“Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” —Luke 6:29-31 (NASB1995)

“Turn the Other Cheek” By In Touch Ministries:

“In conflict-laden circumstances, the Holy Spirit will guide us to a God-honoring response.”

“Today’s passage contains a verse that confuses many Christians: “Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also” (v. 29). Are we to stand still while someone beats us up physically or emotionally? No. But we also are not to “repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing” (1 Pet. 3:9 NIV). 

John 18:21-23 offers some insight about how to apply these instructions. When Jesus was interrogated by the high priest and provided an “unsatisfactory” answer, one of the officials struck Him in the face. Instead of offering His other cheek to be slapped, Jesus calmly challenged the man’s unjust action. The Lord did not defend Himself or retaliate, but He also refused to accept mistreatment unquestioningly, even though He knew He would receive more.

How can we follow Jesus’ example? What does a righteous response look like? It really depends on the situation. We may need to ignore the other person’s actions, walk away from the abuse, or confront them. The only way to know the most respectful, Christlike choice in each circumstance is by yielding to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. 

It’s not easy to turn the other cheek, but we have a Companion to help us figure out how. Take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.”

“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)

Many of us have biases against the police and the military, not to mention our general disdain towards taxes and those in the IRS, but none of those professions are sinful. We are told in Luke 3:12-14 about the fantastic chance John the Baptist had to tell them to quit their job but instead he said: “‘Collect no more than what you have been ordered to…’ ‘Do not extort money from anyone, nor harass anyone, and be content with your wages.’” There’s absolutely nothing wrong for a Christian to have a job in the IRS, police or the military if they follow the instructions of John the Baptist. No matter your job, we should always have the same mentality: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people, knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Colossians 3:23-24). Some jobs will require people to even take someone’s life. As “a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” (Romans 13:4), the government has the right to take someone’s life but even so, remember that the government is “is a servant of God to you for good”—therefore, if they ever ask you to do anything that would violate the Bible, you must refuse it. Our obedience is first, and foremost, to God (Acts 5:29). If you can perform your job, no matter what it may be, in a way that honors God and you're able to be obedient to His Word, be proud of your job even if others aren't. If you, however, use your job to punish and hurt the innocent because of tyrannical laws and mandates, beware of the wrath in store for you.    Always keep in mind that no country, no flag, no political party, no laws, no brotherhood, nothing and no one, should ever come before Christ and His Word. Christ is our King and we bend the knee only to Him (Philippians 2:10-11).

There's only one faith. The bar is so high to be saved. Don't lower it for a higher chance to get into Heaven. It won't work. It's easy to believe you're saved without ever going back and checking and making sure. Imagine how hard it is to convince others that they're not when they believe they are. Being a Christian isn't enough. Obedience and being consumed by the bible is the only way.

Don't attend churches outside of Christ, founded by men and not by Jesus himself, and believe false teachings that deceive and harm you. Be in the one faith, obey the bible only, not what others say and believe.

one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Ephesians 4:5 KJV

What Others Think

Image by ha11ok from Pixabay One of the things that kept me from writing for many years was “the fear of men.” I didn’t want to be judged, made fun of, or laughed at behind my back. (Or to my face, for that matter.) It didn’t help either having someone close to me ask, “What makes you think you’re a writer?” I would have thought they would have, instead, been my biggest fan! A cheerleader…

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Obedience is the best

God knows our hearts. He knows what we truly believe and our attitude toward Him.

One day, two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, came along and offered incense with “strange fire.” The Hebrew word translated “strange” means “unauthorized, foreign, or profane.” God not only rejected their sacrifice; He found it so offensive that He consumed the two men with fire.

We cannot offer to Him proud “sacrifices” that are unworthy of Him. He seeks those who come to Him in humility, ready to sacrifice their pride and lay before Him humble and contrite hearts grieving for sin.

Growing into beautiful Titus 2 womanhood

Titus 2, 3-5, The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Many Christians have…

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No Intimidation

In our modern world, the media constantly presents new fears to us. Those in positions of power often claim that obeying God restricts our freedom. However, true liberation can only be found by serving the one who created us. It’s important to remember that all the people and forces that seem to rule the world are ultimately under God’s authority, and they will eventually recognize this truth.…

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Lenten Reflections, 9 – Obedience

(Image credit – Shutterstock) Welcome to Lenten Reflection 9 on habeascorpus1.blog. This series takes as its point of departure the second-best selling book of all time in the Christian world after the Bible – The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471). As explained in Part 1 of this series, the content of these reflections is a combination of citations from The Imitation and some…

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Be Filled With The Nature of God

Be Filled With The Nature of God

DATE POSTED Monday, 2022-10-17WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL SCRIPTURE FROM: Ephesians 3:16-19TRANSLATION: Good News Translation (GNT) BIBLE TEXT: 16 I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, 17 and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, 18 so…

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i have absolutely zero interest in the "ascendant!astarion/obedient, submissive spawn!tav" content that everyone seems so crazy about, but you know what ascendant!astarion ship does intrigue me? ascendant!astarion/absolute!tav. astarion is tav's sire. tav is astarion's god. what the fuck would that even look like?

