God?

Do you believe in God?

  • Yes, I am Christian

    Votes: 21 42.0%
  • Yes, I am a non-Christian

    Votes: 3 6.0%
  • Yes, but I am non-religious

    Votes: 2 4.0%
  • No, but I believe in a higher power

    Votes: 8 16.0%
  • No, not at all

    Votes: 16 32.0%

  • Total voters
    50
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Mety said:
irvinehomeowner said:
Wish IrvineCommuter was still active... although we disagree on small lots, we are closely aligned when it comes to God and Irvine house values and he is more articulate than I am in regards to this.

I'm not sure what you mean by "hold on to what God promised", but I do believe he has promised Christians something (and by that I don't mean a Tesla Y).

What is that God has promised you? That's what I want to know. Is it a personal thing? Is it Christ's return?

John 3:16.

I think it mentions a Tesla Y in there too. :)
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Mety said:
irvinehomeowner said:
Wish IrvineCommuter was still active... although we disagree on small lots, we are closely aligned when it comes to God and Irvine house values and he is more articulate than I am in regards to this.

I'm not sure what you mean by "hold on to what God promised", but I do believe he has promised Christians something (and by that I don't mean a Tesla Y).

What is that God has promised you? That's what I want to know. Is it a personal thing? Is it Christ's return?

John 3:16.

I think it mentions a Tesla Y in there too. :)

So for you, God's promise is the eternal life if you believe Jesus is Christ. I think that's the right direction.

Some pastors give false promises like there would be only prosperities if you believed in Jesus. Sure, we need encouragement from God's words time to time, but once you lose the main message that Jesus is Christ who is the only way to the eternal life, there comes things like a Tesla Y and etc. (I know you were joking on the Tesla ;D). I even heard some false pastors came up with fake remedies/medicines or some sort for this coronavirus now. Those things really has nothing to do with Jesus at all.

I just thought it would be important to focus on God's perspective based on God's written Scripture when we talk about God's promise. Once we start to focus on our perspective, things get lost real quick. Even that John 3:16 promise is really talking about God's love before anything.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Mety said:
Those who regularly attend church on Sunday, how's streaming online service going for you guys?

Since ours is small, we video conference so it's interactive and actually better because I can be in my PJs. :)

I actually don't mind streaming or the video conference style of service at all. It's good to meet up and gather and stuff, but streaming live from home is also good that the whole family get to do it together. I heard some churches refuse to listen to the government order and keep meeting up, but I don't think that's biblical at all either if you were to listen to Jesus' and Paul's teaching on submission to the authorities.

How would it have been if there was no such technology and this stay home situation were to occur? Really interesting time, but God's timing is just flawless.
 
My church (Saddleback, Lake Forest) has their Sunday service on-line for all campuses now for the past 3 weeks. It's the same in terms of message, but a bit weird in delivery compared to what I've grown accustom to over the years. It's clearly a time then for me to grow and change....

The pastors are also sending out daily update by e-mail, along with brief snippets of teaching by some. They've all been very encouraging.

An example - 7 minutes worth of encouragement (IMHO) :

https://youtu.be/zohc8jFs4Wg
 
I saw on the Today show that some churches are still meeting as normal.

I understand having faith... but at the same time, you have to respect the medical science.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
I saw on the Today show that some churches are still meeting as normal.

I understand having faith... but at the same time, you have to respect the medical science.

It's a selfish act, so in that sense it's sinful.  I think it's ok to call Christian brothers and sisters out in love.

Our church, SeaCoast Grace in Cypress, is large and they've been doing a great job providing a wonderful worship experience. That's hard to do effectively via streaming in my opinion, but they are really hitting it out of the park.  The sermons have been in different formats: week #1 we missed due to moving and having no internet, week #2 had a Q&A style format with the two lead pastors in the sanctuary, week #3 was one pastor alone in a study/office type setting. 

I would say the content of the sermons is just as good, maybe better, than normal Sundays.  A pandemic provides a lot of material for pastors to work with.

They are also providing various programming throughout the week via streaming:  kids programs, worship night, and small groups.  We haven't done much of this ourselves due to being busy home schooling and other stuff.  They are also doing a daily devotion email which I haven't signed up for yet.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
I saw on the Today show that some churches are still meeting as normal.

I understand having faith... but at the same time, you have to respect the medical science.

And the pastor was arrested.

Almost all decent and even small churches have the ability to live stream services, so no excuse and what were the people who went THINKING? FL has lots of cases now (which Floridians claim is due to snowbirds from upper east coast invading Florida during spring break) and then they do this? Bet that a lot of people who attended that service will eventually get sick.
 
Ready2Downsize said:
irvinehomeowner said:
I saw on the Today show that some churches are still meeting as normal.

