Hi everyone my name is Patricia, but known as Trish. I hope to connect to others and be a blessing.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Here is the question: Jesus said He would never leave us, Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit (the helper) would dwell in us and be in us.

When would we ever be out of the Presence of God?

I decided to edit this thread to make it shorter because it wasn't getting much replies. Do you prefer a smartwatch or a traditional watch? I like the smartwatch because it displays the weather info conveniently, tracks your steps, and monitors your heartbeat. But I don't like that I have to charge it every night.

Kamala Harris Copies Trump’s No Taxes on Tips Campaign Promise​

Vice President Kamala Harris copied a campaign promise first announced by former President Donald Trump to eliminate taxes on tips.

During a campaign rally in Nevada on Saturday, Harris acknowledged that Culinary Union Local 226 was at the rally, and she continued on to vow that if elected president in November, she would work to “raise the minimum wage” and “eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”

Harris’s promise comes after Trump announced in June during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, that if elected president, his administration would “not charge taxes on tips.”

“I know Culinary 226 is in the house,” Harris told the crowd. “And, the culinary union, as everyone in Nevada knows, they have helped lead the way in our country for workers’ rights and workers dignity. I have to say, for years I’ve been so proud to work by your side. When I was Attorney General of California, we worked together to crack down on wage theft. When I was a United States senator we fought together for paid family leave and medical leave, and earlier this year right here in Vegas we celebrated your historic contract win. And, it is my promise to everyone here, when I am President, we will continue our fight for working families of America. Including to raise the minimum wage, and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”

During a roundtable event at an African-American church in Michigan in June, Trump again vowed that his administration was “not going to tax tips.”

“Tell your waiters and waitresses, anybody else getting tips, ’cause they’re… a lot of people get tips,” Trump said. “Car attendants and caddies, and a lot of different people get tips. We are not going to tax tips – the tax immediately is coming off.”

Intel is part of the chip manufacturing construction in Columbus OH They received 8.5 billion of your tax dollars.

The situation being referred to here appears to be the one talked about in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. A man within the gatherings of the church was evidently in an incestuous relationship with his father’s wife (his mother or his step-mother). And the church was glad and was ignoring the situation. And so Paul instructed the church to exercise church discipline on the man and to remove him from the fellowship of the believers. And the goal of this action was that the man would be brought to repentance to save his soul from hell.

And they were to no longer be in fellowship with the man in order to shame him, for they were to “Purge the evil person from among you.” And it appears that they did as they were instructed. But now Paul was instructing them to forgive the man and to comfort him so that the man would not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. And now they were to reaffirm their love for him. So it also appears that the man, thus, had repented of his sin of incest (sexual immorality), and so God had forgiven him of his sin.

Now it helps us to picture this if we can understand the situation they were in during that time period, in contrast to our time period. For the church was the body of Christ made up of all who were of genuine faith in Jesus Christ, who had died to sin and who had been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. But the church in Corinth was the whole body of Christ in the entire city. And they were all under the same elders/overseers.

Now they didn’t all meet together in one huge building, as far as I understand, but they met from house to house and in the temple courts, which were open to the Gentiles. And they probably met wherever they could find places to meet, and they met daily, not just one day a week. And all of them who were of genuine faith in the Lord had gifts of the Spirit and were to be given opportunities within their gatherings to where they could all minister encouragement and exhortations to one another.

So, for them it wasn’t like it is for us here in America, anyway, where every congregation of what is called “church” is separate, one from the other, and under different authorities and church denominations. So, in America, if a church congregation in any particular city exercised such biblical discipline upon its members who were engaged in gross sexual immorality, the offending parties could just go to a “different church” where they would be accepted and not be disciplined at all for their sinful behaviors.

But in the time of Paul, where the church was all believers in Christ in the entire city under the same elders/overseers (my understanding), if the entire body of Christ in that city exercised that kind of church discipline on the man, he would be shunned by all the Christians in the city, and he would have nowhere else he could go. And so this would definitely put much pressure on the man and he would have felt punished to the point of either repenting of his sins or else just rejecting God and the church altogether.

Now, that may seem harsh to some people today who did not grow up in that culture, but we have the opposite situation in the church in America today where sexual immorality is running rampant in the gatherings of the church (or the false church). And it appears that few congregations are exercising such biblical discipline on the offending parties, and so the cancer has been allowed to spread throughout the church. If any church does anything, it is often to supply a support group for the addicted to sin.

