Biblehub:

A denarius was the usual daily wage of a day laborer. A talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer’s wages.

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Jesus told the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle, one [S1] was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

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That's thousands of lifetimes of work to earn 10,000 talents. S1 begged the king.

27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28But when that same servant went out, he found one [S2] of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii,

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i.e., 100 days of working wages. S2 begged S1, but S1 was unforgiving. He put S2 in prison.

The contrast between 10,000 talents and 100 denarii was extreme. Jesus was discussing the contrast between thousands of lifetimes versus months of work. To the average person working at that time, 10,000 talents were infinity; 100 denarii, however, were concrete and workable.

Even if S1 did not forgive S2, he could have made a schedule for a repayment plan over months or years. It was a workable loan. Instead, he showed no mercy after he received mercy from the king. The 100 denarii amount was practical, not too small or too large. It was a nice round number that the common people could identify with.

God forgives us far far more than we forgive our fellow human beings. Be nice. Forgive

wing2000 said:

Nope. Trump is accountable for the advisors he employs. Make no mistake about it, there will be no one in a 2nd term who will say "Mr President, what you are proposing is illegal." He will have no guardrails.

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Censorship is a direct violation of my constitutional right and I'll leave it at that.

mindlight said:

Deeper than hegemony is the Christian faith that enabled and continues to animate Western civilisation.

Read Tom Holland's Dominion

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Christianity is in decline in America but I have to ask, Is how faith mandatory for everyone else?

Then there is always Dietrich Bonhoeffer's concept of "cheap grace".

Unfortunately, some Trump supporters have been deceived into thinking that
RT (Russia Today) was an objective source of news. The same is true, of
some right wing commentators, who now are saying that they were
deceived into passing on Russian propaganda.

COMMENTARY: Vote for candidates and ballot measures that protect the vulnerable — and speak with your family and friends about these issues.

As we approach the upcoming election, it is incumbent upon Catholics to vote for candidates and ballot measures that protect justice for the unborn, those with gender confusion and women.

The popular culture claims to have the moral high ground, which has caused many Catholics to shy away from the Church’s positions. However, the real moral high ground belongs to the Church, which truly protects the vulnerable from grave harms, injustices and the violation of their inalienable rights.

Abortion and the Inalienable Right to Life​

Continued below.

COMMENTARY: The future of genuinely Catholic theology, at least in the short term, is in the seminaries.

In 2018, Pope Francis promulgated the apostolic constitution Veritatis Gaudium, which was a document devoted to the reform of ecclesiastical universities and seminaries.

As Pope Francis states in the foreword, this text was issued as a much-needed update to Sapientia Christiana, the apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II in 1979 on the same topic. Both documents were themselves an attempt to implement the decree Optatam Totius of the Second Vatican Council (1965), which called for a systematic reform of the seminaries and other ecclesiastical schools.

All three of these documents have been largely overlooked for reasons having more to do with the disparate nature of modern education than any grand conspiracy of silence.

Therefore, it behooves us to note that all three documents make the point that the reason why this reform is so very necessary is that the modern world presents the Church with a truly unique set of cultural and intellectual challenges the likes of which the Church has never encountered before.

Continued below.

Exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez is slated to be among the participants in the second and last session of the Synod of Synodality, set to take place at the Vatican next month from Oct. 2–27.

The name of the bishop of Matagalpa, who was deported to Rome on Jan. 14 by the Daniel Ortega regime, appears on the list of synod participants chosen directly by Pope Francis.

Álvarez’s participation in the synod will mark a major change from the low profile he has kept since arriving in the Eternal City earlier this year.

Continued below.

All Becomes New said:

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So, his argument on the nature of the soul seems to be analogous to Behe's arguments in biology, that "irreducible properties" in the human mind impel us to infer the soul's existence. Ok. That's an interesting argument.

Gregory Thompson said:

it is possible the prophecy of Daniel and the prophecy of Revelation are two different prophecies.

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Daniel, revelation and the Olivet discourse are covering the same events.Jesus even mentions Daniel in the context of the message.

Here is the verse you posted in context.



Mathew 24
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand

16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.






The great tribulation in Mathew 24:21 is the same tribulation in Daniel 12:1 when the saints are delivered.

Kaalkaalvoetter said:

The issue is that people think of nudity in the physical as sinful and evil..but they forget,God created the body,and in our bodies,we have the entire Trinity presiding.We are a temple of God,a temple of the Spirit,and the house of Christ.So when we are to witness verbally,our nude bodies as a temple,should also not be hidden.In nudity,there are no castes,no status symbols..and total equality.
Christ in me fills all of my body..and I am not ashamed of His gospel..nor the body he gave me.

