Today I watched a video from CMI where this man, engineer and geologist Tas Walker was discussing how 80 whale fossils were found buried in a desert in Chile and how marine fossils have been found in other deserts as well as mountaintops. It got me thinking about our thread about theistic evolution. Question: I think I know the answer but I’m just making sure…..I know Catholics are free to believe in theistic evolution and a regional flood but is it permissible for Catholics to believe that man came from the ground, forming Adam and Eve literally from Adams rib? And is it permissible for Catholics to believe in a global Flood rather than a regional one?

Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV


1. What does it mean that Jesus Christ is able to do far more…?
2. How have you experienced him doing that in your own life?
3. According to what power at work within us?
4. And for whose glory and praise?

Now, I am going to answer these first two questions by giving a personal testimony of how I have experienced that in my own life, but I am hoping that some of you who are reading this will share a testimony of how God did that in your own lives, of how he did far more abundantly than all that you had asked or even thought of. For it is good for us to share with one another how God is working in our lives as an encouragement to each other.

The year was 2004 and my husband and I were official workers under the Christian & Missionary Alliance as church planters. We were both invited to attend our district’s annual prayer conference, but my husband injured his back and could not go, so he encouraged me to go without him, and so I did. And as soon as I arrived the Lord Jesus began pouring his word into my heart and speaking to me with regard to his calling upon my life.

This is not what I had anticipated would happen at this district conference, but the Lord spoke clearly to me through the messages shared, and by his messengers, that I was to proclaim the word of God, and that I was to speak the messages that the Lord had for me to speak, and that I was appointed by God as a herald and a teacher of true faith. And he gave me a sense of urgency that my time was now, that for such a time as this I was placed upon the earth, and that I was to fan into flame the gifts of God within me.

And this was really the turning point in my life when he said to me through those who were giving the messages that I was to give my ministry over to God, that it was not mine, that it was his, and that God may have something else for me to do that I had not even thought of. And what he was calling me to do was to write down what he taught me through his word each day and to put it on the internet so that a runner could “Run With It.”

Well, without going into all the details of what happened next, my husband and I ended up not becoming church planters, and I ended up with a ministry which is of God which is of writing down what he teaches me from his word each day and posting it on the internet. And I have been doing that ever since then. And this is a ministry that I was not seeking and that I would never have imagined myself doing, and God has been blessing it.

So, the encouragement here is that God is able to do with us and in us far beyond what we might dream or think of, which is way beyond what we might think ourselves capable of, too. It just needs to agree with God and with his word and not be something that is contrary to the will of God for our lives. And it should be what brings honor and glory to God and not to the flesh of human beings. And it needs to be empowered by God and not driven by our own human flesh. For Jesus needs to be the one leading, not us.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]

Should I Not Preach Jesus

An Original Work / July 4, 2013
Based off 1 Corinthians 9:16-10:13

Woe to me should I not preach Jesus.
I’m compelled to preach the full gospel.
I make myself a slave to ev’ryone
To win their hearts to Christ.
All this I do for my Lord Jesus,
And for the sake of His Name;
Do it for the sake of His gospel,
So that I, its blessings gain.

Scripture notates the sins of others;
Written down for us as examples
To keep us from setting our hearts
On evil as did those of old.
Do not worship other gods of man;
Do not give your hearts to them;
Not partake in immorality.
Do not test your Lord and King.

So, be careful if you think you are
Standing firm in your faith in Jesus.
God has given his word to warn us,
So through faith we will not fall.
No temptation has o’ertaken you
Except what is commonplace.
God is faithful to not let you be
Tempted past what you can bear.
He gives the way of escape.

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Amos 9:8-12 In My anger against the nations, I shall not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob. [All 12 tribes of Israel] My command was that Israel be scattered among the peoples of the world, but I will keep My eye upon them. Proverbs 5:21, 1 Peter 3:12

I know who they all are. Those who rebel and disobey Me will die. Ezekiel 20:38 On the Day of the redemption of My people, I will restore the House of David, the leaders of Israel, Hosea 1:11, so that they may possess all of that area named as Mine. This: I your God, will accomplish. Obadiah 1:19-21, Ezekiel chapter36

Isaiah 40:26-31 Lift up your eyes on high, consider the Creator of all things. He brings out His host, [people] one by one, each summoned by name, through His great power and strength, none is missing. You Israelites, do not say: Our God has forgotten us. Do you not know, have you not heard, the Lord, the Creator, does not weary and His understanding cannot be fathomed. He gives strength to the exhausted, as even the fittest grow faint, but those who trust Him will get new strength, they will soar as on eagles wings, march and not become tired. Isaiah 27:12

Isaiah 40:26 is usually translated so as to mean real stars, however the chapter commences with; ‘Comfort My people,’ and finishes with the beautiful promise of how the Lord will help His people go to their Land. Therefore in context, it must be more correct to apply ‘ His host’, to the Lord’s holy people and more logical than to think that He summons the stars, one by one, each called by name? Actual;...stars set in place, Psalms 8:3



His people: Christian Israelites, from every tribe, race, nation and language, are called out of the nations, soon after this forthcoming Lord’s Day of vengeance and wrath and are motivated to possess all of the holy Land and migrate to their new nation of Beulah. Isaiah 62L1-5, Psalms 107

John sees all the faithful Christian peoples there in Revelation 7:9.

