Sword of the Lord said:

I'm not hating, and I find it humourous, but I always know when I see you there's a 99% chance you will mention your old Presbyterian pastor at some point lol

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He left a strong impression on me.

The night my father died when I was still an atheist he said "You'll become a Christian" and "You'll meet a pastor. You'll think he's great but all he'll do is to discourage you even more."

The pastor he was referring to was the Presbyterian pastor whom I met nearly four years later.

About nine years after that as I was about to leave his church he said he owed me an apology.

I asked him why. He replied "You needed encouragement but all I've done is to discourage you even more!"

He'd quoted my deceased father back to me word for word about himself. When I pointed that out, he blurted "You really did see your father that night!!"

But I learnt a lot from him and he was prophetic. I found if he thought something was going to happen it did sooner or later. I'm still waiting on a couple of things, but a number of them have already happened.

Obviously God thought he was going to be important enough to show my father who had just died on the night of 11 January 1979 that I would meet him down the track, late in 1982 as it happened.

My father never met the pastor but he was being shown me meeting the pastor a few years down the track and said so. He didn't say that about anybody else, although he did indicate another pastor would cause me trouble.

I hold the pastor in high respect even if he tended to be discouraging. He said "I tend to discourage people. I don't mean to but I do."

I think part of the problem for him was that he could see problems people would make for themselves in years to come.

Don’t let the raindrops
Spoil your day.
Don’t let the clamoring
Get in the way.
Don’t let opinions
And thoughts of the millions
Impact how you’re feeling.
Trust God, bow and pray.

Don’t let your feelings
Rule what you do.
Don’t let misgivings
Affect your life, too.
Don’t let the stages
Of life with its phases
Lead you through the ages.
Let God’s Word lead you.

Don’t trust in idols.
They cannot help.
Don’t trust in princes,
Or in yourself.
Don’t trust in anything
That is not leading you
To follow in God’s way.
Obey now your Lord.

Don’t live defeated
because you’re mistreated.
Don’t let emotions
Ruin devotions.
Don’t let the enemy
Ruin your energy,
And stop your ministry.
Live victoriously!

An Original Work / January 2, 2020

"nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:3)

"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)

If we love one another within the family of God with this brotherly love, it means that we have a warm, kind, and proper affection for one another, and we care about each other like we would our own flesh and blood family members. For we are all part of God’s family who believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ. All of us who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him in holy living, are brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, we will be looking out for one another, for what is for our good. And we will be those who are encouraging and exhorting one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, and who are speaking the truth in love to one another so that we are not deceived by sin’s deceitfulness and so we are not led astray by people in their cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming. For many liars exist who make pretense to faith in Jesus Christ so that they can trick us into believing their lies and to turn from pure devotion to Christ.

And we will be sensitive to one another’s needs, whether the needs are physical, emotional, or spiritual, and we will reach out to one another to help meet those legitimate needs, as we are led of the Spirit of God in what the Lord would have us to do or to say. And we will gather together regularly wherever we can meet together to encourage one another in our walks of faith, and to use our spiritual gifts for the proper building up of the body of Christ to maturity in Christ, as we each do our part, like a family.

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

And we are to show hospitality to strangers. Now I live in the USA and in the 21st Century, so culturally we are different from the people of the culture of the time period and location that these words were written, so I am not totally sure what all this entailed for them. I do believe that in my culture and time period that this needs to be bathed in prayer and acted out in wisdom and discernment, but for me it means that I should treat strangers always with kindness and respect and value, no matter who they are.

Now, when this speaks of remembering those in prison, I believe the context is that of those who are believers in Jesus Christ who are being mistreated, some of whom are being put in prison because of their walks of faith in the Lord. And I believe this includes all Christians throughout the world who are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. We should be praying for them. But it also includes our brothers and sisters in Christ locally who are being mistreated. We should pray and ask God how we can encourage them.

And this segues right into this next section which talks about marriage, and how all of us are to hold marriage in honor, and how all of us who are married should be living righteous, faithful, and morally pure lives so that our “marriage bed” (intimate relationship with spouse) remains undefiled. And this takes both husband and wife to make the marriage bed undefiled. But it only takes one to defile it. And in our culture today, with so many people addicted to pornography, I suspect most marriage beds are defiled.

And what that means for the faithful spouse who is married to an unfaithful spouse is that the unfaithful spouse is mistreating the faithful spouse. And we need to remember them, too, in prayer. And for the Christian, divorce is not the solution. The body of Christ should not encourage divorce as the solution, but the body of Christ should lovingly correct the unfaithful spouse and insist upon faithfulness, and pray for these marriages to be healed. And we need to take God seriously, that he will judge the (immoral) adulterous.

