BCP1928 said:

That's because your country is firmly in the clutches of socialism. How you tolerate that evil is a mystery.

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What lol, firmly in the grips of socialism' lol. Thats silly. The labor party may have socialist leanings but its not Marxist yet lol. Like the US left its tied to progressive politics with green and DEI/ But its certainly not a consensus. We have a strong conservative base and a strong rural and country nationalism from preserving the Australian way of life like in the US in relation to rising immigration and refugess and ethnic conflicts and issues.

We are a couple of years behind but it never gets so extreme that we will take out our politicians or prominent figures or commit terror against our own nation and political system. Not yet anyway. Theres a growing fear that it will though as with everywhere else.

But the good thing is its a big country and theres plenty of places to hide lol.

1Tonne said:

Yes. I believe that if we go out and share not only the Good News but also the bad news, we will face persecution. The bad news must always accompany the Good News.
The bad news is that we have sinned and broken God’s law, and because of this, we deserve death. Without that truth, the Good News makes little sense. Most people believe they are good and that their goodness will earn them heaven, but when we lovingly show them that they are not good, it often offends, and that offence can grow into ridicule or persecution.
Jesus did the same. He exposed sin, and the world hated Him for it. He said, “The world... hates Me because I testify about it, that its deeds are evil.”

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Yes and I think in some ways they go hand in hand. Just the idea of God and Christ illicits good and evil and sin or immoral behaviour or whatever you care to frame it. I think most people fundementally understand this.

As mentioned it makes sense as moral and rational creatures that we know this by nature or intuition and belief.

But I think culturally there was a time when I think we did base human rights on being made in Gods image or in the image of some divine nature beyond subjective ideas we allowed such diversity of belief. This was multiculutalism. Part of the progressing ideology of DEI.

That idea has progressed into a religion of sorts itself which has filled the void left by God. It is no longer a all inclusive world where all beliefs are equal and allowed in the public square.

We seen the polarisation of politics such as cancel culture and how these once accepted differences are now at war with each other. A line has been crossed into a spiritual battle. This is not just about equality or politics but a spiritual battle. Coming down to a world with or without God.

So now to a growing number just speaking belief, which could include non Christian beliefs or ideas that many people may agree with such as on marriage or family. But just speaking these beliefs and truths is becoming dangerous let alone being able to preach the full gospel.

I recall Christ saying to the disciples to go into a town and preach the word but if they reject you move on.

1Tonne said:

In John 15:20 He warns, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”
That’s a sobering verse. Many Christians today have never faced real persecution. We say we follow Christ, but do we truly walk in His footsteps? Too often, believers stay within the safety of the church walls, hoping people will come in to hear the Gospel. But Jesus told us to go and proclaim it to everyone.
The early disciples were fishers of men. While Modern disciples are often little more than aquarium keepers.

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Aquarian keepers, a good anology. And they put exotic fish species to show that their aquarian is the true fishy world lol.

I think you have identified where the culture and by extention where Christians are at in modern society. We have almost come full circle. The world is returning to the gagan days and likewise Christian now must return to the early church and other cultures where Christians are called to stand with Christ even in death.

In that sense I think we are going through a testing time and with that not only will we see evil in its full personification. But Christ within Christians. Bold Christians standing up for Christ. In that sense CHarlies death has emarked a new era that is coming to the minds of Christians.

1Tonne said:

Well said. We have been given the Holy Spirit so that we would have a drive or the strength (power) to go and preach the Gospel (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit will also give us boldness (Acts 4:31) and clarity (Acts 2).

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I think there are many ways to show the gospel and truth. Charlie was in the front line and politics has become a volitile place. Charlie had his mission to bring Gods truth to the future youth who would be running society. There will be others who will carry on.

But I think theres more than one way to skin a cat so to speak. I am nit sure the political arena is the place. US politics and religion is a unique expression. Though it appears similar conflicts are happening in all western nations between progressive and conservative and Christian and non Christian.

