*Orthodox only please*
Question: what is the secret of the Kingdom?

Hey, something amazing has been happening- for the last month or so God has been doing alot in my life, really pouring alot into me! This has never happened before! I have been going to church probably 4 times a week, tuesday, wednesday, and sunday AM and PM. Every single time I have gone to church something has happened! Every single time! I have been to probably 5 churches in the area and every time a random person has just walked up to me and started praying and the power of God hit me and God healed me of something! I also called the Billy Graham prayer hotline and the prayer partner did it too, she had several words of knowledge for me and God also touched me then too. I have really needed this, I have a severe mental illness called schizophrenia and I have been sick as a dog with it. I also heard that a local church, Christ Community Church, has a special anointing on it to heal people of mental illness so I have been going every sunday and getting prayer, I have experienced alot of healing there, the special anointing is real, guaranteed! I have gone 4 sundays so far. I have also gone up for prayer at at least 5 churches in the area and every single time I felt God touch me but I could not tell what was happening, I did not know what He was doing, then as soon as they were done praying I immediately forgot about the whole thing, I did not remember anything. Now in the last 2 weeks this has shifted, now when I get prayer anywhere, at any church, I sense and feel nothing, nothing at all, but I am still convinced that God is doing something. I think God is up to something!

Hi! I neeeeed help!! I can't seem to use a computer which I know has played sinful music, has had sinful content shown on it even accidentally. My conscience is still weak and I'm having such a hard time finding Bible verses to make my conscience stronger.. I know we are in the world and are supposed not to be part of it, and therefore should be a light for others such as those on the internet to teach them Truth. I know the computer is a tool which can be used for good and bad, but I don't want to use an object which may have been affected because of the sinful content it has appeared on it...unless it is The Bible which offers correction on such topics. I don't want to think I'm being an accomplice for using a tool which already has possibly had content show up that was offensive to God. This also applies to real life ... Can a place where there was possibly blasphemic music towards God like a market be a place for a Christian not to CONSUME from, make business with etc? or a clothing store etc? One thing is to consume from a market where meat was offered to idols who are not even real, but I feel like it's a totally different topic to go to a market where the ambiance is putting music with possibly blasphemic lyrics... is the place a safe place to go/is it affected even after it no longer plays such music? I would love some Biblical verses to understand these topics happening around my weak conscience... I can't even use a computer to do my work, use my phone to text back somebody or go to a market/store where, unless I'm unaware of what happened before. That why now I'm at a paper shop typing on a computer... Please help me with Biblical knowledge on these topics...My family doesn't even want to help.

If you believe Jesus our Messiah isn't also God, but rather just a human, then explain why He had to be conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a Virgin? Why was He to be called "Immanuel" meaning "God with us?"

Hey guys... I recently reconnected with a buddy I've known for years who told me his feelings of addiction are bad right now. What's more, he's getting married in 6 months and that he feels just empty. I decided to sit with him, we talked and prayed for some time and I introduced him to an app called ‘Free Indeed’ which provides a safe community for those going through the struggle of lust and porn and addresses this situation thoroughly and practically. You can check out Free Indeed on your app store or text me for a link. 2 Peter 2:10 tells us, “Whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” Pornography can take over a person’s life. It often becomes all that they think about. When that happens, it pulls a person further away from God. On this journey. My buddy is making visible progress.
I'm really happy guys.

German researchers have examined a “hypervaccinated” man they say received more than 200 coronavirus shots without any noticeable side effects or harm to his immune system.

Their findings, published Monday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, a medical journal, indicate that coronavirus vaccines have a “good degree of tolerability,” the researchers said, although they noted this was an isolated case of “extraordinary hypervaccination.”

“We learned about his case via newspaper articles,” Kilian Schober, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement. “We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests. … He was very interested in doing so.”

Going into the study, the researchers had speculated that having so many shots could cause his immune system to become fatigued.

But in fact, the researchers found that the man had more of these immune cells — known as T-cells — than a control group that had received the standard three-dose vaccine regimen. They also did not detect any fatigue in these cells, which they said were just as effective as those of people who had received a typical number of coronavirus shots.

