We are as we are in this life. As we are, we are called to choose life, and to make the most of the life we have. We are called to make the hard choice, and we are called to make the difficult choice.
some of the artwork looks similar -- where are you getting it? Like the western scene from a few weeks ago, but also the others too, they look great.
in my own journey I was prompted to read the bible daily by a Christian met via work, thanks be to God - and he just pushed me to read it, full stop. I did, and have, ever since -- it has put me on a path to understand God more than I ever did before and cannot recommend it enough. Also, believe I know Him more, and His Son -- do I have a personal relationship with Him? Not sure, but I think I do -- I talk to Him and try to listen for Him speaking to me -- is it Him or just my own conscience, don't know, but I do know my conscience has become infused with His word ever since I started, and I believe that is the point -- even John in revelation says that God told him Jesus is to be known by "the Word of God" and that seems true -- we can't know how to decide right from wrong unless how to judge those things, and having parables/scenes/examples is very helpful, to play out in our minds or in dialog with our family and friends or others those scenes, either real or imagined, is also helpful, if not essential, to making the best decision, as you say.
query for the 2 of you -- seen the 'don't hate' ads yet? call a timeout for hate? reaction to those? sign of the times, a shift in the talking points? or more of same?
I have glanced at the “don’t hate” ads, but haven’t paid much attention to them. My quick impression was that they are from the same people who were all gung-ho to rain hate on people like me when they were in power, but now that they’ve lost their official power they are meekly reminding everyone to not hate.
Of course we shouldn’t hate. Support my Constitutional rights to freedom of thought and speech and I’ll be just as kind to you as I can!
I can't say that I've seen any ads promoting a message of "don't hate". Of course, my browser is set to nuke all web advertisements, so I don't see many ads at all.
I agree with the general principle of not hating. However, people are going to do as they will, and as long as they don't trample on my rights and my civil liberties, I prefer to refrain from engaging in too much ad hominem nonsense.
Which is not to say I am completely above trolling people who strike me as deserving of a little ego deflation. The only overblown overgrown ego I am likely to tolerate is mine! :D
If there’s anyone who deserves to have a bit of an inflated ego, it’s you, Magnificent Man. And I have observed with admiration how you handle internet trolls who treat you disrespectfully. You respond with fairness and firmness, in a manner indicating that you will tolerate zero abuse. From a woman’s point of view, it’s wonderfully ‘manly’. Maybe it’s the Texan in you, hinting that any man who tries to do you harm will have a six-shooter from your masculine hip to answer to. It flutters my feminine heart!
The artwork is the genius of Substack. I use their AI engine to generate the images.
I actually generate a number of them which I use to construct videos for putting these up on TikTok.
Don't know how much exposure I get there, but I figure if people are exposed to the Bible and are prompted to investigate it for themselves it's worth the relatively small effort involved to put it out there.
Thank you for more of your profound thinking, Peter. It is so easy to adore you!
I think that many of the poor choices people make are the result of ignorance - a lack of information or having only bad information. It is the normal course of life that we make mistakes this way, and learn hard lessons, and grow as human beings. We can have compassion for people who make bad choices out of ignorance. For example, a young person might buy a Xanax on the internet, not realizing that it could be laced with fentanyl. He becomes addicted because he just didn’t know that tainted drugs were a possibility. Now he has mostly poor choices, so society needs to help him back to a place in life where he can make much better choices.
On the other hand, some people make poor choices even though they knew full well that those choices are evil and wrong. A man knows that it is evil to rape and kill women, but does it anyway, and consequently society judges him to be an irredeemable threat and thus incarcerates him, in order to protect the innocent. We can pray for his soul, but he must not be allowed to inflict more damage by his poor choices.
The early settlers of America realized that ignorance leads to poor choices, and so prioritized education. Our present-day culture needs to return to valuing knowledge, so that we can all make better choices. You are right, Peter, we all look back on our lives and see the times when we only had poor choices. Our responsibility to future generations is to make the world a place where people have the ability to make better ones.
The challenge is that, regardless of the why or the particular poor choices, the poor are with us, and the violent and the predatory are among us. We do not have even the practical luxury of ignoring them, and we always have the moral calling to show compassion and not condemnation for all human beings.
