Hazelelponi said:

Again, dangerous felons.

We do the same thing to our own felons during transport. We just don't fly them around the country.

In the town I used to live they walked the arrested people from the jail to the courthouse for court - chained at the ankles, waist, and hands. It was about a block they walked. And none of them were even convicted yet.

It's called being a criminal, you are a danger to society and we protect society and innocent people who aren't criminals.

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Dangerous felons?
Observe the deportees disembarking from a Colombian Air Force jet in Colombia.....the first flight of deportees to arrive following the incident over the weekend.

RoBo1988 said:

Does your Bible leave out Romans chapter 13? We are free from the law of sin and death, but still have a responsibility to be good citizens where He places us, following Him first Acts 5:29

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The key is being a "good citizen." Christians must obey the law, be good citizens, and live harmoniously with everyone. That is what Romans 13 is all about.

The implementation of Biblical law on earth as a means to create better Christians is not supported by New Testament teachings.

I love the OP in this thread. I fully agree that familiarity with the scriptures is very beneficial. Your distinction between bible reading and bible study is excellent - I don't think I have heard that before. And I also appreciate your approach that gives yourself grace when you miss a day of bible reading.

There was a stretch of quite a few years when I could hardly open scripture (a subject for a different thread...) but thankfully that has dramatically changed the past few years. I am now in in the middle of my second consecutive bible-in-a-year plan, which is probably somewhere between what you are calling bible study and bible reading. Most days I take my time and read a number of the notes (and sometimes full essays) in a study bible, but it is still more rapid than how I have done slower, deeper dives into individual books.

After this time through I will probably more slowly study a handful of books (probably at least a Gospel, an epistle, a prophet and a book from Torah) before doing another bible-in-a-year plan. As you said so well, getting (and keeping) a big-picture view of scripture is quite helpful for this journey of faith.

I am reading in John 4, beginning with verse one, concerning Jesus’ divine appointment with a Samaritan woman at a well in Samaria. While Jesus was seated at this well, this woman from Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. She was surprised that he, a Jew, would ask her, a woman from Samaria, for a drink, for Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.


So, what did Jesus mean by the “gift of God” and “living water”? Jesus Christ is God’s gift to us, as is the faith to believe in him, as is our salvation and our eternal life with God, and all that our salvation entails. And when we believe in Jesus with this God-gifted faith in him, and we die with him to sin, and we are raised with him to new life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And all of this is involved in this spring of water welling up to eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 3:16,36; John 5:22-24; John 6:35-57; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-17; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-24; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

For our faith in Jesus Christ is not to be stagnant, but ongoing, alive, vibrant, active, and evident by our love response to our Lord for saving us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin and for giving us new life in him, empowered by the Spirit to live holy lives, pleasing to God, in walks of surrender to our Lord and in obedience to his commands and in moral purity, uprightness, godliness, and righteousness – all by the grace of God, and not of our own doing, but in submission to his will and purpose for our lives.

And I want to focus for a few minutes here on “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (verse 14). Like I said, we are not gifted with a stagnant faith which depends on a one-time profession of faith in Jesus to forgive us of all sins and to promise us eternal life with God when we die. Our salvation is progressive: We are saved (past), we are being saved (present active), and we will be saved (future) when Jesus returns and he takes his faithful ones to be with him.

Progressive Salvation: [Romans 8:24; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5,9]

Jesus said if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross (die to sin) daily, and follow (obey) him. If we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience, then we have the promise and the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING God’s will (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 6:1-23).

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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Welling Up to Eternal Life
An Original Work / January 28, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

As for him and his house, he will serve Trump.

RDKirk said:

Back in the mid 90s, as part of a military intelligence effort, I had to compile a report on how Christians were "handled" in North Korea (yes, how Christians fared in various countries was a standing military intelligence question).

My report was an absolute horror story, the details of which are not permissible in this forum. Let me say this: North Korean guards got medals for devising the most horrendous possible tortures to do to human beings who were accused of having professed Christ.

