How to reconcile the two passages?

In one instance the admonition is to not let the evil done to you to provoke you to evil. This is accomplish by not responding.
In the other instance the admonition is to not allow demonic influences provoke you to evil. This is accomplished through resisting their influence.

ChatGPT slammed for declining to make Muslim joke despite mocking Jews, Christians: ‘May offend some people’​

NY Post

It would help us if you copy-paste the key paragraph that gives the idea of their POV - if that site allows it.

iluvatar5150 said:

https://wapo.st/4jeroXt

Trump might be the most progressive president since, early in the 20th century, progressivism defined itself with three core tenets:

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First, only an energetic executive can make modern government “wieldy” — Woodrow Wilson’s word. (“The president,” said Wilson, “is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can.”) Second, the separation of powers is a premodern mistake that permits Congress to meddle in government and allows the judiciary to inhibit the executive.​

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Third, conservatives see modern society’s complexities as reasons to avoid attempting dramatic social engineering, lest unintended consequences overwhelm intended ones. Progressives think conservatives are worrywarts too timid about wielding government.​

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He's certainly making progress, so I guess he could be considered progressive. Still hate that he's buddied up to Paula White and other prosperity preachers. Making a faith office and putting her in charge was the worst thing he could have done.

Invasion of his privacy?

Does he know what privacy is?

2PhiloVoid said:

Yeah, it's something like this these days, isn't it? We maximize the meaning of other's wrongdoing while diminishing the meaning of what we, ourselves do wrong.

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I mean, politics and business seems to be rife with this sort of erroneous thinking.

Then again, this video above is 6 years old. Maybe people and politics have changed and when people point the finger, they're now right?

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Outstanding video!

maximus31 said:

A sister has the thought (or theory) that to be right with God, one must first be right with oneself.
In other words, if one is not right with oneself, one cannot be right with anything or enjoy anything...

What do you think about this? Could I be right, or is it rather an unbiblical position?
Thank you very much to all who participated.

I apologize if I posted this question in the wrong category.

This text was translated from Spanish using Google Translate. There may be inconsistencies.

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I think I understand what you’re getting at, especially in the sense that a person needs to recognize their own sin before they can confess it and be saved. That kind of self-awareness is important.

However, the way your sister phrased it could be misunderstood to mean that someone needs to “get their life in order” before they can come to God. That idea isn't biblical. Scripture teaches that we come to God as we are, and He is the one who makes us right. Romans 5:8 reminds us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So while inner peace and self-understanding are valuable, they’re the result of being made right with God, not the requirement for it.

Prayers that they find the parents. Hopefully this wasn't an abduction.

Michie said:

The governor of Kansas has vetoed a bill that would ensure religious liberty for foster families and prospective foster families, as other states have prevented religious Americans from serving as foster parents due to their views on gender and sexuality.

Kansas’ Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed House Bill 2311, a measure to prohibit requiring prospective foster families to adhere to LGBT ideology.

In her veto message on Monday, Kelly said, “The top priority of the Kansas Department of Children and Families should be adhering to the ‘best interest of the child’ standard. Legislation like this detracts from this standard and stands in the way of best serving those in the child welfare system.”

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Kan. Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes bill to protect prospective foster families from religious discrimination

The governor of Kansas has vetoed a bill that would ensure religious liberty for foster families and prospective foster families, as other states have prevented religious Americans from serving as

www.christianpost.com

H

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Has she researched how many families she has excluded now? As a former foster parent, I can tell you the system is overflowing with children with no place to sleep besides a social workers office. Is there anything we won't sacrifice to the LGBT gods?

dakotariver said:

Dear Lord,

In your most gracious and forgiving love, please bring peace to FoundinGrace. Please take away their pain and their suffering and allow them to heal from their troubles, with your holy hands guiding them. Please, Lord, make their path easy and keep them very close to your heart, God. I ask all of this in Jesus's name. Amen.

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thank you

Dear Lord,
You are the Lord of Hosts and the Lord of armies, and our stronghold as you wrote in Psalm 46. Open the eyes of others and bring this threatening coworker to justice, quickly, before someone gets hurt!
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

Dear Lord,
I pray for healing for FoundInGrace, so they can sleep and perform their best at work.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

Dear Lord,
I pray for wisdom for FoundInGrace as to how to balance their work and life. Help them to take care of their needs, but also to be there for those who need them. Help them to prioritize You and place You first, that they may improve in all their areas of life.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

SerenityA said:

I need all the prayer I can get

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Praying now!

