’ll notice that some say they wouldn’t even attend the wedding of a close family member if it broke the SDA bonds. A common line you will hear from Sabbath School teachers to youth is this; “we aren’t saying you can’t have friends that aren’t Adventists. But think very carefully about it. Those friends are apart of The World. You will be influenced by the people you associate with. Be wary of missionary dating/friendship building, because while you will influence them, they will influence you too. Satan is very persuasive, most people are part of The World.” While my parents let me go to non-SDA schools and make non-SDA friends, they always tried to get me to attend youth groups and would regularly remind me to be “wary” of my non-SDA friends. They would talk with me about my non-SDA friends, but would be a lot more eager and on their own accord ask me questions about my SDA friends, encouraging and pushing those relationships. If I had a non-member friend called Tim, they would never go “how is Tim?” Tim would just never come up in discussion. But if I had an SDA friend named Kate, they would ask me questions like ‘how is Kate? Have you spoken to her lately?” You were not banned from having non-member friends, but they were strongly discouraged. Adults are also given this line too. But they hear it less, because if you stay in the church up to adulthood then you’ve likely only made close SDA relationships anyway. If you are born within the church, hear this attitude your entire life, and are limited in your opportunities to make non-SDA friends then you will just never get to engage with the outside world, and will be forever sceptical of it. But because the church does not have a ban on friendships/relationships outside the religion in its church manual (you won’t be excluded from church membership technically), it gets a free-pass from outsiders because no one has proof that this goes on – even though it literally happens all the time in the mainstream Seventh Day Adventist church. In conclusion Adventists have an insular culture and avoid non-members for the following reasons: They have very limited opportunities to interact with non-Adventists. They have unique social codes/culture/knowledge that only Adventists know and so they find it hard to relate to the rest of the world. They view the rest of the world with suspicion and see them as being in Satans grip. This is why it is so scary to leave. If your whole social network is Adventist, then leaving is terrifying, because you will be: Excluded from your friends/family’s lives, either by necessity or by their choice. Lose your unique positive identity to them, because you will become part of “The World”. You will be harshly judged. Have trouble including them in your life, because not only will they judge your sinful life, they will also have a lot of trouble relating. Adventists don’t shun ex-members, but they have their own ways of leaving ex-members out in the cold. For further reading you might be interested in this blog post. Please be warned, the author goes on a rather offensive rant on Adventism, but some may find it interesting.

When Paul said the women in the Church in Corinthians must keep quiet , he meant that all women in every church in every time period, He just worded it wrong. thankfully Doug Batchelor was able to speak for him.

Our area has seen quite a few Fentanyl overdoses recently, and it is hitting the recreational drug users. Is this the case where you live, too? :(

Back on August 5th I was contacted by Nicholas Cole who works on the production team for the Hacksaw Ridge movie: >>I'm part of the production team for a new feature film called Hacksaw Ridge, which is being made in Sydney, Australia. I write to you today with regard to certain artworks by Harry Anderson which we are hoping might be available for use in our film...<< I gave him the contact information he requested, and I really hope to see some of Harry Anderson's art in the Desmond Doss movie! www.HarryAndersonArt.com

Maybe I'm thinking in the wrong direction, but what does religion or politics have to do with 'sexual offenders'? Religion keeps one from being such or can lead to being such? I would have to have to see some scientific data before jumping to any conclusions. For me, at this point, a little to much finger pointing. Lets have some supporting evidence, would be interesting reading. Having attended both church and public schools and knowing people from the schools Stan is talking about, I suspect there are enough 'offenders' for all groups!

Maybe when someone knows what they are doing is wrong and keep doing it there is a tendency to become intolerant and critical of others... A lack of conscience and repentance before the Lord. But I only knew 2 criminal offenders, what they had in common was being new to the Lord and proximity to potential victims in an atmosphere of trust. Maybe the proximity and opportunity along with a past history including this type of thing either as a victim or perpetrator and not being a balanced Christian are potential risk factors. Maybe teachers and staff need to be more carefully screened at all boarding academies, and the self supporting ones you knew of may save money by not doing so, but not in the long run.

