Pray Jesus Christ heals, comforts and provides for all those affected by the deaths of around 93 people in Kerala, India due to landslides caused by rain

Landslides in Southern India Kill More Than 100 People

Donald Trump said Catholics in the U.S. are being "persecuted" by the current Joe Biden administration in an interview broadcast on FOX News on Monday.

It follows a controversial statement made by the former president at Turning Point Action's Believers' Summit on Friday, in which he said, "Christians, get out and vote just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It will be fixed. It will be fine. You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians."

Continued below.

Proverbs 8

13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Click to expand...

God hates acts of evil.

36 but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Click to expand...

Evildoers hate God.

Psalm 11:

5 The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

Click to expand...

The psalmist used poetic hyperbole. More specifically, God hates the wicked who are unrepentant.

Psalm 5:

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

Click to expand...

"all" was a hyperbole. More specifically, God hates unrepentant evildoers. Here comes the context:

9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

Click to expand...

God hates the above kind of rebellious sinners.

The psalmists speak of God hates evildoers. However, if they repent, they will be okay. John 3:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Click to expand...

God loves sinners who repent but hates unrepentant sinners.

Nestorianism is defined as such...

Nestorianism is a Christian heresy that originated in Asia Minor and Syria in the 5th century AD. It's named after Nestorius, the Archbishop of Constantinople from around 386–451 AD, whose teachings inspired the movement. Nestorianism emphasizes the independence of Christ's divine and human natures, believing that they are two distinct persons sharing one body, but not united in essence. Nestorians also believed that Mary was only the "bearer of Christ" (Christotokos), not the "bearer of God" (theotokos), because calling her the mother of God would put her above Nestorius. This led Nestorians to conclude that it was only the human Jesus who suffered and died on the cross, not the divine Son.

Gnostics taught two simple matters. God is the source of Sprit and Satan is the provider of Flesh. You can chop this up in as many different ways possible, but pure Gnosticism teaches that Flesh itself is Satanic and Evil. This led to what is known as a teaching about Christ having two distinct hypostases.

"Nestorianism" refers to the doctrine that there are two distinct hypostases in the Incarnate Christ, the one Divine and the other human. The teaching of all churches that accept the Council of Ephesus is that in the Incarnate Christ is a single hypostasis, God and man at once. That doctrine is known as the Hypostatic union.

Hypostases refers to substance of reality. Soul is an acceptable term to simplify this matter. The idea that Sin is a DNA, Flesh infused wickedness, led people to look beyond the fact that the very system of this Power Hungry world is enough to propagate sin, and to the idea that Sin is sarx itself. This essentially is unknowingly saying that God's very substance of Creation is Evil.

Doctrine was formulated to suggest that Jesus (God with us, God the Son, The fulness of the Godhead Bodily) was not God with us, but 1 Body, containing two souls. One Human and the other divine. This is taught no where in scripture and it is a specific suggestion that Jesus Christ was NOT the Fulness of the Godhead Bodily.

Jesus was the Son of His Father
Jesus was the Son of His mother

Jesus was God with Us

It is right to say Son of God.
It is right to say God.
It is right to say Son of Man.

It is WRONG to divide God into two separate beings, walking as ONE.

The Creator was Born the very Miraculous union of Creator and Creation. Jesus was born God and is God, always has been God... and God became FLESH.

The Trinity is not divisible. There is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and as surely as (for examples sake) our Body is not our Soul, nor our Soul our Zoe (Spirit), nor our Zoe (Spirit) our Body, so the Father is not the Son, nor the Holy Spirit the Son or Father. Yet, the fulness of the Godhead is always present where ever Father, Son or Holy Spirit are, because the Triune substance of our ONE Mono-Theistic God is INDIVISIBLE.

To say that Jesus was not Fully God and Fully Man is to deny the very finishing of our Salvation in Doctrine, if such Gospel Doctrine is properly understood. The Man didn't Die on the Cross. The Word of God (The Son of God, God the Son), Who became FLESH, Died on the Cross. If this is not so, then the Old Covenant could have never been fulfilled and the very "Last Will and Testament" of the Creator, would not be in full effect (The New Covenant).

