ThatRobGuy said:

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/07/nx-s1-5265650/new-census-trump-immigrants-counted

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/missouri-ag-files-lawsuit-to-block-census-from-counting-undocumented-immigrants/

If Census counts have implications with regards to the number of house seats and thereby the number of electoral votes a state gets...
(which, someone is free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they do)

...despite not being able to vote in federal elections, large undocumented populations can still end up giving prevailing party of the state their in an unfair advantage at the federal level.

Would it be a fair statement to suggest that with regards to sanctuary cities/states, there's a bit of a conflict of interest there if their undocumented populations (albeit, unable to vote) are helping their team get more seats and electoral votes?


Is there an opportunity for a "bargain" of sorts?

Where, if a state designates itself as a "sanctuary" or allows their individual cities to do so, ICE leaves them alone, but their undocumented population can't be factored in when it comes time to calculate house seats, electoral votes, or federal funding for various programs.

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Since this is a Christian forum and since we all worship the Same God I would hope I would like to remind everyone who places men in places of power.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

These verses establish that all authority originates from God (Romans 13), who looks at the heart of individuals for leadership (1 Samuel 16), and ultimately controls the rise and fall of rulers (Daniel 2).

This includes Obama, Biden & Trump.

Romans 13:1: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."

1 Samuel 16:7: "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."

Daniel 2:21: "And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding."

Deuteronomy 17:15: "...Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not put a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother."

I do not know when the flood that only Noah with his family along with any of the land animals with them survived actually happened. I do not conclude an exact chronology by years can be known. There might actually be time in between things not taken into account. What things we have known to us from history happened since that flood.

Minneapolis mayor avoids question on opposing Obama-era immigration policy now pushed by Trump

Bodycam shows NYPD officer shooting man with knife as Mamdani calls for no criminal charges

Defending truth against satan trying to mold minds for a new deception: "Trump officials have repeatedly weighed in on European politics to denounce what they see as suppression of right-wing leaders, including in Romania, Germany and France, accusing European authorities of censoring views such as criticism of immigration in the name of countering disinformation."

Pray that Nancy Guthrie, mother of US News anchor Savannah Guthrie, is alive & well, and is immediately released by her kidnappers:

LAHORE, Pakistan — A federal court in Pakistan has given custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to a Muslim man who kidnapped and forcibly converted and married her, sources said.

The parents of Maria Shahbaz were devastated at the ruling after the two-judge bench of the newly constituted Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) rejected her official birth record and disregarded earlier judicial findings that the marriage was illegal, said Safdar Chaudhry, chairperson of rights group Raah-e-Nijaat Ministry.

Justice Karim Khan Agha and Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi accepted Maria’s statement, which her parents and their attorney say was given under coercion, that she had converted to Islam and married 30-year-old Shehryar Ahmad of her own free will, Chaudhry said.

“We were hopeful that the court would consider the girl’s official birth document (B-Form) and the sessions court order confirming that the accused had contracted an illegal marriage with a minor,” Chaudhry told Christian Daily International–Morning Star News. “Even the investigating officer informed the court that no marriage record existed at the relevant union council, yet this was ignored.”

Continued below.

In a significant legal case that could shape the future of religious freedom in India, the Supreme Court recently issued notices to 12 states regarding a petition challenging the constitutionality of anti-conversion laws.

The petition, filed by the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI),argues that these laws incentivize violence against religious minorities, particularly Christians, and create a chilling atmosphere for the free exercise of religion.

The stakes are high, as the case has the potential to not only redefine the legal landscape for religious freedoms in India but also serve as a precedent for other nations considering similar legislation.

India’s religious diversity is one of its greatest strengths, yet it is also a source of tension. While the Indian Constitution guarantees the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate one’s religion, the reality on the ground often tells a different story. Anti-conversion laws have been passed in 12 states with the intention of curbing forced conversions, but the laws have been criticized for their potential to marginalize and target minority faith communities, particularly Christians.

The misuse of anti-conversion laws: Fueling violence and vigilantism

Continued below.

India's toxic anti-conversion laws: Will Supreme Court finally strike them down?

