ladodgers6 said:

Okay, I'll check it out tomorrow, very bust with Thanksgiving coming up, and family visiting.

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Alright, enjoy the holidays either way!

Genesis 1:

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

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And the Spirit
וְר֣וּחַ (wə·rū·aḥ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - common singular construct
Strong's 7307: Wind, breath, exhalation, life, anger, unsubstantiality, a region of the sky, spirit

What was the imagery of this hovering?

The acting agent was the Spirit. The waters were passive. The Spirit/Wind was quickening the waters into action.

There was another imagery.

was hovering
מְרַחֶ֖פֶת (mə·ra·ḥe·p̄eṯ)
Verb - Piel - Participle - feminine singular
Strong's 7363: To brood

Like a mother bird, the Spirit was brooding over the waters to hatch them.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4a And God saw that the light was good.

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From darkness came light. It was the image of birthing into existence.

Now, in the NT, Gabriel spoke to Mary in Luke 1:

35b “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

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A similar imagery was presented. The Spirit was brooding over Mary and Jesus came out.

Another one was in John 3:

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘Youd must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

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Jesus likened the Spirit to the wind. The Spirit quickened the human spirit for a spiritual birth.

The Spirit's hovering was the image of birthing something into existence. It underscores God's active engagement in the world, emphasizing His desire to bring life, order, and illumination into the chaos of the world.

Abraham's servant set out to look for a wife for Isaac in Gen 24. He saw a young woman filling her jar.

17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.”

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He did not ask for much.

18 She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”

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She decided to do more than he asked.

20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels.

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That was the sign that the servant was looking for.

The interaction between Abraham's servant and Rebekah is a beautiful narrative emphasizing the importance of kindness, service, and divine guidance in fulfilling God's plans. Rebekah's willingness to offer water not only to the servant but also to his camels demonstrates a generous spirit and aligns with the qualities sought in a partner for Isaac. She did more than what was asked of her.

HARK! said:

Migrants who have gone through all of the trouble of coming here legally are disturbed by this lawlessness.

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Part of this is true with the old migrants, my wife dislikes today's immigration policy because her family had to jump through hoops during Reagan.
I like the priorities.

"Removal priorities​

The removal process will prioritize individuals based on their threat to society, he said. “The priorities will focus on public safety threats, national security threats and fugitives,” those who “got due process at great taxpayer expense and the federal judge ordered them removed, but they didn’t leave, and they became a fugitive.”

Individuals who are on the federal Terrorist Watch List and “Special Interest Aliens” (SIAs), those from countries of foreign concern (COFC), are all priorities, he said. “We’ll work very closely with the FBI and intelligence community” to identify and find them, he said. “We know a record number of people on the terrorist watchlist have crossed the border,” he said. Homan has long warned that the border crisis created the greatest national security threat since 9/11."

I hope Trump has a little grace towards the ones working and paying taxes.
This will be a nightmare:

"If you have a US citizen child that lives here, he can’t petition for you. So, it’s better to leave on your own rather than getting a formal order of removal.”

The Ukrainian global community is marking the 91st anniversary of a Soviet-era genocide, even “as a new genocidal war is being perpetrated against Ukraine and its people,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

The archbishop joined hundreds in prayer Nov. 23 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to commemorate those who died in the Holodomor, an artificial famine in Ukraine engineered by Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin between 1932-1933.

The annual commemoration of the famine was organized by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

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When Georgetown Law student Brittany Lovely, who is scheduled to give birth in December, shortly before final exams, asked for permission to take her test early, late, or remotely, the answer she got from the Catholic university was a flat denial.

Citing university policy, the school's administrators told Lovely that granting her accommodations would be "inequitable to other non-birthing students in her class,” she told the Washington Post.

“Motherhood is not for the faint of heart,” she said she was told. Her was given a choice: she could either take the exam soon after childbirth with her newborn or fail and request to withdraw from the class. Even when her doctor weighed in, calling Lovely’s request both “reasonable and necessary,” the law school refused to budge.

