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Our new granddaughter is here- 8 lb, 3 oz No pics yet. Mom and babe are well. Name to be announced later tonight YIPPEE!!!

She greeted me with a bright smile and a wave of her hand. Cheerful, as always. She is about the same age as my granddaughter-- 10 - 11 years. I greeted her and asked what she was doing. She smiled back at me. But she did not respond verbally, as I expected. About once a month, or less, I will get a one word response and once I had a three word response. When she dos respond verbally, I immediately rush to tell her mother so that we can all celebrate. You see, she has "angelman syndrome." She is always happy. But, she does not communicate by normal means. Let us all appreciate what gifts we have.

When our personal beliefs result in actions or words that effect other people negatively, there is a risk of being perceived as being judgmental. It is imposing our personal mores, beliefs , etc., on another. While not a flawless indicator of judgmentalism it may provide a cautionary in how we relate to and conduct ourselves around others. I think Paul was speaking to this sort of thing when he wrote about dietary standards in the NT church where there was quite a disparity of standard and practice among the Jewish and Gentile believers. Read the whole chapter of Romans 14 to get the context for this summary statement that he makes in verse 22 - "You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right." (NLT)

"The Bible teaches that one should keep the Sabbath holy." "People who do not keep the Sabbath holy will not be saved." "If you do not keep the Sabbath holy, you will not be saved." All three of the above statements are judgmental. One is appropriate. Two are not appropriate and are beyond what God has given us to personally decide.

Can you please provide a few statements,links or names of what right wing christians say,ones that promote.. disdain for safety nets and expectation that the poor, vulnerable and disabled fend for themselves.

Gail clarified something I should have: I was not talking about what the Bible says, I was talking about what modern right-wing 'Christians' say. My view is that what they say is incompatible with what the Bible says. I have no beef with what the Bible says. I actively like and support the system God set up (hint: it's not capitalism).

Well said:

Just speculating here, but do you think this means that on the other worlds God has made, He puts them through the same test as Adam and Eve had? If so this would mean that Satan has roamed to other worlds right? I thought he was bound to this one. Is this God's standard test for newly created beings Also, in a passage prior to this it talks about the angels using golden cards to pass in and out of heaven. Why would they need such things? Are there other beings trying to sneak in? Fyi, this is all just fun thinking. I can't wait to visit other worlds when Christ comes back. Btw, I haven't read all these chapters in full so if it explains itself later on forgive me, E. White wrote SO much stuff! "Then I saw two trees. One looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat.They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attending angel said to me, “None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall.” CET 98.1

Maybe that's why Kenneth Cox has been preaching so long since it takes him longer than most to do the harvesting. If I'd been working since 1777, I'd be worn out. LoL God is Love! Jesus saves!

They are interesting questions. Something which comes to mind is that Ellen White is simply relating what she saw. What she saw shouldn't necessarily be taken literally. We need to discern what's literal and what isn't, which often isn't so easy (consider all the debate over the 144,000 for example).

Congrats Gail!!

While the oldest one has blond hair, this one has brown like her mom. I can't wait to get in to Vancouver to see her

I was in church in another state 2 weeks ago, and at the beginning of the SS program which started with the SS lesson study, there was less than a dozen people in a church that I was told has a membership of around 350. Is the church boring? Or is it people who are bored with Jesus Christ?

I was describing those before the age of accountability. I wrote, "It seems to me a person before the age of accountability." If I had been referring to infants, I would have used the word "infants". As soon as the accountability moves from 0 to something greater than 0, then would the criteria "overcomes evil with good" come into place? If not, why not? What does it mean to have some accountability? It seems to me as soon as there is any accountability, at that point one needs to believe in Christ, correct?

We make a judgment when we decide what the Bible teaches and the claim that it may have on our life. God expects us to make personal judgments. We are not expected to make a judgment as to the salvation of another. We do not know their standing before God. We do not know the extent to which the Holly Spirit may have led them.

Divorce statistics in society in general have plummeted in the last couple of decades.

