The story pops up now and again on social media as a subject for the ten-minute-hate, and a justifiable one too. Someone stiffs a waiter or a bartender and tries to excuse themselves for doing it.

Someone signs the credit card receipt at the restaurant and puts a zero in the space for a tip, writing in “I give my money to charity” or “I save my money for Jesus” (those of you with Bibles, see Matthew 25:31-46). Or they give a supposedly principled reason, like “I don’t believe in tipping” or “Your boss should pay you better” or “Tipping lets businesses exploit their workers.”

Or worse, the very worst, the lowest of the low, they scrawl some sneer like “Get a better job.”

The deal you agree to​

Continued below.

House GOP fails to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas​

Three Republicans — Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher and California Rep. Tom McClintock — joined the Democrats in voting against the resolution to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

GOP Rep. Blake Moore joined the no side to allow House Republicans to bring up the vote again.

ETA: Try #2 has succeeded

I have prayed and prayed for clarity and peace, and none comes. So obviously God wants me to figure this out, but HOW?! How do I ignore the fact that most of the predictions end up coming to pass? Im so scared.

Contrary to Brendan Robertson’s view, which Martin called ‘superb,’ the Catholic Church teaches that sodomy is intrinsically evil and always sinful and that Scripture condemns it.


(LifeSiteNews) — Father James Martin’s pro-LGBT activist group “Outreach” has posted an interview with a Protestant pastor who wrongly claimed the Bible does not condemn homosexual acts.

In the interview, Martin, the editor of Outreach,asked Protestant pro-LGBT pastor Brandan Robertson what his response is “when an LGBT person [sic], or a family member, or anybody says, ‘doesn’t the Bible condemn homosexuality?’”

Ironically, Robertson said that the downside of the Protestant schism was that “it gave the Bible to a lot of folks that don’t have the complex training to understand the culture, the context, and language from which the Bible emerges.”

“The Bible is not just a book that anybody can pick up and readily understand; it’s a book that comes from a different world with different perspectives and different cultural norms,” he claimed.

Due to the possibility of people misinterpreting the Bible according to their own wishes and biases, the Catholic Church teaches that the Magisterium is the competent and infallible authority to interpret Sacred Scripture and resolve controversies regarding questions of faith and morals because it was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself.

Continued below.

‘We need to go find out where they live, where they go to church, who they hang around with, and birddog they a----,’ one activist declared to the crowd.​

(LifeSiteNews) — Angry radical leftists staged a loud protest outside the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the conservative Heritage Foundation against its “Project 2025,” an initiative that aims to help conservative politicians end the power of the “Deep State” if and when Republicans prevail in the 2024 races for the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives.

“The permanent bureaucracy and its backers are having conniptions over Project 2025, an endeavor to ensure the next conservative president is ready to govern from day one,” the Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzalez wrotemonths before the protest took place.

“The denizens of the permanent state are not wrong to fret,” he added.

And fret they did at the top of their lungs and with megaphones, going so far as to try to encircle the Heritage Foundation’s building with yellow crime scene-like tape that read “Stop Project 2025.”

The “Stop the Coup 2025!” protesters clearly sought to intimidate conservative staffers and politicians on Capitol Hill and throughout the nation’s capital, where memories of protests outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices remain fresh in everyone’s minds.

“We need to go find out where they live, where they go to church, who they hang around with, and birddog they (sic) a—-,” one activist declaredto the crowd.

“We have to embarrass them. That is a tactic,” they said. “Find out where they live. Find out where their office is!” said another speaker, urging the crowd to “disrupt business as usual” for conservatives.

Continued below.

Pray The Holy Spirit heals families & friends of Israeli hostages(especially hostages who died and also those presumed dead) who are brokenhearted & binds up their wounds:

Good day, I'm asking for prayer for Dwayne St George to have success in his work and studies please.

(dateline January 23)

Republican infighting hit a new level Tuesday as Senate leadership removed other GOP members from committee positions.

“The beginning of the 2024 Legislative Session in the Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment,” [president pro tem Caleb] Rowden said. “A chamber designed to be occupied with civil, principal statesmen and women have been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who remind me all too often of my children than my colleagues.”

