The ‘ultimate multitaskers’ are pretty ambidextrous.


A MATING PAIR OF WILD OCTOPUS AMERICANUS, ONE DISPLAYING THE ARM

With three hearts, blue blood, and eight arms that seem to have a mind of their own, octopuses are among the ocean’s most fascinating creatures. Their signature limbs and complex nervous system help them explore, communicate, capture prey, and mate in many marine habitats. Now, scientists are unlocking some of the secrets embedded in these arms, namely whether they have some degree of “handedness.”

A new study of octopuses in the wild found that all eight arms can do multiple actions, but their front arms are primarily used for movement and exploration, while the back arms are used to support movement. The findings are published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Octopuses are ultimate multitaskers–all arms are capable of all arm behaviors and all arm deformations,” Chelsea Bennice, study co-author and a marine biologist at Florida Atlantic University, tells Popular Science. “They can even use multiple arm actions on a single arm and on several arms at the same time.”

Continued below.

The already complex reality of global Anglicanism is becoming even more intricate.​

Earlier this month, a body known as GAFCON — the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans — declared it was “now the Global Anglican Communion.”



The towers of Canterbury Cathedral, seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is ‘a focus of unity’ of the Anglican Communion. Credit: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

In the Oct. 16 declaration, entitled “The future has arrived,” the alliance of conservative Anglican church leaders said it had resolved to “reorder” the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian communion after the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy.

“Today, GAFCON is leading the Global Anglican Communion,” said the statement signed by Rwandan Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, chairman of GAFCON’s Primates’ Council.

“As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion,” he added.

What are the roots of the Anglican Communion? Where does GAFCON fit in? And what does its new declaration mean?


A cartoon about the original 1867 Lambeth Conference in the magazine Punch. Public Domain.

A communion’s roots​

Continued below.

Peace in Christ.

We are to “awake” and arise out of the dead ones….out of the dead man-based churches… and Christ will give us light so that we may shine His glory to the people of the outside world who are sitting in deep darkness.

Without this arising from out of the dead man-based church gatherings, we remain in darkness and are not shining His light to the rest of the people of this earth.

Eph 5:14
(14) Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from (out of) the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Darkness is upon the faces (plural) of the deep as the people of the outside world have no form of Christ to see with their eyes and they are void….void of the knowledge of the glory of God. The man-based churches have no light to shine to them. They have all fallen short of the glory of the Lord.

Gen 1:1-4 KJV
(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
(2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
(3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
(4) And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness

We are the “heavens” that have no light to shine to the people of the outside world who are in deep darkness. His people have no understanding. They have no knowledge to do good.

Jer 4:22-23 KJV
(22) For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
(23) I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

We must "ARISE" out of the dead man-based churches....departing from them. We must arise out of the dead man-based churches (where there is no shining light) so that Christ will give us His light. We can then show forth the glory of the LORD to the rest of the people of this earth who are in deep darkness.

Isa 60:1-3 KJV
(1) Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
(2) For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Shining His glory light will attract the saved among the people of the outside world.

(3) And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

We must not be partakers with the man-based churches.

We are in darkness when we are “partakers with them”. " You were sometimes darkness" We are unclean when we sit together with them. Those who will continue to sit together with them (after hearing the Word of Truth) have no inheritance in the kingdom/reign of Christ and of God.

Eph 5:5-8 KJV
(5) For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
(6) Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
(7) Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
(8) For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

We who hear the Word of Truth and believe it are not to be unequally yoked together with the unbelievers of the man-based churches. They will also hear the Word of Truth but will not believe in it. They will not receive the love of the truth and be saved. What communion has light with darkness? It doesn’t. We can no longer sit together with them. This is not speaking about the people of the outside world but is speaking about people in their church gatherings.

2Co 6:14-18 KJV
(14) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
(15) And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

What agreement does the temple of God (we are the temple of God) have with “idols”…that is, images?

Their church handwritings of ordinances/dogmas are the “images” that they are keeping and serving (such as “statements of faith” ) and they are firmly established in their gatherings. They do not move from their places. What agreement should we have with them? None.

