We were discussing this just a few weeks ago here on CF. Leftists poo-pooed it. "It will never happen."
Ok...

The CBS link was bad and I can't get it to delete. Someone else just posted about it too.

Jesus said not to, if I understand correctly. Or at least not to deliberately draw attention to it by neglecting your appearance. You’re not supposed to go around essentially screaming at everybody, “Hey, y’all, look at this religious thing I’m doing. Aren’t I just so holy and righteous?”

But what if you’re fasting and somebody who doesn’t know it just keeps offering you food? Should you tell that person you’re fasting, so they stop? In what other contexts is it good to say so?

Let me start with the fact I am Sola Scriptura - which means I view Scripture and only Scripture as my source of truth,

I believe beyond a doubt that Christians have the authority to cast out demons - I believe Scripture when it speaks of the acts of casting out demons.

What I have NEVER found proof of is binding demons - not in Scriptural edict nor example.

The most misused scripture is:


Their error is not reading the verses before and after it and not seeing in context of what was said.

Read it in context:

21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”​

There is zero reference to demons, therefore can not be contextually supported for binding demons.

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” (John 1:38)

This scripture has been sticking with me for some time and not one I hear an abundance of messages on. I don't plan on sharing such a thing here, just wanted to share a thought or two about what I get from this.

Why am I following Jesus? What am I seeking from Him? My life has been full of ups and downs, highs and lows. I think for a while I was seeking Him as a way of escape from the troubles in my life, and while Jesus does offer us rest from our troubles, I don't think I understood that fully. I've known people that followed Jesus because they believed He would give them riches. But what are we following Jesus for? What are we seeking?

The gospel of John is really all about this one question. It starts with a group of Pharisees seeking John and wanting to know if he was the Messiah. It shows intimate details about Jesus' life and ministry to help us understand who He was. More than the other 3 gospels for sure. The gospel of John recounts how large groups of people stopped following Jesus when He revealed hard truths that they didn't want to hear. He reveals Himself as God in multiple ways to give us all a complete understanding of who we follow, and hopefully help us understand why.

What we are seeking from Jesus is a very important question to identify, not just for ourselves but for others as well. I don't believe we have to know 100% in detail about Jesus in order to have the life and freedom He promised, but I do believe it's important to have an accurate idea of Jesus so we aren't led astray or led into error.

I dunno, kinda rambling at the moment. Just wanted to share something that has been rather consuming for a few weeks. I welcome any thoughts on the topic, or personal testimonies on the subject.

I don't suffer any illusions about being able to change many minds, but I still think it's worth the effort. I've been studying this many years, and it really seems to be a headache in the study of biblical prophecy. Way back in the early 70s I read Hal Lindsey's book, "The Late Great Planet Earth," and really enjoyed it. He saw amazing coincidences between the news of our time and biblical prophecies that seem to be coming to precise fulfillment.

Unfortunately, Lindsey did something that I believe has been disastrous to the understanding of biblical prophecy. And I'm sure he's not the only one. He had a tremendous desire to convert biblical prophecies that had already been fulfilled into future prophecies. Why waste time reading prophecies that had already been fulfilled, such as prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon? Why not focus on prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled so that we can show people how God's word is still relevant in our own day?

And so, Lindsey converted what Jesus said in his Olivet Discourse from being about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans to being an endtime prophecy of the generation in which Israel would be reborn as a nation. The passage reads, "This generation will not pass away until all these things take place." This prophecy was actually being spoken about Jesus' own generation--"this generation" referred to the generation in which Jesus lived.

But Lindsey converted this into a prophecy of the last generation. "This generation" was, for Lindsey, the generation that saw the rebirth of the Israeli nation. The generation that sees the rebirth of Israel would not pass away until the Rapture of the Church takes place first.

Well sadly, when many like myself who like to point out this error do so we are called "Preterists" as a name of insult. Preterists was a particular school of thought that arose in history to declare not just that "this generation" was fulfilled in the Roman conquest, but also that the *entirety of the book of Revelation* was fulfilled in the Early Church.