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May the Lord Jesus Christ be by your side in all of this ✝

May God bless Bishop TD Jakes ✝

Markie Boy said:

This is a related question, and please take it seriously as it's a large issue for me that I would appreciate insight on.

What do you with family members that practice the faith very well with mass attendance and formalities to a T - but live total opposite with regular drinking to drunkenness, lots of swearing, and general mean behavior? Some how they think they are right with God because they do all the rituals. They even think they are doing above average because they do Latin - which is much more pure and reverent.

How would you confront such a thing?

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This is a problem situation, and not at all uncommon or unusual. The desire of God - His will for all persons He created - is the fullness of loving obedience to Him. We are to love Him with all our God-given human facilities. Jesus was asked:
"Which commandment is the first of all?"

Mrk 12:29 Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one;
Mrk 12:30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
Mrk 12:31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

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God doesn't want a lot from us, or of us, He wants all of us. This is because whatever we withhold of us from Him - whatever of us that we keep back, as "ours, not His!" is actually what used to be called "an idol". A false god. And mixtures of two gods, one True and the other false, is called "syncretism" (and is sinful) and is actually impossible to do, although it is attempted very commonly.

So it is painfully common to find people who think of themselves as Christian, and/or Catholic, who see nothing wrong with loving the world and the things of the world - seeing it as "normal". Not "saintly" for sure, but not "evil" either. Figuring God to be very forgiving, many seem to get they can "get by" and not anger God "too much" because, after all, "we're just human."

None of the above answers your question, I know. IMHO, the number one reason why so many think there is no problem with living a lukewarm faith in the Lord along with a "normal" love for this world and the things of this world, is that such a life of contradiction is so very common - "usual." The world is full of people living a life of contradiction, so it is what it is.

Sometimes a believer begins to hurt inside, seeking such hypocrisy in the House of God. That hurt may be sent by God with a very personal message to us, a hint at our own defects.

If we do try to correct the person, who may be relative, or neighbor, or fellow parishioner, or even the pastor, we can most probably be sure of the result: the Cross. So first, examine your own heart very carefully: do you find traces of mercenary love there, where there should be purity - God loved with all and all others loved only in God and with the love of God alone? If we are lacking in the very thing (except in the matter of degree) that we see to a fault in the other, then our tears ought to be for our own faults first, then for the rest of the world. For a "human sacrament" - or a witness - to be efficacious, it must be pure.

After his victory, Donald Trump is becoming a pop-culture phenomenon and support for him is becoming more public each day.

In 2015, I began working as a high school teacher in a Catholic school. This was also when the transgender mania began to take off, and we were witnessing it in the lives of our students. I distinctly remember standing in the staff room conversing with colleagues—colleagues who were decidedly liberal (virtually every colleague was liberal)—lamenting the infiltration of gender insanity in the student body. It was the beginning of the school year, and we had all received news that the administration was trying to figure out how to manage the bathroom issue and what to do about girls who said they were guys and guys who said they were girls when it came to things like school plays and which names we were required to use on report cards.

Even among my liberal colleagues, the general opinion was that the poor kids were confused, and we hoped that it would be a passing fad. I recounted to my colleagues that I had recently listened to something from Fulton Sheen wherein he relayed his experience of bringing the Holy Eucharist into mental institutions and how the patients—many of them may have been possessed or afflicted by demons—reacted in strange ways. The patients would disrobe, the women would start making masculine sounds, and other strange things would occur. To my delight, my colleagues found it interesting and asked me to share the information with them so they could better understand what was going on, thinking there might be a spiritual solution to help the confused students.

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The heyday of “New Atheism” around 2009 or 2010 featured a strain of millennial humor that has since been consigned, mercifully, to history’s dustbin. I’m referring of course to the “epic bacon” strain of combative atheism, which gave us the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the United Church of Bacon. (The latter boasts the vapid motto: “Bacon is our god because bacon is real.”) Many of us rolled our eyes at this when it started, but we had to wait over a decade for the world to roll its eyes with us.