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I am reminded of how Jesus taught us to clean the inside of the cup first.

The inside needs to be clean for the outside to be clean also.

Since that's not going to happen, resistance to the idea will remain.

Welcome, welcome! Glad y’all are here.
Selah

Welcome, beloved of the Lord. We’re so glad you’re here.
Selah

Time is ticking, words are pricking,
With most folks the words not sticking –
Taking shelter in their covers,
Going after other lovers.

Dancing dances, taking chances,
Looking for more new romances,
Happenstances, stealing glances,
In his pride the ruler prances.

His dominion, he’s the leader,
Fleshly lusts, they are his feeder.
Perfect setups are his steps up
To whatever gets him stirred up.

Live by feelings and bad dealings,
Lying, cheating, looks they’re stealing,
Truth has now been torn asunder,
Lies are now what their mouths thunder.

Sad so many lies a plenty
Taking over lives in envy.
So, so many will not listen
To the Bible, godly wisdom.

An Original Work / August 3, 2022

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:19-20 ESV).

Psalms 37:12-15,39-40 ESV


Who are the wicked? They are all who behave wickedly. They are all who deliberately and habitually do what is evil. They are liars, adulterers, slanderers, the unfaithful, the sexually immoral, cheaters, haters, abusers, tricksters, and/or deceivers. And sadly so, many of them are also professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are convinced that their sins no longer matter to God and that they can keep on in their sins and still go to heaven when they die. And some are mockers and persecutors of those of genuine faith.

For many who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but who deliberately and habitually sin against God and against other humans, are those who contend with and who oppose the truth of the gospel of Christ. And they are those who create their own gods out of their own minds to suit their own lifestyles of choice. And so they deny Christ by their actions, and they alter the message of the gospel to make it more appealing and acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh. For they despise the truth.

So, they are against the righteous, i.e. those who are living righteously in the power of God, by the grace of God. And that is because the righteous are a reminder to them of their own sinfulness, and so they resent them. And some are bitter against them because they walk in the ways of God and not in the ways of the flesh. And so they want to bring them down. They want to trip them up. They are like Jesus’ opponents who were always trying to find a way to accuse Jesus of wrongdoing because they hated him.

And if they can’t trip them up, then they want to get rid of them, and so many of them do plot evil against those who are righteous in the sight of God (because righteousness is their practice, and not evil). And so they will find ways to injure and to hurt them. They want to hurt them because they resent them. And sadly some of these wicked are pastors and elders in church congregations (or in what are called “churches”) but who are wolves in sheep’s clothing out to deceive the sheep.

And that is another reason that they hate the righteous is because the righteous speak the truth, and the righteous confront the lies, and the righteous expose liars and deception. And so they want to silence them because they do not want their deceptions to be exposed and because they want to continue on deceiving and leading people astray. And so they will look for ways to “take them out” and to shut them up so that other people will not listen to them so that the liars can continue in their lies.

It really is not much different from how Jesus was treated by his persecutors who ended up plotting and carrying out his death on a cross after years of trying to trip him up with his words in order to accuse him of wrongdoing. They falsely arrested him, and falsely charged him with wrongdoing. And they beat him and mocked him and spit on him and put a crown of thorns on his head before they led him to a cross to hang there to die. And then I am sure many celebrated his death, believing they had put an end to him.

But God is going to judge us all one day by our deeds (works). And those who have sown to the flesh will reap destruction (death), while those who have sown to the Spirit will reap eternal life. Those who chose their sins over God will be cast away and they will not inherit eternal life with God while those who walked in holiness and in righteousness, in obedience to the Lord, by God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, in the power of God, will be welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

So, if you are being mistreated for righteousness’ sake, even by others who profess faith in Jesus Christ, some of whom might even be pastors, be encouraged. If by faith in Jesus Christ you are walking in obedience to the Lord in holy living, and you are not walking in sin, the Lord is your stronghold. He is your support. He will carry you through every difficult situation and he will give you the grace to withstand all opposition if you take refuge in him and if you follow his lead and don’t give way to fear.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

I Just Keep Trusting My Lord

By John W. Peterson

I just keep trusting my Lord as I walk a long
I just keep trusting my Lord and He gives a song
Though the storm clouds darken the sky o'er the heav'nly trail
I just keep trusting my Lord, He will never fail

He's a faithful friend, such a faithful friend
I can count on Him to the very end
Though the storm clouds darken the sky o'er the heav'nly trail
I just keep trusting my Lord, He will never fail

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armchairscholar said:

I agree -- although some have attempted to downplay the nature of her profession, the evidence from Scripture and historical records is clear: Rahab was, in fact, a prostitute.

