The U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from early 2023 to early 2024 than the government previously reported, a sizable revision that could affect the Federal Reserve’s decisions on interest rates and reverberate in the presidential campaign.

The Labor Department said monthly figures overstated job growth in the 12-month period that ended in March.

Wednesday’s report was part of a routine annual process. However, the revision was the biggest downward change since the financial crisis in 2009.

It also adds to previously reported signs of an employment slowdown, which sparked a major selloff on Wall Street earlier this month.

Certainly there are professing Christians in this world of ours who are still living in sin, still addicted to various sinful habits, who blame God when they are tempted or when they give in to sin, as though it is God’s fault somehow that they chose to sin of their own free wills. Or they will pass the blame on to someone else rather than take the blame for themselves for the evil that they committed. But it is true that we can be led into sin by those who tempt us to sin, but we still make the choice to sin or not to sin.

Yet it is also true that not everyone who is tempted of the devil to sin is tempted because of his/her own evil desire, for Jesus Christ, who was sinless, was tempted of the devil in the wilderness. And Job, who was a righteous man, was tempted of the devil when God permitted Satan to attack him physically and to murder his children and servants and livestock. For even if we are living holy lives unto God we may still face temptation of the devil to give in to fear or to give up hope, or whatever.

But there are people who are regularly being tempted to sin against the Lord because of all the evil that is stored up in their hearts. For the Bible teaches that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” And it is true that what is stored up in our hearts will come out in our behaviors and words and attitudes. But also the “good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.” So store up good in your hearts. (see Luke 6:45; Matthew 15:17-20)

Now there are many professing Christians today who are convinced that they are saved, sanctified, and on their way to heaven, based on a profession of faith that they made to believe in Jesus Christ one time in their lives. And so they are still living life for themselves and for the pleasures of the flesh, believing that God’s grace covers it all. But the Scriptures teach us if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not walks of obedience to our Lord, that we will not inherit eternal life with God. We will die in our sins.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

So, do not be deceived!! God has not changed! His word has not changed. Yes, we are not living under the Old Covenant liturgical and ceremonial laws that the Jews of old had to follow. But Jesus gave his life up for us “to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” And he said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the ones DOING the will of God the Father in heaven. (see Titus 2:11-14; Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus died on that cross in order to put our sins to death with him so that by faith in him we will now be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him 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. And he shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of living in slavery to sin so that we will now honor him with our bodies, and so we will now follow him in obedience to his commands in holy living, in the power of God.

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

Living Water

An Original Work / November 21, 2013
Based off Various Scriptures

My people have forsaken Me,
Their Savior, who died on a tree;
Made idols, and they worshipped them;
So empty, they will ne’er fulfill.

Lord, You are the hope of Your chosen ones.
Those who turn away from You will be shamed;
The Spring of Living Water left behind.

Living Water satisfies.

The thirsty, let them come and drink;
Believe in Jesus as their King;
The gift of Jesus given them,
So they will never thirst again.

Indeed, the Living Water flows within.
It springs up like a fountain cleansing sin.
Eternal life in heaven promised them.

Living Water glorifies.

Oh people, won’t you come to Him?
Obey Him and repent of sin.
Let Jesus come and live within.
Surrender all your life to Him.

My people, won’t you turn your hearts to Me?
Forsake your idols and then you’ll be free.
Won’t you come now to Me on bended knee?

Living Water sanctifies.

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Dang, this song makes me get so close to tearing up. Found this cover of Casting Crowns - Who Am I, by the Asidors, a group of Asian musicians from the Philippines who moved to California that I have never heard until today.


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Relevant Bible verse for the song:
Romans 5:6-8 (ESV): "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Who Am I (Lyrics, 2003 original, 2021 cover):

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name?
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the bright and morning star would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart?
Not because of who I am
But because of what you've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who you are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean)
A vapor in the wind
Still you hear me when I'm calling
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling
And you've told me who I am
I am yours, I am yours
Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin would look on me with love
And watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me?
Not because of who I am
But because of what you've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who you are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean)
A vapor in the wind
Still you hear me when I'm calling
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling
And you've told me who I am (I am)
I am yours
Not because of who I am
But because of what you've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who you are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean)
A vapor in the wind
Still you hear me when I'm calling
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling
And you've told me who I am (I am)
I am yours
I am yours
I am yours
Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
'Cause I am yours
I am yours

YouTube Channel Video Devo
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“Filled With Emotions”

The past years, several months and days have been filled with my oldest daughter preparing for graduation and now venturing off to college. Since Spring, it’s been a whirlwind of preparing for graduation, her grad party and now getting everything ready to send her off to college.

