Very nice!

I've had this since I was about six years old. Which makes it about 57 years old. Google Lens says it's "Head of Christ" by Warner Sallman, painted in 1940.

com7fy8 said:

Well . . . I am not sure it means to spread the wealth until it no longer exists. But you ***i~n~v~e~s~t*** it.

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Wow, those things that came out of your mind is a teaching of Jesus!

Luke 16:9
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Arts.

When I worked 2nd shift back in the 80s and 90s, I would listen to "All Things Considered" from 4:30 to 6:00 every day. Their left-leaning bias was painfully evident. If you were a white Christian, male, you were the most evil creature ever created. Really bugged me. Does not bother me one bit that they pulled funding. Why should I pay for a service that constantly portrays me a the devil incarnate?

Ligurian said:

Well that's good new, isn't it. Used to be that all of the countries had their own Gods. Conquest by religion is a relatively new concept.

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Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the expansion of Christianity and Islam, yes?

I know my transgressions.........In sin did my mother conceive me..........Create in me a clean heart, O God.........Uphold me with a willing spirit
Psalm 51
ESV

BCP1928 said:

They've always been working together.

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Since 2016? Not like now.

BCP1928 said:

Close your eyes, tell yourself that then click your heels together three times...

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Yes rhey have the fact that you don't see it, isnt surprising. I posted a link.in one if my threads concerning how Democrats now identify as leftist and how it is much higher than back then. By a LOT. So poo poo it away, but the Democrats themselves said so. At a rate of 69%. Comparing that to 2004 which was like 35% or something.

And with the rise of people like Mamdani and Tim Walz, Omar Fateh among others. Live in denial if you wish but the truth is the Democrats are going further and further left. There is plenty of evidence of that. Even left leaning media admits that.

Valletta said:

Language changes with time. In general, the word translated into the English "anathema" as used by Paul and the Church over almost 2000 years has generally meant an exclusion from the Church, and the Church consists of Jesus and one's fellow Christians. The words "excommunication" and "anathema" used to be pretty much interchangeable but eventually took on different meanings. The changes in language over the centuries were not meant to "overrule" Paul or anyone else.

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Right, but Paul includes angels.. who are not part of the Church, so it stands the only punishment he would be citing, that both men and angels can share is damnation.

"You can't mix matter and antimatter, Captain"

Chesterton said:

I'm not a cyclist, but I'm curious. Near the beginning of the video you posted, she says she removed her rings because her hands might swell. Why would your hands swell from riding a bike?

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I am actually a very experienced cyclist. But I have to admit I have not encountered this issue before. So I have no idea.

BBAS 64 said:

Good day,

The Bible does define what eternal life is....

Joh 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

Correct the bible never says to believe in Jesus as your Savior...

The question is Saved from what?

IN Him,

Bill

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This is good. There’s a lot more to who this Jesus is, whom we believe in, and a lot more to the reason for believing in Him than repeating some mantra that we’ve heard, perhaps while wondering why that's important. Jesus came to reveal the true God. To see Jesus is to see God (John 14:9), to know Jesus is to know God. To come to believe in, hope in, and love Jesus is to believe in, hope in, and love God, and that is the basis of our reconciliation with God, the reason Jesus came, the reason Jesus reveals Him. And that reconciled union with God is the basis of our justice, righteousness, and therefore of our salvation. It’s our very created purpose, to know and love God.
“Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” 1 Pet 1:18

So this isn’t just a matter of concepts, or a head-game, or about a change in legal status before God, either. It’s a relationship, a communion that begins in this life and grows stronger unto eternal life, and which is fully consummated only in the next life, when we finally meet “face to face”.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

Jesus was not an enlightenment scholar. We are not taught by Christ that our principles are inferior to secular enlightenment principles. As much as you might believe in the superiority of secular thought.

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You are right but some appiications of so-called Christian principles have oulawed others, even other Christians with competing views.

2PhiloVoid said:

I can appreciate Fowler's effort to categorize and taxonomize the possible steps of development and ongoing conceptual processing in relation to human spirituality. I'm not familiar with Fowler's work, but it seems parallel to that of Jean Paiget, Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg on more secular paths of research, with whom I am familiar.

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Yes, same path. He had I think 5,000 interviews.

Fervent said:

Evolution is incidental, the issue is that fundamentalists on both sides insist that Christianity cannot accomodate an evolutionary account. So when faced with the overwhelming evidence in favor of evolution, they figure it demonstrates Christianity is false. So complaining about evolution because it conflicts with your interpretation increases the likelihood that people will walk away from the faith on the basis of the strength of the evidence for evolution. There are many of us who are able to accomodate evolution while remaining Christian, so the problem is the false dilemma that fundamentalists present.

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Today's winner.

Is beauty intellectual, emotional, or experiential? Or perhaps none of the above?​

We are often told that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder” when confronted with an object whose beauty is open to interpretation. Why are we told this? Is it because beauty is intellectually subjective, or because designating something as ugly may insult the creator of the object, or because beauty is experiential and thus different to all? Some may say “all of the above”.

If all of the above responses applied —that beauty is subjective, personal, and experiential—then would it not mean that other aspects of our reality fall within a similar categorization? Religion is typically discussed in similar terms, making it difficult to reach a consensus. However, if it were true that beauty is highly personal, then why do so many people share an intrinsic understanding that some things are more beautiful than other things?

Continued below.

FaithT said:

I’ve always thought it was Jesus’ burial Shroud until I read something that bothered me. I read something somewhere that said if the Shroud was wrapped around Jesus’ body it wouldnt have left the kind of bloody marks that were on it. The imprints would’ve been different. Thoughts?

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I don’t have any except that I believe the shroud may very well be authentic.

Hentenza said:

Who is Paul talking to:

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The above is simply poor methodology. IF Jesus said every Word of God is for all people and the Apostles taught the Word, then their words are also, in some way or another for all people as well.

I can see how a person could go off the rails using such methods as elimination of applicability based on who God or the Apostles or Prophets were speaking to. Unfortunately there are many bad and unprincipled teachers who line their pockets selling such wares, usually trying to sell self justifications to the hearers. I instantly pass on such notions.

Hentenza said:

Who is raised imperishable?

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Paul is abundantly clear. Those who have born the image of the earthly will, at some point also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Cor. 15:48-51

And it really does pay to keep in mind we're no better than any other common sinner. Romans 3:9

Hentenza said:

No dissection but a simple read of the passage. Only those that have been baptized into Christ Jesus and buried with Him through baptism onto death are freed from sin. The words are simple unless you twist them as you have.

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By all means please step up, personally, to the "I AM SINLESS" position.

The body of sin is done away with when we actually die a physical death, and no sooner.

Hentenza said:

Nope. In your mind maybe. Maybe you should study what Catholics believe before making such a claim. Hopeful Universalism, while believing in the existence of hell, is merely a hope not a dogma. All of us can hope but universalism is outside of biblical principles And teachings.

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The RCC does pray that all people be saved. IF they do not hold that out as a possibility, then they are not only liars, butr wasting their breath.

I"d suggest you read their positions further. What you'll find in ALL of orthodoxy is that they have been unable to determine a single named person to be in hell now, or in the future. And most of Protestantism holds a similar view.

So, yes, in orthodoxy, it remains at a minimum, a POSSIBILITY. And any decent Christian would stand firmly on the benefit of the doubt for all people, even for their own hearts sake, lest your own heart and conscience be seared to the core against your neighbors. Not a good place for anyone's mind, that God is NOT powerful enough for this.

I would not waste my time with a looser god.

Love not the world, but love your Lord,
And follow Him in one accord,
Walk in His ways, do what He says,
Give Him your life, in Him invest.

Now do His will, and don’t sit still,
Surrender all, all to His will,
Go where He leads, and speak His words
To all who’re living so absurd.

For Jesus died, he died for all,
That we would on our Savior call,
Repent of sin, obey our Lord,
Now walk with Him in one accord.

Believe in Him, die to your sins,
Commit your life to live for Him,
Submit your all to Him as King,
And praise Him, praise Him, when you sing.

For faith in Christ, not what we say,
But how we live for Him each day,
Denying self, self-sacrifice,
Give all to Him, to be precise.

No longer walking in our sins,
No longer living where we’d been,
For Jesus died to set us free,
So we’d now live in victory.

An Original Work / July 20, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

They shall be My people:
Jeremiah 31:31-33 The days are coming when I shall make a New Covenant with Israel and Judah, ….this is the Covenant I will make with the Israelites in the latter days: I shall fix My Laws in their hearts and I will be their God and they will be My people.
The Reformers of the Church generally believed and taught that the Church was Israel. Therefore; all Church members were Israelites by faith.

However they didn’t make it clear who exactly the ‘church’ was and to allow anyone who wanted membership, some only after an intensive Bible course, some after a Baptism and some just if they made a donation, has led to much abuse and error within the established Church.

The Jewish people think they have the ancestral right to be God’s people and many today support them in this belief. It is an immutable tenet of the ‘rapture to heaven’ theory, where the Church goes to heaven, while the Jews face tribulation on earth.
This theory isn’t Biblical and contradicts God’s Plans for His faithful people; ALL those who have freely chosen to believe in Him and keep His Laws now; Jew and Gentile, people from every race, nation and language. Revelation 5:9-10 & 7:9

John the Baptist told the Jews; God can raise up children for Abraham from these very stones. Matthew 3:9 and Paul said: A person is not a Jew, [Israelite] who is one outwardly, [ethnic descent] but only inwardly. [by the Spirit] Romans 11:13-24
Paul goes on to say: The Jews were cut off, because of unbelief….and Gentiles who are not Israelites by descent, are grafted in to the Olive Tree by belief in Jesus.
Only born again believers, circumcised in their hearts, confessing faith, with true repentance, like the Ethiopian eunuch, should become Church members, by full immersion Baptism as he and Jesus were. A public declaration of their commitment.

So; the established Churches [I capitalize Churches as they are known entities- bricks and mortar] cannot claim to be the congregation [ecclesia] of God. It is only every individual who is: Crucified with Jesus and the life they now live is not their life, but that of Jesus who lives within them…., Galatians 2:20, who are the true Israelites of God. Galatians 6:14-16
They are people from every tribe, race, nation and language, Revelation 7:9 All the faithful Christ following people, to whom the Promises and Blessings of God come to and those who will finally fulfil God’s desire for a nation, living in ALL of the Holy Land, divided into 12 groups; they will produce the fruit of being His witnesses and the Light for the nations. Matthew 21:43, Matthew 5:14, Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 49:8

When the letters to the seven Church types of Revelation 2:1-29 and Revelation 3:1-22 are read and understood, it will be seen that Jesus rewards the victorious or the overcomers, out of each of those Churches . This proves how not all who belong to a Church or those who think their ethnicity will save them, will be saved on the Day the Lord will judge and punish the nations. Isaiah 66:15-17....many will be slain by Him....
Zephaniah 3:8, Isaiah 24:1-6, Revelation 6:12-17

Is laughter good medicine? Maybe, but it’s rare that we hear about the laughter of a saint. In our current historical moment, I think we need a saint’s laughter.

In July, we’re celebrating 31 days of St. Ignatius of Loyola, leading up to the anniversary of his death July 31, 1556. People who love Ignatius are always celebrating the important times in his life.

In 2021, we observed a “cannonball year,” commemorating the 500th anniversary of this soldier, then known as Inigo, being severely wounded by a cannonball from the French forces at Pamplona. His long recuperation led to conversion. A man who had dreamed of battlefield glory and winning ladies’ hearts became the man who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became one of our greatest saints.

But in all the reading I’ve done on Ignatius I’d never heard about laughter. Maybe I’m caught in plaster statue sainthood mode — keeping saints on those pedestals is serious business.

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With, I think, 2 acceptions.
It's sin if believer thinks it's sin and when the believer knows the meat was sacrificed to a pagan god.
But all things are Lawful, but not all things edify.

xfreakazoidx said:

Much more excited, got a name for the baby, its going to be a boy. Still a bit overwhelmed by our situatio, not no longer mad about it really. I just have to trust God gave us a baby for a reason.

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That's so great!!!! Please trust in that.