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Okay, so every day or so, I’ll post an encouraging message, Bible verse, or quote. Feel free to add your own as well! Ummm, yeah! Once this goes through I’ll post the first. 🙂
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Bible verse of the day! hope you all feel encouraged!!!
Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yes, I will help thee; yes, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.”
2 Corinthians 8:9: “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty He could make you rich.”
Matthew 1:22-23: “All this happened to make clear the full meaning of what the Lord said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be pregnant and will give birth to a son. They will name him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).”Encouraging message:
Okay guys, we’ll get to the point. This Christmas season, I have a very important message. Who knows the meaning of Christmas?? (Some hands raise, others look around confused)
Okay, here it goes. I’ll post the story in chunks, or, I’ll just copy and paste. PLEASE READ!!!!!
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to their own town to register. Before this happened, an angel appeared to the Virgin Mary, saying unto you, a child will be born. He will be the savior, a mighty one. You will call him Jesus, because he will save the world of their sins.More tomorrow!!!
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Oh yeah! Please comment your thoughts about each passage/ message, and feel free to add/share any of your favorite verses/anything else.
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I love the story of Christmas! (I already know the story, btw.) I think it’s really healthy for a society to worship a little child and his mother, because it helps people to realize how important children and mothers are, and it helps to foster love and tolerance and human/family values instead of more aggressive traits. At least, it might. In theory. Hopefully.
And the whole story is magical… Although I must say it’s really modern and prosaic that the Romans wanted everyone to register themselves in a census lol.
It’s also interesting to connect the Bible story with the history of what was happening at the time. Did you know that the Three Kings might have been Zoroastrians from the East?
In Mexico and other Hispanic countries, it’s a tradition to put up little Nativity scenes with small figurines, clumps of moss, and other decorations, showing the birth of Jesus. They’re always beautiful! You can add ponds and seashells and paths and a stable and animals and onlookers and whatever else you like… And some people get really inventive with them, I once saw one that was made out of Legos!
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Thanks @Poinsettia for replying. I thought it would be a good idea to make this thread. (Because so everyone can know 1. The true meaning of Christmas, and 2, so the other Chaterboxers can come to know Christ. The whole reason people celebrate Christmas!
I love the idea of putting nativity scenes in windows! Some people in our neighborhood have some in their yards and as well as in windows.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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This is such a nice thread idea
:)Quick reminder that not all CBers may be Christian, so I think it’s important to make sure that there are things in this thread which they can find encouraging too. I agree, though, Christmas is a special time! I love how it’s a purely joyful holiday.I believe some people in Mexico put their Nativity scenes in their windows, but many others actually just put them in their living rooms. You can also find them in public parks or supermarkets – there was a gorgeous one in a mall once with very large figurines, about the size of a small child, which was really elaborate. (Also side note but I’m just remembering how much nicer Mexican malls are than American ones – they’re much smaller and happier and friendlier <3 They also tend to have Christmas trees at this time of year; some of them are really enormous and it’s so nice :))
Also, happy quote: “Be noble, for you are made of stars.” (Serbian proverb)
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I will bear in mind that not all Chatterboxers are Christians, I knew that posting this thread to begin with. I just thought it would be a good idea anyway.
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please don’t post bible verses. i hate it when people try to force religion on me, and i go to a religious school so i already have enough of it in my life.
i’m not saying it’s against the chatterbox rules, i’m just making a personal request not to post stuff from the bible on here because not everyone is christian so bible verses aren’t “encouraging” to everyone.
if you want to post bible verses, you could make a specific thread for that and post encouraging things for everyone on here
:)this obviously isn’t a demand and you don’t have to, but i’d really appreciate it if you could because i love the idea of this thread but i definitely won’t use it if you continue to post bible verses and christian stuff.
(also, i see you said that you believe the true meaning of christmas is the birth of jesus, so i wanted to share what the true meaning of christmas is for me! in my opinion the true meaning of christmas is spending time with family and friends and finding light in the dark months. i actually think the story of jesus might’ve been made up partly for those exact reasons!
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I understand what you are saying. It’s good to keep people of all religions and beliefs in mind. We don’t, however, believe that posting quotes is forcing religion upon anyone. People are just posting what they find encouraging and giving the source of any quotation cited.
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i understand where you are coming from, but this is a quote from Thalorwin: “Because so everyone can know 1. The true meaning of Christmas, and 2, so the other Chaterboxers can come to know Christ. The whole reason people celebrate Christmas!” and (in my opinion) this definitely feels like forcing religion on people.
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What Thalorwin said is: what the true meaning of Christmas is for me.
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I’m not trying to force it. I just wanted to share my beliefs. Sorry for the misunderstanding
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Ummmm I didn’t post the post saying to stop posting Bible verses on this thread. That was someone else.
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I’m sorry everyone! I just, wanted to share about my God and the actual real meaning of Christmas. I didn’t post the post by @thalorwin btw. And I will still post Bible verses. It’s not against the CB rules. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. I’m also not trying to force Christianity on you all. I made this thread, I can put my topic on it and post on it what I want. 🙂 I get how you feel, but I will continue putting Bible verses on this thread.
