Long story short, my wife and I are a young couple in our early 30s. We have a 7 year old son and have been tremendously blessed so far in our lives. We are completely aware of the Lords hand on our life and all the mountains He has moved to get us this far. My wife’s sister has two young children that are in a bad situation. The mother is on drugs and the children are being neglected. We have plenty of proof and are willing to take these children into our home. We have plenty of room and the children have both expressed not wanting to live with their mother anymore. They are both young (5 and 7), so hearing them express dissatisfaction with their living circumstances is absolutely alarming. One of the little girls has type one diabetes. The mother is barely doing enough to manage to keep her alive. Everyone knows she is on drugs. We are planning on confronting her in about a weeks time with an ultimatum. We are ready to do whatever it takes to get the children into our care. We are the only family they could go to. My wife is seriously struggling with many different negative emotions regarding this. Betrayal, hurt, agony, anxiety etc. We strongly believe the Lord is going to work a miracle on behalf of these children to get them out of this situation. We desperately ask for your prayers for the Lord to open this door so we can protect these children and secure their future.

Some folks on this forum like to toss a variation of saying attributed to Alexander Hamilton - "if you believe in nothing, you'll fall for anything". I've been observing over the last 30 years that the opposite tends to be true. This especially seems to be the case when it comes to conspiracy theories. A recent YouGov poll on that subject had some very interesting results.

The only CT embraced by a greater number of Democrat respondents was for a belief that top Republicans were sex-trafficking children. 28% D vs. 17% R. A belief that top Dems are doing to the same was embraced by 14% of Ds, but 42% of Rs. Overall the two most embraced CTs were the JFK assassination and a secret cabal running things.

For those interested in how scripture is used in the Church I recommend reading Dei Verbum
DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION
ON DIVINE REVELATION
DEI VERBUM
SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED
BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON NOVEMBER 18, 1965

And I offer a few sections as starters for the thread.

1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love.

CHAPTER I
REVELATION ITSELF

2. In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation. (2)

CHAPTER III
SACRED SCRIPTURE, ITS DIVINE INSPIRATION AND INTERPRETATION

11. Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For holy mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (see John 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-20, 3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.(1) In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him (2) they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, (3) they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. (4)

Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings (5) for the sake of salvation. Therefore "all Scripture is divinely inspired and has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error, for reformation of manners and discipline in right living, so that the man who belongs to God may be efficient and equipped for good work of every kind" (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Greek text).

I hope you will visit the link I gave and read the document for yourself, it is not too long. Print it out and take your time. Whatever you do, please do not quote some very short passage from the document and treat it as if it were a definitive and complete statement of the doctrine of Scripture.

I don't think so.

Leviticus 12:

7b “ ‘These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. 8 But if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’ ”

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Jesus' parents couldn't afford a lamb, Luke 2:

22 And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord”), 24and to offer the sacrifice specified in the Law of the Lord: “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

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At the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, he told the rich young man in Matthew 19:

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

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At the time, Jesus would not have much personal possession. He preached what he did.

Jesus' ministry itself wasn't rich either. After Mary anointed Jesus' feet, the ministry's money bag holder/accountant complained in John 12:

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. ”

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A year's wages were a lot of money to Jesus' ministry.

At the time of Jesus' death, he didn't have much either as John took up the responsibility for Jesus' mother in John 19:

26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

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Was Jesus rich or poor?

From the numerical monetary perspective, at the time of Jesus' ministry, he lived the lifestyle of a minimalist.

Yes, technically an "opinion" piece on Fox News, but directly relevant to both the season and discussions on recent TV and radio shows.

Hi, I am new to be here. Nice to meet you all. I am a servant of God from Myanmar (former Burma). Pastoring and evangelizing to the unreached people.
Can I share my ministry to here?

Blessings,

I found a message in Ezekiel that refers to 390 days and years of Israel's iniquity.
Verses 4 to 6 state that the day/year principle is at work.
My question is; has this period been determined, does it correspond to the fall of Samaria and Jerusalem?
Where does it start and end?
Let me know what you think.

Jeremiah 7:

21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

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But he did, right?

23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

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This kind of negative speaking was an example of the Hebrew concept of limited negatives.

