I am a 51 year old man who had a beautiful marriage of 18 years, 2 beautiful children, and in just 40 days I went from happily married to hell. On January 27th 2023 God needed my wife to make heaven a better place. For me the hardest thing about being a widower is the silence. It is coming up on one year and I am grieving more now than on February 11th. I am disabled and extremely lost. How do y'all deal with the greif and silence. Remember that there is nothing bigger than the little things. I miss my wife. God bless you and your family. Merry Christmas .

What are y'alls thoughts about this poll conducted by The Heartland Institute/Rasmussen.

One of the most provocative and encouraging statements I have found in the Bible is this one:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12, NKJV)

For me, this means also that I should not put any limits on what I think I can or cannot do, or rather, what the Love, Power and Wisdom of God can do through me. I believe following Jesus is adventurous, do you also experience it this way?

It being Christmas season, I know there's a lot of pain going on over family estrangement.

I have been estranged from many family members for like 12 years. I know in a way it's justified because I have done things that have been wrong and have hurt others, but there is something specific I'm struggling with about it.

I have had no reciprocation from any of those family members from which I am estranged, despite trying to make peace and respect boundaries over a long period of time. No communication over Thanksgiving or Christmas consistently. No communication, period. My texts or calls are never returned....ever.

I don't really like these people, respect them, or have much of anything in common with them. Actually, the most important family member I have is my mom. She is the only one who has supported me unconditionally. Sometimes I feel guilt because although she is the only family member that matters, I am constantly struggling with why I feel such a hole in my heart over the siblings I have that either are self-interested, unforgiving, or simply don't care.

I know personally, and have read, that there are real and devastating consequences to long-term sibling estrangement. As I type, I can FEEL the cortisol and the adrenaline pumping through my veins and blood. I have tried to lose weight, but it is not possible if you are angry. Your cortisol levels will drive you to eat, and to eat unhealthy foods, to compensate for your stress.

I am trying to justify to myself and to you why I feel this need to reconcile, even though I have nothing in common with my estranged family members. I know that for me, closure and tying up loose ends is really important. I know people who went to their graves estranged from important family relationships, when a simple phone call would have solved the problem, and they let the estrangement go on for 30 years. I don't understand that kind of pride.

I love the idea of coming full circle with things, and I value making peace and being at peace with others. I have been able to make peace and live in peace with every single person I have ever known and ever hurt, and we are on good terms. But for some reason, this "untied knot" of estrangement with certain family members is really eating me up. It's like an itch that I can't scratch, because it really is the only itch in my life I have not been able to scratch, the only loose end I have not been permitted to tie up in my relationships.

Every time I have tried to communicate, the door gets slammed in my face.

In this situation, the worst part for me is being consistently tormented with the idea that I can't move on from the situation, because I am the only clear Christian witness in the family, and if someone important in the family dies, I am expected to be there and to be the "big guy."

It's very, very painful to continue leaving my heart open for years to those who don't want anything to do with me, and feeling like it might never end. Part of me believes though that this is a cross from God. It's almost like he's telling me, "now you get to feel what I feel. I love the world so much, and my heart goes out to everyone every single day, and most people want nothing to do with me. Still, my heart is open to them from birth until death, if they will only call out to me."

Anyone have experience with this? It sounds like I am torn between a lot of conflicting things.

What would you do in this situtation?

I've been praying for A's salvation nonstop since he mentioned it? We work at a rather liberal store (Target) that isn't friendly towards Christians.

Any advice is appreciated.

GOP clash nixes Johnson plan for floor showdown on surveillance reforms​

The House Rules Committee pulled consideration of the two bills after a GOP conference meeting that was staged as a debate over reforming Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on foreigners overseas.

1. The Apocrypha Has Different Doctrine And Practices Than Holy Scripture
2. The Apocrypha Is Never Cited In The New Testament As Scripture
3. The Apocrypha Has Always Been Rejected By The Jews As Scripture
4. The Books Of The Apocrypha Were Written During The Silent Years
5. The Septuagint Translation Proves Nothing
6. There Is No Evidence The Apocrypha Was In Septuagint At The Time Of Christ
7. There Is No Evidence Of A Greater Alexandrian Canon
8. They Are Not On The Early Canonical Lists
9. They Were Rejected By Most Church Leaders
10. There Are Other Books Apart From The Apocrypha That Are Cited As Scripture By Some Church Fathers
11. The Early Greek Manuscripts Are Not Decisive
12. The Apocrypha Is Not A Well-Defined Unit
13. The Councils At Hippo And Carthage Are Not Definitive

There was one great Hebrew scholar among the Christian Church living in the era of Saint Augustine - Jerome the translator of the Latin Vulgate. Jerome rejected the Apocrypha as Holy Scripture in the strongest of terms. He refused to place it in his translation of the Old Testament. It was only after the death of Jerome that the Apocrypha was placed in the Vulgate - the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church. His expert testimony was rejected.

