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#300659 - 01/18/05 02:00 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
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May the God of your understanding bless you all. I'll practice my faith, whatever that may be, my way and you practice your faith your way. I think that's called tolerance and the basis of what some are saying in this post  Have a great weekend all. 
Just remember, if you are too openminded, your brain will fall out. There is such a thing as being too tolerant. Once you become so open minded that there ceases to be objective truths, you no longer believe anything.
I'll remember, thanks. I just believe that we as humans can get pretty hung up on trying to convince others to believe as we do. I respect an individuals strong belief in a particular definition of God and whatever organized religion they belong to and wish that they could do the same when I don't believe as they do. I have boundries to my tolerance, boundries that "keep my brain from falling out", boundries that I can live with.
Fishermen sometimes bestow this blessing on one another: "May you keep a tight line," by which we mean, "May you always have a trout on your line."
As I've gotten older, however, I must confess that a tight line means less to me now than it once did. I get as much enjoyment from fishing as I do from catching.
When I'm fishing, I have more time to walk streamside and enjoy the solitude and silence, and to look for places where fish might be lurking. When I try too hard to catch, I lose too many fish and the enjoyment of the day.
Jesus calls us to be fishers of men, not catchers (Matthew 4:19). My job is to go where the fish are, walk among them, study their habitat, and learn their ways. And then to toss out a line and see if one rises to the surface. There's more enjoyment in that easy effort, and I have better results.
So I want to fish for people, looking for opportunities to speak a word about Jesus, casting here and there, and leaving the results with God. It's more calming for me and for the fish—the folks who might get spooked by my clumsiness.
Thus I now bless my fellow fishers with: "May you keep your line in the water." Or, as another fisherman once put it, "Always be ready" (1 Peter 3:15). —David Roper
White are the fields for the harvest,
Workers are all too few;
Souls are awaiting the message—
Christ still depends on you. —Anon.
When you fish for souls, cast your nets in faith and draw them in with love.
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#300660 - 01/18/05 02:50 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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This fisherman story is a very reasonable method of "sharing" your faith. I do not know how anyone could be offended by that. Additionally, I meet more people who have never had someone tell them the gospel story than I do people who have had someone force them to listen or bug them to death to convert. I think most Christians who say they believe they should share their faith fall into two camps:
1) Not enough faith in God to share their faith with others.
2) They share their faith with anyone willing to listen and then trust in God to do the rest. They pray, but they do not pester.
I think that most who complain about Christians trying to cram their faith down their throats have never really had that happen. Surely it CANNOT happen here because you are not under a compulsion to read a post that talks about Christ. If you have had such an experience, I'd like to hear about it. I suggest it is the exception rather than the rule.
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#300663 - 01/18/05 11:34 PM
Re: This is the end
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Power Poster
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 4,241
middle of the country
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I respond better when someone lives their life in a way that makes me wonder what they might know that I don't.  And I can only hope that I live my life (well, at least most of the time  ) that way. Freedom of speach - this has been a very, very interesting discussion and as the last person said, may go on and on and on!!!!! Nothing gets people talking like politics or religion!!
_________________________
Treading water in a hurricane
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#300664 - 01/18/05 11:42 PM
Re: This is the end
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Power Poster
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 8,272
Where the heart is
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On of my personal favs:
John Godfrey Saxe's ( 1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend,
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk
Cried, "Ho! what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me `tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up he spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope.
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
_________________________
CRCM,CAMS
Regulations are a poor substitute for ethics.
Just sayin'
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#300665 - 01/19/05 12:37 AM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Actually, rather than going on and on and on as you suggest, this thread ended this morning at about 10 am. It looks like y'all must miss it.
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#300667 - 01/19/05 02:58 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Do a google search for Rant Media (I forget the URL), it's based out of Canada. Very good stuff. Long live the WOG and Sean Kennedy! (Please keep in mind a lot of it's tounge-in-cheek humor and not to be taken literally)
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#300668 - 01/19/05 03:32 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Don't get yourself in a tizzy. I was just pointing out that people were saying that the discussion could go on and on when it seemed to have stopped at 10 am yesterday morning. Since then there have been several posts, but no real discussion. No edict. Please feel free to continue the discussion or another discussion. Hey, let's start over with the original post: Quote:
Anyone else thinking that it looks a lot (with world events) that the time of repentance is near? It's kinda creepy.
I heard last week on the radio that the Pope thinks so, but I have been unable to find a news report on this through Google. Can anyone else find this report?
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#300669 - 01/19/05 03:50 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Look at the locust plague sweeping Africa.. CREEPY!
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#300670 - 01/19/05 06:27 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
Don't get yourself in a tizzy. I was just pointing out that people were saying that the discussion could go on and on when it seemed to have stopped at 10 am yesterday morning. Since then there have been several posts, but no real discussion. No edict. Please feel free to continue the discussion or another discussion.
Hey, let's start over with the original post:
Quote:
Anyone else thinking that it looks a lot (with world events) that the time of repentance is near? It's kinda creepy.
I heard last week on the radio that the Pope thinks so, but I have been unable to find a news report on this through Google. Can anyone else find this report?
I find this "God is going to put an end to the world, look at all the stuff we've done to ruin it" argument a little difficult to grasp. We took over stewardship of the world after it had been working just fine for billions of years, and we've brought the whole thing to the point of collapse within only a few hundred generations. And it makes perfect sense to say that this is "the end" and God is coming down to take his holy children off to heaven.
To quote Daniel Quinn: "The evangelist John wrote, 'You must not love the world or the things of the world, for those who love the world are strangers to the love of the Father." Then, just two sentences later, he wrote: "Children, the final hour is at hand! You've heard that the Antichrist is coming. He's not one but many, and when the many of him are among us, you'll know the final hour has come.'
"John knew what he was talking about. He was right to warn his followers against those who love the world. We are the ones he was talking about, and this is the final hour--but it's their final hour, not ours. They've had their day, and this is indeed the final hour of that day.
"Now our day begins."
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#300671 - 01/19/05 07:11 PM
Re: This is the end
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Anonymous
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We need more prophets of doom. I like that. Makes it feel like something exciting is going on. "Boy, if I have another day where nothing happens I think I'm gonna go on a shooting spree. What? The world is ending?? Well, Holy $*17!! I guess I'll let Jesus do all tha killin'!" Hee hee! I agree with a lot of the other posters. Live each day to it's fullest and when the 'stuff' goes down, you'll have no regrets.
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