...Romans 16:17-20 HOW TO HANDLE TROUBLEMAKERS IN THE CHURCH Introduction: Ever since the church was formed, it has been plagued by troublemakers. These people have desired to either see the church destroyed, or to see it shaped to their own will. This should not have been a surprise. After all, Jesus Himself predicted the rise of troublemakers in the church, Matt. 7:15, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Even in the early days of the fledgling church, the Apostle Paul said this, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.", Acts 20:29-30. After 2,000 years, the troublemakers are still with us. There are still those within and without the church who work against the plan of God and seek to mold the church to their likeness. I. THE DEEDS OF THE TROUBLEMAKERS Paul tells us that there are some tale tell signs associated with those who would cause trouble in the church. Their deeds prove them to be just what they are. Remember what Jesus said, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matt. 7:20. A. They Are Divisive - Paul uses two words here that describe what the troublemakers so in the house of God. The first is the word "divisions". It means "to splinter of cause dissensions." The other word is "offences", it means "to lay a trap...
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...“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathon Edwards delivered a sermon for the ages in 1741. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was powerful and moving to all who heard it. Edward’s mastery of diction, immaculate imagery, and reinforced repetition made sure his listeners understood the full impact of their sins. This piece was so forceful, it sent them running for the hills. Maybe not the hills but a few did run out screaming! He accomplished exactly what he had hoped for. People were definitely afraid that God would punish them for their sins. Jonathon Edwards knew how to make his words count. Edwards chose words that got the most bang for his buck. He wanted his words to convey his feelings in the most persuasive way possible. Phrases such as, “The floods of God’s vengeance have been withheld” were used in this sermon. The words are chosen carefully to demonstrate God’s wrath. Edwards could have said God’s anger but he chose, instead, to use the words “floods” and “God’s vengeance” to evoke fear and trembling in his listeners. Another phrase Edwards uses is, “fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God”. Those words are full of impact. When they’re spoken to the crowd they automatically trigger trepidation. Edwards once again is demonstrating God’s disdain for sinners. One of the most aggressive statements in Edward’s whole piece are the words, “you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.” Edwards...
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...Well he sided with evil. He took the chance of disobeying the people he cared about and went against his religion. But, in some ways the way he found out who the people around him (his loved ones and his close friends) were. The truth was unveiled but only he could see it and by doing this he was a hero. He was a hero because he saw the truth and kept it as a burden in his life. He was forever changed. He was a hero for accepting the truth and moving on. One symbol in the story was the ‘traveler’s staff’. It was in some ways a serpent coming to tempt Young Goodman Brown. It showed that he was not strong enough to refuse the temptations of the devil. The serpent is used in many other stories to symbolize evil, such as Adam and Eve or even the Disney story of Aladdin. As you can see the serpent is used as a symbol of evil or the devil. Also the serpent is used as a symbol of temptation and greediness. Another symbol in the story was Faith’s pink ribbon. When you think of pink, you think of happiness and innocence. You think of the youth of a girl. When you see pink you think of joy and love. Faith was young, sweet, and kind but this symbol could have been misleading. Was Faith truly someone we could trust or was she also taking...
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...Philosophy 1010 Rebellion - Fyodor Dostoevsky In the passage where Ivan is talking about atonement for the dead, and the tortured children, he poses some questions to his brother Aloysha. For example, “They must be atoned for, or there can be no harmony, but how? How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? By their being avenged? But what do I care for avenging them? What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured, and what becomes of harmony, if there is hell?” What I understand from Ivan’s passage here is that he wants to pursue and better understand the overall point of the situation. If the oppressors are going to have to deal with the evil of hell in the after life, why should they get to live the rest of their human life in bliss, while the child has already had his life and its opportunities taken away? I think his first premise (P1) is that evil has a purpose, but the purpose of evil isn’t worth dealing with. I think that this is pretty much saying that, we do need evil for “harmony” but having to deal with this cruel evil isn’t worth waiting for the harmony that comes along with it. Why should the child have to be tortured for the harmony to be achieved? Why can’t we skip the evil step and have harmony as something that doesn’t hurt us before it becomes better? The second premise that I took from Ivan’s passage is (P2) the justification of evil has worse consequences than positive aspects...
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...Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church." "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth." "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior." "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken." "So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ." "This is what I want you to do", said the devil: "Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!" "How shall we do this?" his demons shouted. "Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow." "Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles." "Keep them from spending time with their children." "As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!" "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice." "Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive." "To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant...
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...25.00 fee within 30 day provide a copy of new lease Don’t allow the devil to be a foothold in your marriage Satan keeps ur pass afloat Jesus remember ur sin no more and he looks to ur future No matter what the circumstances look like if he is still not doing things nice to you u still pray and honor Christ by treating ur husband as a loving, caring, respectful individual Bad sprits using his daughter and sister to get tom I rebuke them in the name of Jesus. Are you, as a wife, bringing honor to God in the way you treat your husband? We are to “love each other with brotherly affection and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:10, tlb, emphasis added). Are you taking delight in honoring your husband? Matthew 5:11-12 Proverbs 19:11 gentle answers Proverbs 31:11-12 Romans 15:2-3, 12-10-17( NKJ) Reap coals of fire on there head I Peter 2:21‑3:6 emphasizes that a believer's willingness to stay in his marriage and suffer quietly may be the only means by which the other partner will eventually be healed. Also be submissive, obey, respect The realization then begins to dawn that, “Everything in my life that is not like Christ has been a contributing factor to the failure of my marriage.” I encourage these individuals to make a list of every area in their life (attitudes, values, priorities, actions, words) that is not like Jesus, and to ask God to change them, so He will then be free to change their mate Ask God to reveal to you from His Word any failures...
