When we read a passage of Scripture like this it is always good if we can read it in context, asking ourselves to whom this applies. For it does not apply to everyone who makes a verbal profession of faith in Jesus Christ. It does apply to everyone who is in Christ Jesus, yes, but by God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in him (John 6:44; Ephesians 2:8-10), who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For if our minds are set on the flesh, the end result is death, not life everlasting.

So, for us to claim these promises of God, we must be those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, who are walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living and no longer in sin, in practice, although not necessarily in absolute perfection. And we must be those who, by the Spirit, are daily putting the deeds of the flesh to death and who are now being led by the Spirit of God in how to live (see Romans 8:1-14).

For God is for us who are for him, and we show that we are for him by our submission to him to his will and purpose for our lives, and by our walks of faith in obedience to his commands and in holy living, and no longer in sin. And this isn’t teaching that no one will be against us, for that would be contrary to what Jesus and his NT apostles taught us all throughout the New Testament. For they taught us that we will be hated and rejected and persecuted for the sake of the name of Jesus and for his righteousness.

But the inference, I believe, is that those who are against us cannot take away from us what God has provided for us. They have no real power over us in light of our salvation and eternal life with God. Although they will oppose us and persecute us, the Lord is our strength, and he will sustain us if we are willing and obedient. So even if they bring charges against us, and even if they condemn us, if we are following the Lord in obedience to his commands, he will not bring charges against us, and he will not condemn.

Also, if Christ is Lord (Owner-Master) of our lives, and if we are walking according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Christ. We can, if we choose to, separate ourselves from his love if we choose to walk in sin and not in righteousness and holiness, and if we turn our backs on him and we go our own way and not his way. For the Scriptures teach that if we claim to know God and to be in fellowship with him while we walk in sin and don’t obey him, we are liars.

[1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Matthew 7:21-23]

But if we are walking in his ways and in his truth, and not in sin, then we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. We can have victory over sin, Satan, worldly influences, opposition, persecutions, and temptations, trials, and tribulations – all in His power, strength, and wisdom, and because of his grace to us. We do not have to cave to (give into) our circumstances or to how others treat us or view us. We can rise above it all and live for Jesus, and do his will for our lives, despite all else that comes into our lives.

Courageous!

An Original Work / December 24, 2013
Based off Various Scriptures

The Word of God throughout taught.
Some people heard but did doubt.
Still others had faith in Christ.
By grace He purified them.

They turned from sin
And they obeyed Christ.
He opened up their blinded eyesight;
Turned them from darkness
To the true Light;
Forgave their sin by His might.

He strengthened them in their faith.
He said, “Remain my faithful.”
He called them to obedience.
By faith, they were so grateful.

By faith, they were to follow Jesus;
To daily sit and listen to Him;
To have such faith
That mountains could move;
To love those whom He gave them.

Be on your guard; courageous.
Stand firm in faith. Be thankful.
Take up the shield of your faith;
Protect against all evil.

Do not move from
The hope that you have.
Your faith in Jesus let it endure.
Hold to the truth;
Your conscience be clear.
Endure with perseverance.

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Jesus Christ loves us so much that he willingly died on a cross, taking upon himself the sins of the entire world, just so you and I could go free from slavery and the control of sin over our lives. When we come to him in faith, turning from our sins, and turning to follow him with our lives, he fills us with his Holy Spirit, who teaches us about him, and who leads, counsels, comforts, inspires and encourages us in the way of truth and righteousness.

Jesus Christ not only came to deliver us from Satan and from slavery to sin, but he has delivered us from the grave and has given us the hope of eternal life with God in glory. He is always with us, and he will never leave us nor forsake us. Because of his great love for us it should inspire us to want to know him more – to spend time with him, and to walk in his ways.

Your Love Inspires Me

An Original Work / April 28, 2011

Your love inspires me
to want to know you more.
I worship and adore
my gracious, loving Lord.
Washing all my sin,
purify within,
Your grace and
Your loving kindness
save from sin.

Because of what You’ve done
for me, I praise You, Lord.
You freed me from my sin,
and made me whole within.
As I come to You
with a contrite heart,
I pray that
Your love and mercy,
You impart.

Jesus died for you, then
He rose up from the grave.
He conquered death and sin,
so by our faith we’re saved.
He became a man.
This was in God’s plan,
So that we might be forgiven,
cleansed within;
saved from sin.

