I have heard, if you want to keep your friends do not talk about religion or politics. I think there are a couple more but forgot which ones they were

I have texted friends about Jesus, this was during the first year I became a believer, I thought it was important to share. These were friends I would hang out with, really good friends who would offer to pay for your meal when you went to a restaurant with them. Now gone.

Now the only ones I talk to about the Bible are ones who already let me know they are Christians, but they don't seem interested in talking about religion or the Bible. And I asked and they do not go to Church.

The Sabbath sits right there in the Ten Commandments. In fact, it has become the icon of the Law for many Sabbatarians. It is the punchline of many moralistic arguments and the centerpiece of Sabbatarian doctrine. To them, it is to be kept just as strictly as any of the other nine commandments. Yet the others carry natural, immediate consequences when violated. For example, if I kill someone, I may be killed myself or imprisoned for the rest of my life. If I covet my neighbor’s wife, I may end up in the hospital or the morgue. Sabbath breaking, however, has no such visible consequence. That creates a battleground where Christians often cross swords.

What fascinates me most is how people use the broad platitude “keep the Sabbath,” even to the point of wearing the label “Sabbath Keeper.” It certainly comes with the temptation to look down on those not “discerning enough” to agree with Sabbath keeping, and it can be an ego boost for those who enjoy a sense of spiritual superiority. Not all are like that, of course. There are many sincere Sabbath keepers who do so with humility and love, considering themselves no better than anyone else.

Yet for most who carry the label, the one thing they rarely address is the specifics of true Sabbath keeping. The moment one asks “How should it actually be practiced?” disagreements erupt. The Sabbath-keeping community is deeply divided over what is appropriate and what is not. It is far easier to remain in the comfort of the broad label than to open the can of worms and define the boundaries. Still, if Sabbath keeping is truly salvific, should the precise observance of it not be extremely important? One would hate to wear the label all their life only to discover they had been doing it wrong.

I could give examples, but for now, I will leave the worms in that can a little longer.

What do you think would be the best way to help this person? They've never been especially faithful or devoted to Catholicism, they're very selfish/motivated by self satisfaction, and sloth permeates every aspect of their lives both spiritually and physically.

How do you help a person like that?

Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-authors suggest that some of New York City mayoral candidate Zohram Mamdani’s socialism-inspired proposals, such as city-owned grocery stores, are likely to run into inefficiencies and unanticipated downsides. They write that capitalism can be a better engine of progress.



The mayor of the City of New York is the most powerful municipal official in the United States, and it isn’t even close. But to say this isn’t to say that the next mayor, likely Zohran Mamdani, will have the ability to unilaterally do some of the things he’s been promising on the campaign. There are very real structural, budgetary and legal limits on what the city’s chief executive can accomplish without the cooperation and support of other branches of city or state government.


These articles outline some of the challenges Zohran's policies will likely encounter (both logistically, and structurally)


Larry Summers (whose Economics chops and Democratic bona fides should speak for themselves)
- MIT & Harvard education (and was a travelling professor who ended up teaching at both Harvard and at economics departments in England, and was even president of Harvard for a few years)
- Served on the Economics Advisors council for Reagan (he's worked with people from both parties)
- Chief Economist for World Bank
- Under-secretary of the treasury for international affairs under Clinton
- 71st Secretary of the treasury
- Director of the National economic council under Obama

...sufficed to say, has a little bit of knowledge on the subject of economics having held positions for both teams, as well as having both academic and real-world high-level leadership positions in the field.


...had this to say

The first research comes from the Fiscal Policy Institute, which recently studied New York state tax filings from 2023 to determine how many millionaires left New York due to a personal income tax increase in 2021. They found that the top 1 percent of income earners (who make above $815,000) typically move out of the state less than any other income group.

Click to expand...

when high earners leave New York, they don’t seem to do so for tax reasons. They tend to move to other comparatively high-tax states, like Connecticut, New Jersey, and California. The FPI finds that a full 72.9 percent of those with high incomes leaving New York went to high-tax states. the FPI finds that this pattern, in which high earners stay in New York or move to high-tax states, was “unaffected” by the 2021 tax increase. While New York gained 17,500 high-income households over the period of 2020-2022, it only lost 2,400 (of which the pandemic must be taken into consideration).

Click to expand...