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...do you think this is an accurate assessment of the ways in which Heathcliff is presented in the novel? Heathcliff is presented in this novel in various different ways. He is a character that arguably shifts from having human qualities, to presenting traits of the Byronic hero and finally becoming a typical gothic villain. The doomed central character of Heathcliff in this gothic novel could be paralleled to that of Satan in John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ where Satan is cast out by God from Heaven into the terrible darkness of Hell. One could argue that Brontë does in fact present Heathcliff as “a ghoul” by making a connection between him and the exotic and describing him from the very start as “dark almost as if [he] came from the devil” showing that his striking physical appearance, just like the Byronic hero, makes him unable to integrate into a higher social class. In an attempt to confine and dehumanize Heathcliff, Hindley forces him into servitude; although Heathcliff endures it, he plots how he can “paint the house-front with Hindley’s blood”. His cruelty serves to conceal the heart of a romantic hero and the fact that Heathcliff is subject to xenophobia which was a common sentiment among the British people in the colonial days of the early nineteenth century leads him to become an outcast and makes him a “child of the storm”, someone product of circumstances and a man distrustful of everybody and unable to engage in any social relations. Young Heathcliff shows a strong...
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...Faust Wendy S Piper World Literature 3 Faust shows successfully our want for power and knowledge. You basically get a spoiled kid with every advantage, seeks out the devil, signs away his soul without serious contemplation, harasses various kings and religious types, then gets hacked to death when his contract expires. He explores the territory of longing for lost youth (or maybe how youth is squandered on the young), public shaming of a fallen woman, a somewhat deeper look at the question of "why be a brilliant scholar if I do not have as much power as God?" and does so eloquently. As I read Faust, I was pondering what the purpose of the characters in this book was. All of the characters seem to appear in the writing and play their part and then they are gone. We follow Faust and Mephistopheles through their journey and as they meet people we become intrigued by them only to never find out what has happened to them. The one character that we follow to the end is Gretchen. We see her life when she meets Faust and follow her until her death. I felt like we had been left to ponder the other characters and their purpose in the book. This happens with Faust as well. We never find out what happens to him. I felt like this was a story almost centered on Gretchen. I believe Faust will triumph in the end because he realizes that Mephistopheles is only messing everything up for him, and realize that having a fulfilling life isn't the same as what he thought...
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...10 February 2015 Lord of the Flies Essay "Humanity has evil tendenc[ies] within its nature" (David Wilson). Jack, a choir boy from England, represents the evil incarnate and explains that within human nature, evil lies in oneself even when it is not projected. In Golding's Lord of the Flies, Jack, the Devil Figure, expresses the ideas about one's inner evil as he evolves from a choir leader to a ruthless varmint while spending time on a deserted island. In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Jack, who emerges from the jungle dressed in black, possesses a dominant trait of a controlling personality. When Ralph first blows the sound of the conch, Jack and his choir come from the jungle, and as they approach Ralph, Jack tells them to "stand still" (Golding 20). The reader can identify his authoritative nature as he demands these words, which establishes his significance and rule in the choir, and the other boys can sense this superiority as well. Moreover, the audience can analyze that Jack has a manipulative influence in the novel due to the fact that he claims he "ought to be chief because [he is]...head boy"; therefore, he is making himself out to be the most qualified for the position as he points out his role of control in the choir (Golding 22). Likewise, the other boys on the island describe Jack to be "the most obvious leader," which in return proves to the reader that Jack's commanding attitude is not the only reason that defines him as a leader; the other boys' perspective...
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...My Analysis for who is Arnold Friend Since the beginning of time, stories have been told about the forces of good and evil. Some say the devil is the personification of evil, the enemy of God and humankind, and the evil force that never seems to prevail. In a biblical interpretation of Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” one can see how Oates portrays one character, Arnold Friend, as the devil. The story is about a 15-year old girl, Connie, caught up in the insecurities and fantasies of puberty. After Connie sneaks to the movies with her friends one evening, the wicked eye of the devil spots her and decides to take her for his prey. Friend decides to go to Connies’ home one Sunday afternoon, when he knows her parents aren’t home, and, through the evil he is capable of, change her life for the worse. Oates demonstrates that Friend is the devil by giving him devilish characteristics such as a deceiving appearance of friendship, preying on the weak, and a persistence to do evil. Most evil things appear to be good at first, the later deceive, for who would want to take part in something that seemed evil to begin with? Just as the devil is dressed in a deceiving way, so is Arnold Friend, something more then a mere coincidence. Sex before marriage may seem like a fantastic, satisfying experience, yet “over half of all teens that had sex at least once reported that they wish they had waited (till marriage).” People are drawn into the evil...