Being judgmental is more like a personal attack, while logical fallacies are a little less personal. Being judgmental towards someone tends to wound their spirit and rouse them into fighting back in kind by turning on the flame throwers and blasting away. Discussing flaws in logic tends to depersonalize the argument by saying "this isn't " instead of "you aren't ". I have experienced a few personal attacks in CA, mainly in one forum in particular. I finally reached the point of saying to myself, "So what, I know that I'm not a brain-washed scientist with important-sounding degrees. Go ahead and insult me and belittle me if that makes you feel better about yourselves". If someone wants to stomp me into the ground for my ideas, I can just ignore them or go somewhere else. Life's too short to spend it bickering with someone over nuances or trivia. It's Self that rises up with bared, flesh-ripping fangs and claws to defend itself against personal attacks. Once Self is dead, personal attacks and insults whiz past their target, likely frustrating the shooter for the missed shot.

The Kim Davis situation raises interesting questions about the meaning and practical effect of the freedom of religion. Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Articles/Kim-Davis-and-the-Freedom-of-Religion.aspx#20H5PuiOuQWFiAzz.99

That looks like a picture of me about 10 years ago (I know it's not). After the fall, I had to have my knee rebuilt. It's all better now. With runaway global warming occurring, I'm not worried about snow any more.

Well then , I'm gonna quit studying my Bible and praying for the Holy Spirit if it makes accountable for more of the Law. You make it sound like in God's eyes, ignorance of the Law will get you saved. This seems illogical to me. So, is "overcoming evil with good" like a balance scale; where if the good side outweighs the bad side, we're "in"; or is it a "pass-fail" kind of thing thing, where if you haven't overcome every single known evil (sin) in your life by the time you die, you get to burn? I think both of those alternatives are wrong.

You look to be making the error of reading the effect of the action as the time of the action. I explained this in detail on the other thread. For your convenience, I'm copying it here. It's a different text being considered, but the same principle is applied. What Paul is saying is that before we were converted, we were alientated and enemies in our mind, which means separated from God, estanged from God, at odds with God, not at peace with God; in short, not reconciled. Then we were converted, after which point we were no longer enemies of God, but friends with God, which is to say, reconciled. It cannot be the case that we were enemies in our mind before we existed becase we had no mind in which to be an emeny. To be an enemy in our mind means we must exist and think, so these things that happened, involving formerly being an enemy in our mind, but now no longer, entail our existing and thinking. I see the issue here, which is that you are reading the phrase "by His death" as if there were something about the death of Christ which could reconcile us by itself, without our participation. But this is not the only way to read this phrase. Let's see if I can come up with an example. Let's say my grandfather passed away and left an inheritance for my mother, and he passed away before I was born. I need money for something, say college, and I say something like, "I went to college by the death of my grandfather". What does this mean? It means that as a result of the death of my grandfather, it became possible for me to go to college, because the money which he left for my Mom, she gave to me tu use for school. So even though I write, "I went to college by the death of my grandfather", this does not mean this happened at the time of my grandfather's death, before I existed. Indeed, it would be bizare to read this sentence in this way, since I cannot go to school without existing. Similarly, it is perfectly legitimate, gramatically, to read the sentence that we were reconciled by the death of His Son in the same way as my sentence that I can go to school by the death of my grandfather. As by the death of my grandfather something happened by which it became possible for me to go to school, by the death of Christ, something happened which made it possible for me to be reconciled. But the sentence structure no more requires I be reconciled at the time Christ died than that I went to school at the time by grandfather died. And just as reading the sentence, "I went to college by the death of my grandfather," as meaning that this happened before I existed, so too, reading that were reconciled by the death of Christ as happening before we existed is a bizarre reading, since we can no more be reconciled without existing than we can go to school without existing.

I don't think this is true. For example, imagine a Canaanite home which practices child sacrifices, etc., trained to hate God and to do evil of all sorts. It seems to me a person before the age of acocuntability could be following in the practices of the partents, and be acting wickedly, without necessarily being at the age of accountability, which is usually considered to be pretty old, 13 being a traditional age. But even if one chooses a younger age, it's easy for me to picture a child lying, even being a habitualy lier, without having reached the age of accountability. I think you said this wrong. It should be, the less we take care of the very young, so they don't live, the better. These cases are very different, which seems to me like it should be obvious. Think about the probabilities involved of young children being converted. Let me just ask you a simple question. What do you think the probability of a person going to heaven is? (an adult)

My middle question in the poll should have had a fourth option to allow the participant to endorse Adventist high schools as they are at present time. That was an oversight on my part. The non-denomination school my kids are attending now is certainly doing something right. They have tuition down to $275/month for 9 months. Obviously it has a lot of outside support. Their enrollment is booked. They interview students and and families as part of the selection process. Imagine if enrollment was so high at Adventist schools that we had to interview students and families and choose which ones could come.

