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Sunday Is Not the Sabbath

ADVISOR HAT


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Members who do not truly share the core beliefs and teachings of a specific congregational forum may post in fellowship or ask questions, but they may not teach or debate within the forum.

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Also, please review the Statement of Faith for this forum which includes:

And in ONE Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts 11:17)​
the Son of God, (Mathew 14:33; 16:16)​
the Only-Begotten, (John 1:18; 3:16)​
Begotten of the Father before all ages. (John 1:2)​
Light of Light; (Psalm 27:1; John 8:12; Matthew 17:2,5)​
True God of True God; (John 17:1-5)​
Begotten, not made; (John 1:18)​
of one essence with the Father (John 10:30)​
by whom all things were made; (Hebrews 1:1-2)​
Who for us men and for our salvation (1Timothy 2:4-5)​
came down from Heaven, (John 6:33,35)​
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, (Luke 1:35)​
and became man. (John 1:14)​
And was crucified for us (Mark 15:25; 1Cointhians 15:3)​
under Pontius Pilate, (John 19:6)​
and suffered, (Mark 8:31)​
and was buried. (Luke 23:53; 1Corinthians 15:4)​
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. (Luke 24:1 1Corinthians 15:4)​
And ascended into Heaven, (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:10)​
and sits at the right hand of the Father. (Mark 16:19; Acts 7:55)​
And He shall come again with glory (Matthew 24:27)​
to judge the living and the dead; (Acts 10:42; 2Timothy 4:1)​
whose Kingdom shall have no end. (2 Peter 1:11)​
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What is your opinion? - The intended readership of Hebrews.

The huge mistake so many make with the Epistles, and esp. with Paul's are shoehorning them to a narrower audience than intended. There are passages that state a specific audience, but like almost all sermons.. they also include wider applications for those with "ears to hear". Just like a pastor will open with "brothers and sisters", knowing that not all in the congregation are actually believers. Refusing to acknowledge any and all possibility of nuance in the Epistles has led to some of the most egregious theology and doctrine in the history of the Church. That said, Hebrews is clearly leveled mainly at Hebrews, and many claim only at believers... but if you can't see the Epistle is largely evangelistic, you aren't really seeing.
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As Texas Flood Deaths Rise, Officials Blast Faulty Forecast by National Weather Service

As I mentioned earlier I worked at over a half dozen different YMCA camps. I also worked at one commercial camp.

Counselors or leaders were those who had direct contact with the campers. Sometimes that terminology applied to those in charge of an area like horseback riding, go karts or rifle range. Sometimes it was only used to refer to those directly overseeing the campers and almost by definition sleeping in the same cabin.

Those who would be monitoring phones i the manner you mention would be on the directing staff. Though in a situation where there has been any initial report that would indicate that close monitoring was called for I would hope they would be actually monitoring the super local conditions. Local is where one first knows water has overflowed or is about to overflow the banks.

I know that the better directors I worked with would have been closely following reports.

Not me. I had a reputation. I would have ended up checking and rechecking escape routes.

My bet is that some reporter heard a councilor complaining about the no phones policy and never even thought to ask if anyone had a phone. 90% chance doing so mainly because it meant they could not chat with their boy/girlfriend. And now it keeps getting hammered on. Though if the director was one of the poorer ones I worked with I can see the complaint being made for all the right reasons.

More information has come out, and one of the directors was monitoring the alerts -- the camp leadership knew about the afternoon's Flash Flood Watch -- and, per the family, the Executive Director got the Severe Flood Warning on his phone at 1:14. If he can be criticized, though I'm not sure the facts warrant it, it might be that he had staffers monitor the river and only when it started raining hard, an hour later, did he begin evacuations. It appears that wasn't what led to the deaths, though, as this flood was much worse than those seen historically and the girls who died and are missing came from cabins that historically were in a "safe" zone. It is also worth noting that the Executive Director, Dick Eastland, was one of those that died in the flooding as he was attempting to help rescue some of the youngest girls.