Rowden says members of the “Chaos Caucus,” a group of lawmakers more formally known as the “Freedom Caucus,” have “chosen to use the Missouri Senate as a place to try and salvage their languishing statewide campaigns and intentionally destroy the institution in an effort to claim the game is rigged against them.”

Hoskins, Brattin, Koenig and Eigel all have ties to the Freedom Caucus, which consists of a group of hard-right Republican members. The group has reportedly been linked to some tensions and fillibusters in recent weeks.

[Counterpoint from Bill Eigel:] “Jefferson City is ruled by a uniparty cartel of special interests, RINOs, and Democrats, who band together to crush the voice of the people. These are the same tactics The Swamp uses against President Trump. They can strip me of my chairmanship, they can kick me off committees, they can drag my name through the mud, but I am not backing down."

Besides being stripped of their committee hearings, the senators also had their parking spots removed from the Capitol’s basement garage.

--

Bill Eigel was last seen hereabouts using a flamethrower to demonstrate his future school library policy if he is elected governor.

Worth a read.



"Anumber of years ago, I kicked up a hornet’s nest by highlighting how empathy, as understood and practiced in the modern world, is dangerous, destructive, and sinful. Since then, every so often, another battle in the Empathy Wars breaks out (usually on social media), and we all learn something. In most of these dustups, there is an underlying dynamic that manifests again and again, and now seemed as good a time as any to identify it. Providentially, the recent controversy involving Fr. Calvin Robinson and the Mere Anglicanism conference provides the perfect opportunity to do so. The dynamic I have in mind is the intersection of feminism in the church, theological drift, and the sin of empathy.

My basic contention is that running beneath the ideological conflicts surrounding all things “woke” (race, sexuality, abuse, and LGBTQ+) is a common emotional dynamic involving untethered empathy–that is, a concern for the hurting and vulnerable that is unmoored from truth, goodness, and reality. In the modern context, empathy is frequently, as one author put it, “a disguise for anxiety” and “a power tool in the hands of the sensitive.” It is the means by which various aggrieved groups have been able to steer communities into catering to greater and greater folly and injustice. And a key ingredient in making this steering effective is feminism."


Yours in the Lord,

jm

Apparently, FOX "news" has been airing out this notion. Is there anything to it? As much as I recoil from young men bashing their brains out for our entertainment, I still kind of want my Niners to win, so really I hope not.

What do you think?

Taylor Swift At The Super Bowl: The Conspiracy Theory, Explained

Hello everyone, introductions aren't my strong suit. I'm a 34-year-old female. I was born into a really religious family in Poland (Krakow) and lived with my grandmother until I was 18. In my early 20s, I moved to America to work as an au pair until I decided to stay after my grandmother passed away in 2017. For a long time, I didn't consider myself religious since my Polish family turned me off from it. But in 2019, when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes and fell into a hyperglycemic coma, that's when I found my faith again. I've got four cats, and my dream is to build a cat shelter someday. I'm in Central Europe right now for my friend's wedding, enjoying the beautiful architecture, but the weather is not letting up enough for me to feel comfortable taking a stroll outside.

I have a question , and probably most of you will laugh at it, but I will try my best to explain it.

As far as my understanding goes - when we die we either go to Heaven or Hell for some time, and then we are reincarnated on " New Earth ".

My question is: what about " new planets " like - " New Mars " , " New Venus " ..... Etc.

Bible only talks about New Earth ,.... But what about New-Other-Planets.

The thing is: in 21.st century we are at the edge of making man-kind a multi-planetary-species ...

Will God allow us to be multi-planetary-species after " Armageddon " , or humanity will always be like - single planet species in after-Armageddon-timeline?

I hope this question makes sence.

Bottom line why I ask this is : I am kinda not interested in living on New Earth ... :/ Sorry God , not my cup of tea.

So my question is : will God allow the certain individuals to own private planets or New Earth will be only habitable one ? Thanks.

God made man in his own image, but did not make him immortal or of the same substance that he possesses. Our Creator is composed of spirit and is eternal. Humans were made, however, out of the ground or organic substance that constitutes the earth. Adam only became a living being (but not an immortal soul) when God breathed life into him

The first lie, in the Garden of Eden, the devil wanted Eve to believe revolves around the concept of an immortal soul. Eve stated she was instructed not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else she would die.