Then we should not be greedy people who are hungering and thirsting after the sinful pleasures of this world and worldly possessions and worldly wealth. Our hearts and minds should be set on pleasing the Lord in all that we do and say, and serving him and other people with our lives. Then leave it up to the Lord to provide for our needs. But this is not saying that we should be lazy and not work to provide for our needs, but that wealth is not to be our goal. Feeding our families and paying our bills should be our focus.

And we should learn to be content with what we have and not be focused on accumulating more and more stuff. If we haven’t used it in years, we should give it away to someone else who can use it.

And then we should have no fear of other humans and what they might do to us or say about us or to us. What can man do to us? A lot! But we are not to fear them, for the Lord is our helper, our healer, and our strength. And he will give us all we need to endure unjust suffering for the sake of his name, and for the sake of his gospel message which we should all be sharing with the people of the world (the whole counsel of God). We should tell them that faith in Jesus means self-denial, dying to sin, and obeying him, in practice.

[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 Harmony

An Original Work / September 2, 2012
Based off Ro. 12:9-21; 1 Pet. 3:8-17

Love each other truly.
Cling to what is good.
Hate all that is evil.
Never lack in zeal.
Serve the Lord with fervor.
Joyful in hope be;
Patient in affliction;
Praying faithfully.
Honor one another.
Live in harmony.

Share with all God’s people
Who are found in need.
Do not be conceited.
Sympathetic be.
Love, and show compassion
In humility.
Keep your tongue from evil.
Peaceful you must be.
Honor one another.
Live in harmony.

God sees who are righteous;
Listens to their prayers.
But He’s against evil –
Is His to avenge.
Do not fear what they fear.
Suffer patiently.
In your hearts, make Christ Lord.
Serve Him faithfully.
Honor one another.
Live in harmony.

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Prayer

Light the candles, smell them burning,
While the gospel, men are churning,
And the hearts of men not turning
From their sins. And God not learning.

Religious practice is their cover.
Sinful lifestyles, they’re not over.
Godless idols are their lover.
Righteousness is not their mover.

Wickedness is what is leading,
While they go on now deceiving,
And the lies they’re now believing.
And their sins they are not grieving.

Women, now, you are included,
Which you might now have concluded,
Some of you, too, are deluded,
So your sin you’ve not eluded.

Jesus Christ is now your answer,
For He should be your commander,
Suffered, died, and he is risen,
So to free you from your prison.

Turn from your sin, follow Jesus,
For from sin our Lord does free us.
Walk with Jesus, serve him daily,
Worship Him, in truth, not vaguely.

An Original Work / February 27, 2023

On September 11, 2012, 11 years after the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York (USA), the Lord Jesus gave me this song to write in memory, not only of that tragedy, but of other tragedies, as well, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963.

And through this song he is reminding all of us that he is calling each and every one of us to turn from our sins and to surrender our lives to him and to now walk in his ways and in his righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands. For not one of us knows if we have tomorrow, do we?

But he is also cautioning all of us against putting our faith and trust in human beings who may lie to us and deceive us and lead us astray. We must be those who test everything in prayer and whose trust is in God to lead us in the ways of righteousness and to what is true, and who will point out to us the lies of the enemy so that we are not easily deceived. For not everyone tells the truth, and lies and liars are all over the place. So pray. Trust God.

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

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The context here is we are being taught that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are to get rid of every hindrance to our walks of faith in Jesus Christ and every sin which clings so closely, so that we can run with perseverance the race (our walk of faith) that God has set before us, keeping the focus of our minds and hearts set on Jesus Christ. And we are not to be lazy or slothful in our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord, but we are to make straight (righteous, godly) paths for our feet (our walks of faith in Jesus Christ).

So, we are not to refuse the Lord who is speaking to our hearts and who is counseling us in the ways of righteousness, and who is warning us against paths of sin and slothfulness. We are not to be like the children of Israel of the Old Covenant who wandered in the wilderness for forty years, the majority of whom did not listen to God and to Moses, but they rebelled against the Lord and went their own way, and they indulged in sexual immorality and in idolatry, and they were revelers who put Christ to the test.

And what happened to those who rebelled and who continued in their sinful practices? They died, and they did not get to go into the Promised Land. But worse is that they did not get to enter into God’s eternal rest, so they were not saved from their sins, and they did not have eternal life with God. And these things were written down for us as examples, and for our instruction, so that we do not desire evil as they did and face the same punishment. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will die in our sins.

[Hebrews 12:1-24; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; cf. Romans 6:1-23; Acts 26:18]

So, if we ignore the words of the Lord, and if we think that we can live however we want while we go through the motions of religious practice, then we have another thing coming. For he says in Romans 11 that we can be cut off, too, like he cut off all the non-believing Jews who refused Jesus as their Messiah, the Christ. For we are all going to be judged by God on the basis of our deeds. Those for whom sin is their practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to the Lord, they will not inherit eternal life. And all Jews who do not believe in Jesus will not inherit the promise God made to Abraham.

