I have a view similar to the Open View of God. What is this view, it is that God although a planner, does not know every choice that man will make. It is supported by verses like:

Gen 6:5-7 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

This scripture is quite clear, God saw man’s evil, and wished that He had not created man. This can only happen in a situation where the future is partially “open”, not foreknown, certainly not preplanned.

But this would not come as a surprise to a person who believes God gives man the ability to make choices.

When investigating the issue of foreknowledge and how much freedom man has, I have read the early church fathers, from the first and many from the second century. From their writings, it is clear they believed in two things:

• Man has genuine free will, that God gives his good will to all
• They also believed that God has foreknowledge

So this introduces a challenge, how can God have foreknowledge, and free will still exist? There are many mysteries that we can not know. But I do have a theory on this.

I did some research into the theory of time, and theoretically it is possible to move both forward and backwards in time. This would allow God the Father to send information about time backwards in time to the beginning. So basically God could know that was going to happen in time at the start.

But time is still a reality, there are still free choices. God would have to play through time to “see” what happens. This is why He could have regret, and wish He had not created man, for there was a point that time was “open” to even God. Yet not entirely open, I believe God puts constraints on the choices we can make.

An interesting point is that even within the Godhead there, is hidden knowledge, Jesus did not know everything about creation that the Father knew. But that is a thought for a different time.

Mark 13:32 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Archaeologists uncover Christian care facility in Israel with 'Peace be with the elders' inscription​

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a 1,600-year-old Christian care facility for the elderly – a remarkable find that may be the world’s oldest nursing home.

The news, reported by Israel's news agency TPS-IL, was announced by the University of Haifa on Aug. 18.

The care facility was found in the ruins of the ancient city of Hippos near the Sea of Galilee. The Christian city was a significant bishop's seat in the region during the Byzantine era.

Continued below.

There are a number of verses that people call the scariest in the Bible. But there’s one verse that many overlook, yet, when read from a believer’s perspective, it can be deeply unsettling.

Before I share that verse, let me set the scene.
If we look back to WW1, when a soldier was commanded to go over the parapet, if he refused because he was afraid, then there were consequences. He was court-martialled and then put to death for being a coward.
We, too, have been given a command: “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” (Mark 16:15)
Yet a survey once conducted by Campus Crusade revealed that only about 2% of Christians regularly share the gospel. That’s shockingly low. And why? Because most believers are afraid. Even Paul admitted that he was afraid, “I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3). But Paul did not let fear silence him. He was bold. He was faithful. He was like those men who charged over the parapet; he was not cowardly.

Now here is the verse that makes me pause:
Revelation 21:8 – “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
We know who the unbelieving are. The abominable are those who are morally filthy; we know who the murderers are. The sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, we know who they are. But who are the cowardly? Are they people who have been given a command and know what they should be doing, but instead, they choose not to do it because they let fear rule them?
I believe cowardice is when someone has a purpose to fulfil, and yet they refuse to do it because they let fear stop them. Fear itself is not sin; it’s natural. But when we let fear stop us from obeying God’s command, that’s cowardice. Just as those soldiers faced fear in the trenches yet pressed forward, we are called to press forward in sharing Christ.

And here’s where it becomes even more serious. If we believe in God, in heaven and hell, in judgment, and we know the Saviour, then it is wrong not to tell others about Him. It’s like seeing a house on fire with people inside and choosing to do nothing. You simply allow them to die. This would be morally outrageous. In human law, such deliberate inaction is called “Depraved Indifference.”
If human courts recognise this injustice, how much more would a holy and just God recognise the injustice of our not warning others about eternal death?
There is also a biblical example of Depraved Indifference in the Old Testament. God says to Ezekiel that if he does not warn the wicked of their deeds, their blood is on his hands. In Ezekiel 3:18-19, God says, "When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul."
So, failure to warn others of danger is condemned in Scripture, just as being cowardly is condemned.

James 4:17 says: “Anyone who knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
We know the good we ought to do. If we truly believe eternity is at stake, then failing to warn and to share the hope of Christ is not just neglect, it’s sin.