The researchers made it clear that despite their findings, they “do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity.”

Jesus seems to consistently put forth the instruction to be peaceful and not respond in kind to violence or domination...
But then we have the thing at the temple where he is whipping people.

How should a Christian conduct themselves in the face of a threat?

Can they defend themselves? Or can violence only be used to defend the 'temple', the church, God's word etc.?

50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says

Instead of trickling down to the middle class, tax cuts for the rich may not accomplish much more than help the rich keep more of their riches and exacerbate income inequality, the research indicates.

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This kind of news isn't truly a shock to anyone anymore right?

We can all recognize where perhaps things went a tad askew.
Cause I wonder if maybe we could stop cheering on tax cuts for them and consider the silent class war that has been happening.

Hello. To those that read this.
I tend to think of myself as ignostic..
Of late I'm approaching my analysis with an understanding that people are fundamentally the same given the same resources
People behave like people and as such I view the analysis of "back then things were different".. different than I have before.
Today I see the same ideological assessments being applied to existence as that which was present millenia ago.
The record may differ though.
So much has been lost to conquest and yet this is a current behavior exhibited by people.
Codified and buried under gold as such was long ago is now

Waiting on the Lord involves trusting in who he is, in his word, in his many promises, and in his power, sovereignty and grace in our lives to work out all things in our lives according to his plans and his purposes. Life doesn’t always make sense, and sometimes it may even seem unfair and unjust, yet God has a plan and a purpose for all things we go through in this life. He will give us all we need to make it through, and the wisdom and discernment to do what is right. We just have to trust him, and we have to rest in him.

The way in which we are able to do this is through abiding (remaining; being steadfast) in him and through having his words live within us. Our faith is not a religion, a ritual, or just a belief system, but it is a relationship with Jesus Christ. He asks of us, that we might be one of his followers, to die daily to sin and to self, and to follow him in obedience (See Lu 9:23-25; cf. Ep. 4:17-24). Then he will live within us, and he will live out his life through us. And, in all that we go through in this life, he will fill us with his comfort, his peace and his healing.

Abide in Him

An Original Work / July 31, 2013
Based off Ps. 27:14; Is. 40:31; Jn. 14-15

If you wait for the Lord, put your hope now in Him,
He will give you His strength and endurance within.
He will renew your strength, so you will not lose heart.
You will soar on wings like eagles, never depart.

“If you abide in Me, and My words live in you,
You will walk with Me daily and follow what’s true.
I will live now in you; give you peace now within,
If you obey My teachings and turn from your sin.”

“If you listen to Me, and do all that I say,
I will give you My comfort; be with you always.
I will heal all your pain; life with Me now you’ll gain,
If in fellowship with Me you always remain.”

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I am finally overcoming self harm!!! God has turned the tide in my life! I’m so happy right now, I can’t even begin to describe how good I feel!

Self harm is a difficult thing to do.. at first it is extremely painful but over time you learn to tolerate the pain ( and enjoy it ). I have been using a pocket knife to feel in control of my situations and emotions. NO MORE!! Jesus is all I need!

Self harm is hard to stop but the emotion behind it is even harder to solve. I hated myself for all kinds of reasons I always felt like a stupid failure, a misfit, UGLY and etc…. I’ve learned I don’t care what I look like or anything like that. As long as I know Jesus that’s good enough for me!!! I’ve fought hell by the acre for so long. Depression and anxiety have been major struggles in my life. I have attempted suicide in recent times feeling things were just never gonna get better. As of now , I want to live more than ever before!!! I want to live a life for Christ! Wherever he leads I’ll go!!!

Anyway, I’m just praising my Savior for victory over self harm!!!!!!

Praise God! Praise God!!! His grace is sufficient for ME!!!!!

Thank you all for your prayers, advice and encouragement!!!! Love you all!

I have various addictions, not really to alcohol or hard drugs or anything. I do take prescription drugs for mental illness and I do smoke cigarettes though. It's soul crushing honestly. I've not wanted to smoke for like 2 years now since I started. Unfortunately I still do, maybe haven't been praying hard enough I guess.

