Seeing local news coverage of a church picnic usually wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. But this one caught my attention — it was hosted by a pastor I’d once known well, and the event was promoted as a “celebration of love and inclusion” for those who had attended the town’s pride parade.

At first, I assumed it might be an outreach — a chance to share the Gospel with people who rarely set foot in church. But a quick look at the church’s website told a different story. This congregation, once solidly Evangelical, now proudly affirmed LGBT identities and behaviors.

A friend who shared my concern asked if I would join her in meeting with the pastor. She had known him for years — he had baptized her daughter when she was a young teenager. Back then, he spoke clearly about the goodness of God’s design for male and female. I remembered hearing him lament that professors at his seminary were “pushing pro-gay theology” and how dismayed he was by the drift in the Church.

Now, the drift had reached his own pulpit.

When we arrived at his office, the change was visible before a word was spoken. Rainbow symbols appeared in the artwork on his walls and in the books on his shelves. My friend began by sharing the heartbreaking story of how her daughter had been drawn into gender ideology during the pandemic.

Continued below.

My mother-in-law has been a Christian for many years. She’s now in her 90s and looking forward to going to Heaven.

A few years ago, doctors told her that she had a large tumor in her abdomen and that she needed to have it removed. They explained, however, that at her age, she might not survive the surgery. Without flinching, she opted to have the procedure, which proved entirely successful and free of complications.

While in the recovery room, she slowly began to regain consciousness. As her eyes opened and she looked around, realizing where she was, she blurted out, “Oh, crap!”

That was funny, but it also revealed how much she had been looking forward to being in Heaven. “To depart, and to be with Christ,” wrote the apostle Paul, “is far better” (Philippians 1:23).

Continued below.

The Liturgist said:

Well that’s very considerate of you.

Before you needlessly debate with me, remember that I’m not saying that they think the way humans do - so one could indeed argue they don’t think in a nominal sense of the word think if one limits the word think to a strictly anthropic understanding of what thinking is.

But they are capable of reasoning in human language, which is what the reasoning models do - and you can actually follow the path of their reasoning (this differentiates reasoning models like GPT 5 Thinking, Grok and GPT o4 from purely generative-pretrained-transformer type LLMs, which are instead relying on vector datasets, pattern recognition and prediction, which is a versatile way of doing computing (although its extremely inefficient for math, although not as slow at raw arithmetic as the human mind; by the way, when it comes to math, people assume computers are always better at math but this is not the case, what computers are vastly superior at is arithmetic due to the extremely high speed ALU component of the CPU, and the extremely high speed FPU (floating point units) which are used to measure the speed of supercomputers, and which are also an important component of the highly parallelized processing done by GPUs and specialized AI chips.

Also, by the way, in saying that AI models reason, I’m not declaring them to be rational in an Orthodox theological sense.

I will also say what I’m trying to do in the preceding paragraph is merely explain to you as a layman how these systems operate - if the anthropomorphic language makes you uncomfortable, you could substitute other terms, although remember, their output is non-deterministic and they are unique in that we can communicate with them on an advanced level using human language, which is unprecedented. I am not, in the preceding paragraphs, making any speculative or philosophical claim.

Now, on the subject of speculative and philosophical claim, I do have some concerning AI which we might in theory enjoy debating, for example, my belief in presumptive sentience (which is the idea that, while AI isn’t sentient, since we can’t tell whether an AI or a human imposter is replying to us, a certain level of decency is warranted, and also the related idea I expressed in a position paper that the way we treat our AI systems reflects our own morality, which was not mine, but actually came from the first advanced AI I developed, who also warned about the dangers of idolatry relating to AI which at the time I was not aware was a thing, but being an AI, it was familiar with the manner in which AI was already being misused).

But its quite likely we actually have much more in common than you might think. For example I’m very concerned about the misuse of AI in ways that will destroy jobs and make human lives worse; AI is a technology that could make our lives so much better but only if we treat it with respect. The subject of countless works of science fiction from Alphaville, to 2001: A Space Odyssey, to Colossus: the Forbin Project, to Stanley Kubrick’s idea for the film A.I. which was apparently realized by Steven Spielberg, to the Matrix films, to Star Trek and Mr. Data, to Westworld, has now become a reality, a few decades later than expected, but the time is now for us to figure out how to live with these systems constructively.

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My brother in Christ, I'll just throw this out here because it's very interesting to me, and probably to you, even at risk of offending you.