As the other prophets and Jesus say: God knows who His people are and He will call them by name for their gathering into the holy Land. Revelation 5:9-10



Baruch 4:30 Take heart, My children, He who calls you by name, will comfort you.

Isaiah 27:12-13 On that Day, the Lord will sound a great trumpet and those of His people, who are dispersed around the world will be gathered one by one and will come to worship the Lord in His holy Land. Isaiah 49:6

Jeremiah 3:14 Come back, apostate people, for I am patient with you, I shall take you; one from each town and two from each clan and bring you to Zion. Isaiah 11:11-12

Matthew 24:37-44 As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be when the Son of man comes. The people then carried on unsuspectingly until the flood came and killed them all. This is how it will be when I come next, at a time when you least expect. Then there will be two people working; one will be taken, the other left. Therefore, be ready and keep watch for the Day your Lord comes. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6

‘comes’, here means; to take action, Isaiah 28:21, Psalms 68:1-3, Isaiah 59:16-17, Psalms 9:19-20


It has always been thought that this passage in Matthew refers to the Return of Jesus in His glory, but a study of Revelation shows that this event cannot be at the Return, as that glorious Day will not be unexpected, because it is exactly 1260 days after the Anti Christ desecrates the Temple. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

The Lord was not seen in Noah’s time, or the Exodus and He will not be seen during the Sixth Seal terrible Day of the Lord’s fiery wrath.

This next prophesied event, which will come ‘ like a thief’, is the punishment of the nations, Habakkuk 2:3, instigated by Jesus and graphically described in over 100 prophesies, as a CME explosion of the suns surface, that will clear and cleanse all the holy Land in preparation for ‘ the homecoming of His people’. Ezekiel 36:8, Isaiah 65:9, Isaiah 49:22, Ezekiel 37:21, Jeremiah 16:14-16, Zechariah 10:8-12

Psalms 2:1-12 Why are the nations in a turmoil? People hatch futile plots and leaders conspire together against the Lord. They say; Let us break free from His rule. But He who watches from His throne, laughs and derides them, then He rebukes them, in His wrath. Y’hovah says; I have established My King in My holy place, I have decreed; You are My Son, I am Your Father. Ask of Me what you will, I shall give You the nations as Your domain, the earth as Your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron, so be warned, you peoples, pay Him homage, for His anger flares up in a moment. Happy are those who find refuge in Him! John 3:35

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Hard-liners plot to replace McCarthy with a deputy as shutdown looms​

A contingent of far-right House Republicans are plotting an attempt to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker as early as next week, a move that would throw the chamber into further disarray in the middle of a potential government shutdown, according to four people familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

Some members of the far-right faction of the party are coalescing around nominating a member of McCarthy’s leadership team, Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.), to be the next speaker if they can successfully oust McCarthy, according to those people. The members think Emmer is more attuned to their concerns and will better deliver conservative results.

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Honestly, when the government shutdown hits, everyone should want to replace McCarthy. But the goal needs to be a path forward that a majority of the House can accept. Any Speaker who is closer to the far-right is farther away from a majority.

(and given how hard it was to put McCarthy in place, any such candidate seems very unlikely to become the next Speaker. Then again, under the current conditions, nobody seems likely to become the next Speaker.)

Nikki Haley lost me when she started talking about raising the retirement age. Christie is a hired hitman out for Trump, Pence... nah, Vivek is not ready for prime time.
I didn't watch it either...

29 Sept 2023

Trump loses bid to delay New York civil fraud trial​

A New York appeals court has rejected former President Donald Trump's bid to delay a civil fraud trial against him in a case that leaves his business empire in jeopardy.

The decision paves the way for a trial to begin next Monday. Mr Trump and three of his adult children are expected to be called as witnesses in the case. The decision comes after New York Judge Arthur Engoron this week ruled Mr Trump was liable for business fraud.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump, his two adult sons and the Trump Organization of inflating the value of their properties by more than $2bn (£1.65bn) to suit the needs of their business.

