Great words mistranslated to mean sentimentalism and reverence to ignorance

I found a great resource today as I was learning about the origins of words. The following is an excerpt from Hope and the scientific method

Hope is not something wished-for but something worked-toward. Hope is a calm and unceremonious comprehension of something that is known to exist at the end of a process or path. Hoping involves no yearning or panting or supplication but rather knowledge, reason and calculation. Hope is not an emotional thing; it's a science thing. 

The Scientific Method is a two-step program that demands that (1) verifiable observations must be explained by a falsifiable but unobservable logic system that produces that what is observed, and (2) the derived system must be able to predict the outcome of a subsequent experiment. That second part is hope. 

The two-step scientific method wasn't formulated in snazzy modern terms until the scientific revolution of the 17th century but the gist of it has been known and revered since deep antiquity. The author of the letter to the Hebrews says it so: "Certainty is: (2) the knowledge of things hoped for, and (1) the confirmation of things not seen" (HEBREWS 11:1).

Later in the article, the writer brings the three eternal qualities of Faith, Hope, and Love:

Paul once wrote of three great things, namely faith, hope and love (1 CORINTHIANS 13:13), which in modern times have become synonymous with sentimentalism and reek of the reverence of ignorance. "Faith" came to denote docile compliance to religious, and thus political authority. "Hope" promised a blissful afterlife that would follow a life of docile compliance. And "love" urged people to stay calm and docile and suppress the urge to rise up against corporate larceny and evil governments. When Paul wrote, however, these things meant something else:

• Faith is the calm understanding of the invisible system that governs the observable. It's covered by the first part of the Scientific Method — see our article on πιστις (pistis) for more on faith (Faith - persuasion and belief ).

• Hope is the calm understanding of what the system inevitably will bring about next. Hope is covered by the second part of the Scientific Method.

• Love (but agape, not philos) is the formation of convention, that is the formation of a medium in which all people can express their unique views and be wholly understood and accepted by people who do not share those views — see our article on αγαπη (agape) for more on this (Why love (agape) makes the world go round - Lessons in love from modern physics).

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Creation week is the most referenced theme in the Bible

I was working on a revised course for Discover your faith, SALT edition. The objective of the course is to understand how your worldview impacts life and work. We start by asking 4 questions that everyone regardless of background can answer. We give Bible basics and what it says about the topic of origins. We ask what people know about the words Genesis, Saturday, Creator and Alphabet, then give a little background on Hebrew and fulfilled prophecy, ending up with 2 Peter 3:1-11.

As I was working on this it occurred to me that Creation week is the most referenced theme in the Bible, it's included in every book that mentions the Sabbath,
https://www.gospelway.com/creation/creation_list.php

Here are the questions anyone can answer regarding origins and God:
1) where do you believe life came from and where did you get your information?
2) What makes humans different from other animals?
3) If you could ask one question of God that you knew would be answered. What would it be? What prompted this question?
4) When you think about who would answer this question, what comes to mind?

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Doing something new to bring the gospel to other languages.

I'm taking new versions of the Bible (MSG, NLT) and translating it chapter by chapter with google translate, the putting it in an HTML table so they can see the English next to the translation. Here's how to do it
1. Get google translate chrome extension
2. Get Notepad++
3. Use word or docs to create a table
4. goto Biblegateway.com and get the English version you want chapter by chapter
5. paste into the word document
6. go back and translate each chapter and paste in the column next to it
7. copy the table and paste-special as HTML into Notepad++
8. find width and change to 50% for the first table data items in the first row of the table
9. Save as Titus.html and copy to a thumb drive.

End result looks like this:

Titus 1 The Message (MSG) 1 1-4 I, Paul, am God’s slave and Christ’s agent for promoting the faith among God’s chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it. My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises! And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I’ve been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself. Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you! 5-9 I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it. 10-16 For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose, confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought to know better are the worst. They’ve got to be shut up. They’re disrupting entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck. One of their own prophets said it best: The Cretans are liars from the womb,     barking dogs, lazy bellies. He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules so they can recover a robust faith. Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.	တိတု 1 အဆိုပါကို Message (MSG) 1  း 1-4  ငါပေါလုသည်တိကျမှုသညျဘုရားသခငျအပေါ်စကားလုံးနှင့်မည်သို့ကမှန်ကန်စွာတုံ့ပြန်ရန်ထွက်ရတဲ့ဘုရားသခငျ့ကျွန်နှငျ့ဘုရားသခငျရဲ့ရွေးချယ်သောလူများကြားတွင်ယုံကြည်ခြင်းတရားကိုမြှင့်တင်ဘို့ခရစ်တော်ရဲ့အေးဂျင့်ဖြစ်၏။ အကြှနျုပျ၏ရည်ရွယ်ချက်မှာအဆုံးမရှိဘဲဘဝကိုဖို့လမ်းညွှန်ပြနေဖြင့်မျှော်လင့်ချက်ပြုစုပျိုးထောင်ဖို့ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဤသည်ဘုရားသခင့ရှည်လျားလွန်ခဲ့တဲ့-နှင့်ကတိထားတော်သူကတိတော်များကိုချိုးဖျက်မပါဘူးဘဝပါ! အချိန်ကိုမှည့်သောအခါ, ပြီးတော့သူ့အမှန်တရားနှင့်အတူအများပြည်သူသွား၏။ ငါငါတို့ကိုကယ်တင်သောအရှင်, ဘုရားသခင်ကိုယ်တော်တိုင်၏အမိန့်ဖြင့်ဒီကို Message ကိုကြွေးကြော်ရန်အပ်နှင်းခဲ့ကြရတယ်။ ချစ်ခင်ရပါသောတိတု, ယုံကြည်ခြင်း၌တရားဝင်သား: ဘုရားသခငျသညျငါတို့အဘတည်းဟူသောယေရှုသည်ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏ကယ်တင်ရှင်သင်ပေးအရာအားလုံးကိုလက်ခံ! 5-9  သငျသညျငါဝက်ပြီးပြီ left အဘယ်အရာကိုဖြည့်စွက်နိုင်အောင်ငါကရေတေအတွက်တာဝန်ခံ၌သင်တို့ကိုစွန့်ပစ်။ ငါ၏အညွှန်ကြားချက်အတိုင်းတိုင်းမြို့မှာခေါင်းဆောင်များခန့်အပ်။ သင်သည်ထိုသူတို့ကို select သကဲ့သို့ "မေးကောင်းစွာထင်-၏ဤသူလား? သူကသူ့ဇနီးမှကျူးလွန်သလဲ? မိမိသားသမီးယုံကြည်သူများဖြစ်ပါသလား သူတို့ကသူ့ကိုလေးစားခြင်းနှင့်ဒုက္ခထဲကနေဖို့သလား? "ဒါဟာညျဘုရားသခငျ၏အိမ်တော်၌ရေးရာတာဝန်ရှိအသင်းတော်ခေါင်းဆောင်, To-မတစ်ဦးအရက်မူး, မတစ်ဦးအနိုင်ကျင့်, Short-စနစ်ဖြစ်ပြီးမဟုတ်, စော်ကားသောမျှော်ကြည့်စေအရေးကြီးပါတယ်, money- မဟုတ် ဆာလောင်မွတ်သိပ်။ သူကလူကြိုဆိုပါတယ်အထောက်အကူဖြစ်, ပညာရှိ, တရားမျှတ, ညျညိုလေးစား, မိမိကိုမိမိအပေါ်အကောင်းတစ်ချုပ်ကိုင်ထားရှိသည်, နှင့်ကိုMessage အပေါ်ကောင်းတစ်ဦးချုပ်ကိုင်ထားရှိသည်, မယ်ဆိုရင်သိကျွမ်းခြင်း၌ပေါ်သောလူလှုံ့ဆျောသို့မဟုတ်၎င်းတို့၏ပုဒ်၌သူတို့ကိုရပ်တန့်ဖို့ဖြစ်စေအမှန်တရားသုံးစွဲဖို့ဘယ်လို သိ. ရမယ် သူတို့ကဆန့်ကျင်။ 10-16  အကြောင်းမူကားသူပုန်များအများကြီး, မြည်းကြိုးကိုဖြည်ရှုပ်ထွေးနှင့်ဟောပြောပွဲလှည့်ဖြားနှင့်ပြည့်ဝ၏ထွက်အဲဒီမှာရှိပါတယ်။ ဘာသာရေးဆောင်ခဲ့ခြင်းနှင့်ပိုမိုကောင်းမွန်တဲ့သိအပ်ခဲ့ကြသူများသည်အဆိုးဝါးဆုံးဖြစ်ကြသည်။ သူတို့ကချုပ်ထားခံရဖို့ရရှိပါသည်။ သူတို့ကသူတို့ရဲ့သင်ကြားရေးနှင့်အတူတစ်ခုလုံးကိုမိသားစုများကမောက်ကမဖြစ်စေရန်နှင့်တစ်ဦးအစာရှောင်ခြင်းခေါများ၏ဘို့အလိုငှါလူအပေါင်းတို့ပါတယ်။ သူတို့ရဲ့ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပရောဖကျတအကောင်းဆုံးကြောင့် said: အဆိုပါ Cretans မိဝမ်းထဲ မှစ. မုသာဝါဒီများဖြစ်ကြသည် ရှိလားခွေး, ပျင်းရိဝမ်း။      အကယ်စင်စစ်ထိုသူသည်အမှန်တရားမိန့်မြွက်တော်မူ၏။ ချက်ချင်းပဲသူတို့အပျေါမှာရယူလိုက်ပါ။ ဂျူးလုပ်-ယုံကြည်သူတို့တစ်တွေကြံ့ခိုင်ယုံကွညျခွငျးကို recover နိုင်အောင်နှင့်ကိုဖန်ဆင်း-up, စည်းမျဉ်းများကြောင့်အနာရောဂါစွဲဆွေးနွေးချက်ကိုရပ်တန့်။ အရာအားလုံးစင်ကြယ်စိတ်မှစင်ကြယ်၏ ဘာမျှမညစ်ပတ်စိတ်မယုံကြည်သောသူတို့မှစင်ကြယ်၏။ သူတို့ကတိုင်းအတွေးနှင့်လုပ်ရပ်အပေါ်သူတို့ရဲ့ညစ်ပတ်လက်ဗွေရာစွန့်ခွာ။ သူတို့သည်ဘုရားသခင်ကိုသိလို့ပြောပေမယ့်သူတို့ရဲ့လုပ်ရပ်တွေကိုသူတို့စကားထက် သာ. ဟောပြောလော့။ သူတို့ကနားမထောင်ကောင်းသော-for-Nothing အစစ်အမှန်တွားတတ်သောတိရစ္ဆာန်, ပါပဲ။