Lord God I lift up SerenityA to You right now and I pray that You would hear their request and answer their request, I pray that they would be able to hear Your voice clearly and be able to discern Your voice! I pray that You would draw them closer every day and continue to raise them up into who You want them to be! Thank You God!

As those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we are to be those who have died with Christ to sin and who are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, by the Spirit, in the power of God, for the glory and praise of God. We should be those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, who love God’s word, and who love serving the Lord Jesus with our lives. And we should be those who are growing and maturing in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord as part of our daily practice, because we love God.

As those who have trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives we are now part of his body, the body of Christ, his church – biblical Israel (Jew and Gentile by faith in Jesus Christ). So, we should have been gifted of God’s Spirit with Spiritual gifts, and assigned by God our body parts, i.e. our particular areas of ministry within the universal body of Christ. And we should be operating in those areas of ministry within the body of Christ in encouraging one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord.

We should also be those who are sharing the truth of the gospel of our salvation with the people of the world, and with the worldly church, for their salvation from sin and for their eternal life with God. But we need to make certain that the “gospel” we are sharing is the whole truth which teaches that, by God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ we must die with Christ to sin and we must now walk with him in obedience to his commands in holiness and in righteousness in the power of God, forever.

And we need to be those who are keeping our own bodies in check, who have put away from ourselves all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, and all immorality. And we are to be those who are abstaining from fleshly lusts which wage war against ourselves. And we are to keep our behavior excellent among the ungodly that they may see the good deeds of God being done in our lives as an example to them of what it means to live for Jesus Christ and to follow in his footsteps. But this doesn’t mean we are perfect.

And we are to be law abiding citizens who obey those in authority over us, unless those in authority over us require that we disobey God in any respect. Then we obey God and not men. And we are not to bow to the beast, so we need to be discerning about what this beast system looks like so that we don’t end up worshiping this beast thinking that we are doing good by obeying those in authority over us. Remember that Jesus and his apostles did not always obey the authorities. God’s laws always trumped man’s laws.

So, when this says that we have been called for this purpose, it is not just for what follows, but it refers to what was written prior to this, too, which I have just summarized for us above. But the main thing here is that, because of what Jesus did for us, in giving his life up for us on that cross, so that we could be free from our slavery to sin and now serve him with our lives, we are to die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily (in practice), and we are now to walk (in conduct, in practice) according to his commandments.

We are no longer to be those for whom sin is our practice (habit, addiction), but now righteous and godly and moral living, in obedience to God, should be how we are living. And we are not to be liars who make telling lies our practice, but we are to be truth tellers. And we are not to be those who get even with our persecutors, but we are to love our enemies and who forgive them. And we are to do good to those who do evil to us. And we are to pray for them, and to speak words to them which will be for their benefit.

We should be those who are willing to suffer injustices on account of we are following and obeying our Lord with our daily lives. And when we are persecuted on account of our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, and because we will not compromise with sin and with the world, we are not to revile in return. This does not mean we cannot speak the truth in love to others who profess faith in Jesus but who are living the opposite of what they profess, though. Jesus did plenty of that, and so did his apostles.

In fact, Jesus and his apostles spoke some pretty strong words to the religious hypocrites of their day who were not acting in accord with what they professed. So the whole point of this is that we not trade “tit for tat,” i.e. what you do to me, I do not do back to you. But this doesn’t mean we remain silent when others who are professing the name of Jesus are not living as they ought to live, and when they make continual excuses for why they feel that they cannot live how God requires that we all live for his glory.

But we must be willing to forsake fame and fortune in order to follow Jesus Christ with our lives in walks of surrender to him and to his will and purpose for our lives. We should be willing to be misunderstood, and to be falsely accused of wrongdoing, and to be hated and rejected and persecuted for the sake of righteousness and for the sake of the truth of the gospel which we should be sharing with others. For Jesus took upon himself the sins of the world on that cross so that we will now, by faith in him, die with him to sin and now live to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

"My God and I"

Music & Lyrics: Austris A. Wihtol, 1932

My God and I go in the fields together,
We walk and talk as good friends should and do;
We clasp our hands, our voices ring with laughter,
My God and I walk through the meadow's hue.

