alaric said:

Christian who does not know what the flesh is, thinking that all evil and sin comes from the flesh. And thought that good and kind acts come from the Spirit of God. Therefore, ignorant Christian often thinks that sinning (disobedience and breaking the law) is from the flesh. Hence, most ignorant Christians associate behaviour as an indication of repentance (good behaviour equals a Christian who has repented and bad behaviour equals a false Christian who was not saved).

Have you considered this? A non-Christian (gentile) from all other religions who has never accepted Jesus, never born again, does NOT have the Spirit of God and still the sinner is capable of doing charitable works, good works, kind acts and sacrifice self for others. From this, we can conclude that the flesh (which is part of the unsaved sinner) is capable of EVIL and GOOD works.

If good works is a sign of repentance and salvation, doesn’t that qualify a non-Christian who has done lots of good work entry into Heaven? But the answer is NO. According to the bible, nothing good comes from the flesh.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

And that includes the righteous deeds and acts from the flesh.

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all OUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS ARE LIKE FILTHY RAGS; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away

The flesh is like a two-edged sword, sin/disobedience on one edge and good works/righteous acts on the other edge.

When you are sinning, you will feel condemn and distant yourself from God and church.

When you are doing good works and righteous, you will feel good, pride will start to increase. And you will stop depending on God until your next sin or fall.

Both sides of the flesh will cut like a two-edged sword.

What is the Spirit of God?

The Spirit of God is a totally foreign entity that is not part of us. The spirit of God has a will of its own. When a person is born again and received the Holy Spirit, it indwells the Christian.

Ephesians 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

The Spirit of God and the flesh are two different entities in a Christian. They are constantly at war with each other.

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

How to know that you are operating in the Flesh or the Spirit?

The flesh is part of us. When we operate in the flesh, we will be depending on ourselves.

Why does the flesh sins? It is due to the lack of faith in God. When we depend on ourselves, we take the faith in God and put it on ourselves.

Romans 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and EVERYTHING THAT DOES NOT COME FROM FAITH IS SIN.

Because of the lack of faith in God, we will start to doubt (whether God will or even willing to provide?).

Doubting lead to worry (we will start to formulate our own plans).

Worrying lead to fear (when our plans failed).

Fear lead to sin (we will use unorthodox methods such as lying, cheating, stealing and etc).

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Doubting is unbelieving and it ends in fear. A doubtful and fearful heart is the mother and the start of sins. In Revelation 21:8, God puts the fearful and unbelieving as the first group into hell.

Are you feeling weary and burdened to please God? If yes, then you are depending on your flesh (self-effort, self-determination, self-sacrifice and yourself) to obey. Everything depending on self is of the flesh.

During Jesus’ ministry on earth (except when he was carrying our sins), there was NO mention of Jesus feeling worried, anxious, stressed and fearful when he was facing an impossible situation with no solution. Instead, Jesus was always restful, relaxed, calm and gentle.

Why it is so? It is because Jesus did not depend on himself. Jesus did NOT plan ahead (Remember, the Holy Spirit is a different entity from our mind and body. If we plan ahead, we are depending on our own intelligence and abilities).

Mark 13:11 But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

The only preparation work that Jesus did was to pray. Jesus flowed with the Spirit of God and did what he saw his Father did through the Spirit. If God the Father completed the task, there is no doubt that it will be completed physically when we embark on the assigned task.

John 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

Even though Jesus’ 3.5 years of ministry on earth was tough and impossible (in the eye of man), he said that his yoke is easy and burden is light. Jesus flowed with the Spirit of God and did what was assigned to him by God (there are many good works to be done but not all good works are assigned) and he did it with the empowerment of the Spirit of God (when God assign a task, he will go in advance to make preparation in the situation and hearts of the people involved.)

Have you removed your old yoke (the yoke of the law which is designed to be uphold and obey by the flesh) and put on Jesus’ yoke (the yoke of grace which is lots of prayer and flowing with the Holy Spirit and empowerment from God)?

