Who or what is the light? The Scriptures teach that Jesus is the light, that he is the way, the truth, and the life. The church is the light of the world, and the church is the body of Christ, so this is the light of Christ which the church is shining forth. And light is the opposite of darkness, and darkness is sin, wickedness, evil, rebellion, immorality, and disobedience. Thus light is all that is holy, righteous, morally pure, upright, honest, and faithful.


[Matthew 4:12-17; Matthew 5:14-16; Matthew 6:22-23; John 1:1-9,19-21; John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:35-36; John 12:46; Acts 26:18]

And our salvation from sin requires that we turn from darkness (sin, evil) to light (Jesus, the gospel, truth, righteousness) and from the power of Satan to God that we might receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (see Acts 26:18). For this is what repentance and our faith in Jesus Christ are all about, and this is the truth that is in Christ Jesus which we should have been taught:


So, Jesus Christ came into the world, and along with him came all of who he is and what he is about, i.e. his divine character and will for humankind. So righteousness and justice and love and obedience to God and holiness and honesty and faithfulness, et al, came into the world. But the people of the world love the darkness (wickedness, immorality, evil) rather than Jesus Christ and his truth and his righteousness because their works are evil. And so they embrace the evil while they reject the truth.

And these “people” include many who also profess faith in Jesus Christ who have been convinced by liars and deceivers that they do not have to repent of their sins, that they do not have to forsake them, and that they do not have to obey the commands of God under the New Covenant, and that nothing is required of them at all other than some fleshly faith in Jesus Christ which is not of God but which is of the flesh of man. For they believe they don’t have to put flesh to death, but they can entertain “him.”

And so many of them are quite comfortable holding on to the flesh and to sin and to doing what they know is evil while claiming God’s grace over their sins and while claiming that Jesus is their Lord and Savior and that heaven is their eternal destiny. And so they welcome living in adultery and idolatry and in lying and cheating and in sexual immorality. And they love the charmers and manipulators and deceivers who are feeding them lies while they are rejecting the truth and those who are telling them the truth.

And we need to get this. For everyone who does (practices) wicked things hates the light (hates Jesus Christ and truth and righteousness) and does not come into the light (does not come into genuine faith in Jesus Christ) lest his evil works should be exposed. They may make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and they may go through the motions of religious practice, but if sin is what they practice, and if righteousness and obedience to our Lord are not what they practice, they do not know God/Christ, they are not saved from their sins, and they do not have eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

So, please don’t read just John 3:16 and decide that you can make up your own version of belief in Jesus Christ which is not biblical faith and that you are now promised that you will never perish but that you will have eternal life with God. Please read all of John 3, for it does not teach what you may think it teaches. For everyone who makes a practice of sin, who deliberately and habitually continues in sin and not in walks of righteousness and not in obedience to the Lord and to his commands (New Covenant), hates Jesus Christ, in reality, and will not come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

But those who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ are those who do what is true – what is of God, and what is righteous, holy, morally pure, upright, honest, and faithful, etc. They are those who have come and who are coming to Christ daily in true worship of our Lord, and in true submission to him as Lord, and in true repentance and in walks of obedience, who are living holy lives, pleasing to God, because they love their Lord. And it should be clearly seen that their works are those which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them, as his workmanship (see Ephesians 2:10).

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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A young man cursed his parents and even tried to harm them. So many sad souls miss this. They wonder why their lives seem to be cursed. Their lives are not "well" and may even be cut short.

Ephesians 6:2-3 KJV
2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise)
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

There is an implied curse here.... or was it simply the forfeiting of a blessing?
What do you think?

There are yoga exercises for the legs that doesn't put your weight on the feet and can even use ankle weights or resistance bands to raise the effort.

Light resistance with large numbers of repetitions can turn the activity into cardio. You can still do upperbody and arm workouts with dumbbells even if sitting down,

There are two important factors to note in these last two translations, both of which are more literal (word for word) translations, and the first is to distinguish that Jesus Christ was not just the Son of God, but that he was the only begotten Son of God (who is also God – see John chapter one). For he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and not of man, although he was born to a human mother. So while he was on the earth he was both God (in the flesh) and he was man (human), but without sin.

