As I'm getting old and was feeling my joints getting stiff I told my doctor I thought I might have arthritis. He examined me and said it was early onset rigor mortis.

Eastern Washington is worlds away from Seattle, the Evergreen State’s largest city.

Here in Walla Walla, the Oregon Trail and the missionaries associated with westward expansion still help define the small city of 34,060 people and the county seat of the same name, even as much of its modern identity is tied to the world-class wine produced by more than 120 wineries drawing from nearly 3,000 acres of vineyards.

The history runs deep here.

Long before pioneers arrived by wagon train, the broader region served as a crossroads for Indian tribes, explorers and traders. The expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark between 1804 and 1806 passed nearby as the young United States began looking toward the Pacific Ocean and the vast possibilities of the West.

Two Protestant missionaries, Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Whitman, settled near present-day Walla Walla in 1836. Their mission became an important stop along the Oregon Trail during the height of westward migration, providing supplies, medical care and guidance.

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The justification for human equality given by the founders in the Declaration of Independence claims that all people are “created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” What kind of Creator is invoked here? This deity is invoked by different names in the Declaration’s 1,458 words: Nature’s God, Creator, Supreme Judge of the world, and Providence. Do these divine names point to a deistic god, a disinterested watchmaker who makes the world but lets it go without further care or intervention? Or does the text suggest a theistic conception of God, the biblical God who creates and governs as a loving Father?

In America Declares Independence, Alan Dershowitz argues for an “un-Christian Declaration of Independence.” He argues that language of “Nature’s God,” “Supreme Judge of the world,” and the “Creator” are deistic, unchristian references.

If by “un-Christian,” Dershowitz means that the divine in the Declaration is not specifically Christian, then he is certainly correct. The founders could have, but did not, speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The term “Nature’s God” has distinctly deistic origins, unlike all the other terms used for the divine, such as Providence, Creator, and the Supreme Judge, which originates in Hebrew belief.

Yet all the divine names used in the Declaration are perfectly compatible with both theistic and deistic belief. Christians as much as deists, affirm God as the origin of nature and nature’s laws (both scientific and moral). Christians confess God as a provident Creator of all that is seen and unseen (nature) who will judge the living and the dead. Why then claim that this language, which all Christians can accept, amounts to an “un-Christian Declaration of Independence”?

Michael Novak writes, “Scholars often mistakenly refer to the god of the Founders as a deist god. But the Founders talked about God in terms that are radically Jewish: Creator, Lawgiver, Governor, Judge, Providence.” Novak seems to envision a form of deism like that advocated by Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke, who conceived of a God who launches the created order but does not interact with it any longer. Like a mother who abandons her child, a deistic God does not intervene in creation in general nor in the lives of human beings in particular. But this kind of deity was not embraced even by those founders rightly considered the least traditionally Christian and the most deistic, such as Thomas Jefferson.

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Updated at 8 p.m. ET on May 23, 2026:The gunman who triggered a lockdown at the White House on Saturday evening has been identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best of Maryland, according to law enforcement. Officials said Best was already known to the Secret Service and had violated previous court orders to stay away from the White House grounds. President Donald Trump was in the Oval Office at the time of the shooting.

Best brandished a revolver and got off two or three shots before being taken down by Secret Service outside a White House checkpoint at 17th Street NW and Pennsylvania Ave. He died en route to an area hospital.


Best had multiple prior encounters with the Secret Service and had a history of mental health issues. Previously, he had been detained by the Secret Service on June 26, 2025, for flagging down agents and making threats, and again on July 10, 2025, for entering a restricted area.

Original report:

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Akita Suggagaki said:

All we can do it try to speak out and be prepared for silencing. Freedom of speech cannot be taken for granted.

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Silencing? We have freedom of speech here. So in other words, nothing different.

The Morning Offering

Daily Quote...Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and enkindle within them the fire of thy love.

Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Year A) readings & commentary

Pentecost Sunday readings & commentary
Other Titles: Whitsunday; Pinkster Sunday

Pentecost Sunday readings & commentary

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2026

Sunday Reflections, Pentecost, Year A, 24 May 2026

The Solemnity of Pentecost Day Mass Cycle A Bible study

Daily Gospel

I Have Come to Cast A Fire on the Earth – A Homily for Pentecost Sunday

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost and Witnessing to Truth

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for May, the Month on Our Lady’s Life. 24th Day — Mary at the foot of the Cross

Our Lady, Help of Christians

Saints of the Day

Sermons for Everyday Living - St. Peter's Pentecost Sermon 5/24/26

What Happened at Pentecost Changed the World Forever
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Morning Prayers

Divinum Officium

Daily Quote...Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and enkindle within them the fire of thy love.

Whit Sunday: Pentecost propers & commentary (Gueranger)

Pentecost Sunday propers & commentary

Fr. Leonard Goffine's instruction on Pentecost Sunday

Daily Gospel

WDTPRS – Pentecost Sunday: Holy Church’s fabric, the warp and the weft

Colligite Fragmenta: Pentecost Sunday

In Illo Tempore: Pentecost Sunday

The Ancient Character of Pentecost in the Roman Rite (Part 1)

Keeping the commandments: sermon on Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost and Witnessing to Truth

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for May, the Month on Our Lady’s Life. 24th Day — Mary at the foot of the Cross

Our Lady, Help of Christians

Saints of the Day

Sermons for Everyday Living - St. Peter's Pentecost Sermon 5/24/26

What Happened at Pentecost Changed the World Forever
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Audio version of Gueranger
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Acts 6:8-15 NKJV


Falsely Accused of Wrong

Have you ever been falsely accused of doing or speaking what is wrong when, in fact, what you were doing was completely in line with the teachings of the Scriptures? I have been, plenty of times. And were your accusers those who were the religious? Pastors, elders, deacons, or other professers of faith in Jesus Christ? My accusers mostly were in these categories, yes. And did they speak lies about you to stir up others against you? That was my experience. And have you ever been told that you have the face of an angel? No, but I have been told (past) that I have the voice of an angel.

Now Stephen’s accusers were of a religious sect called “The Synagogue of the Freedmen.” I researched them a few years ago, and this is what I learned at that time (source Oxford Languages):


Market-Driven “Churches”

But as I read this passage of Scripture, and as I looked up these definitions, what this reminded me of is the institutional market-driven and flesh-driven “churches” (like synagogues) in America today which are really businesses of human origin, but they just call themselves “churches.” So they are loosely based off the original church, but they are altered and modified to fit with today’s culture and with what the world is craving, and in order to be more “user friendly” and not judgmental so as not to offend the senses of the ungodly, which includes many who are professing faith in Jesus Christ.

Many of them do not mind being judgmental and offending the senses of the godly, though, in order to cater to the felt needs of the ungodly who they want to attract to their gatherings. So many of them are being trained in who they want to attract to their gatherings and in who they want to get rid of. And I know this both from having gone through some of their training sessions and having been told by a pastor that he was warned about people like me, i.e. people with strong convictions. First he instructed me to let him be God’s voice to me, which I refused, and then he invited me to leave.

For many of these “churches” incorporated under (partnered with) the state are being led by marketing gimmicks and marketing rules of engagement and not by God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They operate as human based businesses and not as the universal body of Christ in ministering God’s love and grace to one another. Many of their gatherings are about using a select number of people to provide the music, and one or two select men to bring all the messages. And the body is not encouraging one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord in holy living, as we ought.

[Acts 2:14-18,42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

For a switch has taken place. The light of the truth of the gospel has largely been diluted and altered to teach what Jesus and his apostles did not teach, if studied in the correct biblical context. And Jesus is not the head of these “churches,” but the government is, and church denominations are, and marketing gimmicks are what many of them are following in order to grow their “churches” in number. Entertaining the world is a huge thing most of them seem to be offering, too. So many of them are like the “Synagogues of the Freedmen.” They are offshoots of the church, but are not Christ’s body.

