Charles Spurgeon's Sanity Litmus Test (are you insane?)

[jimd]

Weird, strange, odd
An idea could be the above.
It does not mean stupid.

Neither does ignorant.

 

[Helen]

When people use a lot of capitals and mixed colors it requires more concentration on my part to read them so usually I pass them by completely.

I also pass by completely long posts with a small font, no spacing between lines and no paragraphing. It is simply a lot of work for these old eyes to read it with any kind of understanding and no resulting headache.

I have to agree...I always pass by very l..o..n..g.. posts which have been copied and pasted to "prove some point" written by someone else saying it. I never read those....
Especially when it is really Blogging at us, and not posting TO us as a discussion. some paste one page after another.
If we wanted to read Blogs we'd do so, there are many of them in the blog section.
The pasted devotionals that NetChaplin puts up written by some ( usually passed) person I will read...the font is big enough.

I don't like over-large print ( bigger than 5 which I use) because I don't like being shouted at!
I wish everyone would use font 5, much easier to read...
I'm glad that @bbyrd009 writes short posts...if he wrote long ones I would skip them ..content is always good, but the size of font is a bit too small.

Hahahaha!! In a perfect world eh? We can but dream. :)

 

[Dcopymope]

I don't like over-large print ( bigger than 5 which I use) because I don't like being shouted at!

Well, I see one reason why you don't attend churches, since a lot of pastors for some reason confuse giving an impassioned speech with being an obnoxious drill sergeant. HA!!!

I wish everyone would use font 5, much easier to read...
I'm glad that @bbyrd009 writes short posts...if he wrote long ones I would skip them ..content is always good, but the size of font is a bit too small.

Duly noted, wish you said this a long time ago.

 

[bbyrd009]

I have to agree...I always pass by very l..o..n..g.. posts which have been copied and pasted to "prove some point" written by someone else saying it. I never read those....
Especially when it is really Blogging at us, and not posting TO us as a discussion. some paste one page after another.
If we wanted to read Blogs we'd do so, there are many of them in the blog section.
The pasted devotionals that NetChaplin puts up written by some ( usually passed) person I will read...the font is big enough.

I don't like over-large print ( bigger than 5 which I use) because I don't like being shouted at!
I wish everyone would use font 5, much easier to read...
I'm glad that @bbyrd009 writes short posts...if he wrote long ones I would skip them ..content is always good, but the size of font is a bit too small.

Hahahaha!! In a perfect world eh? We can but dream. :)

i forget about font editing, as most browsers have an enlarge function; i'm at 150% for this site, which enlarges everything onsite. What browser you using?

 

[Helen]

i forget about font editing, as most browsers have an enlarge function; i'm at 150% for this site, which enlarges everything onsite. What browser you using?

Oh yes, I have already made the Site bigger..but if I make it any larger it falla off the page..and then the slide bar is needed, I hate that.
So..if you have made yours larger...does my size 5 look too large?
I don't want it to look like I am shouting!! LOL

 

[Helen]

Okay @bbyrd009 I have now enlarged it one click. So far it is not off the page.
Now that I have done that...my size 5 font looks a bit big.
What do you think?

 

[Marymog]

Hi MM

Have you read the article by Sosa on the Pope creating a "liquid society"?
This means that once the CC was very strict in it's beliefs and held firm to it's doctrine.
I do see this as changing ...

At one time, just a few years ago, it was not possible for remarried couple's to receive communion.
This is due to the fact that marriage is a covenant between God and the couple and covenants cannot be broken. Same ideas as a priest is always a priest even if he gives up the priesthood.

When the decision becomes made to allow remarried couple's to have the ability to receive Communion,
It becomes an admission that ...

1. A mistake had been made before

2. Marriage is not a covenant and divorce is possible

3. What used to be a mortal sin is no longer a sin

This is not a change in dogma in your opinion?

Hi GG,

There has been no change...it is just a proposal. The discussion "to allow remarried couple's to have the ability to receive Communion" was not started by Pope Francis. It was discussed after the Second Vatican Council and at the 1980 Synod of Bishops.