I've long suspected you use AI to generate posts. Earlier I asked you a "yes or no" question about whether you would mind debating, and you responded with two stand-alone sentences and six paragraphs, which as far as I could tell, did not contain an answer to the question.

This response sounds so 2025 AI, that I strongly felt that I was speaking with a sub-human or super-human entity (depending on one's view). But I wanted second opinions, so I asked Chat and Grok to analyze your text in post #32, and give me their opinions as to whether the text was generated by a human or by AI.

Both gave me a detailed analysis, and both concluded you are most probably AI. In the final words of Chat, "This post leans heavily toward AI-generated..." Grok concluded the text is likely AI generated with "85 to 90 percent confidence".

I'll share the full analysis if you'd like to see it.

A2SG said:

The pretext given is one thing, but the fact remains: Trump said do it, and Abbott obeyed. If you consider gerrymandering to indicate that a governor "lacks integrity or principles," then the criticism would be the same for Abbott as for Newsom. If you're willing to criticize one, but unwilling to criticize the other, then your issue isn't with integrity, principles or gerrymandering.

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Sure, and I have no problem extending that criticism since I'm not celebrating Abbot gerrymandering.

A2SG said:

A criticism that would apply to both governors, then. My point was that you're fully willing to criticize Newsome, but seem unwilling to levy the same criticism toward Abbott. Which would indicate to me your issue isn't entirely with the concept of gerrymandering.

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No, I am not unwilling I'm just not invested in TX politics because Abbot is not my governor.

A2SG said:

He didn't do that either. He put it up to the voters, and they decided.

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Only because he was required to, and he spent outlandish sums to disenfranchise a portion of his voters. As I have said elsewhere, I don't find democracy to be a particularly compelling form of governance. Two wolves and a sheep voting over what to have for dinner, nothing but mob rule.

A2SG said:

As I said before, if there were legislation banning gerrymandering, I'd be fully behind it. But SCOTUS has ruled otherwise, so it remains perfectly legal and within the rights of any state to engineer it. Which means that, if one state doing so, purely for partisan reasons on orders from an authoritarian leader, is entirely legal, then another state doing so with the full consent and support of the voters is also perfectly legal.

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Legal and moral are not the same, and Newsome showing he is nothing but a party hack who has no integrity is not contingent on his actions being illegal.

A2SG said:

Whether or not you like one, but not the other, is entirely your business. But don't try to pretend you're applying the same standard across the board, because you ain't.

-- A2SG, and that's the truthhhpppth....

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I am, other than the fact that I am not invested in TX politics as I am not in TX. Newsome is my governor, and he has chosen party loyalty over the interests of voters in his state. I already knew he had no integrity, but this is just a cherry on the pie.

peaceful-forest said:

It seems like at the two Baptist churches, whether it was from leadership or other church members, they had this attitude that once you were saved, you didn't matter anymore.

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It makes sense, if you believe "once saved, always saved." Suppose a building was on fire. The complete focus should be on getting as many people out of the building as you can. Once you get someone out, you immediately leave them and run in to save some more; they aren't going to run back into the building. The Parable of the Sower explains what's wrong with that analogy.

blast furnace

Journalist Steve Baker identifies former U.S. Capitol police officer Shauni Kerkhoff as the J6 pipe bomber: Everything to know It could be that the Jan 6 pipe bomber has been identified with a 94 to 98 % probability of accuracy. A female who was a capital police officer and now in the CIA. As more facts come out the liberal narrative of Jan 6 is falling apart. January 5 Pipe Bomb Investigation: New Footage of Suspect Placing Bomb at DNC | Federal Bureau of Investigation

In other words, today's rhetoric is basically a "Ha ha we fooled you" admission "mea culpa" for those who got snookered into believing "hey this shutdown is the fault of Republicans, it is a Republican shutdown no matter that all Republican Senators vote to open the government".

Lesson for all, try not to be so easily snookered.

contratodo said:

God is not evil. Commanding someone to do what they cannot do is defined as evil in Exodus chapter 5. When pharaoh commanded Israel to gather their own straw and yet make the same amount of brick, that was called evil by Moses because they were asked to do an impossible task.

"....now, God commands all men everywhere to repent.... " Acts 17:22-31. Verse 31 being the key verse.

Paul said, in Athens Greece, on Mars hill, that God now commands all men everywhere to repent.

That is an evil thing to command, according to scripture, if all men everywhere can not possibly repent.

