Hello siblings,

I will first start by stating that I believe in unlimited atonement.

I came across an article:


This article quotes early Church members, and some of these quotes seem to hint that limited atonement may not have been rejected by some well known figures.

Are these quotes taken out of context? Can someone explain them to me?

I look for someone who is more knowledgeable than I on the quotes that were used.

Hello guys, my name is Álvaro. I'm a catholic from Spain, and I'm currently working on a project about ecumenism and the apostolic churches. That's why I'm doing a survey to understand better orthodoxy and your faith, that is not well known in my country. Everything I have learned about your Church in the past few months has been great and I would love to hear you guys opinions and thoughts.
Answering this survey will only take a few minutes, but it is an act of charity


Also, please if you know any orthodox clergy I could contact to further my research I would be eternally grateful. May the Most Holy Theotokos protect us!

I need to do something important, like a legal matter, like writing a will, or filing paperwork, something like that.

I'm in fine health, and emotionally OK, blessed in God, loving God and the body of Christ.

However, it seems like taking this action will radically change my life in a better way, but I'm putting it off.

Will accept all prayers or any good ideas.

I am reading now in John, chapter 16. Jesus was speaking to his disciples, preparing their hearts for the time when Jesus would leave them via his death and resurrection and ascension back to heaven. And he let them know that, as his disciples, they would be put out of the synagogues, and whoever killed them would think (misguidedly) that he is offering service to God.

And then he let them know that he was leaving them to go back to where the Father is, but that it was to their advantage that he went away so that the Helper (the Holy Spirit) would be sent to them.


And what is the role of the Holy Spirit here (not including all his ministries)? To CONVICT the people of the world concerning SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUDGMENT, and to GUIDE us who are the Lord’s disciples INTO ALL TRUTH, and to DECLARE to us the things that ARE TO COME. And this really is a summation of the purpose of the message of the gospel of Christ which we who believe in Jesus Christ are to be living and are to be sharing with the people of the world and with the church, the body of Christ, too.

But we live in a day and time here in America where this is largely not the picture being given of the Holy Spirit nor of the message of the gospel of our salvation by “the church.” For many are avoiding such words as “conviction,” and “sin,” and “righteousness,” and “judgment.” And they are avoiding and altering and sanitizing the truth of God’s word and of the gospel of our salvation in order to make them less offensive and more acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh. So they remove the truth they are not willing to accept and they insert half-truths (lies) in the place of truth.

But the gospel message that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught all talked about sin and conviction of sin and repentance and righteousness and judgment and obedience. And none of them sugar-coated the truth. None of them felt it necessary to remove or to ignore certain parts of the gospel message in order to make it more acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh. For they were not concerned with whether or not they offended people with the truth. They were concerned about people heading to hell.

And this is where we need to be, too. We need to be more concerned with where people are going to spend eternity than we are with what they will think about us or how they might treat us. For we can’t have it both ways! For in this day and age, if you tell the people what Jesus said and what his NT apostles said (all of it), in context, you are not going to have many friends or “likes” on social media. For the modern way is not to talk about stuff that makes people uncomfortable or offended, but to say only what makes them feel good about themselves.

And they like to hear the promises of God, but all of God’s promises have conditions. So if we tell them the promises, to make them feel good, but without the conditions, we are not telling them the truth, and it is the truth which sets us free. For if we claim to be in fellowship with God while we walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, we are liars. And if we claim to know God but while we do not obey his commandments (New Covenant), in practice, we are liars. And if sin is what we obey and not righteousness, we are not born of God, but we are of the devil, and we don’t have eternal life with God.

[1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Romans 6:1-23]

And the message of the gospel must include conviction of sin, repentance, righteous living, walking in the truth of God’s word, walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands, and warnings regarding the judgment of God if we do not walk in righteousness and in obedience, but we, instead, choose to walk in sin. But when this is what we teach, and not the lies that so many are teaching, we may get put out of or encouraged out of small groups or out of larger gatherings of what is called “the church.” And that is because that is largely not the message they are wanting people to hear these days.