Divorce is possible in The Church and is supported by scripture (Matt. 19:9, 1 Cor. 7:10–11).

BTW...The Catholic Church does not teach that divorce is a mortal sin.

IHS...Mary

 

[GodsGrace]

The pope can not change the dogma of The Church. The dogma of The Church are truths of the faith revealed by Jesus Christ, taught by the apostles, and handed down by the apostles to their successors. Since revealed truth cannot change the dogma can not change.

Just because a pope says something i.e. each individual case should be considered, his spoken word doesn't make it dogma. As a former Catholic you should know this.

IHS...Mary

Marriage is a covenant.
Divorce is not allowed in God's eyes.
It's adultery if one of the two has another relationship.
This is why is was forbidden to have that person receive communion...
because it's a mortal sin.

So now a remarried person can receive communion.
Could you please explain how that is NOT changing doctrine and/or dogma??

Are you not aware of everything that is going on in the CC?

*************************************************
Just an example... I know a couple of priests that are very upset over what this pope is doing...

In his essay, Messori draws on the work of Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017), the Jewish-Polish philosopher who introduced the concept of “liquid modernity” to sociology. “Liquid modernity” represents a change from what Bauman called “solid modernity.” Bauman wrote that the “liquid” modern man values individualism over social ties. He “flows through his own life like a tourist, changing places, jobs, spouses, values and even sexual orientation and gender.”

Bauman observed that such a man excludes himself from traditional networks of support, freeing himself from their restrictions or requirements. This extreme individualism has created societies in which, Messori writes, “everything is unstable and changeable.” Today it is acceptable to believe that change is “the only permanent thing” and that uncertainty is the “only certainty.”

Messori is troubled that these ideas have begun to influence religious faith. He writes that believers are becoming “disturbed by the fact that even the Catholic Church — which was an age-old example of stability — seems to want to become ‘liquid’ as well.”

As evidence, Messori cites a recent interview with the superior general of the Society of Jesus, Father Arturo Sosa Abascal. In conversation with journalist Giuseppe Rusconi, Sosa said that because Jesus’ words were not recorded on tape or disk, “we don’t know exactly what he said.” Because of this “uncertainty,” Sosa believes that Christians need to “discern” the true meaning of Scripture with reference to thei“Doctrine is a word that I don’t like very much, it brings with it the image of the hardness of stone,” Sosa told Rusconi. “Human reality is much more nuanced, it is never black or white, it is in continual development.”

Messori criticizes Pope Francis for being susceptible to the same attitude:

“But another Jesuit, also a South American, no one less than the Pope himself, in one of the many interviews he gives to the most diverse people, in the most diverse places — by plane, in St. Peter’s Square, on the street — has repeated what is one of the (pillars) of his strategy of teaching and government: ’the Catholic temptation that must be overcome is the uniformity of rules, their rigidity, while on the contrary we must judge and act on a case by case basis.’”

Messori distinguishes between the original meaning of “discernment” as used in classic Jesuit spirituality and the way it is now used — to “freely interpret even dogma, depending on the situation, as has happened in some official documents containing his signature, which have aroused perplexity (to use a euphemism) in some cardinals,” he writes.

The Italian journalist says this approach seemed to him “wrong and damaging to the Church and the faith;” “in a ‘liquid world’ where everything becomes uncertain, precarious, provisional, it is precisely the stability and firmness of the Catholic Church that all humanity needs, and not only believers.”

“Those rocks of dogma, to which the superior general of the Society of Jesus is allergic, could and should become firm ground in a society that flatters itself and tends towards mushy chaos,” Messori continues.

He observes that one of the symbols of the Catholic Church is a “robust oak, held firmly to the ground by strong roots.” He asks if it is “really helpful to replace the oak with a rod that folds in any direction, with any breath of air, every human desire or fashion?”

As a help in returning certainty to the Church, Messori recommends a new appreciation and re-appropriation of the “ancient and beautiful” motto of the Carthusians: Stat crux dum orbitur volvit (the Cross is steady while the world turns).