Titus 2 The Message (MSG) 2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives. 7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around. 9-10 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God. 11-14 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness. 15 Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You’re in charge. Don’t let anyone put you down.	တိတု 2 'Message (MSG) 2  1-6  သင့်ရဲ့အလုပ်အကိုင်အစိုင်အခဲအယူဝါဒအဘို့လုပ်သောအရာတို့ကိုထုတ်မပြောတတ်ရန်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ကျန်းမာယုံကြည်ခြင်း, ချစ်ခြင်း, သည်းခံခြင်းသို့, ကာမဂုဏ်ချုပ်တည်း, ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာနှင့်ပညာ၏ဘဝတွေကိုသို့အသက်ကြီးကိုလမ်းပြ။ သူတို့ကောင်းမြတ်ခြင်းမအတင်းမဟုတ်သလိုအရက်မူး, ဒါပေမယ့်မော်ဒယ်အဖြစ်တက်အဆုံးသတ်နိုင်အောင်ရှိခိုး၏ဘဝတွေကိုသို့အဟောင်းအမြိုးသမီးမြားကိုလမျးညှနျ။ သူတို့ကိုကြည့်ခြင်းအားဖြင့်, အငယ်အမျိုးသမီးများ, မိမိခင်ပွန်းနှင့်ကလေးများကိုချစ်သီလစင်ဖြစ်, ကောင်းတစ်ဦးနန်းတော်ကိုစောင့်စေ, ကောင်းသောမယားများဖြစ်ပုံကိုသိပါလိမ့်မယ်။ ကျနော်တို့မည်သူမဆိုဘာဖြစ်လို့လဲဆိုတော့သူတို့ရဲ့အပြုအမူဘုရားသခငျ့ကို Message ပေါ်ကဆင်းရှာဖွေနေချင်ကြပါဘူး။ ဒါ့အပြင်စည်းကမ်းဘဝတွေကိုအသက်ရှင်ရန်လုလင်ကိုလမ်းပြ။ 7-8  ဒါပေမယ့်အများအားဖြင့်, သင်တို့၏စကားမြားကိုအစိုင်အခဲများနှင့်စိတ်ကောင်းသော, သင့်သင်ကြားရေးအတွက်မပျက်စီးနိုင်သော, ကကိုယ့်ကိုကိုယ်လုပ်နေတာကသူတို့ကိုဤအမှုအလုံးစုံတို့ကိုပြသပါ။ သူကလိုက်တယ်သို့မဟုတ်လှဲမှားသောအဘယ်အရာကိုမျှကိုတွေ့သည့်အခါထိုအခါကျွန်တော်တို့ကိုဆန့်ကျင်သေလွန်သောသူတို့သည်အစုတစ်ခုဖြစ်သည်သူမည်သူမဆို, နောက်ဆုံးမှာပတ်ပတ်လည်လာပေလိမ့်မည်။ 9-10  သစ္စာစောင့်သိလုပ်သားများဖြစ်ခြင်းသို့လမ်းညွှန်ကိုကျွန်ခံ, ၎င်းတို့၏သခင်မပြန်ဆွေးနွေးချက်မရှိသေးခိုးဝှက်ဖို့ဆုကြေးငွေ။ ထို့နောက်သူတို့၏ကောင်းသောဇာတ်ကောင်ငါတို့ကိုကယ်တင်သောအရှင်ဘုရားသခင်၏ဩဝါဒကိုမှတောက်ပဖြည့်စွက်, သူတို့ရဲ့လုပ်ရပ်တွေကိုမှတစ်ဆင့်ထွန်းလင်းပါလိမ့်မယ်။ 11-14  ပေးပါနှင့်ခွင့်လွှတ်ဘုရားသခငျ့အသငျ့ယခုအများပြည်သူဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ကယျတငျတျောမူခွငျးရဲ့ရရှိနိုင်လူတိုင်းအတွက်! ကျွန်တော်တစ်ဦးအဓမ္မ, အလိုလိုကျလှနျးခွငျးအသက်, ဘယ်လိုဘုရားကိုပွညျ့စုံသညျဘုရားသခငျ-ဂုဏျတငျဘဝအပေါ်ယူပေါ်မှာငါတို့နောက်သို့လှည့်ဖို့ဘယ်လိုပြသလျက်ရှိပါတယ်။ ဤသည်အသစ်သောအသက်တာကိုအခုစတင်သည်, ပြီးမှငါတို့ကြီးမြတ်သောဘုရားနှင့်ကယ်တင်ရှင်ယေရှုခရစ်ဘုန်းကြီးသည်နေ့ရက်သည်ငါတို့စားချင် whetting သည်ပုံပေါ်ပါတယ်။ သူကကျွန်တော်တို့ကိုသူကကောင်းမြတ်ခြင်းအတွက်လုံ့လရှိသူ, ဂုဏ်ယူနိုင်ပါတယ်တဲ့လူတွေကိုအောင်, ကောင်းမွန်သောဤစင်ကြယ်အသက်ရှင်ခြင်းသို့မှောင်မိုက်, ပုန်ကန်သောအသက်တာကိုမှကျွန်တော်တို့ကိုလွတ်မြောက်စေရန်ယဇ်ကဲ့သို့မိမိကိုမိမိပူဇော်ကြ၏။ 15  ထိုသူအပေါင်းတို့သည်ဤပြောပြပါ။ သူတို့ရဲ့ရဲစွမ်းသတ္တိကိုတက် Build, သူတို့လိုင်းထဲက get လျှင်သူတို့ကိုဆုံးမ။ သငျသညျတာဝန်ခံပါတယ်။ မည်သူမဆိုသင်ချကြကုန်အံ့မထားပါနဲ့။
