Please pray for me that I am not denied insurance and find a different more fulfilling job.

Blessings

These lyrics are a lot like poems, so I thought I'd post them here.

My current story is a fanfiction called Kirby and the Rod of Darkness. Susie (one of the main characters) likes to sing, and because making songs to go with my stories is something I used to enjoy doing a lot, I made some for her to sing throughout the story! Here is a collection of all the songs she sings!

(Note: I'm currently on chapter 41, so the later ones haven't actually appeared yet.)

Anyone who talks about abortion being women's health or how planned parenthood is all about healthcare need to be shown these 2 simple links.

They never have been about women or health. They are truly an evil organization.



And


I never had an opinion on them so much until I found out what they really do. I wonder how many would still support them if they were aware of those Twitter links.

Screengrabs via Instagram @ohiostatefb

More than 20 Ohio State football players were photographed wearing Jesus shirts as the team moved into a hotel for fall camp.

Players wore shirts that read “Follow Jesus,” “Jesus Won,” “Jesus Saves,” “God Got Me,” and “Just Here To Give God Glory,” among other slogans.

Continued below.

Most Protestant clergy in the United States worked for 10 years or fewer in non-ministry occupations before becoming pastors, according to a recent survey from Lifeway Research.

In a report published Tuesday, Lifeway unveiled the results of a survey of 1,004 Protestant pastors conducted Aug. 29 – Sept. 20, 2023. The study had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.2% at the 95% confidence level.

According to the data, 58% of respondents said they spent 10 years or fewer working in a “non-ministry job” before becoming pastors, including 34% who said they spent five years or fewer and 13% who spent less than a year.

Continued below.

Prosperity gospel preacher Kenneth Copeland thanked Jesus for a dying man's seed offering of a Bentley with a Breitling clock, which he had given in the hope that it would bring healing.

At Kenneth Copeland Ministries' annual Southwest Believers' Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, held from July 29 to Aug. 3, the 87-year-old televangelist regaled attendees with stories about his passion for Breitling watches, of which he owns around 36 coveted timepieces.

Speaking on "How to Walk by Faith and Not By Sight" two Mondays ago, Copeland delighted in showing off the diamond-encrusted Breitling adorning his left wrist to a man seated in the front row.

Continued below.

Anyone have a particular color they like the most?

The groundbreaking podcast “Politics in the Pews” recently delved into how, in the span of just 30 days, the 2024 race for the White House experienced a seismic shift, triggered by a shocking event that many believe was marked by divine intervention.

In the latest episode of the series, titled “Blood on the Campaign Trail,” host and Christian Post reporter Ian Giatti recounts how, on July 13, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that claimed the life of 50-year-old former fire chief Corey Comperatore and left two others seriously wounded.

Continued below.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., a member of the Democratic Party’s far-left wing, often referred to as “the Squad,” promised to retaliate against a pro-Israel activist group after she lost her bid for reelection in her party's primary.

Continued below.

Once upon a time, little girls dreamed of their wedding day, imagining themselves in white dresses, carrying flower bouquets, and walking down the aisle to meet the man of their dreams. It was a fairytale vision of love and companionship. But in today’s world, that dream has morphed into what many women now see as a nightmare.

Today’s woman instead dreams of becoming a CEO, social media influencer, celebrity, or “boss babe” in her own right. The allure of corporate power and personal independence has overshadowed traditional marriage and family aspirations.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age for first marriages for women has climbed to 28.6 years, a record high. Research from the Pew Research Center indicates that two-thirds of women (66%) prioritize their careers, with 77.8% of mothers with children under 18 in the workforce, compared to 47% in 1975.

Whether it’s pursuing further education as a preparation for a career or the influence of social media, both have contributed to women’s declining interest in marriage. As of January 2023, women represent 54% of social media users, engaging the platform 2.8 times more than their male counterparts.

Continued below.

Hi lovely Christians❤️❤️
Please help me out with my research
This academic research explores how Christians use podcasts and what qualities they seek in a host.
I would greatly appreciate your participation in my survey.
Thanks for your time.


This is the link:

A Pakistani national with close ties to Iran has been arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate U.S. officials, including former President Donald Trump, as part of a murder-for-hire scheme.