And the Lord will judge his people. And he will shake the earth and the heavens in order to remove the things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain, such as genuine walks of obedience to our Lord in holy and righteous living, to the glory and praise of God, in the power of God, by the grace of God. For Jesus died on that cross so that we will die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, not so that we will go on living in sin while claiming heaven as our eternal destiny. Heaven is not promised to all those who do not obey God.

And so the encouragement here is for all of us who profess the name of Jesus Christ to offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe. And that acceptable worship of God is for us to give our lives to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our acceptable worship of God. And that also includes that we must no longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but we must be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God so that by how we live our lives we prove what is the acceptable and perfect will of God. So we must no longer walk in sin, for our God is a consuming fire to all who will not obey him.

[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]

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

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Yikes!

Can the Trump cards be sacrificed for three mana of any color?

This is my third article published in one day, and it is my first on Bibliotecanatalie. It delves into misconceptions surrounding the life expectancy of Medieval peasants and nobility.

Matthew11: "28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

I know this is harder for some than for others to do, even when they understand that it is true, that this life is not for this life, and that their life is not about them nor about their spiritual/Christian performance, but about Christ. It will take a long hard time to begin to understand what I am still learning after 68 years of praying for understanding. I have prayed for years (to put it VERY mildly), and come to see that he has taken me where he has for HIS OWN SAKE, and that according to his mercy to me, he is making me into what he had in mind for me from the beginning.

I am his, and not my own. This is not about duty and accomplishment, but about knowing God. It will take your whole life.

The mercy of God is the safest place to be.

HTacianas said:

The answer to your question is no. And there is a very good example of it recorded in Acts.

Act 19:1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples
Act 19:2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
Act 19:3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
Act 19:4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
Act 19:5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 19:6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

So we ask the question, when was Apollos saved? If Apollos was saved when he believed why did he then need to be baptized and have hands laid on him to receive the Holy Spirit?

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Would Paul have baptized the unsaved?

bèlla said:

Weston Price chronicled the impact the western diet had on various cultures around the globe as evidenced through dentistry. While it originally addressed the effects of sugar he went on to discover the correlation between diet, habitat and ethnicity. He believed our bodies had a natural preference for the foods related to our region and genetic makeup.

Or put more simply, that's why my Italian friend struggled to eat clean -- a Mediterranean diet -- and always had to reset (start again). The carb deficiency fostered cravings she satisfied with other foods (junk carbs). It's unnatural for her and she needs something more substantial.

I applied his ideology with positive results. My affinity for French culture and food wasn't happenstance. I aligned my eating habits with the French and never struggled with high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc. We settled on a whole foods approach with seasonality and growing conditions in mind. While many eat organic we consume the items when they're at their best taste wise and nutritionally.

We switched to ancient grains a couple years ago exclusively and increased our consumption of fermented foods and probiotics. The shift jump started our metabolisms and we began losing weight and burning fat without exercising. We eat nose to tail and make our own bone broths and medicines. We don't shy away from fat and prefer things in their natural state (dairy, sugar, etc.) Most of which Sally Fallon champions. I discovered Price's teachings through her.

~bella

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This only proves there's way more than just 1 way to live healthy.

In my mom's case, what causes her to have high blood pressure is drinking too much water.

There's too much hype in hydration by the media. It does make you spend more money, way more than just the water itself and mostly from the negative health consequences of drinking too much water.

iluvatar5150 said:

As I pointed out in another thread today, Trump’s platform also promises support to first time homebuyers. I wonder how Trump manages to avoid the inflationary pressures they fear will plague Harris’ plan.

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I wonder why the Democratic Party is now adopting Republican platforms?

Is it an admission of the dismal failure of the past 4 years?

Or are they so out of ideas they're literally stealing them from the competition?

Of course it's evil. It's a vehicle for mainstream Neoconservatism.

Xeno.of.athens said:

The psalms are a source of comfort for me, as well as a place to lay out my trials and cry out to God for help, to weep and to rejoice. But other places in the holy scriptures also provide comfort, wisdom, and what is needed in times of trouble. Where do you go for such things?

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The Psalms are my go-to book also.

Oompa Loompa said:

It would be difficult to transfer an unborn child to an artificial womb when it is torn into pieces and sucked out with a vacuum.

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Details, details.

DaveM said:

thanks everyone for the great feed back, I am much clearer on this subject now !!

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AND maybe not ??

All that Gal 3:28 are several things!!

That is the BODY of Christ there CANNOT // OV , ever beeeeeeeeeeeee, Jew nor Greek , as CANNOT // OV is a

DISJUNCATIVE PARTICIPLE NEGATIVE , meaning there will NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR be Jews or GENTILES in the BODY of Christ ,

Then in Col 3:11 reads differently , Where there CANNOT // OV is also a DISJUNCATIVE PARTICILE NEGATIVE , which also means

there will NEVERRRRRRRR be in the Body of Christ Greek , Jew , Circumcision and uncircumcision , Foreigner , Scythian , slave

( nor ) free, but Christ , is the all things and in all .

