The Upper Room - 2015-01-31

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12:04 AM

So you see they can easily reason, and have, that the ends, saving a soul, is eternally important, therefore any means to save it are justified except the forfeiture of another soul. And when the ends justify the means, "brainwashing" and "trickery" are perfectly acceptable to make converts.

@curiousdannii did you find the two questions? I am on a tablet and not as versed in navigating the stack

12:33 AM

@fredsbend Whatever "the end" is, it can't be fake conversions. Of course lots of people believe dumb things. I'm just speaking as an idealist. Few Christians would agree with me.

@Malachi One question by you was in the close review queue, but I don't know if that's the one you meant

@curiousdannii I don't think I understand your response.

12:53 AM

@fredsbend Have you done your homework yet? Have you slept? Have you eaten yet?

@fredsbend You may be interested in this.

@DoubleU On to dinner now.

@fredsbend Who cooks dinner? You or your wife?

me tonight

a chinese favorite: fried rice

@fredsbend What are you cooking for dinner?

@fredsbend I see. What is the recipe?

@fredsbend Are you going to use a spoon or chopsticks?

Does Elisha speak?

1

Q: Should we ever close questions as duplicates based on the answers to the other question?

Sometimes, even when a question is not an exact duplicate of another, it gets closed and the header says, "This question already has an answer at [link]." Is this proper? It seems that sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't; so what are those times?

12:59 AM

@fredsbend Tell me what you have studied and how deep you have studied them.

@fredsbend I'm saying that even if they thought the ends justified the means, coercion will never achieve the ends that a good evangelist should want. Of course the goals of some evangelists are money or fame etc...

@fredsbend Where is free will in that theology?

@DoubleU Leftover ingredients recipe. Spoon of course, I like the take not the frustration.

@DoubleU I'm cooking dinner. Can't really say much except a bit here and there.

@fredsbend I see. Not an efficient chopstick user, eh?

@fredsbend What are the leftover ingredients?

@fredsbend How can you chat and cook dinner at the same time?

@fredsbend That's odd. Where is your computer located?

@DoubleU yesterday's rice, naturally, chicken from two sources, peas, corn, white raisins, and one scrambled egg.

@DoubleU Pro level.

1:05 AM

@fredsbend How often do you eat rice?

@fredsbend Do you use a rice cooker, or do you steam-cook rice on the stove?

@DoubleU too often. Probably have arsenic poisoning.

@fredsbend Raisins in fried rice? Isn't that sweet?

Cooker is the only way to go.

@DoubleU It's different. My wife's idea, and I've gotten used to it.

I wish I had broccoli.

@fredsbend What do you mean by "too often"?

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend I love steamed broccoli.

Also, that message I just replied to had the code of 19818198. Niiiiceee...

1:09 AM

@DoubleU Four or five times a week.

@fredsbend Is your wife Asian-American?

@El'endiaStarman I don't get it. Why is that a significant number?

@fredsbend So, you don't eat rice everyday.

@DoubleU Not even close. White. I think mostly continental European.

Her whole family is really redneck, so they don't really know where they're from.

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend It's pretty. Only the digits 1, 8, and 9, and the first three are the same as the last three.

1:10 AM

@El'endiaStarman Math nerd.

El'endia Starman

Something like that is easy to memorize. Useful for memorizing pi, for instance...

@fredsbend How often do you have stirfry?

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend ....yyyesss...? I thought that's been common knowledge for years... :P

@fredsbend Do you use individual plates or set up buffet-style?

@El'endiaStarman Just affirming a strong position.

@DoubleU 1 or 2 a week. Plates. less to wash if you pull from the pan yourself.

1:13 AM

@fredsbend Then, why do you eat rice 5 times a week for? What recipes are they for? o_O

El'endia Starman

@DoubleU ...I think you mean five times a week... o_o

@curiousdannii Never mind that meta post. I just realized that what I thought was special wording in the duplicate header text was actually the standard wording, so my question was predicated on a false premise. @anyone else who sees this message: move along, nothing to see

@El'endiaStarman corrected

@El'endiaStarman I've always been good a memorizing numbers. (well anything really, but numbers especially). I was about 9 and they were testing me at the bunker (jk), and they would say a series of numbers and I'd repeat it. I was able to to eight digits with about 80% accuracy and 9 at like 65%.