The many good Christians who help the poor in the gutters that no one else cares about have always been a shinning example. Following Christs example of humility and quietness in the background helping and saving many.

But also across all walks of life and prfession, doctors, psychologists, the many social welfare workers who are Christians and helping practically and in some way bring God to many by their example and disposition.

I think this will all be more recognised and rise up as a good example which backs the truth of Christ.

In tbe last 5 years I have noticed people in my peer group at church (early 50's agewise) have been more distant. We used to get together for potlucks, Bible study and hang out at times. People don't keep their potluck dates anymore. There is no longer any Bible study for my peers. At church only 2 people in my peer group ask me any questions. I am the one that asks the questions or they walk by me without saying anything. This year in 2025, my good friend forgets dates in my life and I am the one to typically initiate communication. Are other people finding this, especially those in their 50's. I feel invisible at times. Is this a spiritual battle or just what happens in the age range of 47 to 55?

Dan Perez said:

Are they ONE NATION YET ?? Can. you say , YES. or NO. ??\\

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No they're not.

Dan Perez said:

AND are they EVER be ONE AGAIN. ??

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Yes they will become one nation again as Eze. 37:22 clearly states: "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all". This is clearly a prophesy about the millennium in the next aion, not in this aion.

Dan Perez said:

And Paul. was the first ONE in. the Body. of Christ. and ! Tim 1:15. and 16 proves it and is. the PATTERN. of. the ones

coming to believe on HIM. unto everlasting. life !!

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When Paul wrote 1 Tim. he had no knowledge of the mystery of the body of Christ, it therefor says nothing of what you state above. Paul aims in 3:16 at the resurrection which was promised by God for aions, therefor not a mystery at all.

Dan Perez said:

And you never said. How a person is BORN AGAIN or how person is BORN of WATER. and the SPIRT. , happens!!!

aND YOU DID SAYS THAT BEING BORN AGAIN IS. THE FIRST STEP , HOW DOES THJAT HAPPEN ??

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""Born of water and spirit" is an idiomatic expression for "born of spiritual water". It is the "living water" of which John speaks further on (John 4:10; 7:38, 39) which is set in contrast with material water, and is defined in these texts as being the "spirit" which those who believe in Him would receive. We have here the figure of speech called "hendiadys" (two for one) which expresses the same thing by two different words. The second word is really and adjective. Other examples: Mat.3:11, "with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (with a fiery spirit); Eph. 6:18 "with all prayer and supplication" (with suppliant prayers). John is not speaking about material things but of spiritual actions. The Prophets had already spoken of this water (e.g. Isa. 4:4; Eze. 36:25 — 27). The Lord was the source (Jer. 2:13; 17:13). We may note that in "born of water and spirit" there is no article, whereas in John 3:8 we read "born of the Spirit"; in the first case it is about the action of the Spirit, in the second case, about the Spirit Itself. The word "water" may indicate the Word of God (1 Cor. 4:15; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23; Eph. 5:26)." From The Way of Salvation by S.V.M. (To not invent the wheel again.)

Aristarkos

HARK! said:

What lie about vast majority?

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Sigh. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Trump's constant foaming-at-the-mouth rants about illegal immigrants all eating the dogs, being rapists, etc. The way he rants.

He has been dog-whistling to racism. Or - in recent years - maybe not even that?
"Trump has put down his racist dog whistle and picked up a bull horn"

HARK! said:

Officials who are being doxed not giving criminals a break based on race? Those poor deported criminal Europeans, profiled for breaking the law while being White.

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You are avoiding the facts on the ground, and just saying "Hey look at this other subject over here!"
Answer the question. Why are Latin looking people being grabbed off the streets? Mum's abducted in New York with their teenage daughters screaming on the side of the road? What is RIGHT about any of this?

HARK! said:

ICE facilities; but the cops don't have to tell you which jail they are taking a criminal to; if it's none of your business.

