Hello everyone,

I have been wondering about the shape of Infinite space. I still haven't figured it out. What's the shape of Infinite space?

Ephesians 4:11-16 ESV


1. How are the saints of God to be equipped for ministry?
2. What is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Christ?
3. What is meant by “mature manhood”?
4. How are people being carried about by every wind of doctrine?
5. What does it mean to speak the truth in love? For what purpose?

God gave us the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. He gave us men and women of God who are gifted of God, both in times past and in times present, for the perfecting (equipping, preparing) of his called out ones so that we are working for the Lord in ministry according to the will and purpose of God for our lives and for those specific areas of ministry.

So this involves spiritual training and disciplines and discipleship and the teaching of God’s holy ones – different from the world because becoming like Jesus in character – the will and the word of God as to be applied to their daily lives so that they are ready for the work of the ministry, so that they are spiritually prepared for doing what God has called them to do. And the work of the ministry is according to God’s will and purpose, not man’s.

And these men and women of God whom God is using to disciple his saints for the work of the ministry – which we are all to be doing, by the way – are also being used of God for the encouragement (exhortation, urging, and provoking) of the saints to follow our Lord in obedience and in surrender to his will in the forsaking of our sins and in living godly, holy, morally pure, upright, honest, and faithful lives to the glory and praise of God.

Romans 12:1-8; Romans 15:14; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20

And the goal of it all is that we all would attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to full maturity in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And this unity (oneness) is the result of us all sharing in the likeness of the nature of Jesus Christ which comes from us separating ourselves from the ways of this sinful world and via us submitting to Christ as Lord, and via us walking in obedience to his commands (New Covenant).

And that faith is that which is authored by Jesus Christ, persuaded of God, and gifted to us by God, and is not of our own doing, not of the will nor of the flesh of man, but of God and of his divine will and purpose for our lives. So we don’t get to determine what that faith looks like. Only God does. And his word teaches us that by faith in Christ we die with him to sin so that we might live to him and to his righteousness in obedience to his commands.

Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; 1 Peter 2:24

So, what is “mature manhood”? This isn’t just for men. This is for women, too. This has to do with spiritual maturity in Christ, i.e. until we are now walking daily according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and we are walking in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord, and no longer in sin, as our daily practice. This has to do with full surrender to our Lord to do his will, listening to his voice, and then obeying him.

Therefore, we should not be like the immature and the childish who are easily persuaded by various winds of doctrine and who are double-minded because they keep going back and forth in matter of opinion and belief, because they are being easily persuaded and swayed by certain people in their human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. But we should be those who stand on the truth of God’s word and who are steadfast in faith.

And one of the ways in which this is accomplished is when the body of Christ, as being led by the Holy Spirit, begins speaking the truth of the gospel to one another and not the lies which are permeating the church here in America today. And they should be refuting the lies so that all God’s children can see the lies for what they are and so that they will reject the lies and now obey the truth, in practice, and continuously.

Sadly, far too many professing faith in Jesus Christ here in America have adopted the lies and are following the lies and are rejecting the truth. Even if you show them the truth biblically, they will refuse the truth and they will hold on to the lies, for the lies do not confront them in their sins, and the lies do not demand repentance and walks of obedience to the Lord, but they coddle them in their sins, and they give them license to continue in sin.

So, we need more followers of Christ willing to boldly speak the truth of the gospel that Jesus and his NT apostles taught and to refute the lies of the enemy so that more and more people will reject the lies and will follow the truth. For if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of obedience to our Lord, we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith in Christ we professed with our lips.

[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]

My Sheep

An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.

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The U.S. government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 1 if lawmakers don't pass a continuing resolution or a federal budget by Sept. 30.

The shutdown would be the fourth in a decade.

The US debt to GDP ratio is similar to WWII and is about 120% of GDP.

UPDATED: IRS consultant charged in massive leak of taxpayer data​

A consultant for the IRS has been charged with leaking the private tax information of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people to a prominent news outlet, the Department of Justice announced Friday.

The agency said Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., stole the files while working as a government contractor and gave them to the news organization. The agency doesn’t name the outfit, though it appears to be referring to ProPublica.

It also says he leaked tax information about “Public Official A” to an unnamed second news organization, an apparent reference to former President Donald Trump and the New York Times.