Which means sometimes we are going to be faced with choices that we find appalling, but nevertheless must make.
some of the artwork looks similar -- where are you getting it? Like the western scene from a few weeks ago, but also the others too, they look great.
in my own journey I was prompted to read the bible daily by a Christian met via work, thanks be to God - and he just pushed me to read it, full stop. I did, and have, ever since -- it has put me on a path to understand God more than I ever did before and cannot recommend it enough. Also, believe I know Him more, and His Son -- do I have a personal relationship with Him? Not sure, but I think I do -- I talk to Him and try to listen for Him speaking to me -- is it Him or just my own conscience, don't know, but I do know my conscience has become infused with His word ever since I started, and I believe that is the point -- even John in revelation says that God told him Jesus is to be known by "the Word of God" and that seems true -- we can't know how to decide right from wrong unless how to judge those things, and having parables/scenes/examples is very helpful, to play out in our minds or in dialog with our family and friends or others those scenes, either real or imagined, is also helpful, if not essential, to making the best decision, as you say.
query for the 2 of you -- seen the 'don't hate' ads yet? call a timeout for hate? reaction to those? sign of the times, a shift in the talking points? or more of same?
I have glanced at the “don’t hate” ads, but haven’t paid much attention to them. My quick impression was that they are from the same people who were all gung-ho to rain hate on people like me when they were in power, but now that they’ve lost their official power they are meekly reminding everyone to not hate.
Of course we shouldn’t hate. Support my Constitutional rights to freedom of thought and speech and I’ll be just as kind to you as I can!
I can't say that I've seen any ads promoting a message of "don't hate". Of course, my browser is set to nuke all web advertisements, so I don't see many ads at all.
I agree with the general principle of not hating. However, people are going to do as they will, and as long as they don't trample on my rights and my civil liberties, I prefer to refrain from engaging in too much ad hominem nonsense.
Which is not to say I am completely above trolling people who strike me as deserving of a little ego deflation. The only overblown overgrown ego I am likely to tolerate is mine! :D
If there’s anyone who deserves to have a bit of an inflated ego, it’s you, Magnificent Man. And I have observed with admiration how you handle internet trolls who treat you disrespectfully. You respond with fairness and firmness, in a manner indicating that you will tolerate zero abuse. From a woman’s point of view, it’s wonderfully ‘manly’. Maybe it’s the Texan in you, hinting that any man who tries to do you harm will have a six-shooter from your masculine hip to answer to. It flutters my feminine heart!
The artwork is the genius of Substack. I use their AI engine to generate the images.
I actually generate a number of them which I use to construct videos for putting these up on TikTok.
Don't know how much exposure I get there, but I figure if people are exposed to the Bible and are prompted to investigate it for themselves it's worth the relatively small effort involved to put it out there.
Thank you for more of your profound thinking, Peter. It is so easy to adore you!
I think that many of the poor choices people make are the result of ignorance - a lack of information or having only bad information. It is the normal course of life that we make mistakes this way, and learn hard lessons, and grow as human beings. We can have compassion for people who make bad choices out of ignorance. For example, a young person might buy a Xanax on the internet, not realizing that it could be laced with fentanyl. He becomes addicted because he just didn’t know that tainted drugs were a possibility. Now he has mostly poor choices, so society needs to help him back to a place in life where he can make much better choices.
On the other hand, some people make poor choices even though they knew full well that those choices are evil and wrong. A man knows that it is evil to rape and kill women, but does it anyway, and consequently society judges him to be an irredeemable threat and thus incarcerates him, in order to protect the innocent. We can pray for his soul, but he must not be allowed to inflict more damage by his poor choices.
The early settlers of America realized that ignorance leads to poor choices, and so prioritized education. Our present-day culture needs to return to valuing knowledge, so that we can all make better choices. You are right, Peter, we all look back on our lives and see the times when we only had poor choices. Our responsibility to future generations is to make the world a place where people have the ability to make better ones.
Bless you for your wisdom, Peter.
The challenge is that, regardless of the why or the particular poor choices, the poor are with us, and the violent and the predatory are among us. We do not have even the practical luxury of ignoring them, and we always have the moral calling to show compassion and not condemnation for all human beings.
Which means sometimes we are going to be faced with choices that we find appalling, but nevertheless must make.