One needs to distinguish between "God" and "god". If you believe Jesus is your true savior, there is only one true God. Polytheists talk about different Gods.

Anubis is an Egyptian god. When I look at its statues, I feel disgusted. Their god is a dog!? How dumb is that, eh? I won't have a copy near me. Deuteronomy 7:

25 The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

Click to expand...

In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr is not a god but a sea serpent. I find it ugly-looking. Technically, if you like some representation of it, it is okay. Ensure you don't think of it as a god or God. If it distracts you from wholehearted devotion to God, bury it as Jacob did.

It is possible to have some beautiful statues. Exodus 25:

18 Make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover.

Click to expand...

Is it a sin to have statues of other gods even if you don't worship them?

Yes, De 7:25.

Is it a sin to have statues of beautiful objects if you don't worship them?

It is okay if they are not idols and don't distract you from worshiping the true God. To be on the safe side, I won't bother collecting any kind of statues that I may adore.

Why is the gospel of John so different?


The three synoptic gospels start different than John. Jesus' message of each of the synoptic gospels doesn't start until after an introduction of Jesus' ancestry and John the Baptist's message. After that the gospels will follow Jesus as He interacts with the nation of Israel. Jesus is sent to the nation of Israel. He is talking to and interacting with people who are, for the most part, sinners under the law, therefore, they are sinning. The NT does not start until Jesus dies. Therefore, caution has to be used when applying scriptures to His church.


The gospel of John starts out before the world began introducing Jesus as the Word of God. Then John the Baptist's mission is described briefly. Next, the Word becomes flesh and His purpose is described briefly. Then there is a wedding taking place on the third day which is prophetic. It is also important that Jesus, to honor His earthly parent, pushed His hour ahead. Therefore, John could write of the doctrine after His hour. After the wedding Jesus cleanses the Temple. In chapter 3 John describes how the bride is chosen. His message is for His bride, righteous people not under the law. For the most part John's gospel applies to His church.


Therefore, in general, the main gospel that can be applied to His church is the gospel of John. The other gospels, except where He deals with His disciples and a few other places, does not apply to His church.


Example: Luke 13:2 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. NKJV


The above message cannot be applied to His bride because His bride is righteous. Jesus was talking to people under to law and still in sin. His bride's sins are forgiven, and her sins are covered by Jesus' blood.

Another example: Matthew 19:17 So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." NKJV


Jesus does not need to tell His bride to keep the commandments to enter life. Why is that?


Romans 4:6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin." NKJV


Because the bride's righteousness is imputed to her through her faith, not works. She is ready to enter eternity.



Test: Can the following be applied to His bride?



Mark 8:31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." NKJV



People do not rebuke God. Jesus called Peter Satan; he must have blasphemed.


























Yes, this can be applied to the church. What Jesus told Peter to do is the same thing as He tells His church to do when they make a mistake (sin). He wants His church to repent and walk in the Spirit (follow Him).

John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." NKJV



This definitely applies to His church and this placement is important. First thing after the wedding Jesus cleanses the temple. We are the temple of God. We are His fiancé, to the Jews we are considered His bride. Jesus does not require, it's good if we do, us to prepare His temple for His arrival (repent), He sprinkled His blood over everything and made it clean. After that we need to heed His voice and follow Him with a dustpan. He will clean His temple. He will put items in the dustpan for us to throw out. It is our job to let go of the things that He chooses to throw out. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, we ourselves will toss things out.

Do we have to clean the temple to be saved? No! If we had to clean the temple to be saved, it would be a works-based salvation. The problem arises if we do not want the temple cleaned. In that case we kick Jesus out of the Temple because He cannot leave the temple dirty. He will not leave on His own. Because He will get a clean temple even if He has to kill us to get it, some people will choose to kick Him out. Heaven is only for those who want it. He will not stay where His services are not welcomed.


John 3: 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." NKJV


Can the above be applied to His bride.