I understand having faith... but at the same time, you have to respect the medical science.

And the pastor was arrested.

Almost all decent and even small churches have the ability to live stream services, so no excuse and what were the people who went THINKING? FL has lots of cases now (which Floridians claim is due to snowbirds from upper east coast invading Florida during spring break) and then they do this? Bet that a lot of people who attended that service will eventually get sick.

I didn't know they could actually arrest someone for this. I thought this was not really illegal (yet)? I think it's wise to stream services like you said. I can't find any teachings on the Bible such things like live stream or video conference style of service being unbiblical.

When the persecution broke out in church from the book of Acts, they could no longer gather and had to run away. But that actually opened the door they could spread the gospel to more people in more regions. This current situation is a little bit different since we're not really under a persecution, but we should stop following man made traditions in place of following what God really desires. Instead of being stubborn about it which could be sinful as LL brought up, we should seek the opportunity to proclaim the gospel more effectively in times like these. We're actually getting more chances under this current situation.

Anyways, I heard more people are actually live streaming than what the usual church attendance numbers/size used to be. So there goes good news.
 
Mety said:
Ready2Downsize said:
irvinehomeowner said:
I saw on the Today show that some churches are still meeting as normal.

I understand having faith... but at the same time, you have to respect the medical science.

And the pastor was arrested.

Almost all decent and even small churches have the ability to live stream services, so no excuse and what were the people who went THINKING? FL has lots of cases now (which Floridians claim is due to snowbirds from upper east coast invading Florida during spring break) and then they do this? Bet that a lot of people who attended that service will eventually get sick.

I didn't know they could actually arrest someone for this. I thought this was not really illegal (yet)? I think it's wise to stream services like you said. I can't find any teachings on the Bible such things like live stream or video conference style of service being unbiblical.

When the persecution broke out in church from the book of Acts, they could no longer gather and had to run away. But that actually opened the door they could spread the gospel to more people in more regions. This current situation is a little bit different since we're not really under a persecution, but we should stop following man made traditions in place of following what God really desires. Instead of being stubborn about it which could be sinful as LL brought up, we should seek the opportunity to proclaim the gospel more effectively in times like these. We're actually getting more chances under this current situation.

Anyways, I heard more people are actually live streaming than what the usual church attendance numbers/size used to be. So there goes good news.

The church started out meeting in homes.  In a way, we are just going back to that, but with a modern technological twist.
 
To paraphrase a classic movie line about futility - "Forget about it Jake, It's Florida"

My .02c
 
This is what the Bible says about misinformation:

Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.
Exodus 22:31

Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips.
Romans 3:13

Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel.
Proverbs 20:17

The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.
Proverbs 12:5

An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies.
Proverbs 12:17

No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.
Psalm 101:7

 
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.



Yes, these words are from the Holy Bible. May you be living a life full of love with help from the Holy Spirit.
 
Soylent Green Is People said:
A Happy Good Friday and Easter Weekend to one and all.

If your Church is hosting a service on-line this weekend, post a link to share with others.

Here's ours - https://youtu.be/gbHTuZwjC6w

It's 1 hour, 7 minutes long if you need to bracket some time.

Proverbs 12:17 - tell the truth and not false lies
 
I'm two days late to post here, but Happy Easter!

Easter is the most significant event of Christian faith. It's the completion of God's love and promise as Jesus rose again from the grave conquering our ultimate enemy, death. His new resurrected body is what we believers look forward to receive as it will not rot or die like the current. No disease or sickness will scare us anymore.

Covid-19 era is another evidence that we're still living in this wretched world with our sinful bodies yet. Even besides from the coronavirus, we still commit sin by not loving others unlike how God commanded us. But since Jesus rose from the dead, giving us a true hope for all believers, we not only are going to receive this perfect sinless body like Christ's but more importantly we also will see Jesus face to face and live forevermore with Him. What a glorious time that would be - The day we love God and others perfectly as God intended from the very beginning for the humanity.
 
As I've said before, one great side effect of this is more people not just visiting our service but even different churches. I watched a few different ones this Sunday (Saddleback, Harvest and one other one in Texas) and they mentioned how they are reaching people all over the US and even in other countries.
 
lnc said:

Theodore Kaczynski is brilliant.  Unfortunately intellect has no correlation to goodness and common sense.  The appeal to intellectualism is a perfect representation of The Fallacy of the Argument From Authority.    Being "smart" or even an authority in your field doesn't make you right.  I give you Captain Edward Smith, the premier passenger vessel captain of his day when he ran the Titanic into an iceberg at night, killing 1,500 innocent passengers whose lives depended on him.  I'll originate a new thread on the subject of atheism, as it is such an important subject. I don't want the material to get lost in this expansive thread.
 
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