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...Summary of Godfather Death – Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm In this tale, the poor man has twelve children and he has to work very hard day and night in order to get enough food for them to eat. And here come the 13th child came he did not know what to do so he wants to seek help and so he asked for a Godfather for his son. The journey began. His first encounter is with God, who he turns down because he did not understand how wisely God shares and he believes that God is unfair. Next, he meets the Devil, who he also turns down because Devil tricks people. Finally, he chooses Death to become his son’s godfather because Death does not discriminate against any man or woman. When the boy grew older, Death made his godson a famous doctor by showing him an herb that would allow him to save any patient. Though, this act came with conditions; his godson was to administer the herb to those that Death stood by the head of. However, if Death stood by the feet of a patient, his godson was to claim that there was nothing he could do and allow them to die and if he went against the will of Death, there would be severe consequences. The godson became very famous after following these conditions, but one day he chose to ignore Death’s decision and give the herb to a dying king. Death forgave him because he was his godson, but gave him a warning. Time passed until the king’s daughter became ill. Once again, the godson ignored the will of Death and gave her the herb. With this decision, Death said that...
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...God and the Devil have an impact on the human race, because God and the Devil have a shared goal to give people two choices in life God and the devil both origininated in heaven. God made the heavens, earth and the angels. In particular he made he made an angel named Lucifer. Lucifer was the lead angel and was the most beautiful angel. Lucifer was also was the lead angel over music. God made the angels to serve him and to help with humanity. God created humans and loved them. Lucifer became jealous of Gods rule. He did not like the creation of humanity. He did not want to serve humanity. Lucifer felt humans were beneath the angels. Lucifer then persuaded other angels to join his idealism. Lucifer began a war in heaven. Lucifer and his angels were defeated. They were then cast out of heaven. With his betrayal to God’s plan he was exiled to hell. The contrasts between these two entities are very easy to make. The likeness between these two entities is a little harder, but nevertheless they do have similarities. God and the Devil are similar because they both make an impact and can affect the human race. God wants you to accept him and give you free will to make your own choices in life. God lets you make the choices in your life but he warns you to stay away from the ways of Lucifer. Humans should cleanse themselves and stay away from evil. The devil will also use free will as a tool. He does not cause you to do bad things. Humans do evil all on their own. Lucifer just sets the...
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...Though when writing The Screwtape Letters, it was supposedly a sequel to An Angel’s Perspective, and took him almost six months to complete it. The reason for this is because once he started writing it he started to dislike writing this book. He told a newspaper that it was “dry and gritty going. At the time, I was thinking of objections to the Christian life and decided to put them in the form ‘That’s what the devil would say.’ But making goods ‘bad’ and bads ‘good’ gets to be fatiguing.” -C.S Lewis. So writing it was not his favorite but still came out a good book. In conclusion The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis, C.S Lewis explores a master demon’s letter’s to his apprentice on how to destroy a man’s entire life through psychological tricks and schemes aiming to prevent a strong relationship with God. It is through this we can think of our own thoughts and ideas and relate back to this and find the temptations demons may hold on us and fight...
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...or struggle. The story first opens up by describing the father’s struggles pertaining to taking care of all of his kids. It goes on to say that he is confused and doesn’t know what to do, so he goes to the highway. In this piece the highway is used as a place where the father turns to because he’s desperate. He feels as if there is nothing else he can do and goes there in his time of need. There he meets three people on his quest to give his child a better life. During hard times, these “people” or beings are who/what people eventually turn to during hard times. In this story the symbolic meaning of the highway is Peoples 2 similar to its literal meaning. Either way it’s used, it takes him someplace, bringing him to God, the Devil, and Death. It adds to the story by serving as the connection to the child and his godfather both symbolically and literally. Without the highway, in it’s symbolic meaning; the father would have never needed help. There would have been no time of trouble for him because he...
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...Dilemma at Devils Den Allan R Cohen Abstract This paper explores the case study Dilemma at Devils Den, which was created by Allan R. Cohen from Babson College (2004), and focuses on a fictional student named Susan and an experience with a few problems that she has at her college’s campus snack bar, the Devil’s Den. This paper aims to discuss Susan’s problems that she has identified with the night operations at the Devil’s Den, and whether or not the night shift managerial team performs strategy execution processes adequately. Introduction Susan identifies that the main problem mainly has to do with the night shift operations at the Devil’s Den. She points out that she had been noticing the fact that many of the employees at the snack bar were simply allowing their friends to take snacks without having to pay for them at all. Susan also points out those employees were also taking the snacks for free themselves. While ordinarily this is not a problem, the employees are only allowed to take snacks when they are on duty, and it has become a common situation where the employees simply leave with food. According to Susan, it has gotten so bad that employees will take food in front of the customers, who then think it would be okay to take food without paying as well, leading to this becoming a problem as well. Another problem that Susan identifies is the fact that the employees were not doing anything to stop or challenge the customers from taking the snacks from the Den. Susan...
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