So I'm new to this writing a book "business" but I do believe I have a finished product. I guess I'm curious on what steps I should take, can take, to get this book printed. Not that I'm expecting it to be a best seller, but it would be cool to have a book of my own authorship on my book shelf and maybe one or two more to pass out to friends and family.

I'm very wary of online bits, but if you folks here make a common recommendation, I will trust the community. Thank you!

Biden approval rating drops to 39 percent: survey​

Why do ancient churches have an altar as the centre of their worship, at the front of the building, in the middle of the front, on an elevated platform as the most prominent feature in the sanctuary of the church? Well, it could be because of things like this, written by the earliest churches members who had church buildings.

And modern scholars know that the first Christians, the new testament, and the old testament all unite in speaking of the remembrance/memorial as a sacrifice.
And the scriptures themselves have much to say about the altar to which we come as Christians,
Saint Chrysostom preached of the sacrifice on the alter in his sermons.

Nike store in Portland shuts doors as crime and safety concerns tear through city​

Have I read that correctly?

And did I actually hear that governor state that the constitution and her oath 'are not absolute'?

Is this a nightmare or a joke? Will be interesting to see how this all plays out and think lots of prayer needed.

Republicans are trying to find a new term for ‘pro-life’ to stave off more electoral losses

WASHINGTON — Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot. At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room.

“What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions ... at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday.

A national strategist who worked on Senate races last year said: “The issue of abortion was problematic for Republicans last cycle, so it’s no surprise [the Senate Leadership Fund] is polling public perception of the issue. It’s the smart thing to do.”

Christina Reynolds, a spokesperson for Emily’s List, an organization that promotes female candidates who support abortion rights, said Republicans’ shift in messaging is “underestimating” voters’ understanding of the issue, adding that “wrapping it up nicely” would not change voters’ minds about abortion. “I think their messaging was not the problem. Their position is the problem, and they’re going to be stuck with those positions,” Reynolds said. “At the end of the day, voters are clear in poll after poll and in election results after election results that they believe that people should have the right to make their own health care decisions, that they support abortion rights, that they supported Roe v. Wade.”

Mark 14:3-9 ESV


What makes sense to some people doesn’t make sense to other people. But God didn’t make us all the same. But what might look foolish to some people may not be foolish to God. But the Bible will always be our measurement for what God accepts and for what he rejects. But look at some of the things that God had his prophets of old do, some of which were symbolic, and some of which were prophecies acted out rather than spoken with lips.

The point of what I just stated is this. We shouldn’t put God or other humans in religious boxes that we have, perhaps, made for ourselves, or that our parents or our religious institutions have made for us to follow. For not all of them are of God. Yes, we must absolutely stay within the moral boundaries that our Lord laid down for us in the Scriptures for us all to adhere to, but we are not all going to worship our Lord in all the same ways.

But, there again, we must remain within the biblical boundaries that our Lord spelled out for us in the Scriptures, so there is never freedom to do what is sinful. But also the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and SELF-CONTROL. So if you are doing something “in the Spirit” over which you have no control, then, according to the Scriptures, that is not of God.

And “peace” is peace with God, not compromise with what is against God. And “kindness” is showing others grace, but this should never engage placating sin nor lying to people to make them feel good about themselves. And “love” is not romantic attraction nor what is feelings oriented, but it is preferring what God prefers, which is what is holy, righteous, honest, trustworthy, morally pure, and faithful. And it is doing what he prefers.

So, please don’t judge other Christians on the basis of your own religious practices or culture or traditions if they are of man and not of God. And please don’t make judgments about other people by comparing them to yourselves, for God did not make us all the same. God uniquely designed us all, and he uniquely gifted us all, and he uses those who are his followers in many different ways to reach many different people.

So, here we have this story of a woman who did something unusual, perhaps, in giving honor to Jesus Christ, and in worship of the Lord. And in our culture today we might consider that an odd thing to do. But God doesn’t look at things in all the same ways as we humans do. And if you are a woman, in particular, and if God calls you to do something that is not the cultural norm, but which is biblical, you may have men scolding you, too.

And, how I absolutely love Jesus’ response to the men who were scolding this woman for her worship of our Lord. He said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing for me.” Amen! And he said, “And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” Glory to God! What a beautiful story of the woman’s love for Jesus and his love for her!

Now, I identify with this woman. Why? Because my Lord called me nineteen years ago to write out what he was teaching me through his word each day and to post these writings on the internet, so that is what I have been doing ever since then. I share my personal devotions with the world. I just post them on the internet and I trust that the Lord will take them where he wants them to go. But for some people, that is not normal. It is odd to them.

Why is it odd to them? Because it doesn’t fit in their religious boxes. It doesn’t fit with their cultural norms. And so I don’t have many supporters or encouragers, not even from the family of God. Is it because I am doing something sinful? No! It just isn’t what they are used to. BUT.. if I was an official worker (missionary) within a particular church denomination, then I would be accepted as “of God” regardless if I was actually “of God” or not.

