In another thread I saw this post:

Laodicean60 said:

If we care about hunger, then we need to budget before the country goes broke, because when that happens, no one can be fed. Does it make sense to you to borrow money to pay for interest on the debt?

Click to expand...

Ah, so you’re calling for a balanced budget—because if the country goes broke, no one can be fed. That may be a bit extreme, but let’s suppose we do need to balance the budget. What would you cut?

I pulled data from the federal budget here: The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2025 to 2035.

Next, I created the table below showing the current budget and several attempts to balance it.

Notice that the current deficit is 26.5% of total spending. That’s a serious issue.

Suppose we eliminated all non-defense discretionary spending (first option below). This would wipe out many needed programs—and still wouldn’t get us close to a balanced budget.

Let’s try a really severe round of cuts (second option). Still nowhere near.



Finally, I offer an off-the-cuff attempt at a “fair” balanced budget. It increases tax revenue by 25% and cuts some important programs. It’s just a first draft to visualize what a balanced budget might actually require.

Can you do better? Fill in the eight percentages you believe should go in the red-font column, and I’ll add your proposal to the spreadsheet so we can compare.

An Original Work / May 13, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I come before You, Lord, my Savior,
With humble heart and crushed in spirit.
I bow before You, I implore You,
Heal my broken heart, I pray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master,
You are the King of my heart.
Lord, purify my heart within me;
Sanctify me, whole within.

Oh, Lord, I long to obey fully
The words You’ve spoken through Your Spirit.
I pray You give me grace and mercy,
Strength and wisdom to obey.
Father God, my heart’s desire,
Won’t You set my heart on fire?
Lord, cleanse my heart of all that hinders
My walk with You, now I pray.

Oh, Jesus, Savior, full of mercy,
My heart cries out for understanding.
I want to follow You in all ways,
Never straying from Your truth.
Holy Spirit, come in power,
Fill me with Your love today.
Lord, mold and make me;
Your hands formed me;
Live Your life through me, I pray.

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If our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine biblical faith, of God, and not of the flesh of humans, and not of the will of man, then we have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience is what we obey, it results in righteousness and sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

Therefore, all immorality and impurity must no longer have an active part in our lives. For it is morally wrong and improper for us who profess faith in Jesus Christ to still be walking in sin, making sin our habit. For Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross to put our sins to death with him so that we will die with him to sin and walk with him in obedience to his commands in holy living. For in his death on that cross he bought us back for God (he redeemed us) out of our lives of slavery (addiction) to sin so that we will now, by his grace, and in his power, serve God with our lives.

So, please know that if you are being taught that you can just pray a prayer to receive Christ, or that you can just make a verbal confession of Jesus as Lord, or that you can just acknowledge what Jesus did for us on that cross and that he was raised from the dead, and now you are saved, all sins are forgiven, and heaven is secured for you when you die, you are being taught a half-truth, which is a lie. For the Scriptures make it very clear that faith in Jesus, which comes from God, must result in us dying to sin and walking in obedience to God, in practice, or it is not genuine faith which saves from sin.

For the life of a true follower (disciple) of Christ involves us putting away our former lives of walking in sin so that, by the grace of God, we will now walk in purity of devotion to our Lord in obedience to his commands in holy living. For the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (see Titus 2:11-14).

But in our present day “Christian” culture here in America, the most popular teaching regarded as “the gospel of Christ” is an altered version of the gospel taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles. For many are teaching that a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is enough to secure for us forgiveness of all sins and heaven as our eternal destiny. But Jesus taught that if we are going to come after him we must deny self, die to sin daily, and follow him in walks of obedience to his commands. For if we continue living in sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26).

And because this diluted and altered “gospel” is what is prevailing among those professing faith in Jesus Christ, we have a “Christian” culture of people who are still living to please the flesh, and not God, who are still living in idolatry, adultery, sexual immorality, and/or drunkenness, lying, cheating, and stealing what is not theirs from people who they care nothing about, but who they are just using in order to fulfill the sinful lusts of the flesh. And so this is a warning to all who profess the name of Jesus that no immoral person, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of God/Christ.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

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Deceived With Empty Words
An Original Work / May 11, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Hey all,

I'm looking for advice about how I deal with my parents. My dad is in his late 80s with cancer and my mum in her mid 80s. I'm posting this with great caution after not wanting to air my parents' dirty laundry in public (bearing in mind my understanding of Noah's Curse on Ham after Ham drew attention to his father's shame in this post)


The relationship between my mum and dad is pretty toxic, and this is reflected in the parent-child and sibling-sibling relationships as well. Both of them divorced their past husband/wife to get married after committing adultery. So this precluded my dad from being a pastor at church although the church was OK with him being a Bible teacher (it wasn't his day job).

