Recent content by Lukamu

So far I've decided there are arguments for and against. For listening (to everything): How else are sinners going to find Jesus? If we won't listen to them, why would they listen to us? Listening doesn't mean agreeing, but being able to understand and accurately articulate another person's...

Thank you for responding. It looks like all of those verses deal with times when we SHOULD listen to others. I'm asking if there are times when we SHOULD NOT listen (by listen I mean to be an audience to someone, not as in agreeing or obeying). Examples would be: if someone starts gossiping...

I'm leading a Bible Study on James 1 by asking/answering questions. One of the questions is: should we be quick to listen to everything and everyone? Or are there some people or situations where we should not be "quick to listen"? Some examples might be: gossiping, slander, crude humor...

And the same word in Isaiah 31:2 so it looks like it can be translated either way. I don't believe that man's "evil" and God's "evil" are interchangeable though. Edit: and in Numbers 11:1, which is stronger evidence that "ra" can mean adversity.

Are there any other translations for the Hebrew word for "evil" in this passage?

Sorry, let me clarify: the original point of the discussion is DID GOD CREATE EVIL, the argument being that if God created everything (he did), and if evil currently exists (it does), then God created evil. My rebuttal is that IN THE BEGINNING God created the heavens and the earth (i.e...

That was my understanding, after thinking about it more. I think: God was not finished creating, so when God says, "It is not good..." it's like saying he was not finished yet, and here's his next step - he was not saying "Oops! That's not good! Better fix that!" Though I wasn't using "perfect"...

Genesis 1 describes how God created the heavens and the earth, "and it was good." This statement is repeated multiple times in Genesis 1. I've heard from many people (including myself) who believe that Creation, at the beginning, was perfect. Everything was good, and there was nothing bad...

This may not be true for your church, but it is for the few that I have attended in the last decade. Every so often, the pastor will get on a streak about evangelism and preach about how my main purpose in life should be sharing the gospel with other people. That's a problem, because it's not...

I'm asking from the perspective of a non-paid worship leader (me).

Do the musicians who lead worship at your church get paid for their services?

The sin of "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" is essentially the sin of rejecting Christ. If you reject Christ, then you are rejecting the forgiveness of sins.

Freedom in Christ, rightfully understood, is not the freedom to continue sinning. The freedom of Christ is the freedom that allows me to choose, uncoerced, to do good. However, technically speaking, the freedom of Christ is the freedom to sin without fear of punishment. That is correct: you are...

Thanks for sharing that. I have been through so many "this time it's REAL" experiences in my life that I've lost count. Yet somehow, every time I seem to find more things to question. In 2012 I was really 100% committed like you, but then life got hard. When my grandpa died in 2014, he told me...

My "all in" question is why is there something instead of nothing? Why is there a universe if there was nothing, and how did it start and work out so well that I'm able to write this sentence? It's just unfathomable to think that it all happened naturally, that there is no higher power that...