Bhutan​

Pray for a Release International partner as he oversees the only theological seminary in Bhutan. His focus is to offer discipleship and biblical training in order to see a new generation of Christian leaders equipped to serve the church.
YES - I WILL PRAY

Bhutan​

Though small numbers of Bibles are allowed into the nation legally, the Government continues to restrict widespread distribution. Most copies must be smuggled in. Pray for successful Bible distributions.
YES - I WILL PRAY

Bhutan​

Converts to Christianity endure threats and pressures from local community leaders and Buddhist religious leaders. Christians have lost jobs or have been unable to find employment because of their faith. Ask the Lord to provide for them.
YES - I WILL PRAY

Bhutan​

It is extremely difficult for Christians to meet publicly in Bhutan and church buildings are illegal. Pray for Christians who are forced to practise their faith at home or in secret.
YES - I WILL PRAY

Bhutan​

Christians are often viewed as followers of a foreign, Western religion and can be subject to various forms of discrimination. Buddhists who become Christians can even lose their citizenship. Pray that Christians would be able to stand firm in their faith and multiply.
YES - I WILL PRAY

Bhutan​

Bhutan’s constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, in practice, evangelistic work that seeks the conversion of Buddhists is illegal. Pray that Bhutan would open its doors to a vibrant Christian witness.
YES - I WILL PRAY

Burkina Faso​

Pray for those being recruited into terrorist and criminal gangs; that God would call them out to a different life and provide them with honest ways to make a living.
YES - I WILL PRAY

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Children’s Prayer Sheet​

It’s not only adults who can pray for our persecuted family. Every month we produce a prayer sheet aimed specifically for children. Each sheet has specific activities and prayers which will help children learn more about how persecution affects children in other countries.
You can visit our Children’s Prayer Sheet page here.

He went down in medical history: the “Berlin Patient,” the first person in the world to be cured of HIV, following a stem cell transplant at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Now, a team from Charité has repeated this extremely rare medical achievement. The second Berlin patient has had no detectable virus for more than five years even though he is not taking antiviral medications. What makes this case special is that the team used a treatment method different from previous cases in which patients have been cured of HIV. It necessitates a new explanation of the mechanism by which the virus was cured.

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Done with Inkscape. Turns out I didn't need paint after all.

While passing out Gospel tracts at the Farmer's Market, I was reminded of what Jesus says in Matthew 24:40, "Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left." It always there will always be groups who don't want anyone else to get a Gospel tract but then usually one person in that group will take one. If one person spoke for everyone I used to just accept it and move on, but I realized that we can't let one person speak for the whole group. So, with this, I want to encourage you when passing out Gospel tracts if you go up to a group ask everyone in the group if they would like one, even if one of them tries to speak for the whole group by saying, "No!" You just never know how the Lord will use that one tract...

1Co 15:

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

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The imperishable bodies will be glorious and powerful. Paul was talking about believers.

54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

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Death does not have power over the imperishable bodies.
Re 20:

13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Unbelievers will be resurrected to some kind of perishable body to suffer the second death.
When Jesus returns, will the dead, believers and unbelievers, be resurrected and receive imperishable bodies?
Believers will be resurrected to imperishable bodies; unbelievers, to perishable ones.
See also Does the Bible teach conscious torment over an infinite period of time?

I loved everything he did.

“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They’re not going to be fully honest, but I’m going to be honest for them.”

It is something that so many powerful Democrats who said Trump is a threat to democracy are willing to throw out their own democratically elected primary winner, Mr. Democracy himself, in order to promote others.

I am taking wagers here. This OP is NOT about whether by "all" in 2Co 5:10, Paul included both believers and unbelievers. I'm assuming you think Paul did. This post focuses on wagering on what you believe.

Let proposition P1 = By "all" in 2Co 5::10, Paul included both believers and unbelievers.

P2 = not P1.

Between 0 and 10, how much weight do you put on each of the above propositions? The stronger your belief in a proposition, the higher the weight. Your weighting scheme will determine the betting odds.

DEA laboratory testing indicates that 7 out of 10 counterfeit pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. Counterfeits made in the United States typically use pill press machines that can easily be purchased online and – depending on size and capacity – can manufacture anywhere from 1,800 pills to more than one million pills per hour. Many of the pill presses shipped to the United States come from China. The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on numerous Chinese entities for allegedly distributing pill presses and other equipment used to manufacture illicit fentanyl in the United States. Recently, under "Operation Artemis," CBP officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York seized 14 pill press machines in five separate shipments that arrived from China.
In the United States, pill press laws at the federal level are limited, and state laws are generally weak or nonexistent. Federal law currently prohibits the sale, possession, and use of unregistered pill presses. However, the registration process relies heavily on self-reporting, usually during the sale and transfer of machines. For instance, thousands of pill press machines have been sold through eBay, contributing to the current crisis. Current law also states that any person who possesses a pill press machine with the intent to sell shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than four years, a fine or both. We believe that the criminals who manufacture and traffic these deadly drugs should face clearer, harsher penalties.
For more than four years, we have led bipartisan legislation to make possession of a pill press mold with the intent to counterfeit schedule I or II substances a federal crime. Specifically, our Criminalizing Abused Substance Templates (CAST) Act would allow for criminals who possess a pill press and are planning to manufacture counterfeit pills – whether they have yet to do so or not – to be imprisoned for up to 20 years.

