Confusing times with ins and outs
Are causing many folks to doubt
What they have always held as truth
From times now past when they were youth.

Emotions raging high these days
With many angry, others praise,
With life now changing every day,
Not knowing what will go or stay.

So much is now up in the air,
With many living in despair,
Not knowing what the future holds,
Especially for the weak and old.

The trusted ones cause now to doubt
If they’re sincere in what they flaunt,
If they will hold to what professed,
If they’re sincere in what confessed.

For there are changes every day,
Some disappoint, while others sway,
While some confuse, raise doubts and fears,
Cause some to rage, bring others tears.

So, what to do? How do we deal
With what is fake and what is real?
How to adjust to the unknown,
Not knowing if the truth be shown?

The only remedy I know
Is trust in God, make Him your own,
Trust in His will, believe His truth,
And let the Lord your fears now soothe.

Believe His Word, trust in His care,
Let Him now make you so aware
Of where we are in history now,
So to The Beast you do not bow.

An Original Work / February 26, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

alaric said:

In the bible, there is a verse that says whoever is in Christ, there will no longer be condemnation.

Romans 8:1 = Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

I have come to this conclusion that many Christians DO NOT believe that God has removed ALL their sins. They only believe that God removed the sins that they did before becoming a Christian. And they have to follow the law and try to live a sinless life (or try to sin less) to please God.

When they try to follow the law to please God, they are essentially arming the devil with a weapon. And whenever they break a law, the devil will use the law to condemn them. In Colossians 2:14-15, it says God disarmed the devil by Jesus’ death on the cross.

Colossians 2:14-15 = When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us ALL our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

How did God disarm the devil?

It is written in Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

When Jesus died on the cross, he took our sins and paid the penalty on our behalf.

2 Corinthians 5:21 = God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Having paid fully for our sins, Jesus magnified and fulfilled the law. Since Jesus has fully paid for our debts (sins), we are no longer slaves under the law.

Imagine a man who purchase a house from HDB. Because he does not have money, therefore he has to take a loan from the bank. Every month, he has to pay the bank every month until the loan + interest is 100% cleared. Then one day, his father wanted to clear the loan for his son and paid everything that the man owes to the bank. Once the loan has been fully paid, the man is no longer under debt to the bank. When the next month come, even if the man receive a letter from the bank for loan payment. He can ignore the letter and penalty for non-payment because he knows the house have already been fully paid.

How do we know that Jesus has paid for my past, present and future sins?

Hebrews 9:26 & 28 says that Jesus appeared ONCE to do away with sin.

Hebrews 9:26 = Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Hebrews 9:28 = so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

God created time. Therefore, God is outside time. Most of the prophesies in the bible, God wrote them thousands of years in advance. It is written in the bible that God knows the end from the beginning.

Isaiah 46:9-10 = Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.

Revelation 22:13 = I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

If God knows the future, then God knows every single sin that we are going to do from the day we are born to the day we die. Therefore, Jesus’ death on the cross is payment for our past, present and future sins.

How clean are we after Jesus paid for our sins?

It is written in the bible that we are like Jesus in this world.

1 John 4:17 = This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

This means that if you are born again, your identity is in Christ.

If Jesus is sinless, so am I

If Jesus is righteous, so am I

If Jesus is holy, so am I

If Jesus is seated on God’s right hand, so am I

If Jesus is blessed, so am I

If Jesus has favour with the Father, so am I

Once you believed that ALL your sins have been washed away, you should not have consciousness of sin.

Hebrews 10:2 = For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

And the devil will no power over you. And you will be able to live a life that Christ paid with his life for you to have.

Click to expand...

There are many vain heretics today in the church teaching that God is a liar, saying the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to life, because they don’t want to hear the truth. 2 Timothy 4.3, 4.

Romans 3:25 KJV
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

SINS THAT ARE PAST.

Hebrews 6:4-6 KJV
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, [5] And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, [6] If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

“It is impossible to renew those who fall away” after they have received Christ.

James 1:14-16 KJV
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. [15] Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. [16] Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Sin brings forth death. But do you have life?

