AnOrangeCat

Psalm 139:14 is something that's always stood out to me and seems indicative of how we should view ourselves: "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." There's a lot to be impressed by, like all the intricacies of how our minds and bodies work and the artistry behind crafting our personalities. Be impressed by it, but give God His due credit for it.

I'm of the impression that prophets can still exist today, but it's a difficult thing to navigate. You have to deal with both people who are trying to exploit the prestige of being a prophet for their own gain as well as well meaning people who sometimes take their own thoughts and opinions as coming from God. There's a lot of both going around, though I wouldn't necessarily throw the latter out the window as an info/guidance source. Some folks might not be prophets, but God has still gifted them with excellent insights into people and situations. I do think Dennis1209 hit a very good point in saying to beware of those who call themselves prophets.

I've found myself in that boat as well. I'm even in it right now, having entered some training for a potential field of work that should drastically increase my quality of life. The thing is there's a learning curve and a need to adjust thinking and habits. There's been a lot of hard knocks and disappointments on the way, most of them stemming from not following things typically considered standard practice in the field. I feel like it's best summarized by asking myself how many times I needed to bash my head against a brick wall before I learned going around it or using the door was a lot easier and more productive.

Interestingly immediately after the greeting in the book of James we're told to count it all joy when we experience trials because it brings about perseverance (or patience in some translations). It's hard to do this but I think we'd all benefit from practicing an attitude of thankfulness and thanking God for little things and even the tough situations we face. Admittedly I don't often succeed at this in the heat of the moment, but after the fact it gets easier. Looking back on things my own very unpleasant personal trial by fire involved years of abuse and exploitation at the hands of family members. Horrible, horrible stuff that left me feeling like I had to walk on eggshells all day every day and at times had me going after food thrown away. But more than anything else in my life I feel like that long experience and that God delivered me out of it cemented my faith. It's hard not to look at the hopelessness from my own efforts to get out or get help failing and then at the end of it all see how it reversed so favorably through no effort of my own and not see God at work. Similarly ever since I was a teenager I suffered from bouts of some intrusive thoughts (probably a form of OCD) that left me panicking and crying because I worried that they'd offended God or blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Later on in life it actually served as a motivating force and brought me closer to God. Since that point both the frequency and intensity have died down a lot. It reminds me of Paul's thorn in his flesh that he prayed to remove but ultimately served a purpose. Except in my case the purpose was eventually fulfilled and then removed.

I hope you can find your way back to God and come back to us when you're feeling better. Having followed your situation for years and having had an abusive family that tried to keep me down I've always felt a lot of sympathy over what you've been going through. I'll keep you in my prayers.

This is more or less the cliff notes version of it. It might be beneficial to look into the PLO, or the Palestinian Liberation Organization, for a deeper understanding. The PLO isn't entirely one organization. It's a loose confederation of several with some significantly differing approaches and agendas, some of which have had ties to other nations in the area. Much like how the US and Russia used different smaller nations against each other in the cold war, other Arab nations have dipped into different elements of the PLO to use as a puppet against Israel. It's no wonder the PLO has a history of saying peace on one side and going militant on the other. Something that I've noticed is that in a way Israel seems less relevant to the rest of the world's eyes than it did in the past. Israel has a history of being a longstanding strategic partner to the US, and the west's support of it was more or less a given. These days a lot of the news coming in about that part of the world is less about the situation and more about how people in the west are reacting to it, like our lawmakers and all the protests.

Agreed, and not only reading, but we should also help each other properly interpret God's Word. In the developing world there are people more than willing to spread false teaching for their own benefit. Without access to a Bible and knowledge of it some very vulnerable people are without their first line of defense against that sort of exploitation.

In recent years the "daily" part is something that continually stands out to me about the verse. Every day we try to be dead to not only sin but also our own desires. These desires may not be inherently sinful per se but at the same time aren't in line with what God wants for us at a given time. Sometimes it can take a lot to submit to God on such matters.

How you question God is important as well, I'd say. A lot of the Psalms come from places of deep depression and frustration. There's a lot of this kind of content in there but it seems framed in a respectful way rather than lashing out.

I agree, God leads us to start where it will benefit us the most. The situation in India is also very severe for those unaware. There's been a strong sense of nationalism rising over the years, and Hinduism is very much linked to that. It's not nationwide violence and persecution, but there are certainly times and places where it's extremely dangerous. I get why you'd want to focus on distributing Bibles amongst believers who need them. We're the body of Christ and have different purposes, so it seems fine to focus on building up the church from within. Something I'm curious is what would you be working with in terms of numbers? How many people would be distributing Bibles? How many Bibles would you like to distribute?

I started with Revelation myself. At the time I had no idea it was the last book in the Bible. People joked that I was going to end up reading it in reverse.

This really nails it. At least for me, and I suspect most of us, there's always something we get tempted with day by day. Fortunately we're covered for that by the blood of Jesus.

I'm actually curious about this one. I've heard of the concept before but it's not one I've looked into very deeply. Is this something you'd be able to elaborate on in another thread maybe?

Not "dying" on certain hills reminds me a lot of when Paul told us not to quarrel over disputable matters like whether or not to eat meat and regarding certain days more highly than others. There's a whole lot that can be discussed but isn't really worth arguing about.

Agreed. Even though I do think people who are speaking against Israel are largely speaking from the perspective of ignorance and indoctrination I don't find the idea of protest and debate a bad thing on paper, nor do I think we need to agree with every decision the Israeli government makes. I suspect a lot of protestors grew up on notions of human rights and that war crimes were a thing and might be prosecuted. But for much of human history human rights have been an alien notion and conquerors have done as they pleased with the conquered. The ideas that there are standards of behavior to war and that even in armed conflict civilians will be spared are comforting, but the reality is those ideas are abandoned as soon as it's convenient. Enforcement is haphazard at best and nonexistent at worst, as the Ukraine war has repeatedly demonstrated.