I do believe God still heals and that Jesus bore our sickness on the cross and I pray that this cancer is cursed, and that she would receive God's healing provision in her life. I pray too that she is saved and in fellowship with God. That she would turn over her life and illness to God and can have a testimony that others can look to. (Sorry I don't know her spiritual status).

ralliann said:

Many did with Sanctuary cities.

Click to expand...

Here is a definition of a sanctuary city. "A sanctuary city is generally defined as a municipality that limits or denies its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. This can include policies that prevent local law enforcement from inquiring about immigration status or complying with federal detention requests. While there is no official legal definition, the term typically refers to cities, counties, or states that adopt such policies. It was local politicians that made sanctuary cities. Federal involvement was thwarted. No Federal judge had anything to do with that. Federal judges execute the law as they feel fit. All are vetted and voted in by Congress. If they are out of bounds the Appeals Courts can overturn their decision. I think the judge was well within his rights to question the deportations. It is good that the Supreme Court too is settling the legal issue about the limits of a district judge. Both Trump and the judicial branch pushes the legal limits of their power. Thank God we have a system that over time can handle things and make peace on this and other issues.

ralliann said:

That goes both ways...coming in or going out...

No cases for vetting were done when these people came in. that was simply an executive decision.
Now the Judge is deciding TO VET, the DECISION authority of the executive to get them out.... Activism...

I hope laws are clearly put in place for these activists. Any illegal entry, not coming to a port of entry, disqualifies themselves an asylum seeker.

These judges are outside of their jurisdiction of authority, of the executive branch.....And it has been done, over and over. The arrogance of the judges in Colorado, to attempt to decide for this nation who we could or could not vote for was shut down. This one will also when it comes before the supreme court. Perhaps even when the liberal judges these liberals SHOP FOR, are exhausted and the case is heard by HONEST JUDGES. whichever comes first....

Click to expand...

This is coming! How soon? Not sure. But it appears by what we read in the news of what is going on in the USA alone, and in the rest of the world, that this could not be very far away. And perhaps it has already begun, to some extent. For as I think about recent events, just in my nation, there have been multiple destructive hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, plane crashes, lightning and hailstorms, and the like, seemingly back to back, with must destruction of private properties and the taking of many human lives.

And then in other nations there are wars, some or all of them involving the USA in one way or another, which are also destroying much in the way of people’s homes and lands and public and private properties, and the taking of many human lives. And I do not get all the news from all these other countries, but I am assuming that they also are having storms and floods and other natural (or unnatural) disasters which are destroying land and homes and business, and which are killing people by the millions.

But it isn’t just all this physical destruction that is going on, and it isn’t just the physical wars which are taking place, but there is a lot of political warfare going on within my nation, and between nations, apparently, and there is a lot of confusion, and upheaval, and daily alterations to our way of life, with many threats of this or that, which are “all over the map,” so to speak. So it is difficult to know what is real and what is not real, but the reality is in all the confusion and upheaval that all of this is causing.

And I believe that is the plan, to cause all the upheaval and confusion and chaos that it all generates in order for the one world government to have to step in to “save the day” and to bring the world together in unity as one people of the same mind, heart, and actions. So if you are wishing for world peace, please know that it comes with a mighty cost. It will mean us having to give up our rights, our beliefs, our practices, our callings of God, etc. in order to unite with the world as one people under a totalitarian regime.

But the Scriptures give us many warnings of these things taking place, and of what that will mean for followers of Jesus Christ. And we must guard against getting sucked into the whole fiasco which is being created by skillful and devious and deceitful people who are plotting our demise. And we must follow the Lord, in walks of obedience to his commands, and we must never compromise our faith, our relationships with God/Christ, the gospel, or moral character in order to unite with the world as one people at (forced) peace.

But God is allowing all of this to take place, or it could not happen, and he warned us a very long time ago, through the prophets of old, and through the New Testament apostles, and through the teachings of Christ and of the Scriptures that these things must take place. Why? For the reasons mentioned in today’s passage of Scripture. God is shaking and will shake the earth, and the people of the earth, and the heavens, in order to remove what can be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken will remain.

Does this make sense to you? Basically, God will judge the people of this earth via a time of trials and tribulations on the earth unlike anything we have ever faced before, in that magnitude, in order that the message of the cross of Christ, which is the message of the gospel of our salvation, will not be totally destroyed, but will be persevered. He will bring his judgments on the earth, and on the people of the earth, to get some people to repent of their sinful ways and to follow the Lord in obedience before the end.