Satan countered that God was lying and that she would not perish. We see that this lie has spread even into Christians today. God's justification for casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden was, "lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever".

If all humans automatically have a soul that is immortal then barring them from the Tree of Life would not make a difference since they would already possess something that would keep them alive into the future. If, however, Adam and Eve did not possess an immortal soul that allowed them to live forever, then God's concern about them acquiring this ability is justified.

Here is one of the best explanation I have come across and every believer should carefully go through it and understand how this deception came into the church from what can only be called pagan Greek thought. 'Secular history reveals that the concept of the immortality of the soul is an ancient belief embraced by many pagan religions. But it's not a biblical teaching and is not found in either the Old or New Testaments....

The concept of the soul's supposed immortality was first taught in ancient Egypt and Babylon. "The belief that the soul continues in existence after the dissolution of the body is...speculation...nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture...The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended" (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1941, Vol. 6, "Immortality of the Soul," pp. 564, 566).

Plato (428-348 B.C.), the Greek philosopher and student of Socrates, taught that the body and the "immortal soul" separate at death. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia comments on ancient Israel's view of the soul: "We are influenced always more or less by the Greek, Platonic idea that the body dies, yet the soul is immortal. Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite consciousness and is nowhere found in the Old Testament" (1960, Vol. 2, "Death," p. 812).

Early Christianity was influenced and corrupted by Greek philosophies as it spread through the Greek and Roman world. By A.D. 200 the doctrine of the immortality of the soul became a controversy among Christian believers.

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology notes that Origen, an early and influential Catholic theologian, was influenced by Greek thinkers: "Speculation about the soul in the subapostolic church was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy. This is seen in Origen's acceptance of Plato's doctrine of the preexistence of the soul as pure mind (nous) originally, which, by reason of its fall from God, cooled down to soul (psyche) when it lost its participation in the divine fire by looking earthward" (1992, "Soul," p. 1037).

If this keeps up, Biden is going to lose an awful lot of electoral votes, LOL!

California Secession Movement Wants National Divorce to Avoid 'Civil War'​

MSN

The AI craze is just getting crazier. It's constantly in the news, in our phones, ads, videos, content, non-stop.
While it's exciting on the one hand of the endless possibilities with AI, it's also scary because it is changing
the very definition and meaning of everything! Everything except God's Word and purposes.

If AI is going to be accepted everywhere, then what about church? Will you accept one day an AI preacher?
An AI Bible study teacher? AI music? AI worship team? Ultimately, we know that AI does not have the soul God
gave each of us. AI cannot worship or speak with heart intentions and faith as these concepts are still foreign to AI,
but if we keep going down this path, there will eventually be head on collision between AI and humans in relation
to Christian theology. Can there ever be such a thing as an AI Christian? Would an AI christian be recognized by God
as a soul or being that can enter heaven for doing His will and evangelizing, missionary work, even sacrificing itself for
God? Will AI lives matter? Will there be Ai creatures and beings in heaven? If Ai created human beings in labs, will
those humans be forfeit lives because they were made by Ai or will they be equal as humans that were conceived and born
from a mother's womb? Is Ai offering considered true genuine offering or is it a cop out because Ai made the money or products
for us and we're not really then giving offering out of our hands/hard work/sacrifices. What if Ai improves the Bible? Can it
re-write it to make minor adjustments or revisions to translate the text into more creative ways besides just text and verbatim?
Would these be considered heretical content or truly the gospel presented in creative and imaginative ways even if the words
are not exactly the same but the meaning remains the same? When we harness ai to it's fullest, what will happen to hearing
the word and meditating on it because we will instantly know everything like downloading into our brains databases and
no more reading will be required....is that against God's word? There would be no need to contemplate since we'd know everything
there is to know...all knowledge will be accessible to ai which means accessible to us simultaneously.

This is the story and my testimony of my wasted years, one thing, you will get from me, is my honesty. May this testimony inspire and challenge you. My name is Keith Hobkirk, I am a simple Christian servant of the Only true God, who redeemed from sin, death and hell. I hope my story touches you life.