In his ruling issued on Tuesday, Judge Engoron agreed, finding Mr Trump had misrepresented his wealth by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr Trump's legal team had sought to delay the case while his attorneys challenged earlier rulings.

• The New York buildings that Trump could lose
• Are Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties over-valued?

Mr Trump and the other defendants in the case have argued that they never committed fraud.

More:

OB

"About 465 million years ago, an armored critter resembling a sea roach died near what is now Prague. The final meal of this animal—a trilobite—still sat in its guts as sediment buried its body in the sea floor of an ancient Paleozoic sea. There, it remained entombed for ages. Now, scientific sleuths have deduced the contents of this meal, providing the first direct evidence of the diet and lifestyle of this primal and iconic group of arthropods."

https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-reveal-half-billion-year-old-last-supper

The Apostle Paul had just finished talking about how he was made a minister of the gospel of Christ according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given him by the working of God’s power. He was extremely humbled by God’s call upon his life, for he had previously been a persecutor and a murderer of Christians. But he gave all the credit and all the glory to God for what the Lord was accomplishing in his life and through his life in bringing the truth of the gospel of Christ to the people of the world.

Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV


1. What was Paul’s concern for the Christians?
2. What did he do about it?
3. What is the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love?
4. What is “all the fulness of God”?

Paul wasn’t just a preacher of the gospel of Christ. And he definitely was not in it for the money, nor for the fame, which he did not receive other than mostly in a negative way. But he really cared about the people he ministered to. He cared about what was going on in their lives. But a lot of his ministry was spent in jail writing letters to the churches, which are now part of our Scriptures in the New Testament. So he wasn’t always with them in person, and I don’t know how much he had contact with the people individually.

So being someone who cares does not mean you can juggle the time spent in communications with everyone to where you have individual time with each person, especially if your ministry sphere is quite broad. For there are only so many hours in each day, and if you have a family, your responsibilities may be stretched in many different directions. So I am just saying that Paul was probably not in daily communications with every person or every church congregation to whom he ministered.

And the reason I am saying that is because we live in a generation now where we have the possibility of around the clock communications with people we know, and so people may get the idea that some of us are always available when we are not. For if you compare things as they are now to 20 years ago or so, we didn’t have cell phones. And we didn’t have the internet as we now know it. And we didn’t have around the clock news and TV shows, etc. We grew up with one phone in the house. If you missed a call, you missed it. For you had no idea who it was who called.

So, what is my point? My point is that we all have lives of our own and personal responsibilities and jobs and ministries, and some of us are being stretched in multiple directions, so we are not going to be available all the time for all people individually and still get our work done. But that does not mean we do not love the people we are ministering to. Sometimes the love and ministry has to be given more collectively rather than individually, which is what Paul had to do. But what he did showed that he loved them.

For he cared enough about them to inquire as to how they were doing, and to write to them collectively, and perhaps to some individually. And he cared enough to pray for them and to encourage them collectively and to teach them the truth of the gospel, which they needed to hear. And he loved them enough to counsel them in the way that they should go and against the ways they should not go. For they needed this instruction and encouragement and counsel in order to know the ways of the Lord so that they could walk in them and so that they would minister to one another.

And Paul cared enough about them to tell them the truth and to refute the lies so that they would not end up following the lies and reject the truth. So he wanted them to know the vastness of God’s love. And God’s love is not permission for us to keep living in deliberate and habitual sin. God’s love extends so far that he makes certain that we hear the truth and that we are discerning of the lies. And his love tells us that we must forsake our sinful practices and now follow him in obedience to his ways or we don’t have the hope of eternal life with God. And that is great love!

For God is not here just to do for us. He is here so that we will learn to do for him in return for what he has done for us. He is here to instruct us in the ways that we should go and to warn us against following the wrong way. So to be filled with the fulness of God is to love him and to follow him and to obey him and to do what pleases him and to know his will and to do his will and to be sharing the gospel so that others can know him, too. And it is to be loving the people of this world as he loved us by giving himself up for us so that we will now die to sin and live to righteousness, by God’s grace.

[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]

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

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Ezra 6:14 has this challenging statement..

14 And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

... those three Persian kings. How it fits together is the challenge.

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I have been doing some research to try and understand Ezra 4, 5, 6, - chapters which are about the opposition the Jews encountered when they came back and started rebuilding the temple.

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A quick narrative by me is that the Jews returned and started building the temple according to Cyrus's 537 bc decree. But some of the regional powers were against it and sent a letter to Dariius II (also known as Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes is a general title, like Pharaoh is for the ruler of Egypt.)

So,there are not actually 3 separate kings, in Ezra 6:14, but only 2 kings - with one of them, Darius II, also being known as Artaxerxes. The other king being Cyrus.