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Who are those who love God? They are those who obey his commandments. If we truly love God, we are those who have, thus, been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore we are not to let sin reign in our bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But obedience to God ends in eternal life (John 14:15,21,23; John 15:10; Romans 6:1-23).

And if we love God with this agape love, which prefers what God prefers, which is all that is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to him, then we will deny self, die daily to sin, and walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, by the grace and in the power of God dwelling within us. We will prefer to live through Christ, choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power. And we will choose not to deliberately and habitually sin against our Lord and against other people.

Now for us who love God in this way, God works all things together for good, for those of us who are called according to his purpose. And these would be those of us who have answered that call to deny self, leave our lives of sin behind us, and to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads us in doing whatever he calls us to do. But “good” may not necessarily always align with human thinking. For good is whatever is good for us, which includes suffering for the sake of righteousness, but which produces in us perseverance.

So this “good” is defined by God and not by us, and it is whatever God deems is best for us in order for him to conform us to the likeness of Jesus Christ in character and in behavior. So it may not always feel good to us when we are experiencing it, but it will all work out for what is for our best, for what will lead us to be holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord. And it will produce through us what is best for those whose lives we influence by our walks of faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, according to the Scriptures, God in his sovereignty foreknew us and predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, even before he laid the foundations of the earth. He formed us in the wombs of our mothers, and in his book were written all the days that were formed for us even before one of them came into being. And he called us to a holy calling. For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. So, as obedient children, we are not to be conformed to the passions of our flesh as we once were.

[Jer 1:1-19; Psalms 139:13-16; Acts 26:18; Rom 1:6-7,18-23; Rom 6:15-21; Rom 8:28-29; 1 Co 1:9; 1 Co 12:1-31; Gal 5:13; Eph 1:3-4; 1 Thess 4:1-8; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 10:26-31; 1 Pet 1:14-16; 1 Pet 2:9; 2 Pet 1:3]

So, because of what Jesus Christ did for us in putting our sins to death with him on that cross, so that we will die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, then we are to die daily to sin and follow him in obedience to his commands, by the Spirit. And he made the way for us to do that, by his grace, and in his death and resurrection. So he is our model, and he is the one we are to be being conformed to his likeness. For that is why he died, that we might no longer live for self but for him who died for us.

Now all of this is the working God in our hearts and lives and does not come from anything from within our own self or our own flesh. Not one of us can be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God unless God first persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent of our sins and to walk humbly in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands. But it involves us cooperating with God in his work of grace in our lives by us submitting to him and to his will.

So, even though it is Jesus Christ who justifies us and who glorifies us and who makes us right before God, this does not happen unless we bow the knee to God and we surrender our lives to him to do what he has called us to do and to be. For when Jesus justifies us he conforms us, with our cooperation and participation, to his standard, to be upright, and to be made righteous, but not in status only, but in practice. He changes our hearts, but only as we yield to him and to his work of transformation in our hearts.

For we are not marionettes with him holding all the strings and with us having no control whatsoever on the choices that we make and on the actions that we take. And we must still participate with him in his work of grace in our lives or it won’t happen. All throughout the New Testament we are instructed that we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience. We must put off sin and put on righteousness. Yes, we can only do this in the power of God, but we still must obey our Lord’s commands.

For if we don’t, and if we think that we can just profess faith in Jesus Christ and now we are “good to go” to heaven when we die regardless of how we live from that moment forward, then we need to know what the Scriptures teach. For they teach that if sin is our practice, and not walks of obedience to the Lord, that we will not inherit eternal life with God. And if we say we are in fellowship with God and that we know God, but we make sin our practice, and obedience is not our practice, then we are liars.

[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]

In Truth

An Original Work / January 10, 2012

Fellowshipping with my Lord, Savior, King.
He is Lord of all; Lord of ev’rything.
He is with me through ev’ry hour of day,
List’ning to me speak, as I humbly pray.
He cares for my needs,
and He intercedes for me,
‘cause He loves me in ev’ry way.

Obey His commands, and do all He says.
Sitting at His feet, daily in His word,
Let His word speak to me in ev’ry way,
Giving comfort and healing through each day.
Oh, how Jesus loves,
And He cares for you,
Which is why He died for our sins, in truth.

Love our Lord God, Savior, and King of kings.
Worship Him in truth, for He reigns supreme.
He created us with a plan in mind
For us to be His servants, and Him mind.
Follow Him in truth;
Go where’er He leads.
Share His love with others, and their needs meet.
Others: their needs meet.