Renowned researchers David Chalmers and Anil Seth join Brian Greene to explore how far science and philosophy have gone toward explaining the greatest of all mysteries, consciousness--and whether artificially intelligent systems may one day possess it.

This program is part of the Big Ideas series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Suicide is a delicate issue, many of us know a person or persons who have either attempted suicide or carried it out to completion. The word is a Latin derivation into English, it means in English deliberate killing of oneself. In the Catholic Church suicide is considered, or at least has been considered, a mortal sin. Being a mortal sin, it may not be left unconfessed, but if one succeeds then earthly confession seems impossible. In your tradition how is suicide seen?

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suicide (n.) see here​

1650s, "deliberate killing of oneself," from Modern Latin suicidium "suicide," from Latin sui "of oneself" (genitive of se "self"), from PIE *s(u)w-o- "one's own," from root *s(w)e- (see idiom) + -cidium "a killing," from caedere "to slay" (from PIE root *kae-id- "to strike").

Probably an English coinage; the word was much maligned by Latin purists because it "may as well seem to participate of sus, a sow, as of the pronoun sui" [Phillips, "New World of Words," 1671].

The meaning "person who kills himself deliberately" is attested from 1728. In Anglo-Latin, the term for "one who commits suicide" was felo-de-se, literally "one guilty concerning himself." It was used occasionally as a verb 19c.

Even in 1749, in the full blaze of the philosophic movement, we find a suicide named Portier dragged through the streets of Paris with his face to the ground, hung from a gallows by his feet, and then thrown into the sewers; and the laws were not abrogated till the Revolution, which, having founded so many other forms of freedom, accorded the liberty of death. [W.E.H. Lecky, "History of European Morals," 1869]

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In England, suicides were legally criminal if of age and sane, but not if judged to have been mentally deranged. The criminal ones were mutilated by stake and given degrading burial in highways until 1823.

Suicide blonde (one who has "dyed by her own hand") is attested by 1921; OED defined it as "especially" one with hair dyed "rather amateurishly." The baseball suicide squeeze play is attested from 1937.

also from 1650s

No one quite knows what the process of picking a new nominee would be if Joe Biden did step aside – but many Democrats say that any process is likelier than ever to quickly end with Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee.

The informal conversations about how a fight to replace Biden at the top of the ticket would play out have been raging for weeks behind the scenes. But uncertainty about the process has been so unclear it’s given multiple Democrats – even those with serious concerns about Biden – pause about coming out against the president’s candidacy, given that what comes next could be even messier.


It should also be noted:
California Governor Newsom and Michigan counterpart Whitmer—who were both floated as possible replacements for Biden on the ticket—have told party leaders they would not be interested in being Harris' No2, according to The Hill.


Given that Harris has some popularity issues (even within her own party), and given that the two governors who are more popular with their party have stated that they have no interest in playing 2nd fiddle to Harris, it seems like the DNC rallying around Harris could be a strategic blunder and perhaps they should just let Newsom (or maybe even someone like Jared Polis from CO) leap-frog her and take the top spot on the ticket.

On the scale of "VPs who you could see as P", Harris strikes me more as being toward the Dan Quayle end of that spectrum.

So...a few "celebrities" like the half of Tenacious D that people don't know the name of have arguably lost employment. Jack Black cut that guy loose faster than you can say Kung Fu Panda 5.

Regular people have lost jobs though...and I'm not really a fan of that. I certainly don't care if anyone is fired for promoting violence. Violence (actual violence, not the kind that has been equated with not using someone's pronouns) has long been the line in the sand when it comes to free speech. Most of what was said probably isn't criminal...but there's a difference between wishing Trump died of Covid-19 (back when he caught covid in 2020) and cheering on murder attempts.

Anything short of that though...really shouldn't cost people their jobs. People have different opinions...I think we're a better society when people are free to express them. I know that I can't change what some employer does. I certainly don't have any say what is allowed on any social media platforms.

Cancel culture can broadly be described as the attempt to punish people (usually job loss) for having a different opinion than yourself. For a long time....particularly when X was Twitter...people went after people over petty things. Pronouns. Dead names. Unpopular political beliefs. People lost their jobs...over petty stuff....not supporting violence. The reality of course, is that everyone disagrees with you...on a lot of things. It's not something we should try to punish each other for. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't express any support for violence and got caught up in this anyway....I'm sure it happened some of those who lost their jobs. It shouldn't have. People need to lighten up...or understand the internet isn't really a place for them.