They said most adults can't do better than 50% (which is when they stop the test).

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend Very nice.

1:16 AM

I think it has a lot to do with how I interpret sound. Seeing it written is less effective for me than internally hearing it.

El'endia Starman

Sometimes I have been able to produce a phone number after a glance. Doesn't usually stick around in long term memory though...

@fredsbend What do you mean by "less to wash if you pull from the pan yourself"?

El'endia Starman

I think seeing it works better for me. (Especially considering my deafness.... :P )

@DoubleU no serving plates. just dinner plates.

@El'endiaStarman Yeah, I bet.

They say most people are visual learners, but I think I'm one of the rare auditory learners.

@fredsbend Is it a family dinner?

@fredsbend Do you eat at the table?

@fredsbend Do you say grace before you eat?

1:18 AM

@DoubleU Not tonight, but usu.

@DoubleU 1/2 the time. other at the tv

@DoubleU nope. not even when I believed.

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend My to-be wife is kinesthetic, in fact.

@El'endiaStarman learns by interaction?

El'endia Starman

@DoubleU I don't usually say grace before eating either.

@fredsbend Do your wife and children say grace before eating?

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend Yep. Especially hands-on.

1:20 AM

@El'endiaStarman Always seems weird to me.

@DoubleU no

@curiousdannii I think we've entered a subjective realm here.

@fredsbend Wow. Oh, how times have changed! Back in Martin Luther's day, as written in the Small Catechism, children and other members of the household are encouraged to make the sign of the cross and say a prayer in the morning and evening before bedtime, and at every meal. On the other hand, you are not Lutheran. You have no obligation to know the Small Catechism.

@DoubleU I attended a Lutheran church for a number of years. I have a small catechism booklet. I also attended catholic services before that. My father had us do that when we were growing up.

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend Same. And if we sit down to dinner as a family and/or a group, usually grace is said.

@fredsbend I thought you were raised Catholic. Why did you have the Small Catechism?

I can't remember what kind of Lutheran at the moment. Missouri synod I think. They're more conservative, right?

@El'endiaStarman But did you do the sign and all that jazz.

@DoubleU I was, but we spent a few years attending that Lutheran Church, then back to the catholic parish.

1:27 AM

@El'endiaStarman I once knew a Muslim kid from high school who said a quiet prayer, and he was eating alone. How pious!

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend Actually, no. Should've amended that.

@DoubleU Apparently so.

@fredsbend But the ELCA congregations are more abundant.

@DoubleU Had a catholic friend who'd do that. We'd sit down to eat and pretty much in mid sentence, he'd bow is head, make the sign, say about twenty words, make the sign again, and be right back in the conversation.

El'endia Starman

I doubt whether I pray and thank God before I eat is high on His priority list of things for me to do.

It's more important that I obey His commands, which includes reaching out to people and enjoying life.

And loving my fiancée, of course.

@DoubleU And liberal. I was a funeral recently at a ELCA and the pastor read from Wisdom. I spoke to him about it later and he mentioned that he also reads from some of the gnostics occasionally. I was like "What!?"

@El'endiaStarman We had a problem with god having priorities in another room. Let me find it.

1:30 AM

@fredsbend And your father did not object to Lutheranism the whole time?!? Wow. He must have been a pretty progressive Catholic!

in Charlie Hebdo Vigil, Jan 15 at 1:16, by Jim G.

@curiousdannii I don't think He should have "priorities" at all! He's God! He's multithreaded! And He has admin privileges!

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend That is fantastic.

@El'endiaStarman No, but at least it shows respect and reverence.

@DoubleU More like the Sunday variety. Plus he traveled a lot for work and my mom is very persuasive (meaning she yells a lot).

El'endia Starman

@DoubleU Which I already do throughout my life.

1:33 AM

@El'endiaStarman Saying grace is how some people choose to express reverence and thanks to God for providing the delicious food on their plates and the ability to digest them!

gtg. class in 30 min. i dont even have time for caps and complete words

El'endia Starman

@fredsbend Yet, you had time to write that latter sentence. :P

@fredsbend Although the gnostics were repeatedly persecuted, that doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong.

@fredsbend So, during that time, your mom took you to a Lutheran church. Did she come from a Lutheran family?

@El'endiaStarman Everybody has his or her definition on what it means to be pious.