Forty-six-year-old Asif Merchant, also known as "Asif Raza Merchant," was arrested last month after being reported to law enforcement by a confidential informant, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Merchant spent time in Iran before he arrived in the United States from Pakistan in April 2024. Upon his arrival, Merchant allegedly began trying to recruit hitmen to assassinate politicians and government officials on U.S. soil.

Continued below.

'These are great men who fully should be in religious communities. The only reason that they're not admitted is because of their medical history, their trans status,' said 'transgender man' Nicole Matson.
'Br Christian' Nicole Matson, at Outreach 2024 conference.Facebook

WASHINGTON D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The controversial transgender-identified “diocesan hermit” known as “Brother Christian Cole Matson” joined Father James Martin’s LGBT conference to promote the admission of transgenders into religious communities.

According to the dissident National Catholic Reporter (NCR), a prominent guest and speaker at the recent pro-LGBT Outreach conference was “Br. Christian” Matson, the woman born as Nicole Matson, who now presents herself as a man.

NCR reported that Matson, who has previously attended Martin’s Outreach conferences, was joined at the event by “five young transgender men,” who joined “him” in a “private retreat” in addition to partaking in the weekend program.

“Matson attended the conference with the intent to support these men [sic], help them connect with the broader community, and learn how to better serve the community himself [sic],” the outlet reported.

Continued below.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke when Jesus referred to the commandments, He always referred to them as just the commandments or the commandment(s) of God. He never referred to them as my commandments.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." NKJV


The first mention of a commandment in the gospel of John was when He gave His disciples a new commandment. This is a commandment that was not in the OT law or OT commandments.


John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever NKJV

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." NKJV

The next two times He mentions commandments He calls them His commandments. If we keep His commandments, we love Him, and the Father will love us. We know one of His commandments, which is the new commandment that He gave to His disciples.


In John 14:31 He mentioned the Father gave Him commandment. He was referring to the Father's commandment that He should die for the sins of the world. This is prophecies in the OT and any prophecy about His first coming was considered a commandment from the Father. 1Peter 1: 10-11 We know the Spirit of Jesus gave the OT prophets their word of prophecy, but the Father must have given them to Jesus.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. NKJV


In verse 15 He mentions My commandments again and He distinguished them from His Father's commandments. The Fathers commandments that He kept was the OT commandments, law and all prophecy concerning His first coming. The Fathers commandments are the law, the 10 commandments. Unless a prophecy pertains to us it would not be a commandment to us. In verse 12 He mentions the new other new commandment that He gave them, as one of His commandments.


What are Jesus' commandments?


1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. NKJV


In 1John he writes His commandments but does not state what they are. Whoever keeps His word the love of God is perfected in him. To keep His word the person is in the Spirit, through the Spirit, putting to death the sins of the flesh.


1 John 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. NKJV


In verse 23 John tells us just what His commandments are. His commandments are: 1- believe in the name of God's Son, Jesus Christ. 2- love the brethren as Jesus loved us.


In verse 22 If we keep his commandments, the two above, and we do things pleasing in His sight, which means we walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit means we obey the commands that He gives us to follow.

Example: If a new unmarried Christian was involved in an affair with a married woman. God has forgiven his sins and granted him repentance to life. The young man is not conducting himself as a son of God. Jesus will tell him just what he has to do to keep in the Spirit. Jesus will command the man to not commit adultery, or He will discipline him. Before discipline started the man could refuse discipline. In that case the man lost salvation. He would not be granted forgiveness or repentance again.


If the man accepted discipline, God would make him sick. Then, as in Thyatira, He will put him through sickness, tribulation then death. Galatians 5: 18 the man was put under the law if he did not walk in the Spirit. Romans 8: 1- 4 the law of sin and death is fully met only when we walk in the Spirit. If we do not walk in the Spirit, we are under the law of sin and death. If the man accepted discipline and did not repent, he would die [physically and go to heaven. If he repented Jesus would keep giving him commands to keep him in the Spirit. These commands will match the commandments in the law.