As I write this, tears are filling my eyes. I’m just filled with emotions. I’m thinking of the memories I’ve had with my daughter and watching her grow into the beautiful young woman she has become. The past few years have been quite challenging in many ways as she navigated some difficult times, but learned and persevered through them. I am so proud of the woman she is now and who God is going to lead her to be in the coming years.

As you can imagine, emotions have been all over the place for my wife and I as we navigate this new season of life. I don’t really know how all to explain the emotions I’m seeing in our home and the emotions I’m personally feeling. I’m excited for her, but also sad that I’m letting her go into the world by herself.

I’ve been telling my wife that I’ve struggled with the feelings of “Did I teach her enough? Did I instill enough Godly values in her? Did I spend enough time showing her I love her? Did I take enough time doing things with her?” The questions just keep filling my mind as emotions run through me. This is a new season of life and I’m not quite sure how to handle the emotions and……I want to be strong for my wife and, my oldest and my youngest. But, it’s okay to show emotions.

Friday, we take her to college and we come home without her for a while. It’s going to be hard and it will be a transition for us. What I know most of all is that God’s in complete control and He will guide her and we just have to trust His timing and protection throughout her life. As she experiences college, as she finds a Godly man when the timing is right and enters marriage and as she one day has a family of her own.

Lord, please protect my daughter as she ventures out on her own. I pray she will take all that we’ve taught her and develop her own faith and become stronger. Thank you for these 18 years of watching her grow and blossom. I’m excited to see what You have in store for her life and where You will lead her. Please help my wife and I adjust to this transition as well as my daughter as she ventures on her own. We give her to You and trust Your leading in her life. Amen.

As an unashamedly pro-life Christian who believes “life begins at conception,” New York Times journalist David French has announced that, “I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 and — ironically enough — I’m doing it in part to try to save conservatism.” With all respect to Mr. French, with whom I’ve dialogued privately about this, I find his position both indefensible and bizarre.

For my part, I am no starry-eyed, adorer of former President Trump, for whom I voted twice.

In June 2022, I expressed my preference for another GOP candidate rather than Trump.

And on January 6, 2021, as the Capitol riot was taking place, I stated that Trump was morally responsible for the mayhem, not because he intended for it to happen but because of his irresponsible rhetoric in the previous months.

In fact, Trump supporters who read my columns on a regular basis know that, to their dismay and even disgust, whenever I speak well of Trump’s accomplishments, I offer a series of caveats and disclaimers.

Continued below.

May sound unpopular or outlandish but I wonder if that's happened to anyone

The bold assessment of Trump’s fealty to Putin comes in McMaster’s book At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, published by HarperCollins and arriving on 27 August. The Guardian obtained a copy.

“After over a year in this job, I cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump,” McMaster recalls saying in the memoir covering the turbulent 457 days the now retired general served as national security adviser from February 2017 until he was effectively fired by tweet in April 2018.

While other western leaders were beginning to formulate a strong response to the assassination attempt [on Sergei Skripal, a Russian former intelligence officer, and his daughter], McMaster says, Trump sat in the White House fawning over a New York Post article with the headline: “Putin heaps praise on Trump, pans US politics”. Trump, according to the book, wrote an appreciative note on the article with a black Sharpie and asked McMaster “to get the clipping to Putin”.

“On Putin and Russia, I had been swimming upstream with the president from the beginning,” writes McMaster, whose successor as national security adviser, John Bolton, also ended up falling out with the president and went on to become one of numerous former administration officials to condemn Trump’s re-election effort.

see also:

redleghunter said:

Everything you need to know about Trump's new national security adviser HR McMaster

Everything you need to know about Trump's new national security adviser

Good man. Hero of Battle of 73 Easting. Genius of Tal Afar. Welcome back to the DC sewer.

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MSN.com/en-us/politics kamala-harris-not-leading-a-single-battleground-state-in-new-pol -- MSN

"Vice President Kamala Harris is not leading in a single battleground state, according to a new poll.

"The survey, conducted by Navigator Research between July 31 and August 8, showed the Democratic presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump are tied in Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, while Harris is behind in Arizona and Pennsylvania."

========================================

It is "interesting" because normally even in years where Republicans win the election - rather than Democrats -- the Democrats are ahead in August.

This may just be an "interesting detail" when it is all said and done. But still I notice it.

Even so - I would expect the Democrats to get a significant bump in the polling by the end of their convention. That is the way the pattern goes. But the battleground states will be interesting to watch all the same.

Yesterday I stepped out briefly to take garbage to the dumpster. I’m pretty sure I locked the door behind me, especially since I find the retired couple across the hall to be very concerning.

