Our Lords commands mean nothing to those who are in it for the money, and some consider it laughable than one would serve for any reason other than getting a wage.
Others feel "oh, that was just Jesus opinion; things are different today and I have my own opinion thank you". Thus mocking the words of Christ.
Welcome to the business of 21st century Christendom I guess.
CBC may I ask who hired you to preach - your local church or the Lord?
A similar passage is Luke 10:7 "the workman is worthy of his hire" so let us have a brief glance at the immediate context of these passages.... where these labourers are instructed to carry neither purse nor scrip, and to "eat such things as are set before you".
What is clearly apparent is that a fixed salary was the last thing our Lord had in view.
Michael, Jesus said those who serve (eg preach) for wages are hirelings. And I agree with him. His disciples and apostles gave us a clear example to follow and not one of them preached for a wage.
It seems you don't agree with Jesus...? or have I misunderstood you?
But then he also said that "those who endure to the end will be saved" and preached salvation "if ye continue" which 70% of people here disagree with.
The problem stems from unbiblical leadership. The common Romish 'one-pastor with mute audience' system creates a bunch of spiritual babies. It was set up to usurp the place of the Holy Spirit, thus ensuring little spiritual growth. Seems to have achieved this goal well.
Sounds like a nice spot to move to. Anyone know how the land prices are?
We have the same problem in Oz; big companies that demand special deals because of their size. Then they start to go belly up and demand the government bail them out. Unfortunately because they employ a lot of people (voters) they often get their way.
Bobby, these murderers are headed for hell. What awaits them when they die is so unspeakably dreadful that we cannot humanly take it in. It has been said that if we could see their future in hell we would not wish even the vilest person to have to suffer there.
God forgives men that repent from their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is only possible because Christ has suffered and died in our place, the just for the unjust. Sin is humans fatal flaw; we see the effects of sin in differing levels in our societies every day; sin is what separates us from God.
You or I are not mass-murderers like the 7/7 bombers but we need to realise that naturally we are sinners opposed to God and thus in our hearts potentially capable of the exact same evil these people commited. One of Gods titles is 'the righteous judge' and he will judge these people, however we must remember he will also judge you and I.
The truth hurts! Islam is indeed very close to Nazism. It shares many common methods and ideals. Mohammads Quran has entire passages that run parallel with Hitlers 'Mein Kampf'.
If it were biological (which isn't according to scripture) we could expect a random distribution of homos globally. But instead we see concentrations of them and primarily in the cities of richer nations, indicating the results of influence amongst other things.
Like the Augustinian theory of random predestination to salvation, it simply doesn't follow observations.
Well for starters you need to prove this is a parable before you leap off from there into willy nilly tearing up other parts of the bible like an athiest or a Mormon would.
Lance, there is no special class of 'priests' in the NT church. In fact Gods word tells us we are all priests - so by RC standards every Christian should remain celibate.
Fraid to tell you that hell is a real place, a place of torment and that the torment in hell continues for eternity.
For mankind is is very difficult to grasp a realm in which there is no time; a brief moments suffering is exactly the same as an eternity of suffering when there is no future, only the present.
But God is not torturing the souls in hell; they followed Satan there. They rejected Christ and wanted to be with Satan, separate from God, so really they got their lifes desire granted - to be decieved by Satan.
Neil, I wasn't talking about informal gatherings. We had a meeting scheduled for every day of the week, every week of the year. It's not unknown. Of course this won't work with the common unbiblical 'single pastor' Romish system.
Mike - hope everything goes well for your wife & baby!
Neil, I was being serious and no, I don't get your point. For most of my life I met with other believers daily; to say no-one other than the RC's do this is quite wrong.