It was not to be understood absolutely but relatively. New International Version:

For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,

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NIV added the word "just" to reflect this concept of negative comparative.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown explained:

The negative in Hebrew often supplies the want of the comparative: not excluding the thing denied, but only implying the prior claim of the thing set in opposition to it. "The mere sacrifice was not so much what I commanded, as the sincere submission to My will gives to the sacrifice all its virtue" [Magee, Atonement, Note 57].

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Similarly, Matthew Poole's:

As to the meaning of the words, God doth not condemn them, or deny them, save only comparatively in respect of obedience, not so much these as obeying his commands. Negatives are often put for comparatives, Genesis 45:8 Exodus 16:8 John 5:45. Hence the Hebrew is, the matter of burnt-offerings; for sacrifices were not instituted for themselves, but for other uses, and to be signs of faith in his promises, and obedience to his commands.

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This is a simple video of metabolic health.
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Jesus promised that the Church would be sanctified and holy. Pastors have preached the same. So, the flock practices their Christian lives in the church, but some are disappointed when the members don't meet expectations. This can challenge one's faith and lead to a belief in evolution. There are status games, politics, and social classes at play. Although the church upholds the value of equality, there's still a small society within it. Competition can create conflicts among the members. Some may get discouraged when the world, at least, does not sugarcoat that many relationships are transactional. I'm not sure if anyone understands me here. Any thoughts?

Who is a worthless person? A person who thinks only of himself and his own self-pleasure and who does not give thought to God and to his will for his life, and who does not consider the true needs of others, but who sins deliberately and habitually against God, and against other humans, and without conscience, compassion, remorse, and repentance. Nor does he walk in obedience to the Lord. For his life is centered around selfish desire.

And who are the wicked? They are not only the ungodly who do not believe in Jesus Christ but they are any and all who give lip service only to God while they go on living in deliberate and habitual sin. Thus, many professers of Christ are among the wicked because they live wicked lives for self-pleasure and not godly lives for the glory of God. And many of them sin in secret and thus they tell lies to cover up for their sins.

But this lying is not always after the fact. Many times the wicked will plot out evil in advance and so they will create lies in advance as their cover stories to try to hide what they are doing and to try to mislead others into thinking that they are doing something good, and not something evil. And so they will trick and manipulate and devise all kinds of cover stories for their evil deeds. For their hearts are perverted as are their behaviors.

And those who do this in practice can get very good at lying and deceiving and manipulating and getting people to believe their lies, even to the point of getting them to hate others who they should not hate, and in getting them to receive and accept others who they ought not to accept. For they are very good at twisting the truth to their advantage and to make others look bad just because what they are doing is godly and not evil.

But God will have a day of judgment for them if they do not repent of their evil, and if they do not turn away from wickedness and now turn to the Lord Jesus to follow him in obedience and in godly living. And it should grieve us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives to see so many professing Christians today living a lie, for they are those who are engaged in willful defiance against the Lord, who are habitually sinning against the Lord and against other humans without conscience and without true repentance.


If we are true servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only should we love what God loves, but we should hate what he hates. So we should hate arrogance. We should hate a selfish attitude that says, “I don’t need God, for I can do this myself.” We should hate all attitudes and actions and words that are presented as superior and as mocking to God and to his word or that present this idea that they can go it alone and they don’t need God.

Lies, oh how I hate lies! I hate deception and nondenial denials and manipulation and misimpressions and subliminal messages, etc., all of which are intended to deceive, to trick, and to manipulate other humans. I hate those lies which are intended to cover up evil and to try to trick others into believing the lies and to ignoring the truth. I especially hate those lies which get people to reject the truth of the gospel and to follow the lies, instead.

And I hate murder. I hate war and the abuse and misuse of other humans for other people’s own advantage and for their nefarious purposes. And often this is in combination with lies and deception, getting people to buy into the lie that we have to murder hundreds of thousands of people in other nations just to protect the people in our own nation. So much of what is being done in the name of “protection” has nothing to do with that at all.

For there are many greedy and wicked people in this world who care nothing at all for human life, other than for their own, who will kill, rape, destroy, obliterate, falsify information about, steal from, and do to whatever their wicked hearts desire without conscience in order to fulfill their own evil plans for humanity and for the purpose of conquering people and nations and governments in order to bring us all into a one world order (Revelation 13).