We can start there:

Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth at about 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) [nearly one light-day] away, while its twin Voyager 2 has traveled more than 12 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from our planet.

Initially designed to last five years, the Voyager probes are the two longest-operating spacecraft in history.

The mission team first noticed the issue November 14, when the flight data system’s telecommunications unit began sending back a repeating pattern of ones and zeroes, like it was trapped in a loop.

While the spacecraft can still receive and carry out commands transmitted from the mission team, a problem with that telecommunications unit means no science or engineering data from Voyager 1 is being returned to Earth.

The Voyager team sent commands over the weekend for the spacecraft to restart the flight data system, but no usable data has come back yet, according to NASA.

Republicans aren’t saints either but they seem to support more biblical views than Democrats. I was wondering how some Christians can still be democratic IF they vote ?

A whole bunch of charges and conviction would go up in the air because of the way one particular judge felt it appropriate to restrict the definition of what a "obstruction of an official proceeding" can mean.

Supreme Court will hear a case that could undo Capitol riot charge against hundreds, including Trump

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found that prosecutors stretched the law beyond its scope to inappropriately apply it in these cases. Nichols ruled that a defendant must have taken “some action with respect to a document, record or other object” to obstruct an official proceeding under the law.

Click to expand...

I don't know how to look it up, but if I were a betting man (though I'm not) this feels like something a Trump appointed judge would write. Not a competent, impartial and reasonable jugde.

1 Corinthians 15:46 (NASB20)
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As with all God’s dealings with fallen man, that which is of the outward must come first; it being, one believing that Christ did sacrifice Himself on the cross for the forgiveness of one’s sins…. Then that which is spiritual comes, it being, believing that Christ took the believing one also to death with Him when He died on the cross….

That which is of the outward must come first, being that which the human will chooses to believe, then that which is spiritual comes, that which that same believing believes, by adding one’s death on the cross with Christ to that same faith….

For this is the spiritual faith of a Christian, that which turns one from a carnal believer into a spiritual believer; one believing that when Christ died on the cross He took the sinful one with Him to death, thereby freeing one from the law by fulfilling the law concerning the sinner which reads; ‘the soul that sins, that soul shall die’…. This is the Christian’s spiritual faith, believing this truth, and believing into this truth…..

For struggle as much as one will against sin, one will never find victory but in the way of this faith; believing that when Christ died on the cross He took the believing one to death with Him, so that by faith it might be made true , ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me’….. This is that which is spiritual, that which comes after, which when the faith of it comes, becomes one’s very life, and the very heart of it… For the faith that becomes one’s very life is the faith one is to live by…..

Be blessed in the faith of the very heart of life….


A fellow follower, Not me

In one of Africa’s last great wildernesses, a remarkable thing has happened—the scimitar-horned oryx, once declared extinct in the wild, is now classified only as endangered.

It’s the first time the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest conservation organization, has ever moved a species on its Red List from ‘Extinct in the Wild’ to ‘Endangered.’

The recovery was down to the conservation work of zoos around the world, but also from game breeders in the Texas hill country, who kept the oryx alive while the governments of Abu Dhabi and Chad worked together on a reintroduction program.

Chad is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, and ranks second-lowest on the UN Development Index. Nevertheless, it is within this North African country that can be found the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, a piece of protected desert and savannah the size of Scotland—around 30,000 square miles, or 10 times the size of Yellowstone.

At a workshop in Chad’s capital of N’Djamena, in 2012, Environment Abu Dhabi, the government of Chad, the Sahara Conservation Fund, and the Zoological Society of London, all secured the support of local landowners and nomadic herders for the reintroduction of the scimitar-horned oryx to the reserve.

Continued below.

Kids complained for years about sexually abusive probation officers. Some of them still work for L.A. County​

The girls said they were molested in bed and raped in an administrative office, leered at in the communal shower and surveilled in the bathroom.

If they told, they said, they were threatened with solitary confinement and revoked phone privileges. If they stayed quiet, they might get out a few weeks early.
...
It wasn’t until this fall that Jackson resigned from the Los Angeles County Probation Department, capping a 33-year career during which 20 women say he sexually abused them when they were girls. His last day was Sept. 28.