The outcome of this case could have profound implications for millions of people, both in India and around the world

www.christianpost.com

One of the most striking aspects of our therapeutic age is the increasing inability of many to sustain a sane and coherent moral hierarchy. Perhaps this stems from the omnipresence of social media. Everything, everywhere always demands our attention and yet, with nowhere solid to stand, we have no way of judging what is important and what is trivial.

Or perhaps it’s because the label of “victim” has become the most coveted title. Now many seek the “prize” without having been subjected to real abuse — abuse that no one would wish upon himself.

A prominent Catholic recently argued in the Irish Times for a new category of victim: those subjected to infant baptism, especially as practiced by the Catholic Church. Former president of Ireland and canon lawyer Mary McAleese declared it to be “a long-standing, systemic and overlooked severe restriction on children’s rights with regard to religion.” Really? At the very moment when thousands are being slain in Iran for protesting the brutal religious regime, McAleese apparently lies awake at night worrying about infant baptism. This is an eloquent testimony to the moral disorientation that marks our present age.

Several comments are in order. First, McAleese does not deny that baptism brings certain “spiritual” benefits, such as “expunging original sin” and “opening up ... the flow of God’s grace.” But she objects to the lifelong membership of the Church that baptism claims to involve. Of course, her fear of the objective responsibilities that baptism entails only has force if she accepts that what the Church teaches about baptism is true. Yet, like a good therapeutic consumer of spirituality, she embraces what comforts her and discards what causes discomfort or demands too much.

Continued below.

If you can't win fairly.....and days after Trump asserted: "The Republicans should say, we want to take over. We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Bannon weighs in....

Steve Bannon said Tuesday that the federal government is planning to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to patrol polling stations during this year’s midterm elections.

“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump and still a figure of influence in the administration, said on Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, addressing Democrats. “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

Steve Bannon says ICE will ‘surround the polls’ as Trump doubles down on taking over elections

Trump doubled down on his comments to nationalize voting Tuesday during an Oval Office press conference. “If you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” Trump said. “I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway.”

www.democracydocket.com

Aliya Rahman, a disabled US citizen from Minneapolis, speaks to a Congressional forum about her detention at the hands of ICE, and the cruel treatment and conditions that detainees are facing:


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God and God alone knows the hearts of all human beings, because we were created by him – by God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. He formed our inward parts, and he wove us in the womb’s of our mothers. And all the days that were ordained for us are written down in his book, even though many of them have not yet taken place. In other words, God knows us inside and out. Before we were even born he knew who we were going to be and what we would do and who would follow him with their lives.

No one else knows us like God knows us, not even ourselves, I believe. Even before there is a word on our tongues, the Lord knows it all. He knows when we sit down, and when we rise up, and he understands our thoughts from afar, even before we are even aware of our own thoughts. He is intimately acquainted with all of our ways. Nothing is hidden from God. So, even if we wanted to hide from God, we cannot, for he sees everything we do. And if we are willing, he will lead us in the way we ought to go, which is God’s way.

And God’s way is the way of holiness and righteousness, in death to sin, and in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands. As those who believe in Jesus Christ, we are to be those who are in step with him, who walk in his ways in doing what all he has for us to do, as his followers, and in his power. Our lives are to be surrendered to our Lord to do his will and to obey his calling upon our lives, to go wherever he sends us, and to say whatever he gives us to say for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel.

And we are to be looking to the Lord to solve our problems and to give us the wisdom to make the right decisions and to speak the words he wants us to speak to the people. We are not to put our dependency in other humans, or in other sources, such as in artificial intelligence, to make our decisions for us and to give us the words to say. Sadly, many people today, including Christians, and perhaps some pastors, too, are letting AI do their thinking for them and to replace the Holy Spirit in giving them the words to say.

Our dependency is also not to be in doctors and psychologists and teachers and preachers and heads of government and drugs (medications) to solve our problems. Now the Lord may use doctors and teachers and preachers, etc., to help us, and to give us some guidance, but we should not place our full dependency in them, making them our gods and not God. We should seek the counsel of God first and foremost, and even after we get outside counsel, we should still seek the counsel of God if that is what he wants.