Full of Faith

But we, as those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, are to be more like Stephen. And we are to hold fast to the truths and the doctrines of the Scriptures, but not just in theory, but in daily life practice. And we are to stand strong on what the Scriptures teach as truth, and not waver in opinion when someone else comes along and tries to convince us to follow after a lie, instead. Now we could be wrong on some things, so when challenged, we should be willing to go to the Scriptures to make sure we are on the right footing so that we are not believing the lies while rejecting the truth, too.

But if what we believe to be the truth is clearly and repeatedly backed by the Scriptures themselves (studied in the correct biblical context), then we should stand strong on the truth as Stephen did, even when we are being strongly opposed and threatened by those who have gone the way of compromise, instead. And if we are falsely accused, lied about, mistreated and cast out because we stand on the truth of God’s word and we refuse to compromise, well then glory to God who gives us the strength to do that. Let’s continue to represent well our Lord and his teachings, to the death!

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 9:23-26; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; Romans 5:3-5; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-17; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews 12:3-12; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7; Revelation 3:19; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

Full Of Faith
An Original Work / May 24, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

reddogs said:

Ok, let me answer this last part off the top of my head as is my instinct and pick up the pieces and see what we have. Go to most Adventist or Christian for that matter, and ask them what is the tendency or mans natural tendency? To sin or not to sin, and they will invariably say 'to sin. Now ask them what they think "Christs natural human tendency was?", and the truth of the matter or the norm is they will tend to look at themselves and say, "it must be to sin" like me...

That has been the issue that I have come across, especially as a moderator in forums with Adventist, but you might be around more sanctified brethren than is my experience, so thus a difference.

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I've come to read these two term used regarding the humanity of Jesus, may we know where do Adventist stand.
1. Prelapsarian - Jesus take the human nature of Adam before he sinned, no inside temptation/tendency to sin but subject to outside temptation.
2. Postlapsarian - Jesus take the human nature of Adam after the fall, subject to temptation inside and outside.

Delvianna said:

Yeah, I've been reading Ebola is the new fear mongering next pandemic scare. The thing is though, Africa is notorious for Ebola issues...

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The concerns about Ebola are real. Fatality rates for Ebola are 1 in 3 of those infected.

Always in His Presence said:

Thank you - keeping in mind - the man's tax returns are not required.

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No, but he said that he was going to release them. It is also a matter he has complete control over. That he chose not to is a blight on the man's character, and now republicans vote for the candidates he endorses in the primaries. It makes no sense.

Always in His Presence said:

Personally I think he should just release them, though with 350 corporations, I imagine it would be very difficult to decipher.

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Systems of prolonged oppression, without a release valve, will result in the inevitable response. For the mega-wealthy, it is actually in their own self-interest to contribute more--because while you or me may not engage in violent revolution, history shows that this happens with significant regularity. As the wealth gap widens, as the middle class shrinks, as more and more ordinary people struggle, there will be a breaking point.

A reasonable billionaire would recognize that being a billionaire is only a short-term boon, and in the long term, they may find themselves on the chopping block.

It is perfectly reasonable that, proportionally, those who hold the most wealth also shoulder the most burden.

Maintaining the current course is, ultimately, going to result in very bad things. Just read a history book.

Please pray by saying, "In Jesus Christ's Name, & By The Power & Grace Of The Holy Spirit, we declare that the ebola virus will Immediately Stop in it's tracks, & Never Ever spread again. Amen!!!":

A new Ebola outbreak could be the worst in a decade

Hmmm.. the investigate reporter didn't look too hard...


The evidence available says that it is owned by Vladislav Golunov, a Russian entrepreneur and founder of the image site Freaking News.

Despite it's color scheme, it is not associated with (or owned by) Google in any form. The ownership pretty much explains why it gives the answers that it does.