Basically, he has to destroy many or all earthly kingdoms in order to preserve his heavenly kingdom. And I may not be expressing this perfectly well, but the judgments of God will come upon the earth, and on the people of the earth, I believe, to bring many people to genuine walks of faith in the Lord Jesus, and/or to revive his idolatrous and adulterous church before the end of all things, so that many will be saved and will have eternity with God in heaven. For right now, the church in America is in very sad shape.

For right now so much of what is called “church” is not the biblical body of Christ, operating as the biblical body of Christ, in practice, under the headship of Christ Jesus, with all body parts doing their parts in ministering God’s love and grace and encouragement to one another. Multitudes of them are just businesses of human origin which are businesses incorporated (united with) under the state, marketing their gatherings to the people of the world, and thus diluting the truth of the gospel to not offend the flesh.

Few, it seems, are operating as the biblical body of Christ, with each part doing its work, with each working part exhorting and encouraging and instructing one another in the ways of the Lord, and in the ways of holiness and righteousness, and in walks of obedience to the Lord and to his commands, and in the forsaking of our sins. Few, it seems, are still teaching the gospel that Jesus taught, and that his New Testament apostles taught, IN CONTEXT, but so many have altered the gospel to conform it to the flesh.

So, in order for God to get his people back to where they need to be spiritually, under his headship, obeying his commands, and living holy lives pleasing to God, he has to shake things up to bring us all to that point to where we will have to choose God or the flesh, and God or worldly masters, with no more vacillating between the two on middle ground. And the worldly masters who are or will yet be in charge will bring us to that point of decision, too. And if we choose obeying God, it will mean death for us.

But death, resulting in life eternal with God is far better than death resulting in eternity in the fires of hell. And so many people are being given false promises of eternity with God because they gave lip service to the Lord at one time in their lives. But Jesus said that if we want to come after him that 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. But if we die to sin and obey God, in practice, we have life in him.

We need to take this seriously! Too many people today are expecting that when they die that they are going to be with Jesus for eternity. But Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the ones DOING (obeying) the will of God. And many will stand before him on the day of judgment, claiming him as their Lord, and claiming what they did for him, and he will say, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” because they did not obey God’s 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]

Sing to Me of Heaven

Songwriters: Ada Powell / Benjamin Burke Beall

Sing to me of Heaven, sing that song of peace
From the toils that bind me it will bring release
Burdens will be lifted that are pressing so
Showers of great blessing o'er my heart will flow

Sing to me of Heaven, as I walk alone
Dreaming of the comrades that so long have gone
In a fairer region 'mong the angel throng
They are happy as they sing that old, sweet song

Sing to me of Heaven, tenderly and low
Till the shadows o'er me rise and swiftly go
When my heart is weary, when the day is long
Sing to me of Heaven, sing that old, sweet song

Sing to me of Heaven, let me fondly dream
Of its golden glory, of its pearly gleam
Sing to me when shadows of the evening fall
Sing to me of heaven, sweetest song of all

Login to view embedded media
Caution: This link may contain ads

Our God is a Consuming Fire
An Original Work / April 4, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Gnarwhal said:

Since there's no mention of it outside of Luke 22 I'm not sure if Christ had any kind of chronic condition, but it did happen during the Agony. According to Dr Pierre Barbet such an experience would've substantially heightened his skin sensitivity because of the burst blood vessels, making Christ's Passion as painful as physically possible.

Click to expand...

Wow! I’m so grateful for his great sacrifice! Glory to Christ forever!

Ora pro nobis

JohnClay said:

Like that pastor says it can seem like that story is a fairy tale... if large numbers of angels appeared to all of the shepherds I'd be interested in seeing proof that it has happened in modern times. Though perhaps angels have only appeared to groups of humans like that a couple of times - basically only the times that are mentioned in the Bible.

Click to expand...

If throngs of angels were appearing like that on the regular, it wouldn't go unnoticed and the story as presented wouldn't treat this event as the sort of astonishing amazing thing that it is depicted as being.

When angels make their presence known, it is always a big deal.

So, yes, the assumption of the biblical writers is that when angels show up, it's incredibly rare and it's a very big deal.

Angels don't show up, especially in great throngs, just to say what's up.

-CryptoLutheran

Ora pro nobis!

