The Forty Pre-Ascension Days

[Webers_Home]

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● Acts 1:1-3 . . The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus
began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had by
the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these
he also presented himself alive, after his suffering, by many convincing
proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the
things concerning the kingdom of God.

That's fine that Jesus showed himself alive to the apostles by many
convincing proofs; but where's our proofs? How are his followers today
supposed to be convinced Jesus is alive?

Mark Twain once remarked that faith is believin' what you know ain't so.

He also remarked that it ain't what you know that gets you into trouble. It's
what you know for sure that just ain't so.

/

 

[GodsGrace]

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● Acts 1:1-3 . . The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus
began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had by
the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these
he also presented himself alive, after his suffering, by many convincing
proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the
things concerning the kingdom of God.

That's fine that Jesus showed himself alive to the apostles by many
convincing proofs; but where's our proofs? How are his followers today
supposed to be convinced Jesus is alive?

Mark Twain once remarked that faith is believin' what you know ain't so.

He also remarked that it ain't what you know that gets you into trouble. It's
what you know for sure that just ain't so.

/

Our proof is our trust in the apostles.
If we can't trust the apostles, we can't trust that the resurrection is true.

 

[Webers_Home]

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Our proof is our trust in the apostles.

It's amazing the things that people are willing to trust sans convincing
proofs merely because it's written in a holy book; e.g. Koran, Bible, Rig
Veda, Tripitaka, and Book of Mormon.

Using a holy book's claims to prove a holy book's claims are true is what's called
circular reasoning. It's sort of like a judge releasing an accused felon on
the basis of him swearing he didn't do it.

/

 

[Truth]

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● Acts 1:1-3 . . The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus
began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had by
the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these
he also presented himself alive, after his suffering, by many convincing
proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the
things concerning the kingdom of God.

That's fine that Jesus showed himself alive to the apostles by many
convincing proofs; but where's our proofs? How are his followers today
supposed to be convinced Jesus is alive?

Mark Twain once remarked that faith is believin' what you know ain't so.

He also remarked that it ain't what you know that gets you into trouble. It's
what you know for sure that just ain't so.

/

Well, I was raised as an A-Gnostic= A without - Gnostic = Knowledge of God! OK, Here I was being a Secular Drug Addict & an Alcoholic teetering on self-murder=Suicide, I had been able to destroy every relationship I had ever started! and then at My worst, bottom of the Pit I decided to End It all, and some one else that was dealing with their own problem's, Intervened, Yes they were a believer, But were In their own Dealing with their own dilemma's, despite their own problems this person, asked Me if they could Pray for Me, So I out of trying to be cordial agreed, and after this person Prayed for Me I went the way I had decided to Go. If you know what I mean, and I got half way to My destination, and it was if the burden was Gone, Then another person where I worked asked me to attend Church with them, so I put two and two together and Agreed to Go. Now I had not been In a Church from the time I was a Child, and during this service I did not understand anything! Then at the End of the Service, the Pasteur made an Alter Call, which I also did not know what it was! So here I was sitting in the Church, and I stood Up, and made My way to the Side of the Sanctuary, and then to the Pulpit, It was as if i was on a Convener Belt, like at the Airport, to This day I can not remember one foot in front of the other!!! Drawn of the Spirit, I did not deserve what happened, I was a Horrible person, BUT God, is all that I can Say!!! I have never seen God, I have never seen Our Savior, But They are the reason I am, here to tell you of the Saving Grace, and Mercy, we can have, Not seeing, But Believing!

 

[GodsGrace]

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It's amazing the things that people are willing to trust sans convincing
proofs merely because it's written in a holy book; e.g. Koran, Bible, Rig
Veda, Tripitaka, and Book of Mormon.

Using a holy book's claims to prove a holy book's claims are true is what's called
circular reasoning. It's sort of like a judge releasing an accused felon on
the basis of him swearing he didn't do it.

/

How do YOU know the resurrectioni is real?

 

[Webers_Home]

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How do YOU know the resurrectioni is real?

Were I to reveal how; I'd no doubt be instantly written off as twice the kook
I already am around here. But Paul said how he knew:

● 1Cor 9:1 . . Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

Well; if Paul wasn't telling the truth about his close encounter of a third kind
with Jesus, then people today relying upon his writings, who've never seen
Jesus for themselves; are no less gullible than Jim Jones' followers.

● 1Cor 15:13-17 . . If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless
and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses
about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the
dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the
dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is futile.