Is it not a sin to call God a liar?

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 KJV
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, [10] Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Revelation 21:8 KJV
. . . and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

James 2:19-20 KJV
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. [20] But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

“O vain man”

Landon Caeli said:

that's going to be a really long wait, if they're thinking we're going to rebuild it for them to return to. It's going to be like...forever.

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Well then USA should stay out of it then.

Israel have a war with Gaza, kill massive amounts of people, destroy the infrastructure and land, and then when the dust settles USA think they can come in and claim the spoils of war?

Then Russia have a war with Ukraine, they kill each other for years, then USA wants to claim some of Ukraine for itself?

USA is seriously painting itself as some kind of scavenger, a vulture perhaps, circling above, waiting for someone to die so they can then swoop down and have a feast.

What's next? Do USA encourage China to attack Singapore so that USA can eventually swoop in and take what is left of Singapore?

What about South Korea, are they going to encourage North Korea to attack South Korea for them?

You guys feeling proud of yourselves?

The White House said that illegal immigrant killers and rapists 'aren’t scholars — they’re criminals'​

The White House fired back at "disgraced" progressive filmmaker and activist Michael Moore’s criticism of the Trump administration’s deportations, saying his comments are "a strong contender for dumbest statement of the year."

Moore, who has directed a score of highly politically-charged documentaries, published a lengthy blog post on Tuesday titled, "Our Muslim Boy Wonder," in which he warned that by deporting illegal immigrants, the U.S. may miss out on the person who could cure cancer, the next equivalent of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, or the person who will save the world from "the asteroid that’s gonna hit us in 2032."

"Who's really being removed by ICE tonight?" Moore asked. "The child who would've discovered the cure for cancer in 2046? The 9th grade nerd who would’ve stopped that asteroid that’s gonna hit us in 2032? Do we care?"

The filmmaker declared, "For every time I have heard a negative word or blatant hatred spewed toward those who came from afar, I have felt that I should pause, get down on one knee, and thank all of those who gave up their lives elsewhere to come

Continued below.

Stephen3141 said:

The "woke agenda" seems to be a type of code language among some Christian
groups. I would define this carefully, to make discussions about it, meaningful.

The Department of Education does not define learning curricula, in schools.
That is the job of the state, or in the case of colleges, the individual college.
There has been a lot of hype about how the Department of Education has
been pushing non-Christian curricula in the state public schools. But that is
not what the department does.

Grand Canyon U was fined, I believe, for implying that some of its degrees were
cheaper than they actually are. This has nothing to do with a "woke" set of
values.

The Department of Education is responsible for generating comparitive reports
about the achievements of state schools. These are based on national standards of
education, and national standards of achievement (such as the SAT, and the ACT).
I do not think that these national standards are "woke".

The Department of Education is responsible for overseeing quite a bit of funding
for state schools. But, the individual states (I understand) have a lot of power
over legislating whether or not much of those funds can be used in private
schools.
---------- ----------

In short, there is no reason why Christian schools should not be criticized in
some sort of "quota" system, based on how statistically common they are.
Christians need to be very careful, when attributing criticisms of Christian
schools to a cultural agenda, and avoiding the question of whether or not
Christian schools are operating legally, and are offering a nationally recognized
core of legitimate courses.

I do not see this careful distinction being made, in many of these articles
about "woke" culture.

Click to expand...

The WOKE ideology is well known in the US political system and not at all so-called
code word for Christians. Most Americans saw the WOKE ideology pushed by the last
administration and as a result, voted for Trump overwhelmingly.

It's not a made-up term as you suggest it is.

God bless him. Too bad he’s a liberal, though

Horrible!

Glory to God!

I’m not at all surprised, unfortunately.

Ugh that’s horrible! The hatred against the faithful needs to stop!

I suppose you can get the AI version, then work-in what you have. And you can improve on parts of it.

If anything, I might use AI to give me definitions and background information. But we can get input from God Himself, even right while we are speaking.

I LOVE THIS THREAD!

