What is this “rest” that God speaks of? It is most certainly our salvation (deliverance) from bondage (addiction) to sin and eternal life with God. And who are the “they” being spoken of here? They were the children of Israel who wandered in the wilderness for some 40 years but who died in the wilderness, and who did not get to enter into God’s eternal rest nor into the Promised Land, due to their disobedience, which God called “unbelief.”

For they were idolaters who craved evil things. And they were revelers and drunkards who acted immorally. And they were those who tested God and who grumbled against the Lord and Moses, God’s servant, thinking that God would not punish them for their rebellion and disobedience. And these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. And they were written down for our instruction as examples.

[See: 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16]

So, what is the message for us here? We need to be careful that we do not come up short of entering into God’s eternal rest. And how might that happen? The same way in which it happened to the Israelites who disobeyed God, who continued to walk in sin, in direct defiance of God’s commands, and for whom obedience to God and to his commands was not their practice. For they did not desire obedience to God, but they craved evil things.

And when this says here that the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard it, this is in the context of the Scriptures teaching that faith = obedience, and disobedience = unbelief. For faith in Jesus Christ is not lip service to God only, but it must be coupled with us denying self, dying to sin daily (in practice), and following our Lord in obedience to his commands, as a matter of what we practice.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

So, today if you hear God’s voice speaking to you through his divine revelation in the Scriptures, taught in the correct biblical context, which tells you that faith in Christ, which is biblical faith, must result in us dying to sin and following our Lord in obedience to his commands, in the power of God, please do not harden your hearts and refuse his voice. By faith in Jesus, please surrender your lives to Jesus Christ, deny self, and die to sin, and walk in obedience to his commands, and you will enter into his eternal rest.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

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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Entering Into God’s Eternal Rest
An Original Work / October 27, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

A woman once told me, “I don’t love my husband anymore.”

I asked her, “Are you concerned for his good?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Then you love him.”

“That’s the love you vowed when you married him. That’s the same kind of love we need to be saved. The Greek word for it is agape,” I explained. “It sounds like you don’t like him. You don’t have to like your husband. But if you work hard for his good and try to make him happy as best you can, he just might become more likable. However, that shouldn’t be your primary motive. Your first motive should be to fulfill the vow you made before God to pursue his good.”

“I never thought of it that way. I can try to pursue that.”

“And if you make a habit out of that, it won’t be so difficult. If you are good to your husband for your sake, it may not work. If you are good to your husband for God’s sake, He will reward you even if your husband does not.”

Continued below.

​

Christ gazes out of the page dolefully, head canted and haloed. He seems to float, disembodied, between our world and the next. And, at first, we could step back in sympathy, shocked by the blood that drips like teardrops from those baleful thorns. But something else soon catches light. It might be the ringed texture of his eyeshine or that fingerprint whorl on the nose's tip. Then we notice the print's corners, where curves recede as waves do from a skipping stone. It can't be, we think — but it is. This image was made with a single line.




Born into a family of coppersmiths in northern France, Claude Mellan (1598--1688) trained in Rome with the painter Simon Vouet, before creating his pièce de résistance in 1649. To make this immaculate engraving, Mellan used a technique known as the "swelling line", which takes advantage of the burin's asymmetrical profile. Just as letters formed by a fountain pen will swell or shrink as the angle shifts between nib and page, by rotating his tool — or widening a preexisting groove — Mellan created visual depth and texture in an unbroken line, incised directly onto a metal plate. While engraving emerged in Germany ca. 1430 as an offshoot of goldsmithing and metalwork, spurred by a newfound access to paper in Europe, swelling lines were not common before the 1560s. As curators at RISDwrite, the technique was particularly suited for "reproducing the dramatic light and tonal effects of paintings as well as the exaggerated, heroic forms of late Renaissance and Mannerist art". In Mellan's case, he used the technique to reproduce a different kind of dramatic light: the holy afterglow of relics.

Continued below.

Paul was writing this to Timothy, a fellow servant and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had spent enough time with Paul to become intimately acquainted with Paul’s teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, and love, etc. But this was not just for the sake of knowledge, but that he might follow after Paul’s example of what it looks like to be a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ. For Paul modeled for Timothy and for all who knew him and for all who have read his teachings what faith in Jesus Christ is truly all about.