But our Lord disciplines those he loves so that we will live godly and holy lives in accord with his will and purpose for our lives, just like godly parents discipline their children so that they do not end up wild and out of control. So, exercising true biblical discipline in such cases is not cruel to the offending parties. What is cruel is ignoring the situation and doing nothing so that human lives and marriages and families are being destroyed by this evil cancer of sexual immorality which is permeating the church.

But what this also teaches us is the importance of forgiveness. Now I believe the Scriptures teach that we must forgive even if the offending parties do not repent of their sins, but that is largely for the benefit of the ones who do the forgiving, because if we do not forgive others it will eat away at us like a cancer inside of us and it will kill us from within. But this forgiveness is not approving of others’ sins and it does not mean we should be in fellowship with those we know are living in sin. But it is us not getting even with them.

Yet the kind of forgiveness that God offers to us and that these Christians were now to offer to this man was a forgiveness that involved restoration to the body of Christ because the man had repented of his sins. For when we truly repent of (turn from) our sins to follow our Lord in obedience to his commands, he does forgive us, and he will bring us into fellowship with him, provided that our repentance is genuine. And if God, who is sinless, forgives us, we who are born into sin should thus forgive others their sins.

[Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew 18:21-22; Mark 11:25; Luke 6:37-38; Luke 11:4; Luke 17:3-4; 2 Corinthians 2:5-7; Colossians 3:12-13]

You are Loving and Forgiving

An Original Work / February 19, 2012
Based off Psalm 86

You are loving and forgiving,
Jesus, Savior, King of kings.
You provided our redemption.
By Your blood You set us free.
You are gracious; full of mercy.
No deeds can compare with Yours.
Great are You; there is none like You.
Glory be to Your name.

Teach me Your way, and I’ll walk in it.
O Lord, I will walk in Your truth.
May I not have a heart divided,
That Your name I give honor to.
I will praise You, O Lord, my Savior,
For great is Your love toward me.
You have delivered me from my sins.
Your grace has pardoned me.

You, O Lord, are full of compassion,
Slow to anger, bounteous in love;
Faithful to fulfill all You promise;
Glory be to Your name above.
Hear, O Lord, and answer Your servant.
You are my God. I trust in You.
Turn to me and grant Your strength to me.
You are my comforter.

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The question in title is the only one

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Read the story behind the song in the YouTube description window!
May this message of comfort touch your life or the life of someone who really needs to hear this.

In Him who is Hope and Truth,
Martin & Nancy

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

The name of the Lord is YHWH in Latin letters and יְהֹוָה in Hebrew. It is commonly pronounced as Yahweh or Jehovah. While using these names is not wrong, it is not deemed necessary. This is because the initial translators of the Old Testament chose "the Lord" to represent YHWH, a practice largely maintained in English translations as "the LORD". Misusing God's name would involve using it disrespectfully or as if it had no value. Catholics, among others, consider the name of God—whether as the Lord, Jehovah, or Yahweh—to be sacred, deserving the utmost respect and never to be treated as insignificant.

A triumphal procession is a celebration of great victories. In this context these are spiritual victories over our enemy Satan, and over the flesh, and over sin, and over anything opposed to God and to his righteousness and holiness. And these victories are ours through genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Because of what Jesus did for us on that cross we can now die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness (1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:1-23).

But these victories are not of the flesh, but of God. So it is God who leads us in Christ in these victories as we cooperate with him in his work of grace in our lives. For we have to follow him and his leading. We have to go where he sends us, and to do what he commands, and to say what he gives us to say, if we are going to have these victories. And we must be those who are spreading the Good News of the gospel of our salvation to the world around us, but we must make certain that we are spreading the truth, not the lies.

So, what is the truth of the gospel that we are to be spreading? Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But we must stay the course until the very end, the Bible teaches us.

[Lu 9:23-26; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; 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 1:18; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 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 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Now, when we are spreading the knowledge of Christ and of his gospel to the world around us, including to all who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we are the aroma (fragrance) of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. And please note that this says, “being saved,” for our salvation is not a one-time deal and now we are good to go regardless of how we live. Our salvation is progressive, and it is dependent upon us walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living and us no longer making sin our practice, from now to eternity (see above Scriptures).