Humans will fail us. They will not get everything right. And some may willfully do us harm with the full intent to destroy us and/or to lead us astray, or to get us to make them our gods in place of God. We need to not be people who immediately run to other sources without first consulting with our Lord, in prayer, seeking his counsel with regard to what steps he has for us to take, and what words he would have us to write or to speak. For letting AI do our speaking for us is not of God, but is of the flesh, so not biblical.

So we need to put our trust fully in the Lord, and we need to let him direct our paths, and we must not run to everyone else or to anything else first before we even consult God. So many liars are trying to convince us that we must depend on them or on drugs or on something other than God to make it through the difficulties of this life. But that is a lie from Satan. God first always, and then let him lead us in the way he would have us to go, even if it does not agree with the thinking and reasoning of other humans.


Your Salvation

Based off of Isaiah 30
An Original Work / May 29, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

In repentance is your salvation.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
The Lord longs to be gracious to you.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame.
Egypt’s shade will bring you to disgrace.
Ev’ryone will be put to their shame,
Because they trusted in man.

Woe to those who carry out their plans
Without consulting God their Savior.
God’s calling out for you to listen
And obey all He commands.

In repentance is your salvation.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
The Lord longs to be gracious to you.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

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A False Hope For Victory
An Original Work / February 5, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

In a world so deeply in need of God’s peace, we turn to the One who alone can give it.
The U.S. bishops have called for a Holy Hour to pray for peace: in our hearts, in our country, and throughout the world. We invite you and your family to join us before the Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

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Recently, world-renowned climber Alex Honnold made headlines again by free-climbing Taipei 101, one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world. For most people, even looking up at such a structure causes vertigo. For Honnold, it became another stage for a breathtaking display of courage, discipline, and skill.

But his achievement also offers a powerful spiritual lesson for our time.

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Before returning to the Catholic Church more than 13 years ago, I viewed myself as an online freedom fighter who would do and say anything I deemed necessary to help wake people up to what I considered true and good.

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Intimidate the victims, protect the perpetrators, kill anyone that dissents.

Gnarwhal said:

I was sad to hear this. Holy Innocents is a great parish, they have the TLM there. Lovely parish. I'm so sick of this kind of crap. This has spawned a thought in my head, Christ says if you live by the sword you'll die by the sword, but he doesn't say "don't take up the sword."

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It's very sad, I hope they find out who did it. I would like to know the reason.

Minorities don't have access to IDs. So, this voter ID stuff discriminates against minorities.

If the truth doesn't work, then why not just lie? We all know the real truth.

For any Christian that believes you cannot cast judgement, I have a simple question, is that what the Bible says?

“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
‭‭John‬ ‭7‬:‭24

Has he not shown me what is good? If I can’t think for myself & discern what’s right from wrong how can I know His will? A Christian who believes they cannot cast judgement divides the Kingdom; nonbelievers are right because morals must be a social construct!

“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Oh, but brother, judgment can only be made by God. You do not have the authority, the anointing, nor the compass to cast judgement because that is God’s alone… are you so sure?

“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭KJV‬‬

But Brother, Matthew 7 teaches us to mind our judgments - in fact Jesus warns us about the speck in our own eye. Surely, we must sustain from making judgment, lest we be the hypocrite! But… why does no one ever mention what he says next?

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭5‬ ‭KJV‬‬

The word is clear, it is your duty to understand the difference between God, & sin. Sometimes, it is good to reserve wisdom because a Brother isn’t prepared to receive it, & it may cause his heart to harden. However, some evils require justice - the Lord has given us our left & right limits. But, above all else, pray for one another because Jesus loves us all, & wants to see us all saved.

JUDGES 4:4-5:31

In this reading, we learn about Devorah and Jael, two women of God who played important roles in Israel's history. We read about many “men of God” but very few “women of God,” but they are out there, and today, we have many women who are used mightily by God in ministry. Through Deborah and Jael, Sisera and his army were vanquished, just as Moshe was an example as a leader, Deborah was also a leader, and Jael, whose name in Hebrew “Yah-El” means “El (God) is YHVH (Yah) “, his Holy Arm was revealed. "Deborah" comes from "D'bar" (word) so as "to speak," and take the role of leadership. The word also means a "bee."