Thoughts?

Hi, I'm not looking for a church but I have been invited to go on a day trip to the seaside with them in a coach next week the Seventh Day Adventists. I already go to church but they are not offering this trip this summer. I do have disabilities so going in a coach is helpful for me and I like to go the sea in summer.

I read up yesterday about them, it seems ok to go with them I had a bit of an issue with William Miller but it doesn't seem he was a prophet and believing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit myself have nothing to say about Ellen White.
The other differences doesn't seem like a deal breaker to me even though I don't share them. I'm not going there to worship with them. They profess to believe in the central elements of Christianity.
Is there anything I should be aware of. I am not really going to make friends but will talk to people if spoken to.
I notice there isn't a section for them and it got me wondering a bit as well. I am a Christian and my faith is central to my life, i'm just checking if it is ok to go.

A new drug tested in mice septupled the number of beta cells in the pancreas, reversing the symptoms of diabetes until the disease was gone.

This has never been achieved before in drug development, and the scientists behind the breakthrough are calling it a “functional diabetes cure.”

It took just three months for the mice cells to start excreting insulin again, which was achieved via a combination of two drugs: the first called harmine which is naturally found in plants which works to inhibit the enzyme DYRK1A, and the second which acts as a GLP1 receptor agonist, also found in the diabetes drug Ozempic.

Continued below.

I thought this was a good video explaining why DEI (Diversity, equity,and inclusion....also known as Didn't Earn It) doesn't ever work.

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Although DEI is really just an political ideal to justify discrimination against white men, many people on the left don't genuinely believe that or understand it. Instead, they believe...

1. In diverse societies, businesses and employment should generally reflect the diversity of the population.
2. If #1 isn't true of a company...the reason is bigotry...or some sort of social oppression of whichever group is underrepresented.

I don't recall if the woman in the video is originally Icelandic or if her business is Icelandic and therefore race is far less of a factor than sex....but the general thrust of her argument is....

1. I hired women in IT because women are underrepresented in IT.
2. I no longer hire women (or perhaps no longer favors hiring women) because women are bad IT employees.

Are women bad IT employees....well no...of course not. It does appear that way to her though...because she tried to fulfill point #1 of DEI.

The problem is that far less women than men go into IT careers. Let's say it's 90% men...and 10% women (the actual percentages don't really matter as long as it's more men than women). Within that group of men who make up 90% of potential employees....competency or merit....can be expressed on a standard bell curve.

This is a bell curve.





If we were describing the merit of potential male employees....that first 15.8% describes the weak or bad employees. The middle 68.2% describes the average employees. The right side 15.8% will describe the exceptional employees.

The exact same curve applies to the smaller pool of female potential employees. The only difference is that for every one of them....there are 9 men.

So for this businesswoman to have a "diverse" group of employees where roughly 50% are men and 50% are women....she cannot simply hire the average or exceptional woman, as they will be in high demand by every other IT company that has bought into DEI.

No...she'll have to also hire the bad, weak, incompetent women....who she probably wouldn't have hired if they were men.

The end result of her "diverse, equitable, and inclusive" workplace is one where her typical male employees are far more competent and far more capable than her typical female employees.

I would usually believe that because she's in IT... she would understand this already because it's rather simple statistics. The fact that she's telling this audience quite honestly that her female employees are bad and she doesn't want to keep hiring women suggests that perhaps statistics aren't a strong point of hers.

Watching the video made me think perhaps my friends on the left don't really understand this either. Hopefully I've explained it well enough. DEI is a dismal ideal for most companies....but in sectors like medical professionals and pilots or even law enforcement....it should be terrifying.

The only way to achieve the goals of DEI (point #1) is to quite literally hire those underrepresented potential employees despite a lack of ability, competency, or merit.

I'm not suggesting that a black woman, for example, cannot be an excellent fighter pilot in the airforce. In fact, the first black female fighter pilot retired not long ago....and without any knowledge of her career, I'm inclined to believe she was at least competent if not exceptional....because she earned that job before DEI initiatives existed in the Air Force.

Thoughts?

The foundation to which Paul is referring here is a spiritual foundation, not a physical one, which is Jesus Christ and the gospel of our salvation. So by Paul stating that he laid a foundation, according the grace given to him, this is what he is speaking of. For he was called of God to preach Christ crucified, dead and buried, resurrected, ascended back to heaven, and coming again one day to receive his faithful ones (his bride) to himself for eternity. For he was called of God to preach the gospel of our salvation to the people.

