κηρυσσων την βασιλειαν του θεου και διδασκων τα περι του κυριου ιησου χριστου μετα πασης παρρησιας ακωλυτως. The underlying meaning of this blog is this: the essential unity of Christians worldwide regardless of race, nationality, or religious denomination. There are real disagreements among us but there is a small remnant in every authentically Christian gathering. The Holy Spirit is leading His remnant into deeper understandings of the "meat" of the Gospel and not just the "milk."
"Things are not done in a corner" is a phrase which
derives from the Bible, in Acts 26:26, where the Apostle Paul,
while defending his Christian activities to
King Agrippa, says, "… none of these things are hidden from him;
for this thing was not done in a corner.". Nothing about it is secret;
there is nothing to hide. It is there to see if you just look.
Oman has just been added to the list of 142 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The total number of blog views as of today, 23 January 2025, is 504,647. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Μαράνα θά.
מרנאתא
لقد تم إضافة عمان للتو إلى قائمة 142 دولة التي تم عرض هذه المدونة منها. إجمالي عدد مشاهدات المدونة حتى اليوم، 23 يناير 2025، هو 504,647. الكنيسة للجميع في كل ثقافة! شكرا لاهتمامك!
Several years ago, a woman at the place of my employment received a devastating telephone call. Her husband was killed in an automobile accident while travelling for a work assignment. The woman was absent from work for about a week for bereavement and funeral leave.
When she returned to work, she was still obviously very withdrawn and possibly in a state of depression. Unlike some, she was willing to talk. After relaying my sympathies to her, what I said next seems to have greatly improved her mood.
I told her that she could be proud that, when her husband died, he was where he was supposed to have been and was doing what he was supposed to have been doing. He was a man of honor, fulfilling his responsibilities. His wife smiled.
If you had a sudden massive heart attack and died on the spot, what would you want your wife and children to be told? That you died on your way to a scheduled business meeting or that you lied to them and died while having sex with a prostitute?
नमस्ते नेपाल !
Nepal has just been added to the list of 141 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The total number of blog views as of today, 21 January 2025, is 504,152. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.
מרנאתא
नेपाल भर्खरै यो ब्लग हेरिएको 141 देशहरूको सूचीमा थपिएको छ। आज, 21 जनवरी 2025 सम्म ब्लग हेराइहरूको कुल संख्या 504,152 छ। चर्च हरेक संस्कृतिमा सबैको लागि हो! तपाईंको रुचिको लागि धन्यवाद! परमप्रभुको प्रशंसा गर!
Singer Carrie Underwood
will perform “America the Beautiful” at the inauguration ceremony for the new United
States President, Donald J. Trump, on 20 January 2025. Once this was announced,
the singer began to receive vitriolic and hateful comments from persons opposed
to Mr. Trump. Ms. Underwood seems to have taken the approach that it is an
honor to be asked to perform at the ceremony, regardless of who the new leader
is.
When Jesus said “Render
unto Caesar,” he was warning against elevating the temporal government over the
Kingdom of God. He was not telling us to remove ourselves from any involvement
with the government.
Once, during the
presidency of Barack Obama, a coworker of mine was bitterly complaining about
the president. I was also not particularly fond of the president, but I told
the coworker that it was the responsibility of every American, especially those
who are Christian, to be willing to jump in front of a bullet to protect our
leader. He responded, “Not me! I would be hitting the floor!”
It is our duty and honor as Christians to be civically involved, even if we do not personally approve of our current
political leaders. Paul, who would ultimately be executed by the Roman
government, would agree.
Mark
12:17; Romans 13:1-7; Hebrews 13:1-17; 1 Peter 2:13-17
Uruguay has just been added to the list of 140 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The total number of blog views as of today, 17 January 2025, is 503,933. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.
מרנאתא
This blog just went over 500,000 views! On the Statistics page, you can view the list of countries from which this blog has been visited.
Zambia has just been added to the list of 139 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.
מרנאתא
The English language word, Goodbye, a "parting word"used grammatically as an adverbial phrase, is derived from "Godbwye" a shortened form of the Old English phrase God þē mid sīe: (in modern English: "God be with you.") God (God) þē ("thou" = "to you") mid ("with") sīe: (a form of "to be").
The first known recorded occurrence of the word was in 1573 when it was used by the English scholar and poet, Gabriel Harvey. Harvey often wrote in Latin, claimed to have invented the English language hexameter format of poetry, and coined these English language words: "rascality," "extensively," "conscious," "jovial," "notoriety," and "idiom."
Bolivia has just been added to the list of 138 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.
מרנאתא
Uzbekistan has just been added to the list of 137 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.
מרנאתא
On this blog, Saints on the Loose!, there are two useful tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".
The "Search This Blog" drop-down tool provides the reader with access to over 1700 subject listings from Christian doctrinal issues, social and cultural issues, sports, health, movies, food, books, television programs, history, Christian heresies, apologetics, and many other subjects.
The "Translate This Blog" drop-down tool allows the the reader to select a language other than English in which they may read the blog post. This tool uses the Google Translate function and, as of January 2025, can translate 249 languages. A detailed but not excessively technical discussion about Google Translate can be found on Wikipedia.
Use of these two tools in tandem can greatly increase the usefulness of this blog to you.
The Google Translate tool provides what is probably a very literal, but readable translation. Idiomatic meaning and some subtleties unique to particular languages may be lost. The following two example translations are of a portion of this post, in Traditional Chinese and in Spanish..
在這個部落格 Saints Loose! 中，有兩個有用的工具：「搜尋此部落格」和「翻譯此部落格」。
「搜尋此部落格」下拉工具為讀者提供了數千個主題列表，包括基督教教義問題、社會和文化問題、體育、健康、電影、食品、書籍、電視節目、歷史、基督教異端、護教學，以及許多其他主題。 La herramienta desplegable "Buscar en este blog" proporciona al lector acceso a miles de listas de temas, desde cuestiones doctrinales cristianas, cuestiones sociales y culturales, deportes, salud, películas, comida, libros, programas de televisión, historia, herejías cristianas, apologética, y muchos otros temas.
In
the city in which I live, one of the local television stations carries a weekly
broadcast of the Sunday morning worship services of a large local church. Every
week, immediately after the church service broadcast ends, a commercial begins
for a local gambling casino. The world is always ready to pour in if the Church,
the ἐκκλησία, is
not present as a restaining influence.
The word, “restrainer, “ is from the
Greek word Κατέχον (Strong’s 2722) which is used in the Bible
to express ”hold down,” “hold back,” “detain,” “restrain,” and other similar
meanings.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 says that “the restrainer,” the one who holds back the world, will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. To modern readers, it may not seem to be clearly stated who this restrainer is. A literal translation of the Greek of verse 6 into English is "And now that which is restraining, you know, for to be revealed him in his time."
Many believe that the restrainer is the Holy
Spirit who indwells all the Christians who make up the Church. The removal of
the restrainer could reference the removal of the Church at the time of the
Rapture. The Antichrist is to be
revealed when the one who hinders his presence is removed.
These concepts are involved in
controversy among theologians over how to interpret eschatological doctrines. I
will not tell you what you should believe but I will say that we should, at
least, discuss it and not ignore it. Paul assumed that his contemporary readers understood what he was referencing ("you know"). Paul was talking to us also.
Ben-Hadad Syrian
Judas Iscariot Israeli
Herod the Great
Jordanian
Darius the Mede
Kurdish
Queen of Sheba Possibly
Saudi Arabian
Nebuchadnezzar Iraqi
Gallio Spanish
Luke Syrian
Timothy Turkish
Solomon Israeli
Posts