The camp is at the junction of Cypress Creek and the South Fork of the Guadalupe River and, with both rivers being so swollen, evidence is showing that the Guadalupe River actually started flowing backwards because of the amount of flood waters at the junction. This back flow, with the eddies it caused in the areas of the camp, is what appears to have caused the flooding of the "Handy Hut," where the missing girls were staying, that was well into the traditional safe zone.

So there are concerns about the speed of the response; as well as if the camp buildings, particularly ones that people slept in, should have been allowed to remain in the flood zones (and even in the relatively "safe" areas that flooded this year). It is a tragedy, for all involved, and hopefully it can lead to safer camps in the future.
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Welcome-- P&W Music Videos posted here

Hi My name is Ernesto, I have been writing Christian music and uploading it to YouTube, only purpose to share the love of Christ, I want to share with you these 2 songs that I wrote, arranged and produced, hope you like them and share please. Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media
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Is God a do as I say not as I do God?

You have your opinion and I have mine. I would say the same thing to you, are those you listen to being true to what God intended or are they just upholding the tradition they ascribe to? I am glad that the disciples did not go by that logic, because the Pharisees has all kinds of reasons for Jesus not being the Messiah, and they were doing the same thing that is being done today, they are the authority and they have many more numbers than those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Fortunately the disciples did not give in, they knew the truth.
The difference is my opinion is based on my own studies on the languages and what is involved in language studies, while yours is apparently based on nothing more than agreement with an extreme minority of scholars. You admit you don't have the background to make an evaluation of the scholastic arguments, so your opinion is simply an uneducated one and you have no basis for it. So spare the martyr talk until you have something worthwhile to base your opinion on.
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I am a criminal

Hi,
Some people had prayers, thanks.

I would like to ask people how they are capable of having empathy?

I am able to have empathy for myself because I believed I have suffered a lot in life, but I can also see that many other people have suffering in life as well. I am trying to develop more empathy for these people.
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Trump announces 50 percent tariff on Brazil, citing Bolsonaro trial

Look, another nail!

Trump admin live updates: Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Russia


Trump ... threatened to impose "very severe tariffs" on Russia if there was no peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days.
Hey member this:

Russia not on Trump's tariff list


One country that did not feature on Donald Trump's list of tariffs on US trade partners was Russia.
US outlet Axios quoted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying this was because existing US sanctions on Russia "preclude any meaningful trade" and noting that Cuba, Belarus and North Korea were also not included.



What’s 100% of zero?
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Flat or round earth -The final experiment.

How do you manage when people close to you ask about your beliefs? Don't they find it strange?

Good question, some do & others tend to say 'I can believe it' especially when you tell them about what the scriptures say as most verses in the Bible contradict a globe.

a martin luther.JPG
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Of False Witness and Weather Reports

I don't know the best place for it. I almost posted this as a reply to a thread outside the Christians only section, then figured it would do no good at all.

The issue is the flash flooding on the Guadeloupe River in Texas that has claimed an number of lives. Supposedly the AP claims that amount of rain wasn't in the forecast, but there's a clue in a rise of 28 feet (8.5 meters) in an hour. You only get something like that from rainfall if there is a flash flood. Flash flooding depends on terrain and condition of the soil. We have occasional flash flooding here, but it's after the ground is saturated and it's due to isolated heavy rainfall. In hilly terrain, the shape of the ground "funnels" rain to lower areas, and you have inches of rain become feet of flash floods.

Maybe because I'm not out West, but I don't think I've ever seen a forecast calling for flash floods. I don't think I've even see a flash flood watch. I've seen flood watches and forecasts warning of a potential of flooding, and I've seen flash flood warnings. The latter is when there's a flash flood right at that instance and get to higher ground immediately.