And I hate all of that, for all of this is pure selfishness and it is pure evil and it cares nothing for those who get hurt in the process. And included in this are those within the gatherings of the church who are lying to the people and who are sowing discord because they are convincing so many to believe the lies and to reject the truth. For their purpose is to turn the hearts of people away from true faith to follow after the lies, instead.

And all of this, every bit of it, is about pure selfish desire which cares nothing about God nor about other humans. And it is driven by hate and resentment and bitterness and greed and envy and the like. And sadly this is where we are in this world of ours with so many going the way of the flesh and not the way of God. And according to the Scriptures, it is only going to get much worse, not better, not until Jesus returns for his faithful ones.

So, what is the encouragement here for us today? Well, we should not be like them, and we should not be those who are giving our loyalty, devotion, and support to those who are doing this evil against God and against other humans, sometimes in the name of God. So we need to be people of discernment who are listening to the Lord and who are following him and his word (New Covenant) in the proper context and who are obeying him.

And we need to be those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and who are living to God and to his righteousness, in the power of God, and who are not living in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord. We must be those who are walking in fellowship with our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands (New Covenant) because we love him, and because we desire him above all else, and because we want to do what pleases him.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

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

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Been getting to know this woman, and although she's been on a few dates in her life and in her 40s, she said though she met these men in her church, that they don't "Jump" for Jesus the way she does. I think she may be the "rolling in the aisle" type of you catch my drift, and if a man doesn't get caught up in the same energy/hype/theatrics as her, it's a dealbreaker.

For example, she uses a lot of....vernacular, that some getting to know you kind of questions are answered in a Christian vernacular.

I had asked her if her husband was her first true love, and she responded with, "Well, Jesus is MY first true love!" And I'm like well, of course...but..." and steered the conversation back to the original question.

Not sure the dialogue with her is normal.

Now, this isn’t just for men, but for women, too. We who believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives are to have this kind of commitment to our Lord and to his commands. The New Testament teaches the same thing. We are to be those who keep (obey) the Lord’s commands and who treasure them in our hearts as though they are the “apple of our eye,” i.e. something to be treasured and to have a fond affection for.

And then I liked this part about binding the Lord’s teachings on our fingers, for in essence that is what the Lord has me do every day. For every day I write devotions and I use my fingers to type on my computer the words of the Lord and what he is teaching me through them, and what he would have me to share with you, my readers. And another thought that just came to mind is having his words like a wedding ring on our fingers, too.

And we are to write his commandments on the tablet of our hearts. For this isn’t just about writing down his words or reading them or even reciting them, but this is about us living his words in our daily lives. For, like the wedding ring symbolizes, we are to be faithful to our Lord Jesus, who is our spiritual husband, and we are to desire him above all else and want to do what pleases him. We will want to obey his commands (New Covenant).

And the New Testament under the New Covenant is filled with all kinds of commands that we must follow. All throughout the Bible verses we read about the things that we are to get rid of out of our lives and about the kinds of things we are now to put on in our lives, which we are to be living out in practice, by the grace of God, in the power and strength of God. Like we are to put away malice, lying, sexual immorality, etc. and put on love and faith.

I also like this part about saying to wisdom, “You are my sister.” I had two sisters. One is gone. One is still left. I had two brothers, too. One is gone and the other is left. I treasure those relationships with my sister and with my brother who are still living. And the whole point of this is that we are to have that fondness of affection for the wisdom of God as what we have for our physical sisters and brothers and intimate (close) friends.

For, when we see God’s commandments and his teachings and his wisdom in this light, as the apple of our eye, and as close friends and family which we treasure in our hearts, then they will keep us from the “forbidden woman” who can be a literal prostitute or adulteress, or which can be a false teaching or a false gospel or false teachers who prostitute the word of God and who twist it to make it say what it does not say in order to tickle itching ears.

And this brought to mind two other Scriptures of the same thinking:


And that really is the bottom line. For if Jesus is our all-in-all, and if he is Lord and Master of our lives, and if our desire is for him above all else, and if his teachings are “the apple of our eye,” then we will be those who obey the commandments of God (New Covenant) because we treasure them in our hearts, and so we want to obey them, because we love our Lord and we want to do what pleases him, because of all that he has done for us.

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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

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Hello,

Whenever I feel the temptation to do something bad, I see root cause is simply my own weakness but I can always work on overcoming it. If I understand correctly, Christians believe that this temptation comes from the devil. Is my viewpoint incompatable with the Christian faith?

