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Ross, I hope this does not come across as picking on you.. that is not the case. Just because a person is not convicted of the same sins that I have been, does not mean they are willfully sinning.. I still like EGW Quote from her sexual behaviour books in Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce (1989), p. 242 If we err, let it be on the side of mercy rather than on the side of condemnation and harsh dealing Do you support her on that?

Funerals are one of those things that need grace Example if a Muslim funeral, and the attendants are Jewish, out of respect trade off with another funeral home. If a gay funeral, do the same if the attendants are radical evangelicals that hate them. Make sense?

We can help by relieving them of some of the stress: do little things like make a healthy meal for them, walk their dog, do a minor home repair, pick up their kids from school, give them a "night off". We can give them encouraging notes, texts, etc. We can help by getting them fresh air, rest, sunshine. We can pray for them; we can offer to pray with them. We can be forgiving if we feel hurt by them--even if they don't ask for forgiveness. We can help others who may be affected by their erratic, albeit expected, behavior. We can offer a hug. We can sit with them in silence. We can listen when they want to talk.

Rossw, You can judge the funeral director and decide his religious belief is wrong,but you have to be careful what or who else you judge as wrong.

We'll likely never see eye to eye on this. I do not believe Hobby Lobby is paying directly for contraceptives under the ACA. Rather they are paying for the option to have the contraceptives and therefore, are not responsible in the event that one of their employees chooses to take contraceptives (for birth control or any other myriad of reasons women take them). Hence, it still boggles my mind as to why they believe their religious freedoms were impinged. The funeral home is not a church. They are not in the business of judging the morality of their employees. Churches do that. That's a church's business. See 1 Corinthians 5:12-13.

Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (KJV) It doesn't say "the handwriting" by Moses. It just says "the handwriting". This could just as easily be "the handwriting" by God, of ordinances that was against us". Paul does call the 10 Commands, "the ministry of death written and engraved on stones" (2Cor 3:7). You either have to blot out the Ten Commandments right along with every other command, OR you can realize that violation OF these Laws (handwritten by God) - THAT is the charge against us. That is the record that stands against us. You don't have to "blot out" the Law. You blot out the record of our violations OF that Law. A "ministry of DEATH" is certainly "against us". But WHY is it "against us". Reason: because we cannot keep it - not with all our efforts. For us (alone) it IS a "yoke of bondage". When we believe in HIM - then He writes His Law on our hearts. Then it is no longer a "yoke of bondage." But it's the SAME LAW. Only our relationship to that Law has changed. Some understand the "yoke of bondage" to be the Oral Torah of the Pharisees, thus leaving in place all the Laws given to Israel by God. You don't have to do THAT either - if you understand that the "yoke" was the Law without the Spirit of Christ to enable obedience.

OK. Let's read Chapter 5. NKJ Deuteronomy 5:1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. 2 "The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 "The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. 4 "The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 "I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said: 6 `I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7 `You shall have no other gods before Me. 8 `You shall not make for yourself a carved image-- any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 11 `You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 12 `Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16 `Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. 17 `You shall not murder. 18 `You shall not commit adultery. 19 `You shall not steal. 20 `You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 21 `You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.' This IS the Covenant which the LORD made with Israel just before they crossed into the promised land. THIS is the Covenant with the blessings and curses. Moses wrote it on a scroll - so they could later hear it read every seven years. (They could not get the original out of the Ark.) Israel had broken this Covenant many, many times. The LORD did not wipe out those who broke this Covenant. He provided a means of atonement - the sacrificial system and Aaronic priesthood, which were symbolic, and pointed forward to THE TRUE means of atonement - Jesus. When the true MEANS was in place, the old means (priesthood/sacrifices) was "changed". Changing the priesthood (therefore the sacrifices) does NOT do away with the Feasts of the LORD.

O.K. I probably should have said: Intellectual answers are often not the answer to such questions. What then is a good answer? Take the question: Why did God allow my wife to die in that accident? The answer to that question might lie in a focus on the pain the husband was suffering in the loss of his wife.

In paying a salary to anyone, Hobby Lobby may or may not be paying for someone's (men and/or women) indiscretions. (Here's a dollar. I can't tell you what to spend it on.) No, you don't need to spoon feed me case evidence. I wanted to hear from YOU directly why YOU felt any of these cases infringed on religious rights. My comment, "what, not even a link?" was sort of tongue in cheek. As far as a change in sex...who cares? What difference can that possibly make to someone who is working in a funeral home? It's not a brothel. No one's having sex in that funeral home (or, at least I hope they're not). I still fail to see how either of these cases infringe on religious freedom. I was hoping that you'd enlighten me.

As I've posted in another thread to you about what the Jewish Rabbi's and sages have to say about the so called "Nephilim" The Nephilim: [They were called נְפִילִים because they fell (נָפְלוּ) and caused the world to fall (הִפִּילוּ) (Gen. Rabbah 26:7), and in the Hebrew language it means giants (Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 22 and Targum Jonathan). And I believe Jesus tells us somewhere in the NT when asked about marriage in heaven: We will be like the angels! There's no where that in the Bible or in Jewish writings, etc. that say that the Nephilim are anything but giants!! And nowhere does the Bible say that angels are having sex with humans!!

Salvation is a gift from God, but He does not force those who explain it away to accept what they have explained away. One of my former pastors, who ordained me as a local elder, once discouraged me from studying the word because I kept finding things that he had not been taught in seminary. And I kept asking him deep questions. I stopped studying for a while (at his promptings), and God called me back to the study with an unmistakable calling. That pastor, now retired, often calls me with theological questions even though his brother-in-law is a retired author of books on eschatology/Bible teacher retired from a major SDA University.

intellectual responses are not the answer to such questions.