A check quickly came up with the National Weather Service issuing an "emergency" flash flood warning for the Guadeloupe (I thought all flash flood warnings were emergencies) in the early morning hours of July 4. That was from The Weather Channel and some sources local to the event. That fits with what I've seen ever since we heard of flash flood warnings on radio and TV. Here the warnings just pop up as they happen. Some aren't issues. The rainfall in half an hour that exceeded our range gauge capacity? No flash flood warning. When a creek overflowed a culvert and went over a road? No flash flood warning. But there was in the area of the Guadeloupe. The cite from the AP was that there was no forecast of the amount of rain. Yet there were flash flood warnings.

The claim in the post in the other part of CF is that this is all due to cuts in the NWS. But the tragedy that happened on the Guadeloupe fits what I've seen years ago. That creek that went over the road due to heavy rain? That was back in 2008 or 2009 or 2010. Add to it that the warning came in the early morning hours, and you have people not being aware of it. If you have a weather radio, it has to be set to the right station and it has to pick up the signal to get warnings. Cell phone alerts depend on the tower. Just because you get a warning doesn't mean that it will be picked up. Because there's a warning doesn't mean it will get heard.

A check, though does show that there was a flood watch issued the day before, and later extended to 1 PM Friday, July 4. Here's one link: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/weather/article/weather-san-antonio-flood-watch-20420566.php

Here's a link to the extension:

https://x.com/NWSSanAntonio/status/1941038559386820616

This doesn't match what is posted in the non-Christians only section and gets to the topic of false witness. If the AP article is correctly cited, then there is no mention of the forecasts cited above. If the issue are budget cuts, then what of the instances I've related where there were no warnings at all? And if these things are known, why not report them?

As I said, I almost posted this in the non-Christian sections and figured it would do absolutely no good at all. All it would do would bring accusations of being a Trump apologist or some sort, even with the cites above. But if we have reason to think information is reported in error, do we have a responsibility to point that out? Or is is such a lost cause that we should say nothing at all.
For me if I see someone posting an error I just post the evidence that corrects the error.
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Does your bible form your theology or is it the other way around?

-

If The Bible formed everyone's theology then all would have the same beliefs.
Yeah that’s not true at all because you know that you and I have completely opposite interpretations of many passages like 2 Timothy 2:12 and John 6:37-40 for example. Were both reading the same text yet were coming up with completely opposite interpretations.
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It is permissive for Christians to eat meat today

While nominally there are protective laws for cattle, pigs and sheep, there are none, this is correct, none, for other animals such as birds, which are not mammals.
I am not sure why you are saying nonsense. There are both in the USA and in the EU. Find the US one, if you wish, I will provide you with the EU's:

EU Regulations for Poultry on Farms:

Comprehensive Legal Framework:

Council Directive 1999/74/EC (Laying Hens)
Banned traditional battery cages
Mandates enriched cages or free-range systems
Minimum space requirements
Perch and nest access
Council Directive 2007/43/EC (Broiler Chickens)
Maximum stocking density limits
Environmental control standards
Ventilation requirements
Lighting protocols
Health monitoring
Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 (Slaughter)
Humane slaughter methods
Minimizing animal suffering
Proper handling during processing

Key Welfare Standards:
Minimum space per bird
Temperature control
Humidity management
Natural light exposure
Access to water and feed
Disease prevention
Stress reduction
Regular veterinary inspections

Monitoring Mechanisms:
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
National veterinary authorities
Regular farm inspections
Compliance documentation

Specific Poultry Categories Covered:
Laying hens
Broiler chickens
Breeding fowl
Ducks
Geese
Turkeys

These regulations ensure animal welfare, food safety, and ethical farming practices across EU member states. The EU also plans to end cages in 2027.

I challenge you to look at documentaries for what happens at places for slaughter. The animals are all slaughtered when young relative to the length of life they could have if free from that, some are really intelligent, pigs are yet more intelligent than dogs. All are companionable and would be playful as any pet. Speciesism divides them from that. I can't link to anything about the abuse, like Dominion, my post gets deleted if I do.
No, thanks. I do not know why vegans think this is some kind of "gotcha!" argument. Nobody wants to watch death. Neither people nor wild animals die nicely. Farmed animals' death is at least regulated. People commonly die a worse death. And wild game in nature dies violently torn apart or even eaten alive. I guess you saw some wild nature documentary.