So, when we see these two women of God working together to put an end to Sisera, The hand of God (Ya-El) was put into action through the leadership of Deborah, and talking "Sweet" to Sisera (like bees make sweet honey), made him lie down, relax, and sleep, and was "stung" by a tent peg to the head. "Splitting headache" never woke up again.

Yeshua gave the fatal "head wound" to Satan on the Cross of Calvary. He took the sting out of death.

If you are a woman and reading this Parashah, never say, “because I am a woman, God cannot use me.” Yes, he can; there are ministries for women, mostly women ministering to other women, reaching out to those who have been abused in marriages, victims of rape, assault, homeless women, etc. You, my sister, have a place in ministry. Venture out and discover what it is, just be available. You might be called to be a "Deborah," a "sweet bee," to minister affection and sweetness to those who are bitter. Maybe start a "honey" ministry.

MATTHEW 26:1-75

This chapter deals with Yeshua's final days with his talmidim(disciples) on earth, His anointing by the generous woman who poured the “nard” perfume on him, the betrayal by “Y'hudah Ish Kariot” (Judas, the man from the region of Kariot) in every group of disciples, there are always a few who are “fakers” We have the final “Pesach” dinner with his disciples, and Kefa's denial.

But there is a lot we can learn from this. Peter denied knowing Yeshua out of fear, but Judas openly rejected him by identifying him with a kiss on the cheek. Both sins are forgivable; the only difference is that Peter confessed and received forgiveness, while Judas felt remorse but did not cry out for forgiveness and went out and committed suicide. So many people commit suicide these days. They can't live with themselves; they feel that they are beyond forgiveness, yet they are so wrong. Yes, their wrongdoings have a cost, yet there is ALWAYS forgiveness.

There is sin that leads to remorse and a “feeling sorry for oneself,” and from remorse to confession, and from confession to forgiveness, and from forgiveness to restored fellowship.

How many readers out there have chosen the latter? We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God, but confession of sins and receiving forgiveness is something only you can do; I cannot do it for you. Yeshua receives ALL who come to him, no matter how evil you have been, nor what you have done, no sin is beyond forgiveness. Just ask, and turn from your sin, and forgiveness and restoration are yours.......Shalom

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make straight your path.

Delight yourself in the Law of God,
Turn your heart away from all evil.
Follow the Lord wherever He leads,
Walk in fellowship daily with Him.

Let the Spirit of God give you guidance.
On God’s word now let be your reliance.
Be ye not one who lives in defiance,
But with God you must live in alliance.

Love God now with all of your heart.
From His word you must not depart.
Follow Him right now from the start
While His word to you He imparts.

Partially based off Proverbs 3
An Original Work / December 25, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

essentialsaltes said:

Florida voters technically have the power to place constitutional amendments directly on the ballot, but a new 2025 law is fueling debate over whether that right has become too difficult to use.

State officials announced over the weekend that all 22 active citizen-led ballot initiatives failed to qualify for the 2026 general election ballot, meaning proposals ranging from open primaries to changes in legislative sessions will not go before voters.

The development comes after lawmakers approved HB 1205 last year, a sweeping overhaul of Florida’s initiative petition process that tightened rules for signature gathering, imposed stricter deadlines, increased fines and penalties, and expanded paperwork requirements for petition sponsors and circulators.

But critics say the outcome confirms their warnings that the Legislature went too far, effectively blocking citizen-led efforts by changing the rules midstream.

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Can’t have the ruled try to govern, that’s just silly.

RileyG said:

When did you all take down your Christmas decorations? Most of ours was taken down after New Years a day or so before Epiphany, but we still have our small tree up downstairs.

Only ask because the Candlemass just passed

You?

Peace

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We had a really dry tree this year that was losing all its needles. It was out of the house January 2 nd. Way too early.