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In Acts 17: 28 we see that God through the Apostle Paul used the entertainment industry of his day to make a spiritual point....something that generation could relate to help them more readily receive the gospel. This following came to me I believe by revelation in a similar way that is something about our present culture in which God wants to make a spiritual point....in so doing that they might more readily receive the Gospel. I'll say what it is first and then I'll share why in my opinion this can have a great impact for the Kingdom of God.

It's the Christmas Carol. the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his joyful life filled nephew who sought to bring his Uncle into a state of merriment! Now just know first of all how significant this piece of literature The Christmas Carol has being over the last 100 years. Written by Charles Dickens in the 1800's there's been over 20 movies made about the theme.....then there's highly talented professional theater productions that have been done on stage.....not to mention just type in on youtube "Scrooge Highs School plays! I dare say you can't find a city in North America that usually doesn't have a Christmas Carol production going on in every city. So ..... everybody LOVES this story! Because they DO I believe God wants to use it to make a point.

I encourage you to stay with me and I think you'll find this interesting! Scrooges nephew was a type of Jesus Christ. He Scrooge's nephew came to a man who was in darkness and misery that is Scrooge and wanted to bring him in to a state of life and merriment. You recall (if you've seen a Scrooge movie) he came to his Uncle's business and announced to him in a lively spirit of joy and happiness, "MERRY Christmas UNCLE!!" Just to note in the actual text Charles Dickens wrote, he has Scrooge's nephew actually say to him, "Merry Christmas Uncle and God save you!" Interesting that all the movie producers actually left that out.

And how did Scrooge answer his nephew.....I think you all know....He said to him, 'HUMBUG! HUMBUG!" He basically told him "Take Your MERRY somewhere else!" There was something though his nephew wanted him to do.....a place where he wanted him to come, AND where was that? He wanted him to come to his place for Christmas dinner where there would be LIVELY JOY, MERRIMENT, DANCING AND FUN and Jesus 2000 years before Charles Dickens ever wrote this made out a call to for all to come his LIFE banquet! In Lk 14:16 we read,

But Jesus replied, “A certain man prepared a great banquet and invited many guests. 17When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’18But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’19Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’20Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’

They like Scrooges were basically saying the same thing as he to the invitation to the LIFE party....HUMBUG....HUMBUG!!!

Scrooges nephew came to him with a message of LIFE and JOY and Jesus Christ outside of the realm of fiction actually did the same with what's called the Good News Gospel The Way, The Truth and the Life. Christ was wanting and still does want to restore within the hearts of every man the true state of merriment and that is imparting Eternal Life into ones spirit to transform their life. The Apostle Peter said to Jesus that he was the one who had the words of eternal life and Jesus said, "The words I speak unto you they are spirit and life!" Jn 6:63 We're going to take you on a journey in this series ahead at looking more closely at this Christmas Carol, Scrooge, and THE HUMBUG analogy and as I've suggested it can have a big impact on saints and sinners alike and here's why......the culture has engrained within them not to want to be of a Scrooge spirit! They've heard the Christmas Carol story all of their lives and the last thing they want to be is be like him. When one understands they don't want to say HUMBUG to The Creator of all Spirits to saints and sinners alike they find awaken in them a new positive vision to say YES to God in all things. Nobody or most people don't want to be a Spiritual Scrooge!

(See You Next Time)

Acts 2:38- Matt 28:19 comparison
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I would like to see what you all think about it

Vambram said:

Food Profit Margins Shrink, But Harris Blames Them for Rising Grocery Bills | The Daily Economy

"Based on her insistence that price gouging is responsible for high grocery prices — when it clearly is not — the Vice President’s proposal would more ...

www.aier.org

I found this very interesting analysis of some facts. What are y'alls thoughts and opinions about this?

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The links in the article don't show the numbers that the article claims (all I can see is the stock price over time), so it's hard to provide much substantive commentary on the factual aspects. I will say though that the claimed numbers don't really line up. If costs for manufacturers have gone up by 28% while profit margins have fallen by a few percent, then we should expect to see the net profit go up by less than 28% - and yet, profits for many food companies have gone up by 40-60% or more.

Here's some conflicting analyses:

Vambram said:

It’s troubling to consider all the things that the Democrats and media have done since 2011 in their narrative against Donald Trump. Not just because it’s wrong and hurtful to him, but because it has been so divisive and damaging to the country. All the lies and the hoaxes, from Russia collusion on down

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I'm not sure what the Democrats have to do with the Russian investigation.
As far as I understand it, Trump's campaign members were investigated by the FBI and then later by the Republican acting attorney general appointed Special Council.

