Michie said:

You think? I mean, how obvious can you get? I’d like to hear @Chrystal-J ‘s thoughts on this. She lives in the area.

Click to expand...

I heard that the bishop was very against the traditional Latin mass and forbade it's practice in the diocese. But, that's all I've heard at that level in the Church. I mainly just go to Mass and do the rosary, read the bible and pray at home.

We who believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives were not put here on the earth to live for ourselves, to go our own way, to chart our own course, and to choose our own path. And we are not saved from our sins and promised eternal life with God so that we may go on living in sin and not in walks of obedience to our Lord, living to please the flesh and not God. God did not draw us to himself so we would continue to live for self and not for God. But he called us to holy living and to walks of obedience to God.

For God created us for a purpose, and that purpose is that we might honor God with our lives, that we might follow our Lord in obedience to his commands, and that we might accept his commission (calling) for our individual lives to go where he sends us, and to do and to say what he commands. But the only way we will know the will of God is if we are students of the Scriptures, and if our ears and hearts are in tune to hearing the Spirit of God speak truth to us in our hearts, willing to obey him.

But being students of the Scriptures is not to be just an intellectual exercise, to just gain knowledge. There are people who know the Scriptures, who have even memorized much of the Scriptures, and who have even taught, or are still teaching the Scriptures. But it is all head knowledge. For it is not being applied to their lives. They know how to speak it, but they don’t live it. They can preach it to others, but they don’t put it into practice in their own lives. They know how to sound spiritual, but they are still walking in sin.

So if we are those who are letting the word of Christ richly dwell within us, then we are those who are taking God’s words to heart, and who are putting the Word into practice in our daily lives, by the Spirit. And this is not to say that we will do it perfectly, but that we are walking the walk and not just talking it, and sin is not our practice, but obedience to God is our practice. And so we are those who are teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom so that we might all live for the Lord, doing his will, for his glory.

And when this speaks of us teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, this is not about us all attending a “worship service” where we all sing in unison the songs preselected for us to sing, usually by one person, and usually more about praising God, which is good, but which is not directed at ministering to one another, but which so many of the old hymns actually do. This is about each of us having a song or a poem to share with the rest which will help one another to walk with Jesus.

So, when this says that whatever we do, in word or in deed, we are to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, the “whatever” does not include sinning against God, and disobeying his commands, and ignoring his calling upon our lives so that we can live however we want. The “whatever” needs to be according to the will and purpose of God for our lives, according to his calling upon our lives, and in agreement with the teachings of the Scriptures on how we are to live lives which are pleasing to God, not to please the flesh.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Your Servant Witness

An Original Work / March 13, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Humbly I bow, Lord, before You,
Bringing my requests to You.
May I listen; hear You speaking.
May I follow You in truth.
Gently lead me in Your service.
Guide my steps and strengthen me.
Fill me with Your love and mercy.
May I live for Thee!

Let me be Your servant witness,
Telling others of Your grace.
May I always share the gospel
With those I meet face to face.
May I show the love of Jesus,
Caring for the needs of men;
Be Your servant witness always
For my Lord, Amen!

My desire to be like Jesus,
Living for Him ev’ry day.
May I obey all His teachings
Given me, so I’ll not stray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master.
You are the King of my heart;
Follow You where’er You lead me;
Not from You depart!

Login to view embedded media
Whatever You Do
An Original Work / July 29, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Jezebel

We who believe in Jesus Christ are under the New Covenant God has with his people of faith (Jew and Gentile by faith in Jesus Christ), so we are not under the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, circumcision, dietary and Sabbath laws of the Old Covenant. But the New Covenant is not lawless. We still have commands of God which we are required to obey as followers of Jesus Christ, which are mostly God’s moral laws. So, by faith we must die to sin and walk in obedience to our Lord.

But this is not something to be seen as a drudgery or as something to be avoided or dismissed just because we are now living under grace and not under the Old Covenant Law. Obedience to our Lord and to his commands should be our delight, i.e. something we want to do because we love God, because we want to serve him with our lives, and because we know that obeying our Lord is the right way and the good way and the best way.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

Obedience to our Lord is of upmost importance under the New Covenant, not just under the Old Covenant. And the subject of obedience is stressed often throughout the New Testament writings. For obedience is a sign that our faith in Jesus Christ is biblical faith which saves. It is also an indication that we are, indeed, in an intimate relationship with God, by faith in Jesus Christ. And it says to God that we love him. And it means that we know him.

Many people today who profess faith in Jesus Christ are not teaching the importance of obedience to God. Many are teaching that we do not have to obey God, by faith in Jesus, and that we do not have to repent of (turn away from) our sins. For they are teaching that a verbal confession of Christ as Lord is enough to save them from their sins and to promise them heaven when they die, but regardless of how they live. If some do teach repentance and obedience, it is often taught more as a suggestion, not as a command.