To give you some examples of the venom from my dad:
My dad uses a walking stick and has fallen a few times already. When my mum offered to hold his hand to help him walk in public, he berated his wife in public, saying "I'd rather die than hold your hand."

They used to have a domestic servant. When there was a dispute between the domestic servant and my mum, on two occasions my dad chased my mum out of the house, favoring instead the domestic servant.

This is first hand testimony and not conveyed to me by my mum about what my dad did --- I was there when I learnt that my mum's brother passed away. I told her in the presence of my dad. We were walking to a restaurant at that time. My mum broke down in tears, wailed and needed to sit down on a park bench on the way -- all in public. My dad did not even ask my mum if she was OK, offer sympathies, hold her or hug her. He just stared at her, and frowned at the delay in us getting dinner when my mum needed to sit down for a while.

My dad has been in debt a few times in his life through bad financial decisions. Altogether he's burnt through about ten family properties (his parents were quite wealthy) and sold them to cover his poor financial stewardship. At the moment he has no income and my mum supports him with rent from her properties she carefully built up over the years. About 75% of my mum's gross income goes to my dad (and he still treats her this way). Some recent verbal venom my dad gave to my mum was, "What good have you done for people?" My dad gives out charity - with my mum's money, and basks in the credit for it as the "great" Bible teacher of the church.

For my mum's birthday, she showed me WhatsApp messages from lots of people from the church, wishing her a happy and blessed birthday. Notably absent was any birthday greeting from her husband.

My mum on the other hand relives and recounts the traumas she gets from my dad by telling everyone who would listen what he does to her. It can't be healthy (spiritually, mentally or physically) not only for her but her audience.

So....my question is what I should do as the child. For a start I really don't want to hear these awful stories from my mum, but she has no one else to talk to. The venom and repeated traumas between them is too much that no one from their existing church wants to be the Christian friend and shoulder to lean on. So I have to listen to these stories and it really affects me seeing how "mature Christians" act.

Also, although I haven't asked my dad for money for a long time, I remember when I did, he never held back. So I don't feel it's my place to put brakes on his spending now, especially when he is ill with cancer. Also, even if he didn't provide for me, we are told to honor our parents (without any condition such as "only if they are good to the children....")

My dad has asked me and the other children for money a few times. I'm kind of reluctant to give because I feel the money would be wasted or given away so he can seem like the good/generous church Bible teacher (for example he's taken out his Bible students to expensive restaurants and paid for them from money he got from his children or my mum). He also gave (with no contract!) a church leader who claimed to be a good investor a lot of money after the person asked my dad to give him money to invest. Naturally when my dad asked for how his investment was doing, this weasel said he had lost all my father's money.

Any advice or prayers would be much appreciated.

Before his election, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost spoke clearly on synodality, Church unity, sexual morality, and the role of bishops and women in the Church.

In the weeks and months ahead, the world will be watching to see where Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, leads the Catholic Church on any number of controversial issues.

But as the bishop and cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the man who is now pope has already spoken out on everything from Church unity to the possibility of ordained women, transgender ideology to ecclesial reform.

In his past remarks, Prevost often combined a concern for fidelity to the Gospel and apostolic tradition with openness to doctrinal development and pastoral adaptability in various settings.

Here’s what our new pope has previously said on five key issues facing the Catholic Church.

Synodality and Church Reform​

Continued below.

Looking for inspiration before evening prayer?
I am. I called my friend in California whose daughter had a dissected aorta last Mother's Day and only survived three days after surgery. She didn't answer the phone, and I left a message: "I'm thinking of you. I love you. I loved _________. I'm here for you if you need me." So inadequate....

But that's faith. Reaching out to comfort someone when only God can give her the peace she needs--and it might not come in this lifetime.