And I am not looking for applause here. I am just sharing an example of how we can get in our minds that things have to look a certain way or go a certain way to be religiously acceptable. And what we may be accepting as “acceptable” expressions of worship of God may have nothing to do with honest and pure worship of God, while we might be rejecting true expressions of pure worship of God because they don’t fit in our boxes.

So, again, we should not judge other people by our own selves or by our own standards or by our cultural norms or by our human traditions or by our religious upbringing or by institutional religion’s standards. God did not make us all the same. He uniquely designed each one of us for his purposes and for his glory, so we are not to be “cookie-cutter Christians.” “Different” is not necessarily bad, and “same” is not necessarily good. In fact, we are all to be different, holy unto God, used by God for his purposes and for his glory.

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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What I didn't expect is how many people in the video linked below didn't know how old the earth is. And how far off they were. And I'm wondering how wide spread that lack of knowledge about the earth's age is. I don't know if that picture is due to creative editing or actual lack of knowledge.

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Massive earthquake hits Morocco with many hundreds dead, Lord have mercy on them and may your Love and Light shine upon the survivors!

I was baptized Disciples of Christ. Eventually may family joined a Non Denominational (Undercover Baptist lol) church growing up. I did a lot of study, eventually embraced Methodist theology and beliefs. But almost all of my extended family was Church of Christ. I bring up my background just to explain my curiosity of the subject because in no way do I have the knowledge to argue with anyone.

How did DOC and COC become so different after emerging from the same Stone Campbell movement and the Restoration movement? I understand that DOC is extremely liberal and COC is extremely conservative. Yes I know musical instruments in worship caused the initial split. I also imagine that many cultural and social issues played a part. I think that is important and want to understand if you have any insight into that, but I am more curious about the theological differences and how these two denominations got so far apart.

Does anyone have any insight?

The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling says that the White House likely “coerced the platforms to make their moderation decisions by way of intimidating messages and threats of adverse consequences.” The panel of three judges found that the administration “significantly encouraged the platforms’ decisions by commandeering their decision-making processes, both in violation of the First Amendment.”
This seemed rather obvious.

Something I've often pondered about.

Can we watch them?

I've seen countless movies, especially when I was a teen, countless horror movies, I possibly cannot name them all of what I've seen.

What are your thoughts?

(Fun fact: Alfred Hitchcock died with the Sacraments and a faithful Catholic, he possibly had Asperger's (did not understand social settings), and had a Catholic priest celebrate Mass inside his home).

What does it mean when a Protestant Church is in full Communion with another Church?

In my hometown, an Evangelical Covenant Church pastor is also pastor of a United Methodist Church-Presbyterian Church (USA) merged-congregation.

It is my understanding the ELCA is in full Communion with the Episcopal Church, the ELCA is also in full communion with the Reformed Church of America, UCC, PCUSA, among others.

Does it mean they share sacraments? Ministers?

God bless

NEWS Sri Lanka | 05 September 2023

16-YEAR-OLD STANDS FOR CHRIST IN SRI LANKA​

Malith was 11 years old when he realized his decision to follow Jesus wasn’t popular in the part of Sri
Lanka where he lives. At the same time, he also learned he had a talent for thinking up and designing
new inventions.

He created a solar-powered, glow-in-the-dark glove and won a trophy for the best innovation in a school
contest. Yet the next year when he asked his class teacher the dates of the same contest, she told him:
“There is no competition this year.”

“They fear that if they have connections with me, the teachers will start to look down on them, too. They don’t even look at my face when I pass by.”
16-YEAR-OLD MALITH

Click to expand...

But two months later, Malith discovered the competition was indeed held—however, he had not been
allowed to participate. And that has been the case for the last five years.

“I am not allowed to participate in any competition because I am Christian,” he says.
But Malith is not only a Christian. He’s a believer who boldly stands up for his faith.

The exclusion from school activities and competitions began when Malith refused to participate in
Buddhist rituals. When his teacher asked him to join a Buddhist activity, Malith didn’t mince words: “I
am a Christian, and I cannot participate in these rituals.”

Open Doors partners tell us he is the only Christian student from the school who takes this kind of bold
stance. Most Christians in his school, instead, choose to hide their faith out of fear of being judged or excluded.

“They are afraid they will be looked down on by teachers and other students,” Malith explains. “They
fear that if they have connections with me, the teachers will start to look down on them, too. They don’t
even look at my face when I pass by.”

The teachers also discriminate against Malith. He is often unjustly punished and even beaten by his
teachers. “Sometimes they reduce marks in my exam papers for no reason,” Malith shares.

