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Oh really?
... I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only I might join--though of course I should LIKE to be a Queen, best.'
She glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as she said this, but her companion only smiled pleasantly, and said, 'That's easily managed. You can be the White Queen's Pawn, if you like, as Lily's too young to play; and you're in the Second Square to begin with: when you get to the Eighth Square you'll be a Queen--' Just at this moment, somehow or other, they began to run.
Alice never could quite make out,in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began: all she remembers is, that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying 'Faster! Faster!' but Alice felt she COULD NOT go faster, though she had not breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. 'I wonder if all the things move along with us?' thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, 'Faster! Don't try to talk!'
Not that Alice had any idea of doing THAT. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and still the Queen cried 'Faster! Faster!' and dragged her along. 'Are we nearly there?'Alice managed to pant out at last.
'Nearly there!' the Queen repeated. 'Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!' And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.
'Now! Now!' cried the Queen. 'Faster! Faster!' And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, 'You may rest a little now.'
Alice looked round her in great surprise. 'Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!'
'Of course it is,' said the Queen, 'what would you have it?'
'Well, in OUR country,' said Alice, still panting a little, 'you'd generally get to somewhere else--if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.'
'A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. 'Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'
--Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
This is the best post in this thread.
We live in a world where being a victim makes you morally superior than anyone who stands up and fights. I don't get it, but you see it everywhere.
MY entire life my mother has taught me a very important thing about life, and how we choose to handle ourselves in hard times. Her motto is "you can either be a victim or victorious". This is coming from a woman who has been totally blind since the age of 7(my father was blind as well but has passed on). Neither one of them used their handicap as a crutch. Both are college educated. Both held jobs. Mom still works as a matter of fact. They didn't sit at home and draw a check. They persevered. My momma is a fighter. After losing her husband(my dad of course) to a drunk driver she didn't look at the situation as we are pathetic victims. She faught. She went to lawmakers, got involved and helped increase the drunk driving laws in the state.
She has even battled breast and bone cancer and still managed to get up every morning, go to work and live her life.
This woman is what raised me and the values she instilled in me and the examples she has set is why I choose to be victorious and fight instead of being a victim.
Ok, soapbox over.
We live in a world where being a victim makes you morally superior than anyone who stands up and fights. I don't get it, but you see it everywhere.
MY entire life my mother has taught me a very important thing about life, and how we choose to handle ourselves in hard times. Her motto is "you can either be a victim or victorious". This is coming from a woman who has been totally blind since the age of 7(my father was blind as well but has passed on). Neither one of them used their handicap as a crutch. Both are college educated. Both held jobs. Mom still works as a matter of fact. They didn't sit at home and draw a check. They persevered. My momma is a fighter. After losing her husband(my dad of course) to a drunk driver she didn't look at the situation as we are pathetic victims. She faught. She went to lawmakers, got involved and helped increase the drunk driving laws in the state.
She has even battled breast and bone cancer and still managed to get up every morning, go to work and live her life.
This woman is what raised me and the values she instilled in me and the examples she has set is why I choose to be victorious and fight instead of being a victim.
Ok, soapbox over.
S
My advice is to wait until the return of Christ to go beating those swords into plowshares. If you decide not to wait, at the very least, please don't go advocating this view for others. Let them make their own decisions.
Total disarmament leads to abuses in power at the highest echelons. Always. Maybe not immediately, but since Christ Himself said out of the heart comes wickedness, the hearts of men always end up going back towards wickedness. A disarmed population is an easily controlled population.
There are entire countries where well meaning individuals (many of them Christians) decided to take it upon themselves to petition the government to disarm the population. Now the UK Olympic shooting team can't even practice on their home soil, and despite the fact that handguns are illegal there, they still have one of the highest crime rates of any developed nation. Disarmament did not stop the crime, but it took away freedoms for law abiding citizens.
If you want to see where total disarmament leads, ask the Germans about what happened when Hitler went after the guns, ask the Russians what happened when Stalin went after the guns, ask the Italians about what happened when Mussolini went after the guns.
It doesn't end well, historically.
I gave you my response.
It is heavily influenced by the fact I am a Christian.
It is heavily influenced by the fact I am a Christian.
. Again though, if that's how you feel, that's your prerogative, but please don't advocate it at the political level, as it takes options off the table for others. My Christian response is this is what Christ told his apostles to do in Luke 22:36.
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
It's not just the KJV either, it says that in the NASB
And He said to them, "But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.
My response is also that I'm in no position to ever want to take a life, but that the right to personal safety stops during the commission of a crime. If someone wants to steal your wallet, let them take it, but if they want to maim or kill, then the choice is clear - either be maimed or killed, or allow others to be maimed or killed, or fight back.