Tropical Wilds said:

And as we all know, Christ said “me first, never illegals, and children? Not mine, not my problem.”

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Give away *ALL* your posessions so that you're left with only the clothes on your back.

...Only then will I honor your advice on this topic.

Joseph G said:

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I love this old, but beautiful song by Keith Green.

essentialsaltes said:

AP Link

The altercation came moments after Trump criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage and dismissed CNN as fawning for its interview Thursday with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

[Trump enthused to the cheering crowd about the "fun" at his rallies as the perp was escorted away.]

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Trump enthused because he paid a guy to get tased.

tonychanyt said:

Jesus died before the Sabbath in Luke 23:


After the Sabbath, Mark 16:


Did they purchase the spices before or after the Sabbath?

It could be both, Gill explained:

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One could say the Bible can get spicy real quickly sometimes.

Alright, I'll walk out of this one with the puns.

Source: What Does the Bible Say About Spices?

May Jesus protect them in his Sacred Heart! May Mary wrap them in her mantle!

Good! It’s important this happens. We aren’t going anywhere.

May they intercede before the throne of God for us!

Please pray for granddaughter & husband who left this morning on a 1-week mission trip to Ecuador. Their four young kids are staying with my daughter & her family.

Antique Cast Iron

Apple Sky said:

Besides playing the classical guitar, I make marionettes here are a few of them;

View attachment 346375

View attachment 346376

View attachment 346377

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Good work on your marionettes

No kinks. Schiff Mega Red (Omega 3) Krill Oil Supplements.

I pray that God would protect believers in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and China.

Pioneer3mm said:

Agreeing with you in prayer for Turkey.
---
Turkey
- 10/40 window country
---
10/40 window
- regions/area in the world..where 'access to Gospel message is limited'.

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Thank you for praying for Turkey. Living in a 10/40 window country must be tough, so we are blessed to not live in those countries, but we must try to bring them to Christ.

Here is a 10/40 window for those who enjoy visuals. Most of these countries are in Northern Africa and Asia.

I pray that God will provide for you both financially and spiritually. I pray that God will show you that you have control over your relationship with Him.

Kcir said:

Welcome. I'm a newbie myself, Quick bio: 70 , married 35 years , retired since 03 to take care of wife ( confined to wheel chair/bed). I have cancer which is in stasis 6 years & had polio in 1957. I have wonderful Christian friends & Church that help me get through life via God's blessings. I will be putting my wife in a group home soon as I just can't physically do it anymore, dreading putting my wife there. Do I have issues , no one ever said life was easy .

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Are you still with us? I've been on CF for years and years, guessing at least 20 years. My dad had polio sometime during the Depression. He passed away in 2004. My husband passed away more than 10 years ago.

May God continue to give you strength.

Michie said:

Born 61 years ago into a Muslim family in Turkey, Belkız was the first daughter after two sons. As a child, she went to the mosque and read the Koran in Arabic but says she didn’t understand it. After reading books on materialist philosophy in her youth, she became an atheist at the age of 15.

Belkız (whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons) told ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that after graduating from university, she became a literature teacher and was constantly reading books. When she was 28 years old, she read Turan Dursun’s book “This Is Religion.” (Dursun, a former Shia Muslim and scholar who became an atheist, was murdered because of what he wrote about Islam and religion. His book criticizes religious books — mainly the Koran.)

Belkız couldn’t believe what she read so she bought a Turkish Koran and read it. The Bible was next — she bought one at the Izmir Book Fair and was invited to watch a movie at a Protestant church about the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke.

Continued below.

From Islam to the Church: One Turkish woman shares her story of faith

Born in Turkey, Belkiz went from practicing Islam to becoming an atheist and then discovering Catholicism after a moment with a Protestant friend.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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Amen to her. God bless her for turning to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is good that she left Islam to turn to Jesus.

ViaCrucis said:

Is it acceptable to touch a woman without her consent?

-CryptoLutheran

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You have been clearly answered in post #16

Dang, right back to this nostalgia again. I struggle with my sins every day (of different kinds, as stated on some of my devotionals), but this song helps me realize that God is always there in rough moments. So therefore, I sing this song to praise the Lord, Jesus Christ.