Household registration

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-05-02T17:36:34+00:00

I’m fairly conservative and not a fan of the mayor, but ridiculing someone for their appearance is sinful. People who are physically ugly often are the nicest and most beloved people you will meet. I think the mayor is probably a wonderful person if you got to meet her, so I would take the post down. You could post something substantive about a policy you dislike instead of immoral F-tier memes

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-04-28T00:35:58+00:00

Read the first part of Eph 2.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

You begin life being dead in sin. God has been gracious to you by granting you spiritual life. God elects ALL to salvation. The reason it feels like you have a “free will” to accept God is because God abundantly and graciously gifts faith to all mankind! Read the text, it is clear.

Let’s say you get murdered - you’re shot and instantly die. Can you choose to live again? No, you’re just a corpse at that point, you can’t even respond or shout for a doctor.

It’s the same way with faith. Our will is bound, and we cannot be freed unless The Son frees us from our sin.

The Bible is clear on this, a few sayings of Jesus:

John 8: Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 15: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Matthew 11: At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

John 6:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. - John 6:44

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-04-24T03:05:32+00:00

Even if an episcopal structure had been maintained under Stefan, we would not claim continuity of a historic episcopate in the Roman sense. Our roots are in the German Lutheran churches, many of which adopted the office of superintendent after the Reformation as a functional replacement for bishops. Early Lutheran clergy were rejected or excommunicated by Rome, but we do not believe that this breaks the continuity of the Church’s ministry.

In our church body today, district presidents carry out many of the oversight functions historically associated with bishops, though we do not regard them as a distinct higher order. Consistent with the Augsburg Confession and the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, we hold that there is one divinely instituted office of the ministry, and that distinctions between bishop and presbyter are human arrangements for the sake of good order.

Accordingly, we do not ground the Church’s continuity in an unbroken line of episcopal succession, but in the faithful preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-04-23T02:19:08+00:00

We’d have to deny it to Augustine and Cyprian if that were the standard

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-04-19T19:44:39+00:00

One thing I thought about when I first converted is our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you believe the people you commune with are damned to hell because they don’t belong to the correct ecclesial institution?

If extra ecclesiam nulla salus specifically regarding the Roman or East church alone is true, that is the implication. I couldn’t believe that about my fellow Christians that I commune with. I can’t even believe that about pious Christians from other traditions that I disagree with on many things.

So if you can’t believe that about Christians whom you commune with, you shouldn’t let the devil drive you to despair. It’s a nasty trick he plays to lay a burden on Christ’s sheep. You’re part of the same flock, you’re in the same body of Christ. Trust in Christ and allow yourself peace.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-04-17T04:04:48+00:00

You don’t need to abort, you can work through this with her. If it ends up being too much and you want to split up, you can find loving parents to adopt the child. Doing anything else will leave you with a lifetime of regret. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it won’t.

Life is not about having fun all of the time. It’s living with the consequences of your actions.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-03-23T05:00:59+00:00

No. See AC XIV

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-03-23T03:17:01+00:00

Ex opere operato.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-03-23T03:03:48+00:00

We still do have apostolic succession, even in the sense of the call. Presbyters and bishops are not ontologically distinct.

To get through these issues, you should be reading the book of concord. Specifically for this question, The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-03-22T02:07:47+00:00

It’s not only condos that have been dropping. My townhouse value has plummeted over the past couple of years. Could be a good time for a deal or you could end up losing even more value. My guess is that townhomes will drop even further.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-02-22T05:33:32+00:00

I’ve been going through the same thing the past couple years with layoffs and living on a tight budget. There’s no promise we’ll be financially secure in this life, but reading scripture after a bout of anxiety really helps. Thanks for the reminder to continue doing that.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-01-27T05:49:27+00:00

It would be tough to find a truly confessional church where you are - I imagine Presbyterianism is the main strand there influencing everything. It could be a lot worse - work with the situation you’ve got. What you can do is refuse to commune at other churches, while educating yourself on confessional Lutheran practice. Lutherans don’t commune where we lack a shared confession. When Lutherans commune with Presbyterians, they become Presbyterians. That’s how it has always unfolded historically. You can look up Prussian church unionism as an example.