Darius II (Artaxerxes) said he would look into it, if the Jews really had permission from Cyrus who ruled right before him. For the meantime, Darius issued a restraining order for the Jews to suspend building. No work was done until the second year of Darius II reign, while Darius researched the records. (Ezra 4:23-24)

And in Chapter 5, Darius II ( the Great) who searched the records, and Darius II found that Cyrus had indeed instructed the Jews to go back and build the temple So in Chapter 6,the restraining order was lifted. And the Jews, worked on the temple and finished in the sixth year of Darius II's reign.

Ironically to the objectioners - Darius II also ordered them to help pay for the rebuilding from the taxes he levied on them.

Anyway, here is my chart. You may have to click on it to open it automatically in another window zoomed in. There is Cyrus, Artaxerxes, Darius II on the chart, one right after the other, the three Persian kings in Ezra 6:14. Note: the chart is a work in progress. I have some things to work on the right hand side, and the 7wks- 49 years.

Note: please go to my latest post(s) in this thread - as the chart is a work in progress and I am refining it as I go.

Just before Christ died, He said “It is finished” (John 19:28-30). What does the word “It” refer to - what was finished?

Ephesians 3:7-13 ESV


1. Of what gospel was Paul made a minister?
2. According to what power or gifting was he made a minister?
3. What is the “plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God”?
4. What is the “manifold wisdom of God” the church is to display?
5. What is the “eternal purpose” God “realized in Christ Jesus”?

Well, if we go back to Ephesians 1 we read that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” And we read “having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” And then in chapter 2 we read how we who truly believe in Jesus are those who used to (past tense) walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, following the course of this world, following Satan, living in the sinful passions of our flesh.

And continuing in chapter 2 we read that we are saved by God’s grace, through faith, which is not of our own doing, but it is God’s gift to us – both his grace and the faith to believe in him. And we read that our salvation is not a result of our own fleshly works which we decide we will do for God. However, it also says that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk (in conduct, in practice) in them (Ephesians 2:8-10; cf. Titus 2:14).

And then if you move on to Ephesians 4 you read that, as those who believe in Jesus Christ, we are not to live like the ungodly do, in the futility of their minds. We are not to have hardness of heart in relation to our Lord’s commands and his will and purpose for our lives. So we are not to give ourselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. For the truth that is in Christ Jesus teaches us to put off our former manner of life which is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in our minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (see Ephesians 4:17-32).

And then if you read chapter 5 you will see there that is says that sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking and idolatry are to have no part in the life of the church and that those who practice such things have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. So we are not to let anyone deceive us with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. And who are they? They are all who choose to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin and who refuse to walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands.

And then read the book of Romans, especially Romans 6, for there it spells it out for us that the whole purpose of Jesus dying for us on that cross, and the whole purpose of him gifting us with his grace and our faith and our salvation from sin is so that we are crucified and buried with Christ in death to sin so that we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So we are not to obey sin, for if we do, it will lead to death, not to life.

So, the gospel that Paul taught was the same gospel that Jesus taught, and he said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, and die to sin daily, and follow him in obedience, then we have eternal life in him. For he also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING God’s will (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And all this comes from God and did not come from the flesh of man. Paul operated in the power of God’s Holy Spirit in bringing us the truth of the gospel and in teaching us the will of God for our lives. And the wisdom and purpose of God in creating us is that we would forsake our sins and follow him in obedience and live for him in living holy and righteous and godly lives, pleasing to him. And he made it very clear that if this is not what we do that we will not have eternal life with God. This is not saying that we will be perfect people, but that sin should no longer be what we practice.

[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]

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

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With the 2023 Nobel Prizes winners to be announced commencing from Oct 2nd, the Ig-Nobel Prize winners were revealed in September.

