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#albertastrong

I think that's doing a major disservice to firefighters, as well as to the people who've already lost their homes. Sunday morning quarterbacking is easy to do, but helps no one, and, in this case, is sorta like twisting the knife in a wound that's already open and sore. Firefighters are some of the bravest individuals to be had. It's not just a "job," just a "duty," and just a "chore." They work their hearts out. The winds that have whipped over Alberta lately have hampered the firefighting immensely. It's not as if anything can be done about the winds...

Green Coch, I'm really sorry that you and others you worked with in fighting fires felt that it was "only a job." That's not how my relatives view their work. I never met a firefighter before who seemed to have your opinion of his work. Kinda sad...

Stan, you are indeed a blessing. To all of us. Many here have indeed lost their mothers during the past year, so this Mother's Day will be their first time to "celebrate" her day without her. God bless each of us and each of our mothers. Thank you, Stan, for this topic.

Just saw another news report on this fire!! Wow, unreal, what a massive thing it has become!! Heavenly Father, I pray there are not many more lost lives!!

Yep!

Pretty sure it was Casey Kasem: I grew up listening to American Top 40 in Australia.

You are both correct!! B. Katy Perry and Michael Jackson Leave it to the King of Pop and Katy Perry - both Bad and Teenage Dream contained five number-one singles.

Yep, I'd agree with that.

GreenC, As you are from Asia (I'm guessing wet, tropical southern Asia), it may be difficult for you to conceive of how volatile a dried out old growth pine forest can be; and how hot and unpredictable a large wildfire can be. We had a wildfire in Colorado Springs a couple years ago that destroyed $100 Million worth of real estate in a little over an hour. Sprinkle your roof - haha! A good recipe for a slow painful suicide! My stuff ain't worth my life! <<Still praying for rain or snow!>>

Yes, we are made in that image. First of all we need to clear our mind the western Catholic view of the trinity as being all there is to God, the 3 leaves of the clover, the 3 strands of a rope idea. We need to go back to the Second Temple Jewish understanding of the trinity which retained reflections in some of the theories of the Trinity held among the Eastern Orthodox. God is a oneness of opposites: Among these are infinite/finite, impersonal/personal, objective/subjective. The trinity is nothing more than the 3 aspects of God manifested with in time and space. It is like if we live in a glass of water which is time and space and a being outside of that glass put in 3 fingers to be able to communicate with what is inside the glass. Or a huge mountain that goes into the thick clouds and you cannot see what's above the clouds, you and only realize the mountain by what you can experience below the clouds and we find 3 ridges. Our pioneers who rejected the trinity believed half the truth and our pioneers who were Trinitarian probably held to the more traditional western view which is again only half the truth. The 3 manifestations with in time and space are briefly: God as greater than us bigger than us, all powerful, the one angels must veil their wings, the great unapproachable light, the deep darkness; the one we see represented in the first third (consisting of 3 commandments in Exodus 20.) Next we have God as one of us, God personal who we can come to as a friend. God the son (who is manifested in the Sabbath commandment). And God the Father and God the Son are objective manifestations of God. We are made in their image because we are objective people with a body and things others can look at and see. But we are both objective and subjective. And the Holy Spirit is God as manifesting himself to our subjective. All three of these are needed, but one or two are necessary but insufficient. It is only as we have the 3 that it is sufficient (notice I did not say complete, if the one infinite God wanted to he could have made many more manifestations, but he shows us what we need to know, which is the trinity.) But if we only look at the 3 manifestations as being God in all totally (as the Western Catholic view does) we are idolaters and worthy of death. How much more idolatry are we if we only pick one aspect. And Satan tends to really want to attack Jesus. If we reject the trinity, in the west we tend to choose God as power as God, or make God the Father God in totally. In eastern religions they tend to focus on God as working with our subjective or making the Holy Spirit God in totality. But you don't really find a culture worshiping Jesus as God in totally.

Dr. Waite: First among the pioneers, even though the trinity was not believed by many of them, it was still an alternative belief that our members could believe, we did not like with our cousin religions make the non-trinity view a part of our doctrines. Second our focus on the 3 angel's messages lead us to the trinity. There are a number of 3s that fit together in this doctrine, and they all deal with: The 3 aspects of the trinity, The 3 parts of Exodus 20, the 3 deceptions of Satan, the 3 beasts in Revelation 12 and 13 (the aspects of the trinity except they are independent of each other and only cooperate to their mutual benefit) and how they are answered by the 3 angels messages which causes the 144000 to be able to stand the great day of his coming.

wow what an experience... thanks for sharing @Robert

Gone are the days where we might think that a million acres burned, but only a few dwellings. The drought in Southern California is not limited to one region. This massive fire at Fort Mc Murray is but one tragedy of many more to come. It calls us to look to God who is our refuge and help. Though all of our earthly goods may go up in the flames as we are seeing here, if we escape with our lives; there is hope! Hope that the love of God is calling us through the disaster to put our priorities in order. Some will see in calamites a lesson that they would never see in a day at the park. And some will get so caught up in the moment that they will loose focus on those things that are of eternal importance.

Human power did not establish the work of God, neither can human power destroy it. To those who carry forward His work in face of difficulty and opposition, God will give the constant guidance and guardianship of His holy angels. His work on earth will never cease. The building of His spiritual temple will be carried forward until it shall stand complete, White, E. G. (1973). God’s Amazing Grace (p. 128). Review and Herald Publishing Association.

"When we try to obey God’s law without grace, our righteousness is like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). True obedience is the result [Not the prerequisite] of a saving relationship with Jesus [not a denomination]. Through God’s amazing grace, we’re freed from the penalty of sin. Such love awakens in our hearts a desire and the power to keep the law." (emphasis mine) I enthusiastically agree with this statement.