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

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all non-christians are idol worshipers & their good deeds belongs to idols.


Repentance is to test your faith.

When the cynical Alphonse Ratisbonne accepted a dare to wear a Miraculous Medal, he didn’t expect to meet the Blessed Mother herself.
Alphonse Ratisbonne in 1865, with the interior of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte in the background (photo: Shutterstock / Wikimedia Commons)

Many are familiar with the expression, “Hurt people hurt people,” meaning that those who have been hurt by others often perpetuate that toxic cycle.

While this truth can often explain the actions of those who have experienced injustice, it can sometimes extend to an excuse for violent or wrongful behavior. An injustice performed in one’s country can lead to violent rioting, even if those protests started out peacefully. A hurtful word can lead someone to harm others in a similar way or even harm themselves.

Have we ever considered that the opposite is also true? That saintly and holy people help make saintly, holy people? That when we respond with mercy instead of anger, we soften the hearts of our enemy? Do we remember that our own prayers and sufferings can redeem the irredeemable?

One such case for this argument is seen in the life of a French anti-Catholic. His life would be forever changed due to the prayers of three men: his brother, his friend, and a complete stranger who gave his life for him.

Continued below.

Pray Jesus Christ provides for, comforts & heals all those affected by the killing of the Columbian politician Miguel Uribe:

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This was recorded on 7 August 2025 during the annual Speculum Iustitiae conference for Civil and Canon Lawyers held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near La Crosse, Wisconsin.

1:27

Truth Shocks, Deceit Rarely Does!​

It is said that those who have been uncovering the truth about the corruption in the Church, most particularly in high places, are the instruments of the devil because they scandalize the faithful. But the devil is the purveyor of lies not the truth. It is the Holy Spirit who is the purveyor of the truth, and those who speak the truth are acting in his name, and those who refuse to listen are committing the sin against the Holy Spirit. Why, oh why does the truth so often shock when deceit rarely does? It is time we all grew up. The devil wants to keep the evil that is corrupting the Church secret and hidden, so like an insidious cancer it can totally destroy it. It is those who wish to hide its pernicious growth and who seek to hunt down and punish those who speak the truth who are the instruments of the devil.

The current scandals that are at present corrupting the Church are predominantly sexual. Almost every week you hear of more shocking cases. These unthinkable cases of abuse were once latent, then blatant, but now they are rampant – so rampant they everyone knows about them both inside and outside the Church. They are so rampant that the possibility of hiding them is no longer an option.What is the cause of so many clerics in the Church, from top to bottom, perpetrating the most heiness sexual demeanours imaginable against the young and innocent? It is time that the question is asked fairly and squarely or we will never find a solution.

Sexual Scandals and Celibacy​

Continued below.

Celibacy and Sexual Deviancy: Mystical Theology Has the Answer – Catholic Stand

catholicstand.com

Three weeks ago I reported on the following:

The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, joined by two dozen bikers from the Knights of Columbus — a Catholic fraternal group committed to American patriotism to which I belong — gathered outside the Florida immigrant detention center nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz.
They gathered to pray the rosary. Nothing wrong with that. However, they’re also complaining that no chaplain services have been provided to detainees. And that’s a concern worth addressing.

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While of course I want those arrested for immigration crimes provided with chaplains like any other prisoners, I did raise a couple of questions:

Did the Knights do this for January 6 detainees? Do they do it for Operation Rescue detainees?
Dozens of J6 prisoners were held in solitary confinement for months for nonviolent offenses before trial. From our bishops: crickets. …

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In Biden’s last year in office, some 400,000 young immigrants were simply lost in our country, sent to unvetted sponsors.

Continued below.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) warned this week of a “silent genocide” in Mozambique, where Islamic State jihadis are destroying churches, burning down villages, and beheading Christians – and then posting triumphant photos and videos of their atrocities online.