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” —Genesis 12:1 (ESV)

“Step-by-Step Obedience” By Joyce Meyer:

“Abraham, later known as Abram, was a man of great faith. Having faith comes more easily to some people than to others simply because of the way they are wired, but I don’t think anyone is born with the tremendous faith that Abraham had. It has to be developed over time, as we see God prove Himself faithful in one situation after another. God gives all of us a measure of faith, but our faith grows, like Abraham’s, over time as we learn to trust God to lead us one step at a time. We do have to face difficult and challenging situations, but they become the tools that God uses to stretch our faith to new levels.

Abraham’s first step of faith was to leave his home and his family, not knowing where to go next. All God said was that He would show him the right place, and Abraham trusted that and obeyed. He had to do the first thing God told him before God would tell him anything else.

By the time Abraham’s faith was truly tested, he had developed such complete trust in God that he was willing to sacrifice his own son—the son God had promised him with his wife, Sarah, and the son he had believed God for and had waited for, for a very long time. When God asked him to sacrifice his son, he obeyed. But before he could do it, God spoke to him and told him not to. He even provided a ram in a nearby thicket so that Abraham would have an animal to sacrifice instead (see Genesis 22:1–14). We have to wonder if Abraham would have had the faith to sacrifice his son had he not seen God prove Himself faithful on each step of his journey to that point.

Abraham’s story is very dramatic when it gets to the part about sacrificing his son. I haven’t heard of another story like that in history, but it is a great example for us as we walk the journey of healing in our soul. We would like for God to heal us instantly, but that’s not the way it works. God strengthens and restores us little by little, one step at a time, and each time He does, our trust in Him grows.As God heals our souls, there are times He is gracious enough to take us forward in a seemingly miraculous way, but there comes a time for everyone when He requires us to walk through a difficulty because that is the only way we will gain strength. There are many people who simply refuse to take the first step until they see every step along the way. But the best way to follow God as He heals your soul is to take each step He leads you to take, when He leads you to take it, without questioning or hesitating. Once you take one step and see the faithfulness of God, you will have more faith for the second step than you had for the first. As the cycle continues, you will find yourself making great progress on your journey of healing.

Prayer of the Day: Father, Your Word is full of truth, and examples of the wonderful faith others have had in You. Help me as I build my faith and put all my trust in You! In Jesus’ name, amen.”

God, My Husband and My Chiropractor

God, My Husband and My Chiropractor

I am by no means comparing my chiropractor to God, but I have noticed both have similarities. Years ago, I fell down a flight of stairs — 12 steps from top to bottom…..on MY bottom. The breath was knocked out of me and I felt like a compressed-together accordion. I had a serious back injury and lived in pain, even after many chiropractic and medical treatments. For years we prayed for my…

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Also there're so many reasons why durge might want to deny Bhaal, aside from general "killing is bad, the god of murder is bad."

Orin betrayed them and it was somewhat from silent approval of Bhaal, so "god betrayed me first" kind of narrative. A desire to get revenge, on Orin AND on Bhaal.

A desire to live. Durge's fate, Durge's Destiny is to literally kill everyone and then themselves. What if they want to live? What if desire to live is stronger than desire to kill?

Alternatively, what if there's someone they don't want to kill? A single person for Durge to care about, a single person they would want to save instead of bloodying father's altar with their blood. A single connection like that is all what it would take.

A desire to break free. Durge can be completely okay with murders, loving murdering people even, reveling in violence. But they're their father's puppet and they could want to break free of it, to have their own will, to have only their voice in their head. To be a master of themselves with no one to kneel to.

The "I'm better than my father" kind of mindset. Durge is made of a flesh of a god, in a sense they ARE god. Bhaal was mortal once. Why would Durge listen to him when they can attempt to overthrow him, to become a new god?

Being compelled to other side. It's not unknown for gods to steal each other's followers/chosen ones. Look at Ketheric, look at Shadowheart. Myrkul is recently chosen-less after the Moonrise Towers. Bane would love to fuck with Bhaal like that. Shar is there. Good gods who would try to redeem Durge or use them against their own father are there. It would be a delightful power move from Selune to offer Durge assistance/ an alliance against Bhaal.

Idk, I just love how multidimensional the defiance of Bhaal can be. I have a lil army of Durges exactly because I can mold them into such different people

Titus 1:15 — Today's Verse for Monday, January 15, 2024

My Favorite Phrase

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay Life brings its own set of challenges. Keeping on top of everything or ahead of it all is a full-time job. But what if God gives you a command or challenge to carry out? Do you blindly obey with all the faith you have? Do you say, “Okay, God, but help me.”? Or do you debate why He should probably choose someone else? Earlier this year, April and I went to…

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