Jesus Christ is God: [John 1:1-18; John 8:24,58; John 10:30-33; Hebrews 1:8-9; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1; Romans 9:5; John 20:28-29]

The second thing of great importance to note is that “belief” in Jesus is not a one-time thing that happens in our lives which “seals the deal,” so to speak. This belief, which promises us salvation from sin and eternal life with God, must be continuous and ongoing belief (believing), and we must remain believing in Jesus until the very end. But this believing is not intellectual, and it is not emotional, but it is something that must be acted out in our lives in daily practice in walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living.

Jesus Christ must now be foremost (uppermost) in our lives. He must truly be Lord (Owner-Master) of our lives, and we are to now be his possession to do as he says according to his will and purpose for our lives. He is to be the one we desire above all else, as is his gift of salvation to us. But that gift is freedom from slavery (addiction) to sin and not just forgiveness of sins, and it requires walks of obedience to his commands (New Covenant) and holy living. For if sin is what we obey, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

So, our hearts must be given over to the Lord to do his will, to leave our lives of sin behind us, and to now follow him in obedience. Our hearts must now be surrendered to the Lord to do his will, to walk in his ways and in his truth, becoming like him in character, mind, action, and speaking, in the power and working of God’s Spirit living within us. For this is what it means to be holy – to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus, by God’s Spirit.

But this is a lifetime process which will not be complete until Jesus returns for his faithful bride and he takes us to be with him for eternity. For our salvation will not be complete until then, and only if we continue in faithful obedience to our Lord until the very end (see noted Scriptures above). And this is not saying that we must live in absolute sinless perfection. Where God “draws the line in the sand” has to do with our practice, not our perfection. Are we walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living, in practice? Or are we walking in deliberate and habitual sin, in practice? (see noted Scriptures)

For Jesus Christ taught us that if we want to come after him that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, in practice, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and of eternal life with God. But salvation is not promised on a mere profession of faith. We have to walk in obedience to our Lord.

For Jesus also taught us that not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven. For many are going to stand before him on the day of judgment, calling him “Lord,” and claiming all that they believed that they did in his name. But he is going to say to them, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” Why? Because they would not obey the commands of God but they continued living in their sins.

And the NT apostles taught that Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and that we might live for him and no longer for self. For Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of slavery to sin so that we will now honor God with our bodies (with our lives). For by faith in Jesus Christ we are to be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to righteousness.

[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]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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rambot said:

No.

I'm sorry you're confused.

In my op I wrote

this part of my post was me explaining my thought process for what i wanted to emphasize as my opinion on this article.
When I used the word "me" and "I"a few times, I was actually talking about me and not the author of the article, Matt Nichol.

Click to expand...

Yeah but I was addressing the article. If I was addressing you I would have quoted you.

tturt said:

Something else - when in your prayer closet - wherever that is (Matt 6:6), you need to block out distractions. Even if your to-do list begins to be pressing, just write to-do or however you can to quickly dismiss it so you can get back to focusing on God. Psa 34

If you answer the phone or something else, you don't go back to where you were. Or you might have noticed this at church. There's worship music for awhile. Then some churches stop & do announcements. Do you notice a difference within a very few min.

Click to expand...

I of block distractions, only issue is thoughts but then my mind slowly becomes clear, music is ok, but we can able to do without it, iam just beginner and I dont now, I let Gods Grace teach me more, I dont think its wrong or right, important is tho show up and Gos knows our hearts that we want to be with him in he presence.

"If you answer the phone or something else, you don't go back to where you were. Or you might have noticed this at church. There's worship music for awhile. Then some churches stop & do announcements. Do you notice a difference within a very few min."

Can u explain clearly?

Lord have mercy!

Thanks for sharing

HIM said:

You did not answer the question. Here it is again. Thanks

Click to expand...