MEMRI has long specialized in posting and translating videos from the Middle East that have been ignored or suppressed by local and international media outlets. The Washington, DC-based Institute’s work frequently demonstrates that what Arab leaders say to domestic audiences is very different from what they tell foreign reporters.

In this case, ISIS terrorists in Mozambique have been giddily posting evidence of their attacks on Christians, but it took MEMRI to pull the gruesome social media posts together into a narrative about ethnic and religious cleansing.

Continued below.

Desk trauma said:

Link on reclassification:

Trump considers reclassifying marijuana as less dangerous drug: report | Fox Business

President Donald Trump said at a fundraiser he was weighing whether to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

www.foxbusiness.com

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We’re witnessing levels of distraction no one’s ever seen before.

How many letters did Pope Francis write in Latin?

From Vatican News:

In a letter to Cardinal Grech on the 9th of August, Pope Leo reflected on the Virgin Mary's role in salvation history, describing her as “predestined and appointed by God above every creature as an advocate of grace and a model of holiness.” Writing in Latin, the Pope said that the feast would be an occasion for the Church to lovingly contemplate her Assumption and adorn her images with crowns of gold and precious stones as a sign of faith and love for God.

Screenshot of the Latin Letter from the Leo Effect:


Continued below.

Which doesn’t lessen the wrong committed, but face it, it’s a welcome change from depressing accounts of priests having their ways with girls‐-or boys, yes?


Chevrolet C8 Corvette Stingray–one of the highest performing American-made sports cars on theroad today.

A bizarre account from Road & Track, one of the most respected auto journals and one your Tatler has been reading off and on since his youth, tells the tale of an underhanded Catholic priest, who rigged the outcome of a church raffle to alter the winner of the top prize, a 2025 Corvette C8.

A pastor is reportedly the subject of a county attorney general’s investigation stemming from a church raffle that offered a new C8-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as the grand prize. According to a report from the Erie Times-News, the pastor fabricated the name of the raffle winner, as well as the winners of several other smaller prizes.

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The Erie County District Attorney’s Office is investigating Miceli on allegations that the 42-year-old rigged the Corvette raffle, tampered with its records and committed theft. According to the Erie Times-News, Miceli “admitted to publicly falsifying the results of the grand prize winner” during the investigation.
Miceli allegedly also made up some of the winners for the $500 prizes, according to affidavits for some of the search warrants. In an interview with detectives, Miceli reportedly admitted to making up the names of four of the $500 winners where no name was associated with the winning number — so, he personally chose the winners, who were allegedly either family friends or his favorite parishioners.
As for the $50,000 grand prize, Miceli admitted to moving the money from the car raffle account to another account, according to the Erie Times-News; he claims this other account is an interest-bearing account that is under the church’s name.

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Continued below.

20 years after AI is widely accepted, it will then be an AI fact that God does not exist. This is how institutions function.

QUAERITUR:

Father during confession said in his opinion, the Holy Spirit is a woman. “She gives us birth in baptism, she will help you.” [Jackass!] His other remarks were well taken but I was so appalled I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Not to mention, it was face-to-face and no other option — just two chairs at one side of the sanctuary. He also stopped me saying the act of contrition because I was being rote. [Jackass!]
I think his words of absolution were correct but I still wonder. Do you think I am absolved? Is he actually a heretic?

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I’m reminded of one of the Martyrs of Gorkum, who were killed by Calvinist Protestants because they refused to deny transubstantiation. One of them, a priest, was an infamous rake and fornicator. They expected him to cave in easily. But when he was challenged to denounce his Faith he said “I was a fornicator, but I’m not a heretic” and they killed him.

The 19 Martyrs of Gorkum are invoked especially for relief from hernias. It seems to me that that jackass priest in that confessional has a brain hernia, cutting off part of his intellect.

Pray for him to the Martyrs of Gorkum.

Is that jackass a heretic? It depends. Heresy is the persistent denial or doubt of a revealed truth of Catholic doctrine. Putting aside the obvious point that God the Holy Spirit transcends physicality, based on biblical texts the gender of the Holy Spirit as male is a core tenet of Catholic belief. Denying it would heresy.