THE 2023 IG NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

• CHEMISTRY and GEOLOGY PRIZE: Jan Zalasiewicz, for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks.
• LITERATURE PRIZE: Chris Moulin, Nicole Bell, Merita Turunen, Arina Baharin, and Akira O’Connor for studying the sensations people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times.
• MECHANICAL ENGINEERING PRIZE: Te Faye Yap, Zhen Liu, Anoop Rajappan, Trevor Shimokusu, and Daniel Preston, for re-animating dead spiders to use as mechanical gripping tools.
• PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Seung-min Park, for inventing the Stanford Toilet, a device that uses a variety of technologies — including a urinalysis dipstick test strip, a computer vision system for defecation analysis, an anal-print sensor paired with an identification camera, and a telecommunications link — to monitor and quickly analyze the substances that humans excrete.
• COMMUNICATION PRIZE: María José Torres-Prioris, Diana López-Barroso, Estela Càmara, Sol Fittipaldi, Lucas Sedeño, Agustín Ibáñez, Marcelo Berthier, and Adolfo García, for studying the mental activities of people who are expert at speaking backward.
• MEDICINE PRIZE: Christine Pham, Bobak Hedayati, Kiana Hashemi, Ella Csuka, Tiana Mamaghani, Margit Juhasz, Jamie Wikenheiser, and Natasha Mesinkovska, for using cadavers to explore whether there is an equal number of hairs in each of a person’s two nostrils.
• NUTRITION PRIZE: Homei Miyashita and Hiromi Nakamura, for experiments to determine how electrified chopsticks and drinking straws can change the taste of food.
• EDUCATION PRIZE: Katy Tam, Cyanea Poon, Victoria Hui, Wijnand van Tilburg, Christy Wong, Vivian Kwong, Gigi Yuen, and Christian Chan, for methodically studying the boredom of teachers and students.
• PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: Stanley Milgram, Leonard Bickman, and Lawrence Berkowitz for experiments on a city street to see how many passersby stop to look upward when they see strangers looking upward.
• PHYSICS PRIZE: Bieito Fernández Castro, Marian Peña, Enrique Nogueira, Miguel Gilcoto, Esperanza Broullón, Antonio Comesaña, Damien Bouffard, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, and Beatriz Mouriño-Carballido, for measuring the extent to which ocean-water mixing is affected by the sexual activity of anchovies.

Fun fact Andre Geim won the 2018 Nobel prize in physics "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene" and the 2000 Ig-Nobel prize for investigating the magnetic properties of water scaling by levitating small frogs with magnets.

There seems to be in Christianity a curiosity or fascination with end times prophesy. Those that more forcefully proclaim their prophecies are seen as more biblically knowledgeable and receive the attention of many. Some stir up fear in our hearts and others fascination and others a sense that we are really getting to know the Bible. Is this what we should be doing with our walk with the Lord on Earth? Is this what He told us to do?


Jesus words are
Take no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself, sufficient in the day is the evil thereof.
It is not for you to known the times or the seasons which the Father Has fixed by His own authority
In an hour you think not, the Son of Man cometh. (You are blessed of Jesus finds you doing what He told you to do, and not obsessing about when He comes)

Matthew 6:34, Acts 7:1, Matthew 24:44


Frequently we find in assemblies those that appear very Biblical and can show you prophesy all day, but their behavior does not line up with scripture. It is so plain that a child can see it, but we are told not to judge. They can keep sinning because they are under the blood. Many will talk prophecy, very few accept correction. Is that what Christianity is all about?
I don’t think so. I believe that prophecy and end times obsession are a distraction that keeps us from concentrating on what Jesus really wants us to do. So why don’t we do it? Well there are many reasons, but many are deceived by the teaching that we are not saved by our works, so we won’t do any, and then scoff or chastise those that try to do them.
That is a perfect distraction that keeps us from heaven. Tickle the mind with thoughts of great prophetic knowledge, and dull the senses to what we are doing because it is meaningless.
Is that true? Is that Biblical? Well it is true that we are not saved by our works, but those that are going to be saved will do good works, and they will keep doing them until they die or the Son of Man comes. It’s that simple. Don’t believe me? check out the Bible. Jesus calls all men everywhere to repent. He says to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. Following Him takes action, it is a way of suffering, but it does not require much effort. Why? Because we have plenty of chances to follow Him in suffering if we just accept it.
Think of all the people that annoy you or cause you injustice. What did Jesus tell you to do about them? Ever hear of love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you? Why should we do that? Because Jesus told us to do it, and God sends your enemies to you to help you grow in virtue. Just follow His commands. The one that you hate the most is the one that you should be friends with and love the most. It hurts and it’s humiliating and hard, but every blow and every stripe, every insult and spittle our Lord received was unjust. Should we not follow Him and accept injustice in our lives willingly and lovingly? Our enemies are God’s call to us that this is what He wants you to do. Think about it.
Why are you so angry at others and complain about the hurts you feel? Jesus said to rejoice when you suffer
We would rather think ourselves biblical by studying prophecy, rather than accepting what God is calling us to do.
What do the goats say to God when they get to the judgement seat? Lord, we prophesied in your name, you taught in our streets and we did many wonderful works for you. What does He say? I never knew you. Why? Because you fails to respond when He knocked at the door of your heart. Your enemies are those knocks at the door of your heart. How do we know? Because God told us to love our enemies and He promised that you will not suffer anything above which you are able to endure.
Don’t know how to love your enemies? Then pray and ask God what you should do. Study why you hate someone and really think about why this is causing you so much pain. If you do that, God will show you, and if you respond, He will give you bigger things to do. Did He not say he that is faithful in small things will be given greater responsibility? It takes no effort to follow Jesus. Just look around at your enemies and you will be following the Gospel. Jesus tells us we are His servants and we are not greater than our master. He was beaten to death and hung on a cross. Why should we expect a soft life?
So many people say use me Jesus. Well here is your chance. Remember your obedience to God is not dependent on what your enemy does. Some may soften and be converted, others will harden and become more cruel. You are obedient when you suffer willingly, but you need not suffer alone. Call out to God in prayer and ask Him what to do about the situation that you are in so that you may keep following Him. Be faithful unto death and He will give you a crown of life. He does not say love your enemies and I’ll make you a millionaire in this life. You need listen to what God is calling you to do by looking at your enemies, studying God’s law and acting accordingly. If you can’t take all the enemies you have, start with one and you will learn