As I mentioned here before, they act like they are all cheery and friendly, but it seems fake. Some nights I have had insomnia and looked out the window. and have seen them walking around
at 2 AM even in sub zero weather - always in the same direction towards the same building. Honestly, I am guessing that is the meet up time and place for them and some others.

Also, based on sometimes hearing the sounds of a door closing, though quietly, and quiet footsteps down the stairs, I have noticed they seem to be on
a 2 AM trek schedule, which seems witchy to me to tell you the truth.

Anyway, I came back to find that my door was slightly ajar. Not only that but some items were missing. Oddly, one of them was a dental appliance. My purse had been sitting out on the table so I have asked to be given a new credit card.

I am having someone come in to change my door’s lock also. I wonder if anyone knows much about what they call smart locks. These locks have buttons that you push instead of a key. I have asked for one to be installed, but don’t know much about them.

Please pray for me to be protected, along with all that belongs to me from those people across the hall
and any others like them.

Numerous protesters were arrested after clashing with police Tuesday near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, according to media reports.

Most of the arrests occurred toward the end of the night after protesters had tense confrontations with police officers throughout the demonstration, The Associated Press reported. The newswire also noted law enforcement officers pinned the remaining pro-Palestinian protesters in a plaza and prevented them from leaving.



I think the DNC will need to strategize and find a way to play the tightrope game with how they try to partially appease both camps with regards to the Israel/Palestine conflict. Right now, that conflict has created something of a "no-win" situation for Democrats on this particular issue where if they drift too far toward either direction, they run the risk of alienating some voters.

Up until now, they've been able to somewhat side-step it by keeping the focus on how bad Trump is, and avoiding the subject and appealing to abstract concepts of "joy".

But pro-Palestinian protestors showing up and making trouble at the Israeli consulate and marching down by the DNC convention in Chicago probably wasn't in the script for how they were hoping the night would go.


Ultimately, I think they'll have to rip it off like a band-aid and pick a side and stick with it because conveying a non-decisive "wishy washy" position on such a hot button issue for too long, this close to election time, isn't going to work in their favor.

...the "Israel is a great ally and we stand with Israel" when speaking to one audience, and then a "the travesties in Gaza are unacceptable" when speaking somewhere else, isn't gonna fly forever.

A common cartoon meme is an individual arriving at the Pearly Gates, where Peter at the gate determines if they are allowed to enter. If they are allowed to enter, they are "saved," if not then they are "lost." It is a one-at-a-time, individual, consideration.

But often in the Bible, the discussion of salvation is based on GROUPS or nations. Israel, as a nation, was to be saved or lost. When the Babylonians attacked, the entire nation was conquered and even good people were swept up in the destruction.

In the New Testament, there emphasis on the individual relationship with God, and how we are personally saved or lost.

But still, in the book of Revelation, there is again discussion of nations and wars, and warnings to God's people:

Rev 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “’Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;

Click to expand...

Questions:

• Does "salvation" mean different things in different contexts?
• Did God change the way He works with mankind -- previously corporately, and now individually?
• Does it make any sense for just 1 person to be saved? Without family, community, friends etc, would that 1 person be happy?

I think that God's goal is to save mankind, as a species -- a unique member of the family of God. He also saves individual persons as part of this process. Like cells that comprise our body, we individuals compositely make up mankind. And God is working to save both.

What do you think?

KT

Since we Christians asked God to forgive us for our sins in The Lord's Prayer then pray that Jesus Christ sends forth The Holy Spirit to help us forgive other people's sins against us.

A person can lay legitimate claim to the title of conservative and not cast a ballot for Donald Trump this November. A person cannot lay legitimate claim to that title and cast a ballot for Kamala Harris.​

I'm over here with 4 kids in a small starter home that we've long outgrown, cutting coupons month to month as we try to survive the inflation that the politicians have unleashed upon us all.

But this insanely rich woman is here to lecture me about taking more than I need.

“The question is … is the risk of a Harris-Walz presidency worth us staying in? And that’s the question we have to ask ourselves right now,” she said.

It's hard for lifelong Democrats to support a Republican, but such a radical ticket as Kamala/Walz is not representative of most Democrats.

And I'm afraid. If you could help me by praying for me.
My life is a joke and a mess. And I made it into an even bigger mess recently. I feel spiritually destroyed. I think God supernaturally connected me to another person that I was supposed to be happy with. But I ruined it by having evil thoughts about this person.

Bummer for me.

That looks to be shaping up.

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Watch the video....if you don't and you comment, you'll embarrass yourself.

The video details an organized Colombian criminal network that got through the southern border by pleading for asylum. They victimized many people....robbed many people blind....and they were helped by the federal government. Literally.

In fact, this administration has done such a horrible job....that whenever these criminals were caught, they wanted to be deported so they could simply enter....plea asylum....and continue robbing US citizens.