I did. You asked why I think we in Christ are not heirs to promises given to Jacob only. I replied, stating that I am confident that we of Christ are not heirs to those promises given to Jacob, requiring killing children if they curse parents, and killing all who commit adultery.

DaisyDay said:

If true then I am glad they were taken off the streets.

Click to expand...

Amen!

HTacianas said:

That ,ay all be true. I don't know. But reading the article linked by the OP, the very first statement declared false by the fact checker was Vance saying:

"We've got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country."

Now, for that statement to be false, the fact checker would have to say something along the lines of, "according to the Department of Homeland security there are only XX illegal aliens in the country", with XX being some number less than 20 million. But rather than that, the fact checker goes off on some long grotesque red herring about "encounters" and "got aways" and "admissions", none of which have anything to do with the statement made by Vance.

So, Vance claims that we have 20 to 25 million illegal aliens in the country. The fact checker does not tell us how many illegal aliens are in the country but declares the statement false. At that point I stopped reading the article.

Click to expand...

Yes, they could have done a better job but it doesn't make them wrong a simple search shows that the DHLS estimates the number of undocumented aliens to be about 12 million or about half of what Vance said. The fact checker appears to trying to show how many have come during the Biden administration.

Many are called (saved).

Why did I say that?


That means the "called" are saved!

Jesus was saying, out of all of the many whom God saves? That only a few were chosen to be promoted to serve with Him in eternity.
God is not a finicky petty God. If anyone believes in Jesus - no matter what a poor example they allow themselves to become - they
will be saved.



God wants no one to go to the Lake of Fire.
If some weak sinner will refuse to walk in the Spirit after his salvation, only believing in Jesus, and nothing else?
God will hold his nose, and save him.

For we can not name one sin that a backslidden believer walks in that was not paid for on the Cross.
Yes, God saves those who will refuse to glorify Him with their own lives after salvation...

Legalists hate God's justice and mercy.


That means the "called" are saved! And, MANY are called!
But, only a few out of the many called will qualify to reign with the Lord!

grace and peace ...............

Apparently she isn’t religious, so I doubt she thought it would take any supernatural effect? I don’t know.

That’s unfortunate. I love reading! I wish I had more time on my hands.

rambot said:

I wonder how many mailers go out to encourage people to become foster parents.

Click to expand...

Such as saintly women like Michele Bachman or Amy Coney Barrett?

God, be merciful to me, a sinner!

Don’t let these subtle excuses keep you from God’s grace!

In this episode of "The Catholic Gentleman," John Heinen, Sam Guzman, and Devin Schadt discuss something many Catholics might not even realize they're struggling with: ways we justify our sins. They explore three surprising traps that can lead to spiritual complacency and how you can overcome them!

1) Shifting the Blame​

Continued below.

Depends on what the person is trying to impress. What is it that a person is likely to try to impress upon others? It is a person’s good works. Of these, there are two categories. One involves the good works for which God as equipped him for, in performing for God’s satisfaction, and the other involves performing for others’ satisfaction.

God rewards those who show that they perform good works for God’s satisfaction. What are these good works? It involves the person’s understanding that he understands and knows God; that he knows God “practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth,” as it says in Jeremiah 9:24. 1 Corinthians 1:31, who quotes Jeremiah 9:24, Sums up that Verse and the Verse before it by saying, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

To be clear, Jeremiah’s Verse 23 says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,” These are earthly things. Does God not have Wisdom? Is He not mighty? Is He not rich? Here, God through the Scriptures effectively tells the wise man the mighty man and the rich man, ‘So what? Am I not those things?’

But the things that a person can boast about, such as understanding God, knowing God to a certain extent (Remember, God in Isaiah 55:8 says, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”), knowing that God practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness on earth, are things that God allows a person to boast. And why not? It’s good PR for God’s interests and it’s a first-hand acknowledgement of him. What does a person say about God when he boasts his own earthly works That God equipped him for? If, say, a person says he is the best masonry worker around, is there any mention of God in that statement? Only a person who is wise to the knowledge that the good works we do, like masonry for instance, are works that God has equipped us for, as alluded to in Ephesians 2:10.

