Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamic terrorist group in control of Lebanon, used to boast that it was unbeatable because of its arsenal of over 100,000 missiles and rockets.

That arsenal, which was severely depleted by Israel before the Biden imposed ceasefire, relied heavily on a large collection of anti-tank missiles that could also be used against civilian targets, shelters and even, in the case of a Hamas attack in 2011 with a Russian Kornet, a school bus.

The TOW missile, originally developed in the 1960s, is a mainstay of the terrorist arsenal.

Hezbollah’s TOW missiles come from a variety of sources. The United States sold TOWs to the old Iranian government and after the Islamic takeover, the new regime cranked out copies called ‘Toophans’ which its Islamic terrorist networks have distributed to Jihadists around the region.

Continued below.

Was it too much for Catholic communicators to come to the Vatican to hear about Jesus Christ?

The Jubilee for the World of Communications took place Jan. 24-26 at the Vatican. It was the first such global gathering planned for the 2025 Jubilee Year, and parts of it were quite lovely. A Mass at St. John Lateran Basilica, in the presence of the heart of St. Francis de Sales, patron of communicators, was on the first evening. The following morning, pilgrims walked through the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, praying for the intentions of the Holy Father. Mass at the St. Joseph altar was beautiful.

But, during the events in the Pope Paul VI audience hall adjacent to St. Peter’s—the same room where the Synod of Bishops completed its study of synodality back in October—things got a little strange.

While the theme adopted by the Vatican for this year’s Jubilee is the theological virtue of hope, it was not surprising that hope was the theme of the talk of the first keynote speaker at Saturday’s “dialogue.”

It was somewhat shocking, though, to hear unfiltered from Maria Ressa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist who was jailed for standing up to fascism in the Philippines. She spoke not on Christ our hope, but a political, secularized consideration of it for communicators, as if we were at the United Nations.

Her story, no doubt, could have been a powerful one, if not for its blatant politicization and bias.

Continued below.

Paleouss said:

I hope you are keeping warm up there in the cold.

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Amen, brother!

An insider tells the story of how pro-lifers were persecuted by the Biden Administration under the FACE Act, and how Trump pardoned them.

Joe Biden is weaponizing the Justice Department to viciously persecute pro-life activists and Americans of faith. Just last month, the Biden DOJ got Paulette Harlow, a 75-year-old woman in poor health, sentenced to two years in prison for singing outside of a clinic…she was singing, actually a beautiful voice, she was singing beautifully outside of a clinic. And fearing she would die in prison, her husband pleaded with the judge for mercy and even asked to be thrown in prison with his wife and the judge responded by mocking their religion, he was mocking their religion. I wonder who that judge is.

Paulette is one of many peaceful pro-lifers who Joe Biden has rounded up, sometimes with SWAT teams, and thrown them in jail. Many people are in jail over this. This is just crazy. We’re going to get that taken care of immediately, first day, immediately.

But let’s call these brave Americans what they really are, it’s persecuted Christians. That’s what they are.

Continued below.

The Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, has opened a new yearlong “synodal” consultation process on sacred music after a now-rescinded decree from the bishop last fall banning certain hymns from Mass led to a flurry of debate in the diocese and elsewhere.

In a late January letter, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight said the goal of the process is a new, permanent decree on sacred music with the goal of fostering unity among the people of the diocese and encourage greater participation in the liturgy in accordance with Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council’s document on the sacred liturgy.

“My hope is that everyone in our diocese feels called to participate in the sacred music of our Masses and other liturgies. However, I recognize there can be obstacles that make it difficult or impossible for this to happen. For example, when the song is unfamiliar it can be hard to sing along. And when a song is in a language that is not our own, it can be even more challenging,” McKnight wrote.

“Music composed by individuals who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse brings more significant obstacles. There is real concern about what is conveyed to our community — especially to survivors of abuse — when we continue to use the works of such composers.”

Continued below.

Various religious freedom advocates flagged fresh indicators of persecution against Christians who live out their faith in Western liberal democracies during a breakout session of the 2025 International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, D.C., this week.

“People being arrested because of their faith and living out their faith is coming at odds with an increasingly secular and progressive [society],” said Alliance Defending Freedom International Legal Counsel Sean Nelson, who moderated the Feb. 4 panel.

Nelson was joined on stage by Todd Huizinga, a senior fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute focused on Europe; Janet Buckingham, the director of global advocacy at the World Evangelical Alliance; and Rabbi Emile Ackermann, a co-founder of Ayeka, the first Modern Orthodox Jewish community in France.

Nelson showed a brief five-minute clip that detailed stories of Christians facing persecution for speaking about or practicing their religious faith in Finland, the United Kingdom, and Malta — but panelists noted that the trend is widespread throughout Europe and North America.

Continued below.