And in this context, “aroma” is being used more metaphorically to mean the knowledge or character or distinctive marks of who Christ is and of what he taught and of why he came to the earth. We as his followers are to be his representatives in sharing who Jesus is, but not in words only, but in our actions, by our example. Now this is not a claim to perfection, as Jesus was perfect, but our lives should reflect who Christ is and what he has called us to be and to do. It should be apparent that we have been with Jesus.

Now to those who are genuinely “being saved,” i.e. who are walking in obedience to the Lord in holy living, and who are no longer walking in sin, by God’s grace, what we share with them, if what we are sharing is the truth of the Scriptures, should be an encouragement to them. And to encourage is not just all the “feel good stuff” that people like to hear, but it is sharing with them the truth that can save their souls from hell, and which teaches them how they should live as followers of Christ.

But to those who are perishing in their sins – which includes those who are making professions of faith in Jesus Christ but who are still living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord (see Scriptures above) – they will not find encouragement in our words unless they are ready to receive them and to follow Jesus in obedience to his commands. For they don’t want to be confronted with their sins and called to repentance, to the forsaking of their sins, and to walks of obedience and surrender to Christ as Lord.

But all this is dependent on us being those who speak the truth of God’s word in love to the people, who are teaching the word in its appropriate context, and who are not altering and diluting the truth to make it more palatable to human flesh, as so many people are doing these days. For we need to be people who are honest, sincere, and obedient to our Lord to do what he has commissioned us to do as his servants and messengers. And so we must be careful to teach the Scriptures in context so that we don’t end up teaching a false gospel taken from Scriptures taught out of context.

You are Loving and Forgiving

An Original Work / February 19, 2012
Based off Psalm 86

You are loving and forgiving,
Jesus, Savior, King of kings.
You provided our redemption.
By Your blood You set us free.
You are gracious; full of mercy.
No deeds can compare with Yours.
Great are You; there is none like You.
Glory be to Your name.

Teach me Your way, and I’ll walk in it.
O Lord, I will walk in Your truth.
May I not have a heart divided,
That Your name I give honor to.
I will praise You, O Lord, my Savior,
For great is Your love toward me.
You have delivered me from my sins.
Your grace has pardoned me.

You, O Lord, are full of compassion,
Slow to anger, bounteous in love;
Faithful to fulfill all You promise;
Glory be to Your name above.
Hear, O Lord, and answer Your servant.
You are my God. I trust in You.
Turn to me and grant Your strength to me.
You are my comforter.

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So i was in church today, is a small gathering, if you find one that God is doing things there is a real treasure, it doesn't matter the size building etc.
I am with some 'spiritual sufferings' and the pastor a women a guest this time was talking about 'processes' that christians are going to suffer trials etc.
and i said in my interior 'i am being processed' to the Lord and the pastor immediately looks at me and says 'Don't doubt it' and started talking to me about pro cesses, doubt was tormenting me also and she rebuked the spirit of doubt, i wish i would have paid more attention to everything else she said but i was very nervous after she put her attention on me.

Recently I’ve been having sort of an odd worry. If I make plans with someone and it’s something I really want to do I worry if God will tell me to cancel the plans or event. I worry that if He does tell me not to go I won’t obey Him because I really wanted to go. I’ve never actually felt like God told me this but now I feel like I shouldn’t go because if He did I’m not sure I would obey. I don’t even know if this makes sense but it sucks having these thoughts and anxiety as a Christian. Can anyone else relate?

“It is my promise to everyone here, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families,” Harris said, pledging to raise the minimum wage and “eliminate tips for service and hospitality workers.”
She's something!

Tim Walz had taught in China for a year and he and his wife led 10 summer student tours.
He loves the Chinese people but is critical of their government policies.
He had a life changing moment when he met the Dalai Lama in 2016 and discussed humility, patience and compassion.
How I wish many of our politicians could have such lunches with spiritual wisdom figures and have transformational moments.

Hi , New Christian in my 50's I consider myself Baptist though I do not have a Church. Also I lean reformed (been reading the puritans) Does anyone else think that those guys are brilliant? Also have been reading Reformed Theology along with the KJV. If at all possible I really need some Christian fellowship with other believers with similar beliefs but I am no Theologian So my conversations may be a bit remedial.