And verse 28 says we ARE // ESTE , is in the Greek Present tense , meaning OSAS .

Could say more , but have to go home .

dan p.

gzt said:

The Low Church segment is a very large segment of the ECUSA and was even more dominant then.

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They were much larger then, unfortunately now the Liberal Catholic and Liberal Broad Church segments are dominant. As far as traditional low church ECUSA parishes, that would be considered the most conventionally Protestant, as opposed to Broad Church parishes which represent what Anglicans like to call the via media, these have become quite rare in the Episcopal Church, and to a very large extent most low church or Evangelical Anglicans have left for ACNA, leaving behind more liberal broad church parishes. Likewise, conservative High Church and conservative Anglo Catholic parishes have become quite rare, although I am aware of one, St. John’s Episcopal Chuech in Detroit (which I thought was Continuing Anglican, indeed I was almost certain it was Continuing Anglican, and was genuinely shocked to discover it is still in the Episcopal Church).

gzt said:

We also don't have the most recent numbers for Orthodoxy, but they're not going to jump that much.

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I should expect they will show much more of a jump (the jump is due to the end of the pandemic which was adversely affecting us due to illegal restrictions on worship) and the recent influx of converts, whereas the Episcopal Church is continuing to lose members at a very high rate (if it continues, they will be gone by 2050, but I expect their membership will bottom out at some point, as happened with the UUA, which after alienating nearly everyone, now shows growth, albeit at the expense of the liberal, but less authentically or consistently liberal, mainline Protestants).

But I will say I am shocked our average attendance now equals that of the Episcopal Church, that is still very good for us, but also very sad, when you consider how many American cities have large, imposing Episcopal parishes - they must be mostly empty, and the much fewer and generally much smaller Orthodox parishes mostly full, to attain such a result.

I would particularly like to compare the statistical mode of attendance in Orthodox parishes with Episcopal parishes, because I figured on the basis of median average attendance, given how Episcopal parishes do tend to fill up for seasonal services like Christmas and Easter (for example, 9 Lessons and Carols), that it would throw the mean average in their favor to such an extent that they would be twice as large as us. Of course, since the statistics you refer to are average (presumably mean) Sunday attendance, that probably cancels out Christmas services except for in 2023, when Christmas Eve on the Gregorian Calendar fell on a Sunday, which, unless they compensate for it, will cause a huge bump in 2023, which would only be partially compensated for on our end since ROCOR, the Serbians, ACROD (at least their cathedral), the Georgians, and other jurisdictions (including if I recall the massive OCA Archdiocese of Sitka and Alaska) use the Julian calendar (although effective last Christmas some churches switched to the Revised Julian including the UOCNA, and Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, which is under the OCA, broke with its normal tradition and celebrated Christmas on the Revised Julian calendar, at least in terms of streaming, although lately they appear to have returned to using the Julian Calendar except for the English language services they have in one of their chapels, which are on the RJC).

Nonetheless, a distortion can be expected in the raw 2023 data.

Grafted In said:

Thank you for your informative responce.
I understand very little of what you wrote, but it's nice to know it's a normal phenomena.
Is this directly connected to the practice of using a planet or moon to accelerate a satellite by swinging around it?

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Totally different scenario which involves gravity and the conservation of momentum.
A spacecraft approaching a planet from an opposite direction to the planet's orbit around the Sun is accelerated due to the planet's gravitational field.
It swings around the planet in a hyperbolic trajectory exiting the gravitational field, with a greater velocity.

The spacecraft takes some of the planet's orbital momentum, gaining energy in the process.
In the planet's frame of reference, the spacecraft's speed remains unchanged (since gravity is a conservative force), but from the Sun's frame of reference, the spacecraft gains velocity due to the motion of the planet.

In the solar (Sun's) frame of reference:
v₁ is the velocity of the spacecraft entering the planet’s gravitational field.
v₂ is the velocity of the spacecraft exiting the planet’s gravitational field.
U is the orbital velocity of the planet around the Sun.

RoBo1988 said:

The church is always looking for "God to move in the service. That's good, but I feel like a lot of people (and this individual in particular) are trying to force His movement.

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If there are no interpretations to that persons so-called messages, then they don't have a ministry with their gift. Just because any one of us who are filled with The Spirit can pray in tongues, it doesn't give us permission to think we can use that portion of our gift in the assembly.

Someone probably needs to talk to the leadership and they eventually get that person corrected.

RileyG said:

Thankfully i have a FSSP chapel near me that is thriving.

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What a great blessing that is!