It is possible that Rahab also functioned as an innkeeper, providing hospitality to travelers and traders. In the ancient world, these two professions were not mutually exclusive, and many women found themselves caught in a web of economic and social circumstances that led them to engage in both.

What fascinates me about Rahab's story is not the debate over her profession, but the depth of her faith and her willingness to take risks. She welcomed the Israelite spies into her home, hid them from their pursuers, and ultimately helped them escape. This act of bravery and cunning was motivated by her trust in the God of Israel, a God who was known for his mercy and justice.

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Do you have any references regarding historical records that may pose as evidence she indeed was a prostitute? (other than just historical literature of people having a certain opinion). I'm not aware of that myself, so interested ..

Psalms 37:1-2 ESV


Who are the evildoers? They are those who make it their practice to do evil. They are liars, adulterers, murderers, slanderers, idolaters, mischief makers, haters, tricksters, charlatans, the unfaithful, and the sexually immoral, etc. They are those who plot evil against others and who carry out their evil plans. So they are those who deliberately and habitually sin against God, who made them, and against their fellow humans, without conscience.

We don’t always know their evil plots, but sometimes we do, for sometimes we are recipients of those evil plots. And in most cases we have no influence and no control over what these evil people do and plot against us, especially if they are people in high up positions in governments and in the corporate world and even in church denominations. Yes, evildoers exist within the gatherings of what are called churches, too. And some of them are pastors.

So, we just commit our lives into the hands of God, and we trust in his sovereignty over our lives, and we believe that nothing will touch us unless God allows it for a purpose, and he will carry us through it. And we are definitely not to worry because worry is lack of faith, and worry never changes anything for the good, but it just destroys us from within. If God allows it to happen in our lives he will provide what we need to survive it.

Psalms 37:3-7 ESV


So, when Satan attacks our minds with all kinds of fearful thoughts, which he sometimes will, we must cast off those fearful thoughts and instead we must put our trust fully in the Lord Jesus. We have no control over what Satan does other than we can resist him, and we can take up the armor of God and fight against him and his evil plots against us. We can tell him “No!” and we can refuse to let him have his way with us.

And then we need to tell the Lord “Yes,” but not just with our lips but with our actions. Instead of giving way to Satan’s evil plots against us, we can put on faith and love, and we can walk in obedience to our Lord, and we can be faithful and live holy and godly lives in the power of God, by his Spirit. For Jesus already won this battle for us. We just have to live like we believe that. For we need to walk by faith and not by sight.

And we need to trust the Lord with our circumstances believing that he has our best in mind. And we have to remember here that he never promised us that life would be easy. In fact he promised us that we would be hated and persecuted as he was, and that we will have trials and tribulations to test our faith, but that these trials and persecutions are for our good to make us into the holy people God wants us to be.

Psalms 37:8-9 ESV


I hate lies! Do you hate lies? I get angry about lies, but so does God. He hates lies, too. So is all anger wrong? No! We read in Ephesians 4 that we are to be angry and sin not, and that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger, and we are to give no opportunity to the devil. Jesus got angry at the money changers in the temple. But that was righteous indignation. We should get angry over the things that anger God.

But we are not to sin in our anger. Anger should be used as a motivator to move us to do what is good. Or it should be used as a motivator to look into our own hearts to examine them to find out why we are angry, for some anger is sinful. Some people are angry people because their hearts are filled with bitterness, unforgiveness, pride, envy, hatred, lust, and greed. They don’t get their way and so they get angry and they lash out in hate.

In James 1 we read that we are to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. But this is not speaking of all anger, for God gets angry, and Jesus got angry, and we are not to sin in our anger, so not all anger is sin. It is the anger of man which comes from human flesh, and not from hearts grieved over all the wickedness in the world, which does not produce righteousness.

And the context helps us understand this, too, for in James 1 it continues by saying that we are to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save our souls. So clearly the anger here is not righteous anger over the things God gets angry over but it is anger produced in the human flesh of those who are living in filthiness and in rampant wickedness, and that is wrong.

So, if you are angry over all the sin going on inside the gatherings of the church, which is being given full reign at times, it appears, that is a healthy anger, but don’t let it lead to sin. Give it over to the Lord and let him direct it in a good way. For, we are to grieve over all the rampant sin going on within the church today. But if you are angry because you didn’t get your own way, then that is the kind of anger you need to cast off.

And, again, we are not to fret and fear and worry over what evildoers are doing or plotting. But we are to commit our lives and our future into the hands of God and trust him to work it all out for our good. But again, that doesn’t mean that evil won’t be done to us. It will. But we have to keep trusting the Lord that he has a plan and a purpose for it all and then we need to rest in him and commit our ways to him.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13]

‘Til The Storm Passes By

By Thomas Mosie Lister

In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face
While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place
'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry
Keep me safe till the storm passes by

Many times Satan whispered
There is no use to try
For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by
But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise
Where the storms never darken the skies

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by

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the Vital One said:

The "theory of everything" unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics has not been discovered yet. This means that we cannot say that string theory has "failed" and we cannot yet judge how useful or practical it is.