By the end of the Bush years, the New Atheists believed they were fighting a vast, dominant American evangelicalism—a literal theocracy! Some of them still feel that way. Yet so much has happened in the intervening years, and the tone and tenor of unbelief has generally changed. Sunday Assembly, a “church” for non-believers recently profiled on CBS, exemplifies this metamorphosis.

Despite the fact that it was founded in 2013 by two British comedians, Sunday Assembly lacks the anti-religious mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster crowd. Its tone is more therapeutic and upbeat. With sixty chapters globally, its motto is “live better, help often, and wonder more.” Services feature “a TED Talk-style talk” along with sing-alongs (“pop songs mainly” accordingto the group’s website), inspirational readings, and the sharing of personal stories. Coffee and donuts are served afterward. “We release a lot of endorphins,” Amy Boyle, one of the group’s leaders, told CBS.

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HARK! said:

Well considering that they were responding to a threat of a story of their wokeness being timed to be released with Black Friday; I strongly suspect that it is the latter.

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It's a victory regardless.. a definite step in the right direction.

I think we are having a banner week so far!

Praise God for every victory, large or small!

Different topic

RandyPNW said:

I am half German, friend. Both of my grandparents on one side of the family were immigrant Germans from other countries, and spoke German. I've been to Germany, and enjoyed being there, though I don't speak much more than singing "Stille Nacht."

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Interesting.

RandyPNW said:

Trump doesn't like, nor do I, the German policy of allowing unabated immigration by questionable people.

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There is a lie (or call it half-lie) in that statement. »Questionary« people are only a small minority of the refugees, whether those going to Europe or those going to the USA.
And things like »they eat cats and dog in that city« are blatant lies.

RandyPNW said:

Europe has been corrupted by people who are not loyal to Christian standards.

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Strictly speaking, no-one is loyal to Christian standa5rds (we are all sinners). More important: European societies always deviated from biblical standards in one way or the other - from the Middle ages to our times.

RandyPNW said:

Political views, such as Trump holds, are not "lies."

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I don't speak of political views, but of differences to known facts. The many lawyers of Trump could produce no evidence at all of fraud in the 2020 election, therefore we know (unless we take a blind eye on the facts) that Trump has lost the election.
And it is a known fact that there is climate change. The many massive hurricanes this year are the result of warmer oceans, for example.
And when Trump said that Germany regretted the shutdown of atomic plants - no, we don't regret. We were glad that we could export solar generated electricity to France when many French nuclear plants had to shut down because of climate change (very hot and dry summer).

I refer to things like that, when I call Trump a habitual liar.

PARASHAH: “Chayei Sarah” (Sarah lives) GENESIS 23:1-25:18


The title of the Parashah is “Sarah lives” or “Sarah lived.” Yet Sarah is dead, so how does she live? She lives on in Abraham's memory, her legacy lives on, and her influence lives on, and this is what the patriarch wants for Isaac.

So even dead, Sarah continued to live on as a godly wife and mother, there is no doubt that Abraham wanted to bless Isaac with a similar wife. Torah says that Sarah lived 127 years. It is not often that the Torah records the age of women, but Sarah is the exception.

According to some rabbis, “120” years are a “full life.” So, Sarah lived a “full life” plus 7 more.

Another way we can look at this is, from the Hebrew text; “One-hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years. Why is this worded this way? The rabbis say that when Sarah was one hundred years old, she was as beautiful as when she was twenty, and when she was twenty, she was as innocent and holy as when she was seven.

Moshe lived a “full life” and maybe would have lived longer had he not “struck the rock” Sarah lived a “Kadosh” life (Holy life, separated to serve God, and her husband Abraham, and raising her son Isaac. One could say she was “anointed to serve”

127 can also symbolize “echad” (unit of oneness) (1), “covenant blessing” (2) “godliness” (7) Sarah received the blessing of being a godly woman, who joined in the “covenant blessing” of Abraham with YHVH, and together became “Echad Am” (One people) the Hebrew people who later became the Nation of Israel.

