Hi Canuckus,

You are not interrupting and I am having no conversation with anyone. The "padre" has proven capable only of personal insults and diminishing the written Word of the living God to what he calls a "paper pope."

Having the joy of being individuals does not change the identity of the sovereign God. He is God, and we are not.

This little g god you cheerfully pray to in the worship house of the atheist, Buddha, and that of the slaughterer and pedophile, Muhammad, is not my God.

My God is the Triune God of the Bible, who is one God, indivisible: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Ecclesiastes 5:1: "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
2. Do not be hasty to speak, and do not let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. After all, God is in heaven and you are on earth."

- The heathen placed their altars and offered their worship wherever they thought fit, according to their notions of the deity and his service; but Israel was not to do so unto Jehovah their God: he himself would choose the places where he was to be worshipped, and there alone might they come with offering and service.

Deuteronomy 12:3 "Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.
12:4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way."

To explain how worship in the New Testament is different from worship in the Old Testament.
To motivate people toward a lifestyle characterized by New Testament worship.

It is common for churches to say that their first priority is the worship of God. This usually means that the corporate worship service on Sunday morning is the most important activity in which the church engages. Often, that worship service is liturgical - characterized by a set order of ritual, song, prayer, etc.

A closer examination of the relevant biblical material affirms that worship is indeed the first priority of the church, but the New Testament defines worship in a very different way.

A Change in Sacrifices
1 Pet. 2:5. This verse (along with vs. 9) teaches that all Christians are priests. Whereas in the Old Testament, only select Levites had this privilege, every Christian now has this privilege.

What do priests do?
In the Old Testament period, their main function was to carry out the worship of God through the offering of sacrifices. There were essentially two different kinds of sacrifices: sin offerings, which were offered for moral offenses, and thank offerings, which were offered to express gratitude for God's goodness and blessing.

The New Testament tells us that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament sin offerings through his death (Heb. 9:11-14; 10:1-14); therefore, we need never make such sacrifices to God again.

But as Christians who have benefited from his sacrifice, we have the privilege to express our gratitude to God for Christ's work in many ways.

Peter refers to this in 1 Pet. 2:5 when he says that we "offer up spiritual sacrifices to God." Peter does not specify here what these sacrifices are, except that they are spiritual, not physical.

By studying other passages in the New Testament, however, we discover several different "sacrifices" by which the Christian may worship God. It is important to note that no one way is viewed as more spiritual than the others; all are important if we want to have full-orbed spiritual lives.

"I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." (Rom. 12:1)

When an Israelite had received a blessing from God, he could have a priest offer up an animal as a "whole burnt offering" to show God his gratitude. God was pleased by this costly sacrifice, and expressed this by calling it a "soothing aroma." (see Lev. 3:5,16)

Paul says that as Christians, we have received the mercies of God through Christ's work - a gift so fantastic, how can we say "Thank you!" to God for such a fantastic gift? Not by offering an animal, but by presenting to God something much more precious--our very selves.

We may think that this sacrifice is not very great, but God says that it is "holy" and "well-pleasing" to him! Notice that according to Paul, this sacrifice is our "spiritual service of worship."
The Greek word for "service of worship" is the word from which we get the term liturgy.

Paul is saying that the elaborate worship service enacted by the Old Testament priests no longer has a place in Christian worship; it is now replaced by this very personal "individual" service.

Good night, Canuckus

=============
padremike, may I join you celebrating this season of Lent. There are the sorrows, but joys follow after Christ's resurrection.

These are how we Catholics worship during Lent.
Devoting plenty of time for praying, reading the Holy Scriptures about the sufferings of Christ, Stations of the Holy Cross every Friday and fasting. Charity giving for the suffering poor and hungry, then taking the Holy Eucharist to share the body and blood of Christ in remembrance of Him.

Fasting is a self-sacrifice that makes one humble and more accepting of God's will. Moses fasted for forty days in preparation for receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28).

Daniel fasted for three weeks before receiving his vision (Daniel 10:2-6)
Elijah fasted forty days before speaking with God (1 Kings 19:8).

Jesus fasted for forty days in preparation for His temptation by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13).

Hello Zemirah...

I find religious bigotry quite distasteful...

But perhaps I was unclear...

Allow me to repeat...

I worship the God of Abraham... The one true God... And none other...

I may worship in different places and with different people, but my worship is reserved for him and him alone...

I will thank you to remember this in the future...

Also....Although I don't always approve of the Manner of the Padre's speech, I have not seen that he diminishes the word of God in any way, shape or form...

And... Although he and I have had our disagreements, I would feel comfortable worshipping next to him... In fact his fire probably made for some excellent sermons back when he was actively preaching...

God will judge us all in the end.. Until then it would be nice if we could embrace each other in love and brotherhood...

Your own quotes from March 17th, 2019, have proven you know nothing, not the most elementary understanding of Islam, and little, if any more, about Christianity:

"All worship the God of Abraham..."

"I am a follower of Christ, but also enjoy the other Abrahamic faiths..."

"Both worship the same God." ...and also Judaism."

There is no possible meeting of the minds between the religions. The Bible makes it very clear that God's promises were to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (whom God renamed Israel).

Indeed... My love and my brotherhood are neither shallow, nor uninformed... They are the truest expressions of my faith... You may be projecting here...

Not at all... I am reminding a fellow member of the common civilities that society employs... I find it utterly amazing that after having spoken with an individual only handful of times you would feel confident in judging their faith...
Or call into question their intelligence/ education...