Now, I want to be very clear: I am not promoting a works-based salvation. I am not saying that you must go and tell people the Gospel in order to be saved. Salvation comes by faith in Christ alone, through His grace.
What I am saying is this: true faith naturally produces action. If you genuinely believe in the reality of God, heaven, hell, judgment, and the salvation offered through Jesus, that belief will move you. It will compel you to act, to speak, to warn, to love, and to share the hope you have. Faith without action may still be faith, but genuine belief shows itself in obedience and courage. Our actions flow out of our convictions; they are the evidence of a heart transformed by God.

So, ask yourself: Who are the cowardly in Revelation 21:8? Has your faith truly transformed your heart so that you are willing to obey God’s command to share the Gospel, or are you, like many believers, remaining silent out of fear?

“While Americans enjoyed the holiday weekend, ICE law enforcement was hard at work arresting barbaric criminal illegal aliens. Some of the worst of the worst arrested include murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and drug traffickers,” a DHS Spokesperson shared with The Daily Wire, adding, “Our brave ICE law enforcement officers never stop working to make America safe again.”

Thank you ICE!

'If you search MSNBC, CNN, NY Times or Washington Post, you won't find any mention of this news story about Iryna Zarutska,' one X user also wrote.
'The Democrats on the Charlotte city council tried to block the release of the video footage.
'Why are they avoiding the story of a Ukrainian white girl being so brutally kiIIed?'
'How can all these outlets have zero stories on a deadly attack and still claim to keep the public informed?' another person wrote.
A third X user slammed the media for 'ignoring "black on white" crime'.
'Iryna Zarutska was brutally murdered, yet CNN, NYT, WaPo, BBC, Reuters said NOTHING.
'Zero coverage. If it were the other way around, the outrage would be everywhere.'
Brown Jr. had a lengthy rap sheet and had been released by the Democrat-run police force several times before.

They keep their base in line by suppressing information that conflicts with the narrative.

Ivan:
Tell me, then—what use is this freedom you so exalt, if it can be twisted into chains for the innocent? Children suffer, and you say it is permitted for the sake of some grand design. But what child ever consented to be the price of mankind’s liberty?

Theologian:
I will not tell you their tears are part of “God’s plan” as though the suffering itself were necessary. That would be obscene. Their suffering is real, unjust, and stands as accusation against the world. But freedom—true freedom—must be capable of terrible misuse, or it is no freedom at all.

Ivan:
Then God is guilty for giving such a poisoned gift. If freedom leads to Auschwitz, to the torn body of one innocent child, I return the ticket.

Theologian:
And yet your refusal—your cry of indignation—already acknowledges the standard by which you judge God. You expect goodness, you demand mercy. Where did such a demand come from, if not from the very image of God etched into the conscience?

Ivan:
Conscience, perhaps. But it accuses God as much as man. What is the worth of an eternal harmony purchased with the screams of even one child?

Theologian:
None, if harmony means mere compensation, a balancing of accounts. The gospel does not promise that evil will be explained or justified as if it were a piece of a puzzle. It promises that evil will be judged, exposed, and finally transfigured by love stronger than death.

Ivan:
Fine words. But while we wait for this transfiguration, children suffer still. Where is your God when they cry?

Theologian:
On the cross. That is the only place I dare point. God does not watch from afar; He enters into that suffering, bears it, and makes it His own. It does not cancel the scandal—it deepens it—but it also says that no tear falls outside His wounds.

Ivan:
So the answer is more suffering—God’s this time? That hardly satisfies me.

Theologian:
Nor should it satisfy. Faith does not remove the scandal; it carries it. To believe is not to explain away the horror, but to live in defiance of it, trusting that the God who shared our agony will not let agony have the last word.

Ivan:
Then perhaps unbelief is the more honest path—refusal, revolt, rejection of such a God.

Theologian:
Even in revolt, you wrestle with the Christian God, not some abstract deity. Your rebellion is the shadow of faith; your “no” presupposes His “yes.” The very vehemence of your protest honors the goodness you deny.

Ivan:
Or perhaps it only proves the wound is too deep to heal.

Theologian:
Or that the wound cries out for healing so profound it must come from beyond us. That is why I hope, even while I cannot explain.

Ivan (bursting out):
You theologians come with your formulas, your immovable God who suffers nothing, who stands above all tragedy like some cold star. But tell me—when the child is torn by dogs, when the soldier laughs and the mother screams—do you dare tell her this is for freedom? For some grand transfiguration? Bah! If that is heaven, I return the ticket!