I don't believe that--I'm not a Preterist. But I do believe that Preterists were at least partly right, in particular the part about "this generation" referring to the conquest of Jerusalem by Rome. I believe that the book of Revelation does refer to the endtimes, when the Antichrist will arise and reign for 3.5 years.

So we have this battle between the choice between an historial fulfillment or a future fulfillment. Can we know the difference? Of course we can, but often a person is taught a particular position when he is moldable, and is not likely to change his or her position without a firm conviction that the person they trusted was not entirely trustworthy. Since Lindsey has been a faithful Christian throughout his life, and has done a lot of good, it is difficult to break trust in him in areas where he has been wrong.

My purpose here is not to disparage teachers like Lindsey, but only to point out that good people can at times be wrong. Once you begin with a wrong point of view, a lot of the picture gets muddied, and a lot of rationalization takes place. In the end, the Olivet Discourse can become nearly incomprehensible. Even trying to look at it correctly finds obstacles because so many of the points have been corrupted along with the main point. What is the "great tribulation?" What are "all these things?"

All of these questions can be quite easily answered, but not if one has been indoctrinated in a false position, and has therefore corrupted his view on all of the points necessary to make his picture consistent. "All these things" becomes "the Rapture." The "great tribulation" becomes "the reign of Antichrist."

In reality, "all these things" in context was only ever meant to refer not to Christ's return but to the main point, referring to all the things connected with the destruction of Jerusalem, including the destruction of the temple, and the initial signs that presaged that event. The "great tribulation" explicitly described the fall out from the destruction of Jerusalem in an age-long exile of the Jewish People.

But I'm not going to convince many people, although I would wish to. Understanding historical prophecies have great value in teaching moral lessons, quite apart from proving prophecies are still coming true today. The fall of Babylon teaches us how we need to remain faithful to God's moral laws, unlike Israel who committed gross idolatry in the days before their capture and exile.

We do not need to make the Olivet Discourse entirely about the future, including the rebirth of Israel and the rise of Antichrist. There is plenty in that discourse that describes both historically-fulfilled prophecy and future prophecy. We do not need the Abomination of Desolation to be about the Antichrist and the Great Tribulation to be about the Reign of Antichrist. The exile of the Jews described in that Discourse is still taking place today, until the nation of Israel is restored to faith at Christ's return.

It's sad but it's now 2023, and well past the failure of Lindsey's prediction that the Rapture of the Church would take place in the generation of Israel's rebirth (1948). We're way overdue to look at this errant interpretation of the Olivet Discourse. And we need to get past the name-calling and false association with Preterism. The Early Church Fathers held to the historical interpretation of this Discourse, and I think we should too, even if certain terms continue to represent some headaches. Thanks for listening.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) appeared to fire back at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for criticizing her defense of the alleged Pentagon document leaker on Sunday by posting a photoshopped image of Graham holding a Bud Light can sporting the image of a trans social media influencer.

Graham earlier on Sunday slammed Greene’s Thursday tweet about Jake Teixeira, who has been arrested for his connection to the leak.


“Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar,” Greene wrote in the tweet. “That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more.”

Graham in turn dubbed her response “one of the most irresponsible statements she could make” while appearing on ABC’s “This Week.”

“If you’re a member of the military intelligence community and you disagree with American policy and you think you’re going to be okay when it comes to leaking classified information, you’re going to go to jail,” he added of Teixeira.



So was there literally nobody else running in Georgia at the time when they saw fit to elect a former CrossFit gym owner whose only experience in politics was being a contributor to two conspiracy theory websites & being the moderator of a Facebook group that regularly had death threats made towards the Obamas?, and who regularly acts like an obnoxious teenager on top of that?