And this was in the context of Paul speaking about what it will be like in the last days, which they were in, even then. And he described how people would be lovers of self, lovers of money, arrogant, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, and without self-control, etc. They would be those who were always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because they opposed the truth, because they were people of depraved minds who preferred their sins over God and over obedience to God.

We are to live the opposite of that by faith in Jesus Christ. For by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord we are persuaded of God as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with Christ to sin, by the grace of God, and to now follow him in obedience to his commands, in the power of God. Sin is to no longer have control over our lives, but now obedience to our Lord and to his commands is what we are now to live by, as led and empowered by the Spirit of God within us.

And when that is the faith in Jesus that we go by, which is biblical faith, we, too, will follow after the example of Paul’s witness and testimony for Jesus Christ. But please let me state here that many people today are taking some of Paul’s teachings out of context, and they are trying to prove that Paul was someone who had a sinful addiction, and he was someone who “struggled” with sin in much the same way as many addicts do today. But that is out of context and it is just not biblical. Paul was a righteous man who obeyed God.

And that is why he could say to Timothy and to others to follow his example of teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, and love, etc. For Paul not only stressed holy and righteous living in his teachings, but he lived what he taught. He lived for the Lord to do his will even if it cost him his life or his reputation. And he was persecuted severely for his testimony for the gospel of our salvation, even to the point of near death many times while teaching the truth, because so many people rejected Jesus Christ and his gospel.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

So all of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ are to live by the standard taught to us in the passages of Scripture noted above (and below). And if truly this is how we are living, and our desire is to live godly in Christ Jesus, and if we are following after the example of Jesus, and the example of Paul, in the things that they did and said for the glory of God, we, too, will be hated, persecuted, mistreated, rejected, and cast aside as unnecessary and as unwanted, just like trash to be thrown away and forever forgotten.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

His Tender Mercies

An Original Work / January 26, 2014
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Fear not! I’m with you.
Be not dismayed!
God watches o’er you.
Trust Him today.
He’ll lead and guide you;
Give you His aid.
He’ll love and keep you
With Him always.

Walk in His footsteps.
He’ll lead the way.
Trust in His love;
Believe that He cares.
He will not leave you.
Faithful He’ll be.
His tender mercies
Now you will see.

Fellowship with Him
Throughout the day.
Tell Him your heartaches.
He’ll heal always.
Rest in His comfort.
He is your friend.
Your faith He’ll strengthen,
True to the end.

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Living Godly in Christ Jesus
An Original Work / October 26, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Please consider this teaching about Paul’s life:

Did any of your parishes have Trunk or Treat Friday or Saturday night? We did but we didn’t go to it. We went to our granddaughter’s daycare Trunk or Treat on Friday and I thought two nights in a row doing the same thing would be too much. Besides, they prefer you decorate a trunk and I was planning on just taking the kids there by walking in, if we would’ve gone. That’s how we did it at daycare. We just brought chairs and a “cauldron” filled with candy, so we were free to leave early which is nearly impossible if you bring your car in and decorate a trunk….too many little kids running around.
What, if anything did you do that was Halloween-y this weekend?

"Initially, Butler, then 17, was charged as an adult and was slapped with 10 felony counts, including rape, attempted rape, sexual battery and assault.
The baseball player pleaded not guilty to all charges but later struck a deal with the district attorney’s office to change his status from adult to youthful offender. Butler, who is the son of a prominent local sports coach, switched his plea to no contest after a judge signed off on the deal.
Under local laws, the youth plea deal meant Butler was sentenced last week to just one year of rehabilitation and community service — despite facing roughly 78 years in the slammer."

What a horrible decision.

Which one is biblical? explain why.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”

English Standard Version Catholic Edition (n.p.: Augustine Institute, 2019), Ga 4:21–27.

May there not be very many other OT passages that can be interpreted allegorically?

Is Paul's method here not an exemplar to us of proper exegesis?