I'm wondering if we can learn anything about divine "indwelling" by looking at demonic "possession". I'm thinking about being "possessed" by demonic angels. Jesus "cast out" demons, as did the Apostles. The "in" or "out" agrees with the concept of being "indwelt". Now - I've always thought of demon "possession" as simply control of the mind by a demon, who has taken over. There's no restraint of that demon. He sort of "owns" his victim, during his tenure of "possession". Jesus used a parable about a "house" being "swept clean" of demons, who later return and move "in" again. The terms "in" vs "out" are used, because the power of the demon is exerted "in" the mind. Demons can communicate "thoughts" to the human mind. I believe that we humans were created to be indwelt - by the spirit of God. Because we were created to be indwelt, demons can also take advantage of this "feature" of the human mind. They can take over a human mind, UNLESS that person is protected by God and His angels. Now - I don't believe that demons actually merge with the humans they "possess", but they certainly can speak thru those humans (without that human's consent). And the LORD did the same thing to Baalam. The story of Saul, when "the spirit of the LORD" "left" him, and then an evil spirit then came upon him, is instructive.

In this I agree with what Aliens. is saying- that the responsibility for the poor should be an individual one. Here in a different country we view welfare differently. It and our health care system were created as one way to help the poor. So we gladly contribute towards that effort. Churches are a big help, too, but it still doesn't substitute for an attitude for personal support for them on our part. In the OT mandate a person was NOT to ask whether this person was lazy or whether he would spend the money on drugs or cellphones. If they had a need and asked they were not to be refused.

I suspect that the presentation of the teachings of Christ would cut through most, if not all, doctrinal resistance. He tells us what to think, do, say, and pray. His is a message that can transform our thinking and our way of life if we make the effort to believe it and live it. Maybe some good will come of stuffing mailboxes with 600-page GC's, but I think that the money could be better spent on a non-sectarian presentation of the Kingdom. It's the Kingdom that we should all ultimately want to join, not just a particular denomination.

We read: Paul's readers used to be spiritually dead when the formerly walked in their trespasses and sins according to the course of this world.

To be spiritually dead means to not have been born again. If a spiritually dead person could not respond to the Holy Spirit, he could not become born again.

Inmates Train Rescue Dogs And Reform Themselves In The Process By Emerald Pellot Charles Couch has been in prison for 3 decades. He is facing a life sentence, convicted for what he refers to as a crime of passion. “I caught my wife with another man together and I killed them both. And that was 33 years ago almost,” he told KATV. No one would expect a man like Couch to have a soft or compassionate side. But then he met Honey, a rescue dog in the Paws in Prison program. The Arkansas Depart of Correction prison is marrying prisoners with the pups on “doggy death row.” The rescues are each trained by prisoners, which will make them ready for adoption, and able to avoid being euthanized. Though it may sound unusual, unconventional methods to reach the hardened crowd of inmates have seen a ton of success. In some prisons, the inmates are reformed by training horses! “She’s taught me — I don’t know, to love again I guess,” Couch says of Honey. She’s the third dog he has trained but perhaps the most special to him. Unlike the other dogs he has trained, he lets Honey sleep in the bed with him. “When they come to us they’re getting their second chance. When they go to their new owner, they’re getting paroled, they’re getting clemency,” Couch says. Another inmate, William Bentley, is learning a lot about himself through the program as well. Bentley was convicted of aggravated robbery. “He’s taught me patience, responsibility. I’m not used to having to take care of anybody other than myself. On the street my mama was taking care of me so it taught me how to take care of something other than me,” he says. “I was anti-social and having him has made me social because everybody wants to pet the dog. Everybody wants to rub him and see him and talk to him and I have to deal with them also.” The Paws in Prison program has been shown to reduce violence in prison and turn the lives of these inmates around.

Thank you.That is about the best description I have here here so far. Pretty clear and concise