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MichaelJ
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Building the library of Alexandria

LOL just don't throw lazy history at me as a "checkmate theists" argument

From the document:

> As exhausting as it is to read that list, the FCC itself says it is not an exhaustive list. The Biden Administration’s plan empowers the FCC to regulate every aspect of the Internet sector for the first time ever. The plan is motivated by an ideology of government control that is not compatible with the fundamental precepts of free market capitalism.

"Um akschually the Resurrection/Easter/Christmas/whatever Christian doctrine/tradition really came from *insert obscure pseudo-historical pagan tradition*"

The FCC proposal discussed in this document passed today.

This is why I'm on Nostr.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398244A1.pdf

Is that a consequence of the internet, do you think? Does being online and entertained to excess hollow out one's character? It's probably more complicated than that, because one can use the Internet to learn and develop meaningful ideas.

How do you think we can encourage the people around us to ground themselves more?

A phrase I like is "be more human." The "real" people you're talking about don't feel fully human. So the question is: How do we become more human?

Replying to Avatar John

New article in the local paper by my pastor: Definition of self is important.

"It can be cataclysmic when God’s plan for us forces a change in the whole way we’ve lived our lives up to that point.

I’ve seen it happen several times since I was called to serve as a pastor.

I have no Bible behind me when I say this, but experience leads me to assert that it’s especially difficult for men of action, or activity, to encounter a change in their circumstance that forces them to spend some time in what feels like “doing nothing.”

This is because men especially are tempted to view themselves in light of what they do or accomplish. You hear it in our conversation when we meet each other for the first time. After we’ve shaken hands, one of the first questions will be, “So, what do you do?”

If we ever get to the point of talking about family, or what’s really important to us, or what we’d really like to pursue, it’s after we’ve defined ourselves by sharing our present activity.

If the question is “Who are you?” we’ll answer with our job. I’m a rancher. I’m in construction. I’m retired military.

This isn’t great, but it’s understandable. Since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, a man’s labor has been central to his existence. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your food, Genesis 3:19.

If anyone in the Bible had a legitimate reason to feel displaced by a sudden shift in his own plans, I imagine the apostle Paul was that guy. In Acts 23, Jesus shows up and says to him, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

From that point forward, Paul is never a free man again. The rest of the book encompasses about five years, and the apostle is a prisoner for all of it. The book ends with him still confined. Tradition has it that this captivity didn’t end until Nero had Paul beheaded in Rome in the late 60s A.D.

Paul spent the previous years as a man on the go. He made three large circuits throughout the region of Asia Minor that encompassed many years. He planted churches; survived riots and death threats; and was even stoned once and left for dead.

His life was marked by controversy and drama.

It must’ve been jarring to spend the last years of his life cooling his jets in the ol’ Gray Bar Hotel. We speculate that he did a lot of writing from captivity, though. Several books of the New Testament probably come from that period of relative inactivity.

It’s noteworthy that he refers to himself as “the prisoner of the Lord” in Ephesians 4:1. He was confined by the Romans, at the insistence of the Jews, but he doesn’t blame them or speak resentfully about his situation. He’s learned who and what should really define him. He’s not summed up so much by what he’s doing (which was a whole lot of sitting there) but by what the Lord was doing in him.

How do you define yourself? How does God define you? It’s of some importance that we make these match."

Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com

https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2023/11/15/opinion/definition-of-self-is-important/25317.html

#faith #bible #christian

Excellent article by your pastor! The point about how we define ourselves by work is quite relevant.

The thing is, nothing of ultimate importance comes through our own labor, it is all a free gift from God. We don't create ourselves, nor do we attain eternal life on our own; it is all given.

The fundamental human stance, then, should be one of receptivity and gratitude towards the world and life we are given.

Josef Pieper's essay "Leisure: The Basis of Culture" expands on this idea excellently.

The classic "head bonk test" for marriageability

Danger of having a wife who will always challenge him intellectually, it sounds like.

Keeps things interesting.

Just will it into a different shape, easy

A rare find indeed

How do you mean that real people don't feel that real? It sounds like you have an interesting point there and I'd love to hear more.

In our college friend group she was the shortest though. She just had tall friends.

Well if you're morbidly obese you're less attractive. But if you're pretty and good-natured, that overrides a lot from a man's perspective.