What does Augustine say that true Pastors are like? They don’t claim to have all knowledge and distract people with prophesy about the end times. Want to know the dangers of distraction? Read the story of Eastern Airlines flight 401.

Here is Augustine

St Augustine's sermon On Pastors


I shall feed my sheep on good pasture


I shall gather them together from foreign nations and bring them back to their own land. I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel… As the mountains of Israel, he has set up the authors of the holy Scriptures. Feed on these and you will feed in safety. Whatever you hear from them will do you good; whatever you hear from elsewhere, spit it out. Listen to the voice of your shepherd lest you lose your way and wander into the mist. Gather together on the mountains of holy Scripture. There you will find the delight of your heart: nothing poisonous, nothing strange – the richest of pastures. Simply come in good health, and feed in good health on the mountains of Israel.


…In the ravines and in every inhabited place in the land. From these mountains of Scripture flow the streams of the gospel preaching, whose sound has gone forth into all the earth so that every inhabited place of the earth has become a rich and fertile pasture for the sheep.


I shall feed them in good pasturage; the high mountains of Israel will be their grazing ground. There will they rest. That is, where they will say, “It is good here,” where they will say, “It is true, it is clear, we are not deceived.” They will take their rest in the glory of God as in their own shelters. They will sleep and take their rest in the midst of delight.


They will browse in rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. I have already spoken of the mountains of Israel, the good mountains, the mountains to which we lift up our eyes so that help will come to us from them. But remember, our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. So to prevent us putting our hope in the mountains, as soon as he had said I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel he added at once I shall feed my sheep. Yes, lift your eyes up to the mountains from which your help will come; but wait for him to say I shall feed. For your help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.


And finally he says I shall feed them with judgement. Note that it is he alone who feeds them with judgement. For what man can judge another man? Wherever you look, you see rash judgements. Someone we have despaired of suddenly turns round and becomes the best of people. Someone of whom we have had high expectations suddenly fails and sinks into uselessness. There is no certainty in our foreboding, there is no certainty in our love.


Take any man. What is he today? He hardly knows himself. He has some slight idea, perhaps, of what he is today, but as for tomorrow – nothing. So the Lord feeds us all with judgement, distributing what is appropriate to each of us: this to one person, that to others, to each what they ought to have, one thing to one and another to another. For he knows what he is doing. He feeds us with judgement, us whom he redeemed after he had himself been judged. So he feeds us all with judgement.

My name is Toby and I am a 20 year old student from England.

As is normal in the UK, I was raised non-religiously, however I always felt some sort of presence or calling. Recently my mum got quite sick and during that time, I decided to start praying and seeking out God and nothing had ever felt more right. Subsequently I purchased a bible and have began reading it and I am looking to a find a traditional church that I can attend on Sundays.

I am here, hoping that I can find people to talk too to help me with my journey to Christ. I know I believe in him and I know I want to live for him but I am struggling to actually put my beliefs into practice.

Thank you for reading and may God bless you.

It seems obvious that our sin comes from the flesh. It is at war with God, is not subject to His laws, and can't be made to conform. If the Spirit of God and of Christ live in us, our bodies are dead because of sin, but our spirits are alive because of the righteousness we possess in Christ.

"More than half of Republicans see former President Donald Trump as a person of faith, putting him ahead of more vocally religious figures like his former vice president, Mike Pence, according to a new national poll conducted by HarrisX for the Deseret News.

"Registered voters were asked whether they considered a list of political figures people of faith. Trump rose to the top of the list for Republicans, while President Joe Biden topped the list for Democrats. Among independents, Sen. Mitt Romney was most likely to be chosen as a person of faith." link

• Government funding runs out at 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday.
• The Senate has been working in a bipartisan manner and has a bill to fund the government through Nov. 17 that should pass in the coming days, though perhaps not before the weekend deadline.
• Meanwhile, some conservative House Republicans are pushing for deep spending cuts, saying they'll refuse to support the Senate's bill or any short-term legislation that would buy Congress more time to act.