Continued below.

CWN Editor's Note: Archbishop Robert Casey, a former Chicago auxiliary bishop who was appointed archbishop of Cincinnati in February, defended his record at Casa Jesus, a discernment program for potential seminarians who spoke Spanish. Then-Father Casey directed the program, now closed, from 1999 to 2003, following a year as associate director.

“If I would see anything that was out of character, out of order, I would have the ability to send them home,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I took my role seriously. When I look back, I’m proud of my work there.”

The Pillar reported that “some former seminarians alleged sexual activity among some Casa Jesus residents, and said that it was part of a current of licentiousness tolerated there for decades ... At least 10 alumni of the program were later removed from priestly ministry or laicized—and in some cases arrested—because of sexual misconduct allegations of various kinds.”



Continue to this story on Cincinnati Enquirer

Today is August 11, the Memorial of St. Clare, Virgin.

We read at today’s Mass, “Moses said to the people: ‘And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?'” (Dt 10:12-13)

Today Deuteronomy poses a bold and beautiful question: “What does the Lord ask of you?” Moses answers: to love, to serve, to follow and to fear the Lord not out of dread, but out of reverence and devotion.

But how do we actually do this? How do we respond to such a high call every day?
St. Clare gives us an answer in one of her letters to her spiritual daughter, Sister Agnes of Prague. In it, she offers a striking image for the spiritual life: the mirror of Christ.

Continued below.

“The Christian of the 21st century will either be a martyr or will not be a Christian,” the archbishop of Santiago and primate of Chile, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, said during a seminar about the role of faith in public life.

The cardinal made the remark during his presentation at the seminar “And in Everything Charity,” which took place on the occasion of the centenary of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas.

The seminar’s title was inspired by a quote from St. Augustine. Organizations including the Catholic University of Chile’s law department, Community and Justice, and the ConBoca Foundation collaborated to host an event highlighting charity as the central pillar uniting social, cultural, and political efforts.

Chomali opened his presentation with a statement about the current reality: “We are glutted with everything: with words, with discourse, with so-called freedoms. But at the same time, we are full of nothing.”

Continued below.

Lady Bug said:

I'm not OK. My fault or not.

I don't know how often this happens to people who are grieving but the last thing that a grieving person wants is for people to leave them. I know it's only online people but I think that it could end up bleeding into real life. I have been accused of not putting in effort or taking advice, etc. I think that the worst thing that can happen to a person when they're grieving is to lose a friend.

I wrote this back to the person:
Hi G. Ever since my dad, my behavior has changed for the worse. I am more lonely yet more derelict in responding to people. I have been unable to understand my behavior. My life is lonely, empty, and has no purpose. I have been unable to word my problems. I will have to express a disagreement (well, you would probably disagree, that is) that the last thing I need when grieving is for someone to "leave" me, but I suppose that with the way my behavior is portrayed, you think I don't need anyone. I can't understand my own self and I feel basically like a zombie who complains of loneliness but has become too lazy and inert to respond to anyone. It does hurt to see you "leave" because I feel that anyone leaving (no matter how sporadic the content) is not beneficial but I don't want to look like I'm forcing anyone to be my friend. This is the second person who has been like this with me; there must be something wrong with me.

---------------
Sadly, he's kind of right. What am I even doing, wallowing in loneliness yet not maintaining contact. You don't get it and neither do I.

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I accidentally hit the ‘haha’ response. I corrected it to ‘friendly’, which is accurate. Praying for your continued healing.

A picture is worth a thousand misconceptions — at least where the conflict in Gaza is concerned. In the war behind the war, the sweeping campaign of anti-Israel disinformation, Palestinian sympathizers are working overtime in the media to warp and shift public opinion about what’s actually happening. So far, it’s worked. World leaders, all-too eager to make the Jewish state the bully, have latched onto the heart-wrenching images of starving, pained, or wounded women and children. But how much of it is real? An investigation from two German newspapers insists: not much.