Theologian (calmly, almost tenderly):
You think me a fool if I speak of freedom. Yet freedom is no abstraction, Ivan Fyodorovich. It is as terrible as it is glorious. Have you heard the story of the master who gave his servant a key to the house? The servant could lock himself in forever, or open the door and flee into the night. The master gave it, knowing he might never see his servant again, but preferring the risk of absence to the certainty of slavery. God has given us such a key, and He will not take it back.

Ivan (with bitter irony):
A pretty parable! But what of the child who never asked for the key? Whose bones are crushed under the wheel before he can even turn the lock? You theologians speak as though children are born with full freedom, when in truth they are born only to suffer for the sins of their fathers. No harmony, no golden Jerusalem is worth a single child’s tear. You tell me of keys and houses. I tell you of basements, dark cellars where the innocent scream. And your God? He builds His heaven on their cries.

Theologian (pausing, then slowly):
I will not deny it is a scandal. To deny it would be to mock the very victims. But what if God Himself has entered the cellar? Not as master, but as the condemned. Have you not considered, Ivan, that the cross is God’s descent into that very darkness?

Ivan (with a sharp laugh):
Ah yes, the cross. Always the cross! Another child nailed up to save the rest—except this one is divine, so we must all be satisfied. But what if I do not want salvation through blood, even divine blood? What if I reject the very economy of suffering? I want innocence unbought, joy unearned, life without payment!

Theologian (softly):
And yet you cannot escape the payment. Even your rebellion is paid for in anguish. You reject the ticket, but you cannot unhear the music. You wish for innocence, but you know of it only because you have seen it profaned. Even your revolt confesses the goodness it denies.

Ivan:
Why must the conscience accuse me of believing even as I deny? Why must my refusal sound like prayer? If your God exists, He has made me His enemy without my consent. Tell me, priest, is not rebellion also a kind of communion?

Theologian (after a long silence):
Perhaps it is. Judas too was given bread from the same hand. And even he could not escape the love that chose him.

Ivan:
You want me to kneel. But I will not. Not while the children cry. Not while the world bleeds. If your Christ waits for me, He must wait forever.

Theologian:
He will wait, Ivan. He waits in every child, in every cry, in every restless night of your mind. He waits not above you, but within the very revolt that tears at you now. And when you curse Him, you speak His name.

As I worked through my engineering degrees, I often found myself using math & science I didn't really understand. As is often the case, no one wants to be the first to speak up and admit a weakness, but I suspect it is the same for many who work their way through the sciences. Having a philosophical nature, working that way created a cognitive dissonance I was very much aware of. The justification I settled on, was that if, at the end of the day, the machine worked, the means justified the end. Further, no machine is ever perfect (just as no person is ever perfect). So, if we're working to improve ourselves and the machine, that's the best we can do.

All of this is a preamble to my question, but feel free to comment on it if you like.

Over my decades-long career I've continued to knock down the things I don't understand one at a time. The latest hill to conquer was the Kalman Filter, which depends on the Cauchy Principal Value. Once the light bulb of understanding went off, my immediate reaction was, "Well, nuts." A common topic in the Philosophy of Science is the meaning of the correlation between mathematics and reality. In this case, there is none. The Cauchy Principal Value is something we can pretty easily say is not real (though I'm sure someone is going to disagree with that). The math is valid - I don't question that - but it has no correlation to anything in reality. All it does is help us make a better guess.

It's part of being an engineer that you are constantly making estimates (guesses). So, knowing a Kalman Filter is based on a guess of a function's value rather than the function itself isn't going to slow down engineering. But what about science? Of course people work on improvements to the Kalman Filter, but I don't see any signs that the goal is to find the "real" value. It's more just to make a better guess.

Finally, the question. If it were known (e.g. widely accepted) that a scientific model isn't real, but merely our best guess, should we continue to build on that, pushing the extrapolation farther and farther? Or should our efforts be focused on a better model of reality? In other words, engineering is essentially saying, "As long as machine performance continues to improve, it's not worth the cost, even though we know our model isn't based on reality." Is it OK for science to also adopt that attitude?