And that is because they are listening to men, and not God, and so many are getting their messages from men, and not God’s word. Even if they use the Scriptures, often they are taken out of context and twisted and made to say something that the Scriptures do not teach. But we are to be students of the Scriptures who rightly handle the word of truth, to the best that we understand, but as we are seeking the understanding and the counsel of God and not of man. And I am not against Bible helps. But they should not replace the Holy Spirit. We need to let the Spirit guide us to all truth.

For the gospel that Jesus and his NT apostles taught teaches us to forsake our sins, and to die with Christ to sin that we might be raised with him to walk in newness of life, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So sin is to no longer have mastery over our lives to where we obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience is what we obey, it leads to righteousness and sanctification and its end is eternal life with God. For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. That is the gospel message.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

I Will Call Upon the Lord

Words and music by Michael O'Shields

I will call upon the Lord
Who is worthy to be praised
So shall I be saved from my enemies
The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock
And let the God of my salvation be exalted

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In a controversial move [in 2017], the Republican-led Iowa Legislature opted to leave behind $3 million annually by discontinuing the state's participation in the federal Medicaid family planning network. Instead, policymakers replaced the program with the current state-run version.

Critics argued the move would result in Iowans receiving fewer family planning services, a concern that some say has been confirmed by the latest state figures.

Iowa's state-run family planning program has seen a nearly 83% drop in people using its services since it was created in 2017 to exclude abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood from government funding, new state figures show.

The main goal of Iowa's family planning program is to help low- and moderate-income Iowans obtain birth control, routine exams and testing for sexually transmitted infections, along with a variety of other sexual and reproductive health services.

Fewer than 500 Iowans used program services in 2021​

By comparison, in 2016, when the state family planning program was still using federal Medicaid money, 4,642 people received services.

In 2016, the cost of services administered was $1.5 million, before falling in 2017 to nearly $837,000. In 2021, the cost for 423 patients under the program was less than $165,000.

[Well, on the plus side, they've saved almost $1.5 million by providing hardly any family planning health services. I wonder what they could do with that money?]

"While fewer Iowans are able to access care under this program, the state Legislature is putting $1.5 million into funding anti-abortion centers who do not provide any kind of medical care and they are touting them as one of the solutions to the many public health care crises that they've created through their harmful policies," Dooley said.

“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” Special Counsel David Weiss writes in the 56-page indictment out of the Central District of California.

“In furtherance of that scheme,” Weiss notes that Hunter “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions from Owasco, PC” and “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”
Joe said Hunter "did nothing wrong."

I have always had OCD, ever since I was born. However, I havent always been a christian. Quite the opposite: I was a die hard atheist. Only recently did I come to Christ, which is a long story.
Mostly my OCD is under control, and for the most part I dont have too much trouble. But recently I have had some REALLY creepy coincidences that I dont know what to think of. For example, my ocd made me say out loud "make it so X messages me within the next few days". Now I havent had X message me for over a YEAR. Sure enough within the next three days for whatever reason, they contacted me. This has now happened FOUR times in a row. Another example, I was going off on vacation and my ocd thought "if X is true, your hotel room number will be 123" Sure enough when I got there, I was given room 123. I am freaking out. Are these demons trying to creep me out? I dont even understand this.

Has anyone here ever tried the groups Underearners' Anonymous or Debtors' Anonymous?

I am by no means poor but I'm a composer and writer and try to have time for ministry focus. I decided that to have

more time for my arts, trying to be successful with a small business would be the ideal, if I could achieve it.

I looked at these two groups as possibly offering support, but many of the people in 12 Step groups fall more into a New Age background,

such as people talking about things like Tarot cards and the like.

These groups (as well as other 12 step groups) have dozens of phone or zoom meetings a day.

I thought it would be an interesting to have Christians discuss these concerns, maybe with using some of the tools as they have lots of tools and

literature.