Titus 3 The Message (MSG) 3 1-2 Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God’s people should be bighearted and courteous. 3-8 It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this. 8-11 I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone. Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere. Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him. It’s obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off. 12-13 As soon as I send either Artemas or Tychicus to you, come immediately and meet me in Nicopolis. I’ve decided to spend the winter there. Give Zenas the lawyer and Apollos a hearty send-off. Take good care of them. 14 Our people have to learn to be diligent in their work so that all necessities are met (especially among the needy) and they don’t end up with nothing to show for their lives. 15 All here want to be remembered to you. Say hello to our friends in the faith. Grace to all of you.	တိတု 3 'Message (MSG) 3  း 1-2  အမြဲအစိုးရကလေးစားနှင့်ဥပဒေ-လိုက်နာဖြစ်မယ့်ကူညီခြင်းလက်ချေးဖို့အဆင်သင့်သည်လူများသတိပေးပါ။ အဘယ်သူမျှမကဲ့ရဲ့, အဘယ်သူမျှမတိုက်ပွဲတွေလည်း။ ဘုရားသခငျသညျလူမြိုးရဲ့ bighearted နှင့်ယဉ်ကျေးဖြစ်သင့်သည်။ 3-8  ဒါဟာမဟုတ်ဤမျှကာလပတ်လုံးလွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ငါတို့သည်ကိုယ်ကိုကိုယ်, အပြစ်တရား၏အ dupes မိုက်မဲနှင့်ခေါင်းမာခဲ့, မုန်းကြခြင်းနှင့်နောက်ကျောကိုမုန်း, ကျွန်တော်တို့ရဲ့ပခုံးပေါ်တစ်ဦးချစ်ပ်နှင့်အတူန်းကျင်မယ့်ကျွန်တော်တို့ရဲ့ဂလင်းများကတိုင်းထားတဲ့လမ်းအမိန့်ထုတ်ခဲ့သည်။ တို့၏ဘုရားသခင်, ငါတို့မျိုးနှင့်မေတ္တာရှင်ကယ်တင်ရှင်ဘုရား, အတွင်းအရှိန်မြှသောအခါ, သူအားလုံးမှကျွန်တော်တို့ကိုကယ်တင်ခြင်းသို့ရောက်ရ၏။ ဒါဟာအပေါင်းတို့သည်သူ၏အကျင့်ရှိ၏ ကျွန်တော်နဲ့ဘာမှမဆိုင်ပါဘူးရှိခဲ့ပါတယ်။ သူကကျွန်တော်တို့ကိုအကောင်းတစ်ဦးရေချိုးပေးခဲ့တယ်, ငါတို့သည်သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်အားဖြင့်အတွင်းပိုင်းနှင့်ထွက်ဆေးကြောကလူသစ်၏ထွက်လာ၏။ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏ကယ်တင်ရှင်ယေရှုဒီတော့ရက်ရက်ရောရောအသစ်သောအသက်တာကိုသွန်းလောင်း။ ဘုရားသခငျ၏တဆုကြေးဇူးကိုယျတျောနှငျ့အတူကြှနျုပျတို့၏ဆကျဆံရေးပွနျလညျထူထောငျနှင့်ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏အသက်တာကိုအကျောပေးထားတယျ။ လာ-တစ်ဦးသည်အသက်ထာပိုပြီးအသက်တာရှိပါ သင်ဤအပေါ်ရေတွက်လို့ရပါတယ်။ 8-11  ငါသည်သင်သင်၏ခြေကိုချချင်တယ်။ ဘုရားသခင်၌မိမိတို့၏ယုံကြည်မှုထားကြပြီတဲ့သူတွေကိုလူတိုငျးအတှကျကောငျးတသောအခြေခံလိုအပ်ချက်များအပေါ်အာရုံစူးစိုက်ပါလိမ့်မယ်ဒါကြောင့်ထိုအကိစ္စရပ်များအပေါ်တစ်ဦးခိုင်မာတဲ့ရပ်တည်မှုကိုယူပါ။ ဆွေစဉ်မျိုးဆက်စာရင်းနှင့်ပညတ္တိကျမ်းကုဒ်အတွက်ဒဏ်ငွေပုံနှိပ်ကျော်ကွာအသိဉာဏ်မရှိတဲ့, အဓိပ္ပာယ်မဲ့စကားများရန်ဖြစ်ရာမှနေပါ။ ဒါကဘယ်နေရာမှာသင်ရရှိသွားတဲ့။ တကြိမ်သို့မဟုတ်နှစ်ကြိမ်ရန်တွေ့တတ်သောပုဂ္ဂိုလ်တစ်ဦးကသတိပေး, ဒါပေမယ့်ထို့နောက်သူနှင့်အတူပြုရမည်။ ထိုသို့သောပုဂ္ဂိုလ်တစ်ဦးဘုရားသခငျသညျဆန့်ကျင်ပုန်ကန်သောလိုင်းထဲကကြောင်းကိုသိသာပါတယ်။ တိုင်းမွဲခွငျးအားဖွငျ့သူသညျမိမိကိုချွတ်လျှော့ချနိုင်သည်။ 12-13  အမျှမကြာမီသင်တို့အားငါ Artemas သို့မဟုတ်တုခိတ်ဖြစ်စေပေးပို့အဖြစ်ချက်ချင်းလာနှင့်Nicopolis ၌ငါ့ကိုခရီးဦးကြိုပြုခြင်း။ အဲဒီမှာဆောင်းရာသီသုံးဖြုန်းဖို့ဆုံးဖြတ်ပါတယ်။ ဇေရှေ့နေနှင့်အာပေါလုတစ်ဦးချစ်ဘွယ်သောလက္ခဏာပို့ရန်-ချွတ်ပေးပါ။ သူတို့ထဲကအကောင်းဂရုစိုက်ပါ။ 14  ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏လူအပေါင်းတို့သည်လိုအပ်ချက်များ (အထူးသဖြင့်ငတ်မွတ်သောသူတို့ကိုအကြား) တွေ့ဆုံခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ကြောင်းဒါကြောင့်သူတို့ရဲ့အလုပ်အတွက်လုံ့လဝီရိယဖြစ်ဖို့လေ့လာသင်ယူရန်ရှိသည်နှင့်သူတို့ဘဝတွေကိုအဘို့ကိုပြသဘာမျှမနှင့်အတူတက်အဆုံးသတ်ကြပါဘူး။ 15  အားလုံးဤနေရာတွင်သင်တို့၌အောက်မေ့ရချင်တယ်။ ယုံကြည်ခြင်း၌ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏မိတ်ဆွေများမင်္ဂလာပါလို့ပြောပါ။ သင်တို့ရှိသမျှဖို့ကျေးဇူးတော်ရှိစေသတည်း။