UFC White House plans revealed, including weigh-ins at Lincoln Memorial: report

Seems hilarious to me. Not sure how this lends credibility but given opinions of Trump on the international stage it's obvious he doesn't care.

I think a person could be forgiven I'd they were reminded of Nero a bit.

Last week, the shooter in Minneapolis of little children in a Catholic church-school during mass was discovered to have written on one of his weapons, “Where is your god [sic].” He used a picture of Jesus on his target in practice before the big day of shooting last Wednesday.

And now the left says to us in effect: “Don’t pray, just prey.” The last part refers to allowing unfettered evil to flourish — to continue to prey on the weak and vulnerable.

As Gary Bauer noted last Thursday: “Satan wrote the script for the atrocities that transpired yesterday at a Minneapolis Catholic church and school. The transgender shooter’s message, ‘Where’s your God now,’ wasn’t referring to Allah. It was referring to the God of the Bible, the God Catholics, Jews, and Protestants worship. The only God, by the way. ‘Where’s your God now’ was Satan mocking God.”

It’s amazing to see how swift the condemnation from the Left was against even the idea of prayers — as if prayers alone were the solution offered to try and stop these things. They do hint at the solution: to get back to the knowledge of God, the one who is there and who will hold us all accountable one day.

As to the condemnation of prayer, consider these examples:

• Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frei, who almost single-handedly destroyed his city in the wake of the George Floyd riots, spoke of prayer as if it were nothing. After all, the children in the church-school were literally playing when the bullets began to fly.

Continued below.

The Trump administration has launched a counterrevolution in American culture and government. As much as the credit for this sudden and dramatic reversal belongs to the president, it is further being fueled by larger changes in the conservative movement.

These changes were set in motion in part thanks to the annual National Conservatism Conference, initially created by Yoram Hazony, author of The Virtues of Nationalism, and hosted by the Edmund Burke Foundation. The conference first launched in 2019 and just wrapped up its fifth such gathering on Thursday.

As a disclosure, I’ll note that my wife Inez Stepman is one of the hosts of the “NatCon Squad” podcast, an excellent weekly show that provides some of the most insightful analysis about contemporary politics. (Yes, I’m biased, but it’s true.)

The National Conservatism message has largely “won” on the Right. That’s in part because it’s strongly aligned with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Vance has spoken several times at the conference, including in 2024, when he spoke about how America is a “homeland” and not just an idea.

But in a certain sense, the movement has run alongside Trump and Vance’s success. It has thrived because it filled the vacuum of where the pre-Trump conservative message failed.

Continued below.

Well I don't know much about theology history or scripture however I have a older Vietnam veteran Christian friend who is an evangelical. He's extremely low church and doesn't even attend services because he feels disillusioned by the fact that these churches preach to the pulpit but seem to do nothing about the millions of infanticides that occur daily. I was wondering how can I get a more interested in Orthodoxy and perhaps not view Church authority with a negative connotation.

Pray that 2 stateless women are granted permanent refugee in India on humanitarian & compassionate grounds:

Because I have both Religious OCD and wavering faith at best, I have been seeking salvation by Jesus Christ the Lord for over 14 years and have never been able to hold onto assurance of salvation. My most recent thread was “I cannot bring myself to trust” in “Struggles by Non-Christians.” After an extended discussion with caring Hazelelponi, I came to the understanding I am a Christian. But as usual, doubt again followed and I have gone back to Jesus for salvation numerous times since then. Each time I give my life to Christ, I mean it sincerely. But because my faith wavers on a moment-by-moment basis, one to a few moments after sincerely asking Christ to “Take Me!”, I waver back to living for self on a moment-by-moment basis. It seems I cannot take the first step or steps in the Christian walk because my faith wavers that severely. Not being able to take the first step drives doubt of being really saved in the first place.

I have long had a concern about the line or chasm between God’s will and my will. I was raised in the belief that I should use my brain/mind to figure things out and to decide on courses of action. I once wrote in a post on this forum something to the effect of: “Gospel tracts often say that God has a wonderful plan for your life. But I have a wonderful plan for my life.”

I once explained this concern to a pastor. He asked me what I had for breakfast. Then he asked me about my decision as to which shirt to wear for the day. He asked if I thought I was out of God’s will in making those decisions. I said, no. He went on to indicate that it is up to us to make various decisions, apparently including things like career, where to live and maybe even whom to marry. I have thought about that, but I am not so sure.