He tells me of the years that went before me,
When heavenly plans were made for me to be;
When all was but a dream of dim conception,
To come to life, earth's verdant glory see.

My God and I will go for aye together,
We'll walk and talk as good friends should and do;
This earth will pass, and with it common trifles,
But God and I will go unendingly.

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Called for This Purpose
An Original Work / April 12, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

SerenityA said:

I'm having constant stomach and eye pain can you please pray that it goes away

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Praying now!

Lord God I lift up SerenityA to You right now and I pray for a miracle in their current situation and for the complete healing and restoration of their health! I pray for all stomach and eye pain to go right now in the name of Jesus! Eyes and stomach be healed in the name of Jesus! I decree- that Serenity is healed, they are delivered, and they are free in the name of Jesus! Pain go now in the name of Jesus! Thank You God!

ThatRobGuy said:

Per the AP

The report found that torture and ill-treatment of POWs took place on both sides, it was more common against Ukrainians — more than 9 in 10 of interviewees reported such abuse— than against Russians, about half of whom testified to such mistreatment.


Those are big enough numbers that I don't want my tax dollars going towards either side of the conflict.

"I back that side that only mistreats and tortures 50% of the POWs instead of 90%" isn't a bumper sticker I'll be putting on my car anytime soon.

I still suspect that the prevailing "Trump and Putin are best buddies" narrative is clouding the judgement of half the country.

The fact that so many people were so quick to fly the flag of a nation "in solidarity" that had this track record:

Ernst & Young ranked Ukraine among the three most corrupt nations out of 43 surveyed, alongside Colombia and Brazil. By 2015, The Guardian referred to Ukraine as "the most corrupt nation in Europe". Transparency International's Corruption Index (CI) provides further insight. In 2013, Ukraine was ranked 144th out of 180 countries, indicating an extraordinarily high level of public sector corruption.


...I still can't help but think ulterior motives are at play.

Otherwise, it'd be like putting an Outlaws MC sticker on the back of your car to show support because they happen to be feuding with the Hells Angels.

I'll still maintain that the half of this country that feigns "deep concern" about this conflict is only doing so because of the aforementioned perception. If there were never a perception that "Putin helped Trump win", most wouldn't care about this conflict and would still be holding their previous "non-interventionist" sentiments.

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One big steaming pile of Bulverism.

Glory to God!

As we neared the end of Lent, my mind was haunted by something a priest had said at the beginning of the liturgical season: “You should spend some time thinking about what you will take with you from this time.” So quickly do I run from the season of fasting, almsgiving and prayer right into the realm of Easterwith all its celebration and feasting.

While it’s not advertised as a negative season by any means, the season of Lent can have a negative connotation because we often choose to go without certain indulgences, pleasures or conveniences. But the encouragement from this priest reminded me that Lent is meant to be a positive experience for us. The time we spend in fasting, prayer and almsgiving is meant to inform our celebrating and feasting. The ways we are invited to participate in Lent are directed toward rooting our lives in virtue. Seen this way, the season of Lent — and even Easter — takes on a different light.

The pursuit of virtue​

Continued below.

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news that you might have missed this week:

Traffickers pose as Christian missionaries to entrap victims, Thai-Phillippine law enforcement says​

Human traffickers have begun posing as Christian missionaries or pilgrims in order to pass airport controls, Philippine and Thai police reported after a recent investigation, according to a report from Agenzia Fides on Wednesday.

Law enforcement recently stopped two young women, 23 and 25 years old, from being trafficked to Thailand by an older woman who claimed they were Christian missionaries. After noticing inconsistencies in their documents, airport officials detained the women, who said they were “volunteers belonging to the Catholic Church for missionary work in Thailand.”

Upon investigation, they discovered the older woman to be an organizer of a trafficking network that smuggles women to Thailand. The young women accompanying her had been allegedly “seduced” by the prospect of a teaching job, then pulled into a criminal network of prostitution.

Continued below.

