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Regarding the possible reason for the differing verbs Holy Spirit used in this passage to lay down a Godly relationship a married couple ...submit for wives and love for husbands... ?, a U.S. author and Bible teacher suggests an interesting thesis. You can read about it at ? .

Personally, Karen, my wife and I are looking forward to sitting around a heavenly campfire in due course in our exciting, new spiritual state as "unmarrieds" after, even now, 55 years of intimate relationship. When we do, I'm planning to ask Father, Son and Holy Spirit if, in using the verbs they did to instruct us in Ephesian 5:21-27, they also were describing the relationship that They have had forever with One Another? I think about God's relationship as Trinity in this way ever since I learned about the meaning of the Hebrew word "yada" in Proverbs 3: 5-6 [ http://diigo.com/0mnpj ]. here God tells us how to relate to Them. In many Bibles, this verb is often translated as "acknowlege. Interestingly to me, it also means "to have intercourse with" as in Adam "knew" Eve in Genesis 4:1 (KJV) or "had relations with" (NASB) or "made love to" (NIV). Genesis 4:1 is one of the few other times that yada is used in the Old Covenant!

My problem with Rhoberta's psychology when she points to "understanding" the roots of anger/rage as a route to healing is that it cannot produce freedom from your bondage. (I know this because I knew the emotional and spiritual roots of my rage for the full 25 years that I struggled with my it and that understanding didn't help me one bit. Only knowing "truth" can set you free. Understanding our past pain's roots doesn't produce truth or "freedom" from the pain. Only the truth that Jesus talks about at http://is.gd/NwDqOu can do that. gfp

I taught "anger management techniques" and knowing tips like this S-M-A-R-TTip didn't help me: "Relationships can only thrive when one party, at least, knows how to back off!" (Rhoberta is more blunt in her Esstenial #1 when she says: "Shut your mouth!") But, bluntness in my teaching wasn't the lack! Teaching "techniques" rather than "spiritual truth" was! Here's truth http://diigo.com/0jiqa . gfp

You're too bright to believe in your heart that a perfectly holy God who demands absolute justice would be willing to measure anyone's ability to enter heaven on a "Bell Curve of good works" as the Qur'an suggests in Surah 23:97-104 or any other way but via His loving grace.

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!

The author means Satan's influence is present in the form of his diabolical power exercised by his troops, demons. Only Almighty God is everywhere-present, all-powerful and all-knowing according to the Bible.

Jihad is an Arabic word that describes the peaceful or violent expansion of Islam as "the only way" as stated in the Constitution of the Muslim Brotherhood. This monstrous and multiple-tentacled organization was founded and is headquartered in Egypt. It operates stealth-jihad organizations funded by Saudi Arabian, Wahhabi-sect money in every non-Muslim democracy and other country in the world according to experts in Islamic terrorism like Raymond Ibrahim and Tawfik Hamid. However, most Westerners fear AlQaeda the most. In the statements of all violent Jihadists and their groups directed at European or American audiences, they maintain that the terrorism they inflict on the West is merely reciprocal treatment for decades of Western and Israeli oppression. (The common term used by many American politicians for this is "blowback".) Yet in writings directed to their fellow Muslims, their hatred is presented, not as a reaction to military or political provocation, but as a product of religious obligation. For instance, when addressing Western audiences, Osama bin Laden used to list any number of grievances as motivating his war on the West. These included, among others, from the oppression of the Palestinians to the Western exploitation of women, and even U.S. failure to sign the environmental Kyoto protocol. All these were designed to be intelligible from a Western perspective and mask their real intent using taqiyya, Qur'anic approved "liefare". However never once, according to Raymond Ibrahim, did bin Laden justify Al-Qaeda's attacks on Western targets simply because non-Muslim countries are infidel entities that must be subjugated ...as violent Jihadists read the Qur'an. Indeed, he often initiates his messages to the West by saying, "Reciprocal treatment is part of justice" or "Peace to whoever follows guidance". Regrettably, he means something entirely different from what his Western listeners understand by words such as "peace," "justice," or "guidance." Wes