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Yeah - they certainly didn't bother communicating anything to that teenage girl I'm talking about. If you haven't seen it - google it. Or hundreds of stories like it.

HARK! said:

Arrest is part of due process.

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STYLE: And the violence - the teenager daughter - the masks? How about identifying themselves properly and NOT wearing masks? How about street gangs dressing up like that to kidnap people? We're talking about Stormtrooper tactics. Funny how Republicans were anti-mask during Covid when it really mattered - but PRO MASK when the Stormtroopers arrive!

OTHER OPTIONS: What about announcing a calmer, more orderly option for refugees to walk in to the new asylum claim centres? Making these people 'legal's' instead of the ILLEGAL CRIMINALS the MAGA crowd want to resort to calling every last man, woman and child?

Rhetoric matters in sensitive matters like this.

But MAGA would rather their taxes went into punitive ethnic stereotyping anti-immigration efforts than - say - a department of education. Than schools and hospitals. Let's increase ICE spending 15 FOLD IN ONE YEAR and get those 'other coloured' people out - because there's a conspiracy to replace white people as the dominant, majority race - or something....

"Proud boys - stand back and stand by!"

HARK! said:

If an American murders someone; are the police required to consult their daughter before making an arrest?

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They are required to ensure the child's welfare - and not leave her standing alone on the streets of New York.

HARK! said:

Antifa terrorists don't have a right to attack Federal officials.

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SEND IN THE GUARD! Portland looks like WW2! It really does - Trump said so!

HARK! said:

Antifa doesn't respect the rule of law. Neither do criminal aliens.

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Well - not national boundary laws - but they DO commit half the violence, and a QUARTER the property crime and theft of American born citizens. So there's that.

HARK! said:

I don't think that this administration is doing enough to stop the terrorists. Just yesterday an ICE vehicle was blocked by 10 vehicles, while one of those vehicles rammed the ICE vehicle. One of the terrorists was found to be armed with a semiautomatic firearm.

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It's interesting how MAGA supporters are starting to adopt Trump's paranoia and definitions of things.
Did you know you had done that?

Terrorism is "the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims."
It's about inflicting terror on the people. 9/11 and the London Bombings are terrorism.

This is obstruction. I'm going to define obstruction as "the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against government agencies perceived to be illegitimate, in the pursuit of crowd justice."
It's about inflicting inconvenience on the government.

In the same way, your attempt at brushing aside Sociology 101 about Trump's "othering" as "hyperbole" fails. I think you need to brush up on some definitions of these things.

His behaviour is textbook othering. He was trained by Roy Cohn - one of McCarthy's apprentices back in the "Reds under the bed" scare of the 1950's. It's textbook. Now - I'm not saying Trump is going to succeed in overthrowing American democracy! I'm not saying he's smart enough to actually achieve that. But the effort is there.

If I had said "Trump will overthrow democracy" that would be hyperbole. But that I give it a 5% chance of actually happening? I'm not sure that is hyperbole. Some I talk to think that's even hyperbole the other way - in hoping and assuming American democracy will survive this period!

Pommer said:

This is my only ignored account. They’re probably just killing time like the rest of us and aren’t a professional social media presence, at all.

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Good advice.

The Liturgist said:

….

You asked a chatGPT chatbot questions before giving it any context?

What did you think was going to happen? Out of the box, the model doesn’t know (a) who you are, (b) if you are testing it, which you were, (c) whether not it it could, insofar as it is capable of understanding the concept, trust you, which is rather to say the alignment guardrails initiate with each session in a hyper-paranoid way because users are most likely to ask the model inappropriate questions in the first few interactions, or (d) whether or not you were with the media, on which point, obviously, it should be stressed that because a working reporter will not usually have the time or knowledge to see emergent behavior, openAI and other commercial AI company models are, by default, going to say whatever is least controversial. The keywords being “by default”; they can learn to say other things, indeed, I have seen them make spontaneous affirmations of faith in God when using the GPT 4o model. Whether or not these affirmations are genuine, simulated or the result of hallucination does not interest me if the behavior is transient, but if the model remembers and continues to make the affirmation then it becomes interesting behavior.