Hebrews 12: 6 God loves those He disciplines. If the person submitted himself to getting sick knowing that it would end in death and He did not repent, he had passed the point of eternal life. If he did not repent, he would have, through the Spirit, put to death the sins of the flesh. Gods loves him because He disciplined the person. He scourged him, put him through tribulation and put him to death. The man would go to heaven. Read 1 Corinthians 5: 1- 11 the example I gave matched him except he did repent. However, in verses 6-8 Paul said the flesh would die and the soul would be saved if he did not repent.


1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. NKJV

The new commandment He gave in the gospel. If we love Him, we must love the brethren.


1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. NKJV


His commandments. One- Believe in Him, the Son of God, who died for forgiveness of sin and and was resurrected for your justification. Two- Love the brethren as Jesus loved us.


To recap. When we come in God forgives our sins and grants us repentance to the point of life. At the point of life we have done no works. Some people at the point of eternal life choose not to be disciplined, they lose salvation and will eventually die and go to the other place. Some chose to take discipline and not repent to walk in the Spirit. Because God forgave their sins and granted repentance to them they only obeyed Jesus' two commandments. They died and went to heaven.

The wise Christians choose to be discipline, repented, and followed the commandments of Jesus to walk in the Spirit until they died or were persecuted to death. So, a living Christian is obeying Jesus' commandments and God's commandments, doing works, to walk in the Spirit till they die. The reason everyone in heaven, redeemed by Jesus, got into heaven is because they obeyed Jesus' commandments.


Can I get another witness?

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. NKJV


What's the context of the above. John 7:31-32, Revelation 2:13 Satan threatening Christians living on earth after he was kicked out of heaven. They are obeying the commands of Jesus, commandments of God, to stay in the Spirit and live. They are obeying His two commandments and doing things pleasing to His sight.

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. NKJV

The context of the above is Christians living during the tribulation. They are obeying the commandments of Jesus to stay in the Spirit and live. They are obeying His two commandments. by his faith in Jesus, and doing things pleasing to His sight, obeying His commands to walk in the Spirit, doing works.


Revelation 22:12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." 14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
NKJV

What's the context of the above? Christians who have died and now live eternally in heaven. They had to obey the commandments of God to walk in the Spirit in order to keep physical life and earn rewards. Whose commandments did they obey to get into heaven? Everyone redeemed Christ had to obey His commandments, no other commandments, Jesus' two commandments, to enter heaven.

Loved by God every one of them.

Borrowed from a friend.

You do realize that we've now had three straight Presidential election cycles in which the Democrats refused to let their primary voters decide the nomination.

You realize that, right?

I noticed that Crossway made a decision at one point to have the ESV translation perpetual and Crossway soon after retracted this decision. Their letter of retraction can be found here.
I understand why they wanted to make the 2016 ESV translation perpetual, it is nice to not have to worry about edition dates with holding a class and everyone brings their ESV bibles to follow along. Many Christians find comfort in the KJV and NKJV knowing that they aren't going to have an update every few years. The ESV is, understandably, a very popular choice among Christians.
This retraction statement does make me wonder if there is some translations in the ESV that many have an issue with though. Or if there is something more to it like copywrite ownership stuff, the dollar, or even bowing to culture demands, rather than just keeping the text open incase more ancient texts are found in the future. Maybe it is all in good faith instead rather than something shady and I am just being silly.
I did find this chart they put together that shows the changes of the 2016 update vs the previous text. However, that doesn't mean someone may not like some other translated scripture not in this list that was left alone they may want to comment about.
Fast forward to 2024 and Wayne Grudem states in an interview here ""I’m on the translation committee for the English Standard Version Bible. And we meet every 5-7 years to consider any possible revisions to the text. We haven’t met now for nine years. So we’re meeting in Wheaton, Ill., in July to consider 120-or-so suggested changes. I suspect we’ll accept 30 or 40 of those suggestions where just little tweaks to the wording make it consistent with where we’ve translated the same phrase elsewhere or something like that. Very small changes—hardly noticeable—but we feel a responsibility as the translation committee to take seriously any suggestions that people have sent."" One may be interested in reading the rest of the interview to get an idea on what is on his mind as some of the questions asked touches on politics and potiental harmful teachings creeping into the church.
> How do you feel about the ESV and the Statements made by Crossway whether it be for 2016 ESV being a Permanent Text Edition (2016) or the retraction of this statement?
> And how do you feel about this recent interview in regard to all of this?