Sarah honored Abraham, and YHVH by submitting to their instruction, she was submissive, in the right way. Yet Sarah had her times of happiness and sorrow as All marriages go through. Sarah also anticipated the promise of God for a son. She gave Abraham her maid, Hagar, as a second wife. Bad decision, yet Abraham still listened to her voice. He still loved her even when she made an unwise decision.

Abraham and Sarah loved each other, and in death, Abraham showed his love towards Sarah by purchasing an overpriced piece of real estate. 400 silver shekels was a lot for a cave on a piece of property in Hebron, but He didn't mind paying for it, (guess it is like buying a hamburger for $25). 400 silver shekels would be about $4500 today. It had to be “written down, and documented” legally, not just “words”, we see that today, words are nothing, but if it is signed, sealed, and written down, you can take it to court!

So Abraham honored his wife both in life and in death. One of the biggest and most drastic changes in one’s life is the “death” of a spouse. We see the words in the Torah which recount the time of Sarah’s death. “and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke unto the sons of Heth saying…”

There is a time for mourning and weeping, and a time for joy, a time for continuing with life, as life does go on, with or without a spouse. Abraham had the right to mourn and weep since Sarah was part of his life for many, many years. We do not know when they got married, but when Abraham was called by Adonai, he was 75 years old, and he was married at that time. We could say that for about 50 years, Abraham had Sarah by his side. The Adonai called her home.

There will be a time when Adonai calls home our spouses, how will we respond when that happens? Will we cry out to God; Why? But are our spouses our own? Or do we all belong to Elohim? What are we but souls inhabiting finite bodies that will eventually cease to function and return to our Creator and God?

A baby enters the world with clenched fists, yet leaves the world with open hands. We all want to hold on to everything, even spouses, yet we have to let go and let God have his way. A spouse, a wife, or a husband, is like a library book. We will take the library book and read it cover to cover, do we understand what we read? We have “x” amount of years to do it. But the master Librarian will call for his book to be returned someday, and we will have to deal with that.

A spouse is like a jewel to be worn and cared for, for “x” number of years, but the Jeweler will call for his gem someday, and we will have to take “her” or “him” off and return “her” or “him” to Jeweler of all creation. I think that the more we love our spouse, the more difficult it will be for us to let go someday when our spouse is at death’s door. It wasn’t easy for Abraham, and it will not be easy for us.

I think that the time for caring, for loving, for giving flowers is when our spouses are alive, not at the grave site. One wonders what the surviving spouse will say. “May he (or she) rest in peace!” …or…” Now that he (or she) is gone, now I can rest in peace!!” Abraham wept and mourned, but then, he got up and “buried his dead out of his sight” He continued with life, searched out a wife for his son Isaac, and eventually Abraham remarried, to Keturah who bore him six children (Chap 25).

There is life after the departure of a loved one. The most difficult part of losing a loved one, especially a spouse, is if the spouse is an unbeliever, lost, without salvation. THEN we shall never see that spouse again, EVER! All the more reason to be “equally yoked” To lose a spouse in death is to be separated for “a season” but be reunited with her (or him) later on in heaven. That is the way we have to look at it because it is the truth.

The true meaning of the word “love” is NOT feelings. What is “Love at first sight?” (Hey, I like your moves, I like your legs, your hair, your eyes, your build, etc.). Feelings and emotions can lead two people to enter into a covenant of “love”, “Love” is the action of “giving” The Hebrew word is “Ahavah” it has the verb “hav” which is “to give” and the word “av” is in there, being “Our Heavenly Father gives” He proved his love toward us that He GAVE His Only Son, Yeshua, as a sacrifice for our sin.

