{"id":9442,"date":"2013-12-19T17:31:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T17:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=9442"},"modified":"2013-12-19T17:51:26","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T17:51:26","slug":"are-you-happy-happy-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=9442","title":{"rendered":"Are You Happy, Happy, Happy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, I’m not! \u00a0For all those pin heads out there, that are running in circles “debating what does all this mean???!!!!” \u00a0Please allow me try to explain it to you.<\/p>\n

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In keeping with the blessed Christmas Season, let’s put it in Christian terms. \u00a0First if you are not a Christian, have never read the Bible, or not heard over five sermons in your life, you may want to stop now. \u00a0If you don’t stop now you are going to end up either, confused, angry, or irate, and in this season of joy I would not want any of that for you, so please skiddadle. \u00a0Trust me, you won’t understand, or may be unwilling to accept what I have to say.<\/p>\n

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Just the believers? or those open minded enough to “really” think about what I have to offer? \u00a0Good, shall we proceed? \u00a0Christmas is the celebration of the birth of “The” Christ, Jesus the Messiah, \u00a0the Holy Son of God, the Savior, the preeminent, most important person in history. \u00a0He came to this world so that we could all be forgiven for our sins if we would accept it.<\/p>\n

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What sins?<\/p>\n

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Romans says, “We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” \u00a0Wait a minute it says all!? \u00a0Yes it does, according to God, we are all sinners. \u00a0What are sins? \u00a0Any act or thought that is in conflict with God. \u00a0Want some examples? \u00a0Stealing, adultery, coveting, not honoring your father and mother, cheating, telling lies, hurting others, murder, blaspheming God’s name, lusting after the possessions of another, physical relations with your same sex. \u00a0Like me to go on, it’s a very long list? \u00a0 Now Jesus once said that “it is as much a sin to look upon a woman with lust in your heart as to commit an act with her.” \u00a0It was his answer to a question about what sins are the greatest. \u00a0He made it clear that all sin is sin, he did not offer to set up a scale, no one sin is greater than another, except for rejecting God.<\/p>\n

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So the important question is; have you never committed even a single sin? \u00a0I’m gong to take that silence as a no. \u00a0O.K. so if you have committed one or more sins, you are a sinner, doesn’t matter if it was stealing, cheating, telling a lie, or taking part in an immoral act. \u00a0Now my understanding is that Phil, in the interview that started all this mess, answered a question that homosexuality was a sin. \u00a0He also said it was not his job to judge, that it was God’s. \u00a0He further said his job was to offer God’s love and forgiveness. \u00a0He is absolutely correct. \u00a0You can be forgiven for any sin, if you stop committing it, repent, and ask God for His forgiveness. I’m failing to see what he did that was wrong?!<\/p>\n

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The problem is that some groups of people that represent supporters for certain sins don’t want to be told that they are sinning. Let’s say that I’m a thief, I steal things that don’t belong to me. Let’s further assume that someone points out that I am committing a sin, that of thievery. \u00a0But let’s further assume that I say, \u00a0“well I like to steal, and it’s nobodies business what I do when no one is looking!” \u00a0In addition to that, “it hurts my feelings and makes me feel bad when someone says I’m committing a sin! \u00a0I want you to stop, I demand you stop!!!!” \u00a0But what if I don’t stop, what if I continue to say that according to my faith, stealing is a sin. \u00a0If I were asked if I thought if it was a sin to steal and I said no, to save your feelings, then I would have lied, another sin, because my faith teaches that it is a sin to steal and also to lie. \u00a0What if my employer says if you are going to say things that hurt people’s feelings we are going to fire you from your job. \u00a0So my employer is saying, \u00a0A.<\/strong> you cannot work for us and say things that hurt others even if it is true or according to your faith, or \u00a0B<\/strong>. \u00a0In America we have freedom of speech accept for certain protected classes of people, like thieves. \u00a0or C.<\/strong> \u00a0We don’t believe in god, and we don’t believe his “so called” laws should have anything to do with behavior at this time in our history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take your choice folks, either there is a God and His Word matters, or there is not. \u00a0But as the old knight said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “Choose wisely!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Merry Christmas, and may we all be forgiven,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I’m not! \u00a0For all those pin heads out there, that are running in circles “debating what does all this mean???!!!!” \u00a0Please allow me try to explain it to you.   In keeping with the blessed Christmas Season, let’s put it in Christian terms. \u00a0First if you are not a Christian, have never read the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9442"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9450,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442\/revisions\/9450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}