Either way, my point here is that of how terrible addiction really is. We pray to God so that we might have a better future right? So why is it that God allows us to destroy ourselves in the midst of trying to figure out our errors and correct them by turning to him? Even in prayer I struggle so hard, it just has me defeated mentally on how I could ever be happy when i've been miserable for so long.

Almost like what's the point? Even if God heals me one day, i'll probably have more health problems from the addiction I struggle with currently. I don't get it,

I could use the help of those of you who have years of studying the Old Testament. I say that because there is a tremendous amount of Scripture to digest that can cause a person to wonder what the Nature of the Jews actually was at the time of Christ.

Is it possible that Israel had been infiltrated and/or, become corrupt because of the Jews' inability to keep themselves from procreating with the Nations considered abominations?

Does anyone have any estimations on how Pure or corrupt their Vine had become?

Thanks!

And by the way, because we are Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we talk to each other with kindness and gentleness. Thank you.

This is just a theory.


I have very often asked myself, could we & the earth be the micro of God who is the macro.

To understand this better here is a link.

There are 75 Verses About The Womb In The Bible​

Children should never EVER be experimented upon for the financial gain of those in the medical profession as well as to push a social agenda.

Please prayer for me to find a church home, need to get back to the church. Hoping to listen and be guided by the Spirit to a church home, tomorrow night.

The founder of a Christian boys' boarding school in rural Missouri and his wife have been charged with first-degree kidnapping following reports of runaways and allegations of abuse at the facility.

Both worked at ABM Ministries Lighthouse Christian Academy, a private Christian boarding school in Piedmont that serves boys ages 10 to 13, the sheriff's department said. Musgraves is the founder and pastor of ABM Ministries, according to his LinkedIn page.

The 25,000-square-foot campus sits on 250 acres near the Ozarks, and the academy markets itself as a special campus for troubled or “learning impaired” youths, according to its website.

The arrests come a little over a week after The Kansas City Star published an article detailing how several boys had run away from the boarding school since Jan. 13.

Per AP:

The school was coed in 2009 when a federal lawsuit accused a former principal of sex acts with a female student and alleged that the Musgraves failed to take action to protect the girl.

In a video message on social media, Sinema, I-Ariz., rattled off what she views as a successful legislative record and lamented that “Americans still choose to retreat further to their partisan corners.”

"It’s all or nothing. The outcome is less important than beating the other guy,” she said. “The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic. … Compromise is a dirty word. We’ve arrived at that crossroad and we chose anger and division. I believe in my approach, but it’s not what America wants right now.”

I didn't always agree with Sen Sinema, but I do have great respect for her independence, worth ethic and willingness to reach across the aile to pass legislation. Sadly, that last attribute is no longer wanted in today's Senate.

There was an interesting conversation about it on Reddit the other day. Essentially people seemed to be more or less in agreement that ordaining married men may be alright since that's essentially what the practice looks like in the Eastern Churches and the Anglican Ordinariate, but it was a "hard no" on marrying already-ordained priests (which is also the practice in those respective parts of the Church).

I started thinking about what that would mean for the families of married men who entered the priesthood. Would it be like the diaconate where most dioceses prefer to ordain men whose kids are grown and therefore he has fewer personal and financial responsibilities or would it be like Anglican and Orthodox priests where men who are married and still raising children would be ordained too?

If it were the latter case I wonder whether the Church would consider some kind of middle ground where the married priests perhaps have a smaller range of responsibilities than their celibate counterparts just because they may need to also have a day job to support their families (like deacons). So they're almost like halfway between a deacon and a celibate priest.

I had been thinking about it a lot lately and I would be interested in considering the priesthood if it were opened up to married men if my responsibilities mostly focused on sharing the Mass and Confession schedule with the pastor of the parish. But when it came to things like going to hospitals and prisons and homeless shelters perhaps that still be left to the celibate priests.