Paul assumes the existence of the mystical sense (cf. § 40) in Scripture, in which events and figures of the OT are types of the NT. Taking yet another illustration from the history of Abraham, he shows that those who rely on the Law instead of faith in the Promise áre to be excluded from the inheritance; cf. Prat, op. cit., I, 221. 22. Cf. Gen 16:15; 17:15–21; 21:2, 9. 23. ‘According to the flesh’: on the one side all happened according to nature; but on the other, according to a divine promise, miraculously realized. 24. ‘Which things are allegorically interpreted’ as follows. 25. ‘(For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia)’: a supplementary confirmation of his interpretation inserted in parenthesis; for Ismael is connected with Arabia through being the ancestor of the chief Arab tribe. Arabia then denoted all the land S. and E. of Palestine. ‘She corresponds to that Jerusalem.…’ 26. i.e. the Church. 27. Cf. Is 54:1, with which the Rabbis connected Is 51:2

Dom B. Orchard, “Galatians,” in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. Bernard Orchard and Edmund F. Sutcliffe (Toronto; New York; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1953), 1117.

24. Which things are said by allegory; literally, ἅτινα ὲστιν ἀλληγορούμενα, which things are allegorized, i.e., the things narrated in Genesis regarding the sons and marriages of Abraham, signifying at the same time other things altogether different from themselves. By an allegory, writers on rhetoric understand a lengthened or continued metaphor. Ecclesiastical writers generally understand it to denote a figure in things, by which one thing is employed to typify or signify another of quite a different nature. “For these,” αὗται γὰρ, i.e., the marriages, or, according to others, the two wives of Abraham. “Are,” i.e., signify “the two Testaments”—viz., the New and the Old. “The one indeed from Mount Sina.” The Old Testament took its rise from Mount Sina; because, there was promulgated the Law, the observance of which was among the primary conditions of the Old Covenant. “Which bringeth forth into bondage.” The Old Testament brought forth children into the bondage of the Mosaic Law, a law of servitude, both on account of the multitude of its precepts, which neither the Jews nor their fathers could bear, as also on account of the spirit of fear which it inspired. “Which is Agar;” and this covenant is represented by Agar.

John MacEvilly, An Exposition of the Epistles of St. Paul and of the Catholic Epistles, vol. 1 (Dublin; New York: M. H. Gill & Son; Benziger Brothers, 1898), 390–391.

Ancient Christian interpreters practised typological and allegorical readings to uncover the spiritual meaning of biblical texts in order to deepen their understanding of God. They did not consider such readings fanciful or arbitrary because they had a different view of reality from us moderns. Ancient interpreters assumed a connection between mind and a higher order of reality. For them, sacred texts were windows to divine realities. Theologians call this the ‘sacramental’ quality of language and texts, that is, their ability to mediate transcendent, divine truths. Already in the Greek philosophical use of Homer or in rabbinic interpretation of the Bible, the text was not read in a strictly literal or historical sense. In contrast to modern literalism, texts were treated as cryptic, containing hidden spiritual insights. Even historical events were means of conveying spiritual truths.

Zimmermann, Jens. Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (pp. 84-85). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.

This is entirely coherent and reasonable.

Formerly known as ChristIsSovereign, newly rededicated to Christ.

Well, where do I begin?

My father was akin to a dictator in some ways. Disagreeing with him was not an option and if I dared to make a counterargument, he would shut me down in an instant. He was, ironically, an Arminian through and through and that led to me spitting on Arminianism once I fully espoused Calvinism.

My theological pomposity became immediately known to most of the family except him. I'd shove the "doctrines of grace" down my mother's throat and more or less told her she had no role in her saving grace. My belief in the supernatural started to dry up exponentially and before long I was an absolutist cessationist as well, believing that not even God spoke to Christians, that God was distant and Christ's sacrifice was a transaction to apply salvation to the elect.

From underneath my vain embrace of Calvinism, my past propensity towards compulsive perverse sin started to rear its ugly head in many new and innovative ways. I started to become a chronic manipulator and playboy online, drawing Christian girls to their mental doom. I won't go into detail, but everything escalated to a level that haunts me to this day. The fact God's grace is upon me today is frankly mystifying.