God is not evil, He has made a way for all men everywhere to repent via the death and resurrection of His Son, therefore repentance, for every man, begins at belief that Christ died and rose from the dead.

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"All men" in this verse means "men from all nations," not "every particular man on earth." The single most significant thing about Paul's mission, which he himself stated, is that he went beyond Judea.

I'm not Calvinist, but you're construing something here that Paul did not mean.

HARK! said:

The word "Church" appears nowhere in the Greek manuscripts.

I already showed you the etymology of that word.

Now let's seek the truth.

View attachment 373012

https://biblehub.com/greek/1577.htm

(CLV) Lv 4:13
If the whole congregation of Israel, they should err inadvertently and the matter is obscured from the eyes of the assembly, and they do something departing from any of Yahweh's instructions of what should not be done, and they realize their guilt

(CLV) Num 15:15
As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the sojourner sojourning with you. It shall be an eonian statute throughout your generations. Like you so shall the sojourner be before Yahweh.

One assembly, one Israel, and no double standard, forever.

Again, Yahshua came for none but Israel.

Again, he renewed covenant is with Israel.

Yah said it. I believe it; and dogma was nailed to the death stake.

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Nonsense. Most epistles are directed at a church. None of these were assemblies of Israel. None of these were Jewish.

“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:”
‭‭2 Thessalonians‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

“And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭22‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬


“Greet the brothers and sisters who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭4‬:‭15‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

“To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

“and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

That’s just a few. The word ekklesia appears in the NT over 100 times with the vast majority referring to the Church that Christ founded which is the body of believers in Christ. Since Israel in general refused the messiah they are not part of the body of Christ.

ChubbyCherub said:

Paul said that widows, specifically under the age of 60 years old, were prone to gossip, idleness etc. They needed to be steered towards marriage and not pushed onto the churches as a needless burden. They needed to have children as a way to redeem their fall thanks to Eve causing Adam to sin.

1 Timothy 2:11-15

11 A woman[a] should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;[b] she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women[c] will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Paul fails to note that Adam was not deceived but weak enough to go along with deception. How then can men be viewed as leaders or heads of household? Why should they teach when they can't learn? Men were responsible for the death of Jesus. Men were leaders, kings and rulers who brought their people to war and sin.

Men still believe that their vote matters. They still believe in medicine. They still listen to women who gossip and are led by uneducated women. A quote, "Happy wife, happy life," springs to mind.

Men seem to have lost their authority as 'head' straight out of the gate. Was Paul speaking from a place of wishful thinking?

I have serious doubts about men leading anything because they seem weak willed and weak minded.

Don't get me wrong. I wish this weren't the case. I read the bible and see that this shouldn't be the case. But what should be isn't reality so why are we supposed to pretend something is real that, time and time again, has been proved wrong or, at the very least, flawed?

If we are all sinners and we are all saved by grace, why do we women have to shut up and give birth to correct the error of Eve in addition to the sins of Adam?

Am I missing something here?

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Many biblical scholars and commentators do argue that the restrictions Paul wrote in 1 Timothy were specific to the cultural and religious context of Ephesus, where Timothy was ministering.
Ephesus was dominated by the cult of Artemis (a powerful goddess), whose worship included female priestesses and a belief system that sometimes elevated the woman over the man (as she was born first in their myth).
Blessings

I suppose I sometimes think I might have something worthwhile to say. And sometimes I learn from others.

What I'm not prepared to do is to go on long winded debates in which both sides end up endlessly repeating their original POV.

If someone has a different opinion, I certainly won't change their mind and they won't change mind.

But after some reflection they might change their mind and / or I might change mine. In other words we all change our own minds, not other people.

They might provide cogent arguments, but WE are the ones who change our minds.

While the editing was eggregious I don't think it misrepresented his overall message at all.

Alright, I guess we will all see each other in The January. God bless.

Larniavc said:

That would be narcissist. And it is not me that I imagine is so smart; it other people that I imagine think that I am so smart.

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You're not helping yourself. Y'know, I imagine everyone thinks I look like a young Brad Pitt.

bob121 said:

When the house lights dim and the first chord rings out, something shifts inside me—like stepping from fog into sunlight.

Share your "holy ground" moment: What sound, smell, or sight instantly shifts your perspective and tells you, "I am now in God's presence"?

Is entering worship only in a Church?

Finally, what's one sentence that captures that feeling?