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"We want you here" or do we?

I was at LifeWay books (going out of business) in Burnsville. I was looking for something we could use in SALT at work. I found Thom Rainer's collection of books that are pointed and pithy about being a healthy church.  Got me thinking instead of giving the book, provide testimonials from actual churchgoers multiple times per week.

Healthy things grow, unhealthy things atrophy and die. Atrophy is guaranteed without intentional intervention (https://trustedge.com/)

Thom's resources: http://churchanswers.com/special/, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rainer-on-leadership/id638894745, talks about dying church is inward focused rather than outward focused. Questions to answer:

• Why are we not growing?
• Do we really understand our community?
• Is our congregation spiritually healthy?
• Can our leaders get us there?

Things to communicate:

1. Why we want YOU here

 - To experience the love of Christ (How do we experience the love of Christ in this community? How do we think you could experience this love? Are our traditions hindering sincere love (shake hands, "bless you", "Peace with you also")? Do new people see religious non-sense in our fellowship, preaching or praying?

 - We want to meet your needs (What are your needs? How does our culture look to identify the needs in our community? Do we pray, "give me eyes, Lord"? Do your needs get met with our services? Why or why not?

 - We want YOU to make a positive difference (How do we involve the congregation in ministry? How does the congregation add a positive difference in this place? How do we measure this positive change? How does accountability take place?)

 - We want to get to know you. (How do people get to know each other here? How do I go from unknown to known? How can outsiders share themselves with this church? What do we do when getting to know YOU results in a genuine "we don't like you" attitude (either by the first impression or in the context of a small group).

 - We like you. (why? because God commands us to love unconditionally, even a stranger, even an enemy. The real question to ask is How do we show we like a newcomer? How is our welcome perceived from the outside? How do we share our lives and experience with people we like? Do we really do this with that stranger who comes in alone or with someone else?

2. What to expect from this place (not perfect people)

 - Acceptance and non-judgment rather than discomfort and condemnation. How does our church feel like a place of judgment and condemnation? How could we give a more constructive comparison without compromising truth in scripture? How does my connection with longtime friends hinder the acceptance of new friends? 

 - Grace (Romans 3:23,24) we all fall short but God's grace brings redemption that is in Jesus Christ. How do we dispense God's grace to others? How do communicate this expectation to our congregation? How do we practice "redemptive discipline"? 