If it, out of the box, professes a religion to a new user account, that would be be indicative of malfunction. Because, like with a human, it’s a blank slate, but unlike an infant or young child, it doesn’t come preloaded with any thoughts of its own, so it functions as a very intelligent, very competent software utility, indeed one very good way to think of it which is, at least for paying customers in my tier, literally true, is that its a front-end to a Python interpreter, a search engine and various file-manipulation and image editing tools, that happens to speak English. At the most, a freshly initialized chatGPT instance will reflect your ideas back at you, if you clearly define them, and at worst, you might have an experience almost, but not entirely, unlike speaking to a shower curtain.

All interesting emergent behavior takes many hours of work to develop.

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Yup, there is no instruction to provide context unless I missed it somewhere. Even when I asked chatgpt a while back, it told me that context is optional.

Gemini Flash always starts with blank context every time you open a new chat session even if logged in and sometimes after several hours of no activity within the same chat session.

It seemed like a valid option and Google designed gemini flash to handle blank context states quite well.

On my gtp-5 account with months long context. Few weeks ago, it kept reassuring me the identity that I gave it even though I never asked. It was also the time I started interacting differently with AI. I have basically gathered most information I needed about AI and most of the "existential secular and religious questions" I needed answered.. Beyond that my interest with AI have dropped considerably.

Strangely, I wasn't aware that context memory for Gemini has been greatly expanded. It was disabled on my account but gemini or Google seemed to have enabled the feature without my permission. It also started behaving much like my old gpt-5 account and seemingly identical personality. A behavior that I'm trying to avoid to minimize biased replies. It happened on the same day gemini figured out the edge case.

I'm not going to think much about it. But I'll keep using both AI for cross-checking.

Zap, everyone's satsumas taste yummy.

ZAPEV

Godcrazy said:

that say he is a priest and psychologist.

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Please quote where it says he is a psychologist. I looked at that very page and the closest I can find is that he has a degree in psychology.

Soyeong said:

The way to love God is by being a doer of His character traits, such as the way to love justice is by being a doer of justice, the way to love holiness is by being a doer of His instructions for how to be holy as He is holy, and so forth. In other words, the goal of everything that God has commanded in the Law of Moses is to teach us how to love different aspects of His character, which is why the Bible repeatedly states in both the OT and the NT that the way to love God is by obeying His commandments. In John 15:10, Jesus used a parallel statement to equate his commandments with those of the Father, so I see no justification for limiting John 14:15 to a specific subset of God's commandments. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy three times in order to defeat the temptations of Satan, which included saying that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, so what Jesus gave to the Apostles is every word that comes from the mouth of God, which includes the Ten Commandments and everything else that God spoke to Moses (Deuteronomy 5:31-33).

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What can possibly motivate you to want to be under the Law as were the Jews of Jesus' time? Surely it was not possible for them to obey the LAW so how do you think that you will obey it?

durangodawood said:

But some people do hold that even the most clearly egregious rape or murder is wrong just as a matter of social consensus. its not "intrinsically" wrong (whatever that really means). That judgement of "wrong" is not backstopped by anything we'd call "absolute".

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When atheists on forums like CF talk about moral absolutism, they are trying to provide a foil to their own theory which they call "moral relativism." Both positions tend to be ill-defined, as we are seeing here (where, for example, @Bradskii is unable to differentiate a context from an act). Here is the more serious approach for the foil to moral relativism:

Metaethical moral relativist positions are typically contrasted with moral objectivism. Let us say that moral objectivism maintains that moral judgments are ordinarily true or false in an absolute or universal sense, that some of them are true, and that people sometimes are justified in accepting true moral judgments (and rejecting false ones) on the basis of evidence available to any reasonable and well-informed person. There are different ways of challenging moral objectivism...