And that makes sense. When you can afford to live anywhere, cities offer the wealthy a great quality of life--a quality of life that will only improve when Momdani's changes improve the quality of life for everyone else.

Momdani, Bernie, and AOC held a huge rally last night. If only Momdani had been born in the US instead of Nigeria, he would be just about perfect.

Ultimate Fighter Championship (UFC) superstar Conor McGregor shared yesterday that God has “saved” him.

During a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) press conference in Italy on Thursday (Oct. 23), McGregor, who is a part owner of the promotion, was asked if there is a connection between his life’s journey and the spirit of BKFC.

A once simultaneous champion in both the Featherweight and Lightweight divisions of the UFC, McGregor hasn’t competed in the UFC octagon since 2021 when he broke his ankle during his rematch with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.

McGregor, 37, created a persona of being one of the loudest, foulest, most belligerent fighters in the UFC. So it presumably came to the surprise of many fans when the “Notorious,” as he’s known by some, expressed he now lives by “God’s Word.”

Continued below.

In C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength, the character Mark has a profound moral experience through which he becomes awakened to transcendence. In the wake of this, he looks at his entire life with fresh perspective: “[Mark] looked back on his life not with shame, but with a kind of disgust at its dreariness … He was aware, without even having to think of it, that it was he himself — nothing else in the whole universe — that had chosen the dust and broken bottles, the heap of old tin cans, the dry and choking places.”

In Lewis’s book, Mark and his wife personify modernity. His beliefs and attitudes represent many modern, secular people — in Lewis’s context as well as our own, a few generations later.

Mark’s experience of life as the “dry and choking places” provides us with an insightful window into modern people. Even if they aren’t consciously aware, people all around us are starving for transcendence and meaning. They live in the dry and choking places. Thus, many of our non-Christian friends and family members and coworkers experience spiritual need in terms of dreariness more than guilt (as Mark did). What does this mean for how we do evangelism and apologetics?

Disenchantment

Continued below.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that USA Powerlifting discriminated against a trans-identified athlete by not letting him compete in its women's division.

In a decision last week, the state high court concluded that USAPL violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act by barring JayCee Cooper from competing in the women's division.

Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who was appointed by former Democratic vice presidential hopeful Gov. Tim Walz, authored the majority opinion.

The opinion rejects Cooper's claim of discrimination in business, but affirmed the lower court's claim of discrimination based on sexual orientation for public accommodation.

"We agree with Cooper that USA Powerlifting's policy is discriminatory on its face; there is therefore no genuine dispute that USA Powerlifting discriminated against Cooper because of her transgender status," wrote Hudson.

Continued below.

A United Methodist church in Texas painted its front steps in rainbow colors, following Gov. Greg Abbott's directive to withhold funding from cities and counties that maintain LGBT rainbow crosswalks.

Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas, which calls itself an "inclusive" congregation, announced the decision in a statement. The steps were painted as a declaration of safety and dignity for LGBT individuals, not as a political protest, church leaders said.

“We are painting our front steps in the colors of the rainbow because silence is not love," the church wrote in a Facebook post. "We want every person who passes by to know: you are safe, you are seen, you are beloved by God."

Continued below.

Pray that Jesus Christ calms the Hurricane Melissa that is heading towards the Caribbean to the point where it becomes a mere gentle breeze:

The already complex reality of global Anglicanism is becoming even more intricate.​

Earlier this month, a body known as GAFCON — the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans — declared it was “now the Global Anglican Communion.”



The towers of Canterbury Cathedral, seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is ‘a focus of unity’ of the Anglican Communion. Credit: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

In the Oct. 16 declaration, entitled “The future has arrived,” the alliance of conservative Anglican church leaders said it had resolved to “reorder” the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian communion after the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy.

“Today, GAFCON is leading the Global Anglican Communion,” said the statement signed by Rwandan Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, chairman of GAFCON’s Primates’ Council.

“As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion,” he added.

What are the roots of the Anglican Communion? Where does GAFCON fit in? And what does its new declaration mean?


A cartoon about the original 1867 Lambeth Conference in the magazine Punch. Public Domain.

A communion’s roots​

Continued below.

Did you see that a lot of people don’t want Donald Trump to be the king of America?

On October 18th, there were a lot of “No Kings” rallies around the country, decrying what the protesters say are authoritarian actions by President Trump, whom they claim acts more like a king than a president. One protester in San Francisco held a sign saying, “Hey Trump nobody paid us to be here. We all hate you for free.”