Good common sense, LauraLea! And she raises a good point about crediting articles when posting them.

I believe there are individual Muslims who worship God as they understand Him, but because the religion is not a true one it also has false conceptions of God, but some true conceptions. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves." Romans 2:14

May I suggest even properly prescribed and used drugs can lead to a living death sentence. http://yournewswire.com/100000-deaths-per-year-in-the-u-s-caused-by-prescription-drugs/ God is Love! Jesus saves!

The list is derived from the question at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 6:9 - "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" The list are examples to illustrate the unrighteous. But also remember that Paul also categorically states that nobody is righteous (See Romans 3:10) And we are also told that whatever we have in terms of righteousness is just filthy rags. That certainly seems to say that what we think might be righteous is not really. So if we are all unrighteous, how does God populate the New Earth with only righteous people. He has to clean up a lot of filthy rags. He has to take those rags off our back and cloth us with righteousness that is not our own. That has to happen for every single human that inherits the kingdom. It is not a place just for those that have cast off the final fragments of their slightly soiled clothes. It is a place for the the dirty dozen that get washed clean in the blood of the Lamb and then get to wear the clean robe of righteousness that he supplies. That is the story of everyone. Not just some. Not just certain ones. Everyone. The point is that nobody that inherits the kingdom without that cleansing and clean robe of Christ's righteousness. So everyone that he brings in will indeed be righteous and none of them will be unrighteous. Because don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? That is because they are all righteous through Christ. None of them are unrighteous inside the kingdom.

In reading The Revelation of Jesus and really understanding its message for the first time not so many years ago, I was struck by the picture of the saints, those who are saved and the sense portrayed tha they were not looking around in surprise at others, amazed at how that person was there. The humble realization was utter wonderment at realizing that they themselves are there and that it is deep gratitude only because of God's tremendous grace that they are there. It is in that moment or supreme thankfulness that the presence of everyone else, no matter their past or the defective mess that they were only makes sense in the bright light of grace. All is forgiven. Everything is new and restored to a sinless perfection as God had intended at Creation. What any of us was before is no longer relevant.

sounds like heaven is going to be a ghost town...

Good advice ... thank you.

this is consistent with my own study of the book of Romans. This book is often used to articulate our understanding of the dissection of salvation into some kind of multi step process with distinct component parts we call justification, sanctification and glorification. But when I read through the book from beginning to end, taken as a whole without selective proof texting, it became clear to me that Paul speaks of salvation more as a singular event and the translated words we use as distinct steps in a process of salvation are often used by Paul interchangeably to mean one and the same thing - salvation. He does not seem to consistently break it down in these distinct elements we call justification and sanctification. For Paul it is all salvation by grace through faith, or trust if you will, in the one that does it all, for us, to us, and in us, in the past, in the present and in the future. We can take no credit. We cannot do anything that will save ourselves. Our efforts always in every way, no matter how far we can possible take it fall short of the righteousness needed to achieve our eternal life, our salvation. It is all about Jesus - what He did on the cross, what He continues to do for and in us now, and what He will ultimately finalize in the future. This is the roar of the chorus of the saints revealed in the End - "Worthy is the Lamb. He alone is worthy." The distinct attribute and response of the saved, as portrayed in The Revelation of Jesus, is that they simply follow the Lamb wherever He goes right through to the End when all things are made new.

I think we need to continue to work the cities in a variey of ways including large crusades but also one to one activities health evangelism and perhaps urban missionaries. Also New York is unusual because Anglo American Protestants are a minority. Most whites are Jews or Catholics and it can be more difficult to reach these demographic groups. I am half Jewish and from NY and used to work in health evangelism there btw this is not a slur just an observation. Also most NYC Adventist churches have few Caucasians and may not be nearby their homes which may make them feel less at home attending there. There is an individual interest in religion. Religion is personal for many there. Bringing our media ministries to their attention may be helpful. We also may need church plants or health ministries including in areas of the city where there are now few Adventists.

Pam is correct. Fentanyl is nothing to be played with.

It's really simple. There's no argument that salvation is by grace. It only follows that the processes involved in salvation must necessarily be by grace. Since sanctification and justification are processes in salvation, therefore they are all by grace.