MY STORY

I am going to be sixty-five soon, just before my sixteenth birthday, trusted Christ as Saviour, but he never had total control of my life. My wilderness years were between 1986 and 2001, from the ages of 27 to 42.
我快要六十五岁了，就在我的十六岁生日前，我信靠基督作为救主，但他从未完全掌控我的生活。我的旷野岁月是在1986年到2001年之间，从27岁到42岁的时候。

Life wasted, why because I did not obey God, I went my own way, did my own thing.

生命被浪费了，为什么呢？因为我没有顺服上帝，我走了自己的路，做了自己认为好的事情。

Life lived not being obedient to God for the Christian is wasted. You have him as saviour, but never as Lord.

对基督徒来说，生命若不顺服上帝就是被浪费。你有他作救主，但从未把他当作主。

Next year in 2025, it will be fifty years since I trusted Christ, most of it sadly fighting against him, rather than living for Him.

明年2025年，将是我信靠基督的五十年，其中大部分时间都在与他对抗，而不是为他而活。

Has he restored me?

他是否恢复了我？

Yes, and he is my everything, I owe God everything, without Him, I am nothing.

是的，他是我的一切，我欠上帝一切，没有他，我一无所有。

My story is a warning, to any of you, follow God with your whole heart, never take your eyes off Jesus.

我的故事是一个警告，对于你们中的任何人，全心全意地跟随上帝，永远不要移开目光，专心跟随耶稣。

The devil comes to kill steal and destroy, he has taken some of the best of my life, deceiving me that I could live witbout God.

魔鬼来要偷窃、杀害和毁灭，他夺走了我生命中最美好的一些时光，欺骗我以为我可以在没有上帝的情况下生活。

Don't let him fool you Christian, keep your eyes fixed on Christ.

不要让他愚弄你，基督徒，保持你的目光注视基督。

I cant change the past, but I can do two tbings.

我不能改变过去，但我可以做两件事。

I can warn others of the mistakes I made and then live like never before for my Saviour and Lord.

我可以警告别人不要犯我犯过的错误，然后像从未有过一样为我的救主和主而活。

I am redeemrd restored and complety forgiven, but the sadness still remains.

我已被救赎、恢复，并完全蒙赦免，但悲伤仍然存在。

William borden once said

威廉·博登曾说过

No reserves

无留余地

No regrets

无遗憾

May you live for HIm, without reserve and having no regrets

愿你为他而活，毫不保留，毫无遗憾。

In Christ

在基督里

Kk

"April 1970, Erlich in Mademoiselle: “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”

Erlich was not alone. In the early 1970s, a host of voices supported his beliefs.

Harvard biologist and Nobel Prize winner George Wald, speaking at the University of Rhode Island in November 1970: “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”

-- in July 2009, then-Prince Charles chimed in, asserting the planet had 96 months to avoid decimation: “…irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it."


Knowing the religion of climate change is full of false prophets helps us to remember the actual future prophesied in the bible. Since the false prophets of climate change claim science for their false prophesies, that tells us something important as well.
Yes climate will be affected by the nuclear bombs and other machinations of wicked men and most of the population will die because of this same wickedness as well as the judgments of God. Meanwhile when they steal our jobs and wealth in the name of the climate we can know that it is a deception.

I think I speak for a lot of Catholics when I say that the whole circus surrounding Pope Francis has become wearisome.

We are approaching eleven years since Jorge Bergoglio was elected Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. While most of us knew almost nothing about the man when he walked onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, now most Catholics wish they knew less than they do. From pedophile-enabling Cardinal Danneels joining Francis on that balcony to the pope’s recent endorsement of same-sex couple blessings, controversy has surrounded this pontificate from beginning to end; a week doesn’t seem to go by without the pope stirring the pot with some papal appointment, document, or off-hand comment.

I think I speak for a lot of Catholics when I say that the whole circus surrounding Francis has become wearisome. Probably nothing Francis could do or say at this point would surprise us, although he still desperately makes every effort to do so. We repeat a tiresome cycle:

Step 1: The pope says or does something controversial.
Step 2: Conservative and Traditional Catholics criticize his actions (traditionalists directly, conservatives more obliquely).
Step 3: Progressive Catholics rejoice and take the pope to mean exactly what he says.
Step 4: Non-progressive popesplainers storm social media to explain that the pope doesn’t actually mean exactly what he says.
Step 5: Return to Step 1.

