The Blessing of Neighbors

 I just wanted to do a short post to share an uplifting event.

A neighbor (I'll call her "Jade") knocked at my door about a week ago. She was inviting me to join her for a prayer session. Wow. Okay.

Jade's inspiration was a situation she wanted to repent of and pray about. Double wow.

I met with her and 4 other ladies in her apartment. When we'd all chatted and settled down, Jade explained that she had recently lost her temper with another of our neighbors. (For clarification: everyone tends to lose their temper with this guy, "Ray". He almost begs for it and thrives on the attention.) 

You should understand that Jade is a Bible-reading, Christian-in-action type of woman. She's very kind and she's serious about her relationship with the Lord. This is why she wanted to repent about giving in to her anger and snapping at Ray. 

So Jade repented and we prayed with her. We prayed that we all responded better when Ray pushed our buttons. We prayed that we would be able to show him Christ in our behavior instead of giving in to anger. Moreover, one of the ladies suggested that we start praying to Ray. That led to our pledging to take a moment out of every day to pray, period. 

That little prayer meeting was so beautiful and uplifting that we have now decided to meet once a month for prayer and to just check in with each other. We have resolved to keep these meetups brief so that there's no hardship on anyone's schedule.

I have been praying daily (I have a daily alarm set on my phone) and specifically for my neighbors (especially Ray). I wish I had been doing this sooner. Of course, I pray throughout the day - thanking the Lord for blessings and asking for strength. But this is a special time devoted to praying for those around me.

These neighbors are just one of the many blessings I am thankful for. I hope that this will encourage you to start a prayer group - or just start praying daily for others. 

I will close this post with a poem that we shared at the prayer meeting. I have put a bold emphasis on the part that Chuck Missler often quoted during his Bible lessons:

Poem by Frederick William Pitt (1859-1943)

---

The maker of the universe, as man for man was made a curse:
The claims of laws which He had made, unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough which grew the thorns that crowned His brow:
The nails that pierced His feet were mined in secret places He designed.
He made the forests where there sprung, the tree on which His body hung:
He died upon a cross of wood, yet made the hill on which it stood.
The sky that darkened o’er His head, by Him above the earth was spread:
The sun that hid from Him his face, by His decree was poised in space.
The spear revealing precious blood was tempered in the fires of God:
The grave in which His form was laid, was hewn in rock which He had made.
The throne on which He now appears was His from everlasting years:
But a new glory crowns His brow, and every knee to Him must bow.

(source) 

God bless.

Peace

--Free

Good Friday 2024

  I love this poem and think it's perfect for today.

Um, Guys? What About AI Bible Study?

AI tools

I can't decide how I feel about this but I found a YouTube channel that tells Bible Stories using AI. Of course, I had lots of questions but when I did a search for "AI Bible Sagas" (the name of that channel), the rabbit hole expanded. Here are some things that came up:

• An actual AI Bible version called, well, the AIV Bible.
• A Bible study tool called Bible AI described on the About page as "An AI (artificially intelligent program) that can accurately answer factual questions about the Bible and provide pastoral advice based on biblical principles." It is made by Everprise which has other programs.
• Bibly is like ChatGPT for the Bible. This is what came  up on the search info: "Tailor your Bible study sessions with AI that understands your learning style and spiritual goals, offering verses and insights that resonate with your personal journey." I was thrown a bit by a typo on the main page.

Did they use AI to proof the page?

What's so weird to me is that I'm just now noticing all this AI-for-the-Bible stuff. Remember I mentioned that Everprise has other apps shown on the page? Here is one for notetaking and I'm relieved to see it seems to be created by an actual human. There is one called Church Stats that is "to help 'grow' healthy churches". The words 'grow' and church, in my opinion, should not be highlighted. Church is about sharing the gospel, not 'growing' the congregations. ~shrug~

I do know that AI can be useful and I'm not bothered by combining the capabilities of AI with Bible study. What worries me is what AI thinks of the Bible. Sounds weird to be talking about AI as if it is a person but... There are too many "baby" Christians and Christians who are not as discerning as they should be. If AI starts to twist the teachings of the Bible, will some people know?

Some things to like. A lot.

In scanning the AIV Bible, I found some things I liked. The layout is nice and navigation is easy. Also, the AI-generated art - what I saw of it - looks great.

The layout of each book of the Bible is useful and the other page elements are nice.

Notice the left-side navigation choices

This was okay, IMO

Nice the way the books are grouped

And some things not to like. At all.

First, let me say that I think this project was made for wide acceptance. That's already a huge problem because Christianity is not made for wide acceptance - at least not on the terms many people would like. To follow Christ is, after all, the "narrow way".

What I notice is that this Bible project (I don't know what else to call it) does try to offer a variety of viewpoints. That sounds like a positive thing, however, just by doing that, it's veering away from the truth of Christ. There are not many ways, opinions, realities, etc. when it comes to following Christ. There is the way the Bible teaches. Of course people do interpret the Bible in different (and oftentimes wrong) ways but that is why it's important to let Scripture guides us on interpreting Scripture.

The biggest fault I found

Here is where I really got worried. When I was perusing the pages, I glanced down at the very bottom and saw links to 

• Christian Answers, and
• (steel yourselves) What Jesus Thinks

Wait. What? 

The Christian Answers section poses some interesting questions to start a user off. Looking at the answer page for the first question I saw, I was still worried but again I could see the effort made. The answers come from various viewpoints - giving voice to reps from different denominations. 

What do I really think?

If someone is studying to see what other denoms think or to get a very wide overview of thoughts on or about Christianity, this is a decent resource. If someone is not familiar with Bible doctrines, they need to start their Christian journey under sound teaching - not an AI project.

I think of myself as discerning enough to spot dangerous doctrine (most of the time). I will probably peruse this AIV project a bit more. As I said, it's a good resource/study tool. It's just not a tool for a new Christian to on which to base a foundation of study. Think of the Christian as a driver and the Bible as a car. Someone whose never driven a car wouldn't want to learn how on a busy road in, say, Seattle or Dallas. Put me in that analogy and I will say that I am really good in small towns but not on busy highways during rush hour. And I will never drive the Autobahn!

Finally

I applaud the idea of tech delving into providing Bibles and Bible study tools. However, something like this (AI, I mean) isn't meant to be specific to the doctrines of Christianity. AI is meant to be helpful to all people or all persuasions. 

Since I've pushed my brain too far tonight and might be getting a little foggy, I will let another photo "speak" to what I mean. This is one of the questions and it's an excellent one:

So you can see the answer better, here:

To the Bible-believing Christian, that answer sounds nice and friendly but it's not correct. Not according to the Bible itself. This is what the Bible teaches:

According to this verse in the Bible, no one - not us, our friends, the nice neighbors, the kind strangers - no one unless they come to the Father through the Son. When I asked Bibly what John 14:6 had to say, it didn't just respond by quoting the passage, it gave me this:

Maybe the AIV app needs to talk with its cousin Bibly.

While I appreciate that Bibly seems to base its answers from a biblical viewpoint, I still prefer using GotQuestions as my starting point when researching topics.

Bottom line, people, use AI if you like but don't let AI manipulate you. Study your Bible for yourself and find some good teachers. Have group study sessions with other believers. And, of course, search the Scriptures for answers. 

Peace

--Free

P.S.: Forgot to mention that, as I worked on this post, not all of the books of the Bible were available (linked) in the AIV.