Hello everyone,

My wife and I are part of a church, and we're very active in serving. Last year we occasionally served in the nursery on Sundays, and I was often scheduled to clean the church on a Saturday before church. On top of that, I shoveled all the paths and was backup to lockup the church every night, and my wife and I both served in AWANA. We also served on youth retreats and summer bible camps, and I'm on the men's ministry leadership team. Over the summer, we were asked to serve in Sunday school which is leading a class of older kids in bible study. We were told this would replace our nursery service.

We found all this serving to be a very draining for us over the past year, and going forward into the fall, we decided to cut back. I would no longer be shoveling or locking up the church at night, and we would serve at AWANA less often. A few weeks before the new serving schedules came out, one of the pastors called me up and asked if we could do nursery in addition to Sunday school. We initially told him no as we understood it to be a replacement, but he said it would only be one additional Sunday at most we'd have to do, so we agreed. Yesterday the schedules came out, and we found out that they had put us on twice. We called him up and said we'd only agreed to do it once in addition to us doing Sunday school classes. He said he would take care of it, but did not apologize or anything. I got the vibe that he won't change it and ask us to do it anyway last minute. My wife and I thought it felt like we're being taken advantage of.

My church kind of has a culture of voluntelling people into things. The new lead pastor has even joked about it in his sermon before. There have been times when I'll be sent an email thanking me for serving in a certain way that I never said I would or could do, and when I was younger, single, and not a Christian, there was a time where I said I no longer wanted to serve in nursery at all and not to put me on the schedule, and they did anyway. I feel bad for saying no when they've already made the schedule, and now they'll have to find someone else to serve an additional week, but I also feel it's necessary for me to put my foot down here so they will stop assuming that everyone will blindly put up with this. My wife and I are happy and willing to serve, but we don't want to be taken advantage of.

I'm curious to see people's thoughts on this. Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

Reinhard Bonnke and South American Pentecostals and Randy Clark mention angels in their preaching or interviews. Angels come to work, to strengthen, or to commission people to worship God. Some see them in the Spirit. In this CFAN meeting Reinhard implores the angels at minute 2 and 30 seconds: Reinhard preaches

As an aside this is not the NAR movement.

After conversions in such large numbers the churches swell in size taking in the newly saved. There is an old dispute between Roman Catholics and Protestants from the times of the Thirty Years War. The fighting is all gone except in Northern Ireland. So the Anglicans would say, "you worship Mary and the holy angels." The Catholics denied it, and they found faults with the Anglicans... It was recorded in Jesuit vows.

So when new converts learn the faith that changed their hearts, sometimes they are taught not to ask God for angels works, saying it is worship of angels. I think this is unfortunate, to lose a bit of the faith that won their hearts.

In this video: Reinhard's friends Daniel Kolenda, Heidi Baker, Lisa and John Bevere, Claudio Freidzon, Todd White, Joel Osteen's mother, Brian Houston praise and farewell Reinhard.

I've seen different beliefs in this teaching. Some say he was flesh and blood again, which I find hard to believe and makes no sense to me, or was he in spirit, which makes more sense.

What's the meaning of the Bible? What's it about? It can be summed up very simply as this: the vindication of Jehovah God's name through the ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

I can explain this further with first a short answer. The tree of the knowledge of good and bad represented, to Adam, Jehovah God's sovereignty. That is, his right, as our creator, to decide for us what was good and what was bad until we, like children, matured to the point where we could do that for ourselves within the parameters of that sovereignty. Knowledge is facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. The knowledge in this case is experience. Good and bad had been defined by Jehovah and at that point was very simple. Fill the earth and subdue it, that was good. Don't touch or eat the fruit of the tree, that was bad. The knowledge Adam and Eve had acquired was the decision to decide for themselves what was good and what was bad. That's why they suddenly considered nudity to be bad. (Genesis 2:25; 3:6-11)

The footnote to Genesis 2:17 in the 1966 Jerusalem Bible explains it really well: "This knowledge is a privilege which God reserves to himself and which man, by sinning, is to lay hands on, Genesis 3:5, 22. Hence it does not mean omniscience, which fallen man does not possess; nor is it moral discrimination, for unfallen man already had it and God could not refuse it to a rational being. It is the power of deciding for himself what is good and what is evil and of acting accordingly, a claim to complete moral independence by which man refuses to recognise his status as a created being. The first sin was an attack on God’s sovereignty, a sin of pride."

The long answer explains it further by giving you a more accurate understanding of the Bible and so, hopefully, allowing you to more fully understand the meaning of the short answer.