Not long after my last post as ChristIsSovereign, after a disastrous failure of a deconstruction of Calvinism, I abandoned Christianity more or less. I found that my behavior was so out of line with Christian ideals and social mores that I resorted to being a deist who believed God had nothing to do with me and He left me to my own devices. I still, deep down, had the belief in the Christian God, but I was so far from the Holy Spirit that I either quenched the Spirit to the point of almost completely searing my conscience (Calvinist perspective) or I actually forfeited salvation and fell into rank apostasy (some Arminians' perspective) and rejected Christ as a result. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but God was nowhere in my mind, only emptiness and a reek of bitter nihilism. If God was there with me the entire time, He is one patient God. For the better part of a decade, I proceeded in this lascivious and soul-reaving path of utter self-destruction.

Almost out of nowhere, it seemed like God had enough of His child going astray and annihilating himself. He screwed my head back on and raised my awareness of both Christ my Savior and the dark reality of demonic forces out there. In turn, I briefly returned to a half-hearted Calvinism due to believing I was newly regenerated or something of the kind. It didn't last long though as I started to do research. I am currently deconstructing my former Calvinism, and by the grace of God, I can come out the other end healed and believing in a God of love, patience, and kindness, and not a God of capriciousness, narcissism, and elitism.

I would appreciate prayer in this regard.

Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrated a special Traditional Latin Mass for hundreds of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 25 — a return to a prior custom, suspended since 2022, of an annual pilgrimage of Catholics devoted to the ancient liturgy

Burke celebrated the Solemn Pontifical Mass, a high Latin Mass said by a bishop, at the Altar of the Chair on the second day of the Oct. 24–26 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. The cardinal also celebrated a Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair for the pilgrimage in 2014.

The Mass was preceded by a half-mile procession from the Basilica of Sts. Celso and Giuliano to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Continued below.

Jonatan Medina Espinal is a young Catholic influencer who, as the son of evangelical pastors, was considered unlikely to embrace the Catholic faith, but he did so five years ago after a long and intense spiritual journey.

Now, with clearer ideas about the faith, the young Peruvian has become a defender of Catholic doctrine, promoting it on his social media as well as in his Spanish-language book “Toward the Barque of Peter: My Journey from Protestantism to the Catholic Church.”

For Dante Urbina, a Catholic author, teacher, and lecturer who also influenced Medina’s conversion, the book is “a testimony of profound conversion and intellectual depth that invites us to enter and persevere in the Catholic Church.”

Medina is a professional audiovisual communicator and describes himself as “a truth seeker.” In an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, he shared that he had already felt Catholic “at heart” since 2017, when he “began this journey that took [him] about two or three years.”

Continued below.

Our world feels like it’s coming apart at the seams — morally, culturally, and spiritually. Chaos dominates the headlines, outrage fills our feeds, and the pace of change leaves many feeling disoriented and adrift.

Young people, especially, are growing up in an age that questions everything, including truth itself. Yet amid all this uncertainty, something unexpected is happening: Gen Z is reaching back to one of the oldest and most influential texts in human history — the Bible.

It might surprise you. Surveys show Gen Z is the least traditionally “religious” generation in American history. But Bible sales have surged more than 20% in the past year, Scripture content is trending on TikTok, and college Bible studies and campus ministries are filling up. For a generation raised on social media and skepticism, the ancient words of Scripture are suddenly speaking louder than ever.

Why? I believe it’s because the Bible offers what modern culture cannot.

First, the Bible provides permanence in a world defined by flux

Continued below.

Ethnic cleansing survivors feel left behind in Armenian peace deal

YEREVAN, Armenia — Born and raised in her ancient Christian homeland of Artsakh (known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh), 34-year-old legal professional and human rights advocate Marina Simonyan has spent her entire life under the shadow of violence and conflict, living through three different wars.

Like many from the Republic of Artsakh, which was a predominantly Armenian autonomous region within the internationally recognized borders of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, speaking about the horrors of what happened leading up to and during the September 2023 invasion by Azerbaijan that forced over 120,000 people to flee is not easy. But these are stories that she feels the world must hear, as her people struggle to start new lives as refugees in Armenia proper.

"I was born in the 1990s, and when my parents were telling me what happened during the '90s, I was skeptical. I was telling them, 'Well, we are living in the 21st century, and it is highly unlikely that something like that will happen again,'" Simonyan told reporters gathered for a September witness testimony event organized by the advocacy organizations Save Armenia and the Center for Truth and Justice, admitting that her assumption proved to be incorrect.

Continued below.