"How can you believe that the Democratic party wants Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee when they are burying him under political prosecution?"​

The active lawsuits against Donald Trump right now—four indictments consisting of 44 federal charges and 47 state charges, for a total of 91 felonies—are directly related to why Democrats want Trump to be the nominee. Mainstream media will continue publishing inflated poll numbers showing Trump beating Biden in swing states and holding back negative stories until after he wins the Republican nomination. Then the avalanche will start. As Grudem pointed out in his Newsweek op-ed, after winning the nomination there will be month after month of constant bad press revealing embarrassing and damaging new information about Trump (e.g., leaks from legal discovery)—once it's too late for Republicans to replace him. With Trump as the nominee, Democrats are practically assured of winning the general. So, yes, they absolutely want him.

Yes, Americans (and even Democrats) are as tired of Biden as they are of Trump—57% and 56% unfavorable, respectively—but don't think for a minute that Biden will be serving a second term. The polling data that shows Trump leading Biden in key battleground states serve not only to encourage the GOP to make Trump their nominee but also provide the justification for replacing Biden next year, probably before the convention in August (as would impeachment). So, the GOP will be stuck with Trump as their nominee to face a younger, fresher Democrat nominee that independents will like more than Trump, perhaps someone like Gov. Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania who has strong favorability numbers.

How much bad press does the left and their mainstream media have on Ron DeSantis? To figure that out, rewatch his debate with Gov. Gavin Newsom. They have nothing. Because if they did that's where it would have come out, effectively ending his campaign. There is a reason why the mainstream media are showing DeSantis either not moving or going down in polling. Even as they were forced to publicly admit that he basically won the fourth RNC primary debate, coverage of him never improved and his poll numbers didn't move. Now, why is that? Think carefully.

Because they have nothing on him. DeSantis has held public office since 2012, so dirty laundry on him would have come out by now. Let's not forget that after winning the 2012 Republican primary for Florida's 6th congressional district, he went on to defeat the Democratic nominee in the general election—and then reelection in 2014 and 2016. From the very beginning of his political career, he has a solid track record of winning. They seriously cannot afford DeSantis being the nominee. Look what he did to Florida. He turned it from a toss-up state in 2018 to a solidly red state in 2022, when he again won not only an election but also a reelection with the largest gubernatorial victory in that state since 1982.

Democrats can't afford DeSantis turning even more states red. So, they create and spread this narrative that he can't win the nomination. And Republicans—who I thought had learned something about polls from 2016 onwards (i.e., they're wildly inaccurate tools of propaganda) and had learned from the 2020 pandemic and presidential election that the media just absolutely cannot be trusted—now suddenly trust poll numbers and the media who feed it to them? What happened to their psyop radar detection?

Yes, the left and its mainstream and social media want Trump to be the nominee because, through this banana republic lawfare that Grudem aptly described as "a malicious misuse of the courts as weapons against political opponents," they are practically assured of victory—especially if they get a conviction on any of the 91 felony indictments, because then they also get to run their nominee—and it won't be Biden—against a GOP nominee who is a convicted felon.

If DeSantis is the nominee, not only would the Democrats be screwed but he would also set back their globalist agenda in the U.S. almost two decades.

There are multitudes of people here in America professing faith in Jesus Christ who are living not much different from the world. They give lip service to the Lord but their hearts are far from him, for they are living their lives mostly according to their own wisdom and thinking and reasoning, and not according to the commandments of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thus, they are spiritually slothful, having little concern for following the Lord.

Some of them may be living moral lives. Others do not. Many are professing faith in Jesus Christ while they still deliberately and habitually walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin. Many are living for self and for self-pleasure. They may go to worship services once a week, and they may tithe their offerings, and they may even be involved in “church” work. But still their lives are not surrendered to the Lord Jesus to do his will for their lives.

Some of them are physically lazy, as well, thinking only of themselves and their own self-pleasure and not of others and not of what God desires for their lives. They believe they got their ticket into heaven and thus they are secure and therefore they can go on living mostly how they want regardless of what God wants for their lives. For he did create us for a purpose, and that purpose is that we give our worship to him and not to ourselves.