Ernest Walker, a longtime probation supervisor, resigned two days later, also after 33 years with the department. His departure would come nearly two decades after he was accused of having sex with a teenage girl he supervised.

Faced with roughly 1,500 plaintiffs accusing the county of tolerating unchecked sexual abuse at its juvenile facilities, the Probation Department has spent the last two years removing alleged sexual abusers from its ranks.

“It makes my stomach sink,” said Thom, a former sex crimes prosecutor. “To hear that number — and I guarantee it’s probably double if not more — it just shows how irresponsible the county is.”

The crackdown can be traced to the 2019 passage of the Child Victims Act, a state law that gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window to sue.

In April, the county estimated it will need to spend $1.6 billion to $3 billion to resolve a deluge of lawsuits accusing county staffers of raping and molesting the children they were paid to protect

[In many cases, such as the two men named above, they were never criminally charged, and I presume the statue of limitations prevents them from being charged now.]

Could this be an example of systemic racism in Louisianna?

5-judge panel reaches 3-2 decision on Whitehorn’s appeal in contentious Caddo sheriff race

TlDr
1) Race for sherrif. One black one white.
2) Black man wins by one vote
3) Recount: Still wins by one vote
4) No actual evidence of illegal votes being cast in support. Claims that there were "voting irregularities"
5) After the window to issue a recount passes, white candidate manages to find a conservative judge.
6) He orders election null and void; (to be clear) with no direct causal relation between ANY supposed "irregularties" and the outcome being affected.
7) He appeals. It was heard by a panel of judges; 3 white, 2 black.
8) The lower court ruling stands. 3-2

Guess who voted what?
It seems like the white candidate required a lot of rule bending to just get the election overturned.

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I'm not one to make light of a medical condition however the circumstances of this incident warrants at least a little curiosity. What do you think of the incident?

Me, it's a coincidence.

Do you believe that icons and statues are idols and should be disposed of?

[Do you believe that] Christians are freed by grace from obligations of any moral law?

Do you believe that the church must be a church of saints and not sinners?

I had delicious Angel Wings from Walmart one year, but they no longer carry them!

Chrusciki

INGREDIENTS​

UNITS: US

• 5tablespoons cream
• 5egg yolks
• 1⁄2teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4cup sugar
• 2 1⁄4cups flour, plus
• 1teaspoon vanilla
• powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS​

• Beat eggs until thick.
• Add salt slowly while stirring.
• Add sugar and vanilla, beat well.
• Add cream and flour, alternating until blended. You may need more than the flour listed above depending on how humid it is that day.
• Turn onto a floured board.
• Cover with a cloth for 10 minutes.
• Knead until dough blisters.
• Roll very thin.
• Cut into 1 inch by 4 inch rectangles.
• Cut a gash in the middle of the rectangle and pull one end through so it looks like a twist.
• Fry in 375 degree oil until golden brown.
• Drain on a rack for 3 minutes then roll into powdered sugar.

I’m a single mom praying for God’s financial provision for my bills and needs, to be able to move into my own apartment with my son, to build my hair business, and to flourish & bless others.

First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States.
Joe is not a king, he has no authority to shut down any industry he chooses. He can lobby for a law to be passed, but such an order would be an attack against our Constitution.

Nov 13, 2023 — For more than a year, Target has endured rocky sales and stock performance. Shares of the company had fallen about 27% this year as of Friday, ...

Psalms 36:1-10 ESV


Now the wicked are all who make a practice of wickedness, for whom evil and sin and disobedience to the Lord are what they practice. They are not those for whom obedience to God, faithfulness, honesty, integrity, moral purity, uprightness, godliness and righteousness are their practice. So they can be many who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who are still walking according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, and who are still living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord and against other humans.

[Jn 3:19-20; 2 Thes 2:9-10; 2 Thes 3:1-2; Jas 1:19-21; 3 Jn 1:10; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 15:18-20; Mk 7:20-22; Lu 6:45; Lu 13:26-28; Jn 5:28-29; Rom 1:29-32; Rom 2:6-10; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-11; Heb 3:12; 1 Pet 3:12; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

So, whether one professes faith in Jesus Christ or not he can be among the wicked if sin is what he practices, and not obedience to God. And the wicked are those who do not give glory to God and who do not honor God with their lives, even if sometimes they do with their lips. There is no fear of God before their eyes for they do not take God and his word seriously. For many think that God will let them into his heaven on a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ but while they go on living in sin. That just isn’t biblical!