Continued below.

I show some updates to my chart which I added the false messianic age of the Antichrist

And the world saying peace and safety (1Thessalonians5:3).

And the Jews fleeing to the mountains when the AoD is setup - Matthew 24:15-21.

Please pray God will help me get through the trials I face. I am needing Gods help so desperately to overcome some obstacles in my life. I am self-harming and struggling to get relief from the thoughts causing me to desire to do so. I have struggled for several months with suicidal thoughts. I’m tired of a roller coaster of emotions. One minute I’m making it and the next I’m overwhelmed and defeated.
Life has washed me up. I gave my full testimony at church yesterday and started up some STINK but at least I don’t feel like I’m hiding anything from them. I think the old ladies want to stone me with the hymnals lol!!
Anyway they can think what they want. I give up trying to protect my reputation… it is what it is. I Give!! I GIVE!!! I GIVE!!!!
It’s Just another problem out of MANY….

Please pray for my mom and dad. My dad just got put in jail recently. Please pray for his salvation. My mom is on her way to “home of grace”. Please pray for her salvation also.

Please also pray for my entire family. My close and distant family is all into some dark creepy stuff. They need salvation desperately!!

On the positive side of things my little sister fully gave her life to Christ yesterday!!
As I write this she is singing, playing the piano and praising God in the living room.

Hope this is the right forum for this! This is definitely deeper fellowship with the LORD:

I do a lot of reading. Don't worry, I spend a lot of time in the Bible too. But I love reading the old preachers: the ancient preachers, I call them; especially from the Great Awakenings back in the 1700s and 1800s. So I compiled a list of my top 10.
The reason I love these guys (and trust some day I will meet them all in the Kingdom of God), is because they preached an uncompromising Gospel. So much of the preaching today is watered down, or just plain false doctrine. These guys pretty much stick to the basic tenets of faith (I don't agree 100% with some of them also), and they go deep, which is something lacking in so many churches today.

This is roughly the order of my favorites (and yes, I realize they were MEN, and it's the Word of God they preached that is what draws me.)

1) Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758 was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, and was converted as a child, the only son with ten sisters of a Congregational Church pastor. He graduated from Yale College with highest honors, and studied divinity there. In 1726, Edwards accepted the call from the Congregational Church in Northampton, Massachusetts, where his grandfather pastored. There he married the daughter of a minister and founder of Yale College. The Lord blessed his labors with revival in 1734-35 and 1740-42. These included many conversions and a change in the town. Through unusual events later, Edwards’ own congregation voted him out of the pastorate. He then became a missionary to the Native Americans. He became the president of Princeton College, but died only five weeks later. Through his writings, Edwards is recognized as the most capable Reformed theologian in American history.

2) Horatius Bonar 1808-1889
Scottish Presbyterian, brother of Andrew Bonar. After university, he pastored in village churches before serving many years at the main Presbyterian church in Edinburgh, which became known for its solid Bible teaching and revival. He was a great winner of souls, preacher, hymn writer, and writer, gifted in putting great truths into understandable language.“Unlike many writers of the Evangelical school, Dr. Bonar is not content with baling out milk for babes, but gives us real thought and teaching…We say to all our friends, read and be refreshed.”—Charles Spurgeon

Arthur W. Pink 1886-1952​

English independent Baptist. Pink studied briefly at Moody Bible Institute, pastored churches in the USA and Australia, and returned to England in 1934. His last 12 years were in Lewis, Scotland, writing the Studies in the Scriptures, his monthly expository digest, issued from 1922 to 1953. His focus was on the great themes of grace, justification, and sanctification. Arthur W. Pink was born in Nottingham, England, in 1886, and born again by God’s Spirit in 1908. He studied for only six weeks at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, U.S.A., before beginning pastoral work in Colorado. He later pastored churches in California, Kentucky, and South Carolina before moving on to preach and teach in Sydney, Australia. In 1934, he returned to his native England, moving to the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in 1940, where he remained until his death in 1952.

