1   Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2   But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
3   He shall be like a tree    Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither;
   And whatever he does shall prosper.
4   The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5   Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6   For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Nkjv

It has been reported today that Jones has canceled the burning and is said to be scheduled to meet with the Imam who has purposed the construction of the Muslim victory Mosque near ground zero. I have a hunch the Federal Government somehow convinced Jones to cancel the burning and the scheduled "meeting" is "window dressing". Give it a week to play out.

I have been asked to set up a board where the Psalms can be studied and discussed.  Care should be taken to keep the study in sequential order, though if a mistake is made, this can be fixed. Please use this new board to help each other grow in love and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God Bless,
Mac

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – unpardonable sin.  (Matthew 12: 31 – 32)

You are referring to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most debated and misunderstood principles taught by Our LORD.   

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is defined as a continued and obstinate rejection of the Gospel, and hence is an unpardonable sin, simply because as long as a sinner remains in unbelief he voluntarily excludes himself from pardon.

There is no sin committed yesterday that the Lord would not forgive today because He died for all sin. The Holy Spirit came into the world to make real the salvation of Christ to the hearts of men. If you resist the working of the Spirit of God when He speaks to you, my friend, there is no forgiveness, of course. There is no forgiveness because you have rejected salvation made real to you by the Holy Spirit. And it is the work of the Spirit of God to regenerate you.

In Mark 3 the Lord amplifies the matter of the unpardonable sin by saying that it attributes the Spirit’s work to Satan, that Christ had performed these miracles by Beelzebub when actually He was doing them by the power of the Spirit of God. You see, they were rejecting the witness of the LORD Himself and of the Holy Spirit.

In our day that particular sin cannot be committed because it could only be committed when Jesus was here upon the earth. There is no act of sin that you could commit for which there is no forgiveness. Of course, if you resist the Holy Spirit, there is no forgiveness because He is bringing forgiveness. It is like the man who is dying from a certain disease, and the doctor tells him there is a remedy for it. The man refuses to take the remedy and dies, not from the disease but from refusing to take the remedy. There is a remedy for the disease of sin, and the Holy Spirit applies it; but if you resist it, there is no remedy. That is the only way sin can be unpardonable today.

Again, sin is only unpardonable if one does not receive Christ Jesus and repent before their physical life is extinguished. You can receive Christ Jesus repent of your sin trust in Him and He will indeed forgive your sin, past, present and future.

First of all, both of these tragic messes, (Oklahoma City and the Twin Towers) are a spotlight on the depravity of man and our need for a Savior.
I am not going to attempt to suggest what should be done legally in New York.
 If I were an Islamic leader who was proposing to build a Mosque near the world trade center and a group who had been actively practicing their radical Islamic faith took down the Trade Center, I would respectfully withdraw my plans and build it elsewhere. No one would have to ask me or try to force me, it's just common sensitivity to survivors of a tragedy.
 If I were a Pastor in Oklahoma City and was proposing to build a church close to the Federal Building and a group who had been actively practicing radical Christian faith took down the Federal Building, I would respectfully withdraw my plans to build a church there and build it elsewhere. Again for the same reasons.
 I believe the difference in these two situations is McVeigh was not a practicing Christian whatsoever.
I won't say anything else about the Islamic perspective but as a Christian I am reminded at Pauls perspective:
1Co 9:19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
What separates TRUE Christian faith is being submissive. That doesn't mean being a wimp. We are children of the King, if we really believe that, we have no need to prove it.

News that the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida is promoting the public burning of the Q'ran or Koran is something of a shame to say the least.
From a mercenary point of view, purchasing copies of a book only adds to the profits of those who publish, and those who own copyright of that book.
Then to turn around and burn said purchased books is not good stewardship of money.

Then there is the question of the rightness of such action.  From what I can see most Muslims are just poor misguided victims of the religion of the Antichrist, but not necessarily terrorists,(only potentially so).  Burning copies of their books will not remove the false teachings contained within the pages of the Koran from their souls.
Jesus taught that we need to go beyond the principle of an 'eye for an eye', leaving vengeance for the Lord to dispence.  We as Christian's should of course condemn the atrocities of 9/11, but there we need to stop  We need to channel our resources and energies toward healing the hurts and helping those surviving the carnage and the families of those lost in the terrorist attack to rebuild their lives.  Let us not forget that there were some Muslims numbered amongst the casualties of that evil attack.

any other thoughts or perspectives?.....can we discuss?
blessings,
Kevin

I would like to se some dissenting views on this. I invited someone who has read and agrees with Bart Ehrman. It could get interesting!

You are correct Kevin; continuity is a key component in determining accuracy & authenticity of God’s word. Considering about forty authors wrote what has been assembled as the Bible over a period of approximately 1500 years the continuity is amazingly precise. Combined with the testimony of witnesses, as you have said, and it becomes increasingly difficult to not notice the Bible is indeed unique.

G’day Marc,
One technique or discipline that I have adopted when studying the scriptures is to apply the principal of ‘the testimony of two or three witnesses’
There is plenty of scriptural precedent for this in relation to (mostly) people, so why not the workmanship of scribes? They qualify as people too!  I think when scriptures agree in principle, not necessarily ‘word perfect’ then we can be confident that the translations are valid representations of the most reliable source texts available.  To argue that there has been a conspiracy spanning centuries is not really very convincing or intelligent; IMNSHO.  Of course undergirding this is faith that the Lord will ensure that His message will not get irretrievably scrambled and lost forever.
So for me, I do not blindly accept translations of the Bible texts, but rather subject them to the best scrutiny of which I am capable. There is ample scripture by different writers that all agree on the witness test.  I have assembled them below for study and discussion if required :-

Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness  Deut 17:6 Nkjv
“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. Deut 19:15 Nkjv
But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  Matt 18:15 NkjvThis will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”  2 Cor  13:1 Nkjv
Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.   1Tim 5:19 Nkjv
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Heb 10:28 Nkjv.

Of course there other tests too that can be useful, including the testimony of the Holy Spirit, but often He is silent so I do the best I can with what I’ve got.
blessings,
kevin