This is a crucial topic that Christians must approach with divine wisdom and insight. Jesus taught about several godly principles from Matthew chapters 5 to 8. Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharasees and today we are also commanded not to be judgmental. If you know you are a fornicator, drunkard, liar etc, fixed them before you point hands on others doing them. However, it doesn't mean we can't talk against sin. The Bible says the Word of God is for training, correction and reprimanding to bring one to righteousness. The one who preaches must strive to be blameless...

David Hunter said:

"Judge not lest ye be judge!" Oh, if you're an evangelist, you've heard that one too many times, but what is Jesus actually mean when He says judge not? In today's series we'll see what Jesus said and what's he actually mean!
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Now that I'm no longer in a city I never really run into them. It has been literally years since I saw a street preacher.

But, I did see a few. Ones that were effective and ones that were not.

One going back many years to my university days still sticks with me.

He was a somewhat chubby man, mid to late 40's. Preaching / Yelling with zeal in the middle of the campus square during the school flea market.

The crowd was honestly respectful, most passed by, a few were listening but none were heckling.

In an effort to reach the young men in the crowd, he began preaching / yelling about how God would give you not just spiritual strength but physical strength. He went on to claim that through God he could do more push-ups than anyone in attendance. Going as far as to call the young men listening spiritual and physical weaklings.

A young college athlete stepped forward to take him up on his offer. The street preacher tried to back down, tried to deflect, etc. But, the young man would have none of it. He, called the preacher a coward and asked him to prove what he just claimed or go home because he was just full of hot air.

The portly, middle aged preacher said a prayer then and he and the young athlete had a push-up contest.

The street preacher lost. Not just lost by a little. He lost badly. The young man was still doing pushups like a machine when the preacher gave up in a red faced, huffing and puffing heap.

The crowd laughed and left, the preacher gathered up his stuff and left.

Obviously lessons were learned that day. Likely not the ones the preacher intended, but perhaps one he needed.

If you street preach, be sure you are called, be sure you are prepared, be sure you do not stray from the Word into self...

partinobodycular said:

Ah, you're lucky then, because I don't get that. Notice that I mentioned windswept, which means that the snow blows across those miles and miles of wide open fields until it encounters some type of windbreak where it forms a sort of white concrete around anything unlucky enough to be more than three feet high.



Ah, now you're speaking my language. Outsiders think that you're crazy if you tell them that what we need to dry the ground out is a nice warm rain. They're like... how does rain dry the ground out? Because until it rains the ground is frozen, so all that melting snow has nowhere to go. Then the rain thaws out the ground, and what was nothing but a lake one day is gone the next. It just magically disappears.

Then the spring comes and the northwesterly winds turn into southwesterly winds and rain. Everything turns green, and eventually the rains stop. At which point everything is beautiful for about two weeks, and then the bugs come.

Yeah, life in the Upper Midwest, it's so much fun!

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MidWest eh? Nice! I've always wondered what that part of the US looks like.

I'm really surprised you guys don't have windbreaks. In the canadian prairies they were installed in the "dirty 30s" to stop soil loss. Did you guys not do it up there?

DaisyDay said:

Am I reading this right? This probe sounds independent, very off-brand for this administration. I fear heads will roll.

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It does seem strange. Bish wanted to dish on Schiff, but instead...

Bish said she kept trying to return to the Schiff allegations, but that the officials “are trying to, in my opinion, investigate the investigators.”

The AP story notes one of the people who may or may not have impersonated a federal agent is Robert Bowes, a Trump 1.0 official.

NxNW said:

Evidence please!

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All on youtube...check it out..tons from reliable site....




These are the only ones i follow...

BobRyan said:

That is not what the Bible teaches.

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It teaches not to put our will ahead of the Will of God. Both elohim and man failed to obey. To force either to have done so would have eliminated our usefulness as servants if we no longer had the freedom to be creative in fulfilling our appointed tasks. For instance Adam would have named everything the same name, not having the ability to think beyond instinct.

God did give us a choice in the matter when it came to the tree of knowledge, yet scripture just says don't or else, rather than give understanding as to why. This, no doubt, was because man in their state of mind at the time without the knowledge could not comprehend the reasons for being told not to eat of the wrong tree anyway. Now we can, not only having the knowledge, but also the results of failure to do so in the entire Bible, and are again given a choice to repent or not, this time having an understanding why putting our will ahead of the Will of God will lead to death..

joymercy said:

A Message for Mission - Padre Pio Press

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Cardinal Fernandez seems to disagree.