Every post is better then the previous one! Completely make sense!

Xeno.of.athens said:

Who do you think is lording it over others?

Click to expand...

My point was about being an example

Yarddog said:

I didn't say anything about ethics.

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Ok.

JEBofChristTheLord said:

And there are questions closely related. How is it that the church of Rome could champion Roman emperors, and even crown the Emperor Charlemagne, producing one thousand years of killing all unbelievers and dissenters it could reach?

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Well in the case of Charlemagne, he used his power to coerce the church, however, the Roman church was doctrinally orthodox and did not harm anyone until the Carolignian dynasty began interfering in it; later Popes were able to turn the tables, but a new theological movement, scholasticism, had already occurred.

ViaCrucis said:

There are two kinds of denominations.

1) Denominations of many people.
2) Denominations of just one person.

Everyone who disavows denominations have just created a new one, even if they are the only member.

-CryptoLutheran

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This is an astute observation and expresses a problem with the “non-denominational” churches which are in fact just very small denominations.

It is also the case that contra the OP, the majority of Christians have very similar beliefs and are members of churches which engage in ecumenical relations with other churches.

When it comes to legitimate churches and communions, I prefer not to call these denominations, as this implies subscription to a pluralistic theory in which enduring schisms should be tolerated.

Now it is the case that the schisms which divided the early church into approximately four groups, those being the Roman Catholic Church, and the three ancient Eastern churches, loosely speaking, the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox (the two being virtually identical) and the Church of the East (which is slightly different but nonetheless at times was regarded as the church in the Persian Empire and the Far East - indeed for many years, it was the largest church in the world, much larger than the RCC) which at times have been very much separated from each other and at other times have had a much closer and more fluid relationships.

An additional schismatic branch separated the Roman Catholics from three groups of Protestants: the Lutheran and Moravian grouping, including Evangelical Catholics and the great Lutheran Orthodox movement but also afflicted by Pietism (which arose as a reaction to the same perceived issues raised by the OP), Anglicanism, and the Reformed churches, the latter group being extremely schismatic, while on the other hand Anglicans really dislike schism, to the point that there are still conservative parishes in the Episcopal Church, and to the extent that many Anglicans embrace a “broad church” idea based on latitudinarianism intended to prevent schism, whereas on the other hand the Pietists no longer seem to regard schism as important one way or the other, but prefer to minimize dogma and thus attain unity that way, which is deeply problematic. These numerous schisms were the fault of mismanagement of the Roman church - had it not been for the sale of indulgences and other issues, Luther and others like him would never have felt the need to leave.

In like manner the Eastern Orthodox caused a small number of schismatic groups to break away on two occasions, but in both occasions it was in opposition to ill-advised liturgical “reform”, the first instance where the Czar used violence to impose a Hellenization of the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church; fortunately this schism is mostly healed, for since the early 19th century the canonical church has provided services according to the Old Rite liturgy and other Old Believers entered into communion with the Church of Georgia, the Church of Constantinople and the Church of Romania where some of them, the Lipovans, remain to this day, but there are still two Old Rite groups not in communion with the canonical church and in addition there are also the Priestless Old Believers and various heretical sects that emerged from the incident such as the Molokans, Doukhobors, “Hole Worshippers” and other groups.

You would think such a mistake would not be repeated but it was - the adoption of the Revised Julian Calendar being the catalyst, however, the Old Calendarists have proven themselves to be highly schismatic; they are opposed to all ecumenical dialogue and activity, but fractions exist between them about how best to do that resulting in several groups and there is an unpleasant attitude.