High school student Ralph Yarl went to pick up his little brothers from their friend's house and mixed up 115th St and 115th Ter. He knocked on the door of the house (one street over from the one he meant to go to) and the homeowner shot him in the head through the storm door. He then stepped outside and shot him again. Yarl was able to get up and run away, but had to knock on several doors on the street before finding someone who would call an ambulance.

I used to live just a few miles away from where this happened. It's a fairly nice suburban area - definitely not the ghetto, and definitely not a place where I would expect an unexpected door-knocker to be hostile. Side note, KC's street naming convention always ticked me off when I lived there. Pretty much every numbered street had a "Street" and a "Terrace", and some added "Place" or "Circle" as well. It could make finding someone's house difficult if you didn't know where it was already.

"than never to have loved at all."

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

I have come to disagree. I am so weary of having wonderful things placed into my hands, only to have them suddenly and unexpectedly yanked away a short time later. If It's going to be taken from me as soon as I come to love it, then I would rather have never received it in the first place.

You?

I am a conservative and believe that government exists to support people in those situations when spouse, family and local community cannot help and that individuals are more truly helped by being nurtured within families, with strong and moral father and mother. Nothing here would be controversial to past generations of believers.
But I cannot put forward this argument because of the double marriage failure of the deacon. She may well regard manhood, husbanding and fatherhood as toxic, even pathologically. But I suppose we all have our favourite bits of the bible, but surely for Christians the family is still the bedrock of society and the means of creating successful and happy individuals.

Tragedy struck Alabama Saturday night as gunfire erupted at a “sweet 16″ birthday party in the heart of Dadeville, killing four young people and injuring 28 others -- some of them critically.

The investigation in Tallapoosa County lasted throughout the day Sunday with no announcement of any arrests in the case.

This morning, in the small community of about 3,000 people, grief counselors will be on hand at Dadeville High School, where at least two of the victims were among the school’s 485 students.

The shooting happened at approximately 10:34 p.m. Saturday at Mahogany’s Masterpiece dance studio on North Broadnax Street in downtown Dadeville, one block from the courthouse.

Most of those injured are teenagers.


Prayers to all involved. I'm sure just about everyone in that small town has been touched by this tragedy.

Video Talk

Isaiah 49:5-6 ESV


Now, this is regarded as a prophecy about Jesus Christ, and that he is the servant being spoken of here. Yet, it also speaks to our calling of God to be his servants and to be those who take the truth of the gospel to the ends of the earth and who encourage (exhort, urge) the body of Christ toward holy living and away from living in sin and in wickedness.

For we are to speak the truth in love, one to the other, so that we are not led astray by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, and so we are not carried about by every wind of doctrine. But so that we are all able to grow up (mature) in Christ Jesus, “from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:1-16).

And we are to be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, as is fitting in the Lord. And we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. And we are to exhort one another every day so that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And we are to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, encouraging (exhorting, urging) one another.

And if anyone of us is caught in any transgression, those of us who are walking in obedience to the Lord, and not in sin, should restore (bring back) the fallen Christian in a spirit of gentleness (controlled strength). And if any fellow Christian should wander from the truth, if we bring that person back to the truth and to holy living, we will save that person’s soul from death. For, again, we are to speak the truth in love one to the other so that we don’t fall away or so that we bring them back to the Lord Jesus.

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:17-21; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

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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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I read a lengthy meme on social media yesterday that describes the false message of the gospel which is widely being spread throughout the church here in America. Now, it has an element of truth to it, for deception often blends truth and lies together in order to deceive people. So it isn’t all wrong, but it isn’t all right, either.

Now this is written from the vantage point of a singular person and this person (I am going to choose female) first listed all the things she had done wrong in her life. And then she thanked God that she wasn’t too lost or broken to be saved by his grace, “which covers a multitude of sins.” And then she continued, “It's not because I am a good person, it's because I know that I am not, that I trust fully that He is a good God.”

So, where is the mention of humbling herself before God in genuine repentance and of choosing to now turn from her sins to now walk in obedience to the Lord and to his commands (under the New Covenant), in walks of surrender and submission to God, and in walks of holiness and righteousness and no longer as a slave to sin? This is not mentioned at all. She admits that she is not a good person and yet she continues..