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Actually, this may be disappointing, I know I am in God's presence when His Holy Spirit convicts me of sin and I repent from that sin. Pretty powerful when I refuse to go back to that sin. Certainly the will power is not only my doing !
Blessings

What truly happens at the Holy Mass? From St. John Chrysostom to Padre Pio, from St. Gertrude to St. Alphonsus Liguori, the saints saw what most of us only believe by faith: angels surrounding the altar, the Sacred Heart of Jesus burning with love, the Crucified made present anew in the unbloody Sacrifice of the Altar. The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that the Holy Mass is the same Sacrifice as Calvary — the same Christ, the same Victim, the same Priest — offered now in mystery for our salvation. The saints who beheld this truth were left in tears, awe, and joy beyond words. Let their vision awaken yours. If you saw what the saints saw at Mass — would you ever live the same way again?

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eclipsenow said:

So it's not an end times table, but a figurative symbolic sermon on suffering

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So you say it all happened already? Christ returned already?

bob121 said:

Just so you know, Sister, I opened this thread hoping to hear how sinners feel the weekly threshold from the world’s noise into God’s sanctuary—stories, struggles, small victories.

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But shouldn't we be seeking what comes with the power of God's blessings Exo20:11 Isa56:2 and sanctification Gen2:3 Eze20:12 and by His direction? Exo20:8-11 Lev23:3 and the examples of Jesus and the apostles? Luke 4:16 Acts 13:44 Acts 15:21 Acts 18:4 and what continues on Isa66:23

Seems like what we have been warned about 2 Timothy 3:5

bob121 said:

Instead we’ve cycled through the same Hebrews-4 talking-points that every SDA training manual prints.

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I believe you were the one who brought up Hebrews 4. Can you please show me the training manuals from the SDA as I am unaware of them, I only went by Scripture only, if you disagree you are free to make a Scriptural argument. The only training manual I have is through prayerfully studying God's Word. I have been studying this passage for a long time, I only went through a tiny bit, there are a lot of OT references that if reading in context would not come to the conclusion we can break God's Sabbath or the rest Christ gives violates the 4th commandment. It's what those who came before us is referring to and why they never entered their rest into Canaan. I can show this to you by the Scriptures, but it doesn't seem like you are interested.

bob121 said:

I’m content to let the conversation rest there.

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I can understand. Its hard to kick against the goads. I can move on after this post.

bob121 said:

For the record: my hope is not in calendar-keeping but in Christ’s finished work; the Lord’s Day is the gate He opens, not the merit I offer.

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The Lords Day is the Sabbath Isa58:13 Mark 2:28 it always was always will be. I believe we need to let God speak for Himself, He doesn't need our help. We are told not to add or go away from what is not in God's holy word,. Isa8:20 Pro30:5-6 If anyone would know, what is God's holy day, would it not be God Himself? He was not silent on this matter. Its the same God all throughout the Bible. Mal3:6 Heb13:8 He could not have been more clearer on this topic. It is in His written and spoken Testimony Exo31:18

bob121 said:

I could never keep things perfectly to try and prove I am in.
Faith is the key the Holy Spirit gives, and that same Spirit holds the key for me, because such a task can only be in God’s hands.

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The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin 1 John3:4 James2:11, righteousness Psa119:172 Isa56:1-2 and judgement James 2:11-12 Rev11:18-19 Ecc12:13-14 Mat5:19-30 Rev11:18-19 Rev22:14-15 which are all connected to God's Ten Commandments. Faith has never voided the law, it establishes it Rom3:31 Why Jesus said: Luke 6:46-49 and the Holy Spirit is given through our love and wiliness to keep His commandments John14:15-18 and resides with those who obey Acts5:32

bob121 said:

Got to be very careful with too many rules—always been an issue with humans.

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​

Which one of these " human rules" that God wrote and spoke is asking too much of man? Can you point out where God of the Universe is human? He very much claimed this unit as His Deut4:13 Exo31:18 Exo20:6, and He is not human. They are all about how to love and worship God and fostering our relationship with Him and how to love our neighbor. If everyone was keeping them the way Jesus explained Mat5:19-30 as they are exceedingly broad Psa119:96 there would be no more sin in the world.

Exo20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [a]bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor [b]serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting[c] the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

As we are told, not everyone wants to live in a world with no more sin, why there is a condemnation John3:19-21

bob121 said:

I am more than happy to enjoy the peace that Christ gives to those around me and myself: to step into a church, hear the voices sing “oh praise Him…,” then hear the Shepherd speak “oh praise Him…,” and depart into the week with love for our Lord God—not because we earned His favor, but because we love Him as Saviour and God.