WASHINGTON — As Syrians living under the control of Islamist-led rebel forces continue to face an uncertain future, the supreme head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church has offered a vision for how Christians can potentially rebuild their "homeland."

Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, patriarch of Antioch and All the East, spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, issuing a call on the international community to help Syria rebuild following the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime by lifting economic sanctions.

The Syrian-American Christian read from a joint statement released on Dec. 29 by the patriarchs and heads of churches in Syria outlining a plan for Syria’s future to re-establish the region as “an active member of the international community and to strengthen its belonging to its broader geographical and Arab surroundings.”

Continued below.

Good day, I found this very interesting:

The Debate Over the Septuagint (LXX) and the Hebrew Text of the Bible

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Laodicean60 said:

Fantine was talking about paying taxes. Your answer:

What does this answer have to do with the price of rice in China? In no way did I perceive her as saying act like Ceaser. Do you pay taxes?

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Oh boy. Excuse me for not understanding him.

Apparently, the new Communist Chinese AI tool DeepSeek has the ability to
send user's data directly to China.

American researchers in AI, need to recognize that the Chinese are waging
an all-technology war against America, and their AI products are completely
subject to the will of the Chinese dictator.

The American billionaires who own AI research companies, are still acting as
if the world is a completely benign place. It is not.

I'm happy.

AveChristusRex said:

Very informative, good job!

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Thank you for reading!

An Original Work / February 6, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Proverbs 21 Select Verses ESV


I absolutely love this first verse! The king’s heart was not literally a stream of water, but it was like a stream of water in the hands of the Lord. And the Lord was directing the stream in the direction that he wanted it to go. This is speaking of a human heart which is surrendered to the Lord Jesus to do his will. And, as followers of Jesus Christ, this should be a picture of our hearts, that they are so surrendered to the Lord that he is the one turning our hearts wherever he will, which will be in accord with his divine purpose.

And the next quoted verse goes right along with this. If we are pure in heart, because our hearts are like a stream of water in the hands of the Lord, being directed by the Lord, then our conduct will be upright, godly, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his New Covenant commands. We will not be those who compromise with the world and who compromise our morals and values in order to fit in with and to be accepted by the world. For we will want to please the Lord in all that we do.

We, as followers of Christ, should love justice and hate evil. And this doesn’t mean we should be people who immediately respond to the evil doers with “fry them!” For where were we when Jesus first delivered us from our sins? And have we always lived morally pure and upright lives to the glory of God? Did we get justice? No! We got mercy! While we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly in order that, by faith in him, we might die with him to sin and now walk in obedience to his commands, in his power and strength.

And justice isn’t just about frying the ungodly, but it is about fairness, honesty, integrity, uprightness, righteousness, and reasonableness. So, if we are just, we are going to give the unrighteous the same opportunity that the Lord Jesus gave us while we were yet trapped in sin’s deceitfulness. First we will forgive, but forgiveness is never permission to the sinner to continue in his sin nor a grant that no harm will come to him or her. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

For it is whoever pursues righteousness and kindness who will find life, righteousness, and honor. And righteousness is God’s judicial approval, i.e. God’s divine approval. It “refers to what is deemed right by the Lord (after his examination), i.e. what is approved in his eyes” (source: Bible Hub interlinear). And so this has to do with godliness, moral purity, honesty, faithfulness, and obedience to our Lord. And kindness is not lying to people. It is speaking the truth to them, in love, that they need to hear.

Now, in the New Testament there is a passage of Scripture about taming the tongue. It is found in James 3:1-12. And it says that no human being can tame the tongue. But yet it goes on to tell us that we should not be people who, from the same mouth come blessing and cursing. So, in our flesh we are not able to tame the tongue, but in the Spirit we should be able to get control over our tongues. And here in Proverbs we read that whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. We need to do that.

And we need to be truth tellers, to the best of our understanding. Not one of us should be in the practice of telling lies, not even under the guise of “being kind.” For lies are never kind, no matter how you dress them up. We should be honest people and still be kind, and we should speak the truth in love to one another, for our good. And we should be those who give thought to our ways and who are not quick tempered or who make quick irrational decisions. But we should seek the guidance of the Lord in all that we do.

[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; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

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In The Hand of The Lord
An Original Work / February 6, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Good morning wonderful people..

(Edit for spellchecker error)

“Much has been said lately of the massive amounts of government money going to Catholic Charities, and some are beginning to awaken to the grotesque salaries taken by their CEOs.”​

In the 1951 film, “People Will Talk,” Dr. Noah Praetorius (an unconventional doctor, played by Cary Grant, who questions a medical industry that treats patients like machines) asks a colleague (Dr. Baker, played by Walter Slezak), “What is my business?” Dr. Baker responds with a rather conventional answer: “To diagnose the physical ailments of human beings and to cure them.” Dr. Praetorius immediately retorts that he is wrong, saying: “My business is to make sick people well. There’s a vast difference between curing an ailment and making a sick person well.”