al-Mahadi or "Twelfth Imam" In Shi'a Islam, al-Mahdi will come at the end of days to bring the world to Islam for Allah. he will arrive in the midst of man-created world chaos or cause it after his arrival. His followers are called "Twelvers". The top government leaders of Iran and the real leaders, the "Mullahs" are Twelvers and based on a secret, recent video they released to their military and others, they believe only chaos will bring him back to earth. Joel Rosenberg, author of "The Twelfth Imam", and others argue they wish to expedite the Madhi's return by raining nuclear chaos on the Middle East i.e., on Israel, thereby creating the necessary ingerdients for his return. Sunni Muslim theology also includes a belief in, plus an eschatological* expectation of, the "Twelfth Imam" or the Mahdi, according to Mr. Rosenberg. * es·cha·tol·o·gy (sk-tl-j) n. 1. The branch of theology that is concerned with the end of the world or of humankind. 2. A belief or a doctrine concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgement.

Sunni Muslim theology also includes a belief in, plus an eschatological* expectation of, the "Twelfth Imam" or the Mahdi, according to Mr. Rosenberg.

The author is VERY knowldgeable about the Christian Bible, Islam and history. His analysis is VERY well developed and suggests "wine" is oil and "the woman" is Saudi Arabia and her predecessors.

In his book, "The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church", Marvin Rosenthal, outlines a powerful, Biblical analysis of the Old and New Covenants regarding when the so-called "Rapture" of Jesus Followers takes place. Mr. Rosenthal concludes from his well-documented, clear, easy-to-understand and graphics-supported analysis that the commonly-believed "Pre-Tribulation Rapture" theological position of most North American Bible teachers is inaccurate and not supported by a careful Biblical analysis. You can read a short, well-done summary of Mr. Rosenthal's thesis by another Bible teacher at http://diigo.com/0mhvg.

I wonder why the author construes an historical report of what the writer considered 'truth' and 'facts' as 'hatred'. The history of Christianity may be replete with antisemitism, especially some of the protestant Reformers of the Catholic Church, like Luther particulalrly. However, I feel the charge of hatred in the Gospel accounts of the Jewish involvement in the death of Jesus is an unfair one. The Roman authorities were jst as responsible for the crucifixion of Yeshua/Jesus. In fact the Bible seems to make clear that the sin nature and sins of every person who has ever or ever will live is the real reason for Jesus' death. We are ALL responsible ...not just the Jewish and Roman authorities!

Jesus called us to "do this", i.e., celebrate His sacrifice by eating together as a community of Believers in and Followers of Him. He did not call us to celebrate Passover an eternal commandment for Jews only. Jesus claimed that he had come to fulfill "all the [requirements of the] law and the prophets"!

I'd suggest it is more a replacement of, as I note above, rather than a parallel with a Seder!

Here may lie the roots of the similar Muslim practise regarding their reverance, not for God's holy name(s) but, for their human prophet Mohammud. Many Muslims are taught to rever their prophet at a level that approaches worship. The Judeo-Christian Bible reserves worship ONLY for Almighty God ...not the demonically inspired construct called Allah and certainly not a murderous Arab warrior from the 7th Century.

As I wonder in the e-Sticky Note immediately above, here may lie the root of the similar Muslim practise regarding their reverance, not for God's holy name(s) but, for their human prophet Mohammud. Many Muslims are taught to rever their prophet at a level that approaches worship. The Judeo-Christian Bible reserves worship ONLY for Almighty God ...not the demonically inspired construct called Allah and certainly not a murderous Arab warrior from the 7th Century.

Most Jesus Followers would work from the premise that Yeshua's/Jesus' words during his last Supper on earth, 'till His return at the end of times, were inspired by God's Holy Spirit ...like all His other recorded comments in the Scriptures.