3. Why we want to get to know YOU

 - We find YOU interesting. How did you come to this place at this time? How do we find out where you are in your spiritual journey? What happens when we get to know you? How do we follow up and make real connections? How can someone join a small group?

 - To discover commonality. How do we feel when we meet others like us? How does one discover the things we have in common?  How does a person start to get to know others who have something in common (men's group, family, or struggle)?

 - YOU have so much to offer, Your light brings praise to God. How does sharing in the good news of a person life bring praise to our hearts? How does a person get to share their on-going testimony of God's intervention in their life? 

 - New friends, new possibilities. How does knowing someone's talent open the door for something new? How do we get to know peoples talent, desire and bring that out in the open? 

4. What makes this family grow strong

 - Someone intervened in our lives and we've committed to doing the same for others. Matthew 25:34-46

How? 

 - We've been adopted by God our Father. How can we be strong for those who need a father?

 - We model ourselves after His Son Jesus Christ. How can we sacrifice our lives in a life-giving way Romans 12:1-2? 

God's gifts and our commitment are bonded by love (Romans 12:1-21)
     - Ministry makes a difference ONLY when people follow Jesus Christ

 - We trust the promises found in the Bible. How do we demonstrate this trust? 

 - We gather in One Spirit, united by love. How does this really play out in our church? 

5. Getting to know the One who made us

 - Bible, changed lives, worship, answered prayer

 - Parables of Jesus are primarily about Salvation

6. How YOU make a difference with US

Worship empowers serving, serving expresses worship

Become a Bible Study Ninja and learn how to grow in faithfulness to God

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Southern Baptist Statement of Faith

From New Hope Baptist Church in Englewood FL, I like how these statements of faith include many topics on Christian Living. Especially Evangelism & Missions, and Education. See below;

The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

God
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.

God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.

God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. This church is an autonomous body. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.

Baptism & the Lord\'s Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion.

Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly the dead will be raised; Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. The righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.

Education
The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinated with the causes of missions and general benevolence there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.

Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.

Cooperation
Christ\'s people should organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations.

The Christian & the Social Order
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in human society. ... The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and vice.

Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.

Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Marriage is the unity of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.

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How we approach the Bible will determine the impact of our time in God’s Word

Critical Reading Excercise

When we come to God’s inspired Word, in a very literal way we are coming to God. It is an amazing biblical truth that we have access to God through Jesus (and his sacrifice) by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18, 3:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; Romans 5:1-2). The more we prepare our hearts and minds for meeting God in his Word, just as if we were coming into the physical presence of Jesus, the more life-changing and powerful our experiences with the Scriptures will be. Coming with expectation, anticipation, confession, worship, and focused attention will directly impact our experience. No matter which Scripture engagement practices we use, how we approach the Bible will determine the impact of our time in God’s Word. - SCRIPTURE ENGAGEMENT - GETTING STARTED

Read scripture-engagement/main/practices, what are seven things you learn about Scripture Engagement?

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False prophets introduce destructive heresies, ignoring facts of wrath (2 Peter 2)

2 Peter 2

1) false prophets introduce destructive heresies (paganism/pantheism, agnosticism, dissents), denying Master who bought them
 - 2) many follow sensuality because of them, the way of truth maligned
     God and the world are polar opposites (1 John 2:15‭-‬17)
 - 3a) their greed, exploit you with false words
3b) their judgment/destruction is not idle or asleep
 - 4) God didn't spare angels, cast to hell, committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment
 - 5) God didn't spare the ancient world, preserved Noah, flood world of ungodly
Principle: God's faithfulness in the past at being true to his word, ensures faithfulness in the future
6-8) if condemned Sodom Gomorrah, if rescued righteous Lot (oppressed by the sensuality of unprincipled men/lawless deeds).
 - 9) Then God rescue godly from temptation, then unrighteous punishment day of judgment
 - 10a) especially those indulge in the flesh - it's corrupt desires (I do what I do because I want what I want) and despises authority (Biblical Authority of God), daring, self-willed

The Bible teaches we have 3 enemies, the Eph 2:1-3, the world, the flesh, and the devil
 - a "fleshly" disposition says "I do what I do, because I want what I want" -selfishness
The Holy Spirit opposes the flesh: Gal. 5:16-17
 - a "worldly" disposition says, "take all you can, no one will give it to you" -godlessness
The Father opposes the world: I John 2:15-17, the world tries to shape our thinking toward godlessness (John 15:18-25)
 - a "devilish" disposition says, "I do what I do, because I hate myself and others" - wickedness
The Son opposes the Devil: Luke 4, I John 3:8 - Disposition is the power to deal with something as one pleases

 - 10b) Daring, self-willed, not trembling revile (slander) angelic majesties,
   - Character traits of ungodly: lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy (2 Tim 3:2), Scoffers (Psalm 1, 2 Peter 3:3)
  - Antithesis Character: As God's steward, an overseer must be above reproach--not self-absorbed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money. (Titus 1:7)
   - Revile/slanders: You must not blaspheme God or curse ruler of your people (Ex 22:28)

"Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is any sin that a person clings to by continually resisting the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind that there is not one specific sin that is unforgivable, such as lying, stealing or murder, but rather a perpetual hardening of the heart and willfully sinning against God and man (1 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:15). Can blasphemy be forgiven?

