Shanktified!

Emails about telemarketing companies calling your cell phone and using up your free minutes are false (see below).

However, I personally hope it is true and that more telemarketers would call. It’s a great witnessing opportunity.

Despite dire warnings about the imminent release of cell phone numbers to telemarketers that continue to be circulated via e-mail year after year, no such thing is about to occur, nor do cell phone users have to register their cell phone numbers with the national Do Not Call registry before a soon-to-pass deadline to head off an onslaught of telemarketing calls. The panic-inducing e-mails (which circulate especially widely every January, since many versions of the warning list the end of that month as a cut-off date for registering cell phone numbers with the national Do Not Call registry) have grown out of a misunderstanding about the proposed creation of a wireless directory assistance service.

Cell phone numbers have generally been excluded from printed telephone books and directory assistance services. However, since the use of cell phones has burgeoned in recent years (to the point that many people no longer maintain landline phone service), several national wireless companies (AllTel, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint PCS, and T-Mobile) have banded together and hired Qsent, Inc. to produce a Wireless 411 service. Their goal is to pool their listings to create a comprehensive directory of cell phone customer names and phone numbers that would be made available to directory assistance providers.

Read more at  Snopes or The National Do Not Call Registry (scroll down to Q #10).

Reading Mark 4 this morning, I’m reminded we have but one task…

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Mark 4:20

Nearly every parable I read points to witnessing and making disciples to the glory of God. May your day be fruitful and may God be glorified by the fruit of your labors.

Related post: Our primary task

Well I’ve confused A.D. again (see:Hrrrrm). I don’t see this as a debate. Because this is the type of conversation where neither of us is going to “win” without total rejection of our identities. I’ve always seen this as an opportunity to simply be better understood. So many times evangelical Christians are seen as hateful hypocrites. In time, even with people who don’t agree with me, they see I am sincerely concerned with their eternal soul and operate from pure intent. And then there’s always the hope that something I write will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring someone to repentance and faith in Christ. With AD, I don’t seem to be any closer than when he first stopped by. In his latest post AD seems to still misunderstand me, my intentions or both.

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So here I am minding my own business when i get some IM about a guy wanting me to 3-way with his wife or girlfriend. This was not a bot, but a real person. So I decided to witness to him. His screen name has been changed to protect the guilty. Continue reading »

“It is absolutely necessary to the preaching of the gospel of Christ that men be warned as to what will happen if they continue in their sins. Ho, ho, sir surgeon, you are too delicate to tell the man that he is ill! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. You therefore flatter them; and what happens? They laugh at you; they dance upon their own graves. At last they die! Your delicacy is cruelty; your flatteries are poisons; you are a murderer. Shall we keep men in a fool’s paradise? Shall we lull them into soft slumbers from which they will awake in hell? Are we to become helpers of their damnation by our smooth speeches? In the name of God we will not.”

Source: Coming Judgment of the Secrets of Men - C.H. Spurgeon

Le_Sigh, had a wonderful post (over here) worthy of starting it’s own thread.

Thank you. Le_Sigh. It’s nice to have someone use scripture in defense of their positions (hint, hint).

Oh, a point of clarification. I didn’t say “anyone who loves Jesus will keep his word.” The bible did does.

It would take volumes to address each point in Leviticus — many of the laws you stated have been “done away” with by Christ and the New Testament. Some however have not. Let’s look at just one in your list. Probably the most shocking…
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Be sure and check out NarniaStory.com for the message behind the movie (contains a slight spoiler for those not familar with this classic tale).

I’d like to share with you a little ministry we have going here that is very rewarding to me.

I order free bible display cases from Mission2America.org, and while they do offer free NIVs, I prefer to stock them with Bibles I purchase here. The reason? Because, more and more people have issues with the NIV translation and their advancement of a gender neutral version. The NASB is both readable and accurate and to the best of my knowledge has no controversy associated with it. For new Christians readability and accuracy without distractions are the most important issues. I also like the plan of salvation within the “Jesus Saves” version (it’s not a life-enhancement message) and they are slightly thinner allowing me to get a couple more in a display case at a time.

On average we give out total around a case a week from 4 or 5 locations. It’s a very rewarding ministry. I’d encourage any of you to try this ministry for yourself. It’s very easy to do and most places are actually happy to put the displays near their cash register (which is key to them moving well).

Let me know if you have any questions or you start a similar ministry in your area.

As happens from time to time, comments take on a life (or post) of their own.

Here is a post and my replies from Angry Dissenter:

I always like talking theology.
The short answer is yes, I believe that if there’s a heaven and I get hit by a bus today, that I get in.

What do you base this on?

However, your question and my answer are based on philosophical assumptions and conclusions which, I think, are more important than either the question or the answer.
1) First, I can’t believe in hell. It’s not a concept that is logically compatible with my conception of God, or even the popular Christian concept of God. If you believe that God is infinite (or at least larger than all things in existence), hell becomes extremely problematic.

It wasn’t problematic for the author’s of Scripture or Christ, Himself:
“Hell” in Scripture:

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“You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most… It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.”
~ John Wesley