Not verses 19-20 because there is no condemnation for those who believe in Him. There are verses that I could cite, but here's the ultimate reason- because God says so. Under the new covenant anyone that believes in Jesus cannot sin. That is His law under the new covenant. Millions of unsaved people will scream “that's unfair.” His bride says “Praise God and thank you for Jesus. "Which group are you in?

A former McDonald's employee spills the beans on the perks that come when you ask for a McDonald's receipt

If you catch a craving for a burger and fries, McDonald’s is always a short drive away. The fast-food restaurant has a range of bestselling menu items, from the Happy Meal and Big Mac to the McGriddles breakfast sandwich and chicken nuggets. But to ensure you get a fresh meal every time, you might need to take one extra step.

Continued below.

One of the most striking features of the whole Last Supper parody debacle that has so unfortunately tainted the opening of this year’s Olympics and what is meant to be such a thrilling testimony to human achievement is the way the mainstream media has reacted to it (or hasn’t in most cases).

The BBC didn’t appear to run anything over the weekend about the incident, which occurred on Friday 26 July, until later on Sunday 28 July when it published – slipped in under the radar is more accurate – a very short articletitled “Olympic chiefs ‘sorry’ opening ceremony caused offence”.

It is such a cropped and reductionist piece of writing that it would make even Ernest Hemingway, the great master of pared-down composition, blush.

Continued below.

Stuffed Manicotti (Adapted)​

Ingredients:

• One 8-ounce box of manicotti shells — uncooked
• About 2 1/2 pounds skinned and boneless chicken breasts or tenderloins (If they are semi-thawed, they are easier to cut in strips)
• Salt, pepper, oregano/Italian seasonings, garlic powder, onion powder to taste
• One 24-ounce jar of marinara sauce or more as needed
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• One 9x13-inch Pyrex baking dish

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the Pyrex dish with non-stick spray.

Cut the chicken into strips, place them in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, oregano/Italian seasonings, garlic powder and onion powder. Eyeball it according to your taste.

Take the uncooked shells and stuff them front/back with the seasoned raw chicken. Use your fingers or a fork to feed the shells. Place them in the dish with some marinara sauce on the bottom of the dish. Keep on stuffing and lining them up in the dish all in a row. Once you have filled the dish, cover the manicotti shells with the sauce, and if you have to add more liquid, add a little water to the jar, swoosh it around, and pour over the shells. Make sure the shells are covered in liquid. You might need another jar of sauce depending on how many you are making.

Cover the shells with shredded mozzarella cheese — some like it smothered in cheese. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.


Place in the oven and cook for 60 minutes. Uncover the dish and let it brown on top. Remove the dish and let stand for 10 minutes or so. Serve with a green vegetable or tossed green salad and a baguette.

(This can be made ahead of time, stored in the fridge or freezer, reheated in the microwave.)

Bon Appétit!

Continued below.

Joey Piscitelli told the Register that during the seven-year period Harris served as San Francisco’s district attorney, she repeatedly declined his requests to release relevant documents and to meet with him.

Kamala Harris is emphasizing her experience as a prosecutor in her campaign for president, which is drawing attention to her decisions as a district attorney two decades ago — including how she handled victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy.

Some advocates for victims say she didn’t help them when she could have — particularly during a seven-year period when she had control of personnel files of Catholic priests accused of sex crimes.

It’s not a new claim; critics have made it during at least two of Harris’ prior runs for higher office.

Continued below.

A United Kingdom high court judge upheld the British government’s emergency ban on puberty blockers for minors on Monday, finding the blockers carry “very substantial risks and very narrow benefit.”

Advocacy group TransActual challenged the U.K.’s ban along with a 15-year-old who remains unnamed due to a court order.

Justice Beverly Lang cited England’s National Health Service (NHS) study that preceded the restrictions, calling it “powerful scientific evidence in support of restrictions on the supply of puberty blockers on the grounds that they were potentially harmful” in her decision.

Continued below.

Yes, as fathers, we have this responsibility before God. Pr 22:

6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Click to expand...

Ephesians 6:

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Click to expand...

We do our part to raise them up, the rest is up to them. Having done that, they are responsible for their sins. Ezekiel 18:

20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Click to expand...