An attorney has voiced concern that the Maine Department of Education may be taking advantage of state law to allow social workers to establish a "confidential relationship" with a child to prevent parents from accessing and reviewing education records related to their child's counseling.

An attorney for a Maine mother who sued her daughter's school after a social worker provided the 13-year-old with a chest binder says the instance is not the only time a district within the state concealed information about a child's gender dysphoria from parents.

Amber Lavigne filed a federal lawsuitagainst the Great Salt Bay Community School Board after finding a chest binderin her daughter's room in December 2022. Lavigne also learned that school officials had helped her daughter "socially transition" by using a different name and pronouns when referring to the girl, all without her mother's consent.

Continued below.

Air travel is about to change

tonychanyt said:

Leviticus 22:


John 14:


Acts 4:


The word "name" could mean

1. the label of a person, i.e., the spelling of a person's name, e.g., "YHWH"
2. the person's character, Lev 22:32 above
3. the person's authority, Jn 14:13, Jn 17:11.
4. the person's title, e.g., Immanuel
5. the person's reputation, e.g., Jacob's name means supplanter
6. even the person himself, Acts 4:13.

In the Bible, the word "name" does not usually refer to the label (meaning #1).

Even today, we accept these usages:

She was beginning to make a name (reputation) for herself as a portrait photographer.

They kill in the name (authority) of religion.

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True, but it's also unfortunately true that most believers from a non-Jewish background have forgotten about the very personal name of God. Or maybe think that 'Jesus' is the new personal name for God ...

These days many read the passage on the triumphal entry of Yeshua in Jerusalem, for which both Yeshua and the crowd quote from Psalm 118:26-29:

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of YHWH;
We have blessed you from the house of YHWH.
YHWH is God, and He has given us light;
Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I give thanks to You;
You are my God, I exalt You.
Give thanks to YHWH, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness endures forever.

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Yeshua as Messiah comes in the name of YHWH ... I think even the sacrifice reference can be linked to the Messiah from a NT perspective.

Without recognising personal names we get mixed-up theology.

I wouldn't normally post a secular article but this one's actually pretty good and it's focusing on something that's bothered me for a while: how the Church's canonization process has changed in recent decades. This kind of culminates for me in Carlo Acutis and this article I think makes a lot of very salient points that I've found to be true in my own experiences. Like, if you talk to anyone who's stoked about him, if you ask them why he's gonna be a Saint, they all usually point to the same couple of factoids about him like he was a young dude who made a website. To say nothing of the point that he didn't make the website out of some overflowing sense of piety but it was an assignment given to him.

Another thing the article points out is that his mom has been the primary engine driving the Carlo's cause, which as I understand it, is the whole reason the Church for most of its history waited at least 50 years before even opening a cause.

I think the bar has been lowered too far in the process, JP2 dispensed with the devil's advocate and now they're canonizing people within just a few years of their deaths. My concern is the messaging this sends to Catholics both current and future. Not just about the Church's standards for canonization but also whether they're playing too fast and loose with the doctrines of it to begin with, it could unravel a lot of people's faith in other claims of the Church by extension.

The site has a paywall but you can still view the article for free you just have to navigate through it.

Federico Oldani is a pale, thin analytical man in his early 30s who lives in Milan and works for an Italian aerospace company. He grew up in the city, and at the age of 11 began attending Istituto Marcelline Tommaseo, a private school in an expensive neighbourhood. He quickly became friends with Carlo, a sunny, extroverted boy who shared his passion for fast cars.
...
Carlo never spoke to Oldani about Jesus. Oldani knew that Carlo’s parents were religious and Carlo was culturally Christian – everyone was culturally Christian – but he had no idea Carlo was an ardent believer. In the course of multiple conversations, Federico went back and forth about whether he had known anything at all. Sometimes he said he had an ambient sense Carlo was religious, at other times he said he had small clues he put together later. The hagiographies tell us that faith was the centre of Carlo’s life. His parents may have seen it. But at his Catholic school, his reserve on the subject was so complete that when Carlo told Oldani he was making a website cataloguing miracles, Oldani saw it more as an expression of his friend’s passion for computer programming than anything else.

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As a bonus, here's the recent Avoiding Babylon episode where they discussed this article:

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