(16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

We are unclean when we sit together with them.

It is the true “fornication” that we are supposed to flee from. We are to hear His Holy (to be separate for sanctification) Commandment and do it. His Holy Commandment is to come out from among them and be separate and not be attached to the unclean.

(17) Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
(18) And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

We must “clean escape” from the man-based churches as they are living in error.

2Pe 2:18-22 KJV
(18) For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

They will seek to bring those who have just escaped from them through “great swelling words of emptiness”. They will promise them liberty. They will promise the world to you to get you back.

(19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

We are to escape the pollutions of the “world” …the orderly arrangement of their church handwritings of ordinances/dogmas. Their whole “church” is built flimsily upon their handwritings of which they whitewash with “Lord, Lord” written all over them.

If we escape the pollutions…the defilement…of their gatherings which are centered around their written orderly arrangements through the “knowledge”…the full knowledge…of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are entangled again with them and overcome, the latter end is worse with us than the beginning.

(20) For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

The way of righteousness is to escape from them completely. This is the way that leads to life…His manifest life in our mortal bodies.

Let us hear the Holy Commandment that is delivered to us to keep and not turn away from it. Let us not return back to the man-based churches no matter what. We must make a clean escape from them and have nothing to do with them anymore.

(21) For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
(22) But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

This is the “way of truth” (departing from the man based churches ) that will be evil spoken of by the man-based churches who will continue to listen to their false teachers in them and speak evil…following their pernicious ways. MANY will follow after their false teachers and think that they will have "peace and safety" to behave in unrighteousness towards those who will depart from them.

2Pe 2:1-2 KJV
(1) But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
(2) And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.


continued in next post.

In the biblical narrative, Israel is a person before it’s a people. The great patriarch Jacob, the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, is renamed Israel (“he who wrestles with God”) following his nocturnal contest with the Lord:

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Gen 32:22-28)

Click to expand...

Jacob (Israel) went on to have no less than twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. These twelve sons were the basis for what eventually became the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

When Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt, he later became a lifeline for them and for many others when the land was struck by famine. At Joseph’s invitation, his father and brothers settled in Egypt together with their wives and children. As the generations passed by, their numbers steadily grew: “But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong; so that the land was filled with them” (Exod 1:7). The Israelites were becoming a great people. As a result, the envious Egyptians began persecuting them in a variety of ways.

Continued below.

At the Sunday Angelus, Pope Leo meditates on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, inviting the faithful to cultivate humility and sincerity of heart in their relationship with God.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo XIV recalled the two contrasting figures from the day’s Gospel reading: the Pharisee, confident in his own righteousness, and the tax collector, conscious of his sin.

The Pope was speaking just after the Jubilee Mass dedicated to synodal teams and participatory bodies on Sunday, and before his weekly recitation of the Marian prayer of the Angelus

The prayer of the Pharisee, Pope Leo said, which is focused on boasting and spiritual pride, “reflects a strict observance of the Law, certainly, but one poor in love, built on ‘giving’ and ‘having,’ on debts and credits, and lacking mercy.”

In contrast, the prayer of the tax collector reveals a heart open to grace: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Humility: the path of truth and healing​

Continued below.

While challenges in the United States pale in comparison to the violence faced by our Christian brothers and sisters abroad, they remind us that religious freedom requires constant vigilance.

International Religious Freedom Day commemorates the anniversary of the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. As American Catholics gathered together this past Sunday to celebrate the Holy Mass — freely, openly, without fear — we must pause to remember the countless believers worldwide who cannot do the same.

The Oct. 27 observance comes at a pivotal moment.

Just last week, Aid to the Church in Need — a pontifical foundation whose mission is to support the persecuted — launched its Religious Freedom Report, warning that nearly two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries where serious religious freedom violations take place. Consistent with these grave findings, Pope Leo XIV posted on X a clear statement of Catholic Church teaching:

Religious Freedom allows individuals and communities to seek the truth, live it freely, and bear witness to it openly. It is therefore a cornerstone of any just society, for it safeguards the moral space in which conscience may be formed and exercised.