Within the Oriental Orthodox, there have been schisms but they have tended to be transient schisms due to political issues, for example, there was a schism in the Armenian church during the Cold War between the Catholicos of Holy Etchmiadzin in Armenia and the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia in Lebanon, These jurisdictions could not be called separate “denominations” by any means since they worshipped the same way and contained the same people. Likewise, there exists a schism between the Malankara Orthodox Church and the Indian dioceses of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch over the issue of whether or not the churches in India should be part of the Patriarchate of Antioch or autocephalous. There is also a third “neutral” group, the Malankara independent Syrian Church, which unlike the first two is not, as far as I am aware, in communion with other Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions, but it is in communion with the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, a Protestant church created by the British East India Company deciding to only release gold bullion the Indian Orthodox had deposited with it to a bishop who proposed reforming the church on Protestant lines - his group remains quite small after more than two centuries, but it is a member of the Anglican Communion along with the much larger Church of South India, Church of North India and the terribly persecuted Church of Pakistan.

Speaking of persecution, the Anglicans and Catholics and other Christians in Pakistan, the Syriac Orthodox in Syria, Turkey and Iraq, the Antiochian Orthodox in Syria, and the Church of Sinai, Alexandrian Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (the first two Eastern Orthodox, the latter Oriental Orthodox) and the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia, Syria, and Turkey, and the Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East in Iraq and Syria, are among the most persecuted churches in the world, with many martyrs of these churches in recent years from Islamic terrorism. The Armenians also endured martyrdoms during the period of the Soviet Union, and furthermore the division of land between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is largely responsible for the current ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Ngorno-Karabakh, is a result of ill-advised redrawing of borders by members of the Soviet nomenklatura.

I don't think so. The Gospel of Thomas was not written by Jesus’ disciple Thomas. The early church saw it as a forgery.

Gospel of Thomas, Saying 14:

Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits.

Click to expand...

These 3 conditional statements contradict the canonical gospels about fasting (Mt 6:16), praying (Mt 6:9), and giving alms (Mt 6:2).

dlamberth said:

I also do NOT believe that God (at least the God I know and pray to) is a deceiver.

Click to expand...

Would you know it if he was?

To the 'letter of the law' of the OP: None

To the spirit of what we have been discussing these last 11 pages: Everything

Mr. M said:

Historically, widespread Christian persecution ended when nations began recognizing Christianity as an official state religion. While the Elect are only a remnant, they will experience what has occurred at times throughout history, Christians persecuting Christians who do not fall in line with an official government mandate. The man of lawlessness will cater to a Christian majority, while persecuting those who refuse to compromise the Gospel for the sake of religious unity and tolerance.

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Absolutely and it goes back to Constantine, let alone the Pharisees and Rome. God's ways of the Kingdom are polar opposite to the ways and will of man. He was clear that we are to serve each other, not focus on the self which leads to selfishness and greed, the foundation of the world that man has made in our own image. We were not to rebel but operate as a third option to the division among man. The earliest Christians were called the 'haters of man' for a good reason. They would not play the self serving games of mankind. We saw how even they disappeared with the rise of Gentile Christianity which re-joined the world of man. But the truth Jesus said His church would be built upon is still there in His two commandments.

Part 1​

The Purposes of Government​

Why do governments exist?

Thanks to I found what I think is the most accurate description of Government.
We will use this as our THEME, so reference will be made to it, throughout.


(Please read scripture references. I'm avoiding making this post lengthy. This is as brief as I can get)
God is SOVEREIGN over all. 1 Chronicles 29:10-13



Thus, God makes the rules, and it is God's will that all agreed that one should have more power than others. This recognition is the basis of sovereignty.

God expressed his right as SOVEREIGN over his creation, when he commanded his earthly human creation...
“You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil..." Genesis 2:16, 17



There was one who did not agree that God has the right to set rules on good and evil.
One of God's heavenly children of his spirit creation did not recognize God's sovereignty, but wanted what did not rightly belong to him. Luke 4:5-7

See Revelation 12:7-12, and John 8:44;
So, the first humans - Adam and Eve, rejected God's authority as sovereign. Along with Satan, they did not all agree on the issue of sovereignty.

What would God do about this most important issue?

Part 2
Long story, short... In a nutshell, so to speak...