I had an accident in my truck today. I prayed before I left and invited the Lord to accompany me and protect me. Here's how it went:

I had gassed up at the gas station and was turning left crossing oncoming traffic and going to the far lane. Busy intersection. I met eyes with the guy in a small suv because I wanted out. So the guy glances in his mirror and then waves me out. I thought it was clear. I started to go, and...it wasn't clear. I hit some medium sized suv looking thing and it sure was my fault. Even if the guy did wave me out. I wasn't going fast when I hit her. It smudged the paint on my rock solid bumber, lol. But it caved in her passenger door So I went ahead and made my turn so I wasn't blocking traffic and we both pulled over across the street from where it happend.

Bad things I was looking at were:
My DL was expired!
I had no insurance.
I was packing a pistol in my belt for protection. (supposed to be legal now but it's still akward!)
With no license or insurance, they might impound my truck! So I could get a slew of charges.

The only good thing I did have was good tags. But I am newish to this area and I knew my license was expired since 2020, but they had shut down the DL office because of Covid. So I waited on that to end. Then after that, we all know what happened. Food prices went up very fast and are ridiculous now. And I'm on disability SS. I could not afford all those charges and would likely lose my only transportation at the impound lot Isnt an impounded vehicle like, hundreds and hundreds of dollars to get out?

Luckily by the grace of God, the cops took 45 minutes to show up. So I had a lot of time to pray and praise the Lord and tell Jesus that I trust Him, and that's what I was doing! So the cops roll in and I get out and the others did too and License & Insurance please. Man, I did not want to lose my truck! SO I gave him my expired license and registration and said I don't have my insurance info available right now and I think it might be expired...

He said ok and went back to his car. When he came back, he said, do I have anyone that can come drive my truck home for me because he can't let me drive it away and if I don't then he has to impound it. I mumbled under my breath, I trust you Jesus and was was honest with the officer and said no kids are grown, wife moved on. I'm new to the area and on SS and could not have any hope of keeping my truck and getting it out. So this will be a major downfall for me and then the cop said instantly, Ok You can leave it here and walk home and I wont impound it!But just get someone to help you get it home. Then he gave me two tickets. One for failure to yield, and one for having no valid license. I told him I had plans to renew it but at first it was covid and after that the food went up so much that it started being my priority. I do still like to eat, lol.

That was one nice cop! God bless him for going minimal on me! First time that I've been pulled over here in Ohio and the cops here arent anything like they were in Colorado. In Colorado Springs, where I used to live the police are all militant and stuff. I've had them guys get a tape measure out of their car and stop and measure my truck tires from the curb. Nobody gets any breaks from the police in C. Springs.

I guess I am getting a license and insurance for Christmas then, before the court date on 12/21 lol! and those tickets prolly wont be more than a couple hundred bucks and I can deal with that.And to top it all off, the people in the car I hit said they know a body man and will let me make payments to them for the damage. So how cool is that?! It wasnt a pristine super nice car so there's another blessing.

Praise the Lord! No gun charges or confrontations, nothing big. Just traffic.

I had invited the Lord to ride with me, so He could have prevented me from the accident? Perhaps, He wanted to see if I would hold onto my faith in Him until the end of the incident? I don't know. But I kept praying and telling Jesus that I trust you Jesus and stood on my faith and hobbled through it until the Lord let me off the hook so to speak!

And yes, I went across the street and bought a cup of coffee and the cop drove away pretty quick and within a few minutes I felt an inner peace in me that said, go drive your truck home. So I did and it's all right now. I had no one to call to come drive for me. I think the cop knew that too. In fact I told him I didn't. The Lord softened his heart and I Praise Him for that!

What's that scripture say? In the world, you will have tribulations...but keep your faith.

Matthew 16:28 would be better understood as christ coming “with” his kingdom instead of “into” his kingdom.

Matthew 16:28 28Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming “with” (en) his kingdom (or royal power).”