@El'endiaStarman Read the full discussion. I think I make a strong case that he does have priorities

in Charlie Hebdo Vigil, Jan 15 at 2:12, by curiousdannii

Put one more way: when I said God has priorities, I meant that he has desires that cannot all be met to the same extent. He wants a family with the humans he has created. He wants humans to exercise real wills. He wants a good earth. He wants to be known. He wants to be known as a merciful, loving God. He wants to be known as a god who gives himself for others.

1:48 AM

@El'endiaStarman An attitude like that may explain why none of my classmates to date says grace at the table, Christian-style. It seems to me that American Christians have a lax attitude toward religion in general.

El'endia Starman

@curiousdannii Oh, I'm with you. I just loved the description.

And beyond what you said, I'd say He has priorities for me insofar as there are actions that He would rather have me do instead of others, which may even be beneficial, but not as much. To me and/or to others.

6 hours later…

7:42 AM

@El'endiaStarman You can come to Islam site to discuss these things too

8 hours later…

3:35 PM

> God's Will For Your Life

1 hour later…

El'endia Starman

4:57 PM

The more I'm on Quora, the more I see how Stack Exchange is simply a better system. For example, on of the questions that people want answers on is "What are the "personalities" of all the major math departments in the U.S.?". What a terrible question. There's no way any one person could hope to answer this, and no way even a group of people could answer it fully.

Another example is of a person asking for a proof that "mathematics existed before humans found it" and one of the top answers is a disproof. Somewhat maddening, honestly...

> No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8

Only he is good.

@Mr.Bultitude Hi Mr. B

El'endia Starman

Doesn't walking with God necessarily imply listening to His voice and doing what He wants me to do?

> If you love me, obey [or 'you will obey'] my commandments. - John 14:15

Only he is good.

@El'endiaStarman Walking with God is knowing his voice when he is talking to you.

El'endia Starman

Spoken by Jesus Himself. Now, there's no way that EVERYTHING that God commands me to do is contained in the Bible. Many, yes, but not all.

Only he is good.

Do you know how to hear the Living God?

El'endia Starman

5:12 PM

@Onlyheisgood. I do hear Him. Probably not in the way you do.

Only he is good.

Then let us go through a logic test to make sure. K?

El'endia Starman

@Onlyheisgood. I'm sure. No need for a logic test. K?

Only he is good.

Then why do you ask "Doesn't walking with God necessarily imply listening to His voice and doing what He wants me to do?"

If you already know the answer?

El'endia Starman

@Onlyheisgood. Because it was a rhetorical question.

Rhetorical question

A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked in order to make a point, rather than to elicit an answer. Though classically stated as a proper question, such a rhetorical device may be posed declaratively by implying a question, and therefore may not always require a question mark when written. Though a rhetorical question does not require a direct answer, in many cases it may be intended to start a discussion or at least draw an acknowledgement that the listener understands the intended message. A common example is the question "Can't you do anything right...

Only he is good.

Does this mean you walk his commands?

El'endia Starman

5:16 PM

Not perfectly, but I'm working on it. :)

Only he is good.

5:30 PM

Then for all, here are signs of the death. When a person is "Upset" or "Pissed off". A house that is "Upset" was not build on the foundation. So has fallen and will be thrown into the fire. To the bag that is "Pissed off" a patch can tear, so one needs a new bag to store the waters of life.

To the one who is irritated, know that the Thornbush King rules over you. Sayings that come from the Thornbush King do not have much righteousness.

The Thornbush King is cut down and thrown into the fire. For he had little forgiveness.

For forgiveness comes to us when we forgive others. But to those that do not forgive. They are not forgiven. This is the opposite and equal reaction.

The garden of the mind becomes the good ground when the thorns are cleared out. So it is good to sell the thoughts and to give them to the beggar. Then your emotions become stable.

One is not obliged to obey the Thornbush King. Meaning the person who is annoyed. Sometimes disobeying the Thornbush King is the best idea.

"You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?" (Matthew 7:16 NKJV)

@Onlyheisgood. Yo. How do?

Only he is good.

@Mr.Bultitude I do it as it was supposed to be done.

@Onlyheisgood. Good to hear!

Only he is good.

So when the want to help is there and the ability to do it is not. Then the Lord can show his great strength.