Many of these who are regarded as sluggards, who are the spiritually lazy, are very caught up in the world of entertainment. So they live in their fantasy world of movies, games, TV shows, cartoons, stories, videos, talk shows, the news, sports, and whatever they find entertaining. And all of this is not bad, mind you, though a lot of it is. But our lives are to be consumed with God and with his will for our lives, not with our own self-pleasure.

For God has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and that is that we desire him above all else, that we forsake our lives of living in sin and for self, and that we now follow him in obedience to his commands and to going the way that he leads us to go. For our salvation from sin is not all about what God did for and will do for us, but it is about our surrender to him to do his will for our lives. For that purpose he died on that cross.

But it is very American to have this idea that faith in Jesus Christ is for the sole purpose of escaping hell and being able to go to heaven when we die. But Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness. He died so we would now live for him and no longer for self. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of slavery to sin so we will now honor him with our lives.

[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:1-23]

And Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have the promise and the hope of eternal life with God, but provided that we continue steadfast in that faith until the end.

And Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one DOING the will of God the Father in heaven. For many will stand before the Lord on the day of judgment calling him “Lord” and claiming what all they did in his name, and he is going to answer them with, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they would not obey the Lord.

And the Scriptures teach that all who profess faith in Jesus Christ must be crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to righteousness. Sin must not be our master that we obey. For if sin is what we obey, and not obedience, it will lead to death, not to life eternal with God in heaven.

[Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 6:1-23; Galatians 5:16-21]

But this isn’t just about committing deliberate and habitual sins against the Lord in outward and obvious ways. This is about being lukewarm and lazy and not caring about our Lord with regard to his will and purpose for our lives. This is about selfishness. But as believers in Christ our lives are to be committed to the Lord and to doing his will 24/7, not just when we can fit him into our schedule or when it is convenient for us. Please believe this!

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

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The German government failed to solve the problems caused by the Great Depression. Germany was politically divided. This made passing new laws almost impossible because of disagreements in the German parliament. Many Germans lost faith in their leaders’ ability to govern.

Radical political groups like the Nazi Party and the Communist Party became more prominent. They took advantage of the economic and political chaos. They used propaganda to attract Germans who were fed up with the political stalemate.


There has been a lot on lately about Nazi Germany, world on Fire on PBS, All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix, etc. It makes me wonder how people could get so swept up in such madness. Have we learned anything? I am really beginning to wonder.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis won followers by promising to create a strong Germany. The Nazis promised to

• fix the economy and put people back to work;
• return Germany to the status of a great European, and even world, power;
• regain territory Germany had lost in World War I;
• create a strong authoritarian German government;
• and unite all Germans along racial and ethnic lines.

The Nazis played on people’s hopes, fears, and prejudices. They also offered scapegoats.

On Monday, 46 former national security officials signed a letter urging Capitol Hill to rubber stamp the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The same law was abused by deep-state FBI agents to surveil members of Trump’s campaign. The more than three dozen former national security officials who signed the letter invoked the fentanyl crisis and overseas turmoil to make their case for unconstitutional surveillance.

“As you well know, our nation is under significant threat today with wars in Europe and the Middle East, a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific, and the deadly flow of fentanyl across our southern border,” they wrote. “In these circumstances, we cannot hamstring the U.S. Intelligence Community either by failing to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or by limiting it in ways that would make it difficult for the government to protect Americans.”

Tehom Genesis 1:2

Darkness over the face of the deep

So much debate over flat Earth, Sabbath, six day creation, young and old Earth. I think we pass right over an awesome concept here. The Deep. Waters? Yes. But more, ourselves, our existence, our lives and the mystery of it all. The abyss of God's love and mercy. We swim in it daily and there is no bottom. But there is spirit also ruach. How beautiful it all is.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has officially completed exploring Jezero Crater, an ancient crater lake that the agency determined would be an excellent place to search for signs of life.

Having just passed its 1,000th day of operations, Perseverance has collected 23 samples of regolith, containing silicates, fine-graned silica, phosphates, and carbonates—in other words, a recipe for life as we know it.

Ever since the 5th Martian rover touched down on the Red Planet, Perseverance has been exploring a fan-shaped delta of an extinct water system.

With the help of the rover, NASA scientists have charted the path of the history of the Jezero Crater lake.

Presented at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco on Tuesday, Jezero formed from an asteroid impact almost 4 billion years ago.

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Halley’s Comet passed the farthest point in its orbit beyond Neptune and is now heading back toward Earth.