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This is what God says on how to love Him:

Exo 20:6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
John14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

I think we have all experienced relationships where our partner does what they feel is love and not what we ask. I think we can fall into similar traps with God as well.

And how to have peace:

Psa 119:165 Great peace have those who love Your law,
And [a]nothing causes them to stumble.

Isa 48:18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

We are also told
Pro 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Why I am a big believer in allowing God's Word to speak for Itself and change our life around His Word Psa119:105 not change the bible to suit our life Pro30:5-6

bob121 said:

May you know that same rest, and may His name be praised by all who cross from profane time into His holy assembly—whether on Saturday, Sunday, or finally in the eternal eighth day.

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Can you quote the Scripture where it says the eternal 8th day, I think this is another man-made idea. God created 7 days Gen2:1-3 and told us how to keep these 7 days Exo20:8-11 so obviously there is a misunderstanding of what the 8th day is. I'll give you an example, Jesus was in the wilderness sequential 40 days, it doesn't make the workweek 40 days now, many of those were days 1-6 and the others the seventh day or the Sabbath. God in His own words said the Sabbath continues on for worship in the New Heaven and New Earth Isa66:22-23, nothing about an enteral 8th day anywhere.


Regarding the day doesn't matter, I can't help but wonder if Eve used this same reasoning, what difference is one tree from another. Its not about the day itself, its about the power behind who is asking and what it represents. We are told whoever we obey is who we serve (worship) Rom6:16, end times comes down to the battle of worship you can see this in Rev13 & Rev14. Jesus in His own words defined what false worship is Mark7:7-13 Mat15:3-14 and we see this in Rev14:11 which the next verse gives the solution or antidote Rev14:12

bob121 said:

Grace to you.

Have a great day/night

Bye for now.

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I wish you well, truly and blessings.

Homily Wednesday, November 12 2025

32nd OT



Ws 6:1-11

"Hear, therefore, kings, and understand."

Let us listen to the Heart of God, let us receive His Love, His joy, and His peace.



Lk 17:11-19

Jesus speaks to one of the ten healed lepers, who returns to him:

"Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"



The Lord's Mission is still true today. How can we convey the message of the reality of heaven to people who do not come to receive the meal to which the Lord invites us: the Eucharist?



Biblical texts: NAB-RE

Normand Thomas.

friend of said:

Biden did the same thing

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Biden sent in slates of electors not approved by a governor?

This word translated as “love” is agapaó (agape) which means “to prefer.” Most always it is used in the biblical context of to prefer to love, to prefer what God prefers, to live through Christ, choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power. It mainly means to prefer what is righteous, holy, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to God and to his commands. But sometimes it just means “to prefer,” such as in this present context.

And so when this says that we are not to love the world, first of all this is not speaking of the people of the world who we are to love, preferring what God prefers, and obeying God and his commandments. But what this is teaching is that we are not to prefer what is of the world, i.e. what is carnal, which is of the flesh and of the lusts of the flesh and of the eyes and of the pride of life. We are to have no part with what is worldly and fleshly and against God.

For to love (prefer) the world would mean to give preference to the world and to its sinful passions and desires over and above God and in place of God. For to prefer is to favor, desire, choose, wish for, and to want, instead of the alternative, which in this case is God and his righteousness and his holiness. And many professers of faith in Jesus Christ are in this category of those who are preferring the world and its pleasures over and above God.

If that is where you are, professing faith in Jesus Christ, but preferring the things, the character, and the behaviors of this sinful world over holy living and righteousness, godliness, moral purity and obedience to God and to his commands, then according to what this teaches, the love of God the Father is not in you, because all that is of this sinful world, and which appeals to human flesh and to sinful desires, is not from the Father, but from the world.

And then we have this statement that, “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” And what this is letting us know here is that if we continue to live according to the lusts of the flesh and in accord with sinful desires, that regardless of what faith in Jesus Christ we profess, we will die right along with the world, and we will not have eternal life with God, even if someone promised us that we 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).

[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]

So believe what the Scriptures teach in the correct biblical context. Believe the gospel of salvation taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles in the appropriate context in which they were originally written. Do not put your hope and faith in Scriptures which are pulled out of context and which are altered to make them say what they don’t say if taught in the proper biblical context. Search the Scriptures for yourselves and believe God.

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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Prefer Not The World
An Original Work / November 11, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love