But the commands of God are for our good. They encourage us to walk in the ways of the Lord, and to forsake our lives of living in sin. And this brings us much peace and joy and victory because we are no longer living under slavery to sin but as servants of the Lord and of his righteousness! We now belong to Jesus, our lives are surrendered to him to do his will, and by the grace of God we are able now to walk in the ways of the Lord and not in sin.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.

Login to view embedded media
God’s Commands, My Delight!
An Original Work / July 29, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Modern Christianity suffers from 2000 years of human tinkering, manipulation, and customization. For evidence, consider the hundreds of different denominations, each with their own customized rules, doctrines, beliefs, and traditions. But how far have some of those variants drifted from what existed 2000 years ago? And what did exist 2000 years ago?

"Beneath the Graffiti: A De-churched Christian’s Search for Christianity"

ebook FREE on Amazon through Wednesday, July 30th.​

Amazon.com

Xeno.of.athens said:

All your reply means is that I have not been indoctrinated to "see" it and you have been indoctrinated to "see" it that way. The text however does not SAY what you "see".

The text is about lawbreaking (sin) and death (the consequence of sin). And when it says "Not imputed" that means, people did not know, or made no record of lawbreaking; neither was lawbreaking imputed to them, as it was after the law was given through Moses, when they broke the known and written law of God. Nevertheless everyone died. The text says the opposite of what you say - you say that sin was imputed to them and the text says that it was NOT imputed to them and the text goes on to observe that they died anyway, despite not lawbreaking themselves. They died because death is inherited, it is part of human nature now, we are by nature mortal in this world.

Click to expand...

And , she meant Rom 9:11. ?

dan p

sjastro said:

I thought creationists might have done better instead of using a convicted criminal to make the case for creationism.

Click to expand...

Mr Hovind was rightfully applauded by the audience.

sjastro said:

Of course I might be engaging in a terrible strawman attack against this individual who appears to be on a money making exercise out of creationism rather than a genuine crusader in spreading the word.

Click to expand...

Mr Hovind was rightfully applauded by the audience.

sjastro said:

According to the science nothing is created Ex Nihilio.

Click to expand...

That's why I said in my OP:

"Here's my question:
What physical evidence would convince you this happened?
I submit there isn't any."

Put simply: science can take a hike.

Almost three months since Pope Leo’s election, he has appeared about as rarely in the news as a new pope can.

VATICAN CITY — The moment it was announced from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica that the College of Cardinals had chosen their Chicago-born confrere Robert Prevost as pope, I shared the widespread excitement of my fellow journalists, Catholic and otherwise — most of all, the Americans.

The result was even more newsworthy than if the cardinals had picked an African or Asian, as thrilling as those outcomes would have been. From a purely journalistic point of view, the election of a U.S.-born pope — something that conventional wisdom had said was impossible right up to the moment we learned it had happened — seemed like the discovery of a gold mine.


Americans would, for the first time, hear the leader of the Catholic Church speak English as his native tongue, and his every utterance would be parsed, justifiably or not, as commentary on the actions of President Donald Trump, himself a one-man jobs program for reporters. The two men would appear almost constantly on a figurative, and at times literal, split screen. Rome would become a media capital to rival Washington and New York.

Or so many of us thought.

Today, almost three months since the election of Pope Leo XIV, the media reality defies those expectations. Apart from Catholic outlets such as the National Catholic Register, which have naturally covered him with the intensity and enthusiasm demanded by their mission and audience, Leo has appeared about as rarely in the news as a new pope can.

Continued below.

Israeli settlers attacked the Christian town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, early Monday in what has become part of a rising wave of violence sweeping through the West Bank.

According to eyewitnesses, a group of settlers infiltrated one of the town’s neighborhoods around 2 a.m. on July 28, set two civilian vehicles on fire, and spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on walls. One message read: “Mughayyir, you will regret it” — a reference to a Palestinian village that was previously targeted in a similar attack.

Jeries Azar, a journalist and one of the victims of the attack, told ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that flames consumed his car parked outside the house while his family was asleep.

Continued below.

trophy33 said:

The EU also committed to buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States – split equally over three years – to replace Russian energy sources.

And it will pour $600 billion more in additional investments in the United States.

Trump said EU countries – which recently pledged to ramp up their defence spending within NATO – would be purchasing “hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment”.