My boss at the time was a Marine colonel who had been through the toughest battles of Vietnam. Combat troops are awarded the Purple Heart for injuries in battle. One Purple Heart ribbon worn on the chest can hold up to five individual Purple Heart awards, each indicating separate incidents of being wounded. He had three Purple Heart ribbons, two of them completely full. He had scars and stitches all over his face and head...the man looked like Frankenstein (he was, however, my very favorite commander in my career).

I say all that to get across the idea: This was a tough man who had seen a lot of bad things.

I gave him my report on how Christians were treated in North Korean camps. He got about three pages in, turned white as a sheet, closed it, and pushed it away from him saying, "I can't read any more of that <bleep>"

And yet, since then the Church in North Korea has grown tenfold.

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I am not American, but thank you and your former boss for your service to Christianity and freedom.

rambot said:

Moreso the nature of the officer.

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I think we should consider the nature, and the character of this officer who was at the Capitol:

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========== quoting the article above

Wagner's movement quickly took on an increasingly apostolic–prophetic tone and his organizational acumen helped it expand through networks of apostles and prophets and their organizations, while their ideas, such as dominionism, also spread back into the movement. After his retirement in 2010 and death in 2016, these organizations have been led by apostles and prophets.[7]

Wagner's 2008 book Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World, with its language of spiritual violence, set the NAR on a trajectory away from simple reformation of the church's organizational structure towards gaining political influence through spiritual warfare in order to transform society. His 2016 endorsement of Donald Trump's candidacy for US president shortly before Wagner's death has been called "one of the most consequential" evangelical endorsements of Trump that year.[7]

As the fastest growing group "within or on the periphery of American Christianity" since the 1980s, the New Apostolic Reformation has rapidly gained religious and political influence in the United States.[18] In 2015, it was estimated that churches openly part of the NAR were attended by 3 million Americans;[29][30] some estimates as of 2020 claim an "[influence on] approximately thirty-three million adherents in the United States", though this number is disputed.[18]

The movement is global, growing in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, with it constituting a significant part of church growth in the southern hemisphere.[31][29][27] American missionaries introduced New Apostolic thought and spiritual warfare practices to Haitian pastors and seminarians during the first presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and again following the 2010 Haiti earthquake through transnational missionary networks.[32] Additionally, tenets typical of the NAR have spread into the broader Pentecostal and Charismatic worlds.[31] NAR beliefs have a global reach through Trinity Broadcasting Network, an international Christian television network, which "regularly promotes the teachings of the NAR" in its programming.[33] The Elijah List, a prophecy-focused website founded in 1997, is influential in the NAR.[34]

Valletta said:

Joe lied about it. With Trump it's no joke.

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Be unified you stupid idiots.

Not sure how smart a person would be to think that's gonna work.

WilliamLhk said:

"All Bible scholars know" -- right.

I am moving along now, won't spend any more time on your such claims.

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I am ok with Jer 4 as it reads. So also Jer 25 where the slain of the earth are from one-end of the Earth to the other with no humans left (as Jer 4 states) to bury the dead.

The same world-wide post-trib rapture that we see in Matt 24:29-31.

The same world wide desolation of all the lost we see in 2 Thess 1:5-8 and at the end of Rev 19.

A condition you have had no answer at all for so far. You have free will of course and can ignore these details as you wish.

ARBITER01 said:

Sorry, water is symbolic of The Holy Spirit

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No, Spirit is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. It literally means breath (Pneumatos): God the Holy Spirit is a person who proceeds from God the Father like breath and who in turn inspires, as one does through breathing, the Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists who wrote the Bible and also insufflates us with His grace.

The water rather represents the washing away of sins by the Crucifixion of Christ our God, who when He expired on the cross, and the side of His sacred human body was callously pierced by a Roman soldier, blood and water poured out, which are symbolic of the sacred mysteries of Eucharist and Baptism, respectively.

