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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/28/2014 11:36 PM, Timothy Butler
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:0EDC248E-700F-4B2E-A0CF-B9ED00B6D53B@ofb.biz"
type="cite">
<div class="">Ah, Fred, but what do we do when the Bible calls us
to fall in the middle? To stand firm against sin, to stand firm
for Christ, but to also honor, pray for and love those who
persecute us? It seems to me we <i class="">MUST</i> stand in
the middle, because that’s the harder thing to do that Christ
calls us to do. I think this is exactly what Paul and Peter were
doing when they told </div>
</blockquote>
<br>
That ISN'T being "in the middle." It's a commandment. <br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:0EDC248E-700F-4B2E-A0CF-B9ED00B6D53B@ofb.biz"
type="cite">
<div class="">Christians to honor the very emperor who was not
just making their lives harder but <u style="font-weight:
bold;" class="">killing</u> them. If the early Christians
honored he who killed them, how can we do less for our “enemies”
who merely inconvenience us? And, should the day come that
Christians are killed in our given countries, how can we do less
than the apostles did when they faced the same?</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">The world thinks in terms of either hating or loving
people based on whether they hate or love us. Mt. 5.44 doesn’t
let us do that same thing.</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
That's where hate the sin and not the sinner comes in. <br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:0EDC248E-700F-4B2E-A0CF-B9ED00B6D53B@ofb.biz"
type="cite">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">(And, I’m not saying I’m good at following Mt. 5.44,
but I hope every day Christ enables me to love those who hate me
a little more and to show them a little more undeserved love as
my savior shows the same to me.)</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Correct, however, that ISN'T what I was talking about, but somehow
you didn't get it. For example, Joel Osteen of "happy clappy" Inc.
refused to tell the truth on a live Larry King TV program that
Muslims weren’t going to Heaven because they haven't followed
Scriptural requirements. He wimped out. If you're going to be a
pastor, you MUST NOT wimp out on Scripture. Do it with love, but
tell the truth!<br>
<br>
Fred<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"For so long as a hundred of us remain alive, we will yield in no
least way to English dominion. For we fight, not for glory nor
for riches nor for honour, but only and alone for Freedom, which
no good man surrenders but with his life".
The Arbroath Declaration -
Noble Scots to Pope John XXII in 1320</pre>
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