Von der Leyen and Trump strike EU-US deal with 15% tariff for the bloc

The trade deal will introduce a 15% tariff for the vast majority of EU products. But some will benefit from a "zero-for-zero" scheme. #EuropeNews

www.euronews.com

Key takeaways from the EU-US trade deal

EU head Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump on Sunday struck a deal on tariffs, just days before the August 1 deadline when Trump had threatened to impose steep levies on European goods…

www.france24.com

Login to view embedded media

Click to expand...

Huh.
I must have missed the sea change in the EU that put governments in charge of the private companies that would actually purchase these fine American products.

Hentenza said:

Biden created fast food jobs?

Click to expand...

You say it like it's a bad thing.

Reuters: This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.​

Rawstory version

In an interview with Reuters published Monday, construction site superintendent Robby Robertson expressed frustration at the way the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies have impacted his business.

He said that trouble at his site began in late May, shortly after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida, which he said scared off nearly his entire workforce for several days afterward. Even though nearly two months have passed since then, he said a little more than half of his workforce has come back.

[Even legal Hispanic ones.] "They are scared they look the part," Robertson explained.

"I'm a Trump supporter," Robertson told Reuters. "But I just don't think the raids are the answer."

"The contractor world is full of Republicans," explained [construction company CEO] Harrison in an interview with Reuters. "I'm not anti-ICE. We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it."

durangodawood said:

Orange mixed with blue makes a reddish mud color. Side by side the contrast looks pretty great tho.

Click to expand...

That totally depends on the proportions. You can get anywhere from a burnt orange, brown, gray, to a dull blue. It's one of my favorite portrait palettes as the range is both wide and pleasing. It's cool to see how side by side juxtapositions alter the perception of the actual color.

Yes, I know it's not everyone's preferred source...nor is it mine. However, there aren't any mainstream outlets actually discussing this story.

State documents indicate that Mitchell, age 30 at the time, was arrested and charged in early February 2016 with three felony counts of possession of child pornography; endangering the welfare of children; corruption of a minor; felony sexual abuse of a minor; and felony photographing/videotaping sexual acts in Chester County, Pennsylvania.











Now, to be clear, I don't have any personal issues with gay couples adopting kids. Obviously forum rules would dictate that one can't advocate for that sort of thing -- so that's not what I'm doing, but I have mentioned in the past that being adopted to a two-parent home is preferable to getting bounced around from foster home to foster home for 18 years.


My main issue is it sounds like Pennsylvania has some weakly structured laws, where a man who would've been totally ineligible to adopt a child into their custody, is granted a loophole due to surrogacy situations being treated differently.

"The couple obtained legal parentage of their child through a pre-birth order, which bypasses adoption checks that would have flagged the conviction"


It could also potentially be a black eye for GoFundMe (they've since taken down the campaign, but the screenshot of it is above and is still accessible through the web archives)


Should surrogacy options be off the table for these types of situations if they're not going to go through the same vetting procedures that adoption would provide? They're both creating the same end result -- being a person gaining custody of child that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

And that doesn't even delve into the well known challenges regarding babies being separated from their biological mothers.

Valletta said:

There again you assume Trump, a guy who has made an effort to fulfill so many campaign promises when compared with other politicians, is not telling it straight. We'll have to see if the U.S. gets 90%.
Remember we just got rid of an administration involved in numerous hoaxes perpetrated against the American people as well as no serious effort to fulfill a number of campaign promises.

Click to expand...

President Trump may be accurately stating that the Japanese Prime Minister has provided assurance that Japan will invest $550 billion in the United States.

However, assurances from the Prime Minister do not guarantee outcomes. Anyone familiar with democracy and capitalism knows that while Japan's Prime Minister can make promises in bilateral agreements, they lack the legal power to direct Japanese companies on investment decisions.

Is that you call “ Trump bashing”?

The Vatican’s doctrinal office has expressed reservations about an alleged Marian apparition site in southern Italy, permitting only private devotion and warning that claims that a deceased woman has communicated messages through a guardian angel “require further study.”

Sant’Onofrio is a mountain in the southern Italian region of Molise, close to the town of Agnone. Since 2009, a resident of the area, Michelino Marcovecchio, has claimed to receive visions of the Virgin Mary and messages from her.

He has also claimed to hear the voice of his deceased mother-in-law, Livia Casciano, through his guardian angel.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) gave the alleged supernatural experiences at Mount Sant’Onofrio a judgment of “prae oculis habeatur” (“let it be held before the eyes”), meaning there are “important positive signs” but “some aspects of confusion or potential risk are also perceived,” and “doctrinal clarification might be necessary.”

Continued below.

“Why does it seem that wherever the government is, God can’t be? Why is it that hurting kids can’t turn to the healing power of the Bible during the school day?”

That’s the question posed by a new documentary that examines the growing movement to bring Bible-based education back to students in public schools.