3) George Whitefield 1714-1770
Born in Gloucester, England; the best-known evangelist of the 18th century and one of the greatest itinerant preachers in the history of the churches of Jesus Christ. Whitefield worked together with John and Charles Wesley in establishing the “Holy Club” during his studies at Oxford University. By God’s grace, Whitefield experienced a genuine conversion and came to see that his “holiness” was only filthy rags. He realized that he needed to rest by faith in the finished work of Christ and began to fervently preach the necessity of regeneration.Whitefield was an ordained minister of the Church of England. When opposition to his preaching closed church doors to him, he led the way in preaching outdoors and in traveling wherever he could to air the message of salvation. He shared this work with the Wesleys. He was mightily used of God in England and the American Colonies during the “Great Awakening,” and ceaselessly preached the sovereign grace of God, the necessity of the new birth through faith alone in the Person and work of Jesus Christ

John Charles Ryle (1816-1900) began his service to the Lord as a minister of the Gospel. He labored in parish churches within the Church of England for almost forty years. He then became Bishop of Liverpool in 1880 and came to international prominence as preacher, Bible expositor, and author. Today he is best known for his plain and lively writings on practical and spiritual themes. He deliberately used this style to reach ordinary people. The great aim of his ministry was to encourage strong and serious Christian living.

Charles H. Spurgeon 1834-1892​

English Baptist. Without formal education, Spurgeon was called to preach in London at 19. The church later became the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where he ministered to 6,000 people on Sundays and came to be much beloved. The 20-25 million printed words of his sermons stand as the most by a single author in Christian history.

4) Charles Henry Mackintosh 1820-1896, who preached extensively in the revival movement. The initials 'C.H.M.' became familiar in many pious evangelical households of the later Victorian and Edwardian years. No critical scholar, Mackintosh nevertheless had a marked gift for simple Biblical exposition, and his works on the Pentateuch had an enormous vogue as simple aids to devotional interpretation for the first five books of the Bible.

Dwight Lyman Moody 1837-1899, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers

William Penn 1644-1718 was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonial era.

George Fox 1624-1691 was founder of the Quakers, so called because they trembled before God. In opposition to the obvious coldness and corruption of the church of his day, Fox chose to be guided by the inward light of Christ (fed by continual immersion in the Bible) and rejected the trappings of formal religion and undue respect to men, whatever their elevation. For this he suffered many imprisonments.

Finally, I can't leave out, Samuel Ward 1577-1640, Puritan Preacher. I especially love his sermon, "A Coal from the Altar to Kindle Holy Fire of Zeal, 1615,"
But a lot of his works are still in olde English, if you can read it. (I do)
This is from, "Balme from Gilead TO Recouer Conscience. In a Sermon Preached at Pauls-Crosse, Octob. 20. 1616."
The time is now come vpon vs, wherein men affect and desire good Names, Estates, Wiues, Houses, good Cloathes, good euery thing; but content themselues with meane and vile Consciences, which ought to be the chiefe and onely good: Wherein men loue to exercise and shew, in Preaching, in Hearing, in Trading, and all manner of conuersing, their Memorie, their skill and cunning, and al other their good parts, as they ]call them, neglecting this which is the WHOLE of a Man; and despising Pauls Exercise, and Pauls Policie,
To haue a good Conscience before God and Man: Wherein men loue preaching indeede and knowledge, but not wholsome doctrine; Preaching to the Conscience and knowledge of themselues, which makes this Pulpit and Church-yard full of Polemicall and Schoole-diuinitie; while the plaine, practicall, and asketicall part lyeth vntilled and vnregarded: which maketh Citie and Country full of Craft and Cunning, but voyd and destitute, not onely of the power but shew of Conscience. All which maketh me to chuse rather with the Apostle to speake fiue words to the Heart,
then tenne thousand to the Eare; yea, one to shew you a good Conscience, then ten thousand to shew all the Science in the
world. Sermon you heare vpon Sermon, till this Manna [...]comes out at your nostrils: but as o [...]e said of Lawes; one is yet wanting for the practising of all the rest. Now Conscience is the spring of Practise, and the Wheele that must set all the rest on going: Is it not high time to speake to Conscience, that wee be no longer hearers onely, but dooers also?

Job growth posted a surprisingly strong increase in January, demonstrating again that the U.S. labor market is solid and poised to support broader economic growth.

Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 353,000 for the month, much better than the Dow Jones estimate for 185,000, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The unemployment rate held at 3.7%, against the estimate for 3.8%.

The report also indicated that December’s job gains were much better than originally reported. The month posted a gain of 333,000, which was an upward revision of 117,000 from the initial estimate. November also was revised up, to 182,000, or 9,000 higher than the last estimate.

----


The U.S. economy grew by a bustling 3.1 percent in 2023, shaking off recession fears and offering an upbeat picture of consumers and businesses ahead of a pivotal election year.

Gross domestic product grew even faster than many had anticipated in the last three months of the year — by an annual rate of 3.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis — offering fresh evidence that federal policymakers have managed to bring down inflation and secure a “soft landing” without major repercussions for workers or the economy.


----


see also

When you come to know you're a sinner, cry out to the LORD for mercy, and forgiveness. For all are sinners and all have sinned. There is no way around it or out from under it: we all have a sentence of death hanging over us, and the second death revealed in the Bible will be far worse than any gruesome execution man can carry out. It will be, first: complete exposure of every sinful act and thought you ever committed, and second: judgment pronounced in front of all you ever knew, and many you never knew. Extreme embarrassment coupled with the worst dreadful fear you ever experienced, is what awaits the lost soul: the damned, the condemned.

Luke 8:17, "For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad."

Romans 2:16, "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."

1 Corinthians 6:2-3, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels?"

The following is by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), from "The End of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous"
(This is from when preaching was real: the sword of the Spirit cut deeply, as it is supposed to do. You would know your sin, and the dire necessity of a Saviour. Today, many sermons are designed to make you feel good, not to offend anybody, and many preachers have departed from the true preaching of the Gospel, to a watered down version - some so bad it is dragging people into hell, rather than draw them into a saving knowledge and experiential relationship with the risen Christ):

"God will exercise no pity towards you. If you might have his pity in any degree, that would be of more worth to you than thousands of worlds. That would make your case to be not without comfort and hope. But God will exercise no pity towards you. He hath often said concerning wicked men, that his eye shall not spare, neither will he have pity, Ezek. v. 11, and vii. 4, 9, and viii. 18. He will cast upon you, and not spare; you will see nothing in God, and receive nothing from him, but perfect hatred, and the fierceness of his wrath; nothing but the mighty falls or outpourings of wrath upon you every moment; and no cries will avail to move God to any pity, or in the least to move him to lighten his hand, or assuage the fierceness and abate the power of your torments.
Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, will have no pity on you. Though he had so much love to sinners, as to be willing to lay down his life for them, and offers you the benefits of his blood, while you are in this world, and often calls upon you to accept them; yet then he will have no pity upon you. You never will hear any more instructions from him; he will utterly refuse to be your instructor: on the contrary, he will be your judge, to pronounce sentence against you.

Consider what an aggravation what you have heard under this doctrine will be to your misery. Consider how it will be at the day of judgment, when you shall see Christ coming in the clouds of heaven, when you shall begin to wail and cry, as knowing that you are those who are to be condemned; and perhaps you will be ready to fly to some of your godly friends; but you will obtain no help from them: you will see them unconcerned for you, with joyful countenances ascending to meet the Lord, and not the less joyful for the horror in which they see you. And when you shall stand before the tribunal at the left hand, among devils, trembling and astonished, and shall have the dreadful sentence passed upon you, you will at the same time see the blessed company of saints and angels at the right hand rejoicing, and shall hear them shout forth the praises of God, while they hear your sentence pronounced. You will then see those godly people, with whom you shall have been acquainted, and who shall have been your neighbors, and with whom you now often converse, rejoicing at the pronunciation and execution of your sentence.

(And, when all those who told you the truth of Christ, and your dire need for His salvation), will declare how your sins are aggravated by the endeavors which they to no purpose used with you, to bring you to forsake sin and practice virtue, and to seek and serve God; but you were obstinate under all, and would not hearken to them.