And then I read this quote from Pope Leo. While he admits he doesn't have the answers, he certainly is a shepherd worth following.
*Quote from Pope Leo X1V.*
" Brothers, sisters…
I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left.
To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home.
I, too, was angry with God.
I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine.
And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo.
But then I discovered something:
God doesn't shout. God whispers.
And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain, from a grandmother who feeds you without having anything.
I don't come to offer you perfect faith.
I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs.
I'm not asking you to believe in everything.
I'm asking you not to close the door. Give a chance to the God who waits for you without judgment.
I'm just a priest who saw God in the smile of a woman who lost her son... and yet she cooked for others.
That changed me.
So if you're broken, if you don't believe, if you're tired of the lies...
come anyway. With your anger, your doubt, your dirty backpack.
No one here will ask you for a VIP card.
Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary.
God doesn't need soldiers.
He needs brothers.
And you, yes, you...
are one of them."
Robert Prevost (Leo XIV)

Read a book once called "Messy Spirituality," and this is a prime example. Looking for your feedback.

Please join me in prayer for a single mother who is facing homelessness. She has two teen boys, one who has medical needs.

She is hardworking for Uber to give her flexibility to be there for her sons, but issues with the app caused her to fall behind financially. She's also faced car issues and now has been told she needs to leave the house they are renting.

She has a donation page which I can't list here, but if you could please pray that people are led to it, and that the Lord will provide for them, and save them. Her name is Cris S.

Thank you so dearly.

May God bless you.

Made famous by that imbecile here is a brief glimpse of the geology, weather, flora and fauna of the islands.

Inspired by the very popular song from the 80s by Rich Mullins "Awesome God" I was a sleeper on this song until now. Didn't see it was released. Great song!

"What An Awesome God"
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In a year when a Pope from Chicago is elected, anything is possible. Anything.

Dear fellow missionaries

What are some of your personal experiences with Intercessory prayers during mission work?

Did anyone here find it difficult at first, but got better at it?

Has anyone here experienced a healing while doing this?

Please share scriptures, stories of your work doing this as well as any encouragement in images or poems or artwork even.

Thank you!

Gods Peace be with you

I think it's noteworthy that I've seen a lot of this sort of sentiment from the tradosphere on Twitter, a sort of patience and cautious optimism about Leo XIV where most are willing to at least wait a bit and let some time go by with the new papacy before casting any criticism or condemnation his way. Despite the flood of information both good and bad about our new Holy Father.

Dr. Kwasniewski writes, in part:

Since President Donald Trump was sworn into office in January, he has sat for just 12 presentations from intelligence officials of the President’s Daily Brief.

That’s a significant drop compared with Trump’s first term in office, according to a POLITICO analysis of his public schedule.

Presidents vary in how often they have received in-person briefings. George W. Bush saw briefers from the intelligence community almost every day and preferred hearing directly from analysts, while Obama was a studious reader of the PDB book itself.

But with Trump, there is added concern [beyond the paucity of in-person briefings] as he is known not to read the accompanying briefing document, referred to as “the book,” that is put together by intelligence analysts in a highly labor-intensive process. This document is delivered in hard copy or on a tablet device to the president and his key advisers five days a week.

In this season of seeing the Catholic Church elect a new Pope - one thing that keeps surfacing in the news is that there are 1.4 billion Catholics.

Then recently I saw a program where two non-Catholics were talking -- saying that they are counted as part of the 1.4 billion Catholics since they were born into a Catholic home and Catholicism is one of the infant-baptism groups.

ask AI - reports this
"It's difficult to provide an exact number of Catholics who have switched to non-Catholic denominations. However, Pew Research Center data indicates that 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic."

Almost all denominations can give a reasonable approximation for the question "How many people have ever joined this denomination?"

But to the question "how many people alive today , currently identify as members of this denomination" - very few denominations appear to give attention to that level of accuracy. Obviously the answer to this second question will be a much smaller number than the answer to the question above.

It is difficult for any denomination to track the actual number of people currently members of their group - because people switch denominations, some decide not to be Christian at all or join non-Christian groups entirely - Muslim, Hindu etc.

But if the AI statement above is anywhere near representative for the Catholic Church - then 60% of that 1.4 billion number is closer to reality.

I think the denominations that practice believer's baptism may be slightly more accurate in what their numbers actually are.

But then there is also another layer of accuracy where some denominations remove a person's name from the books if that person can no longer be located by the local church that claims to hold their membership.

So this begs the question in general - what is the real true number of Christians in the world (not just what is the real number for a given denomination".

We tend to say 2 billion Christians world wide - but how close is that number to reality? (is it off by 30%? 50%)?

David Hogg tried pitching a compromise to the DNC. He was rebuffed.​

DNC chair doubles down on his ultimatum for Hogg​

Or in other words, a mixture of French, Spanish, African-American, and Native American. His grandparents have roots in Louisiana and Haiti.

