Comments for William Petruzzo

Comment on A Good Bible Reading Plan to Plan on Reading by Add More Ribbons to Your Bible! | William Petruzzo

Add More Ribbons to Your Bible! | William Petruzzo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:14:42 +0000

[...] was motivated to do this primarily by the bible reading plan that I follow. The plan has me in four different parts of the bible at all times. It becomes [...]

Comment on Smug, Self-Righteous, Judgmental by Karen

Karen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:18:32 +0000

Some churches seem to manufacture self righteousness.
They elevate certain individuals in the church like the pastor’s wife or the deacon’s wife and then these people turn into self righteousness jerks and think they can be rude or do inappropriate things, because they think themselves to be so spiritural and above it all. Or they make over the new people to an unhealthy degree. My husband turned into a self righteous horses rear end when he got involved in a new church. Seems they were really pandering to his ego, told him what a wonderful spiritural person he was supposedly turning into ( big mistake there, as anyone can put thier church face on for an hour or two and you really have no idea what people are like until you live with them), and he started picking up head games from the 3 times married leader of his support group and saying ignorant things to me at home.
Since I was not attending that church with my husband, I knew the drill, I was the bad guy and they convinced him I was the source of his long held insecurities, never mind those insecurities were there many years before I ever met him! So when a church makes the mistake of telling people everything a person wants to hear, pumps up their ego, and then you wonder what the problem is at home with the supposedly uncooperative wife….geeze, get a clue.
Following after a 3 times married support “leader” is not a wise thing to do.

So my point is, watch out. Some churches can do a whole lot more damage than good. I know because this particular church did a lot of damage to our marriage and they don’t have a clue. Apparently,
neither does my husband, who even though he is no longer going to that church, never got off his high horse and still thinks those people walked on water and could do no wrong….all because they catered to his ego and told him everything he wanted to hear.

Comment on The Grass Knows Better by Amy

Amy — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:00:28 +0000

*sigh*
well said

Comment on Take Reality Into Account by RC of strangeculture

RC of strangeculture — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:31:06 +0000

Piper is always so challenging — his definitiion of foolish makes virtually everything foolishness — talk about perspective.

Piper certainly paints a great challenge for us.

Comment on Grace & the Will of God by Magdalena

Magdalena — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:18:07 +0000

it’s interesting how God deals with us. The preparation for the mission trip was probably in progress and I suppose ur friend was sure that’s God will guides him to India. And few days before departure God stopped him. Just like my friends who were sure to start a love-relationship, they prayed a lot before it, and after few months the man left her. Probably there’re two different stories and two different reasons but anyway we cannot doubt that God stopped lead us, if we only seek Him with all our hearts.

Comment on A Good Bible Reading Plan to Plan on Reading by William

William — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:22:46 +0000

I’m still in it. I started half way through 2008 and it’s been really effective. I recommend it to nearly everyone. It’s so helpful in spreading out your reading that it keeps new readers from being disillusioned and frustrated and it keeps seasoned readers from getting swept up into one tiny portion of scripture forgetting the whole of it.

I imagine I’ll probably go through it three or four times before I seriously look for something different. Or, maybe I’ll use the same plan but shake it up–perhaps reading from four different months at one time.

Comment on A Good Bible Reading Plan to Plan on Reading by Joe

Joe — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:09:37 +0000

Thanks for sharing this. I think I’m going to use this plan for my reading in 2009.

How did you do with this plan in ‘08 ?

Comment on How Prayer Can Change You by William

William — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:46:46 +0000

Bah. We’ll continue this over tea time or something.

Comment on How Prayer Can Change You by Dad

Dad — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:43:49 +0000

I take it you believe God commanded us to do what we are incapable of doing. That is, in “Love God with …”, He commanded us to be in a specific emotional state. One cannot choose his emotions (feelings) but he can choose his attitudes and actions in spite of emotions that may be present and contradictory over time. Perhaps you are saying one can choose his emotional responses to the situations in life! If that’s what you are saying, I don’t buy it.

Signing off this topic. Bye.

Comment on How Prayer Can Change You by William

William — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:25:12 +0000

The heart and the intellect are not mutually exclusive. But, in the discussion of whether or not the Love in “Love God with…” is an emotion, why presume that it’s not an emotion?

So let’s ask this: If you brought mom a bouquet of flowers she would be very glad. But, what if you handed her the flowers and said, “Just doing my duty”. It would empty the gesture of most of its value. It might be virtuous, but not necessarily loving. The gesture of love is largely, although not entirely, qualified in the emotion that lies under it.

So yes, I think that when we’re commanded to love God, we’re being commanded to an emotion of some kind. Perhaps a deeper emotion. But, simply because we cannot fulfill that command does not mean that it wasn’t the command.

Who do you know who’s ever been able to keep all the ten commandments? Even the most pious saints were sinners. And, if you could come up with someone who had actually managed to keep all ten commandments perfectly, then you’d have a big conundrum–Why was there a new covenant if the old covenant was apparently working fine? If we could somehow follow all the commands we’re given, then why did Jesus die?

If we see that there are plenty of commands that we cannot keep, then what’s wrong with God commanding that we love him, and not only in an “I’m going to do what I ought to do” kind of way?