Produced by Ohio-based LifeWise Academy in partnership with Fathom Entertainment, “Off School Property: Solving the Separation of Church and State,” directed by Nate Lundquist, delves into the historic role of the Bible in American public education and its removal in the 1960s, exploring the societal impacts and the push for its return through released time religious instruction (RTRI).

Continued below.

Richard T said:

Perhaps your cessionist and thats fine if you wish to limit visions. My personal experience says otherwise.

Click to expand...

I had a dream I knew was legitimate, so I tried to keep my mouth shut about it, i made it 3 weeks.

The dream was very simple, I saw a woman (not identifiable) walk up to me and ask permission to pray for me.

3 weeks later at a youthgroup, a friend walks up to me, and I tell her that 3 weeks ago I had a dream of a woman walked up to me to ask permission to pray for me. -the Spirit had just directly told her to pray for me. she was overjoyed, we went outside.

She remains the only person at that youth group who even attempted to pray for me, and whos prayers were immediately effective.

I am working on a website collecting details on places and objects for self-guided American Church history tours. It has been encouraging to find so much remains that our government has not removed or been destroyed by time.
I have found when I search online for this topic the Latter-Day Saints have cornered the market for church history tours, and they are promoting faithful evangelicals as their forefathers and retelling the story. I would love to hear some resources, blogs, websites, professors, etc. I could use as I do my research and also to connect with those who may have interest in this topic.

Here is my website if this interests anyone. Beside Old Hearthstones - An American Evangelical Church History Tour Thanks in advance!

Would have thought such estimates would be straight forward. It was known relatively soon after the pandemic began that some age groups were more adversely impacted than others. So you look at the mortality rate due to the virus in each age group, breaking it down between vaccinated and unvaccinated. The difference between the two would be the decrease in mortality due to the vaccine. Apply that rate to the number of vaccinated in each group and it should be possible to come up with an estimate of lives saved due to the vaccine. Such data was available prior to Omicron, and the significant difference in my demographic is what convinced me to get vaccinated. But if someone applied the same morality rate across all age groups, that could inflate the numbers because some age groups didn't have the same mortality rates.

CoreyD said:

I'm tempted to give a thorough response, but since getting into this might be considered off topic, could you please take a look at 2 Thessalonians 2:6, 7, and the surrounding verses, as well as Acts 20:29, 30, as soon as you get opportunity. ...and can you please consider when these words were written, and when the writer died.
From those words would it have taken 400 years or more like 40... or even 4... if we consider 2 Peter 2:1 and 1 John 2:18, 19?

Click to expand...

Well at frist is was being stamped out. But as time progressed stuff got incorporated.

RandyPNW said:

Yes, "some will not die" does not mean *any* will die. It's just that it is assumed some may have to die to see the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is denying this. And he is selecting only some for this experience of the Kingdom of God, eliminating all of the other Disciples as irrelevant as to whether they have to die or not.

It is just these select few Disciples who will not have to die to have this experience.

So, whether all of the Disciples have to die or not is irrelevant. What Jesus is focusing on are the few who will have this experience of the Kingdom of God.

And the point is that these few will not have to die, since the assumption by them appears to be that they would have to die to have that experience. This raises the question as to why the Disciples would think they have to die to have this experience? I'm not answering that here.

Click to expand...

I will answer here why Jesus assumed that his Disciples thought righteous men had to die to see the Kingdom come. Dan 12 indicated that the glory of the righteous would come in their resurrection.

Dan 12.2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

But Jesus is here (Matt 16.28) speaking of a preliminary verification that in some sense the Kingdom would come at his 1st Coming, and not just at the resurrection. He had his power from God during his earthly ministry, and it would finish its work *for us* at the Cross.

So Jesus showed a few of his Disciples that he was already receiving his power and Kingdom, having brought the Kingdom "near" in his person. And he displayed that power on the Mt. of Transfiguration. Peter attested to this:

2 Pet 1.16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

SavedByGrace3 said:

1 Thessalonians 4:17 KJV
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.


I might be missing something.

Click to expand...

Where does the above verse you quoted say Jesus will return with us to Heaven? Where does any other scripture anywhere in the Bible say we return to Heaven after Jesus comes back? No assumptions please just a plainly worded scripture with a return trip stated. Just read all of the the scripture about the return of Jesus and what happens and you will not find a return to heaven mentioned. John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. When Jesus comes He is here on earth not in heaven. This passage does not say we return with Him. We will be with Him right here and on the newly created earth . Heaven where Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father is not our eternal home.
Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Tuur said:

Off topic comment ahead: Maybe I need to take a break. I saw Scotus and thought "What does the US Supreme Court have to do with theology?"

Sigh.

Click to expand...

They will soon weigh in also.