Just a few:

• The universe is change; Our life is what our thoughts make it. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, bk. 4)
• Be straightforward. Look at things like a man, like a human being, like a citizen, like a mortal. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, bk. 4)
• Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, bk. 4)
• The best revenge is not to be like your enemy. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, bk. 6)
• Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, bk. 7)
• To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable. (Epictetus, Discourses, bk. 1)
• Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things. (Epictetus, Enchiridion).
• The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God. (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles)
• The unexamined life is not worth living. (Socrates, Apology)
• They who accord with Heaven are preserved, and they who rebel against Heaven perish. (Mencius, The Mencius, bk 4)
• The Superior Man is all-embracing and not partial. The inferior man is partial and not all-embracing. (Confucius, The Analects, ch. 2)
• There is one river of truth, but many streams fall into it on this side and that. (St. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata).
• He knows his own strength; he knows that he was born to carry burdens. (Seneca, Moral Letters, letter 71)
• God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. (The Serenity Prayer)
• God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always. (The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)
• My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. (The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

When I see adults doing outrageous things that I might have done until I was about 19, it makes me wonder is immaturity becoming a later stage in life? The thing is even when I was younger my conscience often did a double take & made me realize how foolish I may have acted so rashly.

Amen!

I think that’s hilarious! Oh well!

Praying for an end to this evil organization!

Christian Themes in Middle-earth: Self-Sacrifice and Choosing Good by Jeb Smith
Christian Themes in Middle-earth: Self-Sacrifice and Choosing Good

Nearly 20% of adults in the United States — approximately 50 million people — call themselves Catholic, but the American Catholic population is diverse in its beliefs, its adherence to Church teaching, and its religious practices as well as its social and political views.

Much of this data was revealed in the 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew Research Center, which was published earlier this year.

The analysis by Pew finds that the proportion of the Catholic population in the United States has fallen over the past decade and a half, as about 24% of the country’s population identified as Catholic in 2007. The religiosity of those who identify as Catholic has also decreased in that time frame.

Immigrants currently make up about 29% of the American Catholic population and children of immigrants make up an additional 14%, accounting for 43% of the total number. Hispanic Catholics account for most of the immigrant or first generation Catholic segment and have also become a larger percentage of the country’s overall Catholic population, growing by 7 points since 2007 and now making up 36% of American Catholics.

Continued below.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is updating its policy manual to reflect the fact that there are only two biological sexes as the Trump administration works to remove the prevalence of gender ideology from the federal government.

In a statement published Wednesday, USCIS announced that it had updated its policy manual in an effort to comply with a Jan. 20 executive order signed by President Donald Trump titled "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," which made it the official policy of the federal government to recognize two biological sexes.

"There are only two sexes — male and female," said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin. "President Trump promised the American people a revolution of common sense, and that includes making sure that the policy of the U.S. government agrees with simple biological reality."

Continued below.

Pommer said:

means that no one is going to suffer for having violated the law?
That’s doesn’t sound like the MAGA I know.

Click to expand...

Guess you're gonna have to wait and find out like the rest of us. This ain't the Biden admin where you knew the results BEFORE the action was taken.

Michie said:

Elon Musk agreed with Bukele​

After U.S. President Donald Trump called for the impeachment of a judge, President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele asserted in a post on X that "The U.S. is facing a judicial coup."

Elon Musk agreed with the foreign leader, sharing the tweet and commenting, "1000%."

In a post on Truth Social, Trump, apparently referring to Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, called the judge a "Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator," noting that he had been nominated by President Barack Obama.

Continued below.

El Salvador's Bukele weighs in after Trump's call to impeach judge: 'The U.S. is facing a judicial coup'

President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele declares "The U.S. is facing a judicial coup" after U.S. President Donald Trump calls for a judge to be impeached.

www.foxnews.com

Click to expand...

Just shows Bukele knows as little as Musk does about American law.

Valletta said:

They also dropped the charges of illegally having classified documents for Joe Biden.

Click to expand...

Biden was never charged, and Hur found 'no criminal charges are warranted in this matter'.

Who's this 'them', anyway? I thought Trump was going to start dishing out some swift summary justice.

And she went home to be with the Lord today.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

That would appear not to be true, especially when it comes to justice.

Click to expand...

You are suggesting, that people faithful to Christ the Lord, do kill each other, especially when it comes to something that you are calling justice?

Hazelelponi said:

Good song. I enjoy this band.

Click to expand...

I praise the Lord for our friendship and that you also enjoy Disciple.

Dr. Mehmet Oz will serve as the next Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services after the full Senate voted along party lines to confirm his nomination on Thursday.

The former daytime TV doctor turned politician will be in charge of nearly $1.5 trillion in federal healthcare spending. His duties will entail overseeing Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), including directing decisions related to how the government covers procedures, hospital stays and medication, as well as the reimbursement rates at which healthcare providers get paid for their services.

Medicare is a federal healthcare program for seniors aged 65 and up, and currently provides coverage to about 65 million Americans, according to the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Medicaid, a public health assistance program for people with low incomes, covers roughly 72 million Americans, according to Medicaid.gov. Meanwhile, CHIP, which provides free or low-cost health coverage for eligible low-income children and family members, assists around 7.2 million individuals.

Continued below.