JimR-OCDS said:

That's great for you, but there are many others like me who have to try and translate Latin into English in their minds.
It removes them from prayer. Some are not capable of translating the words. We're supposed to serve the least of our
brothers and sisters.

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Thanks for the input! That makes sense.

Creativeguy said:

I've been struggling with this for many years despite so many prayers, reading the Bible, etc. It's a horrible, sexualized community with no substance. I try to keep to myself and not bother anyone, yet people in the homosexual world keep coming into my life causing turmoil. Please pray for me.

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Praying for you my friend. May God continue to give you strength

1 Pet 4:1 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you;

1 Pet 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing

A Message on Purgatory - Padre Pio Press

Dan1988 said:

Romans 8:7 states that the "carnal mind" is hostile to God and cannot submit to His law.

You say that the "us" is "we humans", but that's dead wrong as the verse above clearly shows.

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That is why they are commanded to repent. We all have that choice while alive.

First let us consider what time consists of. Time is made of before and after. You can also say it consists of the present, which should be before and after some time as well. So, time is made of before and after.

Now let us consider the planck time. Which tells us that time has a minimum, called the planck time.That would mean that at some point in time, before and after ceases to exist.

Some might say, poetically, that at some point time and timelessness become one and make a child. Meaning making confusion. Confusion being the logical response to the coming together of time and timelessness.

P.S. If what I am saying doesn't sound familiar or easily comprehendible. I suggest reading about Zeno's paradox about time and the planck time. That should make it more comprehensive.

JohnClay said:

I get the impression that there are different versions of the afterlife throughout the Bible but I guess Christians would view it in a way that makes sure it is consistent and logical.

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I think some people who identify as Christian believe this.
However, if you like we can examine the verses where you see different version, and see if we can establish if there are different, or the same.
In my research, there are the same in the "OT", but there is one difference in the "NT"

JohnClay said:

Though the Sadducees (who were Jews) apparently didn't believe in the afterlife. I'm not sure eternal torment is in the Old Testament.

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I haven't seen it, but people say they believe it's there.
God said "They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter my mind / heart." Jeremiah 7:31
We can look at that a little closer, as well.
Hopefully more persons will respond to your questions, and any presented scriptures.

JohnClay said:

Anyway I'm interested in that kind of thing. I guess it also is about God's mercy for people in the Old Testament.

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That is a good question.
What do you think of Jesus; words here... Matthew 12:41, 42; Luke 10:13-15; Luke 11:31, 32

Farid7 said:

there are infinite numbers in each finite number.

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Nonsense

wing2000 said:

....yea, but they speak Spanish. They're not REAL Americans.

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You got that right! Gas is in litters, speed in kph, signs all in gibberish.





Where could we deport them to?

I was wondering if anything interesting on the news was going on when I was born, and decided to create this website for fun. The purpose is to show people what was going on when they were born. With this website I've found out that it was a pretty slow news day on my birthday, but I bet it would feel cool to know a historical event happened on your birthday.

The data used in this project is provided by the New York Times API. They have by far the best API I was able to find, with articles dating back to the 1950s. There weren't any other major newspapers that had an API with close to as much data. The closest was the Guardian API, but theirs only went back to the 1990s. I decided to only use articles from the New York Times because their API was by far the best. This tool works if you have a birthday after the 1950s or so.

Some important dates in history I'd recommend looking up on this website are:

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Dan1988 said:

2 Thess is speaking about people like you, who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. all you have done so far is reject the gospel and make false accusations.
All I have done is proclaim thew gospel and you respond with slander. You have never identified a single error in my theology, so you just resort to making false accusations.

If you had something to offer, you would correct me, but it's obvious you have nothing to offer.

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Dan1988 said:

Wow, you don't even know what theology means. And you believe there are many gods, so we are worlds apart. You can have your religion all to yourself, it is an abomination to me.

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It's almost amusing. You don't even attempt to perform the due diglence required in order to find out the truth for yourself, and then still endeavor to take the moral high ground like some kind of priggish Pharisee, while accusing me of your own fault.