You are a bigot...

I cannot claim to know which version of the bible you embrace... But in mine Abraham specifically requests that God extend His covenant to Abraham's son Ishmael as well... You may be familiar with the history... Ishmael is recognized as the father of the Arabs and as such the Lord's covenant would extend to them as well...

My understanding of Christianity, and Islam, is the result of my studies and prayer to the Lord... Your claim that I am ignorant is false and a judgement far above your station...

Idiotic statement that proves you have never read the Koran and have little understanding of Islam...

Bravo... You have illuminated a difference between the faiths... As everyone knows, such differences could never be found between Christianity and Judaism... Both obviously believe Christ is the son of God...(this is sarcasm)

Thank you for dictating what I may or may not say on this open forum... I was simply attempting to point out that if one applied a little critical reading, and ignored some of the colorful language, that one may learn something... The Padre is a spring of knowledge concerning the Love of our Lord... And if he has a fault with his faith it may be that he becomes frustrated when individuals blatantly disregard his words without putting any effort into understanding their essence...

But I digress... Your constant attacks on any who view Scripture or faith differently than you are obviously the result of years of habit... The Padre may wish to reach you, but I have no such illusions concerning my ability to reason with a statue...

You are a bigot... (It needed saying twice)

Indeed... The first statement of substance in your post.... Reflect on it...

Now I am off to bed...
You are in my prayers, but I doubt that I shall continue to correspond with you...

God bless...

==============
Linda, the season of Lent is upon us. This is the time to reminisce/worship the life and sufferings of Christ on the cross. We practice in many ways, to feel the pains and sufferings He endured for us; Him carrying the weight of the cross loaded with our sins.
Then he poured out his blood on the cross to wash away our sins.
Because He loves us unconditionally.
Therefore, we as children of Christ, must love each other as He loves us.

What is love?
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.

Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

Canuckus,

I have seriously studied the Bible for seventy years and the Qur'an for thirty nine years,
please continue to dazzle me with your superior knowledge and your humility.

My speaking the truth as an iconoclast is not ever a reason for you to become hysterical:

"Projecting"...( i.e., Engaging in Psychology 101?)

"Twice a bigot?," Really, Canuckus? Do you know the meaning of the word? If so, who is "attacking" who?

- Is this the "truest expression of your faith," i.e., of your love and brotherhood?"


Abraham sent Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian hand maiden and Ishmael away. They did not share in Isaac's inheritance.

God made of the Arabs of the middle Arabian peninsula, Ishmail's descendants, a mighty nation, but they are not the children of promise. That is eternally the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob only.

Numerically there are over 367.4 million Arabs (among a 1.8 billion total muslim population), and approximately twenty million Jewish people upon the earth.

By His own strength, God upholds His small groups of persecuted "chosen" people, as He always has 1) with the Jews and 2) with born-again Christians.

The oldest identified biblical "father of the Arabs is Qahtan, (not Ishmail) and his 24 sons are the progenitors of the southern inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula known as Qahtani (Yemen). Early Islamic historians identified Qahtan with the Yoqtan ( Joktan) son of Eber Of the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 10:25-29).

Ismail is identified as the "father of the Arabs of the middle of the Arabian peninsula," by Josephus, 1st century Jewish Historian.

The "truest expression of one's faith" begins in their worship of God. Love and brotherhood follows.

Have you appointed yourself the "common civilities and courtesy" police enforcement for this forum? It would seem so.

I have not "judged" your faith. Only God can know that.

Your total formal education is unknown to me, nor do I care, but your lack of

knowledge of either the Bible or the Qur'an is obvious.

The padre does not need to be discussed with me, even by his self-appointed protector.

He upholds his traditions of men without civility. I defend God's Word, speaking the truth in love.

As for his love of the Lord??? Canuckus, that is immeasurable, other than by God.

That which you esteem so valuable, God may not. God looks at the heart.


...off to bed with your milk and cookies?

When you study the wrong "stuff" you come to wrong conclusions. You use modern so called experts, those who seek to prove their already predetermined agenda, against the extant writings of the Fathers and doctors of the Christian Church who were alive during the actual historical periods. A modern example is like those today who say our Constitution calls for a separation of church and state.

I'm mildly amused/annoyed by people like you whose sole purpose it seems is to uninvitedly attack someone else's Christian faith when you are apparently grievously vexed by your own. Is correcting Christians your raison d'etre?

When you study the wrong "stuff" you come to wrong conclusions. You use modern so called experts, those who seek to prove their already predetermined agenda, against the extant writings of the Fathers and doctors of the Christian Church who were alive during the actual historical periods. A modern example is like those today who say our Constitution calls for a separation of church and state.

I'm mildly amused/annoyed by people like you whose sole purpose it seems is to uninvitedly attack someone else's Christian faith when you are apparently grievously vexed by your own. Is correcting Christians your raison d'etre?

When you study the wrong "stuff" you come to wrong conclusions. You use modern so called experts, those who seek to prove their already predetermined agenda, against the extant writings of the Fathers and doctors of the Christian Church who were alive during the actual historical periods. A modern example is like those today who say our Constitution calls for a separation of church and state.

I'm mildly amused/annoyed by people like you whose sole purpose it seems is to uninvitedly attack someone else's Christian faith when you are apparently grievously vexed by your own. Is correcting Christians your raison d'etre?