The most famous of all comets has a flattened elliptical orbit that sees it go from the Sun to the outer limits of the solar system. It arrived at the ‘perihelion’ or the closest point to the Sun, in February of 1986.

On December 8th, 2023, it passed its ‘aphelion’ or the furthest point from its orbit, and over the next few decades, there will be better and better chances to see it.

The Marshall Plan was still in the process of rebuilding Germany after World War II the last time Halley had passed its aphelion.

It should be able to be visible when it enters the area of Jupiter, in 2058. By May 2061, it will pass Mars, before arriving near Earth in June.

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The historic trial centered on what happened in and around the Secretariat of State’s 350 million-euro purchase of an investment property in London between 2014 and 2018.

Judges delivered a verdict in the Vatican’s financial corruption trial on Saturday sentencing Cardinal Angelo Becciu to more than five years in prison and convicting five other defendants.

Cardinal Becciu, the Pope’s former chief of staff, is the highest ranking Vatican official ever to face a trial in the Vatican’s criminal court. The 75-year-old Italian cardinal was found guilty of several counts of embezzlement.

The cardinal was sentenced to five and half years in prison, a permanent disqualification from holding public office, and a fine equal to more than $8,000.

The Vatican court’s president, Giuseppe Pignatone, read aloud the verdict on Dec. 16 in the culmination of the nearly two-and-a-half-year-long saga of the Vatican’s “Trial of the Century,” which sat for 86 sessions.

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The Congress recently voted (along party lines, of course) to open an official impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. I know that this post is in the politics category but I don't wish to make it a partisan political discussion but rather a constitutional one about the process itself. It should not be a partisan issue as while it affects one party at the moment the precedent it sets may affect political figures on both sides of the aisle for generations to come.

This is uncharted territory and a true precedent. First of note is that they are not calling it an "Impeachment Investigation" but rather a "inquiry". There have been 6 impeachment investigations against 4 different Presidents. Those investigations have led to 4 impeachments, 1 for Andrew Johnson, 1 for Bill Clinton and 2 for Donald Trump. Andrew Johnson had one investigation that did not lead to impeachment and a second which did and James Buchanan had an investigation which did not lead to impeachment. So, what is so different this time? It's all in the reason it's an inquiry.

In every impeachment investigation to date, it was an investigation into credible evidence of alleged acts. In the case of Johnson, it was a direct violation of the 'Tenure of Office Act" over illegally firing the Secretary of War and appointing a interim one without congressional approval. And a second one for a violation of the "Command of Army Act". Clinton was accused of lying under oath when testifying about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Donald Trump's first impeachment was on 2 charges. The first was "Abuse of power by "pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals ahead of the 2020 election while withholding a White House meeting and $400 million in U.S. security aid from Kyiv." The second was "Obstruction of Congress by directing defiance of subpoenas issued by the House and ordering officials to refuse to testify." His second impeachment, of course was based on several acts he engaged in relating to the Jan 6 riots. Note the one thing that all these had in common. The investigation was into an identified act that the President had done. It was simply a matter of whether that act rose to the level of warranting impeachment. The difference this time is that while the House has spent the last 3 months investigating to see if they can find anything on the President and to date has alleged no act that might warrant impeachment. They simply opened an "impeachment inquiry" to see if they can't find an act that they haven't yet found, all with no evidence that such act even exists.

If you think of the Congressional Impeachment process as the court of law for federal employees, then this is analogous to a court saying, I think we'll hold a preliminary hearing to determine if you might have committed a crime even though there's no evidence you have and no one has credible assertions that you have. What are the implications for such a precedent? My research indicates this is the first time an American citizen has had a formal inquiry from a law enforcement agency or congress into whether they committed a crime with no evidence and even no credible allegation that they have done anything wrong. Is this precedent dangerous? Any thoughts on the future implications?

There are seven visible colors of the spectrum.

A member here at CF just pointed out this rudimentary fact

It got me to thinking.

All of the colors are contained in white light; and darkness is the absence of light.

When we break down white light into its' components; red is at the low end of the spectrum, with violet at the high end of the spectrum.

אדם means red; and violet is associated with royalty.

Years ago, at my Messianic congregation, one of the members brought forth a teaching.

He claimed that red represents Yah's fury; and that blue represents Yah's love.

In color mixtures, mixing true blue with true red will yield purple.

Comments?

Thoughts?