All we know for now is that it has cooled in popularity among physicists in recent years. Science is based on evidence, data and analysis and not on how popular an idea is.

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It never will be. The quest always was a fools errand of scientism, based on a philosophical misunderstanding of what science can tell you.

Many failed to see what was staring them in the face.

The question “ is” an electron a wave or a particle , is proof of the misunderstanding,
The answer is ontologically it “ is“neither since wave, particle or probability wave are just math models of observation, as are all our models - they are emperiological, not fundamental. Ineeed “ electron” is just a model.

Hawking In his last book finally got it , when he refers to his concept of “model dependent reality” in which there are multiple models which can conflict . so neither is an underpinning. Goodbye theory ot everything.

But then Einstein answered this decades before when he referred to the philodophical watch as analogy to the universe, in which the externals of the watch are observable , but nobody can other than guess at what is inside, and , even if their guess model matches externals, they cannot claim the model is “ right” or “ unique“ and therefore not universal . That is An admission there can be no theory of everything. An admission science is emperiological Not ontological.

Kant hit the nail on the head a century before when went further stating that all we can see is phenomena , the underlying noumena are unknowable not least because our senses are limited.

So That is where string theory was always bound to fail.
You have observations in 3 dimensiins so 3 equations in 11 dimension unknowns . Since we cannot observe other dimensions the model is a waste of time. The special cases reduce to what we already know. No value added.

All of physics is just a model. Not ontological or fundamental, although everywhere it is useful, in fact arguably man’s greatest achievement, but Some places it works better Than others.
So creating models like string theory which can never be useful ( too many unknowns) ,always was for the birds!

nowhere are the models an ontological reality. And there can never be a theory of everything. We cannot sense “ everything,“we have a limited portal on the universe, trapped in sensory limits.

I really do wish schoolkids and many scientists were forced to study philosophy of science.
with any tool you have to know it’s limitations.

Kamala Harris is actually a Baptist, though she doesn't talk about her religious beliefs a great deal publically. Her politics is more or less in keeping with historic Black churches.

Our Father in heaven,

We bring sister Dorothea before You Lord in prayer. Bless her Lord with Your healing hands that she may be in good health. Open doors of opportunity for her Lord that she may be able to find the best healthcare provider to support her needs. Lastly we uphold her entire family to You Lord. May Your grace be upon them.

We ask this in the name of Lord Jesus, Amen.

Our Father in heaven,

We come to You in prayer for Noah's dog Walley. We ask for Your grace and healing that it will recover fully from the seizure. Bless Noah and Walley that they may enjoy life to it's fullest. In the name of Lord Jesus, Amen.

I was part of a parish in Russia for nearly twenty years, conscious that my very presence was a denial that Orthodoxy was “a Russian thing”, of the essential connection some seek between their nation and their faith. It was an assertion that the Faith is for everybody, regardless of national origin.

Ultimately that denial/assertion didn’t add up to much. The ”nationalists” won, leading quickly to a state of affairs that led me to feel forced to leave the country.

Patriotism is a good thing. But when people try to fuse it with the Faith they go off in ugly directions. While it was in reaction to our own foreign policy, run by our neocons, leading to the Ukraine war, that fusion led to the rehabilitation of Lenin and Stalin, of Orthodox people nostalgizing for either the USSR or the Russian Empire, and we have even seen efforts to effectively canonize Stalin and get his image in icons (in a positive light).

I have distanced myself from the Russian Church; things said and done by its leadership, its Patriarch, bishops and priests, sicken me. I am ostensibly in the Serbian Church now, but don’t feel very much a part of it. So much has gone to the dogs over the past five years. I’ve withdrawn more into myself (not a good thing) and keep wishing there was a fast-forward button on my life.

As a result I’m navigating the shoals of immigration to another land that does not welcome immigrants, and wishing to God I didn’t have to. I have some critical moments ahead, and crave your prayers.

It’s clear to me that we can’t hold the two on the same level, that while we are right to love our nation, our patriotism should always be tempered by the fact that it is the love of a passing thing, a kingdom of this world, and we should never conflate it with our desire for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Well this time there wasn't really a lump and definitely no pain.
Perhaps I hit a nerve ending rather than subcutaneous fat and so it had no where to go except the epidural layer of skin above and didn't get absorbed.

Maybe the Holy Spirit is trying to reach out to this atheist and let them know God is real