Prayers are now going up around the world for American missionary pilot Kevin Rideout after he was reportedly kidnapped from his home in the highly secure Château 1 neighborhood of Niamey, the capital of Niger in West Africa.

Rideout, a 48-year-old married father, works with Serving In Mission, also known as SIM. A report from Radio France Internationale on Wednesday stated that Rideout was reportedly kidnapped by three men near the grand Bravia Hotel, in the city center, just a few hundred meters from the presidential palace.

U.S. State Department officials in Niamey confirmed on Wednesday that they were working to secure Rideout's release.

Continued below.

Podcaster Joe Rogan said during a recent podcast that he enjoys going to church and pushed back against "self-professed intelligent people" who dismiss the Bible as myth.

During the Wednesday episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" with guest Konstantin Kisin, a Russian-British political commentator who said he "loves" going to church, Rogan said he feels the same and finds it encouraging when he is with Christians who are working to better understand the Bible.

Continued below.

There’s an ugly new current running through parts of the political Right — a growing attempt to sanitize what should never be sanitized: overt fascism, national socialism, kinist racial theory, and anti-Jewish conspiracy. In corners of the internet and certain activist spaces, people are “ironically” quoting Hitler, praising the Third Reich’s “order,” and calling all Jews “globalist parasites.” Some of them even try to reframe Hitler as some misunderstood nationalist hero.

That alone is disturbing enough. But what’s worse is the emerging chorus of voices — including influential conservatives like Matt Walsh — saying we need unity, even with them, for the sake of “winning politically” (“no enemies to the right”).

To be clear: unity itself is good. Conservatives have lost far too much ground to pointless infighting. We’ve split over secondary issues and handed the Left the culture war on a silver platter. But unity is not a moral blank check. True unity can’t come at the expense of first principles — truth, human dignity, and liberty under God. Once we trade those for the illusion of strength, we don’t win. We rot from within.

There’s actually a perfect parallel for this in the church world. Years ago, the “Revoice” movement emerged in Evangelical circles — marketing itself as a “safe space” for LGBT inclusion within Christianity. It claimed to just “welcome” everyone, but beneath that language was a quiet redefinition of biblical truth. By normalizing sin under the banner of compassion, Revoice diluted the Gospel it claimed to uphold. It was seeker sensitivity for homosexuality — a slow moral surrender dressed up as kindness.

Continued below.

The national debt of the United States government is rapidly closing in on $37 trillion. Given that the nominal U.S. GDP is only $29.35 trillion, we owe significantly more than our economy produces. The interest payment alone on the debt is now the third-highest line-item expense, just after Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security and just ahead of Defense. It even surpasses our total federal tax revenue.

In addition to the federal government, state and local debt is another $3.2 trillion, and total credit card debt is currently over $1.28 trillion. In all, total indebtedness of the United States, public and private, sits at nearly $105 trillion. Though it is increasingly obvious our national debt will never be repaid, the deficit continues to grow at an alarming rate.

These numbers are simply too big to understand. To help put them in perspective, one trillion seconds is over 31,688 years. Our debt is now 100 times that number.

To put it mildly, this bodes ill for our future. Out-of-control debt has been a significant factor in the collapse of every major world power in history. For example, the French Revolution was triggered by a fiscal crisis, which sparked civil war and left between 300,000 and 500,000 dead, not including those killed abroad in foreign wars.

Continued below.

When Kaya Jones, the former Pussycat Dolls singer, revealed she had had three abortions and felt regret and sadness for them, the reaction from many pro-lifers on social media was swift and vile.

One person said, “Stupid idiot and a hypocrite to boot. She is a vile excuse there will be no forgiveness. She a murder. Not just once but several. She will burn in he'll [sic] .” Another quipped, “I just don’t have compassion for anyone that has murdered their own child! I knew as a child it wasn’t something normal and I knew it was wrong. her saying she didn’t know it was wrong is absolutely BS!”

I read the same comments from pro-lifers when I talk about my own two abortions. This isn’t how you speak to a woman who has had abortions and feels regret and sadness over them. Yet, it’s how many pro-lifers respond.

