A Russian court has sentenced a 72-year-old American citizen to almost seven years in jail for allegedly fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.

Prosecutors said Stephen James Hubbard was serving in a defence unit based in the eastern city of Izyum when he was captured by Russian forces in April 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In a separate case, on Monday Robert Gilman, an ex-US marine who was already serving time in Russia for an assault conviction, was handed seven years and one month in jail for assaulting a prison officer.

Valletta said:

That's very much the position of conservatives. What needs to change is that the law should in the future be applied equally to everyone without consideration of political affiliation.

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Amen to that. I am a moderate here, but yes, the law should apply equally for all sides, regardless of political affiliation. If the Democrats get a free pass, that is unfair. So if the Republicans get a free pass. That would be unfair as well. All companies should have an equal right to advertising, unless the product being advertised causes great harm (such as smoking).

“For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” - 1Co 11:19 (this answers to why there would be evil—to know what is good—NC).

Heresy is a work of the flesh (flesh, i.e. “old man” or sin nature—NC); “Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies” (Gal 2:20). “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them” (2Pe 2:1).

“For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29). Heresy is error, often resulting from a portion of truth taken out of its proper context, or its dispensational setting, and used to form a sect, etc.

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us: (1Jn 2:19). Heresies cause us to be like the noble Bereans, who “were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” - Act 17:11 (lacking too much in studying God’s Word—esp. the NT, is why so many believers are often excessively discouraged—NC).

“So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Act 20:32). Heretics (by their errors—NC) cause us to learn how to correctly handle error and share truth.

“The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves” (2Ti 2:24, 25). Christian character is formed, and God is glorified. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Ti 2:15).

It is a definite mercy that in His wisdom God allowed every possible form of error to arise in the apostolic era of the Church’s history, in order that all might be exposed, and the truth declared through inspired men, that thus the faith in its simplicity might be preserved for the generations to come. As a result of this, Satan has nothing new to offer. Old heresies are redressed and brought forward as new conceptions of truth from age to age; but in this respect, ‘there is nothing new under the sun.’ Old errors are being presented in new terms.”

—Henry Allen Ironside (1876-1951)





MJS daily devotional excerpt for October 7

“There is not a more difficult lesson in the Christian life than to come to a true knowledge of what the flesh is. Its terrible power, its secret and universal rule, and the blinding it exerts in keeping us from the knowledge of what it is, are the cause of all our sin and evil. Hence it comes that so few really believe in their absolute inability to obey God or to believe in His love. And there is nothing that can deliver us from it but that entire willingness to die to the old man, which comes when by faith we understand that we have died in Christ Jesus.” –Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
(read more: None But The Hungry Heart

Diamond72 said:

Two of the rivers are dry so we can see where they were. There are videos about this on YouTube. People that actually go to all of these places that we read about in our Bible. Bruce Feiler wrote a book and did a PBS program about "Walking the Bible". He was trained as a journalist.

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However dry they are, that doesn't show where they were before the worldwide Flood.

LayHong_Loves_Christ said:

Do our clock ticks when we are in Heaven or The New Jerusalem?
Are we still concerned about time? Today, tomorrow .............?
Or we do not care about time when we met our Lord?

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I assume if a being has neither beginning nor end, tracking the passage of time makes little to no sense. Tracking time becomes important with movement, but it especially becomes important with the generation and degeneration of entities. Take away the degeneration of all entities and "missing an appointment" no longer means much. I'll just get to it later.

We have a beginning but no end. Assuming our state in the next age will consist of only entities with no end, wearing a watch might be something to do just to pass the time but whatever it is can wait since there is always plenty of time.

it's not something I've ever considered but greater use of apparently cosmetics by women might be one source.

There is strong evidence that mineral oil hydrocarbons are the greatest contaminant of the human body, amounting to approximately 1 g per person.

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Conclusions: The increase in MOSH concentration in human fat tissue with age suggests an accumulation over time. Cosmetics might be a relevant source of the contamination.