And so many of those living wickedly today, professing Christian or not, are living in secret sin, usually in sexual immorality, and they think no one knows and no one can see, and so they feel confident they won’t be found out. And in order to keep their sins secret they lie and they deceive and they manipulate and put on performances hoping to fool most people. But those closest to them may not be fooled. Yet, that will not keep them from trying, for they are those who are unwise and who plot evil on their beds.


But God is steadfast in love to those who know him, and he is steadfast in his righteousness to the upright of heart. And who are they? They are those who are following the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), who are walking in his ways, and in righteousness, and who are not walking in deliberate and habitual sin. They are the upright in heart who are dying to sin and living to righteousness (see 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

While it is true that in our flesh we can do nothing to earn or to deserve our own salvation, the Scriptures teach that if we want to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God that we must die with him to sin and live to his righteousness and walk in obedience to his commands in his power and strength, by the grace of God. For this is genuine faith in practice. For faith is not something we just profess, but it is what we live in walks of obedience and in surrender to our Lord and in holy living, guided by his power.

So, all the glory goes to God, and not to us, for this is nothing we can do in our flesh, but only in the power of God, and only because of what Jesus did for us in dying on that cross so that we will be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. For if sin is what we practice and not obedience, it will lead to death, not to life eternal with God.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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Psalms 34 (select verses)


If we are true followers of Jesus Christ, he should be part of our everyday conversations. We should be proclaiming him and the truths of his Word and his divine character, will, and purpose for our lives. And when we gather with other believers in Jesus Christ, we should be talking about the Lord, about Jesus Christ, about God and what he has done for us and what he is doing in and through our lives for his glory. And we should be sharing the gospel truth with professing Christians and with the people of this world.

A gathering of born again believers in Jesus Christ is not to be like a gathering of people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ. If we gather together with other believers and all that is talked about is movies, TV shows, games, secular music, and all that is of this world but none of it about our Lord and his goodness to us and what his word teaches, then that is not good! For we aren’t to be like, look like, sound like, and act like the people of the world. We are to be holy, different from the world, and becoming like Christ.


I used to be a very fearful person. I grew up with a father who was an abuser of the worst kind and so I lived in fear all the time, not ever knowing what he was going to do next. And I carried that fear with me through much of my life, believing that other humans had power over me, until I finally understood the sovereignty of God over my life and his will and purpose for all that he allowed me to go through. And then the Lord delivered me. But it isn’t that I don’t ever feel fear, but that I am able now to reject the fear.


But there is a different kind of fear that we are to have, and that is the fear of the Lord which is a respectful fear which gives him honor and glory, and which believes what he says, both his promises and his warnings, in the context of the conditions spelled out for us as to who are the recipients of his blessings and of his judgments. For all his promises and warnings have conditions, such as if this is how we behave, then this will be the result. For if we walk in sin, and not in obedience, it ends in death, not life eternal.


Who are the righteous? They are those who are living righteously in the power and wisdom and strength of God. They are those for whom righteousness is their practice, their way of life. And who are the wicked? They are all who practice evil and wickedness and who do not live righteously in obedience to our Lord and to his commands under the New Covenant (1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10). So a profession of faith in Jesus doesn’t make you righteous if you don’t live righteously.

So, if sin is what you practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to the Lord, you will not inherit eternal life with God regardless of what your lips profess. For we must be those who are walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, who are walking in obedience to our Lord and not in sin if we want salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For it is not lip service that makes us Christians. It is life service to our Lord in obedience to his commands in holy living for the glory and honor and praise of God.

[Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 5:3-6; Colossians 3:5-17]


Sometimes the Lord delivers us physically from our trials and tribulations, and other times he delivers us through them while he walks us through them. For trials and tribulations are for our good, and are part of God’s plan and purpose for our lives to make us his holy people. For through our trials we learn obedience and perseverance and steadfastness in faith, and we grow stronger in our walks of faith and our commitment to our Lord and to his service. And this is so that we will not be condemned with the world.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Video Talk

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I Stand in Awe

By Mark Altrogge

You are beautiful beyond description
Too marvelous for words
Too wonderful for comprehension
Like nothing ever seen or heard
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom?
Who can fathom the depth of Your love?
You are beautiful beyond description
Majesty, enthroned above

And I stand, I stand in awe of You
I stand, I stand in awe of You
Holy God, to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of You

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