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If you were ever asked to explain why you obey God (assuming that you do), what answer would you give? I can think of three main reasons. First, would you say, “I do what I do as a believer because God has told me to, and He has the power to reward and destroy?” Is […] The post The “Why” of Obedience (12:8) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

check out the Gospel Outreach organization. Such amazing miracles are happening accompanying the preaching of the Gospel in the 10/40 window.

Exactly. You get a gold star!

All thy heart ? ?

The topic goes past a couple of important points from that era (the Dark Ages and beyond). Books produced during the medieval times were still largely produced by hand. The printing press had not yet been invented. One source estimated all the books in the European continent to be about 30,000. The largest group of citizens were of the peasant class and they were illiterate. So, even if they had a Bible, they could not read it. The Waldenses would copy parts of the Bible and handout small pieces of paper with short sections of the Bible. So, someone who could read may have been able to read small sections of the Bible. Overall, up until Wycliffe, owning a Bible or being able to read it was not much more likely to happen than someone being able to read it in North Korea today.

5 Things You Didn't Know About The Honeymooners On this day in 1971, the last original episode of the sitcom The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden, aired. Here are 5 things you probably didn’t know about this sitcom, which was born as a popular sketch on Jackie Gleason’s variety show... The Honeymooners Was Filmed at a Theater Jackie Gleason, who played Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, didn’t like to waste time. Although most television studios filmed just one episode each week, Gleason insisted that they film two. Instead of being shot at a television studio, the filming was done at the Adelphi Theater in front of a live audience. Audrey Meadows Almost Didn’t Get Cast as Alice Kramden Jackie Gleason rejected actress Audrey Meadows for the part of Alice Kramden because he thought she was too pretty and young to play the part. Meadows, determined to get the role, returned home, changed her hair, put on a house dress and took off her makeup. She then had photos taken of her new look and sent them to Gleason by messenger, where he declared, “That’s Alice!” When Jackie Gleason Forgot His Lines, He Would Pat His Stomach Gleason wasn’t one to do dress rehearsals because he liked the freshness and spontaneity that came with performing the show without them in front of a live audience. The other cast members, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph, used to practice their lines without Gleason being present, so there were times when Gleason got caught short and forgot his. When he'd forget his lines, he would pat his stomach, so one of the other actors could cover it. The Character of Ed Norton Was Based on Art Carney’s Father Kramden’s sidekick, Ed Norton, who was played by Art Carney, was well-known for his obsessive behavior and wild gesturing, no matter what he was doing. Carney’s idea for the gestures came from the real mannerisms of his own father, who did not perform any tasks simply. For example, when signing a report card, Carney’s father would adjust the lamp, line up the report card, check his pen and flex his arms before signing. The Show Went Off the Air Because the Writers Ran Out of Material Fans were surprised when The Honeymooners came to a screeching halt after one season, especially since it almost beat out I Love Lucy in the television rankings at the beginning. One of the problems was that The Perry Como Show had been moved by NBC into a competing slot and this caused The Honeymooners to go from the number two slot to number 19 in the Nielsen ratings. While it might have been canceled by CBS anyway because of its low ratings, Gleason said it was over because writers would have had to struggle to come up with future material for the program.

The reality is that theological and ideological unity can only be maintained where a "magesterium" determines the official doctrine, teaching or interpretation. Contrary to the oft-made assertion, the Bible doesn't interpret itself and the "plain meaning" is far from obvious. Reasonable, sincere and devoted believers can and do come to mutually incompatible conclusions. And contrary to a popular interpretation of John 16:13, sincere prayer prior to Bible study does not guarantee that one will arrive a the single true meaning of a particular text. Every protestant group adhering to the position that "the Bible is our only creed" splinters over differing interpretations of that Bible.

The other academic study listed is this one: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-27485-006 I have access without paying through my university, and read the paper. I can also send it to anyone who is interested by DM. Shouldn't post it here for ethical reasons. The study is focused on 'internalised homophobia': the extent to which LGB people internalise negative attitudes to homosexuality. The mentioned statistic that gay people are 2.5 times more likely to attend a non-affirming than an affirming congregation comes from this study: https://www-tandfonline-com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1300/J236v05n02_07 (which is almost 20 years old, so it may well be that trends have shifted somewhat since, but there's no evidence on that) I can send you that one too, if you're interested. This study had only 66 participants, so it is by no means a large or generalizable research study. The authors acknowledge "Nearly two-thirds of the participants in this study reported that at the time they were coming out they perceived a conflict between their religion and their emerging sexual orientation. Although this sample may not be representative of all LGB people (as those who have perceived a conflict might be more likely to respond to a survey of this nature), still, this finding suggests that those who work with LGB clients can expect to encounter religious issues." The '2.5 times' number was not explicitly mentioned in the article, but more of those who completed the survey were Catholic or mainstream Protestant than were atheist, Jewish or 'other' faiths. These numbers, though, largely reflect those for the US population in general. That is, LGB people are of particular faiths at the same rate as everyone else. It's not that gay people actively search out anti-gay churches, it's (usually) that they are born and raised in those churches and then come out as gay. The Schuck and Liddle study is focused on the same things as the Subhi and Geelan study I co-authored and have shared elsewhere: the ways in which people work through the tensions between their faith and their sexuality. It also has similar conclusions, despite being completed a decade earlier in a different country. I'd encourage everyone to read the original papers. The conclusions in the article linked in the OP are incidental to, or inferred from, the papers cited, rather than reflecting the intentions and findings of those papers. I do not believe that the evidence adduced supports the conclusion arrived at.