What Does it Really Mean to Be "No Part of the World"?

[John 12.24to28]

1 hour ago, Pudgy said:

You can teach a parrot to swear, but you can't make it say 'I love you' to your mother-in-law

😆 I guess you're right, I don't think this was her mother-in-law...

 

1 hour ago, Pudgy said:

You can give a squirrel a piano, but you can't make it play anything other than 'Chopsticks

Yes, and this squirrel didn't even get that far...

 

Pass the jelly donuts, please!😬😁☺️

[John 12.24to28]

2 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

Exodus 15:26 New International Version

26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

 

The "diseases brought on the Egyptians" refers to the plagues on Egypt during the test between Jehovah and the Egyptian pantheon. The Egyptians were plagued when Jehovah was showing those false gods were useless. Jehovah was a refuge from the plagues for anyone who chose to take shelter in Him. Jehovah rescued those people from horrid slavery conditions. Some of the Hebrews who came out of Egypt foolishly continued to worship idols even while they were in the wilderness. That's why they kept getting plagued. They had made a covenant with Jehovah to throw away those false gods, but some of them broke their covenant and continued to do false worship all those years, and even when they got to the promised land some of them disobeyed Jehovah and did child sacrifice. Jehovah hates false worship for a good reason. 

 

Jehovah is the source of life. That's how we're designed - to live we have to stay connected to Him. To disconnect from Him leads to decay, physically and spiritually. Jehovah can undo the decay, but we have to connect to Him through Jesus. It's not complicated.

 

2 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

https://askdrbrown.org/video/can-apostates-repent-and-return-to-god

 

I like how he explained it...the Bible is a cohesive unit. Sometimes people misunderstand one verse or one situation in the Bible, but rather than turn everything upside down, just think about Jehovah's personality and realize either there is more information needed on a verse or somebody took it out of context. "Keep on asking, and you will receive." God is Love, and that simple truth helps us wait for more information when there is a verse that seems difficult to understand at first.

 

2 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

Mule

 

"They would each bring a gift—articles of silver, articles of gold, garments, armor, balsam oil, horses, and mules—"

 

(2 Chronicles 9:24)

 

Mules were highly valued in Bible times.

 

"The Bible mentions mules many times. Even kings rode on them and people gave them as gifts to Solomon. They are about the size of an average horse, but have larger heads, much longer ears, tufted tails and smaller hooves. They are more surefooted and work more slowly than horses. In fact, they are very stubborn and can't be hurried.

Mules are common throughout the world, especially in Asia and parts of Europe, starting with light work when they are three years old and handling heavier burdens two years later. They make excellent pack animals over mountain trails. Thousands were used by the United States Army before modern machinery was developed." (from https://bibletruthpublishers.com/is-it-a-mule-or-ass-or-a-donkey/sidney-r-gill/wonders-of-gods-creation-volume-3/s-r-gill/print-friendly/lxpf-la-90578)

 

Mules and donkeys are not the same. Both have their place for the appointed time. When it comes to bearing heavy loads, climbing treacherous terrain, and stubbornly clinging to the right way, a lowly mule might just be the beast of burden of choice for the job.

 

[John 12.24to28]

17 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

1 Peter 5:8 English Standard Version

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1 Corinthians 14:33 English Standard Version

33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

2 Timothy 2:7 English Standard Version

7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

 

https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B181015/the-pathology-of-an-apostate-church

They might succumb to mysticism, feminism, worldliness, works righteousness, or any of the myriad corrupting threats poised against the church.

 

17 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

 

Here is a quote from that website you linked @redHarmonioussparrow: "Worse still, the same kinds of rampant corruption and immorality the Roman Church once worked to conceal are now celebrated and encouraged by many Protestant congregations. Far from being known for their purity, many churches today go out of their way to embrace or imitate the debauchery of secular culture. Pastors exegete Hollywood movies rather than Scripture. Seeker-sensitive megachurch gatherings often look and feel more like a rock concert or a burlesque show than a worship service. Celebrity-minded church leaders seem more interested in what’s stylish and marketable than they are in what’s sound and solidly biblical. Shockingly, there are even some ostensibly evangelical churches whose leaders are proud that their membership is open, welcoming, über-tolerant, or even affirming toward serial adulterers, hard-hearted fornicators, impenitent homosexuals, immoral idol worshipers, and even to forms of paganism. They’re proud of it."