Nice. You can read the Babylon Bee’s list of things accomplished by people like that in the No Kings demonstrations here.

The vast majority of protesters were democrats and leftists (I do believe there is a distinction between the two), and, of course, there were jabs from the right about the rallies, with some calling it “democrat sulk day.” Naturally, those supporting the “No Kings” rallies deny that and say they are simply against the despotic actions of any president who crosses the line of democracy.

Am I the only one calling baloney on that?

Continued below.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines can trigger the immune system to recognize and kill cancer, research finds

I would expect to see some face melting over these results.

Peace in Christ.

We are to “awake” and arise out of the dead ones….out of the dead man-based churches… and Christ will give us light so that we may shine His glory to the people of the outside world who are sitting in deep darkness.

Without this arising from out of the dead man-based church gatherings, we remain in darkness and are not shining His light to the rest of the people of this earth.

Eph 5:14
(14) Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from (out of) the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Darkness is upon the faces (plural) of the deep as the people of the outside world have no form of Christ to see with their eyes and they are void….void of the knowledge of the glory of God. The man-based churches have no light to shine to them. They have all fallen short of the glory of the Lord.

Gen 1:1-4 KJV
(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
(2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
(3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
(4) And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness

We are the “heavens” that have no light to shine to the people of the outside world who are in deep darkness. His people have no understanding. They have no knowledge to do good.

Jer 4:22-23 KJV
(22) For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
(23) I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

We must "ARISE" out of the dead man-based churches....departing from them. We must arise out of the dead man-based churches (where there is no shining light) so that Christ will give us His light. We can then show forth the glory of the LORD to the rest of the people of this earth who are in deep darkness.

Isa 60:1-3 KJV
(1) Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
(2) For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Shining His glory light will attract the saved among the people of the outside world.

(3) And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

We must not be partakers with the man-based churches.

We are in darkness when we are “partakers with them”. " You were sometimes darkness" We are unclean when we sit together with them. Those who will continue to sit together with them (after hearing the Word of Truth) have no inheritance in the kingdom/reign of Christ and of God.

Eph 5:5-8 KJV
(5) For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
(6) Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
(7) Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
(8) For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

We who hear the Word of Truth and believe it are not to be unequally yoked together with the unbelievers of the man-based churches. They will also hear the Word of Truth but will not believe in it. They will not receive the love of the truth and be saved. What communion has light with darkness? It doesn’t. We can no longer sit together with them. This is not speaking about the people of the outside world but is speaking about people in their church gatherings.

2Co 6:14-18 KJV
(14) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
(15) And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

What agreement does the temple of God (we are the temple of God) have with “idols”…that is, images?

Their church handwritings of ordinances/dogmas are the “images” that they are keeping and serving (such as “statements of faith” ) and they are firmly established in their gatherings. They do not move from their places. What agreement should we have with them? None.

(16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

We are unclean when we sit together with them.

It is the true “fornication” that we are supposed to flee from. We are to hear His Holy (to be separate for sanctification) Commandment and do it. His Holy Commandment is to come out from among them and be separate and not be attached to the unclean.

(17) Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
(18) And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

We must “clean escape” from the man-based churches as they are living in error.

2Pe 2:18-22 KJV
(18) For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

They will seek to bring those who have just escaped from them through “great swelling words of emptiness”. They will promise them liberty. They will promise the world to you to get you back.

(19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

We are to escape the pollutions of the “world” …the orderly arrangement of their church handwritings of ordinances/dogmas. Their whole “church” is built flimsily upon their handwritings of which they whitewash with “Lord, Lord” written all over them.

If we escape the pollutions…the defilement…of their gatherings which are centered around their written orderly arrangements through the “knowledge”…the full knowledge…of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are entangled again with them and overcome, the latter end is worse with us than the beginning.

(20) For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

The way of righteousness is to escape from them completely. This is the way that leads to life…His manifest life in our mortal bodies.

Let us hear the Holy Commandment that is delivered to us to keep and not turn away from it. Let us not return back to the man-based churches no matter what. We must make a clean escape from them and have nothing to do with them anymore.

(21) For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
(22) But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

This is the “way of truth” (departing from the man based churches ) that will be evil spoken of by the man-based churches who will continue to listen to their false teachers in them and speak evil…following their pernicious ways. MANY will follow after their false teachers and think that they will have "peace and safety" to behave in unrighteousness towards those who will depart from them.