“En”
of that which one either leads or brings with him, or with which he is furnished or equipped; especially after verbs of coming (ἐν of accompaniment), where we often say with: ἐν δέκα χιλιάσιν ὑπανταν, Luke 14:31; ἦλθεν ἐν μυριάσι, Jude 1:14; cf. Grimm on 1 Macc. 1:17; ἐισέρχεσθαι ἐναἵματι, Hebrews 9:25; ἐν τῷ ὕδατι καί ἐντῷ αἵματι, 1 John 5:6 (i. e. with the water of baptism and the blood of atonement, by means of both which he has procured the pardon of our sins, of which fact we are assured by the testimony of the Holy Spirit); ἐν ῤάβδῳ, 1 Corinthians 4:21; ἐνπληρώματι εὐλογίας, Romans 15:29; φθάνειν ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ, 2 Corinthians 10:14; ἐν πνεύματι καί δυνάμει ἥλιον, imbued or furnished with the spirit and power of Elijah, Luke 1:17; ἐν τῇ βασιλείααὐτοῦ, furnished with the regal power of the Messiah, possessed of his kingly power (Buttmann, 330 (284)): Matthew 16:28; (Strong's Greek: 1722. ἐν (en) -- in, on, at, by, with)

The parallel passage in mark 9:1

1Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God arrive with (en) power.”


So what does it mean that some wouldn’t taste death until they saw the son of man coming with his kingdom/royal power or that some would not taste death until the kingdom of God would arrive with power?

Her husband just found her lying on the couch with blood coming out of her mouth. Still breathing but not responsive. She was just rushed to the hospital.

“He should be fired immediately,” Musk, who often uses his influential perch to bully critics and others, wrote about Iger on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”

All Musk has to do is look in the mirror for the one to blame for his failing social media network.

Her husband just found her lying on the couch with blood coming out of her mouth. Still breathing but not responsive. She was just rushed to the hospital.

I know looks starts the initiation of the relationship but should a man compliment his girlfriend or WIFE looks daily in a Christian relationship? Or is that vain and sign of insecurities and being carnal from the women she’s in need of compliments or the man being desperate

Ukraine aid from US in doubt after briefing walk-out, failed Senate vote​

The $110bn (£87.3bn) package included $61bn for Ukraine, as well as funds for Israel and aid for Gaza. The package [also] includes provisions for border security, but Republican demands for additional changes to asylum rules has complicated negotiations with Democrats.

Concerns over the future of the $110bn package grew on Tuesday after a classified briefing for lawmakers aimed at shoring up support for new funds broke down spectacularly. Senators shouted at each other over border security and at least a dozen Republicans walked out.

A Ukrainian official said that failure to secure more US aid would mean a "very high possibility" that the war will be lost to Russia.

Republicans are insisting that any aid to Ukraine be tied to sweeping US immigration and asylum reforms.

Earlier on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said he was "willing to make significant compromises on the border" in order to get the aid bill passed.

[In addition to all GOP Senators, Bernie Sanders voted against the package due to the lack of conditions on the military aid provided to Israel.]

"What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions."

Good day,

Is this the hardest teaching of Jesus as it relates to Salvation?

I know it is hard to hear ( it is the hardest teaching of Jesus IMHO) that man has a complete inability to come. It does grate as it were against one's own view of self-determination and highly valued self-autonomy.

We see in John 6 Jesus says it twice and it does not go over very well.

Joh 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Then again:


Joh 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

The universal inability of man to come to Christ requires the active intervention of God on behalf of man.. so, he told them twice.... it finally sank in.

They (many) did not like that, so they leave Him.


Thoughts?

In Him,

Bill

I was invited to help out for a Christmas fundraiser at a church that preaches the prosperity gospel A part of me thinks it is ok because I am helping them help kids another part of me think it’s wrong because im helping a false doctrine church ?

I started dating someone this year. He's considering moving out of state for work. It's too soon for me to decide on marriage with this person but I also dont want to lose him. I don't know if he's who God wants me to marry or not. I feel so confused

Hey everyone. I'm really struggling with depression tonight, and I would really appreciate your prayers for me. I don't want to go into detail about why I'm depressed for privacy reasons, but please keep me in your prayers.