Now, is it true that, as followers of Jesus Christ, that we are not yet fully perfect, even though we are being perfected by God? Yes, it is true. Is it true that we might still fail (sin) sometimes? Yes, it is true. And is it true that our salvation is not of our own doing, but that it is a gift to us from God, and that it is not of our own fleshly works that we are saved, lest we should boast that we somehow earned or deserved our own salvation of our own accord? Yes, that is also true. But what is the overall message here?

There is no mention of repentance, and the suggestion is that she still is not a good person and that she is a person of many downfalls, some of which she listed, who still makes bad decisions and who is still of the sinful nature. And there is no mention of being crucified with Christ in death to sin nor of being raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer in slavery to sin, but now in walks of obedience to the Lord. There is no indication of a change of heart and mind towards God at all. And yet she is claiming the promises of God over her life. But God’s promises have requirements.

For, if we read most of these Scriptures she referenced, in context, we will see that we must walk in the light (truth, righteousness) and no longer in darkness (sin, wickedness) in order to be saved and to have eternal life with God. For if we claim to be in fellowship with God while we walk (in practice) in sin, we are liars. And we will see that forgiveness comes after or in conjunction with true repentance and walks of obedience to our Lord and that we are created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS which God prepared in advance that we should WALK IN THEM (1 John 1:5-10; Ephesians 2:10).

And we will see that the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ is not one who claims to be still walking in sin, making bad decisions of the sinful nature, and who is a person of many downfalls who is not a good person. But a true follower of Jesus Christ is one who professes to have died with Christ to sin and who is living to his righteousness, not in absolute sinless perfection, but no longer walking (in conduct, in habit) in sin, but who now walks in holiness and in righteousness in the power of God (Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14).

Are we absolutely perfect in every way? No! But we should be no longer walking in sin, but now we should be walking in holiness and in righteousness, in obedience to our Lord, in humble submission to his divine will and purpose for our lives. For this purpose Jesus died on that cross. For, the hope that comes from Jesus is a hope which transforms our hearts and lives and which turns us from darkness (sin) to light (righteousness) and from the power of Satan to God so that we can receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18).


[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]

Dwelling In Beulah Land

By Miles C Austin (1911)

Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling;
Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand;
Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling;
None of these shall move me from Beulah Land.

Far below the storm of doubt upon the world is beating,
Sons of men in battle long the enemy withstand;
Safe am I within the castle of God’s word retreating,
Nothing there can reach me, ’tis Beulah Land.

Let the stormy breezes blow, their cry cannot alarm me;
I am safely sheltered here, protected by God's hand;
Here the sun is always shining, nothing there can harm me;
I am safe forever in Beulah Land.

Viewing here the works of God, I sink in contemplation;
Hearing now His blessed voice, I see the way He planned;
Dwelling in the Spirit, here I learn of full salvation,
Gladly I will tarry in Beulah Land.

I'm living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky,
I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry;
Oh, yes! I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

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I watch lives of saints.
Not all are very well acted, but the story is the important thing.

Tonight I want to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ from Sudan. It is my prayer for their strength, comfort in the midst of the fighting currently happening in their country. That they will continue be faithful witnesses for Christ to their Muslim neighbors even in the midst of this terrible storm. For the protection of their families and loved ones as well. Also extend prayer to the Sudanese army and the paramilitary forces that they cease this bloodshed between themselves and come to know our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

God bless you all

Just wanted to vent about how many posts I see that seem like click bait. Things that should be normally accepted as a Christian become questions where people waste their energy arguing to finally agree on things like that the end of the world really hasn't happened yet...like really?

Anyways just getting tired of it, I hope this post finds you well and is some consolation that if you feel at all the way I do just know I hear you, and I'm here at CF for the legit conversations that hopefully will grow and edify us, not bring us back to consuming babies milk.

