Posts Made By: Vince Clements

Now over the years that Paul was preaching the Gospel he encountered unbelievable hardship. As he record in his second letter to the Corinthians," Been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; in danger from false brothers." (2 Corintians11:23-27) If Paul conversion was due to his feeling guilty for his persecution of believers, why after all this did he not just say to heck with it? As for the message that Paul preached vs. what Jesus preached, the difference is this: Jesus preached how we were to live and that he came to fulfill the law. The Mosaic Law is that sins had to be dealt with under a sacrificial system. Paul preached the message was that, through the grace of God, the sins of men and the curse of the law have been removed through the cross of Jesus to all who believed. In all his preaching Paul continually pointed to salvation through Jesus and Jesus alone. He did so in different ways to different people. To the Greek, intellectually. To the Romans, passionately, and to the Jew, legally. He did different styles of getting the same message across in ways different people would understand. Just as I would do myself. Paul was a chosen instrument of God to do His work of spreading the gospel of salvation through Jesus. This because he was equipped with the different tool one would need to do so, due to his background and education. If you thing that Paul did not preach a "Christian message" you need to reread the books of the Bible he authored. (cont.)

Now for Joseph Smith. Anyone who would follow some guy who, while by himself, discovered golden tablets in a stream but could not produce them because he had lost them then could not produce even his transcripts should have their head examined. I put Smith in the same category with Charles"Taz"Russell, Jim Jones and David Koresh. In my opinion, anyone who would commit to any religion without understanding its founder deserves what they get. Vince

There have been posts claiming that Jesus is just one of many ways to God. One of many streams that lead to the same ocean. Jesus came into this world as an illegitimate child of self employed country bumpkin carpenter named Joe. (Galilee was the Hooterville of Judea) Grew up and at the age of 30 decided to preach against the leaders of the religion he was part of. His group of friends were fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners. He was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton. His biggest boast was I am the only son of God and I am the only way to him. He even went as far as to change the law the of God he claims. (declaring all foods are edible) When he entered into Jerusalem on passion week there was a big hoopla made over him that he gladly accepted. But when the heat was on and he was on trial he did not even try to defend himself. He just stood there. Maybe God crucified him for a 'job well done' and he couldn't understand his punishment and that is why he cried out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"- which means "My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?" Now if he is just one of many, he did not live and act like the rest. So I pose this question. When looking at deception, would our enemy the devil, put up only one decoy (and not a very good one compared to the others) among many, or many good looking decoys around the one true one? Vince

Come with me to the most populated prison in the world. The facility has more inmates that bunks. More prisoners than plates. More residents than resources.
Come with me to the world's most oppressive prison. Just ask the inmates; they will tell you. They are overworked and underfed. Their walls are bare and bunks hard.
No prison is so populated, no prison is so oppressive, and, what's more, no prison is so permanent. Most inmates never leave. They never escape. They never get released. They serve a life sentence in this overcrowded, under provisioned facility.
The name of this prison? You'll see it over the entrance. Rainbowed over the gate are four cast-iron letters that spell out its name

W-A-N-T

The prison of want. You've seen her prisoners. They are "in want." They want something. They want something bigger. Nicer. Faster. Thinner. They want.
They don't want much, mind you. They just want one thing. One new job. One new car. One new house. One new spouse. They don't want much. They just want one.
And when they have 'one', they will be happy. And they are right - they will be happy. When they have 'one', they will leave the prison. But then it happens. The new car smell passes. The new job gets old. The neighbors buy a larger television set. The new spouse has bad habits. The sizzle fizzles, and before you know it, another ex-con breaks parole and returns to prison.

Excerpt from Traveling Light by Max Lucado

A couple of things to think about. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 40 verse 22 it says "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth… He stretches out the heavens like a canopy". Now of all the words Isaiah could have used instead of circle and stretches, did he just by chance get it right about the round earth and expanding universe in 700 B.C, was Isaiah a super smart scientist or was there something else (divine inspiration) behind his choosing these words. In Genesis Chapter 2 when God made Adam, He created him in the wilderness, out of dust, and then planted a garden to place him in. He then used something better than dust to make woman in the garden. Man created in the wilderness - hunter, woman created in the garden - gatherer. Man - wilderness rough and tumble. Woman - garden soft and nurturing. A little Venus and Mars going on here? Now when God created life, the forms of life continued to get higher and higher as He went. Could this mean that woman is the highest form of creation? Also, I would love to have seen the look on Adams face when he first saw Eve. Vince

I recently read a book called "Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach. It talks about several ways in the past people and doctors used to insure one is really dead and would not be buried alive. Some of these ways were; slicing the bottoms of a corpses feet with razors, jamming needles under toenails, and ears assaulted with bugle fanfare. A French clergy recommended thrusting a red-hot poker up ones "rear passage". They tried nipple pinchers invented specifically for the purpose of reanimation. Another tried administering tobacco enemas using bellows. Jacob Winslow used pouring hot wax on ones forehead and warm urine in the "patients" mouth. Other attempts used crawling insects be put into the corpses ears. French physician Jean Laborde wrote at great lengths about rhythmic tongue pulling to be carried out no later than three hours after ones death. But for simplicity nothing matches thrusting a sharpened pencil up the presumed cadavers nose.
Eventually doctors agreed the only reliable way to insure one is dead was putrefaction. And so it was that special buildings were erected called waiting mortuaries. They were large, ornate halls built for warehousing the moldering dead. Even in death men could not be trusted so they had separate rooms for men and women. Attendants were hired to keep watch for signs of life, from another room due to the considerable stench, which they did via a systems of strings linked to the fingers of corpses tied to a bell. This is where 'saved by the bell' originated. As years passed not one resident was saved and the establishments began to close, and by 1940, the waiting mortuary had gone by the way of the nipple pincher and tongue puller.
Vince

In the book of Revelations, the seventh seal was opened and this begins the Trumpet judgments. The second trumpet is something like a huge mountain all ablaze, thrown into the sea, turning a third of the water to blood, killing a third of the creatures and destroying a third of the ships.. The third trumpet judgment was a great star blazing like a torch, that fell from the sky and a third of the rivers and springs of water... and the name of that star was Wormwood. Now I think most people would agree that both these may be a meteor or comet strike. As astronomers, can anyone tell me the really big difference between the two. All the information you need is in this post. Think astronomy. This is not a theological or trick question. Vince

Emancipate yourself from inner slavery. --- Bob Marley, Redemption song


Sometimes the shackle that imprison are self imposed. Vince

We all have them. A line out of a movie that we use any chance we get. For me it is from the original airplane movie.

"I have a question."
"A question, what is it?"
"It's an interrogative statement used to test knowledge, but thats not important now."

I am having trouble with satellite tracking on my lxd55 and would like to clear all the memory from the autostar and reload the latest version. Is this possible and a wise thing to try? any help would great.