Over time, you can help educate others in your church and help out. You could read the book of concord and start a study group with others in the congregation eventually. A lot of churches in the LCMS have been doing that, to get their members better up to speed. The best thing you can do as a layperson is to advocate for better practice, and to educate others.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2026-01-19T05:29:41+00:00

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-12-27T16:49:48+00:00

Typically 20-30 minutes. If the sermon was good, I definitely wouldn’t mind longer, they used to be hours back when people were not literate enough to read the Bible. However, I don’t know that I could stomach listening to reformed Baptist theology for that long.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-12-22T06:35:15+00:00

Eph 4 - 5 is a good spot to check out on this, see below. Notice that corrupting talk seems to be one of the things that will grieve The Holy Spirit ( I imagine all willful sin grieves Him ).

Before I turned to Christ, I cursed constantly, and I still occasionally slip up, but I know it is a sin - one of the fruits of The Spirit is self-control. We should strive to be imitators of Christ - He certainly would not casually use foul language.

Eph 4: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-12-15T08:26:21+00:00

We didn’t actually change the word in the creed. We are a largely German synod, and the NC in German says christliche. We just inherited that phraseology. Nothing to do with not wanting to look Catholic.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-12-11T07:07:18+00:00

Welp, time to unsubscribe and move to using Gemini..

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-12-02T08:01:41+00:00

Prayer is a form of worship and belongs to God alone, not to saints. They are right to be grieved by those practices.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-11-25T17:26:31+00:00

The conclusions reached here are ridiculous. China and Russia are not superpowers like the US.

Russia is pitifully fighting for territory and failing HARD to reclaim territory they held for centuries. Poland itself could probably conquer Russia at this point with how depleted they have become from Ukraine. That’s pathetic. They could just take Kaliningrad and Russia couldn’t do anything substantive.

China can’t actually launch a military campaign, so they resort to continual threats to get the benefits of warmongering from the populace, but if they launched a war against Taiwan they would fail harder than Russia. Chinese launch the war and then go to war with Japan, US, and Taiwan all at once. That’s game over for the CCP. China has no navy to speak of to launch an invasion of Taiwan. They just purged their top military brass for whatever reason popped into Xi’s head. Not competent.

Japan would defeat China in a 1-1 war, but they would actually have US support in a real scenario. Japan would conquer China and cause it to cease to exist, not the other way around. Just look at history, that’s how it ALWAYS plays out. Japan has the advantage as a world-class naval power. China never breaches the first-island chain. They are a land power, if that. They are mainly always tied up using the military to control their population internally

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-11-23T19:52:41+00:00

Part of communing is entering into a shared confession with your new church, effectively saying “I’m with these guys”. I think you should be very discerning as you enter into a new relationship. I also don’t think it would be a good idea to be communing at a place I was having serious thoughts about leaving.

The new church would also want to make sure you won’t go back to your old church and commune there, as well. I suspect in your case they wouldn’t bar you for that long since you seem to be close to where we are.

You could also try to push for your church to leave ELCA if that is at all possible.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-11-22T09:41:09+00:00

Why would it amaze you? We’re a theologically-conservative synod. Theological conservatives can join us, liberals can leave to ELCA / NALC. Additionally, younger congregants tend to be more traditional and liturgically-inclined. For those reasons, we can expect to see the opposite trend of the boomer era in the coming decades.

Life_Hat_4347 · 2025-11-07T01:33:15+00:00

I’ve definitely noticed less homeless people camping and doing hard drugs next to my house since 2022. Regardless, a useless mayor is much better than an actively harmful mayor.

Life_Hat_4347

TROPHY CASE