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But compared to the number of bacteria in our body who cares? There are more bacteria in our bodies than cells.

Thoroughly revised estimates show that the typical adult human body consists of about 30 trillion human cells and about 38 trillion bacteria.

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Pray that The Heavenly Father grants Taiwan's political, military and bureaucratic leaders Godly Wisdom, Courage and Strength as they try to stand up against bullying by Communist China:


China is using an “anaconda strategy” to squeeze Taiwan

Joseph G said:

God bless you, Lorica, yes! Please lift up my neighbor Mary. First that the Lord would confirm her recent salvation, that He would convict her of the value of making her spiritual walk her daily priority, and for her considerable needs: rehab, physical and mental healing, shelter (eviction imminent), substantial financial assistance, acceptance into a specific group home, and that He would soften the hard hearts of her children and move them to re-establish contact with her. And for me, please, to be a patient representative of the Lord's love and friendship with her.

God bless! So glad you asked. ❣️

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Thanks folks for prayers, got praises already. Mary got accepted at the group home and will be living with 5 other ladies - she has been alone for many years. They have a very strong rehab program, and also medical and emotional aid. Strangely, Meals on Wheels has come through in clearing a good chunk of her rental and utilities debt.

Best of all, she can stay there indefinately! She was facing either a hospice, nursing home, or shelter - all temporary - then the streets.

So... I tell ya folks she was at the very bottom of the pit and God has come through like gang-busters. And she KNOWS it. Talk about confirmation. She is all excited now about me sending her regular Scriptures and vids and link to my Church's worship service every Sunday (she is wheelchair bound and can't get out). By God's grace I hope to catch a lift to go visit her occasionally. She's just across the highway about 5 miles from me.

Still got big challenges especially with her health, but you can hear something in her voice that she was totally devoid of for the months I was getting to know her - hope.

Is God great and full of compassion, grace and mercy or what, saints?

JohnClay said:

I was just thinking about 2 Corinthians 11:14 which says

So even if an angel appeared to you and quoted Bible verses (like in the temptation of Jesus) it could be possible it is actually the devil deceiving you ???

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John, not sure if your question has been specifically answered. In my opinion, emphatically yes! As I've often heard and agree, the devil knows Scripture cover to cover. And the battle for minds and souls is essentially a battle of words.

I remember when I fully realized this - and was tempted to despair because I knew from years of struggle that I was no match for him - in the realm of head knowledge, that is. Important distinction and the point of our hope of victory actually.

Consider when the devil tempted Jesus (I'm guessing only the climax of 40 days of it!). Look at Who the devil was trying his "being of light" shtick on. The very Author of Scripture and the Word Himself.

Note that Jesus is the One Who interprets Scripture. Jesus is the One Who applies Scripture accurately to appropriately unique situations. Jesus is the One Who decides which Scripture do not apply to said situations. And thankfully for all of us, Jesus determines which Scripture no longer apply to us, which once nailed us!

And Who did Jesus seal and indwell us with to lead us into all Truth? His Holy Spirit Himself.

Our relationship is not with a Book. It is with God in Three Persons - Whose Word spoken directly into our spirits is verified by His Holy written Word.

How to fight the devil speaking to our minds in the flesh? Devote ourselves to begin EACH DAY seeking to know God in prayer and Bible study. Serious as a heart attack.

What we will learn from developing this discipline? To simply go directly to HIM to grant us wisdom when we cannot discern which side is accurately dividing the Word in our heads.

And then just wait - He delivers every single time when we wait in faith - He delivers in His time in His way so that we have no doubt - and the devil flees from a new strong tower denying him entrance on that point of doctrine ever again! Glory!

It's what sanctification and being transformed into His image is all about.

All to say, don't be alarmed that the devil quotes Scripture at you. God's got your back! All is going according to His brilliant plan for each of us.

