Rev 2:1-7, Rev 2:18-29 please take it away Biblebot

I was struck by how Ephesus is praised for rightly calling out false teaching, but then sternly warned for not being loving. I see a lot of joy in right wing Christians in calling out absurd and harmful teaching. But without care it's a path to a callous heart in the face of people who need to be shown love.

Not that there are any rightoids on this gay cat dating website or anything.

Almost opposite is the church in Thyatira, love and faith are growing, but too quick to tolerate false teaching and sexual immorality. There's also a subtext that they're sucking up to the State in the hopes to curry worldly political favor - which Jesus warns will be fleeting when compared to the crowns he offers for following him. You can think up your own modern parallels if you feel like it.

My prayer is that you stand firm on solid teaching, but have an open and soft heart to those who are hurting, even as they hurt others. Meditate on Matthew 10:16.

I've talked about this before and I'm open about it, but I was sexual abused for many months at the age of 8 years old.

To this day my sexuality is extremely disordered. I had a decades long struggle with suicidal depression in late childhood through early adulthood, until I came clean with a therapist when i was 20 or so and started on a finally successful cocktail of meds.

I've also been addicted to pornography since I was 13 which I'm still having trouble breaking.

I hadn't thought of the person who abused me in decades, i moved and was no longer around them soon after, but an old friend recently mentioned them in a business context.

I pondered- why not throw my life away and kill them?

It wasn't a particularly serious thought, but the capacity to have such an emotion has shook my ego quite a bit.

How do I order my heart to forgive someone for this?

I am very good at formalizing logical and rational beliefs but I am lost at truly controlling my hearts whims.

In Russian occupied Ukraine, Russians have now destroyed or shut down all Protestant, Catholic and Evangelical churches. pic.twitter.com/9KGnF2vnJA

— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) April 11, 2024

Of course they forgot to mention how he's also killing people with masturbation machines and sending them on death rollercoasters

P.S. trying to get any info on this from elsewhere so can't find it. I think its fake but I wish it was true.

28And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

• Mark 12:28-34

One of my longstanding disagreements with some other Christians on here (carp) is the meaning of Matthew 6:14-15

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Namely whether the other person has to be sorry and apologize before you forgive them, and before that you're free to hold a grudge as long as you want. But I just can't hold with that interpretation in the light of passages like Mark 12:28-34, when Christ spells out that we're supposed to universally love everyone. I just don't see that as compatible with only forgiving those who are sorry, I think it means forgiving people regardless of whether they've done anything to "earn" that forgiveness out of the knowledge that all people are deserving of forgiveness because all people are afflicted in different ways by sin.

When Jesus was crucified he said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” I think that's the example we're called to live by as Christians, and anything short of that is just making excuses.

!christians !catholics

YOUR STRAGGOTRY PUT JESSABELL ON THE CROSS

!christians Easter's almost over APOLOGIZE to God for your straggotry or else he'll send you to heck!

even the minion wants to make things right with God, don't waste time the Easter Bunny is almost done eating in heaven with Moses and Noah, don't make xer come down and DRAG YOU TO HECK BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

For God so loved the world that xe transed xis only begotten daughter so that ye may not touch grass but have eternal sending the straights to breeding camps

Like was he a personal friend of Jesus?