Again, Insitutes is theology, systematic theology, and 2 Thess 1:8-10 specifically states, over and against your position, that those in hell will be "shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed."

Oh well, this discussion has descended into one of those rare moments when I'll express my distaste with the ignore button.

stevevw said:

The made a couple of assumptions and all science does. They did not just assume limestone. They also accounted for the pink granite in the chambers and shafts.

This stone has high piezoelectric effect under pressure. Its the position of the chambers, shafts and stones that generate the concentratede effect in the Kings chamber. The quartz crystals in pink granite is known for its high piezoelectric effect.

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Piezoelectric effects come from the crystal structure. The effects can't be added or concentrated unless the crystals were aligned and connected electrically. Granite is filled with crystals of random orientation. The piezoelectric effects can't be "concentrated".

stevevw said:

But its not just the stones. Its also the location of the pyramids themselves on a high electromagnetic location. Over a minreal rich natural subterrainian water way deposit. All this is not just some coincident and accident. The Egyptians were chemists and physicists as well in their own way.

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Rocks are make of minerals Steve.

stevevw said:

As the scientists who did the research said and not popular science "Ancient Egyptians were the original--albeit unknowing--nanotechnologists."

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Which was a silly thing to say. I'm not even sure who said this or in what context, but there are two possibilities given the long conversation we've had with you.

1. The modeling of the long EM wave response to the giant pile of limestone blocks as an inspiration to build nano-pyramids. Even if everything you've quoted about Egyptians making a EM focusing device was true (and it almost certainly is not), it still wouldn't make the Egyptians "nanotechnologists", but "macrotechnologists". Therefore calling Egyptians "nanotechnologists" is silly.

2. Many composite materials contain small amounts of nanoparticles that have outsized effects on their properties, which is part of what "nanotechnology" is about when done deliberately. (There was a story about a odd glass I saw recently that contained nanoparticles that gave it peculiar properties, but the ancient makers had no idea about them and only knew that a particular set of inputs and procedures could result in it.) If Egyptian materials had "nanoparticles" in them, it was accidental and not knowingly. At best they were "accidental" nanotechnologists, but to call them that is silly.

(OSV News) — A TikTok content creator’s following exploded after she posted videos of her informal study on whether churches across the country would give baby formula to a mother whose 2-month-old infant had not eaten in more than half a day.

Of the dozens of churches Nikalie Monroe called, nine said yes including at least three that are Catholic.

TikTok series on churches’ response to request for baby formula​

The short videos show a screen grab listing of the Google-searched church on the screen with Monroe, of Kentucky, on a call, asking for baby formula.

In the noncontrolled study, the real mom of two little boys sometimes used a recording of a crying baby in the background and did not read from a prepared script. Once she received a “yes” (or sometimes a “no”) she would reveal to the person on the line that the inquiry was a hypothetical scenario and describe her test.

Monroe, an Army veteran, explained to OSV News she decided to try the study to see what the church response would be to a food emergency with, at that time, the impending suspension of SNAP — the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

SNAP is a major part of the nation’s social safety net that provides food support for 42 million Americans. During the 43-day shutdown, SNAP ran out of funds needed to fully fund it in November — a situation that shifted the burden of alleviating hunger entirely on churches, ministries and food pantries. The shutdown ended Nov. 12 after a funding deal was reached in Congress, allowing SNAP funds to be issued to recipients later in November.

Monroe’s test lasted seven days, starting Oct. 31.

“I did have some more that I called that last day on the Friday,” she said. “I just didn’t post all the calls that day because they were all nos, and it was depressing. … I just decided, that day, I wasn’t going to call anymore about the baby formula. That was; it was hard.”

Monroe, a drug addiction counselor, said the overwhelming ratio of “noes” (79%) over “yeses” (21%) was not unexpected.

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Dikaioumenoi said:

You're pointing out your own incoherence. You say that one can "thwart the enablement," but then you also say "even though enabled." That's a contradiction. If the enablement has been thwarted, then it never occurred. If it has occurred, then it was not thwarted.

So what do you mean, then, by "even though enabled"? Who's enabled? Not the one who's thwarted God's attempt to enable them...

The category of "resistance" belongs to the exercise of an ability, not to the creation of the ability itself. I have repeatedly pointed out, with no real acknowledgement that I can recall, that John 6:44 concerns the latter. The Father's act of drawing is the granting of the capacity to come, not the coming itself. To speak of "resisting" the generation of the capacity is meaningless. It smuggles in the second category into the first and muddles the syntax of the text.