If you are talking about farms not keeping the law, then lobby for cameras and more controls. No point in posting or watching videos. We agree that abusing or cruelty is wrong.


There are those who say God meant there to be animals for being food for us. They show a lack of capacity to see the inherent contradiction to logic in that. There are millions of species. How many species are they eating from? So, automatically they don't mean all animals, many animals can't be their food. Millions of the species can't be,
Except for few animals having for example poisonous skin like some frogs, almost every animal people can commonly find in nature is edible. Funny enough for your argument, almost no wild plants are edible. If you went to nature and ate random plants, you would die. Even herbivores in nature are specialized to eat specific plants only, evolutionary.

The plants we people eat today are bred for thousands of years for agricultural purpose. It is not something given to us, it is something we created.
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Extreme back pain

Shalom

Praise the Lord because he is good!

I have been suffering from extreme back pain for a week and ask for your prayers in the name of Jesus Christ.

Thank you very much, and God bless you and your family in Jesus' name, Amen.
May the Lord have mercy on you and restore you to full health and strength. Amen,
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Trump says he wants to deport ‘the worst of the worst,’ but ICE data shows 72% of people detained have no criminal convictions

The latest ICE statistics show that as of June 29, there were 57,861 people detained by ICE, 41,495 — 71.7% — of whom had no criminal convictions. That includes 14,318 people with pending criminal charges and 27,177 who are subject to immigration enforcement, but have no known criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

They are arresting farm workers, the gardeners, the day laborers, the people who go to their citizenship appointments but just haven't finished that long process, while seeking entrance in elementary schools and little league practices. Which leads to this:

Trump Loves ICE. Its Workforce Has Never Been So Miserable.

A “mission impossible” deportation campaign has left many employees burned out and morally conflicted.

The reality of Trump’s mass-deportation campaign is far less glamorous. Officers and agents have spent much of the past five months clocking weekends and waking up at 4 a.m. for predawn raids. Their top leaders have been ousted or demoted, and their supervisors—themselves under threat of being fired—are pressuring them to make more and more arrests to meet quotas set by the Trump adviser Stephen Miller. Having insisted for years that capturing criminals is its priority, ICE is now shelving major criminal investigations to prioritize civil immigration arrests, grabbing asylum seekers at their courthouse hearings, handcuffing mothers as their U.S.-citizen children cry, chasing day laborers through Home Depot parking lots. As angry onlookers attempt to shame ICE officers with obscenities, and activists try to dox them, officers are retreating further behind masks and tactical gear.
“It’s miserable,” one career ICE official told me. He called the job “mission impossible.”
I recently spoke with a dozen current and former ICE agents and officers about morale at the agency since Trump took office. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity, for fear of losing their job or being subjected to a polygraph exam. They described varying levels of dissatisfaction but weren’t looking to complain or expecting sympathy—certainly not at a time when many Americans have been disturbed by video clips of masked and hooded officers seizing immigrants who were not engaged in any obvious criminal behavior. The frustration isn’t yet producing mass resignations or major internal protests, but the officers and agents described a workforce on edge, vilified by broad swaths of the public and bullied by Trump officials demanding more and more.

Epstein client list release could be imminent after Blackburn pushes transparency: 'Let's get them jailed'

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., advocated for the Trump administration to release the full, unredacted records related to sexual predator and financier Jeffrey Epstein as Attorney General Pam Bondi now says the Department of Justice could release the records Thursday.
Wait, didn't Bondi tell us...

Nation Jul 7, 2025 2:45 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related to the wealthy financier’s sex trafficking investigation would be made public despite promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists.
The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represents a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote, with Bondi suggesting in a Fox News interview earlier this year that such a document was “sitting on my desk” in preparation for release.


