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She was an orphan adopted from Iran by a US veteran 50+ years ago and has been raised Christian. Trump wants to deport her back to Iran.

Who cares since Judges typically step in to prevent the president from deporting unilaterally.
I would care if I was arrested, detained in inhumane conditions. Compared to my home.
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Hegseth Announces Grok Access to Classified Pentagon Networks

Related:


"Would you like to play a game?"
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Israel-Hamas Thread II

Proposed law in the Knesset would mean Jewish women praying at the Western Wall could receive a prison sentence of up to seven years!

Knesset advances bill that would outlaw egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall

That's not entirely true. The proposal calls for placing the administration of the holy sites (including the mixed prayer area at the Western Wall) entirely under the control of the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. The law for the protection of holy sites already prescribes strict penalties for desecration. The Chief Rabbinate does not consider a woman's prayer at the Western Wall to be desecration per se; however, certain forms of prayer by women that deviate from ultra-Orthodox tradition are considered profane. The prayer of women in the designated area is recognized and supported by the Chief Rabbinate. The administrative control of the Western Wall, as the holiest site in Judaism, is a purely internal Jewish matter. What exactly does this have to do with Israel-Hamas?
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Zohran Mamdani Gets Ruthlessly Mocked for Requiring 5 Forms of ID to Be an ‘Emergency Snow Shoveler’: ‘This is Jim SNOW 2.0'

Right. Looks like requiremts for I9, plus maybe photos for an id card. Maybe silly for this kind of temporary job, but a combination of federal and local requirements. Background checks are generally required for employment by the city, but perhaps they are somehow waived for this Kind of thing. U
The pictures I suspect are used for facial recognition for a criminal background check. I have family that work temporary DOT in a different state and every year he has to furnish two IDs and two pictures; one front facing and one side, though the requirement is waived if one of the two IDs have a picture taken in the last year. The reason is because in his snow removal and sanding, he has to access secure (government as well as private) areas during odd hours. He needs to go through the whole process, even though he’s “just” shoveling snow.
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Minneapolis 911 calls signal ICE slowdown in recent days


I wonder how many people died waiting or an ambulance or the police or fire departments because these clowns tied up the 911 system.
Probably less than ICE caused. There calls were only up by 10%, according to the article.
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2026 State of the Union discussion thread

Sure they would.
More likely they would be looking to never have them deported, in the name of "social" justice. Their followers who are tricked into rioting for them (mostly in Minneapolis) and doing other emotional and unusual things.
I'm sorry, you really are blind to the reality here. You need only to look at the comments from others. They repeatedly say they want violent criminals removed. If you're in a city of any size I'm sure there will be people you can find opposed to ICE. Ask them. I guarantee every single one will agree that criminally violent undocumented persons should be deported. And look what the Democrats are asking for with regard to ICE. They want constitutionally compliant policing operations. They have never objected to capturing and deporting criminally violent undocumented persons. I don't understand you. Maybe you're trying to make your conscience feel better by pretending ICE never does anything cruel or evil.
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The Holy Spirit's Guarantee vs. Our Performance - Which One Saves?

If salvation depends on your performance, then you're only as secure as your best day & scripture never builds salvation on something that unstable. Titus 3 says God saved us ""not because of works of righteousness which we have done,"" but by the Holy Spirit's purifying, regeneration & renewal poured out through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1 says the moment you heard the gospel & believed, God sealed you with the Holy Spirit > His guarantee, not yours. Your performance fluctuates. His guarantee doesn't

Tit 3:
5 He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

6 whom He poured out richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior,

7 so that we would be justified [made free of the guilt of sin] by His [compassionate, undeserved] grace, and that we would be [acknowledged as acceptable to Him and] made heirs of eternal life [actually experiencing it] according to our hope (His guarantee).

8 This is a faithful and trustworthy saying; and concerning these things I want you to speak with great confidence, so that those who have believed God [that is, those who have trusted in, relied on, and accepted Christ Jesus as Savior,] will be careful to participate in doing good and honorable things. These things are excellent [in themselves] and profitable for the people.

Ehp 1:
7 In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace

Synopsis:
Believer, Jesus Christ Himself pours out the Holy Spirit: who cleanses, transforms, regenerates & continually renews you spiritually (Titus 3:5–6). Through this work of the Spirit, God justifies you, judicially declaring you free from the guilt of sin, makes you fully acceptable to the Father & an heir of eternal life (Titus 3:7). You are already experiencing that eternal life now because His Spirit in-you is His guarantee. Through His sinless shed blood, Christ purchased the forgiveness of all your sins—past, present & future—according to the riches of His grace.

Question
Did this happen when you repented from all your sins & were water baptized?

1 Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
(NOTE: Anyone that believes they can conquer their own sin nature, without God' Holy Spirit' help is mistaken)

Eph 1:
13 In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and [as a result] believed in Him, were stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit [the One promised by Christ] as owned and protected [by God].

14 The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.

Here's when Jesus Baptizes you with/by/in the Holy Spirit
When you HEARD ""the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation"" & BELIEVED in Him, you were SEALED—stamped as God's own—by the promised Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13). That Holy Spirit is the guarantee, the down‑payment, the 1st installment of your full inheritance until the final redemption of God's purchased people (Eph 1:14).

This applies to all who have trusted in, relied on & accepted Christ Jesus as Savior, thru faith placed in His sin-atoning death & resurrection (1 Cor15:1-4 & Rom 10:9-10).
I trust in the Lord’s salvation and the idea of works to me is definitely something I could never be justified by. I believe Ephesians 2:8-10 should summarize all of this as common sense faith where works are an outpouring of our faith. This, I think, is Paul telling us much of what the Lord says in John 3:16-21. Look at what Paul says in Colossians 2:6-8 or previously in Colossians 1:10-24.

We should want to love the Lord Who saves us and tells us to keep His commandments ( John 14:15-18, John 14:25-26) in which the Lord says the Father will give us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. God told Ezekiel that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked ( Ezekiel 18:23). Don’t the commandments ( Matthew 22:36-40, Matthew 7:12) inspire the same in us when we read ( for example.) 1 Timothy 2:1-6?

Prayer is obviously free for all of us & alms giving for those of us who are able to share something ( Matthew 6:1-13). Personally, I know I am often a jerk but trust in the Lord and know I will never be able to keep the Lord’s commandments but know they inspire me to live by faith.
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Sabbath Keeping and The Gospel

On this point, I would note to you and to @BNR32FAN and @tall73 that regarding God resting - we really should interpret that as a prophecy of Christ reposing in the tomb on Holy Saturday, and also as God not making any changes in the world for one day after the initial creation of man - in the case of God in His divine nature, He is, it should be noted ,eternal and immutable, meaning He does not change, and does not experience time, for He created time, time is a property of this world and this life, which God exists outside of (and which hopefully we will as well in the life of the World to Come, in eternal life, since experiencing linear time for all eternity I believe would be torture, indeed on discussing the prospects of it with my bishop he remarked that my fear of linear time unending sounded very much like a description of Hell. Rather inheriting eternal life through theosis means escaping from the constraints imposed by the created attribute of this world known as time.

God Himself is clearly described in the Bible as unchanging, impassable and immutable, except in His incarnation as Christ Jesus, so language about Him for example changing his mind and so on should be interpreted in a non-anthropomorphological concept, for Scripture also makes it clear that God is, in his unoriginate divine essence, inscrutable and beyond comprehension. In Orthodoxy we specifically believe that God can be known only through His energies, such as uncreated grace, and in His incarnation as Jesus Christ, in which our humanity was united with His divinity without change, confusion, separation or division (the important principle of communicatio idiomatum, historically stressed among Protestants by the Lutherans and among ancient Christians most heavily emphasized by the likes of pre-Chalcedonian theologians such as St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria, and the Cappadocians and St. John Chrysostom, Oriental Orthodox theologians such as St. Severus of Antioch and St. Philoxenus of Mabbug and the Syriac Orthodox hymnographer and “flute of the spirit”* St. Jacob of Sarugh, and Eastern Orthodox theologians such as St. John of Damascus).


* This is a reference to St. Ephraim the Syrian as Harp of the Spirit. The Nestorians of the time proposed Mar Narsai as ”flute of the Spirit”, but Mar Narsai is deeply uncomfortable for an Orthodox Christian, although some of his hymns remain in use in the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, some of his hymns were extremely ugly examples of Nestorianism at his worse, for example, he composed a him in which, contrary to the principle of communicatio idiomatum idiomatum, he specifically attributed individual acts of Christ to his divinity or to his humanity, in a dichotomistic way which contradicted the idea of the Incarnation and of Christ as Emanuel - God with Us.

By the way my fellow Orthodox friend @prodromos and my Lutheran friend @ViaCrucis have written eloquently about communicatio idiomatum. I feel it is an important principle which is also extremely relevant to this thread.

In addition, I believe we must not overlook the prophetic element of 1 Genesis - while I do not deny it refers to the creation of the universe, I believe it very clearly refers to the passion and resurrection of Christ and the light of the World to Come. Consider that the process of the creation of man began on the sixth day, not with “Let there be” as in a single action completed immediately, but rather uniquely, “Let us create man in our image”, implying a process, one which, the same day of the week many years later Christ remade us in His image on the Cross, before proclaiming “it is finished” - after Pontius Pilate upon seeing Christ having been suffered declared “Ecce homo” - behold the Man. Then, on the Seventh Day, Christ our God - who created all things (John 1:1-18) and cannot be contained, reposed in the tomb, just as He had been via a great mystery contained in the womb of our Glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary. And on the first day, the day of creation, Christ rose from the dead, 49 days later, the Holy Spirit descended, and this also alludes to the mystical eigth day of creation - the light of the World to Come. Let there be light! And the structural similarity between John 1 and Genesis 1 I believe underscores the prophetic aspects of Genesis chapter 1.

Regarding Christ as the completion of man, and salvation as the process of becoming human, through Theosis, that is to say, putting on Christ in Baptism just as Christ our God put on our humanity, as attested by Galatians 3:27, which we Orthodox sing on the feast of the Baptism of our Lord - Theophany (january 6th) - “Whoever has been baptized in Christ has put on Christ! to which we add an ”Alleliuia”, the former dean of St. Vladimir’s Seminary and current successor of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, memory eternal, at Oxford, Fr. John Behr, has spoken of this subject extensively. I particularly enjoyed his lecture “The Shocking Truth of Orthodoxy,” if memory serves he also wrote a book on Patrisitics on this theme entitled Becoming Human, which unfortunately I have not had the time to read but is high on my reading list.
No disrespect intended brother but I try to avoid typologies and things of that nature. I don’t have a big problem with anyone else doing it but I try not to make connections between things like this unless it’s specifically mentioned in scripture. I know there are some connections specifically mentioned in scriptures but I try not to go beyond those examples. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just don’t like to make assumptions in my theology and I mean that in the nicest way possible not to imply or accuse you of making assumptions. I just know that sometimes superficial connections have been made in the past that were used to formulate outrageous doctrines. The gnostics were notorious for doing this.
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WHEN WAS THE LAW TAKEN AWAY. AND GRACE BEGAN. ??

Sin is the transgression of the Law of God (1 John 3:4). For example, the Law of God commands to refrain from eating unclean animals (Deuteronomy 14), so it is a sin to do that and if someone were free to do that, then they would have a license to sin. It is not my position that the Jerusalem Council permitted Gentiles to eat unclean animals or to transgress the Law of God, so it is not my position that they gave them a license to sin, but rather it your position that the Jerusalem Council permitted Gentiles to do what the Law of God reveals to be sin, so it is your position that they gave Gentiles a license to sin. You are trying to project our position onto me and are trying to criticize me for the flaws of your position.


My all means please quote where the Bible says that.


That Law of God came with instructions for what to do when His children sinned, so it did not require perfect obedience. If someone breaks one of God's laws, then they can repent, so it's not clear to me why you are acting like repentance isn't a thing. In Deuteronomy 30:11-20, it presents obedience to the Law of God as being a possibility and as a choice, not as bringing death until we have perfect obedience.
You may take whatever position you like, but it's a plain fact the Jerusalem council only asked gentiles to follow four of the laws of Moses!
Quote where the bible says that?
Just use discernment. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be sent to guide believers into all truth. The Holy Spirit did not need to reside in anyone under the old covenant did He, in order for them to understand that covenant.
No, under the old covenant perfect obedience was not required. But Moses said it would not be hard for the people or beyond their reach to obey all of the law given. Therefore, he was NOT speaking of perfect obedience to the letter was he
The letter of the law does require perfect obedience. Thou shalt NOT, and NO ONE would find that easy/not hard to follow
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Christian burial triggers mob. 60+ Christians await trial. N. Korean defectors find Christian love.

  • Feb. 26, 2026 | India​

    Burial on Christian Property Triggers Destructive Mob

    [11] prayers in [3] nations have been posted for safety and provision.
    Burial customs can trigger violent reactions in India.
    Villagers in Chhattisgarh state reacted violently against local Christians who buried a non-Christian man on their property. The burial of Chamru Ram Salam on Dec. 16, 2025, was conducted according to the rites of a traditional tribal religion. However, because half of Salam's family, including three of his five sons, are Christian, the mob called the burial an insult to their deities. More than 500 villagers with wooden sticks and slingshots attacked mourners at the grave. Several people were injured, and the family and other Christians fled the village for weeks. Read More.
  • Feb. 26, 2026 | Algeria​

    More than 60 Christians Await Trial

    [10] prayers in [2] nations have been posted for Algerian Christians.
    The Algerian government has closed numerous churches in recent years forcing many Algerian Christians to worship in secret.
    At least 64 Algerian Christians are awaiting trial for activities related to their faith. "Pray for justice and mercy for all 64 cases," said a front-line worker. He also asked that people pray for the Christians and their families to sense God's peace, to be strengthened and to not lose heart. Read More.
  • Feb. 26, 2026 | Korea, North​

    North Korean Defectors Encounter Christian Love

    [8] prayers in [1] nation have been posted for N. Korean Christians.
    North Korean defectors are often lonely and overwhelmed when they reach freedom.
    Christian workers in South Korea have developed specific strategies to aid and show Christ's love to newly arrived North Korean defectors. Pray for Mrs. R., one of these new arrivals, who was so moved by the care shown to her that she is already taking steps to visit and minister to other new North Korean defectors. Pray also for Mrs. G., a North Korean defector with serious health difficulties who has experienced God through the kindness of Christians and is now taking steps to read the Bible. Read More.

Trump suggests he’ll release Jeffrey Epstein ‘client list’ if elected: ‘I’d have no problem with it’

Norway's former PM charged with gross corruption over Epstein links

The Nordic country has seen several public figures drawn into the widening scandal, including Crown Princess Mette-Marit, diplomats Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen, and chief executive of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Borge Brende.
The WEF ordered an independent review into Brende - who also served as the Norwegian foreign minister - over his interactions with the paedophile.

Head of World Economic Forum resigns over ties to Epstein

Borge Brende stepped down as the head of the World Economic Forum Thursday following an independent review into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, marking the latest departure in a string of high-profile resignations by business and government leaders who were associated with the late sex offender.

[with some notable exceptions]
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Beauty hidden by creed

Perhaps others have noticed passages in Scripture which have an innate beauty of their own, but overlaid by our later creeds, masking their beauty. I would welcome any entries. (NOTES: (1) I recognize full well the zillion listings of all the bad stuff in Scripture, and anyone is welcome to start their own list of all that. I'd just like to focus on this one category. and (2) Yes, for many the creed laid over this passage is more important and outweighs the clouding of the beauty. Again, be my guest to create a thread. This is not for that.)
I'm starting at the beginning appropriately enough:
#1. "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."
Followed by this poetic rhythm. A) And there was evening and there was morning the (first) (second) (third)...day. B) God said, "Let there be.... C) And it was so.
This seven day rhythm, the connecting repetitive phrasing, and the wording that conveys the awe and overwhelming immensity of the universe is such an achingly beautiful poem. I hate that it is a jump start for the argument between evolution and creation. If something reads like poetry, and sounds like poetry and reaches your emotions like poetry, maybe it is poetry.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty" is the famous concluding sentiment from John Keats' 1819
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WHY WATER BAPTISIM HAD TO GO AWAY ??

No straw man whatsoever, you are saying exactly that. You are implying that since Peter water baptized the Jews in Acts 2 we should also and dance Peter water baptized the Gentiles in Acts 10 we should also.

So you are saying that if they did something in acts we should also. But we see believers who were Jewish going to the temple and sacrificing and circumcising and keeping the whole law and Jewish customs zealously all through Acts as well. We even see Paul circumcise Timothy in Acts 16 yet he would not circumcise a gentile in Galatians 2 Titus. These matters are important as to why they did or didn’t do things. There is a context and time of transition or reformation when the old covenant was decaying fading away ready to vanish.But it hadn’t vanished for done yet.
Again I am not saying we should promote water baptism, just because Peter did it, but because Christ told us in the Great Commission to baptize and preaching the gospel alone to people is not baptizing them. We have Paul baptizing people, Philipp baptizing people including gentiles, and we have secular history of people Christian baptizing people. We are never told not to baptize people and we can see the benefits of being baptized even today.
I showed that Paul told why Christ sent him not to baptize but you seem to not see what the text says .Paul said he was not sent to baptize lest the cross of Christ should be of no effect.perhaps read again what I wrote.
You left off the reason he gave: 1 Cor. 1: 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
I never say men baptize with the Spirit. Although Paul did lay hands on some and also said he wanted to impart some spiritual gift to them. .
Laying on of hands is never called baptizing them.
The teaching or preaching of the word ,when believed baptizes or immerses them in the name etc.
Again, at least some of the water baptisms were in the name of Christ.
Hebrews 9 talks about the diverse washings (baptismos in Greek) and carnal ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. You don’t seem to address Hebrews 9 much.
Diverse Washings might be described as baptisms, but immersion water baptism would not have to be included in diverse washings.
While Peter spoke words in Acts 10 the Holy Ghost fell in them that believed.
So you are saying it was not Peter’s words that baptized them, but the Holy Spirit, so if we are called upon to baptize people it could only be water baptism?
The diverse washings were many in OT. Johns figurative shadow of water baptism was among the many diverse washings the Jews did have many outward washing in water as well .So in Acts they were also doing these OT washings.
OT washings were done by the existing believer for cleansing and not like a burial.
Peter was asking a question, and he was still under the law and following John water baptism as we see in Acts 11
No that does not come across in Acts 11.
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John Piper Sparks Social Media Backlash After Quoting Bible Verse About Immigration

On Thursday, theologian Dr. John Piper made waves on social media after quoting an Old Testament passage about immigration.

The post was brief but provoked strong pushback.

Piper is the author of numerous books and served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for more than three decades. He is well known for his dynamic preaching and pursuit of “Christian hedonism.”

“‘You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’ Leviticus 19:34,” Piper’s post on X read. “Christians know the miserable bondage we were all in.”

Continued below.

Where are they in the word of God?

True, but if something in my comment wasn't wrong, I would have been ignored, as I usually am on this site.

If there's no potential for friction, no one responds... In fact, had I just quoted Scripture, absolutely no one would pay attention to just Scripture because everyone is primed to seek out only that which is wrong to them...

I have misstated that one word, initially intending to say that it inherently creates division...

Names, labels, and such create division. And, ass a matter of illustrating this...

My own sisters have cut me out of their lives because of their denominations' beliefs, and the simple fact that I don't cater to their denominations, doctrines, and dogmas. (One of them is Lutheran, and wouldn't you know it, one respondent's comments clearly supports my concern .. he had to preach a denomination to me, explaining how his religion is biblical.

Then I get, "oh, we all believe the same thing..." But ya don't, and the majority of you prefer to vet anyone who doesn't fit your mold.

Everybody responded to my error regarding a non-biblical word, and it was like dropping a piece of candy near an ant nest.

Noone chose discussing Scripture with me because they were all more concerned about correcting me on a meaningless word.

No one stopped to consider the scripture I offered for the alleged "discussion."

But, the nature of the responses show that no one really cares to discuss Scripture, they just want to discuss their denomination, which vets me from any godly conversation on this site.
Well, it seems you either are not paying attention, or like you just accused me: you "
prefer to vet anyone who doesn't fit your mold."

Secondly, two of us who tried to engage you on the meaning of the scripture quoted, are Lutherans, not just me.

Your style is very disengenuous sir. Stop crying about how you are so hard done by just because others have a different view.

And BTW, non denominational is a denomination that works hard to keep christians seperated from each other, using the idea of my truth is better than yours as an excuse.
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Tim Tebow shares how moment of conviction led to book about crucifixion: 'The Gospel should never become old’

The idea for Tim Tebow’s latest book began in the early hours of a sleepless morning.

Sitting on the floor of his TV room while listening to a sermon, the 38-year-old former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner found himself reflecting on Luke 19:40, the moment Jesus says that if His followers remain silent, “the rocks will cry out.”

That thought led Tebow to ask himself: If inanimate creation could testify to Christ, what would the wooden cross, the object that bore His crucifixion, say? The question inspired his latest project, If the Tree Could Speak,an illustrated book that retells the crucifixion from the perspective of the cross itself.

Continued below.

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