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Thalorwin, I apologize. I’m so sorry that I mistook @thalorwin. The comment is from some unidentified person directed at you. I’ll go back and delete your name as the address of my comment.
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Thanks @Admin!
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Continuing Bible verses of the day!
Luke 1:46-47
And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my SaviorChristmas story continued
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
It sort of overlaps from last times… Hope it doesn’t matter to much
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ah, sorry for the confusion. my name was @thalorwin, as in, addressing thalorwin with my post. i wasn’t saying i was Thalorwin. thalorwin, I believe that’s a made up story. It’s not actually true, at least in my opinion.
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I do agree that a thread for encouragement should have things for everyone, though it is Thalorwin’s thread so it’s a little unfair to dictate what she can or can’t post on it. I believe Christ definitely existed, and while I think that a lot of the stories in the Bible may have been exaggerated or partially made up (or even mistranslated! It turns out that Christ never actually said the thing of fitting a camel through a needle’s eye – in the original, he says that it’s hard to fit a camel rope through a needle. I find that rather fascinating :D), U believe most of the general gist is true. I hope you don’t take this as trying to force religion on you or invalidating your points; I’m just rather curious as to why you think that, and I’d love to hear your opinions on it
:)Also, have some hugs… It must be really difficult to go to a religious school if you don’t believe in it. *sends positivitea* <3
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I do not believe it is made up. I see Christ working in my life. God gives us a choice to believe or not and he loves us no matter what. I get why you don’t believe.
I will continue with posting Bible verses. 🙂
(Please no more hate toward it, cause that’s how it feels reading your comments)
Once Christmas is over, I’ll post a mix of everything encouraging, though I won’t stop with Biblical stuff. Sorry again for all of the misunderstanding and stuff.Verse of the day!!
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.Continuing Christmas story
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Christmas Eve Eve is tomorrow! merry Christmas everybody!!!
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admins, i don’t know if my last post didn’t go through or if you didn’t post it. if it’s the latter, i did not include anything inappropriate or against chatterbox rules, i am sharing my beliefs just like thalorwin shared hers. please post this, thank you.
@amethyst, thank you so much for the thoughtful reply! i personally believe that jesus was a real historical figure, but that most of the bible was made up. i think jesus was just a regular person and somehow got enough attention that people wrote the bible. it just doesn’t make sense to me that things that all these things that completely defy science happened so that jesus could be born, but nothing like that happens today. sure, there are things that happen that are extremely lucky, or things that we don’t understand happen, but that’s just science. there’s nothing like the near-magic that the bible describes.
of course, this is all just my opinion and i completely get that everyone has different beliefs and opinions. if everyone thought exactly the same the world would be very boring. thalorwin, i completely respect your decision to continue posting bible verses. i’m sorry if it came off as hate, that was not my intention at all. i just wanted to make sure you understood that your thread is not encouraging for everyone, but that is totally okay because it’s your thread and you can post what you want. i’m really sorry it felt like hate.
oh, just one quick question @thalorwin. you believe that god loves everyone, right? like, everyone. no matter their race, religion, gender (female, male, nonbinary, and everything in between), literally everyone. right? but if he’s so great, why does he let such terrible things happen to the people he loves? again, i’m not trying to hate. this is a genuine question that i’ve always been curious about.
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I’m not Christian, I’m Jewish, but I will add my own two cents on this topic from my perspective.
To my knowledge, no one really disputes Jesus’s existence as a person, they dispute his role or status. In Christianity, he is God or alternatively the son of God and the future Messiah. In Islam he is the Messiah and a prophet but not God or somehow more elevated than other prophets such as Moses or Abraham. In Judaism, he is neither the Messiah nor God; he was just a regular person.
Wait! Let me add on that; he wasn’t just a regular person, he was also a great rabbi who (I’m pretty sure, if someone could provide clarification for this thanks) was taught by our other great rabbi Hillel, of Hillel/Shammai dispute fame. Jews often do learn from Jesus’s teachings as he told them himself, for example about love and friendship; we only get uncomfortable when someone talks about “Jesus our Lord” or “Jesus our Lord God” since that is the main point of contention between Jews and Christians.
Admins if my previous (identical) comment to this went through please don’t post this.
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Just posting bible verses is only one person sharing what they believe. Other people might take parts and use them to be accepting and cause positive change.
That said, calling this a bible verse thread would be much preferable to general encouragement, unless it’s only partially bible verses as part of the encouragement.
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Oh, that’s interesting! To some extent, I agree with you; I think the most supernatural of the occurrences of the Bible probably didn’t happen as it says in the Bible. (I’m also completely skeptical of the Old Testament; I frankly think Christians should drop it entirely, since it’s bombastic, not even child-appropriate in parts, and is so unreliable that it has two versions of the Creation story! And the less-well-known one actually seems much more sensible.) Personally, I believe that Jesus was simply a very special person who made the people he was around feel better (there are definitely people like that in the real world); he might have been able to help heal people that way. And, of course, his message – that people should love each other – was very beautiful and powerful, so people surely also followed him because they liked it.
As you said, though, this is all just my opinion! I’m so glad you were willing to discuss it a bit more; it’s always so interesting to hear what other people have to say about these topics.
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It is partially Bible verses, not all @anonymous and Bottled_Haze
Romans 10:9
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!!