2Pe 2:1-2 KJV
(1) But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
(2) And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.


continued in next post.

I am having terrible insomnia, please pray that God cures my insomnia and gives me good long restful sleep from now on, in Jesus Christs’s name, Amen. Thank you. ❤️

When Kaya Jones, the former Pussycat Dolls singer, revealed she had had three abortions and felt regret and sadness for them, the reaction from many pro-lifers on social media was swift and vile.

One person said, “Stupid idiot and a hypocrite to boot. She is a vile excuse there will be no forgiveness. She a murder. Not just once but several. She will burn in he'll [sic] .” Another quipped, “I just don’t have compassion for anyone that has murdered their own child! I knew as a child it wasn’t something normal and I knew it was wrong. her saying she didn’t know it was wrong is absolutely BS!”

I read the same comments from pro-lifers when I talk about my own two abortions. This isn’t how you speak to a woman who has had abortions and feels regret and sadness over them. Yet, it’s how many pro-lifers respond.

Besides the fact that these comments are coming from supposed Christians, women who are in similar positions, who may be seeking guidance and help, or who may be considering abortion, will run the other way. This is the equivalent of a woman walking into an abortion clinic and a pro-lifer screaming at her not to kill her baby, or just keep her legs closed.

Because women (and men) are going online to get abortion pills (chemical abortions make up well over 60% of all abortions done in this country), and the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics are declining, the online space is the new sidewalk. The physical space where pro-lifers have gathered in person for years to pray, to speak to women, and to offer solutions is vanishing along with those clinics and is being replaced by social media posts and Google searches. How are supposed pro-lifers reacting? Not well, according to comments online. They seem ill-equipped to handle even basic posts with compassion and love.

Continued below.

Did any of your parishes have Trunk or Treat Friday or Saturday night? We did but we didn’t go to it. We went to our granddaughter’s daycare Trunk or Treat on Friday and I thought two nights in a row doing the same thing would be too much. Besides, they prefer you decorate a trunk and I was planning on just taking the kids there by walking in, if we would’ve gone. That’s how we did it at daycare. We just brought chairs and a “cauldron” filled with candy, so we were free to leave early which is nearly impossible if you bring your car in and decorate a trunk….too many little kids running around.
What, if anything did you do that was Halloween-y this weekend?

(Sorry, Moved to Friendship Court due to lack of feedback)

I need urgent fervent prayer for my friends. They're undergoing through a spiritual battle. They need strength and strong faith in God. For Lola, Mary, several doctors. Severe satanic attacks. Urgent fervent prayer right now. Can you include them in your prayer list at church. We need prayers. Satanic attacks specifically in the mind. This is important. We need prayer warriors. We need all church members to pray for that.

Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrated a special Traditional Latin Mass for hundreds of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 25 — a return to a prior custom, suspended since 2022, of an annual pilgrimage of Catholics devoted to the ancient liturgy

Burke celebrated the Solemn Pontifical Mass, a high Latin Mass said by a bishop, at the Altar of the Chair on the second day of the Oct. 24–26 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. The cardinal also celebrated a Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair for the pilgrimage in 2014.

The Mass was preceded by a half-mile procession from the Basilica of Sts. Celso and Giuliano to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Continued below.

What is this “rest” that God speaks of? It is most certainly our salvation (deliverance) from bondage (addiction) to sin and eternal life with God. And who are the “they” being spoken of here? They were the children of Israel who wandered in the wilderness for some 40 years but who died in the wilderness, and who did not get to enter into God’s eternal rest nor into the Promised Land, due to their disobedience, which God called “unbelief.”

For they were idolaters who craved evil things. And they were revelers and drunkards who acted immorally. And they were those who tested God and who grumbled against the Lord and Moses, God’s servant, thinking that God would not punish them for their rebellion and disobedience. And these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. And they were written down for our instruction as examples.

[See: 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16]

So, what is the message for us here? We need to be careful that we do not come up short of entering into God’s eternal rest. And how might that happen? The same way in which it happened to the Israelites who disobeyed God, who continued to walk in sin, in direct defiance of God’s commands, and for whom obedience to God and to his commands was not their practice. For they did not desire obedience to God, but they craved evil things.