I'm guessing a carefully-edited version will be released, with an attempt to cover the digital signatures of such manipulation, like the Epstein video that was supposed to be "raw" but had been repeatedly edited.
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Parallels and divergences, Calvin, Luther, and Saint Augustine

That's what imputed righteousness means.
Ok, but not to everyone who holds the doctrine. Often it's said to merely mean forensically declared to be righteous, by the vicarious appropriation of Christ's righteousness that covers our unrighteousness.

If you, however, consider justification to be the true justifying of a person, that the person becomes a new creation as a result, with a new heart and spirit, with righteousness now given him, then you'd be in line with the historic Christian faith.
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How old is the earth?

Then there's pure gold which is only produced from the death of a star.
Asteroids still contain the decay products of short lived radiative isotopes.

In my natural history notes I have this about gold.

Screenshot From 2025-07-14 10-38-10.png


There's also the accepted hypothesis that the solar system was part of a cosmic nursery that formed many stars at exactly the same time.

Screenshot From 2025-07-14 10-49-55.png
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How does extreme behaviour exist side by side with a spirit-filled ministry?

It got me rather perplexed.
Sorry if I contributed to that. It is rather unfortunate no living soul can relate to the very depth of the struggle. Thank God for those of you who have been spared. You know the war waged of flesh and Spirit. What you may not always know is the level of depletion which may or may not signal final loss of at best, departed friend-s (1Thessalonians 4:13).

But your enquiry was excellent and such a critical area, it isn't what I would have chosen to dismiss the outcome of. Noooo! It could have opened up the end detail towards life without (Job 13:15) cause.
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A Catholic school grovels to the left

And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Douay-Rheims Matthew 25:40)

By now the appalling story of two teenage lads in Mountain View, California, is well known. They were classmates at a local Catholic High School, St Francis, and when younger applied an acne remedy to their faces, causing them to turn black (dark green, really)

Regrettably, and no doubt foolishly, the two boys took selfies of themselves at the time, and eventually those photos got around, causing a furor.

74572d5e-ea34-4058-ac53-3657389aead3-large16x9_09876543234567899064110630870717675.png
Fox TV

That act resulted in their lives becoming a living hell for several years. Every single leftie in a vast radius, whose mission is to keep a constant vigil on all those whose personal activities are suspect, no matter how innocent, took notice and the screaming fest began. For when a white man is caught in blackface, no exculpatory explanation is sought nor needed, they are guilty, quod erat demonstrandum.

Continued below.

American patriotism is plummeting, and it makes no sense

American patriotism is complicated, and I think we do well to acknowledge that complexity as we teach our children.

During my teenage years, the US celebrated its bicentennial. It was a great and glorious party, flags and fireworks and red-white-and-blue everywhere. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Also during my teenage years, I realized that drafting young men and compelling them to go kill Vietnamese people was a morally questionable thing to do, and if "patriotism" meant killing strangers, then I'd best not label myself patriotic.

Both things were true of me, then and now. This country is an amazing political experiment, based not on shared ethnicity but on a shared idea of a democratic system of government that (mostly) protects our individual rights and freedoms, and carefully balances our selfish impulses so that most of the time we get really good stuff done. AND: This country has done some bad things along the way, partly because it's so very hard to keep all those selfish impulses in check all the time, and partly because we just aren't infinitely wise.

As we teach our children, I think we need to tell them the complicated truth. Maybe simple stories will do for the tiniest children. But as they mature into their tweens and teens and adulthood, talk about how people are complicated and nations are complicated. Thomas Jefferson, for example, was a wise and insightful statesman, and he was a slaveowner, and he was an excellent writer, and he constructed the somewhat dubious Jefferson Bible, and he founded a major university, all of that. Similarly with our other founders and heroes, and similarly with our country.