/

 

[GodsGrace]

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Were I to reveal how; I'd no doubt be instantly written off as twice the kook I
already am around here.

/

Not all of us are as blessed so we have to depend on other methods.
All the apostles died for what they believed.
And
1 John 1

 

[Webers_Home]

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● Luke 23:43 . . Jesus answered him: I tell you the truth; today you will be
with me in paradise.

Three days later, after passing away on the cross and rising from the dead;
Jesus said:

● John 20:17 . . Jesus said: Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
returned to the Father.

So; where was this paradise about which Jesus spoke in Luke 23:43?

There's a paradise in heaven (Rev 2:7) but I don't think Jesus was there
because according to Ps 16:8-10, Matt 12:40, and Acts 2:25-31, Jesus soul
was in the netherworld; which, according to the second chapter of Jonah, is
down rather than up.

The only paradise that I'm aware of located in the netherworld is the area
where Lazarus and Abraham were situated during the event recorded in
Luke 16:19-31.

/

 

[Taken]

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That's fine that Jesus showed himself alive to the apostles by many
convincing proofs; but where's our proofs? How are his followers today
supposed to be convinced Jesus is alive?


/

Our proof?

Same place it has always been for mankind.

Faith in ones heart.
Miracles one receives for having faith in ones heart.

God Bless,
Taken

 

[GodsGrace]

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Were I to reveal how; I'd no doubt be instantly written off as twice the kook
I already am around here. But Paul said how he knew:

● 1Cor 9:1 . . Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

Well; if Paul wasn't telling the truth about his close encounter of a third kind
with Jesus, then people today relying upon his writings, who've never seen
Jesus for themselves; are no less gullible than Jim Jones' followers.

● 1Cor 15:13-17 . . If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless
and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses
about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the
dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the
dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is futile.

/

I've already answered this but I see you've added two scriptures.
For the first one....I have to trust Paul's writings.
For the second one... I have to trust Paul again.

So, my original post was correct even in YOUR opinion...:
Our faith can be a reasonable faith because we can trust the writings of the Apostles and of Paul.

If I cannot trust the writiings, how can I know the resurrection is truly real?
We believe in a reasonable faith, because reasonable persons told us the story of Jesus.

 

[Webers_Home]

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I haven't always been a Protestant. I started out in life baptized an infant
into the Roman Catholic Church; and subsequently went on to catechism
where I completed First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

Though I kept my Catholic identity for twenty-four years, I gave up on the
religion itself way before that because it's just too hard to get to heaven that
way.

Ironically, though I had listened to a pretty good number of homilies in
Sunday morning masses, my mind never actually "heard" the gospel till it
was preached to me by a Baptist minister while I was at work in a welding
shop in Vancouver Washington.

Long story short: I was saved in a Conservative Baptist church in 1968, and
immersion-baptized by a Conservative Baptist minister in 1978.

Christ must've figured I was a borderline case because my conversion
experience was very disturbing. I dare not tell what happened to me that
day when I was saved but suffice it to say that I know for my own self by
personal experience that the verse below is 110% true and reliable.

"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God"
(Rom 8:16)

The koiné Greek word translated "bears witness" is summartureo (soom
mar-too-reh'-o) which means: to corroborate by (concurrent) evidence.

You know, I suspect that the faith of a pretty good number of today's
Christians is being upheld by the power of positive thinking more than
anything else. Christianity is supposed to be a religion of the supernatural,
yet for quite a few Christians, the most they will experience that's even
remotely supernatural is the ink and paper of their Bibles and Sunday
school materials. Their faith, if we can call it that, is rooted in literature
rather than Spirit-corroborated.

/

 

[Taken]

You know, I suspect that the faith of a pretty good number of today's
Christians is being upheld by the power of positive thinking more than
anything else. Christianity is supposed to be a religion of the supernatural,
yet for quite a few Christians, the most they will experience that's even
remotely supernatural is the ink and paper of their Bibles and Sunday
school materials. Their faith, if we can call it that, is rooted in literature
rather than Spirit-corroborated.

/

In my words relating to your words; I would say MANY Christians do not comprehend Walking in the Spirit, God IS with you....
And instead are still using their MINDS to try and cipher and figure out and logically conclude the meaning of Gods Knowledge/Word.
IF a mans spirit IS quickened, and Gods Spirit IS dwelling within the man....that IS mans Golden opportunity to ASK God Himself what His Understanding is of His Word.