And when this says here that the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard it, this is in the context of the Scriptures teaching that faith = obedience, and disobedience = unbelief. For faith in Jesus Christ is not lip service to God only, but it must be coupled with us denying self, dying to sin daily (in practice), and following our Lord in obedience to his commands, as a matter of what we practice.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s 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 to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

So, today if you hear God’s voice speaking to you through his divine revelation in the Scriptures, taught in the correct biblical context, which tells you that faith in Christ, which is biblical faith, must result in us dying to sin and following our Lord in obedience to his commands, in the power of God, please do not harden your hearts and refuse his voice. By faith in Jesus, please surrender your lives to Jesus Christ, deny self, and die to sin, and walk in obedience to his commands, and you will enter into his eternal rest.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

Login to view embedded media
Caution: This link may contain ads

Entering Into God’s Eternal Rest
An Original Work / October 27, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Paul was writing this to Timothy, a fellow servant and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had spent enough time with Paul to become intimately acquainted with Paul’s teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, and love, etc. But this was not just for the sake of knowledge, but that he might follow after Paul’s example of what it looks like to be a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ. For Paul modeled for Timothy and for all who knew him and for all who have read his teachings what faith in Jesus Christ is truly all about.

And this was in the context of Paul speaking about what it will be like in the last days, which they were in, even then. And he described how people would be lovers of self, lovers of money, arrogant, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, and without self-control, etc. They would be those who were always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because they opposed the truth, because they were people of depraved minds who preferred their sins over God and over obedience to God.

We are to live the opposite of that by faith in Jesus Christ. For by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord we are persuaded of God as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with Christ to sin, by the grace of God, and to now follow him in obedience to his commands, in the power of God. Sin is to no longer have control over our lives, but now obedience to our Lord and to his commands is what we are now to live by, as led and empowered by the Spirit of God within us.

And when that is the faith in Jesus that we go by, which is biblical faith, we, too, will follow after the example of Paul’s witness and testimony for Jesus Christ. But please let me state here that many people today are taking some of Paul’s teachings out of context, and they are trying to prove that Paul was someone who had a sinful addiction, and he was someone who “struggled” with sin in much the same way as many addicts do today. But that is out of context and it is just not biblical. Paul was a righteous man who obeyed God.

And that is why he could say to Timothy and to others to follow his example of teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, and love, etc. For Paul not only stressed holy and righteous living in his teachings, but he lived what he taught. He lived for the Lord to do his will even if it cost him his life or his reputation. And he was persecuted severely for his testimony for the gospel of our salvation, even to the point of near death many times while teaching the truth, because so many people rejected Jesus Christ and his gospel.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s 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 to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

So all of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ are to live by the standard taught to us in the passages of Scripture noted above (and below). And if truly this is how we are living, and our desire is to live godly in Christ Jesus, and if we are following after the example of Jesus, and the example of Paul, in the things that they did and said for the glory of God, we, too, will be hated, persecuted, mistreated, rejected, and cast aside as unnecessary and as unwanted, just like trash to be thrown away and forever forgotten.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

His Tender Mercies

An Original Work / January 26, 2014
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Fear not! I’m with you.
Be not dismayed!
God watches o’er you.
Trust Him today.
He’ll lead and guide you;
Give you His aid.
He’ll love and keep you
With Him always.

Walk in His footsteps.
He’ll lead the way.
Trust in His love;
Believe that He cares.
He will not leave you.
Faithful He’ll be.
His tender mercies
Now you will see.

Fellowship with Him
Throughout the day.
Tell Him your heartaches.
He’ll heal always.
Rest in His comfort.
He is your friend.
Your faith He’ll strengthen,
True to the end.

Login to view embedded media
Living Godly in Christ Jesus
An Original Work / October 26, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Please consider this teaching about Paul’s life:

Which one is biblical? explain why.

"Initially, Butler, then 17, was charged as an adult and was slapped with 10 felony counts, including rape, attempted rape, sexual battery and assault.
The baseball player pleaded not guilty to all charges but later struck a deal with the district attorney’s office to change his status from adult to youthful offender. Butler, who is the son of a prominent local sports coach, switched his plea to no contest after a judge signed off on the deal.
Under local laws, the youth plea deal meant Butler was sentenced last week to just one year of rehabilitation and community service — despite facing roughly 78 years in the slammer."

What a horrible decision.