Particularly when they are young, fathers bear the responsibility for their growing up knowing God. After that, they are directly responsible to God.

President Joe Biden on Monday unveiled a proposal to reform the United States Supreme Court by adding term limits and an ethics code, saying he was motivated in part by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and other recent rulings.

In a July 29 op-ed for the Washington Post attributed to Biden, the president said “term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity.” The plan would give justices one 18-year term. The president would appoint one justice every two years, which would ensure that the Supreme Court continues to have nine justices.

“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court,” Biden continued. “Term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity. That would make timing for court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary. It would reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the court for generations to come.”

Continued below.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and several others are suing the Biden Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over a change to Title X that eliminated parental consent requirements for minors accessing contraceptives.

Title X is the federal funding program for family planning and contraceptive services.

Under the Biden administration’s rule, which took effect on Nov. 8, 2021, projects funded by the program “may not require consent of parents or guardians for the provision of services to minors, nor can any Title X project staff notify a parent or guardian before or after a minor has requested and/or received Title X family planning services.”

Continued below.

Father Jason Nioka, a recently ordained French priest who is in charge of the Catholic chaplains at the 2024 Paris Olympics. | Credit: EWTN News In Depth Screenshot

Father Jason Nioka was ordained a Catholic priest one month ago, and his very first assignment is to spend his summer in Paris in charge of the Catholic contingent of Olympic chaplains — the largest group of chaplains at the Olympics — made up of 40 Catholic priests, religious, and lay faithful.

In an interview with Catherine Hadro on “EWTN News In Depth” on July 26, Nioka, who is from France, called this opportunity a “very wonderful gift from God to be part of this adventure.”

Olympians are invited to gather at the Multifaith Center located in the athletes village in an area for Christian athletes — Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants — where they can read the Bible together, take part in lectio divina, and worship, Nioka explained.

Continued below.

NIV Genesis 35:

4 They gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

Click to expand...

buried
וַיִּטְמֹ֤ן (way·yiṭ·mōn)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2934: To hide, conceal

At Biblehub, 15 versions translated it as "hid"; 12 used "buried".

This Hebrew word appears 31 times in the OT. The primary meaning is to hide.

NASB Translation: buries (2), concealed (2), discarded (1), held in reserve (1), hid (8), hidden (9), hide (5), hiding (1), laying...secretly (1), secretly laid (1).

It's almost as if he was putting them there for safekeeping. What's with that?

Probably not.

Pulpit Commentary:

Jacob hid them - having probably first destroyed them, since they do not appear to have been ever after sought for or resumed by the parties who gave them up

Click to expand...

Gill's comment was similar:

and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem; that is, the idols, which, after he had broke to pieces, perhaps, he dug a hole under an oak, and there buried them, that they might be no more made use of in an idolatrous way

Click to expand...

Jacob didn't just hide the idols; he buried them forever.

I'm going to see the doctor for a skin problem. Pray that it's not cancer etc and that I will have a clear mind Amen

"Israelis are literally not allowed into Palestine; they're not allowed into the West Bank. However, I'm not Israeli, I'm an American Jew, and it doesn't say ‘Jew’ on my passport. So, I was told, ‘As long as you don't say you're Jewish, you know, they're not going to kill you on the spot,’" Fox told Fox News Digital.
During the journey, Fox told anyone who asked he was an Italian American and was able to cross the border into the West Bank without issue, which he felt was "kind of shocking."
Fox began his time in the West Bank with a prearranged interview with a man who was described to him by his Muslim producer as a "very smart and civil," "somewhat moderate" thinker who holds a Master’s degree and speaks good English. They sat down at a coffee shop in Ramallah, the Palestinian "capital" located near Jerusalem.
The man denied that "innocent Israelis" were killed during the attacks of October 7, expressed support for Hamas and suggested rape never occurred during the barbaric attacks.
"I realized quickly, if this is someone being presented to me as one of the more educated people, I might be in for a real shock," Fox said.
Then he hit the streets to find locals and recorded a series of spontaneous interviews while walking around Ramallah. But Fox said "things got very contentious very quick" once he hit the streets. "It was like one after another, massive love and support for Hamas," Fox said. "I was specifically looking for younger people thinking, OK, someone here is not going to support Hamas. And they all do," he continued. "It really ranged from sympathy to actual love and admiration for Hamas…. I thought I would find at least some people who were not diehard Hamas supporters, and I couldn’t find one."