Janes 1:5-8 NIV

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do."

biblegateway.com

Those are the high dollar options which work great but there are lots of good mitigation measures that many in Florida have adopted that are far less costly. Hip roofs attached to concrete block homes survive quite well especially when attached to the block in some of the new ways to prevent the roof from detaching. Most homes too have requirements about how much landfill is required to build up the home above the rest of the ground. In these cases you can still flood if the surge or rains are enough but that is a far better outcome. Sadly, I bet these million plus$ homes have some hefty insurance premiums, given their cost because they are pooled with the rest of Florida.

Going forward the average person in Florida is far more likely to self insure. Self insurance is not for everyone because your home has to be paid off, but it is a good option for certain block homes that are built a bit inland. Florida homeowners abandon insurance amid skyrocketing rates

Diamond72 said:

God wants everyone to be saved. He did not create them to destory them. That makes no sense at all. People 100% decide for themselves. God does not tamper with their choice one way or the other. We are called to live holy, sanctified righteous lives before God. If people think they are saved no matter what then they have no motivation to live right before God. Next your going to try to tell me we do not have to live right before God.

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If a person is not saved then the fault is entirely theirs, not God's. If a person is saved, then the credit for that is entirely God's, not the saved person's. Once saved, a person will increasingly display the fact that they are saved in the way they live, as Paul writes to the Christians at Ephesus:

“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10 NKJV)

I'm certainly not going to tell you that "we do not have to live right before God." Of course we do.

Luke 9:57-62 ESV


It is one thing to claim that you will do something. It is another thing to follow through with it and to actually do it. Some people make professions of faith in Jesus Christ without thought to what that actually means, so they don’t ever actually follow Christ with their lives. Nothing changes. They keep on in their sin. For their decision was not based on knowledge but on emotion. For they were not taught that they needed to count the cost of following Jesus before they made a commitment to follow him.

Others who Jesus calls to follow him have all sorts of excuses for why they can’t follow the Lord. There is always something that keeps them from committing their lives to Jesus Christ and from forsaking their lives of living in sin and for self. No matter how long ago it was that they first sensed his call upon their lives, they are still full of excuses for why they are still floundering in their sins and for why they are not yet following him in obedience to his will and purpose for their lives. Always excuses!

And then there are those who make a commitment to follow Jesus with their lives but it is in words only, for they want to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin. They love their sin more and they don’t want to give it up. They were just hoping for a free ride to heaven with no cost to them. And so Jesus’ response to them is that they are not worthy of him. They are not fit for the kingdom of God, and so they will not enter into heaven’s gates. But they will die in their sins because they refused to die to their sins.

The Cost of Following Jesus
Video Talk

November 9, 2022

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Life is worth living
When it’s lived in God.
Life is worth living
When it’s not a fraud.

Tenderly, patiently,
Our Lord waits for us
To get on His side
And onto His bus.

He has a plan and
A purpose for us,
To follow His lead,
Place in Him our trust.

Died He for our sins,
Forgiven in Him,
So we walk in Him,
No longer in sin.

He wants for all us
Committed to Him,
Living for His will
Now purposed in Him.

He’ll give us His strength
Now to do His will,
If we will trust Him,
And know Him, be still.

So love Him, and serve Him
With all of your life.
Give Him your all and
Yourself sacrifice.

An Original Work / April 7, 2024

KevinT said:

Yes, but the article mentioned that a doctor, that is now active in trying to save babies, himself had taken a nap with his baby on a couch, only to find it dead when he woke up. Very sad to hear.

KT

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A couch is worse than a bed because the baby can get pinned in between the parent and the back of the couch. Definitely a tragically hard lesson to learn.

sorry guys.. wrong title..its letters e and f

Vambram said:

It is most shameful that biological males are competing in women's sports. This is a travesty of morals and culture because of the progressive left wing liberals allegiance to the transgenderism agenda.

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Its actually a travesty of reality itself. Of biological reality as a category. As the commentator said the Left is more or less pushing mental illness and sexual perversion with this.