These are the sacraments by which all prior sins including the sin inherited from Adam are washed away, and we die to our former self and are born again as we are received into the Church, and then receive the continued cleansing of our sins and communion with God the Father, His only-begotten Son and Incarnate Word Jesus whose Body the Church we are grafted onto as Partakers of the Divine Nature through the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving where we consume the bloodless and rational sacrifice of bread and wine that become through the action of the Holy Spirit the precious Body and Blood of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.

What I just stated by the way is a brief summary of the soteriological passages in 1 Corinthians, the Gospel of John and the Synoptic Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, and 1 and 2 Peter, and other New Testament texts, which you can verify by reading them, since I reckoned you would respond less favorably to Patristic comments even where they are uncontroversial among Protestants.

Nick1000 said:

Yeh, probably the right word is basilica rather than cathedral because it is dedicated to a special purpose rather than the home of a diocese. Not sure. I am not that fluent in Catholic.

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I believe that’s the word actually used. Basilica

In a small neighborhood in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a group of young people gathers every afternoon on a dusty court. Among them is Lucas, a teenager who once spent his days on the streets, surrounded by negative influences.

Everything changed when a Christian soccer team arrived — not just to play but to share a message of hope.

“That day, I not only learned how to handle the ball better, but I found something bigger: a purpose,” Lucas recalls with a smile.

Continued below.

An Original Work / November 6, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

All I have is Yours, Lord.
You gave all to me,
When You died at Calv’ry
On that cruel tree.
Crucified for my sins;
You paid what I owe,
So I’d be forgiven;
My God come to know.
All I have is Yours, Lord.
You gave all to me,
When You died at Calv’ry
On that cruel tree.

Lord, I am so thankful
For Your grace divine.
I invited You, Lord,
In this heart of mine.
I have been forgiven
For all of my sins,
So I’d live with Jesus;
His grace flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful
For Your grace divine.
I invited You, Lord,
In this heart of mine.

Growing in Your grace, Lord;
Live for You each day;
How I love to worship
You throughout my day.
Sitting at Your feet, Lord,
List’ning to You speak,
Leads me to love You, Lord,
More throughout the week.
Growing in Your grace, Lord;
Live for You each day;
How I love to worship
You throughout my day.

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RileyG said:

Not to go off topic, but as a concessional Lutheran, you use the term “Mass?”

Interesting

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It is what it is.

PARASHA: “Va’era” (and I appeared) EXODUS 6:2-9:35


YHVH speaks to Moses saying that when he appeared to Abraham, he revealed himself as “El Shaddai” which means “God Almighty” or “God all-powerful, yet he did not reveal himself as he did to Moshe. To Moses he revealed himself with the more personal name; YHVH (Yod Hey Vav Hey) These letters stem from the word; “HaVaYaH” which means “To exist” (we re-arrange the letters) one could say that the name YHVH means “the God who exists from time past, present, and future) “Haya=the past” “Hoveh=the present “Yiyah”=future” As one can see, these words are a mixture of the letters YHVH. We can also say: "I will Be"

YHVH plans to take his people out of Egypt and return them to Canaan, the promised land, and at the same time, “judge the Egyptians” using a series of judgments leading up to the slaughter of the “Passover lambs” a very important “Moed” which we know so well. This year, Passover starts on the eve of April 12th. We can look forward to this time as we do every year. A "Moed" and "Moedim" are the "set aside times when we are to celebrate God's sanctified festivals. Passover is the first "Moed" or "appointed time"

The judgments are directed against the false deities of Egypt and Pharaoh himself. Egypt was pretty well destroyed and left in ruin afterward, and never did regain the power and military might it once boasted of.