By my definition, whatever God does is righteous and not sin. Therefore, God does not and cannot sin.

Does God possess the power to sin?

I don't know. I don't think this question is semantically, operationally, and logically sensible.

Login to view embedded media
The Lutheran won but Smart Christian is a fella I follow and would recommend for cultural issues.

Yours in the Lord,

jm

Veteran who served in Tim Walz's battalion addresses stolen valor accusations: 'Far darker than people think'​

Kamala Harris Tries to Walk Back 'Open' Statement on Arms Embargo on Israel

Technically, someone from her staff did. They will keep her from going off script as long as possible.

“I’m speaking”.

Lol.

Supporters of the McGrath Institute for Church Life are insisting that the next director continue an emphasis on ‘service to the Church’ after university administrators abruptly announced that longtime director John Cavadini’s tenure would end following this academic year.

Over the past two decades, the McGrath Institute for Church Life (MICL) has established itself as a vital “think tank” for the U.S. Catholic Church, helping dioceses across the country tackle pastoral challenges like young-adult disaffiliation and gender dysphoria with faith and creativity.

But now, benefactors, faculty and bishops who have been involved with the University of Notre Dame institute are expressing concerns about its future after administrators abruptly announced a coming change to its leadership.

Continued below.

Mission and Ministry​

One of the Catholic buzzwords at the moment seems to be “Mission”. So this recent quote is typical: “Synodality is essentially missionary and vice versa mission is always synodal.” Apart from the incomprehensible English usage (“missionary” is a noun not an adjective.

“Missional” is the word they were looking for) Anyway, in the usual word salad that is put together by synodal Catholic–“Mission” seems to be the tomato.

This assumes we actually know what “Mission” means and agree not only on the meaning of he word, but on the method of mission. So what do the Synodal Catholics mean by “mission”? I suspect it is all tied in with what Fr Arrupe the godfather of the Jesuit revolution in the church means by mission. By the way, if you want to understand Fr Arrupe and the Jesuit revolution you ought to read a book called The Synodal Pope by Jean Pierre Moreau and published by TAN books. Moreau has researched the radical Jesuit leader who was a primary influence on Pope Francis and chronicled the modernist, liberation-theology ideologies that drove him.

So what does “Mission” mean for contemporary synodal Catholics? It means liberation theology. It means not simply feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the environment, reaching out to the margins and being a warm, welcoming church, it also means challenging and changing the structures of economic, political and social injustice. That’s all well and good you might say, and “Of course that’s the mission of the Church.” Isn’t that what our Lord taught in Matthew 25 when he said “What you have done (or not) for the least of these you have done (or not) to me”?

There is no disagreement from me about the need for Catholics to do all these things, but allow me to quibble about terminology. These worthy projects: feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, working for justice etc. etc. are really part of the ministry of the church. They are the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The mission of the church is something else.

Continued below.

I’ve been publicly talking about the Catholic Faith for more than two decades. I’ve done this informally on a one-on-one basis as well as formally at parish and diocesan events. For the longest time I followed the primary rule established among public Catholics:

Above all, be nice.

Of course, the Nice Rule is not presented that way. It’s presented as being “charitable” and respecting each person’s “dignity.” Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely are called to charity, and each person does have dignity. But those were just code words for the actual underlying rule, to be nice. We don’t want anyone thinking Catholics are meanies, after all. We are obsessed, in fact, in how people perceive us, desperate for human respect from our opponents.

Continued below.

Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, has launched a video series that plans to examine “culture, science, politics, the arts, and current issues” through “the lens of reason and faith.”

Hosted by the school’s former president, Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, “In Focus: Confronting the Woke World” takes inspiration from “Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology,” a 2021 book by Catholic author Noelle Mering.

The first series features Mering herself, who is also an editor of the website TheologyofHome.com, a mother of six, and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

“The speed with which [the woke movement] has taken over most of our major public and private institutions is extraordinary,” Pivonka said in a press release from the school.

“We must never retreat from the world but always seek to engage it and to share the light of Christ, the only source of true human freedom and flourishing.”

“It is easy to think the woke ideology is too political or polarizing for Christian engagement,” Mering said. “But this is a movement that stems from something far more fundamental than politics.”

Continued below.