I wonder if this fact will bring more Black and mixed-race folks into the Church?

MSN

Catholicism has rarely been more prominent in US politics as the Trump administration openly embraces advisers and officials who proudly say faith has shaped their politics.

But any jubilation on the American Make America Great Again right about the new Pope this week quickly dissipated as key voices from Donald Trump's Maga movement came to a disappointed conclusion: the first American Pope does not appear to be "America first".
Little is known about the political leanings of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago.

He has voiced concerns for the poor and immigrants, chosen a name that may reference more liberal church leadership, and he appears to have both supported the liberal-leaning Pope Francis and criticised the US president's policies on social media.

Continued below.

We have a pope.

Pope Leo XIV is the newly elected head of the Catholic Church and the first American-born pontiff. He was elected on May 8, 2025, following the death of Pope Francis. Before becoming pope, he was known as Robert Francis Prevost, a cardinal from Chicago who had extensive experience in missionary work, particularly in Peru. His choice of the name "Leo XIV" is inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who was known for his focus on social justice and reform.

Leo XIV has emphasised peace, dialogue, and missionary evangelisation in his early statements. His leadership style is expected to continue many of Pope Francis' priorities, including synodality—a collaborative approach to decision-making in the Church. His stance on key issues, such as LGBTQ+ inclusion, is still being observed, but advocates remain hopeful that he will follow Francis' path.


His formal installation as pope will take place at a mass in St. Peter’s Square on May 18.

President Donald Trump announced on Saturday morning that after a long night of U.S.-mediated talks, the nuclear-armed rivals of India and Pakistan agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire.

In a post on Truth Social, the president said, “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence.”

The conflict between India and Pakistan intensified Saturday as the two countries accused each other of ongoing drone and missile strikes.

Continued below.

From 1990 to 2018, Democratic presidents deported over 3.9 million people, with an annual average of 246,006. In contrast, Republican presidents deported about 2.7 million, averaging 205,453 annually. These figures highlight a notable difference in the deportation rates between the two parties, with Democrats overseeing higher numbers.

President Obama’s first term saw 3,160,140 deportations, decreasing to 2,871,899 in his second term. Under Trump, the count was 2,073,208, while Biden, as of 2022, has seen 2,808,946 deportations.

Click to expand...

Hmm...That mean that in the first two years of his administration Biden deported 700,000 more people than Trump did in four years. Let's average that out.

Trump: 518,302 per year
Biden: 1,404,473 per year

As he was with most of his campaign promises, Trump was all talk, no action.

Shouldn't those of you who listen to him employ better critical thinking skills and remember everything he promised and didn't deliver?

I'm struggling badly it seems like lately with doubting things if things in my life are ok to do. For the most part it's not even major issues it's just trivial matters like eating certain foods or eating in general because I may be idolizing food or going to church before the service for our young adult Sunday school because it may lead to me lusting after someone and we're told if something leads you to sin then cut it off. I wish I could just ignore them and use scripture but even when I do I still doubt and anything we do not in faith is sinful. I just aggravated because I doubt so much and I'm just tired of it. The bigger issue that I need help with is how do I stop being so doubtful? Is it possible to have faith in something through scripture and still doubt? I just want to stop doubting things.

Catholicism has rarely been more prominent in US politics as the Trump administration openly embraces advisers and officials who proudly say faith has shaped their politics.

But any jubilation on the American Make America Great Again right about the new Pope this week quickly dissipated as key voices from Donald Trump's Maga movement came to a disappointed conclusion: the first American Pope does not appear to be "America first".
Little is known about the political leanings of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago.

He has voiced concerns for the poor and immigrants, chosen a name that may reference more liberal church leadership, and he appears to have both supported the liberal-leaning Pope Francis and criticised the US president's policies on social media.

Continued below.

And like us the non believer didn't get to choose their parents , their country , their color , their language and all the rest of it.
And like us they didn't have any say as to whether or not they would like to be born at all.

So when the unbeliever dies , we christians generally assume they will suffer some sort of horrible fate , some say hell , some say seperation from God and some say this and some say that.

Given all of the above , it seems unfair and cruel to punish some one who never asked to be here in the first place. So do you think there is still hope for the unbeliever even after death ?......I like to think there is , as I have family and friends who have passed on and were all unbelievers , and I hope to see them again one day.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses recent developments in EU-U.S. relations, emphasizing the necessity for a tangible and mutually agreeable solution before any visit to the White House.
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