Dec 7, 1941 the Empire of Japan attacked the US territory of Pearl Harbor. Posted below is Roosevelt's speech to Congress asking for a declaration of war. Most have heard his first sentence but the entire speech is worth listening to. This is his speech as it was made to Congress 82 years ago on Dec 8, 1941.

Went to the Christmas parade and originally, we were going to be sharing the Gospel outside a shop that our church owns. The problem was that it did not have much foot traffic. So, Cruise, who also shared the Gospel with me, went to the middle of town where a gala was happening and asked if we could share the Gospel there. The organiser said yes, and we did not have to pay since Christmas is about Jesus. Awesome. We were able to tell many the Gospel.

When Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another as he has loved us, he wasn’t speaking of human love based in our emotions, but he was speaking of divine love, which is centered in moral preference. For the believer in Jesus Christ this means to prefer to live through Christ, embracing God’s will, choosing his choices, and obeying them through his power. For the word means to prefer what God prefers, which is what is holy, godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord (1).

So, when we love one another with this kind of love, it is going to engage us living through Christ, embracing God’s will, choosing his choices, and obeying them through his power. So we will not lie to people just to make them feel good. We will not dilute and alter the truth or cut the truth short in order to not offend people. And we won’t immerse ourselves in our culture just so we can connect with the people of the world and so that they will like us. For we need to stand firm on the truth of God’s word always.

But we should be kind, but kind is not lying to people. It is not compromising truth and righteousness and holiness just so they will think we are being kind. The kindest thing we can do is to tell people the truth that will save their souls from hell and which will give them life everlasting with God if they will choose to be believing in Christ, forsaking their sins, and following him in obedience to his commands, which is all part of God-persuaded faith in our Lord which we must all have if we want eternal life with God.

For how did Jesus love us, and how does he continue to love us? Well, he came to the earth, took on human form, suffered as we suffer and was tempted as we are tempted, but without sin. And then he suffered a horrible death on a cross so that in his death he might put our sins to death so that, by faith in him, we might now die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And he empowers us to do so, too!

If we are going to love one another as Christ loved us, we are going to care about one another’s spiritual condition. And this was exemplified to us in the writings of the NT apostles, for this is mostly what they wrote about. So we are going to be sharing with others the truth of the gospel which Jesus and his NT apostles taught, not the lies being spread today. And we are going to be exhorting and encouraging one another so that we don’t buy into the lies, and so we walk according to the truth, and so we have eternal life.

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

So, what is the truth of the gospel we should be sharing? Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For when Jesus took up his cross it was to put our sins to death with him so that we would now walk free from slavery to sin. But if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. Yet if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, we have eternal life (Luke 9:23-26).

Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father in heaven. For many will stand before him on the day of judgment claiming him as Lord and claiming all the things they believed they did in his name, and he is going to say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they would not obey the Lord (Mattew 7:21-23). So, we need to take this to heart, for not everyone professing faith goes to heaven.

And when we speak the truth in love to one another, that is laying down our lives for others. For not too many people are speaking the truth these days. And so many are speaking against the truth and they are convincing people by the masses to also reject the truth of the gospel and of the word of God, and to embrace the lies of false teachers who are saying to people what makes them feel good in order to tickle their itching ears. So if you are one who speaks the truth, you are likely to be largely rejected.

And the truth is that we are not saved from our sins just so we can escape hell and so we can go to heaven when we die. Jesus died to deliver us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so we will now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, walking in moral purity, honesty, and faithfulness. And this is what it means to bear fruit for the kingdom of heaven. It means that we are walking the walk and not just talking it and we are living the kind of lives God in his word has called us to live for his praise and glory.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Come, Thou Fount

By Robert Robinson / John Wyeth

Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount – I’m fixed upon it –
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Hitherto Thy love has blessed me
Thou has brought me to this place
And I know Thy hand will bring me
Safely home by Thy good grace
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

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(1) Strong's Greek: 25. ἀγαπάω (agapaó) -- to love