Besides the fact that these comments are coming from supposed Christians, women who are in similar positions, who may be seeking guidance and help, or who may be considering abortion, will run the other way. This is the equivalent of a woman walking into an abortion clinic and a pro-lifer screaming at her not to kill her baby, or just keep her legs closed.

Because women (and men) are going online to get abortion pills (chemical abortions make up well over 60% of all abortions done in this country), and the number of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics are declining, the online space is the new sidewalk. The physical space where pro-lifers have gathered in person for years to pray, to speak to women, and to offer solutions is vanishing along with those clinics and is being replaced by social media posts and Google searches. How are supposed pro-lifers reacting? Not well, according to comments online. They seem ill-equipped to handle even basic posts with compassion and love.

Continued below.

Three Christians, including a pastor, were arrested this week in northern India under a controversial anti-conversion law for allegedly trying to convert Hindus to Christianity through "inducements."

The arrests in Uttar Pradesh came days after the country's top court criticized the state for misusing the law to harass members of the minority community.

Police in Bareilly district arrested Pastor Sumit Masey, Amit Masey, also known as Akshay Masey, and a woman identified only as Sarita following a complaint. A fourth accused, Satyapal, remains missing, reports Press Trust of India, citing police officials.

The arrests were made under provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, commonly referred to as the anti-conversion law, which bans religious conversions by force, fraud or allurement.

The complaint was lodged by area residents Rishabh Thakur and Nirdosh Rathore, alleging that individuals affiliated with a Christian missionary had rented a house in the city's Super City locality, where they were allegedly pressuring Hindu women and children to convert by disguising their efforts as religious gatherings and prayer events, police told media.

Continued below.

My fellow Catholics, I have read the rules of the forum regarding the discussion of abortion. I whole heartedly believe in Catholic teaching that it is a grave evil that is no conduct becoming saints. It is a sin and it is mortal, rendering a soul completely cut off from God and no hope of salvation without repentance

Yet God tells us to judge not, lest we be judged. Vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay. In our zeal against this grave evil, we have somehow lost and alienated the souls whom God desires to save. How?

What I am about to say comes from months of prayer and standing on the front lines. I have sacrificed my career as a physician to the glory of God and I count it all loss for the cause of Christ. I have been fired for refusing to participate in tubal ligations, aka female sterilizations because it violated natural law, and I had to seek work 1500 miles from home to practice my profession and faith with a clear conscience.
Even the Catholic hospital in which I now work has physicians that do not believe in Catholic teaching. I had to stand my ground and inform them that sterilizations and transgender surgeries are not to be performed in a Catholic hospital. The CEO, the Chief Medical officer and the Chief of anesthesia do not understand Catholic teaching, and told me it is above their pay grade, but miraculously deferred to my judgment and have agreed to uphold Catholic teaching. This is my thinking and the basis of what I told them.

I told them that a Catholic Hospital is a charitable organization that provides healthcare to all, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, beliefs, opinions, etc .. Healthcare is befitting human dignity. Abortion, sterilization, and transgender surgeries are not healthcare, they are religious procedures that happen to involve medicine and surgery.
Where did that come from? We cannot have a rational discussion without an agreement on the definition of terms. Satan loves unclear definitions, which is how he presents himself as an angel of light or as wearing sheep’s clothing.
It is difficult to argue against healthcare, so the abortion lobby has fought very hard to define abortion, sterilization and transgender surgeries as health care. But are they?
My definition of healthcare, I say mine because I have not heard others speak this way, is the diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as the maintenance of normal human function.
Abortion, sterilization and transgender surgery are not healthcare because the patient has no disease. Their body functions as a normal human and a person can live a full normal life without them. They are performed because a person believes that their life will be improved by having them done, not due to any objective criteria. This makes them religious rituals and not healthcare; therefore, they have no place in a Catholic hospital.

I submit my thoughts to you, and I have shared them with my Bishop, as well as priest and pastor and spiritual director. I have received so much spiritual consolation when I think about it, as I believe we can eradicated abortion and sterilization from the USA and eventually the world more thoroughly than if we had a world wide abortion ban. This is a danger to me as it leads to delusions of grandeur. As my friends, please rip me to shreds, take apart my argument and tell me I am crazy, but I will tell you why I think that I am not.