He didn't SAVE our minds. He didn't CHANGE our minds. He never said He was going to FILL our minds with His Truth....So why is it the first place a man goes to figure out Gods Understanding, is His Mind, or the Mind of another man?

What He DID say is the carnal mind is enemity AGAINST God.

So why is it taught in so many Churches to use the mind for the purpose of figuring out Gods Meaning of HiS Word?
And then look at the arguments...basically One mans mindful thoughts against another mans mindful thoughts.

And when one says they Do seek God for His Understanding....If you are not accused of being a weirdo, then your're accused of being arrogant.

Thus IMO, Walking in the Spirit, is widely without consideration of what that really means.

Thanks for sharing your testimony.
God Bless,
Taken

 

[Webers_Home]

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Mother Teresa yearned and yearned for corroboration from God. You'd never
know it from her public speaking and her books, but Teresa felt utterly
ignored. I'm not kidding. You can read about her crisis of faith in the private
letters she wrote to spiritual counselors. Below are some excerpts from:

Mother Teresa / Come Be My Light
The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta"
Edited with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
ISBN 978-0-385-52037-9

"I am told God loves me; and yet the reality of darkness & coldness &
emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul."

"The place of God in my soul is blank-- There is no God in me"

"I feel He does not want me, He is not there, God does not want me"

"When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting
emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my
very soul. How painful is this unknown pain-- I have no faith."

Teresa also complained of feeling abandoned by Christ-- referring to him as
"the absent one"

Teresa was so lacking the Spirit's corroboration that she actually prayed
thusly:

"If there be God; please forgive me."

A prayer that begins with "If there be God" is the prayer of an agnostic;
which Webster's defines as one who is not committed to believing in either
the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. According to Jas 1:5-8,
agnostic prayers are pings.

To her credit, Teresa wanted a God to be out there, but her utter failure to
feel even the slightest glimmer of the Lord's presence prevented her from
being sure about it.

"The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment
with the loss of God. In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I
feel that God does not want me, that God is not God; and that He does not
really exist."

Had the Spirit corroborated with Teresa's spirit as per Rom 8:16, none of
those negative thoughts and feelings would have befallen her and she might
have departed this life in perfect peace; but as it was, Teresa was so disturbed
in the final weeks of her life that, at the urging of Henry D'Souza, the
Archbishop of Calcutta (a.k.a. Kolkata), she agreed to an exorcism--
performed by Father Rosario Stroscio --if perchance demons in the vicinity
were clouding her mind.

Father Stroscio, 79, said Mother Teresa appeared dazed and behaving
strangely at the time of the exorcism. What a tragic, tragic ending for such
a dedicated missionary.

/

 

[Taken]

-
Mother Teresa yearned and yearned for corroboration from God. You'd never
know it from her public speaking and her books, but Teresa felt utterly
ignored. I'm not kidding. You can read about her crisis of faith in the private
letters she wrote to spiritual counselors. Below are some excerpts from:

Mother Teresa / Come Be My Light
The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta"
Edited with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
ISBN 978-0-385-52037-9

"I am told God loves me; and yet the reality of darkness & coldness &
emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul."

"The place of God in my soul is blank-- There is no God in me"

"I feel He does not want me, He is not there, God does not want me"

"When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting
emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my
very soul. How painful is this unknown pain-- I have no faith."

Teresa also complained of feeling abandoned by Christ-- referring to him as
"the absent one"

Teresa was so lacking the Spirit's corroboration that she actually prayed
thusly:

"If there be God; please forgive me."

A prayer that begins with "If there be God" is the prayer of an agnostic;
which Webster's defines as one who is not committed to believing in either
the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. According to Jas 1:5-8,
agnostic prayers are pings.

To her credit, Teresa wanted a God to be out there, but her utter failure to
feel even the slightest glimmer of the Lord's presence prevented her from
being sure about it.

"The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment
with the loss of God. In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I
feel that God does not want me, that God is not God; and that He does not
really exist."

Had the Spirit corroborated with Teresa's spirit as per Rom 8:16, none of
those negative thoughts and feelings would have befallen her and she might
have departed this life in perfect peace; but as it was, Teresa was so disturbed
in the final weeks of her life that, at the urging of Henry D'Souza, the
Archbishop of Calcutta (a.k.a. Kolkata), she agreed to an exorcism--
performed by Father Rosario Stroscio --if perchance demons in the vicinity
were clouding her mind.