Turns out, the shot from a camera can inflict as much damage as the shot from a gun. Carefully manipulated images have become a cottage industry in the last two years of the Israel-Hamas war, dangerously turning global sentiment against the victim of the gruesome terrorist attack of 2023. And one activist photographer seems to be making an outsized contribution to the number of controversial pictures, German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitungand BILD warn.

Anas Zayed Fteiah, whose images are routinely picked up by major U.S. and international outlets, is being accused of staging photos to evoke sympathy for the Palestinians. In one of the most egregious examples, Fteiah’s emotional depiction of a group of pleading women, desperately holding out empty bowls where food should be, was splashed across Time Magazine’s August 1 cover with the headline, “The Gaza Tragedy.”

The reality, other reporters on the ground revealed, is vastly different. Photos from the same location showed lines of men “calmly receiving food” in the hours when distribution was regularly scheduled. The Süddeutsche Zeitung article blasted the lack of journalistic integrity that makes it difficult to draw reasonable conclusions about the war, noting that “at least some of the images were presented in a false or misleading context.”

Continued below.

Matt5 said:

No. The Quran is demonic. Here is why:

Given that Islam is an Abrahamic religion, there is a connection with the God of Christians and Jews. But what exactly is that connection?

When the Islamic Jesus comes as foretold in Islamic prophecy, this is what he will say:

1. That he never died on the cross.
2. He never claimed to be the son of god.
3. That Islam is the only true religion.
4. That all people should convert to Islam and submit to the Mahdi.

Christians know the (Islamic) Mahdi as the antichrist and the Islamic Jesus as the false prophet.

Back to that connection issue. IMO, the reason for the existence of Islam is for angels to have their religion. And by angels, I mean demons. God and man got their religions. Now it's the turn of angels. Who can create the better religion, God or demons? Prove it. Let's run Christianity and Islam in parallel and see what happens. Christianity won. So the God of Christians and Jews facilitated the creation of Islam in order for demons to make their case.

As punishment for abandoning and/or ignoring Christianity, the world will get Islam instead.

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Islam is so false that I greatly doubt their eschatology will come to pass in any form recognizable to them.

Indeed Muhammad Ahmed al Mahdi, one of the first modern Islamic terrorists, who murdered all Egyptians including the women and children in Khartoum in 1885, arguably met all of the criteria for being the Mahdi, at least as far as the large Ansari sect was concerned, and he died three months after his “victory.”

Michie said:

Today is August 10, the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We read at today’s Mass, “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Lk 12:39-40).

Happy Sunday, friends. Today, as we continue reflecting on the theme of thirst, I want to shift our focus slightly. So far, we’ve meditated on what it means to long for God. But what is it that hinders that longing? What is the great enemy of spiritual thirst?

One word: complacency.

It may not be a classic term from the tradition, but I think it names the spiritual condition that dulls our desire for God. Complacency is a kind of interior apathy — a voice that whispers, “I’ve done enough. I’m fine where I am.”

Continued below.

Holy desire or hollow routine?

When faith becomes routine, we lose our thirst for God, yet simple practices can rekindle holy longing and spiritual life.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

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A fellow Dominican - Rev. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. - has a very rich, indeed complete, spirituality to speak to this problem.

Complacency does describe the slow spiritual suicide that prevents the soul from ever attaining holy Thirst for God. This supernatural thirst is never experienced by the "retarded souls" who cling to the shallow pleasures of this world, and remain asleep to the needed saving Gifts of God. Dr. Taylor Marshall gives a brief description of the unhappy state of these spiritually impoverished souls, citing:

Some souls, because of their negligence or spiritual sloth, do not pass from the age of beginners to that of proficients. These are retarded souls; in the spiritual life they are like abnormal children, who do not happily pass through the crisis of adolescence and who, though they do not remain children, never reach the full development of maturity. Thus these retarded souls belong neither among beginners nor among proficients. Unfortunately they are numerous.