A question of truth, once again

Hello folks. This devotional will be a tough one, so anyone under 16 or anyone who has gone through rough moments may want to skip this one. Survivor resources are located at the bottom of this devotional.

Ecclesiastes 1:

9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

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Wiki:

mainstream scientific approaches reject the explanation of déjà vu as "precognition" or "prophecy".

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Deja vu is not prophecy.

People who travel often or frequently watch films are more likely to experience déjà vu than others.

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To me, deja vu is superstition. Practice hearing from God instead.

What's your favorite title for Mary?

"International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said on Friday he is not aware of a ‘scientifically solid’ way to distinguish a man from a woman"

--"the IOC “would be more than pleased to look into” the situation, it does not have a way to probe the gender claims of either athlete at this time"

Seriously? I never heard of such a problem in decades past. It seems to me one could take a person into a locker room and settle that issue in a minute?

A banker told me that if I use a credit card, I am more likely to get my money back if I am a victim of fraud than if I use a debit card. So I want to get a credit card for online transactions over the Internet since I am concerned about Malware. I recently read an article about malware on Android that has millions of installs and I don’t expect that my Windows computer is fully safe either.

First, which credit card would anyone recommend getting? My credit score has dropped to fair since I completed paying off my student loan a year ago and have had no credit activity since than. So I may have to get a credit card with more limits, like a secured credit card. Should I go with American Express, Capital One, or Chase Bank, or something else?

Secondly, I want a credit card that I can just pay by calling a phone number. My bank told me that their credit card has to be paid online or with the app and that you can’t call a phone number to pay it because of security reasons. However in researching this online, I read that most of the major credit cards have a phone number on the back of the card that you can call and provide your bank account number and pay that way. I don’t want to pay online or with the app because that defeats the purpose of why I am getting a credit card. I am trying not to use my computer or phone to pay because that could potentially expose my bank account number to malware or hackers.

I found that on Experian’s website if you provide your phone number and last four of your social, you can view preapproved offers. Is that a good place to sign up? Where else should I sign up?

I also want a card that has no monthly fee, and which one would give me a better interest rate?
The article on malware on Android in the Play store with millions of installs has me concerned, but should I assume that my Windows 11 computer with Windows defender and Malware Bytes Anti-Malware is safer? I am not paying for any virus / malware protection with this setup, as I am just using the free version of Malware Bytes.

Someone also mentioned to me that I can get a lower interest rate if I go with a credit union.

Also because I prefer to donate a certain percentage of my income to charity or the church, I might have online transactions with large amounts of money. I am kind of wondering if I should really do that with a credit card. If I were to become unemployed for some reason, I wouldn’t want a large amount of money to have to pay off if I did not anticipate becoming unemployed. Normally I would plan to pay off the balance each month.

Surfer Gabriel Medina, bronze medalist at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Tahiti, shared this photograph on his Instagram with the biblical quote “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” | Credit: Jerome BrouilletAFP via Getty Images

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have been the scene not only of sporting prowess but also of displays of faith and devotion by athletes from around the world.

Despite Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which prohibits any type of religious expression, some athletes have not hidden their faith and have proudly displayed it at key moments of the competition.

Brazil’s top athlete thanks God for the opportunity​

Continued below.

This is a rather bold statement .... can they do this? What do you think about this?

UK police commissioner threatens to extradite and jail US citizens over social media posts: 'We will come after you' | Fox News Video

Influencers offered huge payments for promoting Kamala Harris​

American voters are being told by some of those online influencers that they are all for Kamala Harris for president. But those comments likely should be considered politically paid ads, as there are payments being made for those comments.

Essentially.

This is evident after one TikTok influencer went online to confirm he'd been offered $1,500 to post one comment supporting Harris, and her VP pick, the radically left and possible "Stolen Valor" offender Tim Walz, whose booking image following a drunken driving arrest now is flooding the Web.

Influencer Michael Doherty explained, "Basically what they were asking for … $1,500 for anti-Trump content on TikTok."

There was a list of requirements along with the instructions to "gloat about Harris and her allies."

He explained, "They're basically creating division and paying for division online," he said.

Joe Biden, with Harris as his VP, in fact, boasted of being a "uniter" when he campaigned four years ago. Since then, they have promoted division in America on issues of transgenderism, abortion, spending, taxes, the border, the economy and more.

Doherty said he tracked the offer for cash-for-Kamala praise to a SuperPac with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend.