I remember Carla Faye Tucker. I remember she said she wanted to live and continue to minister for Christ. I remember her asking for mercy. She was content, yes. But she also wanted to live.
The problem is that no scripture or group of scriptures can ever be understood without two things;
1. The guidance and input of the Holy Spirit. (The Holy Spirit will, indeed, show different people different angles on any given subject but just as any scripture will not contradict any other scripture, when read in context, neither will the teaching of the Spirit of God when teaching any two of His children. They might be different but they will compliment one another and never contradict!
2. And finally, no scripture can be understood without the light of all scripture shinning on it!
It is too bad so few fellow Christians showed her any mercy. Maybe they were afraid somebody would call them a "liberal" if they followed the command of their Lord Jesus Christ and showed mercy with perfect patience.
Just as I said previously, you need to apply both rules before attempting to understand the Meat of the Word. Some have tried to teach me that it is merciful to accept the idea of Homosexuality as just another life-style that is acceptable to God and that I fail to show them mercy when I teach what the scriptures teach us about their going to the Bottomless Pit for Eternity.
You indicate, by your statement that I am merciless when at the time she was in prison but the truth of the matter is that I went there, inside Lock Up, and helped as many as I could influence to accept the gift of Christ. I am no longer going because I must ride my Powered Chair and can no longer get inside without someone to drive me there and then unload and reassemble the chair they had to disassemble to get it into their car. Then the DCoJ must approve of me entering into the General Population and the State must put in Handicap Ramps, just for me.
May I ask what you were doing to help, show mercy, for these people at that time and what are you doing now to fill the gap left in my absence?
So.. you are saying God doesn't need our help to put someone to death... or to set them free...?
Did the Omniscient, Omnipotent God need your advise to create the Universe and did you instruct God on how to create man, did you give Him the dirt He needed? (Psa 46:10)
We just need to ask ourselves what kind of attitude we are going to have toward these people.
No, quite the contrary! When we take our own fate into our own hands we are doomed to eternity in Hell. In Mic.3:6a we learn that God never changes and if we take the time to do as we are instructed (2Tim. 2:15) and study the Bible, Jesus and all the disciples taught from, the Old Testament we find that we need to stand still and to know that HE is God.
We all "sin unto death", my brother. If it is a matter of whether you will obey God or not, why not obey the command of Jesus Christ to show mercy with perfect patience to the worst of sinners, even murderers like Paul?
What you propose is to disobey Jesus! In John 1:1-3 we learn that Jesus is the God that created everything! Jesus is the God of the Old Testament! Now, if you will bother to take the time to read, slowly, with prayer and meditation, the entire Bible you will notice that Jesus, Paul and the eleven, continually, quoted the Old Testament in their teaching. This clearly demonstrates that the Bible Jesus used is the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) and the writings (the four Gospels, the letters and the Revelation of Jesus) are a commentary on that Bible, the best Life Application Commentary ever written.
Every syllable of the Old Testament is the Word of Jesus/God.
peace to you
raying:
And I for your understanding.