From verses 6 to 9, YHVH makes 8 “I will” promises to his people and I want to look at these promises in light of how they affect us as believers in Messiah Yeshua today;

1. I WILL bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

2. I WILL rescue you from their bondage.

3. I WILL redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

4. I WILL take you as my people.

5. I WILL be your God.

6. I WILL make myself known to you as your GOD who brings you out from under the burdens of Egypt.

7. I WILL bring you to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

8. I WILL give it to you as an inheritance.

How do these promises affect us as believers?

1. I WILL bring you out from under the burden of SIN (already done)

2. I WILL rescue you from the bondage of SIN (through Yeshua) (already done)

3. I WILL redeem you with “Two outstretched arms, which received two nails” and “judged” Satan (already done)

4. I WILL take you as part of my people through Yeshua. You are part of the Commonwealth of Israel, you have been “grafted in”

5. I WLL be your God; Adonai-Elohim YHVH. Yeshua, God incarnate.

6. I MADE myself known to you through my Torah! And through YESHUA. The whole Bible is before us to read, and study, and through God's
anointed Word, we come to know God.

7. I WILL bring you to my land. Many have moved to Israel to live, others to visit and get involved with volunteer programs to support Israel.

8. I WILL give you as an inheritance ETERNAL LIFE, and you will be part of MY KINGDOM. If you have already come to Yeshua, you already have it! We can look forward to eternal life in the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly city which will someday, come down to Earth. All believers will be part of His 1000-year reign. We all have a rich inheritance in HIM! who has set the captives free.

A quick look at the plagues that Adonai brought down upon the Egyptians. All were directed against the pagan Egyptian gods.

The staff of Moshe, which was thrown down and became a serpent, the serpent (Cobra) was the emblem of power in Egypt, the symbol of Pharaoh, in this case, the staff of Moshe, (the staff representing the power and authority of Adonai, through Moshe and Aaron) turned into a serpent, and quickly devoured the serpent-staffs of the magicians of Pharaoh. Result? The power (serpent) of Adonai overpowers the authority (serpents) of Pharaoh, case closed! The serpent was judged in the Garden of Eden already.

The Nile was worshipped as a goddess who gave life. The Torah teaches that the life of the flesh is in the blood, yet in this case, the “bloody Nile” symbolizes death. Again, Adonai triumphs over "Anuket" the goddess of the Nile. Only in Goshen was there freshwater. Yeshua, who is the “Living Water” gives life to those who seek Him and are on “His side”.

Frogs are cute yet slimy, a few are OK, but too many are bad, especially when they all start to sing and croak together. The Egyptians could not kill them since they considered them gods. The goddess “Heket” was the goddess of fertility and had the head of a frog! And boy did they ever reproduce! Too many frogs! There were too many “Heketim!” yet Adonai got rid of them, and the land “stank!”

The plague of lice and boils made the Egyptian priests “unclean” to serve. Again, two strikes against Egypt’s religious order.

The plague of the death of the cattle, a strike against the Egyptian god “Apis” (the bull).

The hail from the sky, a strike against "Nut", the goddess of the heavens.

Darkness, a strike against Ra, the sun god. The list goes on. It is a war against the gods of Egypt against the ONE true God, Adonai-Elohim. We know who’s winning, and who won. Yeshua gave HaSatan the death blow at Calvary. The death blow of the firstborn in Egypt was the blow against Osiris, the god of death and the underworld. In Yeshua, life triumphs over death. That is why it is important to be “born again” then we go from death to life;

…..Before being “born again”, accepting Yeshua/Jesus as our LORD and Savior, Messiah, we are under the burden and bondage of “HaSatan” the deceiver, father of Lies, and we do “his bidding” whether we know it or not, maybe a lot of us were not involved in crime, drugs, murder, etc., but we were hell bound and just did not give God a second thought, If Yeshua/YHVH is not our Father, LORD, redeemer, then, we are of our father, “the devil”, there is no other choice, we are either on one side of the fence or on the other side, there is no “in-between” fences. We are under the bondage of sin, and its burden until we are redeemed.