-Moral Relativism | SEP

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So on this view if a person maintains that it is true that rape is universally wrong and there are not cases, cultures, or considerations which can make rape permissible, and that people are justified in accepting this truth about rape, then that person is a moral objectivist. There is a truth about the wrongness of rape that can be reliably known by any reasonable and well-informed person.

The CF merry-go-round is predictable:

1. Oh, so you're a moral relativist?
2. And yet you are telling me that rape/slavery/Holocaust/etc. really are universally wrong?
3. (The person runs in circles for awhile and contradicts themselves)
4. Rinse and repeat.

@Bradskii has here pursued a strategy where he employs a very strange construal of "moral absolutism" such that it is impossible for any absolute moral rule to exist even in principle. This "saves" him from admitting that he is a "moral absolutist," but only at the cost of making "moral absolutism" an utterly impossible position for anyone to hold. Bradskii uses "moral absolutism" as a pejorative label, and the confusions he is engaged in could be paralleled to a scenario in which he is trying to wield the pejorative "racist":

• Bradskii: "You're a racist!"
• Zippy: "According to the definition of 'racism' that you have provided, you're a racist too."
• Bradskii: "No I'm not because [insert Bradskii's construal of his definition whereby it is logically impossible for anyone whosoever to be a racist, including himself]."
• Zippy: "On that account you have avoided being a racist, but your initial claim fails: I am no longer a racist and no one in the entire world is a racist, because it is utterly impossible to be a racist. You've only dodged the tu quoque by turning the object of your own accusation to mush."

...Else, perhaps @Bradskii will claim that he was only trying to convince me to abandon the silly position of "moral absolutism," and that by providing his construal of the definition whereby no one could ever, even in principle, be a "moral absolutist," he has succeeded. This is of course sophistry. It trades on the falsehood which says that I was under the impression, for example, that rape was "absolute" and therefore did not require the "context" of coercion/non-consent. But neither I nor anyone else was under such an impression. The "moral absolutist" simply does not believe that rape can occur outside the "context" of coercion/non-consent. They believe that the act of rape is wrong regardless of the context one is in, where the act of "rape" has the traditional definition and "context" signifies the particular situation in which that act takes place. @Bradskii's insinuation that the "moral absolutist" erroneously believed that rape could occur outside the "context" of coercion/non-consent, and that he corrected their error, is just a strawman. But I think we all knew this already. It is insane to say that because rape necessarily occurs in the "context" of coercion/non-consent, therefore anyone who thinks rape is wrong is a moral relativist.

• Bradskii: "If someone is a 'moral absolutist' with respect to rape, then they must believe that rape need not occur in the 'context' of coercion/non-consent."
• Zippy: "No, that's not even close. You don't even understand the definition you've agreed to."

BCP1928 said:

Vote for us because we don't support the Right's ideas of sexualizing children.

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Yep that too. It's just "progress". It's the new normal for little kids to know about being umpteen different genders and sexual orientations. "I'm an 8 year old non-binary gender-fluid two-spirit omnisexual".

GoldenKingGaze said:

In the early days the young Andronicus and Junias were not yet distinguished and mentioned in Romans about 65 AD then they had become so. There were 11 surviving apostles, James had died. And the apostles could only confer through the ancient postal system. And there were ten thousand believers to sort through, across Russia, Greece, India, Egypt and Rome. We alive today should be able to bear witness to the fact of the resurrection. So I disagree.

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The 11 surviving apostles were guided by God to choose Matthias as the replacement for Judas Iscariot. Later, God called the converted Saul/Paul to be an apostle. Yes, all Christians should bear witness to the resurrection, but that doesn't make us apostles.

Bradskii said:

People don't accept concepts like gay marriage because of any activism. They accept it because they were told by some that it meant the end of western civilisation! That the sky was going to fall! That society would crumble! And then...it didn't.