I had this strange dream of nuclear attack. The attackers were using some strange tactical nuclear weapons.

No, the devices are not strapped to their bodies but in one instance I saw, she was throwing the device like a grenade! She threw it with such strength, it hit the target that is around a mile away, yet the blast is so powerful, it still hit her with lethal force. She had a chance to save herself by diving in a pond right next to her but she didn't so I assumed she is suicidal or just totally crazy. Although I didn't see her die. She could have survived the blast as she was apparently very strong.

She had a very fierce look on her face like a warrior from a time long past gone. She had the body of an athlete and beautiful. She and her kind seems to be attacking / destroying military installations all over the world with very small tactical nuclear devices that are very powerful. There's only few of them but wreaking havoc all over the world.

I think they were trying to start WWIII or a prelude to an even bigger attack. I don't think they are from this world as they wore weird-looking armored suits. Nobody saw them coming and probably because they appeared as innocent-looking women, though armed to the teeth. They executed their work in absolute precision and stealth.

GUARDIAN 15 APRIL 2023
(This fairly blunt criticism of the US Republican Party was published in the Guardian of 15 April. Given the nature and tone of the criticism I've reproduced the entire article text. Author details, and a link, are listed under the article. - OB)


The modern Republican party is hurtling towards fascism


America no longer has two parties devoted to a democratic system of self-government.

We have a Democratic party, which – notwithstanding a few glaring counter-examples, such as what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie Sanders in 2016 – is still largely committed to democracy.

And we have a Republican party, which is careening at high velocity toward authoritarianism. OK, fascism.

What occurred in Nashville last week is a frightening reminder of the fragility of American democracy when Republicans obtain supermajorities and no longer need to work with Democratic lawmakers.

The two Tennessee Democrats who Republicans expelled from the Tennessee house have been restored to their seats until special elections are held, but the damage to democracy cannot be easily undone.

The two were not accused of criminal wrongdoing or even immoral conduct. Their putative offense was to protest against Tennessee’s failure to enact stronger gun controls after a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville left three nine-year-old students and three adults dead.

They were technically in violation of house rules, but the state legislature has never imposed so severe a penalty for rules violations. In fact, over the past few years, several Tennessee legislators have kept their posts even after being charged with serious sexual misconduct. And the two who were expelled last week are Black people, while a third legislator who demonstrated in the same manner but was not expelled is white.

We are witnessing the logical culmination of win-at-any-cost Trump Republican politics – scorched-earth tactics used by Republicans to entrench their power, with no justification other than that they can.

Democracy is about means. Under it, citizens don’t have to agree on ends (abortion, healthcare, guns or whatever else we disagree about) as long as we agree on democratic means for handling our disagreements.

But for Trump Republicans, the ends justify whatever means they choose – including expelling lawmakers, rigging elections through gerrymandering, refusing to raise the debt ceiling and denying the outcome of a legitimate presidential election.

Wisconsin may soon offer an even more chilling example. While liberals celebrated the election last Tuesday of Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin supreme court because she will tip the court against the state’s extreme gerrymandering (the most extreme in the nation) and its fierce laws against abortion (among the most stringent in America), something else occurred in Wisconsin on election day that may well negate Protasiewicz’s victory.

Voters in Wisconsin’s eighth senatorial district decided (by a small margin) to send Republican Dan Knodl to the state senate. This gives the Wisconsin Republican party a supermajority – and with it, the power to remove key state officials, including judges, through impeachment.

Several weeks ago, Knodl said he would “certainly consider” impeaching Protasiewicz. Although he was then talking about her role as a county judge, his interest in impeaching her presumably has increased now that she’s able to tip the state’s highest court.

As in Tennessee, this could be done without any necessity for a public justification. Under Republican authoritarianism, power is its own justification.

Recall that in 2018, after Wisconsin voters elected a Democratic governor and attorney general, the Republican legislature and the lame duck Republican governor responded by significantly cutting back the power of both offices.