 

[KBCid]

Marriage is a covenant.
Divorce is not allowed in God's eyes.
It's adultery if one of the two has another relationship.

Hi Beautiful...
I see you are still in discussion with the fruit from the bad tree....
God never has to have his word justified because it is pure and they never change. What God has asserted is evil will always be evil.
The covenant of marriage was instituted by God from the beginning and making a covenant only to break it is anti-God since the marriage instituted by them is a reflection of the heavenly. If one professes to love God they will respect what they instituted.

Have a beautiful day

 

[GodsGrace]

Hi Beautiful...
I see you are still in discussion with the fruit from the bad tree....
God never has to have his word justified because it is pure and they never change. What God has asserted is evil will always be evil.
The covenant of marriage was instituted by God from the beginning and making a covenant only to break it is anti-God since the marriage instituted by them is a reflection of the heavenly. If one professes to love God they will respect what they instituted.

Have a beautiful day

I couldn't agree more!
So does the POPE disagree with God?
That was my point...

 

[KBCid]

I couldn't agree more!
So does the POPE disagree with God?
That was my point...

Every pope since the beginning has felt that God's word needs help from men. Thus implying that God's word is insufficient. The tree from its roots up are rotten and will produce nothing of value to those seeking to learn of God.
Do yourself a favor, free yourself of all that man has caused to be taught to you and immerse yourself in God's word only.
If you love anything, it is because a part of him who formed you from his essence seeks expression. Your very living essence came from God the Father through the Son and then Adam. This essence drives you to find the origin that it came from. The Father is your true family and you simply need to believe he exists and that he wants all those who have his spark of love abiding within them to find him thus he says to you;

Matt 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

The spark of love is how his sheep know the voice of the good shepherd.... birds of a feather.

 

[GodsGrace]

Every pope since the beginning has felt that God's word needs help from men. Thus implying that God's word is insufficient. The tree from its roots up are rotten and will produce nothing of value to those seeking to learn of God.
Do yourself a favor, free yourself of all that man has caused to be taught to you and immerse yourself in God's word only.
If you love anything, it is because a part of him who formed you from his essence seeks expression. Your very living essence came from God the Father through the Son and then Adam. This essence drives you to find the origin that it came from. The Father is your true family and you simply need to believe he exists and that he wants all those who have his spark of love abiding within them to find him thus he says to you;

Matt 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

The spark of love is how his sheep know the voice of the good shepherd.... birds of a feather.

Well KBC, I've learned a lot from man.

So far, it all agrees with scripture.
If it doesn't I leave the man, not the scripture.

Spark of love...
I like to say that Jesus gives us the spark of life.
We're not truly alive until we know Him and makes us free.

 

[KBCid]

If it doesn't I leave the man, not the scripture..

That is the right POV

Spark of love...
I like to say that Jesus gives us the spark of life.
We're not truly alive until we know Him and makes us free.

Christ will indeed give the spark of life when the time arrives but until then you have only the living essence given by God from the beginning and in order to attain to the spark of life you have to learn to divide the good from the evil and follow the good. If you had no good within you then you would have no desire to find your match nor would God call you. As it is written there will be few who find the right path even of those called.

 

[GodsGrace]

Christ will indeed give the spark of life when the time arrives but until then you have only the living essence given by God from the beginning and in order to attain to the spark of life you have to learn to divide the good from the evil and follow the good. If you had no good within you then you would have no desire to find your match nor would God call you. As it is written there will be few who find the right path even of those called.

You're saying a lot, but I'm not sure what it is.

The living essence must be the breath of life that God gave to Adam.
To me the spark is life is when we become born again and we become truly alive. Jesus IS the spark of life.

By dividing the bad and the good you mean to choose to follow God.
I think we're good till here.

Then you say:

If you had no good within you then you would have no desire to find your match nor would God call you. As it is written there will be few who find the right path even of those called.

I don't know what you mean by this.

 

[bbyrd009]

wonder what happened to @Phoneman777 , hmm.