Father Stroscio, 79, said Mother Teresa appeared dazed and behaving
strangely at the time of the exorcism. What a tragic, tragic ending for such
a dedicated missionary.

/

While the world what enthralled with her, I didn't give any mind to her.

That is quite a disturbing commentary and completely opposite of how the world exalted her.

WOW. "He doesn't Exist...IF there is a G-D"..
Very disturbing.

God Bless,
Taken

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

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● Acts 1:1-3 . . The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus
began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had by
the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these
he also presented himself alive, after his suffering, by many convincing
proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the
things concerning the kingdom of God.

That's fine that Jesus showed himself alive to the apostles by many
convincing proofs; but where's our proofs? How are his followers today
supposed to be convinced Jesus is alive?

Mark Twain once remarked that faith is believin' what you know ain't so.

He also remarked that it ain't what you know that gets you into trouble. It's
what you know for sure that just ain't so.

/

Okay, so let's make Mark Twain god.

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

-


It's amazing the things that people are willing to trust sans convincing
proofs merely because it's written in a holy book; e.g. Koran, Bible, Rig
Veda, Tripitaka, and Book of Mormon.

Using a holy book's claims to prove a holy book's claims are true is what's called
circular reasoning. It's sort of like a judge releasing an accused felon on
the basis of him swearing he didn't do it.

/

Do you believe and trust in the Bible?
If so, why?

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

-
● Luke 23:43 . . Jesus answered him: I tell you the truth; today you will be
with me in paradise.

Three days later, after passing away on the cross and rising from the dead;
Jesus said:

● John 20:17 . . Jesus said: Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
returned to the Father.

So; where was this paradise about which Jesus spoke in Luke 23:43?

There's a paradise in heaven (Rev 2:7) but I don't think Jesus was there
because according to Ps 16:8-10, Matt 12:40, and Acts 2:25-31, Jesus soul
was in the netherworld; which, according to the second chapter of Jonah, is
down rather than up.

The only paradise that I'm aware of located in the netherworld is the area
where Lazarus and Abraham were situated during the event recorded in
Luke 16:19-31.

/

Paradise is being in the presence of our Lord, where ever he is.

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

-
Mother Teresa yearned and yearned for corroboration from God. You'd never
know it from her public speaking and her books, but Teresa felt utterly
ignored. I'm not kidding. You can read about her crisis of faith in the private
letters she wrote to spiritual counselors. Below are some excerpts from:

Mother Teresa / Come Be My Light
The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta"
Edited with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
ISBN 978-0-385-52037-9

"I am told God loves me; and yet the reality of darkness & coldness &
emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul."

"The place of God in my soul is blank-- There is no God in me"

"I feel He does not want me, He is not there, God does not want me"

"When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting
emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my
very soul. How painful is this unknown pain-- I have no faith."

Teresa also complained of feeling abandoned by Christ-- referring to him as
"the absent one"

Teresa was so lacking the Spirit's corroboration that she actually prayed
thusly:

"If there be God; please forgive me."

A prayer that begins with "If there be God" is the prayer of an agnostic;
which Webster's defines as one who is not committed to believing in either
the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. According to Jas 1:5-8,
agnostic prayers are pings.

To her credit, Teresa wanted a God to be out there, but her utter failure to
feel even the slightest glimmer of the Lord's presence prevented her from
being sure about it.

"The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment
with the loss of God. In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I
feel that God does not want me, that God is not God; and that He does not
really exist."

Had the Spirit corroborated with Teresa's spirit as per Rom 8:16, none of
those negative thoughts and feelings would have befallen her and she might
have departed this life in perfect peace; but as it was, Teresa was so disturbed
in the final weeks of her life that, at the urging of Henry D'Souza, the
Archbishop of Calcutta (a.k.a. Kolkata), she agreed to an exorcism--
performed by Father Rosario Stroscio --if perchance demons in the vicinity
were clouding her mind.

Father Stroscio, 79, said Mother Teresa appeared dazed and behaving
strangely at the time of the exorcism. What a tragic, tragic ending for such
a dedicated missionary.

/

In what way was she a missionary?

 

[Webers_Home]

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In what way was she a missionary?

Have you tried a search with Yahoo or Google? There's quite a bit of
information about Mother Teresa on the internet.

/

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

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Have you tried a search with Yahoo or Google? There's quite a bit of
information about Mother Teresa on the internet.

/

I have found that she never preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone.
You claimed she was a missionary.
I am asking what kind of missionary?