Hooray to Islam may the peace rest upon you.

5:48 PM

@Onlyheisgood. Yes God alone is good and Jesus himself said that only God is Good

Only he is good.

Amen brother

Amen

Only he is good.

@Islam Are there historical teachings of Islam before Muhammad - peace be upon him?

@Onlyheisgood. es

Yes

Muhammad pbuh is only the final and hence the biding messenger.

Only he is good.

I am wondering if there was a step after Zoroastrianism and before Muhammad pbuh?

6:00 PM

You can read more about it here: islamreligion.com/category/79

@Onlyheisgood. Like?

Only he is good.

That is what I am looking for.

@Onlyheisgood. Glad you found it

Only he is good.

I believe Isa pbuh is Allah's Swords Man. Killing those that do not follow the laws of the breath.

A law of the breath is that the man must not use his flesh for vengeance.

@Onlyheisgood. Yes all prophets are like swords. They divide

Only he is good.

For the flesh is under the Laws of Motion, the opposite and equal reaction.

So those that kill with the body, by the Laws of Physics will be killed by those Laws.

Allah himself has decided to avenge with his greatness and glory.

So anyone that avenges by there own means steals glory from Allah.

6:08 PM

@Onlyheisgood. law of breadth is this: All you breadth is controlled by Allah alone and each breadth should witness him and his final messenger

@Onlyheisgood. Not always but for prophets like Jesus pbuh he rescues them even from impeding death and thus ALLAH saves him from crucifiction.

So that when he comes back he gives the good news of kingdom of heaven on earth , proves to the people that he never died \crucified in the first place and how the church all along hijacked his name all along.

This would unite the Christians and Muslims into Islam.

But that will do good only to people who would witness his second coming , those died under the false propoganda of church would not be saved and thus it is fair seeming to embrace the truth ASAP ,who knows about tomorrow?

6:44 PM

@fredsbend Finding one word to sum up your beliefs is tricky, perhaps impossible. But I don't see any real difference between "labels" and "words". Words are tricky; language is tricky, and sometimes quite slippery. Sometimes, we don't quite fit into the categories our culture recognises, and that makes it tricky to communicate, as there is no widely-understood term for what we want to say so we must start at first principles. But words are merely abstractions of reality anyway.

1 hour later…

Only he is good.

8:13 PM

@Islam The good news about the Kingdom of the Universe is this. Do to another as if it was actually yourself. For this is the Law of Motion that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. Know this. The Law is perfect. He who kills a man's son, will have his own son destroyed. The law is not limited to man. The law was given to man to accomplish to understand the Law.

He who lies will receive a lie. He who blows up a family with a bomb will have there own family blown up with a bomb. The Law of Motion is perfect. So only those that forgive will be forgiven.

Allah is merciful yes. What he does is in plain sight for all to see. Know that the flesh stands against the will of Allah. Allah is not afraid to kill you. Woe to those that do not think Allah is capable of punishing by his own hand! Your prayers will do you no good, what so ever. If you do not believe.

Be free from the Law or die by it. You have been warned. Woe to those that Allah sends his Iron Rod and Sword of Truth.

Woe to those that think themselves greater the Allah.

1 hour later…

Does Elisha speak?

9:49 PM

0

Q: Can we provide hints in the questions?

I am wondering if hints in the questions are allowed here. Example: Do Protestants have a liturgical language? Hint: Amish. Then, the answer will have to discuss whether or not Standard German is a liturgical language, distinctive from the vernacular language.

1 hour later…

11:10 PM

I am still working on that Lutheran Eucharist blog post.

I start with the reading of Communion in The A to Z of Lutheranism.

And the section provides a lot of bold key words, which suggests that the key words are written down somewhere in the book, and I need to find and read every single concept to understand the overarching Communion concept.

Fortunately, I am taking detailed notes to get organized.

After that, I may need a second and third source - and more sources - to make sure that the information is comprehensive.

Most of the previous blog posts have a personal flavor to them, so I am just going to insert my one-day experience at a Lutheran church service.

Then, I'll have to get the blog post Caleb-approved somehow.

Or moderator-approved.

But it's going to be toooooootally worth it! The blog seriously needs a Lutheran perspective!!!

If nobody is doing this project or contributing anything on Lutheranism on the Blog, then woohoo! I'll have a monopoly over this territory!

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