When a couple chooses to marry, share life, provide one for another, in health and sickness, and not “cop out” on each other, THAT is TRUE LOVE. The words, “I feel I don't love you anymore” are silly, worthless words. Imagine if Sarah had told that to Abram. Or if Abram would have said that to Sarah, “I don't love you anymore, because you can't give me children” and the two separated, where would the Nation of Israel be today? It would be nonexistent. Yet they kept by each other’s side in good times and in the bad times, the times of drought, the “Egypt” times, the “Ishmael” times, and the long waited “Isaac” times.

Abraham sent his servant Elazar to look for a wife for Isaac. (I wish that custom was still here with us, parents getting their children husbands and wives, parents have inner wisdom and want the best for their children) . He carried 10 camels with gifts, the “bride price” for the “bride to be”. He had to go to Mesopotamia, to Abraham's family, He did NOT want a Canaanite woman for the bride of Isaac, a pagan Canaanite woman would have been an “unequal yoke” that is wisdom for us today, a “born again believer” should only marry another “born again believer” where the two worship and serve the “same God YHVH/Yeshua”

Elazar observed “Rebecca's actions” Rivka watered the thirsty camels, sought not her comfort, but had a servant's heart. This is what Elazar was looking for, Abraham would be happy, and so would Isaac. The “engagement jewelry” was a nose ring and gold bracelets” today in our society we give an engagement ring.

Abraham wanted a wife like Sarah for his son Isaac. We might think, what kind of wife (or husband) would one believer look for? Well, there are certain qualities to look for in looking for one’s “life mate”.

If a man is looking for a woman to be his wife. I would think that he might want a woman whose first love is for God, for Yeshua, and to obey and follow the Torah. That the woman also be humble, who will run the home with wisdom, and with money in her hands she will spend it wisely. She should be a woman who will raise her children according to the Word of God and not waste time with “fairy tale reading” but with “Torah Tale reading” if she is to read “Bed-time stories. I have not mentioned the “physical” characteristics, since “how beautiful or not” is not of prime importance, but yes, is a bit important since men are usually in search of “what attracts the eye”

Just as “Riv’kah” was willing to follow Elazar to Isaac’s home, so should the wife be willing to follow her husband. Where he is, she should be as well. UNLESS there is some sort of danger or unwise decision-making on the husband’s part, then, the wife needs to help the husband “re-think” the decision.

Now “Rivka”(Rebecca) had to be “willing to go with Elazar to be Isaac's wife”. We can see this is our relationship with Yeshua. Yeshua/Jesus is the “bridegroom” and we, the “Kehillah” (Congregation of “called out ones”) are the bride. We have to be a “willing bride” to go with our “heavenly bridegroom”.

Just as Elazar brought gifts to the bride-to-be, Yeshua has given “gifts” to us as HIS Bride; Salvation (Yeshuah) an eternal home/mansion in Heaven, spiritual gifts to do service and minister with. Healthy bodies (for the most part) in which to live, spouses and children, jobs to earn a living. If we think about it, the list could go on. We have many blessings through Yeshua.

If you have lost a spouse in death, always remember that if she or he was a believer in Yeshua, you will see her or him again. The separation is temporary. Life goes on. We are still living in the finite dimension while the spouse has crossed over the line into eternity. Perhaps, just perhaps, 5 years on Earth will be like 5 minutes in Heaven. Imagine, meeting your spouse in Heaven and saying;

"Oi Vey, 10 years without you my dearest, such lonesome lonely years. But now we are together again. Praise the LORD!
What 10 years? I just got here a few minutes ago!

Happy Thanksgiving ahead of time.

Yusuphhai said:

One For Israel Messianic Jewish Movement in Israel

“As an Israeli Messianic Jew, I wake up in the morning with a passion to bring the Good News of Jesus to my Arab brothers…I know without a doubt that the Lord’s heart is for us to be united in Jesus as the one new man.”
20% of Israel’s nine million citizens are Arabs, most of whom are Muslim, and 20% within that number are nominally Christian.
Only a fraction of that number are born-again believers."