Don't know if this is a new "discipline," but ... Geography and drug abuse Certain areas of the country or even the state in which you live seem to have higher rates of reported drug abuse. Many wonder what these trends are and may even move or relocate accordingly. For instance, some cities may have a reputation for having a lot of heavy drinkers, while other cities may be known for meth labs. Often, people in rural communities report that there is drug abuse in their community since, “there is nothing else to do.” http://turningpointcenters.com/blog/geography-and-drug-abuse/

The original post could have been more clear. Politics was requested to be left out of it, but "far right" is a political term. However, I will abide by the request except for a minimal note. I posted regarding politicians and listed several with their "problems." What I did note and might be discussed is how conservative vs liberal affects how your "crime" will be viewed and treated. It does seem to make a big difference in politics. "Nuff said. But after the Sabbath hours, I will look to other areas where this same principle seem to be the operational mode. Religious, conservative, political issues all seem to make a difference in whether people even pay attention. And mass media also seems to have a big part in it.

I was guessing as to what happened. I don't know who has been moderating but I thought I saw somewhere a request to refrain from political references.

sarcasm?

DreamWeaver, I love cooking shows as well

Best answer is probably for the church to shrivel and eventually cease to be until the "those other" members become as perfect as those that write and post the very lengthy list of what is wrong with all but them

lol, what is this? An Encyclopedia Dramatica page? (Man... After reading this, you'd think the SDA church was Scientology 2.0!) This is probably the second most anti-Adventist, closed-minded, generalizing article I've seen here in my short time on this site. I don't see any problem with any of the things this person is complaining about. To me it just sounds like the person who wrote this had a crappy extreme experience, left (or is leaving) the church and is now running around trying to sensationalize the fact that the SDA church is [harmlessly] peculiar when people are only trying to find a way to keep their culture alive in a world that would otherwise be harder to live in if they had no one to relate to. I haven't even been brought up in an SDA family and this is insulting to me because I find the SDA church to be a group of very likable, gentle, open-minded people who have taught me a lot about the bible. To urge that they practically should not have a community is to want the church to shrivel and eventually cease to be. Sure, living a life like this could possibly produce some big-headed people who think only they will make it to heaven. And sure, there are some legit points here being made...but only in very specific cases! This person has no idea how the whole SDA church carries out their lives and mingles with the world in order to make friends, be decent citizens, have fun..etc. Seems like this person just wants to eradicate the church based on a highly subjective perspective and make it much like many of the other dying, hardly recognizable denominations of the 21st century: void of identity, void of doctrinal uniqueness and lacking in the ability to be noticed in this world.

I'm satisfied Pastor Doug prays for the Holy Spirit continuously and may have voiced what he felt was a principle of conduct under most circumstances. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! God is Love! Jesus saves!

It begins by identifying sexual offenders known to some as seeming to be more frequent if they are of the far right mind set. It would be interesting to know what is meant by some as being far right. If you are of the far right does that make you more likely to be a sexual offender. Does being of the right make you more likely to be a sexual offender? Are sexual offenders of the left offenders because of their more liberal mindset? Or do sexual offenders hide behind whatever they find most useful to achieve their ends?

It is irritating to me and other by defining people by (D) or (R) keep the US Politics out of this.

And you are the only one doing the critical thinking? Can you show one post, especially from mine, where I or anyone has made a statement about one race being inferior or superior to another? And who is not listening? Who is not doing some critical thinking? It wasn't just me who was asking what changes Laz and the protesters/rioters/looters would like to see, but there has been none offered. Laz would rather talk about their feelings, of rage and anger about hopelessness, fear, and depression. If you fall into a latrine, how long are you going to talk about your feelings about the indignity of feeling malodorous and start the critical thinking of getting out of it? If you find that your perspective doesn't seem to be working but the other person's perspective seem to be working well, isn't it time for some critical thinking and try something else? I'm a solution-oriented person. To me, if you want progress, state the problem as clearly as you can, then let's do some critical thinking and find the solution. It doesn't do anyone any good to just keep repeating, "We've got a problem, we've got a problem, we've got a problem!" As for the actual experience of slavery, we all have our own history which are no less relevant than those of have come out of slavery. The question is, do you want to walk forward while looking backwards? Do you want to commemorate the life of a petty thief and a bully instead of someone like George Washington Carver? Idolize rappers with their vile verses or admire the likes of Dr. Carson? Listen to Jackson and Sharpton or listen someone like Barry Black?