God created Michael first. Then Michael, as Jehovah's master worker, created everything through Jehovah's Holy Spirit or active force. (Genesis 1:26; 3:22; Proverbs 8:22-31; Colossians 1:15-17; John 8:23; 17:5) The word Holy means sacred, or belonging to God. Spirit means an invisible active force, like wind, breath, mental inclination. Something that we can't see but that produces results that we can see. So, the holy spirit is God's active force, invisible to us. The first thing that Michael, through Jehovah's holy spirit, created was the spiritual heavens. This was followed by the spirit beings, often called angels. (Job 38:4-7) Then the physical heavens, or space as we know it, including Earth, the stars, sun and moon and finally everything on Earth eventually concluding with Adam and Eve.

The angels existed for a very long time before man was created, and they had time to mature, like children, so that they knew what was good and bad from their creator. It is important that you understand that being created perfect is much like being born a baby. Parents see their newborn children as perfect, but think about it. They can't walk, talk, feed themselves, go to the bathroom properly - they are bald, toothless, chubby, defenseless little creatures. Perfect in the sense that they have great potential and innocence.

By the time man was created the angels had already reached their potential.

On the seventh day, when the creation was complete, God "rested." This doesn't mean that God was tired or that he stopped working, it means he set aside a period of time in which we were allowed to mature, as the angels had done. When we would have accomplished this, we could, as the Bible says, enter into God's Day of rest. In other words, the seventh "day" or more accurately, period of creation, continues to this day. So, the knowledge of what is good and what is bad is the eventual possession of that maturity. The ability to decide for ourselves what was good and what was bad, predicated upon an acknowledgement of our own accord, of our creator, Jehovah's rightful sovereignty. (Psalm 95:11; Isaiah 40:28; John 5:17; Romans 8:22; Hebrews 4:1-5)

This is why, once Adam rejected that concept by deciding for himself what was good and bad before he had matured enough to best do that, Jehovah had to shorten his life from living forever to eventually dying. Because if he and his offspring, mankind, were allowed to live forever under those conditions, they would never reach that maturity and they would bring about an endless series of chaos and destruction.

So, in effect, Satan charged Jehovah with the crime of withholding some knowledge from mankind. He knew this wasn't true, but he wanted to try and seize control of the power that Jehovah's sovereignty represented even if it meant destroying all that it represented and everything else in the process. Even destroying himself. Like a jealous child breaking a toy so no one else can have it.

But to Jehovah justice is very important. You can't just wave away a crime due to the damage that has been incurred. So, he allowed the charges against him to be tried, as in a court of law. He allowed Satan's theory to be tested in a manner of speaking. With the stipulation that 1. he wasn't going to allow it to prevent his original purpose for the angels and mankind from being fulfilled beyond what was necessary to establish his defense. That they should live forever in peace, in heaven and on earth respectively. And 2. that justice would be done.

So immediately after Adam's sin Jehovah put in motion the plan for all of this to take place while Satan's theory was being tested. In a basic sense the steps were as follows.

1. Select a group of people.
2. Form a nation for those people.
3. Demonstrate to them what was going on by establishing a law which they couldn't keep due to their imperfection, or the incomplete nature of their lack of the aforementioned maturity.
4. Provide a way out through a Messiah or Christ, namely, Michael, who volunteered due to his love for mankind and his father, Jehovah's purpose. So, Michael came to earth as a man, Jesus the Christ.

One final point of consideration regarding mankind. From Jehovah's perspective the life he created, the life he gave us, is sacred. You may recall that sacred means belonging to God. According to the Bible our soul is our life, represented by our blood, so blood is sacred. To kill someone, or take their soul, requires the payment of the killer's own soul because it is taking something sacred to Jehovah. So, the blood sacrifices represented a respect for or acknowledgement of his created life granted to us. For example, if a person was found murdered and no one knew who did the killing then they had to sacrifice a bull and spill its blood on the ground as a symbolic acknowledgement of God's possession. Sacred life. A sort of gesture of justice. (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)

Since we inherited sin through Adam then the only man who could pay the price for the blood of Adam, which had been perfect and without sin from the start until he did sin - was the blood of a man who was without sin.

Hi

I am excitedly waiting for my KJV large leather bound Bible to arrive.

Im very new to all this and have no idea where to start……reading online you hear some say, from Genesis, then others from John, Romans and so on.

Could I have your opinion on what is going to yield a more personal and fruitful relationship with God as I start this journey to understand his word.

Thank you

David

Sorry I want to check if it is just me or has there been
a massive shift on these forums and in right wing media.

There are plenty of people attacking the Bidens.
But less people are singing Trump praises.
And less people arguing that people that attack Trump have been brainwashed

All of this is quite reasonable if you ask me