See Also:

New York Times has Trump’s tax data...​

How the Wealthiest Americans Avoid Paying Their Taxes​

Hi I was thinking about boredom. Before the fall would Adam and Eve be capable of boredom? Is boredom a part of the fall or a sinful nature? Would boredom be possible in Heaven even after trillions of years? Would angels be capable of boredom? Just wondering....

Uganda​

Pray for a vocational scheme, run by Release International associate ministries, which trains persecuted Christians in skills such as sewing, cooking and hairdressing in Uganda.
Number of Prayers 0
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Uganda​

An evangelist called Engineer Herbert was stabbed to death in Sironko district, Uganda – apparently by extremists angered by his outreach work. Pray that others will continue Engineer’s work.
Number of Prayers 24
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Uganda​

Pray for the Muslim student identified only as Chengalat who has been charged with killing fellow student Jeremiah Mwanga at the Uganda Christian School of Professionals, northern Uganda. Pray that he will know God’s mercy and love.
Number of Prayers 26
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Uganda​

Pray for the family and friends of Jeremiah Mwanga, aged 24, a student at the Uganda Christian School of Professionals in northern Uganda, who was killed in his room after sharing about Christ with Muslims.
Number of Prayers 29
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Uganda​

Extremists exploded a petrol bomb during an evening service at a Pentecostal church in Biguli, western Uganda. Thank God no one was hurt, though part of the building was damaged.
Number of Prayers 27
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Uganda​

Pastor John Balidawa and his son Gilbert, aged 14, were hospitalised after extremists attacked them and destroyed their church, Ebenezer Christian Centre, in Kigulu, eastern Uganda. Pray this church will not be cowed.
Number of Prayers 35
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Uganda​

Pray that God will provide for the thousands of Christians in Uganda with a Muslim background who have been shunned by their communities and have lost their jobs.
Number of Prayers 29
YES - I WILL PRAY
Uganda

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized on behalf of Canada's Parliament after a man who fought in Adolf Hitler's Nazi forces was included in an event last week honouring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"This was a mistake that has deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada. All of us who were in this House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped even though we did so unaware of the context," Trudeau said in a brief statement to reporters.

Liberal caucus sources have told CBC News that Trudeau told MPs Wednesday they should avoid speaking to the press about Hunka's invitation and the subsequent fallout, and that the media frenzy would die down if they stayed tight-lipped.


Whoops...

I think this ties into what I've previously commented on. Where, because of the perception that "Russia = Pro Trump", people get the takeaway that "Anyone who fights/fought against Russia must = Good"

...which has also likely led to people justifying our involvement in Ukraine using reasons that they would've scoffed at when presented by republicans trying to justify our past involvements in the Middle East.

The Biden administration has filed federal lawsuits against two employers that denied religious accommodation to workers seeking an exemption from COVID-19 vaccine requirements.



Well finally something that I can applaud comes out of the Biden Administration.

Credit where credit is due.

The family of a Nevada woman who died of sepsis after taking abortion pills is suing for wrongful death, a case that is reigniting safety concerns as the Biden administration seeks to expand access by relaxing medical protocols.

Alyona Dixon, 24, died Sept. 28, 2022, less than a week after she was prescribed the two-pill abortion regimen at a Planned Parenthood clinic. The cause of death was “complications from septic abortion,” said attorney Mark Rouse, who represents the family.

Dianne Feinstein, longest-serving female US senator in history, dies at 90

Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, was a leading figure in California politics for decades and became a national face of the Democratic Party following her first election to the US Senate in 1992. She broke a series of glass ceilings throughout her political career and her influence was felt strongly in some of Capitol Hill’s most consequential works in recent history, including the since-lapsed federal assault weapons ban in 1994 and the 2014 CIA torture report. She also was a longtime force on the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

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"Glass ceilings" is a metaphor for barriers to women in politics. She was the first woman to do a lot of things in her political career. For that, many people called her a trailblazer. She was a woman of integrity who will be missed by many inside and outside her circle of family and friends.

Here are reactions to her death from people she worked with:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein dies at 90

At this time, please do not concern yourself with her political opinions, whether you agree or disagree with them, but post your condolences and tributes and remember her for the kind of person she was Do not forget to pray for them as they go through this difficult time.

Rest in peace, Dianne Feinstein.

A federal judge on Friday blocked several restrictions Maryland lawmakers tried to impose on the ability to carry a firearm, while leaving other gun control measures in place.