 

[KBCid]

You're saying a lot, but I'm not sure what it is.
The living essence must be the breath of life that God gave to Adam.
To me the spark is life is when we become born again and we become truly alive. Jesus IS the spark of life.
By dividing the bad and the good you mean to choose to follow God.
I think we're good till here.
Then you say:
If you had no good within you then you would have no desire to find your match nor would God call you. As it is written there will be few who find the right path even of those called.
I don't know what you mean by this.

When we become born again we have not yet reached the point where we become like Christ with the new body and life promised to us. we will still have the life given from God till we die and then when Christ comes if we are one of those chosen then we will be resurrected to life by him.

If you had nothing in you that God desires then you would not have any desire to seek to understand or learn more about them. The fact that you are here and are in search of the correct path shows that you are called.
This is the tough part for those called... discerning between the good and evil to know which way to go. I am simply abjuring you to leave anything that is not from God's word which would be from those men that have added to the word that it may be clearer which way to go.

You know that there is no drive through salvation. We must turn from sin and follow the path of righteousness just as Christ has shown us or we will fail in the calling and not be chosen.

 

[GodsGrace]

When we become born again we have not yet reached the point where we become like Christ with the new body and life promised to us. we will still have the life given from God till we die and then when Christ comes if we are one of those chosen then we will be resurrected to life by him.

If you had nothing in you that God desires then you would not have any desire to seek to understand or learn more about them. The fact that you are here and are in search of the correct path shows that you are called.
This is the tough part for those called... discerning between the good and evil to know which way to go. I am simply abjuring you to leave anything that is not from God's word which would be from those men that have added to the word that it may be clearer which way to go.

You know that there is no drive through salvation. We must turn from sin and follow the path of righteousness just as Christ has shown us or we will fail in the calling and not be chosen.

I agree with all you've said except that the word "chosen" does bother me.

Are you saying God chooses us?
Do we have anything to say about it?
Just so you know, I don't like any concept connected to calvinism.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

If you had nothing in you that God desires then you would not have any desire to seek

There it is: mankind convincing himself there is something desirable or unique within that makes him appealing to God. God saw you and said "that one has some good qualities I can work with...I choose him".

"That one has no desireable qualities. I don't choose that one."

There is nothing good in us.
That is why we are called to DIE to self. The whole package of "self": What we consider our "good" qualities and bad...it all goes in the dirt. Maybe even more so the "good" qualities we cling to and believe contribute to Christ righteousness. We are NOT Chosen based off our own merit. I agree with GG: I do not like the word "chosen". Marked by the Spirit of God...yes! But if you don't realize it yet: we have no ability to be "born from above" of our own will. We are deceived if we believe there was something in us God had to have.

John 3:6-8 KJV
[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. [8] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.


Ecclesiastes 3:11-18 KJV
[11] He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. [12] I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. [13] And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. [14] I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it , that men should fear before him. [15] That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. [16] And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. [17] I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. [18] I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.


Revelation 17:16-17 KJV
[16] And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

God does it.
So no man can glory in the flesh.

Romans 13:1 KJV
[1] Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

 

[KBCid]

I agree with all you've said except that the word "chosen" does bother me.
Are you saying God chooses us?
Do we have anything to say about it?
Just so you know, I don't like any concept connected to calvinism.

I'm sorry but I do not know the concepts of calvinism. What I do know is what scripture says and I quote;
Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Thus we know that God chooses according to his will from among those who he sent the call out to. So can the called do things that will keep them from being chosen?

Romans 12:1-2 ...'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.'

1 John 2:1,3,4 ...'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.'

1 John 2:15 ...'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'

1 John 4:3,6 ...'Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.'

1 John 5:3 ...'For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.'

1 Thessalonians 4:1,3,7 ...'Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.'

Apparently we can do that which God does not like and not be chosen.

 

[Helen]

Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

I don't see that as "saved and unsaved"!
God called the Children Of Israel...but he only chose Livi as the priesthood.
God gave Gideon an army...but He only chose 300 for the battle.
Jesus called the 12, but he only chose 3 to go up the mountain with Him.

All the rest were still His, but a few He always chose to do a certain task or calling.

Bless you...Helen