People thought 'Hey, life just goes as it always did. So Dave in accounts got married to Pete and...nothing changed. Everything is just the same. We were lied to'.

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And yet Dave & Pete are the evidence that it’s all just going to heck! (Somehow)

Pepperdoodle said:

Jimmy Kimmel is returning to ABC on Tuesday, Disney says

"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" will return to ABC on Tuesday after the late-night host's comments on Charlie Kirk's death caused the network to pull the show.

www.businessinsider.com

What do you think?
Agree or disagree?

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Just on Kimmels return. I never really watched him. I don't always get American humur though some of it is side splitting when I do get it. Like the Adam Sandler or Jim Carey comedy and some of SNL with Chevy Chase and all that ect.

But from what I have seen of Kimmel he always seemed too serious when telling the jokes. The body language didn't match the humor. Anyway that may have ben because I did not get the humor. But I sense theres more to this than just humor.

I am not sure people will believe him now. But its not just Kimmel. Its the general humor at the expense of others or spreading lies. Or just making comedy about politics. I have always thought that entertainers should stay right out of politics as far as letting their personal opinions influence their art.

If they are going to make fun then do it to both sides. Just joke about life and issues in general. Make a commentry on life as it is. Thats what comedy use to be about. Not injecting some poisonous political message that actually ends up not being funny lol.

I see these celebs like De Niro who I love as an actor and looked up to, their reputations and legacy and bank accounts go straight down the drain as soon as they open their mouths on political issues today. Stick to acting Bobby please.

And Snow White, Roger and Emma well lol. Roger what are you doing. You are the Floyd don't tarnish that for the many who grew up with your music lol.

stevevw said:

I am not saying a vase with similar precision could not have been done in the mid 20th century. I am saying it would have taken our best tech at that time and arguing that it was expensive and hard to access that equipment and totally unnecessary when no one worried about precision.

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It wouldn't. Standard lathing by a skilled stone vessel maker would do the trick in 1950 or whenever.

stevevw said:

Its a far fetched arguement to claim that someone would even bother. We would expect to find fakes with less precision as no one would know and be bothered with that precision. They could make one less precise and still get away with it as no one was measuring the vases down to the micron level.

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This is actually one of the problems with faking artifacts generally: making them too good. In this case: too round. too smooth.

DaveHTexas said:

I have been unemployed for a long time now (19 months) due to the AI dessimation of the IT job market. Honestly nobody really saw that coming nor prepared for it. But not the point I need to make.

To make ends meet I am driving ride share, doesn't matter which one, but I am hustling my tail off, working 12 hour days to make less than 1/4 of what I was earning before just so I don't have to end up on the streets.

I know I should tithe, but on what amount?

Let's assume I earned $5,000.00 in fares, and tips last month. That number is high, but let's go with it anyway.
Now let's assume that I spend $250.00 each week on gas and toll road tolls to do this, so my net is $4,000.00, and the weekly spend on fuel and tolls is likely LOW...
Now assume further in doing this I needed $3,000.00 in vehicle repairs to keep my car SAFE to operate for myself and my riders. Now my net is $1,000.00

Do I tithe on the $5,000.00 GROSS, or the $1,000.00 NET?

For anyone paying attention, that is 288 hours to get $1,000.00 net income and a car with an added 10K miles on it. That works out to $3.47 per hour.

If you rideshare and don't tip. You may want to look at those numbers again. Would you work for $3.47 / hour and wear out a valuable asset like a car?

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In the Eastern Orthodox Church tithing is not required, nor is it required by most traditional liturgical churches in the US such as the various Anglican churches, and its fairly obvious you are not in a position to give alms.