Meanwhile, a newly installed Republican supermajority in Florida has given Ron DeSantis unbridled control – with total authority over the board governing Disney, the theme park giant he has fought over his anti-LGBTQ “don’t say gay” law; permission to fly migrants from anywhere in the US to destinations of his own choosing, for political purposes, and then send the bill to Florida’s taxpayers; and unprecedented prosecutorial power in the form of his newly created, hand-picked office of election “integrity”, pursuing supposed cases of voter fraud.

Without two parties committed to democratic means to resolve differences in ends, the party committed to democracy is at a tactical disadvantage. If it is to survive, eventually it, too, will sacrifice democratic means to its own ends.

In these circumstances, partisanship turns to enmity and political divisions morph into hatred. In warfare there are no principles, only wins and losses. America experienced this 160 years ago, when the civil war tore us apart.

Donald Trump is not singularly responsible for this dangerous trend, but he has legitimized and encouraged the ends-justify-the-means viciousness now pushing the GOP toward becoming the American fascist party.

AUTHOR

• Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the largest individual creator on YouTube. His main channel has 144 million subscribers. His most popular video, a recreation of the Netflix hit “Squid Game,” has amassed an astonishing 401 million views. He is admired for his generous charity work and trusted by millions of parents worldwide, who allow their children to watch his kid-focused videos that consist of pranks, over-the-top challenges, and reaction videos.

Click to expand...

Apparently there is a YouTube channel which is now introducing children to transgenderism. This is evil. I think it would be a great idea if someone could come up with a list of all the YouTube channels that speak to children about LGBTQ issues and then compile it into a list so that way parents, like myself, would be aware of this and could prevent their children from being exposed to such propaganda.

.

Not everyone leaves Lourdes cured — but nobody leaves empty-handed.

Catholics often make the Sign of the Cross. We make the familiar motion of our childhood or entry into the Church by repeating the words at the holy water font, before and after prayer, or passing by a cemetery.

Over time, this gesture can become habitual. Soon, our hand motions can quicken into a circular gesture, more like a symbol of eternity than the Cross that gets us there. The Sign of the Cross is not just what we do before and after a prayer — it is a prayer! St. Bernadette said that if we were to pray this prayer well, we could go to Heaven.

Continued below.

APPLETON, Wisconsin (LifeSiteNews) — A Wisconsin couple filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Catholic hospital which gave a dangerous combination of drugs to their daughter and then refused to resuscitate her shortly before her death.

Grace Schara, a 19-year old with Down syndrome, died at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (Ascension Health) in October 2021 after being administered a sedative, an anxiety medication, and morphine, which are known to hasten severe hypoxia when taken together, according to the lawsuit.

Continued below.

From a sermon by Saint Augustine


A new creation in Christ


I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, proof of Mother Church’s fruitfulness. All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown. It is the words of the Apostle that I address to you: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its desires, so that you may be clothed with the life of him whom you have put on in this sacrament. You have all been clothed with Christ by your baptism in him. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus.


Such is the power of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead. You have been buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that, as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in newness of life.


You are walking now by faith, still on pilgrimage in a mortal body away from the Lord; but he to whom your steps are directed is himself the sure and certain way for you: Jesus Christ, who for our sake became man. For all who fear him he has stored up abundant happiness, which he will reveal to those who hope in him, bringing it to completion when we have attained the reality which even now we possess in hope.


This is the octave day of your new birth. Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth. When the Lord rose from the dead, he put off the mortality of the flesh; his risen body was still the same body, but it was no longer subject to death. By his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord’s day. Though the third after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the first day of the week.


And so your own hope of resurrection, though not yet realised, is sure and certain, because you have received the sacrament or sign of this reality, and have been given the pledge of the Spirit. If, then, you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

please pray for physical healing thank you

It looks like they rounded up everyone in El Salvador that had tattoos and threw them into prison. There is a 91% approval for this. Were these people actually convicted of a crime or is the tattoo admission of guilt?