The greatest event in the history of the western hemisphere that they do not teach us in school, not even Catholic school in the USA, is the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego in 1531. The apparition resulted in 10 million conversions to the Catholic Church in just 10 years and has made Mexico one of the most Catholic Countries on Earth. What happened?
The Spanish missionaries were trying to convert the Aztecs, but did not have much success. They told the Aztecs that the missionaries were bringing them news of the true God, and the Aztec Gods were either dead or impotent. The Aztecs thought that if the Spaniards were telling the truth, then the Aztecs felt as though they should die also, along with their gods. Their primary diety was named

Quetzalcōātl​

Worship of this feathered serpent diety included human sacrifice. In 1487, there was an event where 80,400 people were sacrificed over the course of 4 days. I have heard remors that there were rivers of blood flowing from their pyramids


Our Lady appears to Juan Diego, not in power and judgement clamoring for a legal ban on human sacrifice, but as a loving mother that told them sacrifice is not needed, her Son had already sacrificed Himself for the whole world.
She appeared in such a way that the Aztecs knew she is the queen of heaven, she crushes the head of their serpent god, and she takes them all in her loving arms just as they are, respecting their culture.
It is a beautiful account and the original tilma from Juan Diego is still on display in Mexico City at the Shrine or Our Lady of Guadalupe. Please read the story, I am amazed at the account the more I read about it.

What does this have to do with abortion in the USA? The Aztecs performed human sacrifice, abortion is human sacrifice. Our Lady cried for the Aztecs and she cries for the millions of souls harmed by abortion. Take a look at the bottom of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. There is a cherub with the wings of an eagle, and the color of those wings are red, white, and blue. Coincidence? I think not

The US constitution has the first amendment which gives us freedom of religion. If we read the text of the amendment it also prevents to government from establishing a religion. How is that significant?

By calling abortion, sterilization, contraception and transgender surgeries healthcare, when they are no such thing, the government has effectively established a religion and that is unconstitutional.

This establishment has caused irreparable harm to other’s religious freedom. What is the remedy? We have the freedom of religion, if it’s defined as religious, we have no hope of banning those procedures. Maybe, but we need faith in God

If the government is guilty of establishing a religion, then any facility that receives federal or state funds would be immediately banned from performing those procedures due to the establishment clause. That means no hospital, no clinic, no surgery center, no doctors office that receives federal or state funds would be authorized to perform these procedures

People wound have the freedom of religion to do them, but they would have to pay for them themselves and find their own practitioners. Due to the establishment clause, no medical school, college, or nursing school that receives government funding would be authorized to teach them

Right now we have states that want to fund planned parenthood, unconstitutional. Obamacare forces contraceptives and sterilization and abortion , unconstitutional .

God is prochoice, because he is love. Love is not love unless it is free. The Catholic Church teaches free will, unlike the Calvinist irresistible grace.

If there is no money in it, doctors stop performing them. If it is marked as religious, women would not be as easily deceived into having them.

Scripture says, I set before you life and death. If we follow the Lord, we walk the path of life. If we wish to follow serpent gods with unrestrained lust and debauchery, there is nothing to expect except death. Your choice

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us

What do you think?

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“Give Thanks In All Things”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to run my first half marathon here in Mankato. This past week I have been mentally processing what happened and thinking through the whole experience. I’ve thought about how I prepared for many months to increase my distance and endurance, and then the day came in hopes for all the preparation to pay off.

I did my best to take into account what all issues I could possibly face. I wasn’t preparing for a bad race by any means, but I just went through several scenarios in my head as I mentally prepared for what might come. For months, I had been focusing on a certain pace that I wanted to keep, but as the time got closer within a couple of weeks, I finally just came to the mindset of, “I just want to finish and enjoy the experience”. That’s the attitude I took into it. I wanted to complete it…..running the whole time.

On race day, the hype of everything was amazing. Being around thousands of runners definitely gave me a “runners high”. The Saturday before I had run the course by myself to get a feel for it so that I knew what to expect. As I ran the race, I just enjoyed the experience and asked God to give me the endurance. After mile 7, I started having a side pain and knee problems. I decided to slow my pace down to help with making the pain tolerable. After a few more miles, I felt like I had it managed enough to keep running and finish. I just kept praying for God to help me finish.