I heard a true story about a man whose daughter had done something bad and he sent her up to her room. As dinner time approached, she called down “Can I come down for supper?” He said “Yes.” He said she did not have to keep asking detailed questions during supper. For instance she did not have to ask, “Dad, can I put my next biteful of food on my fork?” “Dad, can I place the next forkful of food in my mouth?” “Dad, can I chew and swallow my mouthful of food?” Etc. He said that if she had asked questions like that, he would have run away from home. This story was part of a teaching on God’s will.

I could see his point except for the fact that it seems like a slippery slope between “Dad, can I come down for dinner?” and “Dad, can I take my next bite of food?” Where do you draw the line? We can use our brains to, say, as a kid, learn ‘don’t put your finger into an electrical socket’ and so it would seem, we could use our brains to figure out our career, where we are going to live, and whom we are going to marry.

My question is, can one be a born-again Christian, be in the will of God, be being led by the Spirit, and still have the latitude to use their brain to decide what to do next? For that matter, to decide what to do in the next sixty seconds?

I would understand that one should aim for being in the will of God. But with my wavering faith, I can try to sincerely ask Jesus that His will be done, not mine, as some pray, but only keep that commitment up sincerely for one to a few moments. Then I waver away and it’s back to living for myself, moment by moment, after that. This propensity drives doubt of salvation.

And yet I really want eternal life. I have repeatedly gone to God about this in intense sincerity.

The problem might be due to a past (present?) cynical approach in which I want the security of being saved yet to continue to live for myself, moment by moment. A person with such a cynical approach may not be savable. This leads to asking Christ to be my Lord and Savior, thinking for a moment that I have been saved, then immediately pulling back to go my own way. One idea is that God might be giving me what I am seeking: salvation in a moment, but, since I pull back, doubting salvation the next. Or he may be looking down at my cynical approach and saying, this guy is not serious. I cannot save him.

I have sought and doubted salvation, in a sense, continually (really, repeatedly) for over 14 years since my mother died. I have been dysfunctional and unable to do anything else, such as work to earn a living. I am liable to run out of resources and not be able to afford to live.

Yesterday is an example. I thought I had really, sincerely, come to Christ and been saved. Turning from seeking salvation to taking care of scheduled, practical matters, I got stymied by the thought that I am really doing my will, not God’s.

Let me give a hypothetical example. Suppose, one is about to take out the garbage. But first, one wants to make sure they belong to Christ and are saved. They sincerely give their life to Christ, then turn to taking out the garbage. As they start to take out the garbage, in their heart they think, “I am doing this for me. I am doing this of, by and for myself. I am doing this of my own will, under my own power, for my own purposes.” Their commitment to Christ is gone now that they have turned to carry out a task. It is like, in my heart, I think that the only practical way to get things done is to do them in, of, by and for myself. The only practical way to live is to live for myself, moment by moment. I can try to live for Christ for a moment, but then it’s back to real life, the next moment.

Good morning,

I'm a Catholic from the South and I'm here to meet and make friends with other Catholics/Christians. I watch a lot of Catholic Youtube channels, CatholicTV, EWTN, and I enjoy studying the Catholic Catechism and the Bible. I guess I'm just a Catholic nerd. I'm excited to be apart of such an active community of Christians from other denominations! I hope to make lots of friends and to join in on lots of discussions.

God bless everyone,

GS

Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He always existed as God and with God, and he is our creator God. But then he left his throne in heaven, came to earth, and was born as a baby to a human mother who was a virgin. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and not of man, so he was not born with a sin nature as we are. And while he lived on the earth he was fully God and fully human (God incarnate) who came to save us from our sins.

Ultimately he was sent by God to live among the people of the earth, not only to heal the sick and afflicted, to raise the dead, to deliver people from demons, and to preach the gospel to the people, but to be our sacrificial lamb in his death on a cross to put our sins to death with him, so by God-persuaded faith in him, we will now die to sin and live to righteousness in walks of surrender to our Lord, in obedience to his commands, in holy living, in the power and wisdom of God, and not in our own flesh.

[Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 17:25; John 1:1-36; John 6:35-58; John 8:24,58; John 10:27-33; John 20:28-29; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8-9; Hebrews 2:14-15; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 1:1]

Since we are born with sin natures, separate from God, and not able in our own flesh to be acceptable to God, we can do nothing of our own selves to be made right with God. We are sinners by nature. But through Jesus’ death on that cross he made the way possible for us to be delivered out of our lives of sin so that we can, by his grace, now live holy lives, pleasing to God. For our salvation is not a status that we wear, but it is a life which we live, by the grace of God, in death to sin and in walks of obedience to our Lord.

The Christian life is not just forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life with God, but it is us no longer living in bondage to sin but us now living holy lives, pleasing to our Lord, by his grace. For his grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return for his faithful bride. But we must continue in these walks of faith in obedience to our Lord until the end if we are to have eternal life with God.

Gospel:[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Walking in The Light

Based off 1 John 1-2
An Original Work / November 16, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

When I lift up my voice, and
Sing praise unto God,
I will fellowship with my
Lord and Savior, King.
In Him there is no darkness.
He is in the light of truth.
If we walk in His light,
From sin He purifies.

If we repent of our sins,
He’ll forgive us now,
When we humble ourselves, and
Before Jesus bow.
The man who says, “I know Him,”
But does not obey His truth,
There is no truth in him.
In darkness still he’s found.

Do not love the world of sin,
For it is hell bound.
If you follow the world, you’ll
Not in Christ be found.
The world and its desires
Will not last; they’ll expire.
The one who does God’s will,
Receives eternal life.

See that what you have heard from
Christ remains in you.
Then, you’ll remain in Christ, and
In His Father, too.
This is what He promised us –
His eternal life with God.
So, continue in Him, and
You’ll receive a crown.

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Formerly Engaged in Evil Deeds
An Original Work / September 7, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Does the bible urge Christians to be kind to animals?

Shalom

Today I bring our precious sister Ulli with a request for prayer: Her heartfelt desire is to spread the gospel to the people and to glorify God. "Lord, please grant success in Jesus' name, Amen."

Thank you for your prayers!
May the Lord bless you abundantly (Luke 6:38, Job 42:10) and may he bless Israel in Jesus' name, Amen!

Soli Deo Gloria

PS And I pray that the Lord will send out harvesters into his harvest (Matthew 9:38)

article said:

It's one of the most longstanding questions in biology: how did life first arise? Research on the topic abounds, but there's no one accepted answer. And according to one new paper, the chances that life emerged by pure chance on Earth are so slim that it's possible that our planet was instead seeded by "advanced extraterrestrials."

Click to expand...

MSN

Here we go again. I actually sat in on one of these debates once, when I was in college. The "Nominal Protestant Christian" insisted that God created everything, while "The Scientifically Minded Atheist" just as strenuously insisted it all came about by random chance. And back and forth they went. After a while it got to be tedious, because neither one convinced the other. The "Scientifically Minded Atheist" did concede at one point that it was possible, but unlikely, that aliens "might have" created the world and man, but that it was a slim shot.

After the debate, one of our associates (who denied the existence of God) asked me ("The Practicing Catholic", which he fully well knew) what I thought, adding that surely there was no possible way that any rational mind could believe that "a magical god" could simply create life out of nothing. I responded by saying that adding aliens to the mix only created another step. He stared at me and said, "Huh?"

I said, "Look: you got two basic schools of thought here, yeah? One says, 'God exists, and He created everything that is'. Then you have the other, that says, 'There is no God; instead, extraterrestrials, far more advanced than we, created everything that is', right? Or in other words, God didn't create man, aliens did." He agreed that this premise was correct. And all I did was shrug and say, "Okay, so let's go with the theory that man was created by aliens. All that does is add another step."

He said, "I'm not following you," and I said, "If you want to use the 'aliens' theory as a method to disprove the existence of God, all you're doing is adding an extra step. Okay, so aliens created man. But who created the aliens???"

He blinked a couple of times, and a second later scoffed at my comment, but I could see that I had started some wheels turning. I sometimes wonder if his thinking ever changed in later years.

I could really use some scriptures regarding prayer.