He remembers the time when he asked permission to stay home from school because he didn’t want to
participate in a Buddhist activity. Although his request was approved, the following day at school, the
principal humiliated him in front of other students, ordering him to join all religious activities from that
day on.

But once again, Malith stood firm. “We have a right to follow our own religion,” he said, in front of the
school.

The 16-year-old knows he is staying true to his convictions and is living faithfully. But that doesn’t make
him immune to the pain of being left out and isolated. Like any teenager, Malith wants to belong and be
accepted by his peers.

“When I’m sad, I quietly pray to God in my heart,” he says, adding that his heart is to spread the gospel
in his school.

Malith understands Jesus’ words in Matthew firsthand:
“You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
(Matt. 10:22).

Open Doors field partners have met with and prayed for Malith and his family. He has also participated
in Open Doors “Standing Strong Through the Storm” persecution preparedness initiative, as well a legal
awareness seminar led by our field partners. Both have empowered him to stand for his faith as he
continues to encounter persecution.

“If we participate in other religious activities, it’s against the Bible, therefore I cannot do those,” he says.
“Being a Christian is a lifestyle.”

Pray with your brother Malith today:

• Malith is facing an important exam this year. Pray for courage and wisdom for it and pray for his career plans. Though he lost interest in innovation when the contest became a pain point, Malith is looking at a career in engineering.
• Pray that his teachers’ actions don’t discourage him from his future plans.
• Malith has a heavy heart for some children in his school. “Even grade six children are addicted to drugs,” he shares. Pray with him for these students … that he can be a light for Christ.
• Pray that the oppression of Christians students like Malith would decrease.
• Pray that Christians who are afraid to stand for their faith would not be swayed in other directions.

The Proud Boys leader was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the U.S. Capitol breach. His co-defendants were previously sentenced in this matter with similar lengthy prison time.

What impact does these heavy sentencings have on far-right extremism? Or on anyone considering doing this sort of thing next time?

Is it a deterrent?
Dose it galvanize the base because they see it as overkill?
Or another message being sent?

I believe this will be used as an effective deterrent. Many of these guys were weeping in Court, them and their families begging for mercy. I believe these people are experiencing mega regrets, realizing they won't be with family and friends for years, and now they have to worry about prison life. I don't believe most think it was worth it, and neither will others after seeing the results. I also like the message it sends to other countries, we take attacks on our democracy very seriously.

Children’s Prayer Sheet
It’s not only adults who can pray for our persecuted family. Every month we produce a prayer sheet aimed specifically for children. Each sheet has specific activities and prayers which will help children learn more about how persecution affects children in other countries. You can visit our Children’s Prayer Sheet page China
Thank God for the release in China of Uyghur pastor Alimujiang Yimiti after 15 years in jail in Xinjiang province. Pray for him and his family as they readjust to life together.

China​

Pray for veteran democracy activist and Christian Zhu Yufu who was recently barred from visiting his terminally ill sister in Japan. He remains under house arrest in China after 16 years of detention at home and in jail.

China​

Officials in China broke up five separate meetings of the Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church in May and interrogated church members. Pray for this congregation: their church was banned in 2018, their building confiscated.

China​

Prominent Christian lawyer Li Heping and his wife, Wang Qiaoling, were forcibly evicted from their Beijing home in April. Pray that God will answer Wang’s prayer that they can ‘live and work in peace and contentment’.

China​

Pray for Christian lawyer Yang Hua who has been fined £32,000 for buying and selling second-hand books. He is well known for defending Christian human rights cases in China, including that of Early Rain Covenant Church.

China​

Pray for Xu Feng, principal of Maizi Christian Music High School in China, who was arrested in 2021 and charged with ‘illegal business operations’. His lawyer reports Xu is suffering allergies due to poor nutrition in jail.

China​

Thank God that Pastor Pan Yongguang and 59 other members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church in China (also known as the Mayflower Church), who spent months in exile in South Korea, have now been granted temporary asylum in the US.

Judge Denies Meadows’s Request to Move Georgia Case to Federal Court​

Georgia prosecutors leading the criminal election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump and 18 of his allies notched a victory on Friday when a judge rejected an effort by Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, to move his case from state court to federal court. [R]emoval to federal court would have given him key advantages, including a jury pool that was more favorable to Mr. Trump.

The setback for Mr. Meadows came in the first of many rulings that are expected for the defendants who are seeking to have their cases moved out of state court. Mr. Trump has not filed for a removal to federal court, but he is widely expected to do so.

However, the ruling, by Judge Steve C. Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, does not bode well for any of those efforts. “Meadows had the strongest of the removal cases,” said Norman Eisen, who was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Mr. Trump’s first impeachment. “If Meadows has failed, then there’s little hope for Clark, or for that matter Trump,” he added, referring to Jeffrey Clark, a defendant and former Justice Department official who has also filed to move his case to federal court.