This little dialogue (in what is truly a wonderful, pro-life movie) provides a philosophical question to the nature of the real purpose a doctor has in practicing medicine. The difference between “curing an ailment” and “making a sick person well” has less to do with methodology and everything to do with relationships. “Curing an ailment” places the focus on the ailment, whereas “making a sick person well” places the focus on the person, and in this post-modern world it is well and right to apply this difference to the question of charity.

Many organizations throughout the world claim to be “charities” or “charitable organizations,” and if you asked those who worked for them what their business is, they would respond with something akin to, “ending poverty,” or “relieving poverty,” or “ending the root causes of poverty.” As with Dr. Baker, such answers place the focus on the ailment, rather than the person. However, if one were to ask a Traditional member of a mendicant order what his or her business is, the response would be, “to serve the bodily needs of the poor while instructing them in the Faith in order to draw them to Christ.”

Continued below.

Dear Lord, I pray for Your provision and help to restore Dave's mind so that he can understand Your Word. In Christ's Name, Amen.

(Some Cognitive Remediation Training might help with this. My understanding is there is some chess-based types that help, but you probably want to go for CRT to improve your verbal/reading memory, that's probably what will help you the most. Something to talk to your therapist about.)

The IbanezerScrooge said:

Sure, that could happen but you don't burn the school down to "fix" it.

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No but it will probably burn it's own self down eventually. This just can not go on as it is going, some type of collapse will eventually be the result.

Kind of like the person who smokes their whole life seemingly doing fine and then one day has a problem and goes to the doctor. Finds out they have lung cancer and is dead in a month or so. their body ate up with cancer.
That just happened to a person in the town i live in, who owned a music store and is now gone at age 75.

SavedByGrace3 said:

People can make up and pretend that any word is a slur. I don't know what she said, but I know there are many words and even pronouns that "offend" them. There is no end to that.

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True. Google it. Can’t post it here for whatever reason.

Much of the swamp in DC thinks they are separate and above the elected government. They believe they are departments unto themselves and do not have to follow the directions of the elected. They are receiving a wake-up call.
They are manned by "entitled" people who think everyone works for them.

We have two Bible Studies at my Church. One starts too early in the morning for me so I went with the other Bible Study in the evening. That didn’t work for me either. It starts at 7:30 pm and goes from 8:30-9:00 depending on how much material we need to cover. I’m usually in my jammies by 6:00, so that time didn’t work well for me either.

NxNW said:

The Onion is having trouble keeping up these days.

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Heck, these days, the Onion is obsolete. Reality surpassed satire a while back.

-- A2SG, 'round about 2016 or so, by my reckoning.....

hldude said:

YouTube Channel Video Devo
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“Facing Our Giants”
1 Samuel 17:48
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

Last week, we discussed the story of David and Goliath in our small group session. I’ve read this story so many times through my life and have heard it in church through many sermons. However, something always seems to hit you differently at some point in time about a passage you’ve read so many times in the past.

This verse really stood out to me in our study time together and I mentioned how the verse states David had no hesitation in running up to the battle line to meet Goliath. This is a confident person who knew that God was with him and would help him conquer Goliath. David had experience of trusting in God in the past and knew God would be with him as he fought Goliath. He was confident and did what he needed to do. Saul tried to put armor on him to help, but David didn’t need that. All he needed was a stone and his sling. Wow!

As I’ve thought more about this passage this week, I think about how all of us face giants in our lives that scare us to the point where we can’t face them. Stress and anxiety hits us and we cannot even fathom facing our giants. The enemy has as way of making us feel like the giants are way bigger than they are. Don’t get me wrong, some giants are terrifying, but God is BIGGER than any giant we face. That doesn’t mean the giant will just disappear because we have God on our side. However, it DOES mean that God will give us strength, courage and endurance as we face the giants.

Often we get upset when God won’t remove a giant from our lives. We have to remember that His ways are not our ways. Although we cannot often understand what God is doing, we know that He is working and that He’s worked through us and with us in the past. We have to trust Him and face our giants. It takes much prayer and faith.

I find myself dealing with a lot of giants in my life and I get stressed out and anxious easily. I need to fully focus on God and pray for wisdom, strength and endurance through it all. We can all be like David and run to the battle line to face whatever is in front of us staring us right in the face. We can conquer with God’s help. Running away from our giants will never solve our issues.

I want to encourage all of us today and every day moving forward, to bring fears to God regarding our giants and ask Him for the wisdom, strength, endurance and confidence to face the giants head on and watch God do amazing things.

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Would you please give some examples of these giants and how biblically those who are facing these giants can overcome them? Yes God will help us if we cooperate with him in what he says we need to do. Yes he will give us courage and strength if we surrender to his will and purposes. What kinds of giants do you think God will not remove? Sue J Love