Yet Yeshua DID rescue us from the bondage and burden of sin with “HIS OUTSTRETCHED ARMS” He stretched out his arms and hands to receive the nails of Calvary. He allowed the Roman soldiers to nail him to that rugged cross that Passover day, to pay the price of sin for us all. That day, he “judged” sin and death with his blood.

From the moment we accept HIM as LORD and Savior, we are taken by him as HIS PEOPLE, we join the great Commonwealth of Israel, being grafted into the Olive Tree. We are now HIS PEOPLE and part of HIS FAMILY of redeemed. He is OUR GOD, and he made himself known to us through his WORD. His WORD has been taught to us through his faithful ministers, preachers, rabbis, teachers, etc.

We are now living in different lands, in the USA and in other countries, yet someday, we will go to live in HIS glorious city “The New Jerusalem” which is now in the Heavenlies, yet will one day come to rest on earth. This is our inheritance as believers in Messiah Yeshua, Eternal life in his glorious kingdom. We can rest assured that we all have a glorious future to look forward to. (Yes, I tend to repeat myself).

Shalom to all, from down south.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes gave glory to God Sunday night as his team heads to the Super Bowl for the third year in a row.

The Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in Sunday's American Football Conference Championship, which secured them a Super Bowl LIX spot.

After the game, Mahomes declared in an interview with CBS Sports, "I want to give all glory to God." He insisted that "without Him, none of this is possible, and I truly mean that."

Continued below.

Dan Perez said:

What KIND of miracles do you mean ONLY for today ??

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I said nothing about miracles "only for today".

"Chesterton quips that there are people “who are always insisting that Christianity and Buddhism are very much alike, especially Buddhism.” "

Lady Bug said:

It turns out that me trying to warn him of the repercussions of his actions has caused him to undertake NEW actions that are just as bad in their own way. He claims he can't sleep because of the things I've told him, when it's his own fault for his own actions. I even tried to pray for him and yet things are going the opposite. I hate sounding like a Calvinist but I honestly believe that there are people out there who are completely incapable of being helped even by God, no matter how much you pray for them. It's as if certain people are predestined not to want to listen.

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Continued prayers

Well, drop us a line now and then and tell us how you're faring.

Hello friend,

When I was sixteen I left school in Africa to join a rebel army at war, considering my likely death far more preferable to continued life at home.

After twenty years and several more wars, I mourned to still be alive, but not long afterwards God called me out of the darkness and now I rejoice exceedingly in my trials and would not change them for anything.

I have been a refugee for most of my life and have lost my home more times than I can remember and I currently live in a country, not my own many thousands of miles away from my homeland and in a house not my own, beholden to others and I rejoice at these things knowing that I have nowhere of my own to lay my head and knowing that what I have is so much more than I deserve.

Although you say you suffer in silence I have heard a great deal about your suffering and I see that you have not yet got to that blessed place where you are able to rejoice in it.

I pray that you find that place and if you want any help or advice, feel free to ask this old fool that I am and I shall ask God if by any means he might give me a wise answer to share with you.

Yarddog said:

I pointed out that their stance on abortion was troubling but the issue is just one in a far ranging number of issues which show how compassionate one is. The terms were not used in reference to the abortion issue. Biden was defending the people of Puerto Rico when he used the term garbage. A comedian had referred to Puerto Rico as a floating island of garbage, which drew laughter from Trump supporters.

The term deplorable was used by Clinton to refer to the Trump supporters that she saw as racist, xenophobic, sexist, etc. At the time she said half but apologized for that.

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Actually, the U.S. Catholic Bishops have deemed abortion the preeminent issue in tackling. That means when we vote as Catholics, that should be the key thing guiding our voting decision. Which candidate will promote the most good for the unborn/do the least harm?

Like Jesus said, spread the Gospel of the Kingdom. Can't get more zealous than spreading the authourity of God over man, letting man know we are a backwards species.

This is huge. Mexico is being held accountable for their role in aiding the Democrats.