• God appointed his son, who would be Messiah, king, high priest, and judge, to be the one who would settle the issue, by means of an expression of his father's sovereignty - a kingdom (God's government) set up by God, in the heavens, with Christ as king. Psalm 2:6; Daniel 2:44​
• This Government has "seats" that will be filled with a limited number of persons, chosen from among mankind. These are the Saints - the holy ones, and firstfruits to God. James 1:18; Revelation 14:4; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 ; Romans 8:23; Revelation 7:1-4​
• The King, Jesus, chooses these members, and this choosing started with the 12. Luke 12:32; Luke 22:28-30; Romans 8:16, 17; Galatians 3:29​
• These will rule with him, for the 1,000 years, in which Jesus will accomplish God's will, before handing the kingdom back over to the father. Revelation 20:4; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28​
• They rule from heaven, over the earth. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5; Revelation 5:9, 10; Revelation 21:1-4 Thus there is a new heaven and new earth.​
• There will be a resurrection of countless millions, including the unrighteous, ...Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29 and righteous ones like King David, Acts 2:29, 30:, Daniel, Daniel 12:1, 2, 13, Job, Job 14:14, 15..., who will live under the kingdom. Something Abraham looked forward to. Hebrews 11:8-10​
• There will then be one united family, under God - a family in heaven, of faithful angels and the Saints, along with God's beloved son Jesus, and a family on earth, of humans who remain faithful to God, living with animals that are united, and restored to their original state. Ephesians 1:10; Isaiah 11:1-9; Isaiah 65:25; Psalm 37:10, 11, 29; Proverbs 2:21, 22​

Key scriptures, in case I missed...
Genesis 49:10

Isaiah 9:6, 7

Daniel 2:44

Daniel 7:13, 14, 27

Also See Genesis 3:15; Galatians 3:16-29; Matthew 6:10; Luke 1:30-33; Luke 12:32; Luke 22:28-30; Romans 8:16-25; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Ephesians 1:6-11; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 5:9, 10; Revelation 14:1-5; Revelation 20:, 4, 6

Postvieww said:

We you are playing words games. I called them criminals which by definition means a law breaker. You said my post was incorrect. So you can explain how a person breaking the law which can land you in prison does not make one a criminal. IMHO your post was liberal double speak.

Click to expand...

Being in the country without authorization does not result in you going to jail. It is called out in the section I quoted.

The act of being present in the United States in violation of the immigration laws is not, standing alone, a crime

PloverWing said:

I agree that Trump does not have a history of showing empathy towards others. Like you, I expect to see him acting chiefly in the interests of wealthy white people such as himself during the next four years (though I think some of his current actions are going to trash the country even for rich white people, so who even knows?).

Still, he could surprise us.

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I appreciate you.

Lady Bug said:

I usually don't make two threads at once on a given day, I'm kind of struggling about a priest. My mind likes to work overtime, no doubt about it but I keep wondering what was going on in my priest's head as I was confessing to him a couple of days ago. I'm someone who does not confess well when the priest is looking right at me. That can be solved by going behind the screen, but I found it pointless because it was a one-on-one session that I asked for my priest after Mass.

I felt embarrassed because during my confession I felt that I couldn't look at him without smiling or my eyes lighting up. I tried to look away from him during confession but I was worried it would look rude. I should have asked him if he could look away from me when I was confessing, because based on my behavior, he might have sensed that I was attracted to him (which I hate to say it, I kind of am, but luckily I don't see him often). He has this gleam in his eye all the time, and I can't tell if he was simply looking at me because he felt it was common sense to make eye contact, or if his countenance signified that he thought I was a dork for smiling at him, or if he thought less of me for my sins (that would hurt, kind of).

He has, most likely, forgotten all about my confession and is busy doing his own thing, as I type, but I'm the overthinker here.

I just realized, a third thread is in the making but it's not so serious of a subject matter.

Click to expand...

Ya gotta remember priests haven't just heard it all in the confessional, but they've seen every sort of behavior too. They're not going to be thrown by how people behave in the confessional, they know people tend to feel meek or embarrassed or ashamed or any number of other things when they're confessing these things and those feelings give way to all sorts of behavior. So in other words, I'm sure your priest has seen it before and hasn't thought a thing about it since because it's not unusual to him.