Continued below.

There is a famous couplet by the Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, / There’s always laughter and good red wine.”

While alcohol is certainly a core component of human life, and even rises to the level of the most Blessed Sacrament, it’s important to put these lines in historical context. Belloc grew up in the prudishness of Victorian Great Britain and later traveled throughout Prohibition-era America. It was a time when Protestant radicals, especially in colder climates, cast great suspicion on alcohol. Warmer, more Catholic, countries looked with humorous disdain at these teetotaling brethren. For an excellent illustration of these attitudes, read the short story “Babette’s Feast” by Isak Dinesen or watch the movie adaptation.

In the 21st century, however, one often hears quotes like these in a Catholic context, the implication being that a cautious attitude toward drinking is a revolt against Catholic life. Some Catholic colleges even have the reputation of being “party schools.”

Consider the culture​

Continued below.

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” wrote Charles Baudelaire.

But Catholics know better.

The devil exists and is active today.

Exorcisms still take place regularly: Many Catholic dioceses have a designated exorcist priest.

Exorcisms are not just a Hollywood drama, although filmmakers and the general public seem to have an unhealthy fascination with them.

That’s exactly why the world needs a new movie: Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists.

Made in cooperation with the International Association of Exorcists, Triumph Over Evil is the first and only Vatican-approved documentary about exorcisms.

Catch it in theaters worldwide on October 30, 2025. You can get tickets here.

You’ll learn how to safeguard yourself and your loved ones from real evil–and find lasting comfort and hope in God’s all-powerful protection.

Watch the trailer here:

Continued below.

The truth Catholics celebrate​

Forese had not been dead that long, not even five years. That’s why Dante wondered how he’d made so much progress. An old friend of Dante’s, Forese is found in the Purgatorio, Canto XXIII.

Surprised, as I said, that he had advanced so much in so short a time, Dante asked him, “how did you come so far so fast?” He would have thought he’d find him “down below,” but here he was quite a way up the mountain, well on his way to Paradise. How?

“It is my Nella,” Forese answered. That was Forese’s widow. “With her devoted prayers and with her sighs, she plucked me from the slope where one must wait and freed me from the other circles,” he said. Her prayers were the how and the why of Forese’s progress through Purgatory. Her prayer had helped him on his way.

Now, of course, that’s just a poem, a work of fiction, but it expresses a great truth, the truth we Catholics celebrate each year on All Souls Day.

Prayers for the dead​

Falling on a Sunday this year, All Souls Day takes precedent. The church will not celebrate the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time but instead the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.

Continued below.

In C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength, the character Mark has a profound moral experience through which he becomes awakened to transcendence. In the wake of this, he looks at his entire life with fresh perspective: “[Mark] looked back on his life not with shame, but with a kind of disgust at its dreariness … He was aware, without even having to think of it, that it was he himself — nothing else in the whole universe — that had chosen the dust and broken bottles, the heap of old tin cans, the dry and choking places.”

In Lewis’s book, Mark and his wife personify modernity. His beliefs and attitudes represent many modern, secular people — in Lewis’s context as well as our own, a few generations later.

Mark’s experience of life as the “dry and choking places” provides us with an insightful window into modern people. Even if they aren’t consciously aware, people all around us are starving for transcendence and meaning. They live in the dry and choking places. Thus, many of our non-Christian friends and family members and coworkers experience spiritual need in terms of dreariness more than guilt (as Mark did). What does this mean for how we do evangelism and apologetics?

Disenchantment

Continued below.

In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” If we are children of God, pursuing peace should be our default posture. As a nation founded on biblical principles and declaring our trust in God, America should likewise be a nation that seeks peace.

For that reason, I am grateful for the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to seek peace in regions long defined by conflict. But Scripture also makes clear that peace cannot exist apart from truth and righteousness. The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the Messiah and His kingdom, said, “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever” (Isaiah 32:17). The prophet Jeremiah, by contrast, warned of false peace built on deception: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).

Continued below.

Did you see that a lot of people don’t want Donald Trump to be the king of America?