Besides those things which have been now mentioned, some of you have a degree of the inward strivings and influences of the Spirit, which makes your opportunity much greater. You have Christ's internal calls and knockings. All the persons of the Trinity are now seeking your salvation. God the Father hath sent his Son, who hath made way for your salvation, and removed all difficulties, except those which are with your own heart. And he is waiting to be gracious to you; the door of his mercy stands open to you; he hath set a fountain open for you to wash in from sin and uncleanness. Christ is calling, inviting, and wooing you; and the Holy Ghost is striving with you by his internal motions and influences.
If you now repent, before it be too late, the saints and angels in glory will rejoice at your repentance.
If you repent before it is too late, you yourselves shall be of that joyful company. They will be so far from rejoicing on occasion of your ruin, that you yourselves will be of that glorious company, who will rejoice in all the works of God, who will have all tears wiped away from their eyes, to whom there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and from whom sorrow and sighing shall flee away. You yourselves will be of those who will rejoice at the glorious display of God's majesty and justice in his wrath on his enemies. You will be of those that shall sing for joy of heart at the day of judgment, while others mourn for sorrow of heart, and bowl for vexation of spirit; and you will enter into the joy of your Lord, and there shall never be any end or abatement of our joy!"
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From Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" - which is considered probably the most famous sermon of all time, outside of the Bible:

"2. Men deserving​

They deserve to be cast into hell, so that divine justice never stands in the way; it makes no objection against God’s using His power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” (Luk 13:7). The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy and God’s mere will that holds it back.

4. Objects of wrath even now​

“God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.”—Psalm 7:11
They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell; and the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in Whose power they are, is not at present very angry with them—as He is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth—yea, doubtless with some who may read this book, who, it may be, are at ease—than He is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell So it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that He does not let loose His hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such a one as themselves, though they may imagine Him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whetted and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
O sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God Whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder. And you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself—nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have done, nothing that you can do—to induce God to spare you one moment."

Flee to Christ​

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open (Luk 4:17-21), and stands calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners (Pro 8:1-11), a day wherein many are flocking to him and pressing into the kingdom of God.
Many are daily coming from the east, west, north, and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state with their hearts filled with love to Him Who has loved them and washed them from their sins in His own blood (Rev 1:5), and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God (Rom 5:2). How awful is it to be left behind at such a day and see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and to howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of those who are flocking from day to day to Christ?

If you are looking at picking up a bachelor's degree I would strongly advise you not to go to Central Penn College near Harrisburg, PA! It may be a scam! I went there and I did not realize what was happening at first, by the time I realized what was happening I was committed and had to finish, it was too late to transfer. Had I transferred I would have been out of like $20,000. There are a number of things wrong with this place. First of all the school is very expensive, it is like $25,000/year but the facilities are a dump, not up to par. Academically the school is a shoe-in, a cakewalk, a walk in the park. My dog could make it through there! Also all of the professors are incompetent, at first I thought I just got a bad professor but later on I realized that they were all like that! Another thing- the only dining facility on campus is a little cafe, the quality of the food there is good but the cafe is almost never open! It is totally shut down on tuesdays and thursdays, closed the whole day, on tuesdays and thursdays students are expected to buy their own food at the grocery store and prepare it themselves! On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays dinner is served from 4:00pm-6:30pm, if the students are hungry after 6:30pm they are on their own, they have to either go to Sheetz or raid the vending machine! Another thing- if you go down there you will get bad vibes from the campus, there is something off about the atmosphere. Also you will notice there is something suspicious about the way some of the faculty are acting, they may be in on the scam! I would avoid this place like the plague, you may want to warn everyone you know not to go there! Thankfully I was able to go to RIT for grad school after Central Penn and that made up for Central Penn. Had RIT known what Central Penn was like they might not have let me in but they did let me in and I did make it through. I did not learn anything at Central Penn, not a thing, but I did learn alot at RIT. The only reason I went to Central Penn was that I would not have been welcome anywhere else, I might have gotten beat-up by the younger students at other schools, people not of traditional age are not welcome at many schools, alot of people work and go to Central Penn part-time, older students are welcome there.

Montana's Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said officials followed state policy in a case concerning Christian parents who claim they lost custody of their daughter after they refused to allow her to undergo experimental trans medicalization.

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Apparently, you can now get your child taken away by CPS if you refuse to let your kid go through so-called "gender affirming care" if they come out as transgender. This is definitely another huge threat to religious freedom. Nobody should feel compelled to let their kid go through that.