John was talking about Jesus, the Christ. John was sent by God as a messenger of God to prepare the way for Christ, for the people to receive him as their own and to repent of their sins and to follow our Lord in obedience to his commands. And Jesus is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He came to earth for the ultimate purpose to be our sacrificial lamb in death on a cross to deliver us from our slavery to sin and to empower us to live for God in obedience to him.

When Jesus Christ lived on the earth he was both fully God and fully human (God incarnate), but without sin. During his years of ministry he healed the sick and afflicted, raised the dead, delivered people from demons, fed the hungry miraculously, and performed many other miracles. And he taught death to sin (repentance) and walks of obedience to his commands in holy living as required by God to meet the stipulation of what it means to have genuine walks of faith in him, and for salvation and for eternal life with God.

Not everyone received Jesus for who he was and for what he taught, though. And many still do not, even many who profess faith in him. The many avoid, ignore, refuse, disallow, and deny the Lord Jesus and his messages, and his true servants and messengers, too. And they create or they follow others who create a false Christ and a false gospel message born in the minds of the manipulative who are liars and deceivers who, for the full intention to spin webs of deceit, lay falsely spiritual traps for people to fall into.

For they themselves are the self-indulgent, the intoxicated to sin, who are predatory creatures who spin webs of deceit for others to get caught in. So they teach lies knowingly, deliberately. They are those who are dishonest, despicable, contemptable and immoral people who themselves are those who stagger, who sway, who twist the truth of the gospel to make it more acceptable to human flesh and who may give the appearance of righteous living but by their lifestyles deny the God they portend to worship.

So, those who are listening to the liars and to the deceivers, and who are professing faith in the Lord Jesus, but who are continuing in their sinful practices and in their walks of disobedience to the Lord and to his commands, are among those who are “pregnant with evil” (Psalms 7:14-16). They are the self-indulgent, the addicted to sin who seek after what is of the flesh rather than after what is of God. First they conceive the evil in their hearts and in their minds which then gives birth to sin (James 1:14-15).

Rather than submitting to God’s will and purpose for their lives, and repenting of (dying to) their sins, and following Jesus in walks of obedience to his commands, they are displaying and exhibiting, by their actions, what is lewd, dishonest, morally filthy, corrupt, vile, and indecent. But many of them are presenting this to us as the norm for the life of someone who believes in Jesus Christ, as though God is okay with us continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against him; as though this is God’s grace.

But God’s grace to us is not free license to continue in deliberate and habitual sin while we claim Jesus as Lord and Savior and heaven as our eternal destiny. God’s grace, instead, is training us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. And God’s grace delivers us from our slavery to sin so that we can serve the Lord Jesus with our lives in walks of obedience to him and in holy living – all in his power and wisdom.

And the Scriptures teach us that if we say that we are in fellowship with God but while we walk (in conduct, in practice) in darkness (sin), we are liars. And if we claim to know God, but while we do not make it our practice to obey his commandments (New Covenant), we are liars. And if we call Jesus our Lord, but we do not do what he says (we do not obey him), we will not inherit eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls Jesus their ‘Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING God’s will.

[Isa 53:1-12; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 26:26-29; Lu 9:23-26; Lu 17:25; Jn 1:1-36; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:24,58; Jn 10:27-33; Jn 20:28-29; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 5:8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 9:5; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 11:23-32; 1 Co 15:1-8; 2 Co 5:15,21; Eph 4:17-24; Php 2:5-11; Col 2:9; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 1:8-9; Heb 2:14-15; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-15; 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Pet 1:1; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

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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Yes its precarious times. Its hard to say what Isreal should do. On the one hand a counter attack is reasonable as we are not just talking about the latest missile stike. Hezbollah has been attacking Isreal for a year. The day after Hamas committed their atrocities on Oct 7 Hezbollah started firing missiles into Isreal. Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy supplied and backed by Iran.