 

I have seen such things tolerated in the local Kingdom Halls and the circuit. I have seen faithful sheep report such dangers and get "disfellowshipped" for it.

 

"Beloved ones, do not be surprised about the fiery trials that you are experiencing, as though something strange were happening to you.  On the contrary, go on rejoicing over the extent to which you are sharers in the sufferings of the Christ, so that you may rejoice and be overjoyed also during the revelation of his glory.  If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy, because the spirit of glory, yes, the spirit of God, is resting upon you."

 

(1 Peter 4:12-14)

 

"If you see any oppression of the poor and a violation of justice and righteousness in your district, do not be surprised about the matter. For that high official is being watched by one who is higher than he is, and there are others who are still higher than they are."

 

(Ecclesiastes 5:8)

 

Jesus will remedy the situation when he gets here.

 

"“‘Nevertheless, I do hold this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezʹe·bel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and misleads my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.  And I gave her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.  Look! I am about to throw her into a sickbed, and those committing adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.  And I will kill her children with deadly plague, so that all the congregations will know that I am the one who searches the innermost thoughts and hearts, and I will give to you individually according to your deeds."

 

(Revelation 2:20-23)

 

The plagues of Revelation are when Jesus permits the nations to attack religious institutions.

 

In the meantime, we just have to keep holding fast to the truth we have.

 

"However, I say to the rest of you who are in Thy·a·tiʹra, all those who do not follow this teaching, those who did not get to know the so-called “deep things of Satan”: I am not putting on you any other burden.  Just the same, hold fast to what you have until I come."

 

(Revelation 2:24,25)

[John 12.24to28]

(This is a fun game...😆)

[John 12.24to28]

55 minutes ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

Making the Apostate Church untrue.

• A deductive argument is a logic construct with two or more premises and a conclusion where if the premises are true then the conclusion must also be true. In philosophy, if the truth of the conclusion is fully established by the premises, then the argument is called valid.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

 

 

The GB cannot understand the things of the Christ. That is why they keep lopping people off from the congregation. The GB does not understand the "sacred secret" which has been hidden from them because they are "worldly" in the sense Jesus warned about. The GB rules like the world in Satan's control, with hypocrisy, desire for prominence, competition, pride, self-glorification and desire for physical things. The GB is apostate. Jesus is coming to remove them from his "church". Hopefully they repent when they are cast out where the weeping and gnashing of their teeth will be.

 

"So when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with extravagant speech or wisdom declaring the sacred secret of God to you.  For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him executed on the stake. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling; and my speech and what I preached were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might be, not in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power. Now we speak wisdom among those who are mature, but not the wisdom of this system of things nor that of the rulers of this system of things, who are to come to nothing.  But we speak God’s wisdom in a sacred secret, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the systems of things for our glory.  It is this wisdom that none of the rulers of this system of things came to know, for if they had known it, they would not have executed the glorious Lord.  But just as it is written: “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, nor have there been conceived in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”  For it is to us God has revealed them through his spirit, for the spirit searches into all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So, too, no one has come to know the things of God except the spirit of God.  Now we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God, so that we might know the things that have been kindly given us by God.  These things we also speak, not with words taught by human wisdom, but with those taught by the spirit, as we explain spiritual matters with spiritual words. But a physical man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know them, because they are examined spiritually.  However, the spiritual man examines all things, but he himself is not examined by any man.  For “who has come to know the mind of Jehovah, so that he may instruct him?” But we do have the mind of Christ."

 

(1 Corinthians 2)

 

The GB are among those rulers in this system of things, just like the Pharisees were rulers among God's people. The GB is physical, that's why they don't understand Jehovah's purpose the right way.

[John 12.24to28]

22 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

First Peter 2:24

• No sin is harmless, for even the least offense is part of the burden that Christ bore upon the cross for us (First Peter 2:24). Those sins which obtain a measure of infamy, however, have the potential to humiliate those closest to us and to bring the church under the community’s reproach where its future effectiveness is put in doubt.
• Personal action

• None who so decidedly reject the offer of the Kingdom will be saved (Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-31). It is dangerous to reject the truth of God. The invitation is full and free, but when people turn willfully away from it, God leaves them to their chosen way of destruction.