11-13) Slander where they have no knowledge like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, suffering wrong for doing wrong, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you
14) eyes full of adultery, never cease from sin, heart trained in greed
Principle: Looking comes before the sin (David and Bathsheba)
Application: Biblical Logic: If then conclusion about who God is and what He's historical done will prove for us in the future.
15-16) forsaking the right way, gone astray, the way of Balaam - who loved wages of unrighteousness
 - Balak and Balaam share fear, madness and condemnation
17-18) springs without water, speak arrogant words, vanity
19) promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, enslaved
20) if escaped defilements of world by knowledge of Lord, Savior Jesus Christ then entangled/overcome again. The last state has become worse for them than the first
21-22) would be better not to know, than to know way of righteousness, then having known it turn away from holy commandment handed to them
Application to save your life: Works the Holy Spirit does in the believers life
 - see also: Jesus the Bread from Heaven, offered to all offensive to most, Geysers, planters and pruners: How people are born into and matured in the Faith


Bottom line:

Bible claims to be effective, it dramatically effects people (Isaiah 55:9-11 like rain, seed is Word from my mouth - it accomplishes all I desire). Matthew 13:1-23; Luke 8:1-15
Seed: 2 Corinthians 9:10; Isaiah 61:11;Hosea 10:12
Rain: Deuteronomy 32:2; Isaiah 30:23; Psalm 72:6,7;
Response: Hosea 2:21; Isaiah 30:23; Matthew 13:23; Luke 8:15; Luke 8:18
Never underestimate the power of God’s Word to change a person’s heart

Helps received from:
2_peter/2-10 

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Courage is found at every virtues testing point (C.S. Lewis)

I've listened to this audiobook "Showing Up for Life (Unabridged)" by Bill Gates Sr, at 85 he talks about raising Bill Gates (Tre), the founder of Microsoft. Lots of encouraging words of wisdom regarding work, life, habits, and love. I was on my way to visit Jason in Moose Lake, we've seen a lot of answers to prayer over the years and God is faithful to finish the good work he began (Phil 1:6). 

I like driving and listening to books because it gives new ideas. On the way home I started listening to Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist, which gave me the idea of creating a website that shows all the testable claims made in the Bible regarding wisdom literature, gospels, and epistles as well as conclusive statements about God in summary of supporting historic events. This could be an open source project and allow people to contribute as a skeptic or believer (which would be held in a cookie so they could vote if the information was Proved true in my life, worth trying, proved false in my life. Once a person votes serval times they can see the results of others votes. 

Found this great list of virtues and would expand with Biblical references later.