The emergence of Ish- Shema- El was not a simple error. The Lord hopes that more ethnic groups will be willing to listen to the voice of the Lord, and the Lord is also willing to listen to the grievances of more ethnic groups. The Arab nation, as a closely related ethnic group to Israel, can play a mediating role in the relationship between Israel and the Gentiles. The friendly cooperation of the Great Abrahamic Clan (in physical sense) is a blessing for the whole world.

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Amen my brother. I have met quite a few Muslims that are peace loving and love the Jewish people and Christians as well. They are quite embarrassed with the minority of Islamic terrorists, who want to hate and not love

Talk about Jesus when the sun arises.
Don’t be a phony, putting on disguises.
Talk about Jesus middle of the daytime,
Not just at church or in your prayers at mealtime.

Talk about Jesus to your friends on Facebook.
Don’t be ashamed of him or of the Good Book.
Talk about Jesus in your tweets on Twitter.
Don’t vacillate in your beliefs or flitter.

Talk about Jesus in the early evening
On the internet’s sites, blogs, even texting.
Talk about Jesus naturally as most things.
Make him a part of everyday conversing.

Talk about Jesus, not just on holidays.
Is He your best friend? Then, that you should convey.
Our faith in Jesus not just for special days.
If we believe Him, each day, then, we should say.

An Original Work / April 3, 2021

johansen said:

This is what i believe as well.

My wife had a dream earlier this year in which a demon attacked another woman (w) we know in real life ... And was also attacking the demon w was working with.

Upon praying about that dream, and my wife's observations and experiences in the dream: it became evident that the attacking demon, did not know it was being observed by my wife. For what its worth, the demon attacking w in the dream, my wife insists is the same demon that attacked her in a dream, 2 days before she miscarried.

Now, i know of a politician in real life who came up to me at church and introduced himself and his fiance to me. In them i felt the same spiritual presence as i felt in W, 12 years ago. It was creepy. I dont even know why he wanted to get to know me. (The only 2 people in my life ive ever felt a presence like that, in.)

A week before the election i was driving and saw one of his campaign posters, and i sensed that spirit around him, "on" his posters. I told it to leave him. The spirit protested and said "well i have to be able to influence someone"


And, as much as they are all liars.. that may be true. Mankind's collective sin means demons and higher ranking spirits are allowed to influence people and their leaders.

The politician is a christian, abet a liberal lgbt one (you have to be to win election in my state). I have seen him since then and did not feel that spirit on him. I also have not seen him with his fiance, but rather other women. (He did win with 66% of the vote)

I have half a mind to actually tell him these matters, not for the purpose of boasting about it but to warn him about W ans people like her who have spiritual power and miss use it.

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It sounds like you have some great discernment but I do hope you know your authority in the name of Jesus so that you can insure the peace of God rules even more in those tough situations. I was once attacked in my sleep and Prayed to God for more power. That Wed night at the church a minister came to me and said that God wanted me to know that I already had the power. We all kind of know that, but like the disciples head knowledge in casting them out only goes so far. We really do have authority in Christ and we can stop all the activity we can believe for. God bless and thanks for sharing your experience and confirmation.

I am reading in Isaiah 1, but I am going to be translating this to our day and time and to how it applies to the church today, especially to the church here in America, which is where I live and know (generally speaking). For I attended the gatherings of the church from infancy on up, and I am now nearly 75 years old, so I have had almost 75 years of experience with the church in various locations (states and cities within the USA), and with the market-driven and institutional American churches of various denominations.


So, I believe that the message in Isaiah 1 applies largely to the church in America today (overall, but not all inclusive). And even though some of us are hearing reports of revivals and of large gatherings of worshipers of Jesus and of large numbers of people believing in Jesus Christ and getting baptized, we cannot make a judgment on these gatherings based on superficial information only. For a large crowd of people singing and waving their arms in the air, and swaying their bodies to the music is not a true indication that true worship is happening, nor is lip service only.