A
“To do nothing is the way to be nothing.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne
U.S. Gun Owners ~ Help Fix America First
U.S. Gun Owners ~ Help Fix America First
Do we represent democracy or do we represent Christ?
You're making correlations without it being verified.
Have you read Freakonomics? It makes a correlation between the drop in crime rates and abortion.
According to the authors, with the advent of abortion, crime rates, reduced. Does that mean we support abortion? Can you see that thinking?
Your examples of history are very short sighted ServantStrike. You're trying to make Hitler and Stalin the poster boys for gun control.
You must consider that as far as time goes , as much as human civilization existed there were absolute monarchies which practiced extreme torture and abuse of its citizens.
Nero, for example repeatedly persecuted Christians in the most horrific ways imaginable to mankind. Did Christians retaliate or kill their persecutors?
What happened to Peter?
Yep, Peter was crucified upside down.
Yep I shall post the next verses from Luke 22:37-38
It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’[a]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.
38 The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That’s enough!” he replied.
And let's not forget what Jesus said when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's servant
Matthew 26:51-56
51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant[a] of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. 56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Man was made in the image of God.
Even more so, Christ died to save the lost. I consider the sacrifice of Jesus to be so precious that I don't want that by my hands life would be cut short, or disabled or maimed.
Even if I were to lose my life, I would gain it in Christ. Even if you're a Calvinist ( I am NOT), that person standing in front of you could be among the persons Jesus died to save. (I believed he died for us all. The world. John 3:16)
That person you could possibly shoot and disable, was also created in the image of God.
There are many ways to protect oneself. I wish people would stop glamourizing and putting guns on a pedestal making it the ticket to the sanctity of your life.
Jesus is. Not a gun.
You're making correlations without it being verified.
Have you read Freakonomics? It makes a correlation between the drop in crime rates and abortion.
According to the authors, with the advent of abortion, crime rates, reduced. Does that mean we support abortion? Can you see that thinking?
Your examples of history are very short sighted ServantStrike. You're trying to make Hitler and Stalin the poster boys for gun control.
You must consider that as far as time goes , as much as human civilization existed there were absolute monarchies which practiced extreme torture and abuse of its citizens.
Nero, for example repeatedly persecuted Christians in the most horrific ways imaginable to mankind. Did Christians retaliate or kill their persecutors?
What happened to Peter?
Yep, Peter was crucified upside down.
I was asleep by the time you wrote both responses. Time zone differences, remember . Again though, if that's how you feel, that's your prerogative, but please don't advocate it at the political level, as it takes options off the table for others.
My Christian response is this is what Christ told his apostles to do in Luke 22:36.
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
It's not just the KJV either, it says that in the NASB
And He said to them, "But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.
. Again though, if that's how you feel, that's your prerogative, but please don't advocate it at the political level, as it takes options off the table for others. My Christian response is this is what Christ told his apostles to do in Luke 22:36.
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
It's not just the KJV either, it says that in the NASB
And He said to them, "But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.
It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’[a]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.
38 The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That’s enough!” he replied.
And let's not forget what Jesus said when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's servant
Matthew 26:51-56
51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant[a] of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. 56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Man was made in the image of God.
Even more so, Christ died to save the lost. I consider the sacrifice of Jesus to be so precious that I don't want that by my hands life would be cut short, or disabled or maimed.
Even if I were to lose my life, I would gain it in Christ. Even if you're a Calvinist ( I am NOT), that person standing in front of you could be among the persons Jesus died to save. (I believed he died for us all. The world. John 3:16)
That person you could possibly shoot and disable, was also created in the image of God.
There are many ways to protect oneself. I wish people would stop glamourizing and putting guns on a pedestal making it the ticket to the sanctity of your life.
Jesus is. Not a gun.
I am sorry ServantStrike.
The kingdom of God is for now.
Luke 17:20-21
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Also I should say, as an Indian sister who has a lot of regard for you, I find it very hurtful how you disregard the culture and nuances of my country.
As an Indian I am not allowed to speak about my own country's traditions, which is at the heart of this thread? Ahimsa and satyagraha are deeply rooted in the history of India.
Ahimsa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Satyagraha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The kingdom of God is for now.
Luke 17:20-21
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Also I should say, as an Indian sister who has a lot of regard for you, I find it very hurtful how you disregard the culture and nuances of my country.
As an Indian I am not allowed to speak about my own country's traditions, which is at the heart of this thread? Ahimsa and satyagraha are deeply rooted in the history of India.
Ahimsa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Satyagraha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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