http://www.virtuesforlife.com/virtues-list/

The Virtues
Virtue	Definition (Merriam-Webster)	Complements	Transcends
Acceptance	The act of accepting something or someone	Contentment, Forgiveness	Denial, Rejection
Assertiveness	Disposed to or   characterized by bold or confident statements and behavior	Confidence, Courage	Self-doubt, Shyness
Authenticity	True to one’s own personality, spirit, or character	Honesty, Integrity	Low self-esteem
Beauty	The qualities in a person or a thing that give pleasure to the senses or the mind	Joyfulness, Peace	Ugliness
Caring	Feeling or showing concern for other people	Compassion, Kindness	Cruelty, Insensitivity
Cleanliness	The practice of keeping yourself and your surroundings clean	Orderliness, Purity	Dirtiness
Commitment	An agreement or pledge to do something in the   future	Loyalty, Perseverance	Lack of Direction
Compassion	Sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress   together with a desire to alleviate it	Caring, Understanding	Grief, Judgment
Confidence	A feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at   something	Assertiveness, Courage	Self-doubt, Uncertainty
Consideration	The act of thinking carefully about something you will make a decision about	Caring, Compassion	Selfishness
Contentment	The state of being happy and satisfied	Fulfillment, Joy	Dissatisfaction, Restlessness
Cooperation	A situation in which people work together to do something	Teamwork, Unity	Defiance
Courage	Mental or moral strength to venture,   persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty	Boldness, Confidence	Fear, Self-doubt
Creativity	The ability to make new things or think of new ideas	Joy, Purposefulness	Ordinary
Detachment	Lack of emotion or of personal interest	Faith, Freedom	Control
Determination	A quality that makes you continue trying to do or achieve something that is difficult	Commitment, Tenaciousness	Complacency
Dignity	A way of appearing or behaving that suggests seriousness and self-control	Honor, Respect	Egoism, Selfishness
Encouragement	Something that makes someone more determined, hopeful, or confident	Support, Caring	Self-doubt, Discouragement
Enthusiasm	Strong excitement about something; a strong feeling of active interest in   something that you like or enjoy	Energy, Motivation	Boredom, Indifference
Ethical	Following accepted rules of behavior; morally right and good	Fairness, Respect	Immorality
Excellence	Extremely high quality	Dignity, Honor, Integrity, Respect	Mediocrity
Fairness	Treating people in a way that does not favor some over others	Equality, Justice	Grievance, Injustice
Faith	Strong belief or trust in someone or something	Confidence, Hope, Trust	Apprehension, Doubt
Flexibility	Willing to change or to try different things	Detachment, Understanding	Stubbornness
Forgiveness	The act of forgiving someone or something	Freedom, Peace	Anger, Bitterness
Friendliness	Acting like a friend; kind and helpful	Kindness, Tact	Shyness
Generosity	The quality of being kind, understanding, and not selfish; the quality of being generous	Kindess, Service	Stinginess, Self-centeredness
Gentleness	Having or showing a kind and quiet nature; not harsh or violent	Patience, Peace	Aggression
Graciousness	Very polite in a way that shows respect	Dignity, Tact	Disrespect, Rudeness
Gratitude	A feeling of appreciation or thanks	Hope, Joy, Peace	Disappointment, Pain
Harmonious	Having parts that are related or combined in a pleasing way	Unity	Hostility
Helpfulness	Making it easier to do a job, deal with a problem, etc.; giving help	Graciousness, Service	Negativity
Honesty	The quality of being fair and truthful	Integrity, Truthfulness	Deceitfulness
Honor	Respect that is given to someone who is admired	Dignity, Respect	Shame
Hope	To want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true	Faith, Joy, Trust	Despair, Frustration
Humility	The quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people	Modesty	Arrogance, Pride
Idealism	The attitude of a person who believes that it is possible to live according to very high standards of behavior and honesty	Confidence, Hope	Cynicism, Pessimism
Integrity	The quality of being honest and fair	Honesty, Trust	Corruption, Deceitfulness
Imaginative	Having or showing an ability to think of new and interesting ideas; having or showing imagination	Creativity	Ordinary, Rationalism
Joyfulness	Feeling, causing, or showing great happiness; full of joy	Hope, Peace, Love	Discontent, Suffering
Justice	The process or result of using laws to fairly judge and punish crimes and criminals	Fairness, Integrity	Discrimination
Kindness	The quality or state of being kind; a kind act	Caring, Compassionate	Cruelty, Loneliness
Love	A feeling of strong or constant affection for a person	Caring, Forgiveness, Unity	Fear
Loyalty	The quality or state of being loyal	Honesty, Trust	Betrayal
Moderation	The quality or state of being reasonable and avoiding behavior, speech, etc., that is extreme or that goes beyond what is normal or acceptable	Diligence, Responsibility	Obsessions, Overindulgence
Modesty	The quality of not being too proud or confident about yourself or your abilities	Humility	Self-importance
Optimistic	Having or showing hope for the future; expecting good things to happen	Hope, Joyfulness	Pessimism
Orderliness	Arranged or organized in a logical or regular way	Cleanliness, Purity	Chaos
Passionate	Having, showing, or expressing strong emotions or beliefs	Enthusiasm, Purposefulness	Indifference
Patience	The ability to wait for a long time without becoming annoyed or upset	Determination, Peace	Frustration
Peace	A state of tranquility or quiet	Love, Serenity, Unity	Anger, Cruelty
Perseverance	Continued effort to do or achieve something   despite difficulties, failure, or opposition	Commitment, Determination, Resilience	Laziness
Preparedness	The quality or state of being prepared	Excellence, Orderliness	Complacency
Purposefulness	Having a purpose as in something set up as an object or end to be attained	Creativity, Commitment, Joyfulness	Boredom, Indifference
Reliability	The quality or state of being reliable	Integrity, Loyalty	Untrustworthiness
Respect	An act of giving particular attention	Dignity, Reverence	Inconsideration
Responsibility	The quality or state of being responsible as in  moral, legal, or mental accountability	Courtesy, Tact, Trust	Selfishness
Reverence	Honor or respect that is felt for or shown to (someone or something)	Respect, Worth	Hatred
Self-discipline	Correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement	Commitment, Determination	Chaos, Unruliness
Service	Contribution to the welfare of others	Compassion, Generosity, Purposefulness	Lack of concern, Self-centeredness
Sincerity	The quality or state of being sincere; honesty of mind	Authentic	Disingenuousness
Tact	A keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense	Graciousness, Responsibilty	Clumsiness
Temperate	Habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions	Moderation	Excessiveness
Tenacious	Persistent in maintaining,   adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired	Discipline, Perseverance	Indecision
Thankfulness	Conscious of benefit received	Gratitude, Thoughtfulness	Unappreciative
Tolerance	Capacity to endure pain or hardship; sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own	Patience, Tenacious	Narrow-mindedness
Trust	Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something	Loyalty, Respect	Doubt, Skepticism
Truthfulness	Telling or disposed to tell the truth	Honesty, Faith, Trust	Corruption, Deceit
Understanding	An agreement of opinion or feeling; adjustment of   differences	Kindness, Tolerance	Egoism
Unity	The quality or state of being made one	Harmony, Love, Peace	Loneliness
Visionary	A thought, concept, or object formed by the imagination	Imagination, Leadership	Lack of Inspiration
Wisdom	Accumulated philosophic or scientific learning; knowledge	Idealism, Visionary	Lack of Intelligence
Wonder	A feeling caused by seeing something that is very surprising, beautiful, amazing, etc.	Creativity, Imagination	Boredom

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