In the hearing on Mr. Meadows’s request, Fulton County prosecutors argued that he had overstepped the bounds of his chief-of-staff duties by acting as a de facto agent of Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign. They noted that he had arranged and participated in the now-famous Jan. 2, 2021, call between Mr. Trump and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in which Mr. Trump said he wanted to “find” roughly 12,000 votes, enough to reverse his election loss in the state. But Judge Steve C. Jones decided that the actions ascribed to Mr. Meadows in the indictment were not within the scope of his federal duties.

In addition to racketeering, Mr. Meadows is charged with one count of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer for his participation in the phone call with Mr. Raffensperger, the secretary of state. Prosecutors accuse Mr. Meadows of having “unlawfully solicited, requested and importuned” Mr. Raffensperger to engage in the illegal act of changing the certified vote returns in the state. When asked to characterize the conversation with Mr. Trump and Mr. Meadows, Mr. Raffensperger said, “I thought it was a campaign call.”

---

Note that Meadows was recently caught in a lie under oath, which tends to make judges and juries angry.

How long until he flips on Trump?

I was invited to be a surrogate grandma at a friend's daughter's school yesterday. It's a religious school in a red, red, red state.

I have been to lots of grandparents' days in my time, but this one was different. We were all herded into the large cafetorium, where we waited for the children to arrive. When they arrived they brought us donuts, and then we looked at all the items at the school book fair. None of the books were inexpensive, but that was OK. Parochial schools need funding. We waited on very long lines to pay our bill, and that was it.

In the good old days (before school shootings) we would go to the classroom, look at lovingly compiled portfolios of their work, then on to the auditorium to hear them sing and dance for their families. We got to know the teachers.

I learned that this school has full-time police protection from the local police department. They posted pictures of the police officer in the playground, in the hallway, installing hidden cameras in the ceiling, even guarding the chapel services, standing in the back, waiting for a deranged shooter...

I then learned that most schools, public or private, have security or police protection (the officer was at Grandparents' Day wearing what appeared to be a kevlar vest.) I am glad that steps are being taken to protect the children, but I am seething, incensed, to the boiling point that it is due to the selfishness, greed, and anger of gun owners, who look at any less traumatic ways to keep these children safe as interfering with their rights.

Children should be able to go to schools that aren't on lockdown each day, surrounded by police in kevlar vests. They should be able to have little celebrations here and there that parents and/or grandparents can attend.

A black minister friend of mine says that even though the police presence is friendly and supportive, many black children have had so many bad family experiences associated with the police that they are traumatized by the police presence.

This school is multi-ethnic, on a peaceful tree-lined street with beautiful gardens. It is about as suburban as you can find.

Why do children have to pay the price for the selfishness of gun owners who reject any and all safety precautions?

Let's say the police officer's salary and benefits come to $75K a year (we're in the South, remember.) And there are 200 children in the schools. That comes to $375 per child--$375 that could be better spent in many other educational ways. And this is every single public and private school in our town, the adjacent town, and others.

I just wanted to share this letter of hope and strength from a survivor of the Nazi's.
It has given me strength and I hope it will speak to you as well.


“CORRIE TEN BOOM & THE RAPTURE”
(She wrote this letter from China to America’s Pastors in 1974)

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.

In China, the Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured." Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, "We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution, rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes, – to stand and not faint."

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation." Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, "Nothing could be any worse than today." But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.

"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but on your part He is glorified."
(I Peter 3:14)

I found myself saying, "Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!"

In America, the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day, I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, "Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?"

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.

"When I was a little girl, " I said, "I went to my father and said, "Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ." "Tell me," said Father, "When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?"

"No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train."

"That is right," my father said, "and so it is with God's strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need – just in time…"

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, " In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.

But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution?

First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive
and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STAND IN THE TRIBULATION WITHOUT IT.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian's life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", (Job 13:15) for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!"

If Jesus was thin/slender when he began his 40 day fast , how is that healthy?

I thought our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. How can it be healthy to fast 40 days ???

Is prolonged fasting a sin ?

Why did Jesus fast that long ? Why did Jesus promote fasting ?

Is it because eating wheat is unhealthy and fasting counters the negative effects of consuming bread ???

This question "what happens after a person dies?" is both theological and apologetic.

But what happens when a person dies; is there medical research to shed light on this? Philosophy perhaps has a word to say? Science - physics, examination of energies and matter - do they have something to enlighten the matter?

Why is death and its aftermath of and in itself not a major research question?

How do you persevere through prayer when your mind tends to wander and it "feels" like you are going nowhere?

For example:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for XYZ, please have mercy on XYZ.....**mind goes blank***..."

Hi everyone, just wanted to introduce myself, I'm aNewMan, i'm literally a new Man, but not a new Christian. I'm living for God now whereas in the past I was not because I was immature spiritually. Life has been a journey the last few years but God has been faithful. Thanks for listening.