Does anyone feel more and more like they don't belong here?

As we walk through the world we encounter difficulties. Jesus said it's inevitable we get into trouble, "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." - Job 5:7

I'm not altogether sure that either God or the devil sends these things our way. We have a great propensity to get into trouble all by ourselves. My two year old granddaughter is a good example. Strange how we can be reminded of things by the young.

The post-protestant church has abandoned the LAW and all its benefits and good teaching. Instead it has embraced all manner of debauchery. But the LAW works together with GRACE unto salvation. No one can be saved apart from the LAW.

I think of this pairing like a bathroom mirror and sink.

One cannot know one's face is dirty unless one looks into a mirror. The LAW of Moses is like God's mirror of sin, for we would not know our own sin unless we look into God's LAW. But the bathroom mirror cannot clean our dirty faces. We need soap and water. Likewise GRACE provides that cleanliness we need to be approved by God. Once clean we try to move through the world and keep clean. We walk according to the LAW with the help of GRACE, neither of which we can concoct on our own. We are wholly dependent upon God to provide what we need to be justified in His kingdom.

The Jewish festival of Shavout is a celebration of God's giving the LAW to Moses. In the book of Acts, God gives the Holy Spirit to the disciples of Jesus as a sign of GRACE given unto them. It is no coincidence that BOTH Pentecost & Shavout fall on the same calendar day.

LAW and GRACE work together unto righteousness for those who are blessed in knowing God. The LAW is NOT abolished as many say. It is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Until and unless one knows and understands the LAW fully, one cannot begin to comprehend and stand in awe of what God has done for us in the LAW provided by GRACE.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

If you REALLY want to educate yourself on the origins of rapture dogma, google "Jesuit Futurism".

The RCC began a war against protestantism using several methods; outright persecution, threat of excommunication, and false doctrine. The doctrine of the rapture, tribulation, etc. are all derived from the original doctrine of Futurism. Look it up.

The modern variant of futurism was revived by John Nelson Darby in the mid-1800's and was accepted by evangelist D.L. Moody and Bible publisher Cyrus Scofield. Scofield deliberately altered Biblical interpretation by adding chain references to support rapture theory in his published Bibles - where it survives to this day. Churches today have so absorbed Catholic ideology that they no longer adhere to anything taught by the fathers of the Protestant Reformation. Nothing of what Protestantism stood for or taught remains today. Now, the churches calling themselves protestant actually march in lock-step with the Vatican. This is why the term "post-protestant church" is used in tomes discussing the state of the church today.

Finally I need to add to the reader that investigating these matters will not destroy one's faith. Quite the contrary. Those who hold rapture dogma close are like those who once believed they'd fall off the earth if they sailed too far from sight of land. Those who trust in faith will venture out beyond comfortable shores and discover new things created by the hand of God.

It is unfortunate that so many refuse to accept that which God has provided and choose instead to hold on to fantasy that will not save.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

Sadly, despite being the wisest man he ended up doing the most foolish things.

Your not alone my friend... Stay strong and have faith that our reward will be not in this world but the next

What things? I'm curious as to your list of stupid things Solomon may have committed.

In what ways other than politics was Solomon wise? None that I'm aware of ...... other than his accomplishments with writing poetry and possessing a limited grasp of philosophy. If his writings are any indication, he knew little of religion.

Solomon was an exceptionally astute politician.

He knew how to get people to do what he wanted, but nearly everyone hated him for it. Solomon was NOT wise regarding human kindness. He WAS wise regarding manipulation of the people. The two are mutually exclusive qualities.

Most Hebrews were glad when he died. Nobody wants a leader who is a political genius. We all prefer our leaders a little mad.

Solomon's idiot son Rehoboam was far worse than his father. He was a political moron.

Then again, it wouldn't be the first time nor the last that God used a political hack to judge a nation.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

The foolish (stupid) things Solomon did was having hundreds of wives and concubines who led him to worship other gods and not the one true God. It was his immoral behavior that led to his alienation from God. I agree with your estimation about his other atrocious behavior and actions. The way that he treated his subjects was deplorable.

Even when handed wisdom from God humans are still fallible and screw it up, and need salvation no matter what?

I do feel as if the world has grown more insane...

To cheer having the right to kill your babies as the Irish and now the Argentinians are doing seems insane to me.

Telling people that you are a woman when you are a man or vice versa seems insane to me.

To try to get people to think that there are more than 2 genders seems insane to me.

To allow people to riot and loot but you can’t go to church or visit family seems insane to me.

To want war for financial gain seems insane to me.

To want to rule the world with an evil bent on a dictatorship seems insane to me. To look in the US and see governors and mayors drunk on power..seems insane to me.

To tell people they can go into a restaurant wearing a mask only to be able to take it down when you sit down seems insane to me.

To sit side by side wearing masks in an airplane but be able to take them off to eat seems insane to me.

To say marriage isn’t just between a man and woman seems insane to me.

To say that a woman is carrying a fetus and that’s ok to abort rather than the truth that a woman is carrying a baby and murder is wrong seems insane to me.

To say evil is good and good is evil seems insane to me.

God could just reach down and set everything right. He has the power. But that's not the universe he created. He created a universe in which we have free will.

In order for us to have free will, he had to tie his hands behind his back. No, he had to sever his hands off.

He severed off his hands, and then sent them off into the world, to do his work. We are his hands. We are his mouth, his feet, his arms for holding the sick and needy, his ears for listening to cries of his children.

When Jesus told us that whenever we do something "to the least of these," we do it to him, that's kinda what he meant. We serve God by serving others. We love God by loving others. We become God to those others, doing His will unto the last and the least.