As I think back, I ran into issues and I was prepared to deal with them. Thankfully, God blessed me to finish while still running. Every runner in the world would love to run a race with NO issues at all. However, that’s just not reality. Almost every runner experiences some setback at some point that is not expected.

This past week I have remembered this is exactly like life. We simply cannot expect a life that is void of any problems. That is not reality and not the life God promised us. However, He did promise to always be present with us, guiding us and helping us through. Throughout the race, I was doing my best to give God thanks no matter the outcome. No matter what obstacles I was facing, I wanted to focus on being thankful for the experience. In life, we all experience setbacks and obstacles and we need to learn to give thanks no matter the circumstances. God will bring us through. We need to adjust our attitude and see things in a different light and perspective so that we can focus on Him and trust that He knows what He is doing.

Jesus said:

Mark 12:29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ [b]This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mat22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”


Jesus made two very important statements about these two commandments. That all the Law and Prophets (Scriptures) hangs on these two commandments- loving God and loving neighbor and there are no other commandments greater than these.

What did Jesus say about the Scriptures.

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.


So lets put these two things together- the greatest commandments, which there is no greater commandments, hangs on the entire Bible love to God love to man and these Scriptures testify of Jesus.


The whole Bible is about love and the testimony of Jesus through the prophets and apostles, but what about God’s own Testimony- how does this fit in with these principles.


Exo 31: 18 And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.


The Testimony of God is the Ten Commandments

Deut 4:13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.


So how does God’s Testimony, the Ten Commandments relates to the greatest commandments, love to God, love to man.


Paul speaks of this verbatim with the second greatest commandment

Romans 13:9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” [b]“You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.


So if the Second Greatest commandment is from the Testimony of God on the second tablet on how to love thy neighbor, its only reasonable that the greatest commandment is summed up by God’s Testimony on the commandments how to love God. We also see this principle when Jesus quoted Deut6:5 which was said after the Ten Commandments were repeated 40 years after God gave them and told to keep and teach their children to keep before entering their Promise Land (just as we are Rev22:14)


The first 4 commandments show how to love God and the last 6 how we love our neighbor. They cover so much more than people realize Psa 119:96 just as Jesus taught from this same unit Mat 5:19-30

Exo 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [a]bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor [b]serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting[c] the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.


Jesus teaches that loving God and loving your neighbor are the two hinges on which “all the Law and the Prophets hang.” The first four commandments (Exodus 20:1–11) show how to love God — no other gods, no idols, honoring His name, keeping His Sabbath. The last six (Exodus 20:12–17) show how to love others — honoring parents, valuing life, faithfulness, honesty, contentment.


Love is codified in the Ten Commandments — one tablet about devotion to God, the other about compassion toward humanity.


John 5:39, shows that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment and living expression of both love and law. He didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), meaning He demonstrated what perfect love — and therefore perfect obedience — looks like. Through Him, the law is no longer just words on stone but written on our hearts Jeremiah 31:33 Heb8:10 2 Cor3:3


The Testimony of God is His revelation of love in moral form, and the Testimony of Jesus is that same love embodied in human form. Together they complete the picture — the written Word and the Living Word bearing the same message: love expressed through obedience.

So how do these two principles, the Testimony of God show how to love God and how to love neighbor and plays out since the entire Bible hangs on these principles I will provide examples of this in the next post.

1 John 5:1a reads:

πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστὶν ὁ Χριστός, ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται
("Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God")

A few grammatical observations:

First, ὁ πιστεύων is a present active participle functioning substantively: "the one who is believing." The participle presents the subject, and describes a present, ongoing activity rather than a completed act of faith.

Second, γεγέννηται, the main verb of the clause, is a perfect passive indicative: "has been begotten" or "has been born [of God]." The perfect tense is more than just a "past" tense. Its aspectual function specifically points to a completed action in the past whose effects continue into the present.

When the two forms are set in relation to each other, especially with the present participle functioning substantively -- that is, as the subject of the main verb -- the natural sense is that the person who now believes does so as one who has already been born of God. The grammar, therefore, suggests a logical ordering in which the new birth precedes the act of believing.

This does not, of course, deny the simultaneous experience of these realities in human perception, but grammatically the text places regeneration as the root (the logical grounds) and believing as its fruit.