 

21 hours ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

CSB  2 Peter 3:3 First, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, living according to their own desires, (2 Pet. 3:3 CSB)

https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-75-scoffing-or-submitting-luke-1614-18

 

 

So, it seems the lesson is simple: don't scoff and don't reject the Kingdom. Or another way to put it, if someone has been scoffing, just stop it. And if someone has been rejecting the Kingdom, just stop it. It's not complicated.🙂

 

"If you know these things, happy you are if you do them."

 

(John 13:17)

 

(Jesus said if a man comes and asks for forgiveness for the same sin even 77 times a day to forgive him...how much more so Jehovah wants to embrace all His kids - He forgave Manasseh who sinned in a huge way on purpose to offend Jehovah. Jehovah forgave Manasseh when Manasseh repented. It's not too late for people who want to to repent.💖🤗🥲)

[John 12.24to28]

30 minutes ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

repent

 

"At this the Pharisees and their scribes began murmuring to his disciples, saying: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  In reply Jesus said to them: “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but those who are ill do.  I have come to call, not righteous people, but sinners to repentance.”"

 

(Luke 5:30-32)

 

 

 

[John 12.24to28]

22 minutes ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

Repentance means changing your ways and seeking forgiveness, but can it apply to illnesses as well? Is it possible to repent for being sick? No other way.

Proper context.

Luke 5:30-32 New International Version

30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

 

"When he saw their faith, he said: “Man, your sins are forgiven.”   Then the scribes and the Pharisees started to reason, saying: “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone?”  But Jesus, discerning their reasoning, said in answer to them: “What are you reasoning in your hearts?   Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?  But in order for you to know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins—” he said to the paralyzed man: “I say to you, Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go to your home.”  At that he stood up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God.  Then one and all were seized with amazement, and they began to glorify God, and they became filled with awe, saying: “We have seen wonderful things today!”"

 

(Luke 5:20-25)

 

Jehovah is patient with sinners because they are His children and He is a Good Dad. We have to have patience too, because we need Him, and He's the only One who can fix things, but it's at His appointed time. We have to be patient.

 

"Jehovah is not slow concerning his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance."

 

(2 Peter 3:9)

 

 

Jehovah doesn't expect from us more than we can give. Even though we are sinners, He sees us through the merits of the ransom and loves us "the way we are" as we try our best to do what is right, because He understands it's not possible for us to be perfect now. Jehovah is not unreasonable. He knows when we're trying. He loves us now even though we're not perfect, because He sees the good in us and He sees what we can be in the future.

 

"That is why it is through faith, so that it might be according to undeserved kindness...This was in the sight of God, in whom he had faith, who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they are.  Although beyond hope, yet based on hope, he had faith...not waver in a lack of faith; but he became powerful by his faith, giving God glory  and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to do.  Therefore, “it was counted to him as righteousness.”"

 

(Romans 4:16-22)

 

 

"But God recommends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

 

(Romans 5:8)

 

Jehovah "takes us the way we are" as far as loving us enough now to send His son as a ransom for us, "while we were yet sinners". We have to keep working on things, of course, but God's Love is so huge, He loved us before we knew about Him, before we knew about the ransom, before we started to turn around. He loves us while we are "worldly" so that we have a chance to repent. His love is what gives us the chance.

 

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."

 

(John 3:16)

[John 12.24to28]

24 minutes ago, redHarmonioussparrow said:

True repentance is measured by God, not man.

 

"Then they prayed and said: “You, O Jehovah, who know the hearts of all..."

 

(Acts 1:24)

 

"Let the wicked man leave his way 

And the evil man his thoughts; 

Let him return to Jehovah, who will have mercy on him, 

To our God, for he will forgive in a large way. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 

And your ways are not my ways,” declares Jehovah.  

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 

So my ways are higher than your ways 

And my thoughts than your thoughts."

 

(Isaiah 55:7-9)

 

"Yes, among them we all at one time conducted ourselves in harmony with the desires of our flesh, carrying out the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and we were naturally children of wrath just as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,  made us alive together with the Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses—by undeserved kindness you have been saved."

 

(Ephesians 2:3-5)

 

"For your part, brothers, do not give up in doing good."

 

(2 Thessalonians 3:13)

 

"...the need for them always to pray and not to give up..."

 

(Luke 18:1)

 

"...now you should instead kindly forgive and comfort him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sadness. I therefore exhort you to confirm your love for him."

 

(2 Corinthians 2:5-8)

 

💖

 

Love you, my brother - Goodnight for now, @redHarmonioussparrow🙂🌷🌿