So, I have been investigating what I have been able to get information on these "revivals," and from what I can gather so far, what is largely being taught is not the true gospel of our salvation. In fact, the gospel one group admits to be teaching is just Romans 10:9, which reduces the gospel to a verbal confession of Christ as the Lord and to an acknowledgment of his bodily resurrection from the dead, whereby they are being told that they are now saved. Does the Bible say that? Yes, but out of context it is being taught as “the gospel,” which is a lie, for the rest of Romans and the NT do not agree with that.

What is largely being taught as the gospel of our salvation here in America, which I believe is increasing with these large “revivals” and “worship” gatherings, is a very diluted and altered gospel message which is telling people, basically, that all they have to do is to profess faith in Jesus Christ and now all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and now heaven is guaranteed them, and it cannot be taken away from them, but regardless of how they live. Death to sin and obedience to God are largely not being taught as part of faith in Jesus Christ which saves from sin.

So, what we have here in America is a large number of people professing faith in Jesus Christ who have not died with him to sin and who have not been raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to righteousness. So they are not denying self and dying to sin daily and walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, for they are not being taught those as necessary components of faith which saves, or they are being told that they are unnecessary.

And this is what brings me, then, to Isaiah 1, and to the message I believe that God has for the majority of those who profess his name but whose hearts are far from him, for they are still living for self-pleasure and in sinful practices, and not in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands. Even though they know the way of righteousness, they are living in rebellion against the Lord by how they conduct their daily lives. America, at large, is a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, who have forsaken the Lord.

And I believe that we, as a nation, are under the judgment of Almighty God, and our future is not going to be what many hope that it will be. For so many are putting their trust in human beings to save them from what ails our nation, but God is our only Savior (Messiah). And I believe that many are putting their trust in “thieves and liars” who are not who they make themselves out to be, and who are deceiving the people with their lies, just like the Scriptures tell us is going to take place in these last days.


There is a remnant, though, who have not bowed the knee to “the beast,” and who have not made men their gods, and who have not adopted a diluted and altered gospel message which makes no requirements of us that we must die to sin and walk in obedience to our Lord or not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. And we are those who have entered into relationship with our Lord via a narrow (restricted) way which requires death to sin and walks of obedience to our Lord, which includes much persecution.


And this wide (broad) gate (way) is the one that is largely being taught as the truth of the gospel, which is diluted to a mere verbal profession of faith in Jesus and an acknowledgment of his bodily death and resurrection. But Jesus said if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in walks of obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]


Same message that Jesus Christ and his NT apostles taught, too, as is evidenced in the noted Scripture references above. Salvation from sin and eternal life with God are only promised to those who are willing to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ, and to turn away from their sins, and to walk in obedience to his New Covenant commands. For if we refuse and rebel, and so we continue in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord, then we will not have eternal life with God, but eternal torment in hell will be what awaits us, even if we give lip service the Lord and we profess we believe in him.

Though Your Sins Be as Scarlet

Frances J Crosby, 1880
William H. Doane, 1876

“Though your sins be as scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they be red like crimson,
They shall be as wool!”
“Though your sins be as scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow.”

Hear the voice that entreats you,
Oh, return ye unto God!
He is of great compassion,
And of wondrous love;
Hear the voice that entreats you,
Oh, return ye unto God!

He’ll forgive your transgressions,
And remember them no more;
“Look unto Me, ye people,”
Saith the Lord your God!
He’ll forgive your transgressions,
And remember them no more.

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Prayers for the Cuban faithful.

probinson said:

a good deal of its budget comprises federal funds that flow to it indirectly by federal law.

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So does the Trump administration plan to stop all the indirect funding or are they just making a big deal out of the 1% they plan to stop? I attended a church that owned a TV station and that was a point of contention for me that they would be involved in the very thing they preached against in the Sanctuary.

Lord have mercy!

That’s fascinating!

T

peter2 said:

As for me, i have no objection. Thank you Riley
Thinking again, after editing, may be it would be more opportune in General theology, if some non catholic christians are to be dissuaded to participate on OBOB

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You’re welcome.

Have a blessed evening