Dan Perez said:

And in 1. cOR 12:13. FOR even by one SPIRIT WE were. all BAPTIZED INTO ONE. BODY whether JEWS. or GENTILES

dan p

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And here is another on. where there will be a BAPTIAM BY. THE the Holy SPIRIT IN. Acts 1:5 !!

For John indeed BAPTIZED. WITH WATER. //. YDOR. , But you'll. be BAPTIZED with. HOLY. SPIRIT not many of these

days AFTER at PENTECOST !!

dan p

At least with Ireland boycotting it this year the folks at RTE didn't have to try and find something bad enough to have the honour (and massive expense) of hosting 2027.
I can still remember how winning three years running nearly bankrupted them

Please pray that God will let my son Jakeb have a happy healthy night. I ask in the name of Jesus. Thank you and God bless you. Carmen

BEIJING (AP) — A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province killed at least 82 people, local officials said Saturday, in what was the country’s deadliest mining accident in recent years.

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Authorities in Southern California on Friday were racing to figure out how to prevent the explosion of a storage tank that has been leaking a hazardous chemical used to make plastic parts, as some 40,000 people were under evacuation orders in the area.

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Welcome to the forum @Creedence Killsin . Hope you enjoy your time here.

MOD HAT ON!

Thread closed permanently!

MOD HAT OFF!

When I hear Trump.is targeting an individual, I am convinced of his goodness.
When Trump targets a state, I know they must be doing something right.

Although we don’t always spend a lot of time thinking about it, surely one of the strangest mysteries of Christianity is the fact that Jesus returned to heaven after His Resurrection.

Think about it for a moment.

As Christians we believe that the almighty Triune God became a human being and died a slave’s death on a cross for our sake, after which He descended into hell, plundered the strongholds of the devil, and rose again on the third day. We believe Jesus did all of this . . . only to announce that He would be leaving again as soon as it’s over.

It’s a puzzling move, and certainly not one we would expect. For many of us, therefore, our desire is like that of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb: we wish we could cling to the Risen Jesus and never let go. But instead we must learn, like her, to wrestle with the mystery of Christ’s Ascension: “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

These must have been incredibly tough words for Magdalene to hear. And yet, earlier on in the Gospel of John, Jesus had already forewarned His disciples regarding the necessity of His Ascension: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7).

It’s a startling claim for Jesus to make, and perhaps it’s one we are tempted to doubt during the more difficult seasons of our lives. Perhaps there are times when we’re just not convinced that the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) is truly present. And so, if we’re being honest, maybe we find ourselves saying: I disagree, Jesus. I disagree with your methods. I disagree that it is better for me if you go away. I don’t want you to leave again. I want you to stay.


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AND I will says that EPH 4:5 WHERE IT. SAYS ONE BAPTISM it real means ONE BAPTISMA AND it is written 2 2 times beginning in. MATTHEW and ends in 1 Peter 3:21 !! ALWAYS check the Greek text when. in DOUBT. !!

dan p

Sebastian Stan has been slammed by fans after launching into a fiery critique of Donald Trumpduring a Cannes Film Festival interview - with critics branding the Marvel star 'out of touch.'

The actor, 43, was promoting his new film Fjord when he was asked about the first year of the president’s second term, a question that drew nervous laughter from reporters in the room, per Variety.

In a viral clip, he said it was 'just not a laughing matter, to be honest', adding that 'I think we're in a really, really bad place. I really do.'

The star, who portrayed Trump in the 2024 biopic The Apprentice, then launched into a broader critique of politics and the media.

‘To be honest with you, when you're looking at what's happening, right now,’ Stan went on, ‘If we're talking about the consolidation of the media, censorship, threats, the supposed lawsuits that seemingly never end but don't actually go anywhere. You know, the writing was on the wall.’

The actor also revisited the rocky rollout of The Apprentice, which premiered at Cannes in 2024 after months of controversy.

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