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The more complete description of this condition is found HERE, in vol 1 of Garrigou-Lagrange's great work, The Three Ages of the Interior Life. The point is, without the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit to activate and begin to perfect the Virtues, the soul is left bounded within the "natural man", a chasm separating him from the supernatural Life for which we are intended.

cfposter said:

Jesus will return in Glory and Power in Sept of 2040. The days of Adam began in 3890 BC with Isaac born in 1910 BC, with the Exodus in 1479 BC. With the crossing of the Jordan in 1440 BC. With Solomon's Temple dedicated in 950 BC. With the destruction of that Temple in 530 BC. With the Resurrection of our Lord in 31 AD, and with the coming of the 121st Jubilee in Sept of 2040.

The intervals above are consistent with Jubilees and there are only 120 Jubilees given to the dominion of Man (Genesis 6:3). Time is short.

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Okay so we can cross september 2040 off the calendar because this guy is expecting Jesus to come some time during that month.

(If this counts as scoffing, then come Lord come!)

The problem with expecting a certain date or month, blinds us to any other possibilities. I wouldn't be surprised if he returned on the last day of August if everyone was expecting sometime in September since the scripture says it will be "when we won't expect."

Jesus said to "Watch" so just watch.

Seven things are listed for us here which God hates, and which are an abomination (a moral stench, a detestation, and something disgusting) to him. Although the Scriptures mention many more sins than these as also abhorrent to God, here we have a list of only seven. And the purpose for the Lord having me talk about these today is that so many Christians are giving their loyalties and devotion and support, sometimes in a worshipful kind of way, to people who exemplify these qualities and character traits.

Haughty eyes – those who self-exalt themselves, who elevate themselves well above others in a prideful sort of way, who see themselves as though they are “gods” to be worshipped, or as though they are kings above all others, like no one is better than them or more gifted or more talented, as though they are the “cream of the crop,” kind of like Jesus described the Pharisees who acted righteous on the outside but while inside they were full of all kinds of evil and who did not live what they professed before others.

A Lying Tongue – those who speak what is false deliberately and habitually in order to deceive others and to lead others astray from what is truth, with the full intent to mislead and to deceive others to believe the lies. But please know that lies are not always all that obvious. Many lies are cloaked in what is truth to make what they are saying sound like truth, but while they are deliberate misimpressions, which are subtle and hidden lies mixed in with truth, which is what many liars use as a way to deliberately mislead others.

Hands that shed innocent blood – should be self-evident. It is the murdering of those who are innocent in the sense that they have not knowingly done anything deserving of death in the eyes of God. This especially applies to the practice of abortions, which is the murdering of unborn human beings who are being formed by God in the wombs of their mothers. But this includes the practices of people of power who are at war with many nations for the purpose to conquer, to rape, to kill, to steal from, and to take control over.

A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, and a false witness who utters lies can be all in one. For those who devise wicked plans often are those who run rapidly to evil and who bear false witness against others, especially against anyone who may know the evil that they are devising, and who might be a threat to them, because they might expose them for the evil which they are creating and performing. Or they might bear false witness against those who do not worship them, to berate them.

And one who spreads strife (conflict or contention) among brothers (and sisters) might also fit with all of the above. And this person may be a person whose heart is filled with bitterness, anger, or even violence, and so they will tell lies about those with whom they contend to try to turn others against that person, to get others to hate, reject, and to spread gossip about that individual and/or group of people. So before we believe what someone else says, we should pray and ask God for discernment, because liars, those who devise evil, those who bear false witness, and who spread strife, abound.

And please test all the spirits to see whether they be of God or not. Before you put any faith and trust in any person, listen to the words that they speak and/or that they write. Watch for their attitudes, their actions, and their practices, and the choices that they make. And no one is absolutely perfect all the time in everything that they say or do, so this is not about demanding perfection. But this is watching for character traits, practices, attitudes and actions that are their regular course of life which define who they are, in practice. And pray for much spiritual discernment from God.

[Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; Romans 16:17-19; 2 Corinthians 11:3,13-15; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 6:3-10; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:1-25]

The Prayer

Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,
Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

I pray we'll find your light
And hold it in our hearts
When the stars go out each night
Remind us where you are.

Let this be our prayer
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.

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An Abomination to God
An Original Work / August 11, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

rstrats said:

On what day do you think the crucifixion took place?

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I don't know. I agree with those who say there were two Sabbaths that week, one being the "high Sabbath:

“Therefore, because it was the Preparation [Day], that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.” (Joh 19:31 NKJV)

I don't think that the day matters much when compared with the glorious truths of our Saviour's death for sinners, and His resurrection.

Warden_of_the_Storm said:

Could you call the lack of wisdom teeth, or rather the problems from complications of the eruption of wisdom teeth, in certain world populations evolution? Human diets are now heavily geared towards soft foods, cooked or otherwise, thus eliminating the need to chew so heavily and thoroughly.

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It's related to paedomorphisis, the retention of juvenile traits in adult humans. Humans look more like juvenile apes than adult apes. Big crania, small faces and jaws, longer legs, shorter arms. Much of it is doable by timing of gene expresssion. DArcy Thompson showed that the diffferences are a matter of coordinate transformations:

I tend to use Open Doors for my info about the persecuted church.

Fantine said:

Are you an immigrant yourself?

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Nope. The son of an immigrant and married to one.

Fantine said:

If you left a totalitarian dictatorship you may not realize how far our country has fallen or how horribly abnormal this current administration is.

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You need to turn off The View, matey. FWIW, I grew up poor working class, in a 700 sq ft house. New knew what a new car was, sweated in the Southern summers because AC was for rich folks. Mom made a goodly portion of our clothes. Travel? Oh hahaha! If you could get there in our whatever old car (only the rich had more then one car) we had then we didn't go. Fly? People who lived in $4500 houses didn't fly. Education? Not bad. School was no-nonsense, and a Korean mom meant if you came in with a B on your card you better have a good excuse. No AC in the school, either. Shut up and sweat. Politics? Whoever my dad thought was best. Lessee... Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Goldwater, Nixon, dad voted for the man, not the party. Pro integration (JIm Crow in those Good Old Days, right?) , anti-war.

On and on. So don't try to school me on how much better it was back then, EVERYBODY now is orders of magnitude better off now than they were then. Black Folks were still second class citizens then. Poverty was rampant. The poor were very poor (we didn't qualify on that score) and lived in vile slums or tarpaper shacks, or both. Education? Better k-12, no sociological experimentation. Root hog or die college, shape up or ship out, back to the factory. Sp spare me the "things have never been so bad" bravo sierra. Gays were routinely beaten and mistreated. Poor women worked in sweatshop "shirt factories" for a little of nothing.

You may or may not get the drift. Trump is Hitler? What monumental ignorance! See any death camps? Where's the Trump Jugend? Where are the pograms? Where's the elimination (read governmental mandated murder) of the gays and trans people. No worry about trans joining the Werhmacht, they were shipped off to the eextermination camps. Ditto Roma (gypsies), Jews, trade unionists, Any religious or political ground that the Nazis found inconvenient or annoying, and of course, bloody unrestricted war. And yet y'all beat the idiotic tub about "Trump is Hitler". Have none of you ever cracked a book? Are you all completely, abysmally ignorant of the past 100 years of history? There is no excuse for that kind of stupidity.

So Trump isn't your cup of tea; sonuvagun, he isn't mine either. But he's a whole lot less dangerous than the conspirators who spent4 years trying to purge him from office because he didn't fit their program for their own rise to power. Do I like everything he does? Nope, but what have your lot to offer instead? Mutilating children?

Let's face it, the American left has gone completely insane. That's that why their polling is in the tank, where it belongs. They're tried to remake the US in their own insane image, and have been roundly, and properly, told to sod off.