Judge George L. Russell III, an Obama appointee, issued a preliminary injunction enjoining Maryland’s restrictions banning the carrying of a firearm in places selling alcohol, private buildings or property without owner’s consent and within 1,000 feet of a public demonstration.

He reasoned there was no historical basis to leave those laws in place in light of the Second Amendment challenge.

Mark Driscoll's sermons are excellent on this subject.

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The playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYWRCyUBQanAn_Y67iFV46g_C5qPVyCf

"America is going full Joker" - Elon Musk

His comments came as retailers including Walmart, Target, and Rite Aid have struggled with shoplifting nationwide.

After my girldfriend told me her story, I dont know what to think anymore and I need help.

As information, her whole family doesnt believe in God, except her uncle.
She was often sexually touched by her uncle, who is/was a priest.
She often prayed, but then her cat died and her brother also died when she was 2 years old. She often prayed. She went to church but everything got worse. She nearly lost her whole family after telling them what happened. She also said that there are so many priests who violate children, which is not wrong. No one in her family believes in God, and the one who did it was a priest and touched her sexually.
How do you explain all this? She told me she probably wont ever believe in God the way she used to do. After hearing this my heart hurt, I didnt know what to even say.

Woman sentenced for arson of Wellspring Health Access Clinic in Casper​

CASPER Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - Lorna Roxanne Green, age 22, of Casper, Wyoming, was sentenced to 60 months in prison with three years of supervised release, to follow her prison term, for arson of the Wellspring Health Access Clinic located in Casper. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson imposed the sentence on September 28, 2023.

Green was arrested on March 21, 2023 [the arson was May 2022] in Casper by the Casper Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Green admitted that she set fire to the clinic, which was under construction at the time and planned to offer OB/GYN services, gender-affirming care, and abortion procedures.

U.S. Attorney Nicholas Vassallo said, “No matter what an individual’s opinions or objectives may be, the use of violence and property destruction to advance them is never acceptable. This was a reckless and serious crime which endangered the community and caused significant financial harm to the clinic’s owner. The sentence imposed today, five years of federal incarceration, appropriately reflects the gravity of Ms. Green’s offense.”

--

Per AP, the clinic (which opened in April) is the only location in Wyoming that provides surgical abortions after at least a decade without one in the state.

The justices said they would review the new and never-enforced laws from the two largest Republican-controlled states and decide whose rights to free speech are at stake.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said “conservative speech” was under threat. “It’s now the law that conservative viewpoints in Texas cannot be banned on social media,” he said upon signing the bill in 2021.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state’s law would hold accountable the “Big Tech censors” who “discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology.”

Both state laws ran into 1st Amendment challenges from the tech industry, and the Supreme Court put them on hold last year in a 5-4 order.

“Throughout our nation’s history, the 1st Amendment’s freedoms of speech and press have protected private entities’ rights to choose whether and how to publish and disseminate speech generated by others,” lawyers for the social media sites said in the Texas appeal.

At issue is the basic legal status of social media sites. Are they private companies with full free-speech rights to shape their content, similar to a newspaper or TV network?

Or are they are “common carriers,” like telephone companies, with a duty to be equally open to all views and subject to government regulation?

Until now, the 1st Amendment and federal law have been understood to protect free speech online by forbidding regulation by the government or through lawsuits against social media platforms.

But Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested the “dominant digital platforms” sites should be seen as common carriers subject to regulation. [Just like the Founders said!]

The Florida case is Moody vs. NetChoice while the Texas case is NetChoice vs. Paxton.

Rom 5:10

10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.


All for whom Christ died, have been reconciled to God, by His death alone, not by their obedience, not by their faith, not by their repentance, but even while they were being enemies, unbelievers, children of wrath as others BY NATURE, now if this be the case, their being reconciled, they cannot be under condemnation and wrath as others Jn 3:18,36 even while being unbelievers !

You see, they cannot be both condemned and under wrath as enemies and reconciled to God as enemies at the same time !

Dianne Feinstein, the first woman to represent California in the Senate, dies at 90​

Dianne Feinstein, who surmounted an abusive childhood and early political failures to become the first woman to represent California in the Senate and a central figure in the rise of women to national political power, has died.