On October 18th, there were a lot of “No Kings” rallies around the country, decrying what the protesters say are authoritarian actions by President Trump, whom they claim acts more like a king than a president. One protester in San Francisco held a sign saying, “Hey Trump nobody paid us to be here. We all hate you for free.”

Nice. You can read the Babylon Bee’s list of things accomplished by people like that in the No Kings demonstrations here.

The vast majority of protesters were democrats and leftists (I do believe there is a distinction between the two), and, of course, there were jabs from the right about the rallies, with some calling it “democrat sulk day.” Naturally, those supporting the “No Kings” rallies deny that and say they are simply against the despotic actions of any president who crosses the line of democracy.

Am I the only one calling baloney on that?

Continued below.

Norwegian state broadcaster NRK is facing backlash for airing antisemitic content in this Saturday’s episode of the satirical children news show "Nytt på Nytt" (meaning "new on new" in Norwegian). The program is watched by children as young as 9 years old.

“U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson believes reasonable people thank America for bombing ships full of fentanyl — but if you replace fentanyl with Jews, it suddenly doesn’t sound so OK,” the program’s host Tuva Johannessen said in what was supposed to be joking about killing Jews.

The program’s panel laughed at the antisemitic remark. Johannessen continued with his anti-Jewish satire with a reference to past attempts by Norwegians to smuggle adult magazines from neighboring Sweden.

Continued below.

One of the things that makes English houses so appealing is the history and folklore behind them: each one tells a story and the older the house, the more chapters that story has. As the primary purpose of any house is a practical one, the bones of any centuries-old dwelling indicate how each space, nook and cranny would have been used in days gone by. And the residents, architects and designers of the houses of yesteryear were undeniably ingenious, conceiving of practical and aesthetic solutions to many of the problems that they faced.

Take the ‘wig warmer’, for instance. Supposedly, these little hatches found either side of a fireplace in pre-19th-century houses were strategically positioned to keep wigs (very much in vogue during the 17th century and into the 18th) warm but not too hot. Fireplaces elsewhere in the house often came with their own nooks that served a room-specific purpose. In kitchens little wooden ones were used to keep salt dry and prevent it from sticking together. The designer Anna Haines has also found a rather charming nook next to a fireplace in a dining room. ‘I was working on a magical listed house and came across a small cupboard built into the wall next to the fireplace. The heritage officer told us this one had originally been used to warm plates. We decided to leave it intact, and the clients now use it as a sweet little bookshelf! It became a great talking point whenever they entertained,’ she explains.



On the subject of wigs, interior designer and historic house specialist Patrick Williams, of Berdoulat, in Bath, has encountered an even grander space dedicated to them: ‘there is a house on the famous King's Circus in Bath with a protruding cylindrical room at the back. Rumour has it that this was a “wig room”, lined with shelves carrying wigs, and purposefully set outside the main building so as to keep the wigs cool,’ he says. ‘Presumably this was to discourage various vile moths or fleas that might seek to make their homes between the folds of the hair!’. However, the most brilliant wig-related interiors feature we have come across is the ‘wig hole’ – a cubby hole built into a wall, against which party goers could recline while servants on the other side of the wall could inconspicuously service the wig via the hole.

Continued below.

I am having terrible insomnia, please pray that God cures my insomnia and gives me good long restful sleep from now on, in Jesus Christs’s name, Amen. Thank you. ❤️

Literacy is still useless...

Klaus, who came from eastern Germany, worked as a gardener at Harvard University. He could BARELY read himself. One day, after a graduation ceremony, a bunch of PhDs got out and stepped onto a grass lawn, where there was a 'no walking on grass' sign. Klaus shouted at them , "Can't you read??"

I need urgent fervent prayer for my friends. They're undergoing through a spiritual battle. They need strength and strong faith in God. For Lola, Mary, several doctors. Severe satanic attacks. Urgent fervent prayer right now. Can you include them in your prayer list at church. We need prayers. Satanic attacks specifically in the mind. This is important. We need prayer warriors. We need all church members to pray for that.

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.