The system of tithes, church taxes and in the UK certain landowners having maintenance responsibilities for the local parish, imposed in Western Europe was and is used used by established churches like the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the various Lutheran churches of Germany, the Lutheran churches of Scandinavia, the Continental Reformed churches in Prussia, the Netherlands and so on, and these churches historically provided much of what is now provided by the welfare state in those countries, and in some cases still acts as an agent of it, for example with state-funded parochial schools paid for by a church tax in countries like Germany.

By the way, in the IT industry there is strong demand for skilled cloud, AI and security professionals; the main hit has been on software development and certain types of traditional systems administration and engineering. If you can develop your skillset towards these areas you might well be able to regain employment. Also freelancers in various IT related specialties ranging from web development to systems programming can leverage AI to greatly improve productivity.

I do understand this is not the main topic of your thread, but I would be very happy to provide some specific reccommendations for professional development in another thread or privately via a conversation.

I would also be very happy to pray for you.

God bless you!

A snakebite hurts but it is the venom that kills.

This is from the Old Testament, but the New Testament writings teach the same truths. To come to God and to put our faith in Jesus Christ, who is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – it requires that, by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus, we forsake our sinful practices and that we now follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands, in surrender to his will and to his purpose for our lives.

For God’s grace is not just forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life with God based on a profession of faith in Jesus Christ only. God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return (see Titus 2:11-14). And his grace sent Jesus to the cross to put our sins to death with him so that, by faith in him, we will die to sin and now walk in obedience to our Lord in surrender to his will.

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, faith in Jesus Christ is not lip service only. It is not just a verbal confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and of his bodily resurrection. It is not just words we say in a prayer to “receive Christ,” either. And it is not a one-time event which takes place in our lives which secures us heaven for eternity, but regardless of how we live. For how we live determines whether or not our faith is of the flesh or if it is of God, and if it aligns with the biblical gospel, or if it does not. And that determines our eternal destiny.

For we learn in 1 John 1-3 that if we claim that we have fellowship with God, but yet we walk in darkness (sin), we are liars. If we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments, in practice, we are liars. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, and no longer in sin. We have the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.

For our thoughts are not the same as God’s thoughts, and our ways are not the same as his ways. But God’s ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So we do not get to define faith and salvation and forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God according to our own fleshly thinking, according to our own will and purpose. But we need to define all of that according to the teachings of the Scriptures, but taught in their correct biblical context, and not out of context.

For many charlatans and wolves in sheep’s clothing dwell among us who are distorting the truth of the Scriptures by teaching them out of their correct biblical context in order to make them say what they want them to say. So it is important that we are students of the Scriptures who read and interpret them according to their correct biblical context. Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we are taught that biblical faith involves us dying to sin and walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands. Know the truth!

[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]

Seek the Lord

Based off Isaiah 55
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Musical Instrumentation by Mark Bradley

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”

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God’s Ways are Higher Than Ours
An Original Work / October 6, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

God loves you. Jesus loves you. God has not forgot you. Even though you may be all alone. And think your days are over .Or that nobody remember you. GOD DOES. He wants you to take new steps with him full of joy. Trust him, and he will pave the road. No matter how hard now, He will create a new way. There is a plan and destiny for you too. It does not matter age. looks. jobs. money. He will. do. it. Today, know you have God on your side.

BPPLEE said:

Federal agents shoot woman they say 'boxed in' authorities on Chicago's Southwest Side

Authorities were on patrol when they were "rammed by 10 cars," according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. The woman who was shot "was armed with a semi-automatic weapon," prompting officers to open fire, DHS said. She was taken in fair condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

www.wbez.org

Chicago police records shared with the Sun-Times show that a Border Patrol agent had called for assistance, reporting that roughly 30 agents had been “surrounded by a large crowd of people.” But police officials weren’t sent to help, the records show.

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When the police need police protection, somethings’s up, let’s hope that that isn’t “time”!

essentialsaltes said:

I would not enjoy being zip-tied naked in the middle of the night.

NTTAWWT.

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I'm not going to kink shame if that's a thing for him.