And the gospel message that Paul taught was that Jesus Christ died on that cross, taking our sins upon himself, in order to put our sins to death with him, so that by faith in him we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, and in holy and righteous living – all for the glory and praise of God. By faith in Jesus Christ we are, thus, 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.

Now obedience to our Lord, and righteousness and godly living, are to be what we practice. And daily by the Spirit we are to be putting to death the fruitless deeds of darkness. No longer are we to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But obedience to our Lord leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with Christ our Lord. For Jesus died that we might not live for ourselves but for him who gave his life for us.

So, for us to first of all be those who are building on this foundation, we have to first of all have the correct biblical foundation. For many people are building upon false foundations of false and altered gospel messages which are not in agreement with the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles with regard to the full message of the gospel. For the correct foundation is what was spoken of above, but many have diluted that to a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ but absent of death to sin and walks of obedience.

And building on the correct foundation has to do with our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord in holy living, and the works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10), and the fruit of the Spirit as evidenced in our lives, and our service to the Lord in ministry and in surrender to his will for our lives. But I admit that I find the wording here a little confusing, and even the old commentators don’t all agree on what it says. But what is clear is that both are building on the correct foundation.

So, this cannot, by that understanding, be saying that we can profess faith in Jesus Christ and then continue living in sin and wickedness and not in walks of obedience to our Lord, for that would not be the foundation that Paul laid – not according to the gospel that he taught and that Jesus taught. So this is not saying that we can live a wicked life and not walk in obedience to our Lord and that we can still be saved from our sins and go to heaven when we die, only as through fire. The other Scriptures refute that notion.

For what does it say next? If we destroy God’s temple, which is the body of Christ, his church, but which is our individual lives, too, that God will destroy us. For God’s temple is holy. It is not given over to willful and deliberate and habitual sin and rebellion against the Lord and in refusal to obey him and his commands. Yes, there will be believers in Christ who will bear more fruit than others, which is the kind of fruit that survives and bears more fruit. But we cannot refuse to obey the Lord and walk in sin and go to heaven.

For, if we say we have fellowship with God, but we walk in darkness (in sin), we are liars, and the truth is not in us. And if we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments (New Covenant), in practice, we are liars. For it is those who practice righteousness who are righteous. And all those who practice sin are of the devil. And if we hold on to our old lives (of living for sin and self), we will lose them (for eternity), but if we die to sin and to self and follow Jesus in obedience, we will gain eternal life.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 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; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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I am 68 years old and I presume you are much younger, yet you seem to long for the mass as it was in my early childhood. Why is that? Do you yearn for stability, believing it resides in the past rather than the present?

[NOTE: I understand that some younger individuals have been raised with the Latin Mass, and I do not presume that everyone who appreciates it, longs for it, or desires its continuity is driven solely by a longing for stability.]

I know this sounds oxymoronic, but I wonder if there is such a thing as moderate fundamentalis'?

I sometimes wonder whether I'm a fundamentalist.

I'm a firm believer in the inerrancy of Scripture, and hold to a lot of conservative views on theology, society and sexuality. I also lean premillennial in my eschatology.

I think only men should be pastors. While my denomination technically affirms this, the majority of lay members think women should be allowed as pastors.

However, I never bought concepts like Landmarkism nor KJV-Onlyism.

While I would consider many of my convictions to fall into the fundamentalist camp, but I strive to have a charitable and moderate attitude.

Is there anyone else here who is like this?

As the calls for unity in this nation grow stronger, it is important to think about how this unity can be achieved. When I survey the U.S. social and political landscape, one key attribute I see missing is empathy. If we wish to be unified, we must learn to love the person with opposing views, even if we hate a policy or behavior that person is promoting.

In politics, we don’t always understand the reasons for a movement and are prone to only address issues at the surface-level. For example, when discussing matters related to feminism, there is a tendency to only focus on some of the issues that have grown out of the movement, like the abortion question, rather than trying to understand the personal experiences or trauma that might have led the other person to hold a particular opinion. A deeper understanding would enable a more comprehensive, empathetic discussion on the underlying issues rather than just the visible outcomes.

As the nation grapples with the idea of unity, I propose that we hold onto truth but with an empathetic listening ear. Let’s make an effort to understand the circumstances that have led a person to hold a particular social or political position. As we listen, let’s ask God for the kind of wisdom and understanding that sets people free. As Proverbs 21:22 says, “A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold.”

What are the pros and cons of purchasing junk silver?
Consider the value of the $ crashes. Well, it already has; as we know, it only has value as long as people accept it. If the international market decides to reject the dollar and that sediment spreads to businesses across the US - all your cash may be wall paper. I think we might convert a portion of our $ to a more stable form that can still be used over-the-counter currency. Junk silver with 90% silver content may be a suitable medium. It is portable and could be used for local goods and services. Any thoughts?