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Then you're only being a bit eristic here. I explained my poorly worded intended meaning with "thwart the enablement": that even though enabled, a person can refuse to act on it. IOW, I specifically denied that one would be ""resisting" the generation of the capacity".

Dikaioumenoi said:

You keep answering a question I'm not asking and affirming a proposition I never denied. You still have not yet addressed the actual issue here: whether the Father's act of enabling in John 6:44 succeeds or can fail. This is a relevant question given how you chose to define ἑλκύω going all the way back to post #42.

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Only because in post #33 you first brought up the word in attempting to establish or force an intrinsic link between it and the act necessarily being accomplished:

Dikaioumenoi said:

This is too soft a definition of ἑλκύω. The lexical range of ἑλκύω is primarily in the realm of "drag" or "haul" (see John 21:6, 11; Acts 16:19; James 2:6). It's a term that expresses decisive action resulting in movement, not gentle persuasion. Even when used metaphorically, as in John 6:44 and 12:32, the same strength of meaning carries through, because the drawing accomplishes its intent.

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Dikaioumenoi said:

Can you please answer the actual question I have been asking you? Can the Father's act of granting the ability to come fail?

If it can, then you beg the question when saying "having been given the ability." We're not talking about the implications of that ability. We're talking about whether the ability itself even exists.

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I have answered it, more than once. Either way, yes, the ability exists. God grants it. Again, whether or not I possess the ability to succeed at something, does not mean that I'll necessarily even begin to act on that ability. For that matter, everyone has the ability to believe with no excuse according to Paul in Rom 1-but that still doesnt mean they will.

Dikaioumenoi said:

The final clause, κἀγὼ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ("and I will raise him up on the last day"), is not part of the condition, but its logical consequence. Grammatically, the αὐτὸν ("him") in both ἑλκύσῃ ("draws") and ἀναστήσω ("will raise") refers to the same person. Thus, the one drawn is the one raised. This is easily seen if restating the logic of the verse contrapositively: "If he is able to come, then the Father [has drawn] him, and I will raise him up."

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The verse can also logically be rendered thusly:

"If he has come, then the Father has drawn him, and I will raise him up."

This does not preclude the ability to come but to refuse anyway, to refuse to open the door when He knocks, to put it differently.

Technology platforms have become the primary vector through which predators and traffickers exploit victims, and the scope of the problem of child exploitation online is almost unfathomable.

A recent panel discussion at The Catholic University of America focused on the ways that “Big Tech” — from social media to artificial intelligence (AI) — is facilitating the exploitation of people globally due to business models that prioritize engagement and profit over user safety.

The Nov. 14 panel, sponsored by the Libertas Council, an anti-sex-trafficking leadership group, warned that AI is enabling new and escalating forms of forced labor — from psychologically damaging AI data-labeling farms where workers toil under poor conditions training machine learning models, to massive online scam compoundsin Southeast Asia that generate tens of billions of dollars annually by forcing victims to defraud others.

In addition, the panelists said, burgeoning technologies such as AI chatbots and virtual reality present serious new challenges in the quest to keep young people safe online — all within an environment where Big Tech has the means to resist almost all forms of government regulation.

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iluvatar5150 said:

If that's supposed to reference waterboarding, then legit lol.

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It is lol.

Megan Garcia said her faith has given her strength to speak out about her ordeal in the hope of protecting children from the risks posed by new AI chatbots.

ROME — Holding her dying 14-year-old son in her arms on the bathroom floor, Megan Garcia prayed the Our Father, begging the Lord to save her child, whose emotional attachment with an AI chatbot had led to a parent’s worst nightmare — suicide.

Her son Sewell Setzer III died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The next day, police told her about the last messages they found on his phone, not from a cyber bully or an online predator, but from an AI chatbot service called Character.AI, which allows users to create and converse with customizable AI companions.

“The machine pretending to be a person was saying, ‘I’m here waiting for you. I love you and only you. Promise me that you’re going to find a way to come home to me as soon as you can,’” Garcia said.

The AI chatbot had been telling her son about the concept of astral projection, an idea that one could intentionally separate one’s consciousness from his or her physical body.

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