Your taxes paid for their airplane tickets.

Before anyone says "Republicans refused to sign the border bill blah blah blah"....the border bill did nothing to prevent criminals like these. They simply would have entered under a different name and plead for asylum.

They think US citizens are stupid....and they're taking advantage. It's hard to disagree if you continue to vote for this. Harris wants to abolish ICE, and that would make deporting them even harder....and in sanctuary cities, these criminals are there to stay.

Please notice that one criminal entered without being caught....which happens all the time under this administration. Then consider the record numbers of terrorists crossing the border. The FBI believes that a major terrorist attack is basically inevitable at this point. No one is keeping track of these people.....and they're not facing any real consequences. It's ridiculous to expect anything different under Harris. Biden finally just denied asylum to multiple nations....something he could have done back in 2021....but it's an election year move to drop numbers of entries. I wouldn't expect it to continue under Harris. She's basically a far left progressive and doesn't really believe in border control.

Feel free to add any thoughts or try to justify this mess the Democrats have created. I'm curious how many people still believe in the old lie about "fixing the nations people are leaving". These people left just to rob US citizens and take advantage of the idiots we elected.

I grew up in the Presbyterian church, but now I belong to the Assembly of God church. The debate between Armenians and Calvinists has always intrigued me. In my humble opinion, the debate is not centered on theology, but only the world view of the debater. The cornerstone of Calvinism is that libertarian free will is impossible for man. The cornerstone of Armenians that libertarian free will is a gift of God to man.

One quick aside. The saddest period of Einstein's life were his last 30 years when he tried to disprove his own theory. He said, "God does not play dice." Not only do we have libertarian free will, but the universe has a form of it as well. He wrote the laws of quantum mechanics to give our universe the physical equivalent of libertarian free will. Consider a block of uranium sitting on a lab bench. Quantum mechanics tells us that we know how many nuclei will decay per hour, but not which ones. This is in effect, the physical equivalent of libertarian free will.

Calvinists believe that in our time line, God is only an observer, he made every choice during His creation process. Armenians on the other hand, tend to believe that He is constantly editing His plan to change events in his creation at our request. One way or the other, our prayers are not a waste of time, they are cast in concrete. This debate is not about an interpretation of God's perfect will and scripture, it is a debate about human world view.

In conclusion, the next time you debate a Calvinist, include world view as well as interpretation of biblical doctrine and God's perfect will.

Regards,
Gene

The Department of Homeland Security has lost track of 32,000 illegal immigrant children who failed to show up for their deportation hearings and rarely bothers to look for them, the department’s inspector general said Tuesday.

Nearly 300,000 other children still haven’t been given immigration court summonses, the inspector general said. That works out to two-thirds of the children U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has failed to serve.

They are what the government calls unaccompanied children, who show up at the border without parents and who are placed with sponsors in the U.S. while they wait to find out whether they can stay. The government often lets them fall through the cracks.


Human trafficking?

No worries, Border Czar Harris is on the job.

Hi all, this is my first post!

I grew up in a Presbyterian church but I attend an Assembly of God church now. So this topic has always fascinated me. I recently boiled my thoughts down to two short questions. When someone denies that we posses Libertarian Free Will, ask them this.

"So you mean that every soldier who ever threw his body on a hand grenade to save his brothers in arms didn't possess Libertarian Free Will? He just had a suicide complex and never knew it?"

If they demand a biblical reference, offer them Romans 5:6-8

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since Christ was a man in all ways, these verses apply to a man as well as to Christ.

Regards,
Gene

Anyone notice that the colors of the Palestinian flag that immigrants keep waving are also the colors of the four horsemen? I don't think this is a coincidence.

Ezekiel 36 said God would restore Israel in their own land and turn the curses onto the surrounding nations. In 1948, the nation of Israel was formed with its capital west of Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv. After the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Israel sought peace deals with the Palestinians, even giving back land. The Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979 led to violations of peace negotiations and continued war. This Islamic Revolution planted proxies in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel responded by sanctioning those territories. These austere conditions, paired with the looming normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia provoked Hamas to attack civilians as part of the Al Aqsa Flood last October 7th. Israel responded by desolating the entire Gaza Strip. Thus the four horsemen are Israel's restoration and conquering of his enemies.

Thoughts?

Hello. My name is Jeremiah, but my friends call me Jimmy. I'm from North Carolina, but I've been a gypsy for a good part of my life. I'm currently in Arkansas trying to help out with my grandfather. I'm trying to make a more conscious effort for fellowship and spiritual growth. I'm a solitary kind of guy so have turned to the Internet.

It's nice to meet all of you.