So this has been going on for a long time. Iran and Hezbollah had no justification coming into the conflict between Hamas and Isreal unless they also support the same ideology as Hamas. Which is the extermination of Isreal. Which is exactly what we all know is the case. So Irans hand has been exposed.

So a counter strike perhaps of neuclear production facilities would be a logical next step. That would eliminate the neuclear threat Iran poses to the world. If anyone is going to use a neuclear weapon on others its going to be radicals who also believe in raping women, burning babies and cutting the heads off innocent people.

But another tactic might be to wait. See what Iran does next. A sort of unspoken cease fire to allow things to settle. This allows Isreal to onlt have to deal with Hamas and Hezbollah locally. But that just brings us back to dealing with the proxies and not the root of the problem for which the free world should have dealt with earlier.

Maybe the rest of the free world need to now get together including all the Arab nations who were willing to sign onto the Abraham Accord and isolate Iran into a corner. That way there is a large coalition including Arabs and Muslims themselves who oppose Irans terror but also are willing to acknowledge Isreals right to be a nation.

That way it becomes clear and obvious whose side you are on. That of continued terror or that of a free and humane world. So ideologues like those on campuses cannot get away with promoting this terror within our own free nations and undermining the freedoms we do have.

This is to a large extent I think the fault of the free democractic west who stand on human rights. We have known this problem for a long time. We even experienced it when we were the targets of these radicals like the Taliban, ISIS and Al-Qaeda. But we did nothing and in fact aided them by trying to do deals with them.

BUt we knew the radical Islamist problem was growing and rather than address it we allowed it to grow. So now it was inevitable that things were going to come to a head whether on our soil eventually or with Isreal obviously. As these radicals don't just hate Isreal but also the west with the same evilness.

50 minutes by 'some dude on the internet.'.
Are you kidding? Can you condense the summary into a few paragraphs?

DaisyDay said:

Don't forget the invaluable help of the Supreme Court which accepted hearing his appeal of "absolute immunity",

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As they should have. It's an important issue they should have weighed in on. I think they got the answer wrong, but it is something they should have taken up.

Timing-wise at least, there wasn't anything unusual about anything the Supreme Court did in regards to this. If anything they moved rather fast on it; they wouldn't have been unjustified in setting the arguments for October instead of April. There were cases granted by the court earlier which were set for October, like Williams v. Washington, which was granted nearly two months prior to Trump v. United States (January 12 vs March 6).

DaisyDay said:

then stretched out actually ruling on the case for as long as they could.

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"As long as they could"? The case was argued on April 25 and decided on July 1. That's a little over two months, which is not a bad turnaround time at all. In fact, it was decided two months faster than the other two cases decided on July 1, which were argued back in February 20 and February 26. Or how about Vidal v. Elster, which was argued on November 1 and decided on June 13, or US v. Rahimi (argued November 7 decided June 21)? Those took more than seven months to decide. But finishing in a little more than two months is "stretching out" as long as they could?

Maybe the claim of them stretching it out is supposed to refer to the fact that it was decided on the last day of the term. But it was a particularly contentious case argued towards the end of the term (the last case of the term argued, actually), so it makes sense it would be one of the final decisions handed down.

Legal scholar Akhil Amar--who for the record is no fan of Trump at all, and was very critical of the decision--actually said he thought the Supreme Court rushed the decision and should've spent more time on it (he said this on episode 185 of his podcast, if someone wants a source).

Paidiske said:

My parents could be like that. But they were abusive in all kinds of ways, and to me that becomes just one more thing where they were incredibly controlling.

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Im sorry. My father was verbally abusive.

please share anything i write for the benefit of GODS PEOPLE

THE BOTTOM LINE


TBL China – The Bottom Line, Ministries

Cosmic Charlie said:

Is this why EVERYBODY wanted abortion handed back to the states?

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I was hoping our nation would do the right thing, but unfortunately, that really isn't realistic, sadly.

I'm only stating that as a VERY moderate conservative who is 100% pro-life.

Not my monkey, not my circus.

I have nothing else to add.