acemona

And economic conditions are strongly related to the level of education. I am not worried about fancier schools or more technology. You simply need more teachers and to get more teachers you have to pay more. The #1 predictor of student success is teacher:student ratio.

Can we change the conditions of the homes? I think not, so we have to take care of them at school, or we are destinying them for a rough life.

I think it would be important to check the statistics of those incarcerated. I am sure you will find that the majority are poor and uneducated. We no longer have jobs for those who drop out, and we don't have enough teachers to teach all those who stay.

The number one deterrent to crime is education. And we will never start to reduce the money we spend on jails until we increase the money spent on education. Julian Carroll (FWIW), while running for State Senate had some startling numbers on the differences in spending on 1 inmate vs. 1 student. UNBELIEVABLE.

AMEN:thumb:

I agree, We also have a mandate to spread the gospel. My belief is that you want everyone to live in the fullness of life and you go only do that in a relationship with God through Jesus. I was just curious if others thought there was a possibility that someone could find God having never heard of the the incarnate Jesus Christ?

Does this mean that Muslims who have never heard the scripture have to opportunity to go to heaven? You know what you are stating is pretty radical.

But the verse cited above my post says that Jesus says "I am with you, even unto the end of the age".

ooh, good one - I don't know what to do with that.

Col 1:19 ff For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself ALL things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds becasue of your evil behavior. Be now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith, established and frim, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and THAT HAS BEEN PROCLAIMED TO EVERY CREATURE UNDER HEAVEN, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Now we now not everyone has heard the new testament preached, so how is the gospel proclaimed to them?

Kind of an off topic question, and someone may want to move it but . . . Why does Jesus need to come back if he is with us already?

I think the question is really - Can Christ make himself known to people of different backgrounds who have not had the benefit of hearing the scripture? If not - then why allow someone to even be born if they are going to hell b/c they never hear the word? Are all of the people from the outback they never had missionaries visit and the people from the inner parts of Africa that passed before missionaries visited doomed to hell? Sounds like an awfully harsh God, does it not.

What is the general take on this? As a Christian I believe that God's complete revelation of God's self has come by way of Jesus Christ, that in some unique way, beyond explanation, God has manifested God's self in the person of Jesus, who is the Christ, the Lord. Do I believe that for people who never have the opportunity to know Christ, or because of birth and circumstances beyond their control, and are immersed in other religious traditions--can they know God in a transformational way? Yes I do. I believe that Jesus is the way that leads to truth and life, and through him we have a special relationship to God, but I also believe he is the cosmic Christ, who can be present to people who address him and know him by a different name. This is quoted from a friend of mine - just getting your thoughts. I have a hard time disagreeing.

lib:scared:

desert:ylsuper:

2 points that I think bear (or is it bare) mentioning. 1. I think God might be offended that we are swearing an oath on the Bible a. "Do not swear oaths, but let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no. b. It could appear that swearing upon the Bible could be seen as worshipping an idol - the Bible as opposed to God. Aside - I think we do that a lot with wanting the 10 Commandments posted in the schools. 2. God gave us two great gifts a. His Son b. Free Choice - Probably the one we forget all of the time C. It was religion and protestantism (reformation) that gave us the great democratic movements of the 15 and 16 hundreds. This belief, however, arose from historical protestant beliefs of: 1. Priesthood of the Believer 2. Autonomy of the soul It is these 2 things that make democracy great - I am free to choose God or not (a gift given to me by God's self) and I am free to make decisions about all other beliefs including my governmental leaders The fact that a Muslim could choose to take his or her oath of office using the Quran makes me proud to be an American. A Bible could not be used in a Muslim country and that is what separates us.

i resemble that remark

I think we have reached some common ground - pretty cool.

I understand your fear of replacing the church with the government, but the church cannot raise the minimum wage, nor can it provide universal health care for children. And while it can do a great deal to offset the effects of poverty it can do very little to effect the causes of that poverty.

I agree whole heartedly. And just so that I am not completely hypocritical, I do think that I am called to speak out against the "sin" of injustice. If you recall - or you may not - I first started this post right after the post about Elton John and his rant on organized religion. While I know there is specific scripture dealing with homosexuality (although I think there was a cultural issue here) - there are more scriptures dealing with how we treat the poor and less fortunate. I am just disappointed that more preachers don't preach about injustice than preach about the fires of hell. When I go to church on Sunday I don't need my pastor telling me how much I am sinning, I know that - what I need is for him/her to tell me that there are people hurting in the world and that I have responsibility to do something about - even if those people who are hurting are people who are homosexual or people who had an abortion - or people who had a baby out of wedlock. I don't need to tell them they are condemned because of their sin and my preacher doesn't either. What needs to happen is someone to help them if they are hurting or hungry or poor - and sometimes that someone needs to be the government and sometimes it needs to be me railing against the government that upholds policies that allow these people to suffer. I think my most important responsibilty is to express God's Unconditional Love to everybody.

No, what I think is that even with the first scripture we are not to judge until we have removed all sin from our life - that will never happen, therefore we should never judge. Besides that, when the lord taught us to pray he said that we should forgive those who sin against us. You know, when someone sins against God it seems to me that we should let that be between them an God - not us. We are never to convict (as I mentioned before only the HOLY SPIRIT does that) - we are simply to show God's love. Once we can get someone started in a relationship with God, then God can work to help them become more like Jesus and we can help through guided discipleship. We draw no one to God by pointing out their sins. We draw them to God by showing God's love. I think it is that simple. If I have a Christian brother (someone with whom I have a relationship) and I see that he is abusive to his wife, then I could probably have a talk with him about that "SIN" and I can rail against domestic abuse in general - but I don't know that I should approach people I don't know and tell them to help their wife around the house more and not be so demeaning to her.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" - Not a specific sin, but sin in general.

is it possible that the devil tempts us to sin and that our faith is tested when things happen to us that were not in our plans, but in God's plan. For example - My father died when I was 5 (1972) I would think that tested the faith of my mother and the rest of my family. They could choose to trust God to help them get through the test, or they could lose faith. Not saying that God took the life of my father, but that event TESTED the faith of Christians. Temptation on the other hand is when something "beautiful" is placed before us that if we partake of will harm us.

The working poor are those that are employed yet live below the poverty line and as a result do not have any expendable cash. In other words, all of their money (plus some help from the taxpayers) goes to cover essentials.

I am sure if somebody did a quick search the you will find that the poor are not a significant voting block USURPED no, stepped in yes.