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Location: where people are either too stupid to leave or too stuck to move
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robertpolyglot
You're welcome.
A little off topic, but I had a bad experience moving onto campus. It was a 4 person suite set-up, and the other 3 were druggies. It was stressful, because I needed to leave that scenario without bringing up that issue and getting them in trouble. I forgot what "creative excuse" I used to break my contract with the housing office.
I lived with a former druggie, but then she turned herself around and rescue animals and would bring like clean needles and bible stuff to the people in the crackhouse(i guess thats the term?) but to the born again christian roommate it just wasn't enough because she was bi and smoked cigarettes.
anyways she was a nice roommate..
We do not disagree, Heartsong. It is a difference between conception (begotten) and actual birth. God's Spirit is the "seed" that is planted at our physical birth that grows or not depending on the "spiritual soil" it is in. We were not doing so well in that department . . . so we needed Christ to bring God's Holy Spirit to a human consciousness so that when He was reborn as Spirit it would be available to us ALL within our consciousness. He is there(abides with us) to guide us to the proper development and maturation of our embryo Spirits. We still differ in the degree to which we listen and heed His call . . . but eventually we all will.
Thanks for elaborating on this Mystic. Good food for thought for me.
No I agree with him. Like I said it is a catchphrase.
Ps
I never ever refer to myself as being born again.
Oh, OK, sorry then! I don't, either. I can remember when people first started using the term, and I never cared for it as I viewed it as "Pop Christianity". It's sort of a 70s thing that has worn itself out.
This is a keeper...that "special snowflake of Christianity."
Yes, the Catholics and others have the exact same words about being born from water and spirit. We just don't recite it to people. It's a little preachy. We (those that DON'T say this) just expect people to be good Christians. Actions speak louder than words.
The Lord says;
"By your words you'll be forgiven or by your words you'll be condemned."
"My words are life to those who find them, to mans whole being they are health."
"Whoever hears my words and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on rock."
"If you live in me and my words remain part of you, you may ask what you will and your will shall be done for you."
Who has stood in the counsel of the Lord to hear and to see His words? Who has heeded His word so as to announce it?
"If only they had stood in my counsel, if only they had declared my words to my people, it would have changed them from their wicked ways and their evil deeds."
"The man who loves me will keep my words. The man who does not love me does not keep my words."
"Whatever your heart is full of that's what your mouth will speak."
"Speak the truth to one another, judge justly, and let honesty and peace be at your gate."
I, personally, just struggle with the word Christian. I learned as a young child that the word can mean that one has a first name from the English Bible, that the family goes to church every Easter and Christmas, or that the family goes to church on Sunday mornings and forgets what they are taught by Sunday evening. Within a short time, I also learned that some people who claim they are Christian are some of the meanest people on earth. Some are intentionally ignorant, taking pride in their lack of education.
Now, I know that everything I have written in this post so far is horribly negative, so let me write that i have met people who call themselves Christian, and they are wonderful people -- even great people! Giving, loving, and they do their best to live by The Book.
I don't use the word to explain myself, although I have many heard use the word to explain me. When they do, I don't say anything, because they mean well, and I appreciate that. However, I love G-d and His Messiah. The main difference between me and many Christians is that I believe the whole Bible, not just the last third of it. I believe that the whole book is relevant, alive, good for study and for life-practice.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,299,363 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike555
The phrase 'born-again Christian' is somewhat redundant because there is no such thing as a Christian who has NOT been born again. If one has been born-again he is a Christian. If one is a Christian he has been born-again. Now there are people who profess to be Christians, but in reality they have never been born-again. Only a Christian has been born-again through faith alone in Christ alone and will therefore spend eternity in the presence of God. Non Christians have not been born-again and are therefore spiritually dead.
Pretty much this (I'm actually agreeing with Mike here for a change).
You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?
Being born again is not being a Christian, or you become born again when you say I believe in Jesus. This is nowhere to be found in scripture, no matter how much the cherry picking Fundy would try and twist it in there.
When Jesus spoke of seeing and entering into the kingdom, he was not talking about securing a place in heaven, but the ability to understand and walk in the things of God.
We had absolutely no involvement in our natural birth and the same goes with spiritual birth. If we cannot understand this,like Jesus said, how are we going to understand spiritual things. No amount of saying I believe in Jesus will make you born again.
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
A day comes when the wind blows through us and then something happens.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,299,363 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticPhD
That is so sad.
Why?
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It was stressful, because I needed to leave that scenario without bringing up that issue and getting them in trouble. I forgot what "creative excuse" I used to break my contract with the housing office.