I received an email stating that I had not completed my profile. I cannot figure out how to get to my account on this site. Suggestions, please?

Evidently there were people in Thessalonica who professed faith in Jesus Christ who were lazy, idol, and slothful, who did not work to earn their own living, but who fed off of others and their generosity. We have people like that still today, even within the gatherings of the church, who are capable physically of holding down a job, but who take advantage of others and their kind hearts, and who use others to get what they want, sometimes to use the money not wisely, and sometimes to feed sinful addictions. Sadly so.

But then we have a different situation in our world today where we have such things as social security (NOT welfare) and retirement accounts which people work for many years and pay into these retirement packages so that when they get to be elderly that they can retire and not have to continue to work to earn money, though some still do because these retirement systems are not enough to pay all their bills. So they earned the money which is then paid out to them in increments when they retire. This is not wrong.

However, there are many Christians who get into their retirement years who then become lazy, idol, and slothful. They don’t have to work for money, for they already earned their living, but they have this idea that retirement means they can just do whatever they want, and so they sink into lifestyles of laziness to where they spend their days just entertaining themselves. But as Christians we are to be working for the Lord, and our lives are to be surrendered to him to do his will, so we should be busy about the Kingdom.

God did not call us to his service so that we would sit around just giving pleasure to ourselves. He called us with a holy calling, and we are to work for him in doing what he has called all of us to do. So we should be busy doing the work of the Lord in ministering to the people of God, and to the people of the world, and in sharing the message of the gospel of our salvation and whatever else the Lord has for us to do to show his love to other people and to spread his gospel throughout the world.

But there we need to be cautious, for many people get into ministries where they feed the hungry, which is a good thing, but it is not good if we are feeding those capable of earning a living who are idle and who are taking advantage of others while they feed their own fleshly appetites. And I believe that is the caution here. It is good to have compassion, but compassion can be misdirected sometimes. As the saying goes, sometimes we need to teach people how to fish instead of just supplying the fish.

And Paul and Silas and Timothy here set the example for us in how we ought to conduct our lives in so many different areas. We are not to be idle. We are not to take advantage of others. And I know that times are hard right now and some people are having difficulty finding jobs while I see lots of signs up in places of employment where they are looking to hire workers. But I think there is some crooked stuff going on there high up, so not everything is as it appears on a surface level. Just saying that some people can’t find work.

So we must be discerning people, for there are people everywhere asking for money. Especially, we must pray before giving money to any charitable organization, for they are not all on the up-and-up, and sometimes the money never gets to the people, or most of it goes to administration fees and very little gets to the people. Sadly there is so much deception these days that we must pray through everything, especially when it comes to contributing to what is being advertised as legitimate needs of others.

And if we have retirement money, and we don’t need to have a job to pay our bills, at least for now, then we should do volunteer work under the direction and leading of the Lord. Even if we are somewhat handicapped, as I am, we can still do something. I can’t do a whole lot physically, and even my brain is not as sharp as it was when I was a lot younger, but I am able to write, and so that is what God has called me to do. And he has something that he wants all of us to do, and it isn’t to just entertain ourselves.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Gal 6:1; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:11-27; Eph 6:10-20; Php 2:1-8; Col 1:9; Col 3:12-16; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; Jas 5:19-20; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Login to view embedded media

Her excruciating “We’ve been to the border” interview with Lester Holt was perhaps the nadir of her vice presidency, although it’s hard to choose. The attack ads write themselves.
She has been enthusiastically in favor of every bad idea the left has dreamed up in the last decade: open borders, cashless bail, banning fracking, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, racist identity politics.
Her boosters think they will cast her as The Prosecutor versus The Felon. But as the original Soros prosecutor, she is really the anti-law-and-order candidate. Installed with the help of her lover Willie Brown as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2003 and California’s attorney general in 2010, she owns the crime-infested hellholes they have become.