Feinstein, 90, was a towering political figure for decades. She was the oldest member of the U.S. Senate when she died, and questions about her mental capacity shadowed her final years in office, blemishing her reputation and forcing her to repeatedly fend off calls to resign.

--

I was just a child at the time, but I was living in San Jose, near enough to San Francisco that it was all over the news for days. It made an impression when she appeared on television in 1978:

“As president of the Board of Supervisors,” she said, “it is my duty to inform you that both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.”

Those days defined Feinstein. Before then, California political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said, “you didn’t see a woman take control the way she did, in an executive position. She didn’t dissolve in tears and scream and yell. She was in control. That added a lot to her ability to win when she did.”

Frankly, I love Fr Tom. I wish his voice was still a living voice. He goes off-base in a couple of places, in my opinion, but by and large, is a solid Orthodox voice. (I was disappointed in his final podcast, on remarriage in the Church, but that’s a topic that could go into the divorce thread I started a couple of months ago, if I get around to it.)

Some years ago, I listened to his podcast series on Darwin and Christianity. I started on episode 11, about death, and was immediately hooked. I listened through the last episode, #17, and started again from the beginning and listened all the way through. My object here is to periodically post responses as I listen again on points where I don’t simply agree (although there are plenty of things on which I do).

I just started again, with another ten years in the Church under my belt, with episode one.He says a lot of true things, and if it sounds like I disagree heavily with him, as someone who has come to firmly disbelieve in the narrative of human evolution (something distinct from observed changes) as compatible with the Faith (whereas he is more open and accepting of that narrative), it is on these few points, and not everything. He is right about the violence of Christians of the past, for example. It was never Christian to burn anyone at the stake. In fact, he emphasizes that the violence is physical, and not merely a metaphor for “strongly attack”. But then he turns around and attacks Fr Seraphim Rose for “violently” attacking that narrative, and saying that his followers (and by implication, Fr Seraphim himself) are guilty of using their intellect for everything but being humble before God. It was a bit shocking, and somewhat self-contradictory, that Fr Tom himself admits the issue is terribly complex, and even encourages people to watch Ben Stein’s “Expelled” (a great documentary which Stein undermines by putting in sensational footage of Nazis periodically into the film. I felt peeved, on two points - one was the use of the word “violence”, which he had just strongly condemned as a physical evil act, and then using it to characterize Fr Seraphim’s strong disagreement with the narrative of human evolution, and the second was on the dismissal of the admittedly complex opposition to the narrative. Fr Tom’s podcast struck me as somewhat self-contradictory, though I understand that he was trying to be open-minded and fair.

WHAT WOULD BE COMPLETELY UNINTERESTING:
A person posting his own opinions without considering either what I or Fr Tom have to say. Quoting Fr Seraphim in context on the topic is fair game, though.

the following is mainly for masons/kabbalists/alchemists/zionists, understanding that geometry is an empirical science, albeit the following applies to all ...

knowledge via two fruits of a tree will never lead to your philosophers stone as in your holy grail simply because these two keys/pillars ( which hold up your house ) do not lead to it as something to be gained ... speaking to what is defined as sacred geometry of which as you know speak to the patterns, for eg: the number 153 of the Vesica Piscis pertaining to the Mandorla/seed and how this seed in picture portrays the Truth having come out and thus cast down into the realm of matter/earthly as in this seed/Son falls to the ground and dies or another picture being a rod cast down becomes a serpent and this serpent when picked up by its tail becomes a rod again ...

the knowledge pictured as a serpent does not lead you into your shangri-la ... but into a wilderness where it slays you ... death being the price to enter into the land ... simply said and using your own principals ... you can not find what you seek in things which define what you seek, and the more so when you apply measure by way of these two points (dividers) you use as a reference(s) ...

its no coincidence that the number 153 (fish) John 21:11 is the greatest of mysteries to your cult and why it will remain so as long as these two pillars hold up your temple

Today I watched a video from CMI where this man, engineer and geologist Tas Walker was discussing how 80 whale fossils were found buried in a desert in Chile and how marine fossils have been found in other deserts as well as mountaintops. It got me thinking about our thread about theistic evolution. Question: I think I know the answer but I’m just making sure…..I know Catholics are free to believe in theistic evolution and a regional flood but is it permissible for Catholics to believe that man came from the ground, forming Adam and Eve literally from Adams rib? And is it permissible for Catholics to believe in a global Flood rather than a regional one?