there's not supposed to be any slaves in the US now... but, in general, the attitudes and demeanor of white folks towards black folks hasn't really changed all that much... So telling black folks to change their circumstances and pull themselves up by their bootstraps might work for a few, but, really... they aren't stupid people who need to be told what to do to change their circumstances. That's why they tell their children they'll have to work twice as hard as their white peers in order to succeed. I supposed that could be considered to be a "victim mentality," in that they [rightly] know that the playing field isn't equal, and never has been. But that same "victim mentality" is can be helpful to warn against the obstacles that will be encountered in life. It's best to be prepared. I dunno. The Ferguson episodes are really temperature gauges of the burgeoning discontent of the black population with the status quo. I definitely didn't like seeing the rampaging, looting, burning, and shootings. But will the white population really listen to words rather than actions?

These things do not go unnoticed by JESUS! .................................................................................................................................................................................................. Robin Williams May Have Had His Problems, But This Is Amazing. POSTED 11 mnths BY mfrost5 http://www.tickld.com/t/94902719 COMMENTS

Yes, there are other similar stories of his genuineness and down to earth qualities and generosity with his time. Not an ordinary celebrity. a significant part of his film Toys was filmed on the wheat farm of my brother's in-laws. My brother said that during down time while other actors would retreat to their trailers, Robin would often be hanging out with the crew and my brother's family, joking and telling stories. He seemed to just love people.

1John 2:18; 1John 2:22, 1John 4:3; and 2John 1:7 are the only verses that mention "antichrist" specifically; and all of them match Tom's questions rather than Scuba's proposition. I think as one studies deeper into things, they become more complex and convoluted rather than simpler and more clear. The basic message of the gospel is summed up in the most memorized verse in the Bible - John 3:16 - and Romans 10:9: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;" and those basic truths are pretty much common to almost all Christian sects. We don't need a Greek or Hebrew lexicon or EGW to understand that. As I've said before, I believe that Jesus would have us look for ways to INCLUDE other believers in our fellowship rather than how to EXCLUDE then through peculiar doctrines that complicate the gospel message.

The day you honor seems a tricky test. Jews still honor Saturday, the seventh day. Yet they clearly don't follow Jesus Christ. Numerous devoted followers of Jesus Christ do not keep Saturday as Sabbath with no intent to dishonor Him by doing so. Many of them specifically keep Sunday and follow and worship Jesus Christ. Why is it not honoring any other day than Saturday, the seventh day? Why do you think that followers of Antichrist only honor Sunday, the first day? What do you call anyone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? What do you call someone who denies that Jesus came in the flesh? Do you think that there is only one antichrist? (Hint - see if you can find in Scripture where the word "antichrist" is used.)

I don't think God is violent. I think Jesus Christ revealed that God is not violent, and is actually not just non-violent, but anti-violent. God has allowed violence to occur, as He allowed divorce to occur, because of the hardness of men's hearts, but Jesus Christ reveals God's character; God is not violent. To some extent, "God's people" are violent because they view God as being violent.

In this week's SS lesson, it was brought out that Jesus was totally transparent about his being the Messiah with the woman at the well in Jn 4, but He was not very open about it with the Jews. The former was open to the truth, the latter would kill Him for the claim. In Esther's case, she initially concealed her nationality, not that she nor Jesus told a lie, but as Naomi said, they just did not lay all their cards out in the open. As Jesus said, "Be as wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

At the store we recently had a customer tell us that a Desire of Ages that had been given to him had sat on a shelf for 20 years and through a hectic, party-filled life. At the end of his rope the man finally gave the book a shot, and it was by reading it that he was converted. That was a conversion that saved his mortal life also. You just never know.