The establishment is powerful, and they are experts at propaganda. But they are short on time to remake Kamala. We will see.

So you say you go to church
Fellowship you do not search
Walking with Christ not your thing
Offerings to Christ not bring

Live your life the way you want
Though religion you do flaunt
Follow idols, that’s your gig
True commitments, not so big

Selfishness it rules your life
Sinful practices, they are rife
Wasting time on what’s just trash
Not consider God to ask

Hypocrite, that’s who you are
You will not get very far
Time is ticking, going by
While your sins from God you hide

He’s not blinded to your plight
Knows you’ve given up the fight
Knows you’ve given into sin
Knows you’re losing, not to win

If surrender to Him do
He’ll forgive you, through and through,
Give you new life to begin
If you give up all for Him

“You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” Matthew 15:7-9 ESV

An Original Work / June 24, 2023

But let’s pretend otherwise.

These words were penned by the apostle Paul, as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit. But the letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy, and to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And at least this section of the letter was for the purpose to encourage the church, the body of Christ, the body of believers in Jesus Christ who were of genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in the Lord Jesus.

Paul stated that the Christians were chosen of God from the beginning to be saved, and the Scriptures bear that out that those who are of genuine faith in the Lord Jesus were chosen by God even before the creation of the world to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. And that last phrase there is critical to our understanding of what true salvation from sin really is. For it is not generated by our own flesh.

And this salvation is not what is commonly being taught today. For we who believe in Jesus with God-provided faith in him were predestined to be conformed the likeness of Jesus Christ. And we were saved and called to a holy calling, by God’s grace, and to be holy is to be separate (different) from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus. And we are to be obedient to God, no longer conformed to the passions of our sinful flesh.

[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, this salvation does not come about by us giving lip service to the Lord and claiming faith in him and in what he did for us on that cross. It is persuaded of God and is gifted to us by God, as is the faith to believe in Christ, and not one of us can be saved by our own human effort. For our faith and salvation are not of the flesh of man, not of our own doing, but we are saved from our sins only because the Father drew us to himself.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44]

Now let me go back to that highlighted phrase. We are saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. And sanctification is a process of the Spirit in making us holy, different from the world, because we are now being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. But this involves our cooperation with the Spirit’s work of salvation and sanctification in our hearts and minds, resulting in godly behavior.

And we are saved through belief in the truth. And this is where it gets sticky, for “the truth” that so many are teaching today is not the truth that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught. It is partially the truth, but which dilutes and alters that truth to make it more acceptable and appeasing to human flesh and less offensive to the ungodly of the world. So they teach that you can profess faith, but still continue in sin, and still be saved.

But Jesus taught that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to (save) our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self (lose our lives), die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands, in practice, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God (Luke 9:23-26).

For we are called to faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught, as taught in the appropriate biblical context. And they taught that, by faith in Jesus Christ, 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 now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, and that constitutes genuine salvation.

Now when Paul said, “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us,” these were not human traditions passed down to us by our ancestors from generation to generation. These were biblical instructions of God, given to the apostles, and then handed down from the apostles to the people, which then have been handed down to us from generation to generation. We are to hold firm to the teachings for us of the apostles.

But let me add a word of caution here. So many people today are teaching the Scriptures out of context. They pull certain verses out of context and then they twist them to make them say what they don’t teach if taught in context, and believe me when I say that is absolutely deliberate! At least it is deliberate by those who initiated the teachings of these Scriptures out of context, but it is negligent for teachers to not teach them in context.

And please know that the grace of God is not free license for us to continue living in sin. God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” “which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10)

[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 2:3-6,24-25; 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]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Login to view embedded media

Eleven children and two adults have been knifed at a Taylor Swift-themed event in Southport

A knife-wielding attacker has injured eleven children - two of them fatally - and two adults at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga event in the town of Southport in northwestern England.

Channel 3 named the suspect as Ali-Al-Shakati, an asylum-seeker who arrived in the UK by boat last year.