Like many scholars, including some Christian ones, statements like this one are often rooted in a disbelief of the supernatural plus a denial of the possibility that God gave Gamaliel, the Grandfather, a prophetic "word of knowledge"! Prophesy can place the words in the elder Gamaliel's mouth who did live at the time of Jesus who also prophesied the soon-coming (about 40 years later) destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

A Jesus Follower can know that s(he) knows by faith in the accuracy of our Scriptures. The Scriptures make clear, not 'presumably', that Jesus discussed His replacement of an Old Covenant commandment with a New Covenant. he explains clearly a NEW symbolism for the bread and wine as remembrances and tokens of His sacrificed body and blood on behalf of all who would believe ...NOT the Jews deliverance from Egypt but... all humankind's route to deliverance from the penalty of our sin nature and sins (Romans 3:23 & 6:23) through Him!

The Last Supper being a Seder meal on the Day of Passover is NOT the key issue for a Jesus Follower as I mentioned in my e-Sticky Note above. The key on the cotrary is Who Jesus was as the God-man and what he was about to do for us on His cross on cavalry.

Interestingly, no where, that I can find in the Old or New Covenants, does God command or even suggest that His people should fast. I have not extensively researched the issue but, I suspect I'll discover that, this propably is a Jewish ritual that was carried on by early Christians, i.e., another man-made tradition. There is the reference in Matthew 6:16-18 where Jesus says: "When you fast ...." This is NOT a command but simply, in context, an observational reference to a practise that was common among religious Jews ...the group to whom Jesus was speaking. I comment further on this issue in e-Sticky Note on the Matthew 6 Scripture at http://diigo.com/0piw0 and in the article on fasting from Christianity today at http://diigo.com/0p9iv .

here again, and depsite what Karl Kuhn says, the issue is not celebrating Passover, but Jesus' command to eat together as a group of his Followers whenever we can and "remember" him.

This heresy didn't last very long. Some Messianic Jews still today follow Old Covenant feast and other practises that other Christians do not.

Typology as some call it i.e., seeing Old Covenant people, practises and places as 'types' or 'shadows' pointing to or representing Jesus is common in some Christian circles and with some teachers.

And regardless of leavened or unleavened bread or wafers, these kinds of issue are seen by many Jesus Followers as focusing on dead and deadly religious ritual, regalia and rules rather than on relationship, revelation and romance with a living God through Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah/Christ.

The Art of Not Being Offended The word "offend" in the New Testament means to trip, stumble, or fall away. Frank Viola, a Christian author and teacher uses the word here with a specific connotation. Being offended is to get so upset with someone that you hold a grudge against them or retaliate actively or passively. Hurt feelings aren't the same as being offended. Mr. Viola says: "Too often, Christians choose to be offended when their feelings get hurt. Christians are the most easily offended people in the world. We should be the least." gfp (2012-03-13)

Mr. Moll explains in this article the light that neuroscience, he says, sheds on how fasting and other so-called, "spiritual disciplines" work. He says our socalled "Christian disciplines" train our subconscious mental processes. I wonder if what he says makes sense because his opinions are based solely on a number of unproveable theories which he shares like they were facts without any qualification. I've added below some e-Sticky Notes about what I think. How do you feel about what I have written? gfp (2012-03-30)

Amen!

This is a statement with significant spiritual implications for which Mr. Mol offers absolutely no scientfic proof or Bisbilical support. Therefore, I suggest the statement is potentially dangerous because it promotes our works rather than "rest" in God as the Bible clearly does command in Hebrews 4.

This process and that described below are hard-wired into our DNA by God to protect us ...not the result of our pratcising disciples!

As a charismatic Follower of Jess, I would suggest that the results Mr. Moll is describing here can be just as acceptably ascribed to God working in His Followers' spirit because He lives in us ...rather than to some unprovable thesis stated like fact about a 'subconscious' developed by worldly psychology. The subconscious is not science because the concept is not replicable nor is it provable. Jesus Followers, on the other hand however, know that they know that they know that God leads them. We do because of the always beneficial result when we do what Holy Spirit leads.