There is a form of boasting, known as impressing others. It is OK to impress others, if you don’t make it obvious that this is what you’re doing. The Bible, in Passages like Matthew 23:4–12, warn us about those who do things to be seen by others, particularly when they are dressed fancy and sit in the best places in a house of worship. Jesus, in Verse 12, says “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

And God won’t reward those who merely go through the motions. Jesus’ Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector” in Luke 18:9–14 concludes that the Pharisee who ‘thanked God he is not like other men, and who gives tithes and fasts twice a week,’ will not be as justified as the humble tax collector who merely asks God to ‘be merciful to me, a sinner.’ Jesus again concludes that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

What of a person who impresses others, but whose intent was merely to do the things God equipped him for? What of someone, who, say, is regarded as one of the best guitarists, even though the guitarist doesn’t go around telling others that? In God’s Eyes he has made good use of the skills God gave him, that enabled him to be excellent at his craft. It is hard to see why God would not approve of his guitar-playing in that instance.

Solo81 said:

Aye, but us RC's aren't restricted to Scripture only. We have Tradition also. No need to apply Protestant standards to RC's.

Click to expand...

There is no tradition of blessing same sex unions, but the Pope is all for it anyway.

Absolutely. And receiving is not the only or even the most important issue.
Hebrews 11:6 KJV
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

You MUST believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. If you never receive anything... your faith and confession must remain true to His word.

The primary issue is pleasing God.

By His Stripes, We WERE Healed. (Notice the tense change. Isaiah had "are" where Peter has "were." - past tense)

Psalms 103:2-3 KJV
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Who healeth ALL your diseases just like He forgives ALL your iniquities.
This is your default faith setting. God heals and has healed. That is your default confession of your faith.

This is a hard concept for many people: you can be in the bed of affliction and yet still believe in your heart and confess from the heart that you are healed. This is primarily to stay in agreement with the Word of God and please Him. If you review the rest of the "faith chapter" (Heb:11), you will find that many of the faith heroes stayed true to the Word of God and Confessed the word of God to be true, yet they died NEVER having received the thing they believed. It did not matter. Their faith was counted as righteousness for them because they believed in God and His Word despite having never actually received the object of their faith. Same is true for all faith matters. Believe and confess (from the heart) that you have received.

Hebrews 11:13 KJV
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:39 KJV
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

The principle is explained by Jesus:

Mark 11:23-24 RV
23 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it.
24 Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.

Yes, that word is received!

Robertson's Word Pictures:
Mark 11:24
Believe that ye have received them (pisteuete hoti elabete).
That is the test of faith, the kind that sees the fulfilment before it happens.

Vincent's Word Studies
Receive (ἐλάβετε)
More lit., received. Rev., have received.

To answer the OP's request for help, I will venture forth some ideas based upon lived experience as a fellow Catholic.

What I can intuit based on your post, I see the following struggles:

1) Trapped by the habit of being led by emotions, in particular, the habituation of the negative.

-Being led by the passions is quite common of a trap, but can indeed be overcome by very extremely difficult and hard work.

-To counter acting on emotions instead of acting on principle, one must overcome emotional attachments

2) The first step is to acknowledge that you are powerless over your attachment to emotion, followed by complete surrender to the Church for spiritual direction, mostly through very thorough examination of conscious.

To begin on working through your habits and harms, I very highly recommend obtaining a notebook and pen, and slowly and pray-fully working through this very intense examination of conscious, with a priest, in private, scheduled sessions:

https://sensustraditionis.org/ExaminationConscienceLong.pdf

3) Wounds are what feeds the negative behavior and has you coming back for more. These wounds do not give you the very deep satisfaction of filling that God shaped hole in your soul. There is some very great guidance on wounds and healing here:

Wounds and Healing -

Good.

Pommer said:

It kinda leaves it rather ambiguous though, no?
Is it “right” or “Russia Today”, see?

Click to expand...

I wouldnt really say ambiguus . My comment was implying that I agree with you and that you were correct.I did not intend for it to have a double meaning .Political preference had nothing to do with it .