My questions are:

1. How formal do we need to be when addressing God i.e. should we be fully clothed and/or have our heads covered?
2. Is it appropriate to ask God for blessings or deliverance from ill health or anything else?

These questions have arisen because I am not familiar with the scriptures regarding prayer but I know different denominations have different beliefs which I assume are biblical in nature?

I was raised to view prayer as relatively casual i.e. it's okay to pray in the shower, in bed (even if you accidentally fall asleep!) etc.

I feel uncomfortable asking God for anything to do with increasing or maintaining any of my comforts in this world. This is because Jesus refers to spiritual healing, blessings etc and even redirects a mans priorities when he asks Jesus to assist with his issues with inheritance What does Luke 12:15 mean? | BibleRef.com:

Context Summary
Luke 12:13–21 records Jesus taking advantage of an interruption to explain a proper perspective of wealth. Jesus has been warning the disciples that faithfulness to Him may require their deaths. A man in the crowd, possibly shouting in the middle of that teaching, demands Jesus settle a family conflict over an inheritance. Jesus declines that request but warns the crowd against temporary, earthly treasures if they distract from their relationship with God. He will return to this theme, telling the crowd to reconcile with people and God or risk earthly and eternal ruin (Luke 12:54—13:9). This parable is unique to Luke's Gospel.

Chapter Summary
Jesus teaches the disciples about proper priorities. This includes recognizing that God knows all things, even secrets. Believers should honor God more than they fear death, or than they worry about things like food and clothes. Christians are to remain ready for Christ's return, even as faith separates those who believe from those who do not. These ideas revolve around the central theme of verse 34: that a person's heart reflects what they value most.

I have a genuine concern that people view Jesus as a genie, who is there to grant wishes, and they are angry and bitter and turn from Him when their requests aren't answered or not answered in the way they expect. In fact, this happened to me when I was young and, as a result, I turned from God for over 20+ years.

Praise His name, He did not abandon me and I was a lost sheep which was again found!

But, I feel like the purpose of prayer may be misrepresented/misinterpreted.

I would like to hear others views on this point because, currently, I only ever pray for:

1. Endurance - to retain my relationship with Jesus Christ through all temptation and tribulation
2. The salvation of unbelievers and particularly those who are close to me
3. The ability to ensure that I am representing myself in a way that that glorifies Him to believers and non-believers

Thank you all and God bless.

I am glad that federal law enforcement has finally stepped up actions to take down and take out the flow of illegal drugs into the USA.

Hi,

Just asking for prayer for my mum who is 93. She has a few health issues, more discomfitting than serious, but she had abcess on her neck recently, and had been taking antibiotics for that, and is going to have it seen again at the hospital next week. The other thing is just that she has a bit of fluid retention in her ankles which makes them swell a bit and what seems like a bit of bruising on her leg, but she doesn't remember hitting it, so were are just hoping that improves.

We are grateful for the help she is getting and the medication she has. I try to encourage her with reading some excerpts from christian books.

Only two-thirds of self-identfied Christians think everyone sins

A significant number of Christians reject basic teachings about sin, according to a new survey, which one prominent Evangelical researcher views as a "bodyblow" stemming from American churches' failure to address the topic.

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the eighth installment of its 2025 "American Worldview Inventory" on Thursday, which features data based on responses collected from 2,000 United States adults in May 2025.

An overwhelming majority of respondents (84%) agreed that "sin exists" and "it is real." Majorities of all major religious subgroups examined subscribed to this belief, with acknowledgment of sin's existence highest among theologically-identified born-again Christians (99%), followed by those who attend a Protestant church (97%), self-identified Christians (95%) and respondents who attend a Catholic Church (94%). Even most self-identified non-Christians (61%) acknowledged the existence of sin.

However, respondents were significantly less likely to agree with a statement declaring "I am a sinner."

A large majority of theologically identified born-again Christians (74%) conceded that they were sinners, along with smaller majorities of Protestants (66%) and self-identified Christians (60%). About half of Catholics (50%) said they were sinners, while less than half of self-identified non-Christians (36%) did.

Continued below.

As you age, do you find age gaps more concerning, less concerning, or does it stay the same?

Edited:
I didn't mean to word it in a way that implies everyone is concerned about age gaps.

I have in the past been concerned about big age gaps, but not so much now if the man is older.