The best sense of patriotism is to step up and take responsibility for making this country the best that we can make it.
I agree with what you said " Maybe simple stories will do for the tiniest children." When our children are young, teach the best aspects for a sense of the American constitution as an ideal sought for America.
I remember when thanksgiving time came, hearing about the pilgrims and American Indians sharing meals.
Acknowledgment of falling short, as falling short of the American ideal.
I also agree with the more complicated stuff for older students.

When we teach slavery etc, it should be taught as a subject in itself within world history. Slavery has existed in most all peoples. Even the servitude of people, among their own ethnicity.
Slavery in America should not be taught in a manner, that slavery was a phenomenon of unique to America. After all many ethnicity coming to America, sought freedom from lesser ideals than the nations of peoples they came from.
Forms of It can be found in all cultures within, history. In agreement with the truth you have spoken here "But as they mature into their tweens and teens and adulthood, talk about how people are complicated and nations are complicated."
This helps to focus on the constitution as our ideal as a country, and can offer a common respect for that. Our collective falling short of the value and goodness the constitution as what we aspire to, it does not diminish that ideal, but always strives to it.


When we mess up, we acknowledge it and try to fix it. And when we do good things -- as we often do -- we cheer and sing our songs and wave our flags. That's the sense in which I can be patriotic, and the sense in which I can encourage my children to be patriotic.
I can be patriotic knowing what our founding fathers looked to for an ideal as a country.
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: Donald Trump and Crypto Currency

I’ve noticed the same thing in El Salvador, my friend lives there and said hardly anyone uses bitcoin for regular shopping. The shop owners he talked to still prefer cash because it’s easier and the tech part of crypto is confusing for most people. Even sending bitcoin feels slow and clunky sometimes compared to using just a basic debit card, and fees jump around a lot too. I get why people don’t see it as real money for daily stuff, even though the government is pushing it. But for projects that focus on fast trading and better liquidity, especially on Raydium, I keep seeing interest in tools built just to boost token volume and presence. Saw some pretty in-depth stuff about Raydium volume bot setups that actually help with this kind of on-chain activity if you’re curious, Solana Volume Bot | Generate Trading Volume on Raydium, PumpSwap, Pump.Fun & Meteora.
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I wish I were asexual

It’s 2025 and as a 22 year-old girl, I’m in the same exact situation. As pleasurable as these feelings can be within the boundaries of marriage, I hate that I will be struggling with temptation for other men even after marriage. That I will struggle with staying faithful and turning away from these thoughts/sights for the rest of my life. I feel conviction when I look and it almost feels like I am committing adultery even when my flesh reacts against my will. I hate the very fact that I’m at all attracted to any man that is not the husband God has set apart for me.

Most days, I don’t want to get married for this exact reason. I also wish I was asexual. How different my life could’ve looked if I was. Perhaps I would’ve found it easier to dedicate myself to God. I find it discomforting (sometimes disgusting) when other men look at me and I feel disgusted with myself when I look at other men. I will be honest and admit that it does feel nice when others find you attractive, but I hate that I even feel this way. I ignore this feeling as often as I can, but some days, my flesh will force it onto me without mercy. I hate that my mood and self-worth are reliant on how attractive others perceive me. However, I have gained confidence and self-love because of Jesus Christ. I am considerably less reliant, but still, some days, my brain and flesh are particularly more sensitive and perceptive to the looks I receive. Why do we have to stare? Why are we made this way by God?

Some people will say it is part of our fallen sinful nature, but I also heard some absurd theory that before the fall, when Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, God had created Adam with a polygenist nature. If this is truly what God intended to be the nature of men, I want no part in it. I understand needing to be obedient, but I believe my Father would not force me to do something He knows would not sit well with me in intimacy. I am fine remaining single for the rest of my life if it means not partaking in a harem. Yes, loneliness is an impending doom for many singles, but anytime I feel that way, I need only to draw closer to Jesus Christ and He will comfort me. If it’s God’s will for me to marry, I do not know what God will do to resolve this in me. Please pray for me, thank you
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