I know, it sounds kind of preposterous to put it that way because laymen can't dictate the terms of the priesthood but I wonder whether the Church can and would make a prudential judgment in the interest of addressing the vocation shortage and giving existing priests a bit of relief by having more priests to say Mass and hear Confessions? It seems like if things were applied to married priests the same way as they are for celibate priests, you may still not get too many takers because the life of a celibate priest isn't really conducive to family life.

It's such a complex issue though. It seems like there's no way the Church would do that, but then I often think about the odd priest who seems to be allowed a different set of responsibilities because maybe they're an instructor at a university or a prolific author or they have a social media presence that they curate as a ministry and it at least seems like they're allowed those pursuits in lieu of a more traditional ministry.

Does that make sense?

Hello, my name is Nichole Eckert (you can call me Nikki). I am 36 years old and I'm blind. I live in a high rise building and have a studio apartment, which is easy for me to clean in and get around in. I've been a Christian, since I was 21 years old. I used to go to an Evangelical church, but I got away from it because I thought the pastor was arrogant. So then, I admit I relapsed and turned to my old ways (the way I acted before I became a Christian. I was not going to church for a long time, I was drinking and getting drunk a lot, I was just doing whatever I wanted, until one day the Holy Spirit convicted me on everything I was doing wrong and so then, I decided to change and take God seriously. Just at the end of this past September, I started going to a Pentecostal church and I love it there and that's where I still go to, now. It's not like just a regular church that you dread going to or you think it's boring, at the church I go to now, we're like a family, a second home, and the church is a safe place that we can talk about anything. My Pastor is very friendly and family-oriented and he gets us into all kinds of activities, encourages us to fellowship with one another, and even tries to reach out to those, who aren't yet saved, which is awesome. I'm not saying no other church does that, I'm sure they do, I was just explaining how my church is. This one is called New Life Assembly of God in Tamaqua and the one I went to years ago was Bethany Evangelical Congregational Church in Tamaqua. The Bethany ECC is right across the street from where I live and New Life is in the same town I live in, but on another street. What I also love about New Life is the people there are very loving and when I testify about things I had done wrong, they give me encouragement, rather than judging and shaming me and they always show me how I can live a better life and do what God says. However, they will tell me the truth and will correct me if I do something wrong, but it's in a loving way. What made me become a Christian was not just my friend and her parents begging me to, though I'm thankful they did, but I went to a Women of Faith confrence with them and I enjoyed hearing the speakers talk about their lives in Christ and it made me want that life. However, after going to Bethany ECC, it made me angry at God for a while and that was when I had my relapse, but when I went to New Life, that's where the Holy Spirit really transformed me and still is to this day. Since then, I'm really trying to live the way God wants me to live. I gave up drinking, I gave up watching a lot of shows I used to watch because of the sins they had in the shows, I just listen to the 700 Club and other God speakers if I want to listen to something, I gave up secular music and only listen to Christian music, I gave up telling white lies to not hurt people's feelings, and I try my hardest not to cuss or take God's name in vein, though something does slip out once in a while, but whenever I do something wrong, I do ask God for forgiveness and to help me not do it again. Some of my hobbies are: I like to walk, play games, do crafts, cook, study God's word, church, bible study, bowling, golfing, swimming, playing with animals, talking with friends, listening to Christian music, listening to Christian speakers and the 700 Club, and any kind of sporty thing I can easily do. I will admit, though, I also like to eat and sometimes I eat too much, which I know is gluttony and I have to work on that. Sometimes food or non-alcoholic drinks taste so good I want to keep eating them or drinking them, but I'm trying to work on that.

Credit card fees will be slashed as part of new rules brought in by the Joe Biden administration.

According to a release issued by the White House on Tuesday morning, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finalized a ruling that will cut the typical credit card late fee from the current average of $32 to $8.

The new rule closes a loophole in a federal law called the CARD Act, which allows major credit card issuers to charge increasing fees if individuals are late in paying off their debt.

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Despite facing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the Center for Immigration Studies, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has refused to identify the 43 airports it is dumping immigrants at after direct flights from Latin America.
As an advocate for government transparency and accountability, this is just the kind of illegal activity that crooked government bureaucrats conduct because officials are almost never held accountable.